Food as Power

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School

Kenyatta University *

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400

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History

Date

Nov 24, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by lornx

1 Food as Power Student's Name Institutional Affiliation Course Title Instructor Date

2 Food as Power For the most part, bread is a constant in our life. However, not many of us consider its true significance. Bread is essential to existence and a fundamental component of our society's rhythms. Bread is probably going to play a big role in our lives, whether we currently prepare it ourselves or buy it from the store to feed our family. Few things in this world are as fulfilling as creating the ideal loaf of bread. We are able to create, invent, and share because of the scent, texture, and taste. Power Relations: Access to Food Bread, more than virtually any other dish, is a symbol of class and politics (Bayless, 2019). Bread's availability and pricing have influenced most social upheavals and significant revolutions in history. Some of the worst parts of food chain exploitation are embodied in it. Our political awareness is infused with the vocabulary of bread: bread and circuses, daily bread, breadline, and dole. The term for bread in Egyptian Arabic, aish , means "life." Although bread was abundant on store shelves, an unanticipated consequence of the COVID-19 shutdown in the United States was the scarcity of wheat and yeast as many people began baking bread. This unexpected spike in interest was a reflection of the need for society to slow down, regain a degree of control, and re-establish a connection with the fundamentals of life. Baking bread provides us with the chance to take on a task, evaluate our performance, fail, and attempt again the following day to produce something better. It provides us with structure and continuity as we progressively acquire tolerance, life experience, and expertise. Food and Power Relationship

3 For centuries, bread has been a symbol of social health and a holy symbol of nourishment. Governments and monarchs have fallen because they have interfered too much with the fair and honest distribution of bread. One of the first actions of the French Revolution, which started in the Paris markets due to a lack of bread, was the Women's March on Versailles in 1789. Rising food prices in 1863 set off the Southern Bread Riots that lasted the whole American Civil War (Zonderman, 2021). When severe shortages overburdened the food supply system, residents started thieving stores and warehouses. Today, Egypt serves as an example, where the availability of bread plays a crucial role in regional politics. Due to Egypt's population's world-high bread consumption rate, it is the world's largest wheat importer (Halawa, 2023). Large-scale uprisings and revolutions are sparked by a variety of issues far more complex than the cost of bread, but the lack of necessities of life appears to be the deciding element that inspires communities to demand change. David, a businessman whose restaurant closed as a result of the epidemic, initiated a lockdown initiative that tremendously benefited residents in our area. This initiative used an honesty store to provide bread and pastries as a different method for individuals to get meals. The enterprise's mission included bringing back traditional bread-making methods that promote local involvement. David decided to make fresh sourdough bread in the restaurant and distribute it to people's doorsteps in response to the limitations imposed by the lockdown. David took pleasure in filling up the gaps in her baking duties by obtaining freshly ground flour from nearby farms. The initiative has reached farther into the town, even though home delivery is still an option. David keeps an outside honesty store stocked with bread from the neighborhood butcher as well as bicycle components and wicker baskets that he rebuilt from an old table. It is restocked

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4 and rolled out onto the sidewalk before dawn, where customers are welcome to serve themselves and give cash via the mailbox located inside the store. The project's goal to teach baking skills by conducting sourdough workshops and providing sourdough starters for those who want to start baking for themselves at home further emphasizes the sharing economy's characteristics. Starters for sourdough are added to and get better with time (Papadimitriou et al., 2019). The transformation process of Sourdough Bread serves as a potent illustration of the positive benefits of healthy relationships— with each other and the environment, which provides our raw ingredients—on one another. As sourdough requires a longer procedure than regular leavened bread, it may serve as an analogy for giving relationships the space and time they deserve—a quiet action that ultimately produces superior results on many levels. In a food system where profit margins are prioritized over efficiency, there is a special need for us to reclaim baking as a useful skill. The Importance of Food-Power Relationship When we succeed in producing a delicious loaf of bread with our hands, it becomes a symbol of honorable empowerment. Making bread involves more than simply following a recipe; it is also about utilizing our senses to participate in an age-old alchemical process. We are able to read and react to raw dough with direct tactility. Instead of adjusting the "ideal" circumstances for bread to rise and ferment, we should learn to recognize when a leavened dough or sourdough starter requires additional time. COVID-19 pandemic shortages have highlighted the vulnerability of a food system that finds it difficult to meet people's basic needs. Even if there is not a food crisis in the US right now, there are previous examples that show how little is needed to tip consistently failing

5 environmental and economic systems over the edge. It is time to expand our horizons and see if we can establish relationships with other people in our neighborhood who might not have heard about the value of locally grown, fresh food and freshly baked bread. Developing communal food systems will benefit us beyond just getting us through this crisis. We will also benefit from increased sustainability, resilience, and a stronger foundation. No matter what the future holds, it will enable us to flourish rather than merely endure.

6 References Bayless, M. (2019). The Long Life of Tiny Bread. Folklore , 130(4), 352-372. https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.2019.1632035 Halawa, A. (2023). Influence of the traditional food culture of Ancient Egypt on the transition of cuisine and food culture of contemporary Egypt. Journal of Ethnic Foods , 10(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-023-00177-4 Papadimitriou, K., Zoumpopoulou, G., Georgalaki, M., Alexandraki, V., Kazou, M., Anastasiou, R., & Tsakalidou, E. (2019). Sourdough bread. In Innovations in Traditional Foods (pp. 127-158). Woodhead Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814887-7.00006-X Zonderman, D. A. (2021). White Workers and the American Civil War. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History . https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.805

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