On any given day, nearly 14% of the U.S. population eats beans, according to government statistics. Many West Virginians, particularly those from the southern coalfields, are probably already starting to chuckle at the percentage. Multiple that maybe by seven (98%) if counting supper plates in the mountain state and while you’re at it, change that “given day” to every day.
To say that “brown beans”--the typical reference for pinto beans, actually--are a staple is understating it. The prevalence on plates in the mountains even defies comparison or relevance to other regional foods. To wit, folks in Philadelphia aren’t eating cheese steak sandwiches, nor are Buffalo natives gnawing on hot wings daily. Maybe (but I doubt it) South Carolinians are eating grits as often as we eat beans but I’ll put our consumption in pounds (tonnage ?) in beans against theirs in grits any day of the week.
So how did something not grown to any significant extent in West Virginia evolve into “our food?” Like many things for mountaineers, we got them from the Indians but not the ones that readily come to mind. That’s Indians as in South American Indians. Phaseolus vulgaris, pinto beans and cousins, originated from a common bean ancestor domesticated in Peru or close by 7,000 years ago. In fact, “pinto” is a Spanish word for painted, coined to describe the mottled or seemingly painted specks on this variety of bean.
They made their way through the Central American isthmus to Mexico then (thankfully) took an eastward swing to the Appalachians and northward but no farther than West Virginia for all intents and purposes. (Navy beans, appropriately referred to also as “northern beans” are the preference up there.) History tells us that W...
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... in modern times. Mountain homemakers are not, as often as their mothers and grandmothers, putting a pot of beans on a stove to cook all day. Nevertheless, the taste for “pintos” can never be completely satiated for hill folk. When marrying my Louisville, Kentucky-born bride 27+ years ago, the one stipulation was that she learn to “cook a pot of beans.” Today, usually as a winter dish, my family eats pintos with ham hocks that are, in my estimation, the best pot of beans you’ll find west of Huntington. To my great satisfaction, my three children--all Louisville-born like their Mom--have a taste for pintos.
Oh yeah, for those of you who might accept that 2% of West Virginians might not be eating beans on any given day, accounting, perhaps, for babies, don’t be too hasty. Mountain Mommas have been known to mash up pintos and feed them to infants.
In Black Rice, Carney focuses on the cultivation of rice in West Africa. In Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country, Weisiger focuses on the importance of women producing livestock. The book helps one understand how food is truly embedded into our lives in more ways than one would think.
In the video, “America Revealed: Food Machine,” the host, Yul Kwon, investigated the modern American agricultural industry, with an emphasis upon the contrasts between contemporary farming and the American farming of previous generations. At the start of the program, Mr. Kwon discusses the route of a pizza delivery person in New York City, and he describes the origins of the ingredients of the pizza. To do this, the host travels to California’s Central Valley, a region that was once a desert, but is now the breadbasket of the United States. In this valley, thirteen million tomatoes are grown per year as well as fifty percent of the country’s fruits and nuts. Water is the most expensive resource in this region, as it must travel many miles from
Farmers who lived west of the Appalachian Mountains shipped all their surplus produce by boat down rivers that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. In a treaty of 1795, Spain agreed to give Americans the "right of deposit" at New Orleans. This right allowed Americans to store in New Orleans, duty-free, goods shipped for export. Arks and flatboats transported a great variety of products, including flour, tobacco, pork bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter, cheese, hemp, p...
Pollen seeks out to inform not just the misinformed or the health conscious folks, but just anyone who is willing to listen. He is not trying to tell his readers to stop eating fast food, nor is he telling his vegetarian readers to start eating meat. Pollen attempts to inform all his readers about the things that go beyond an ordinary double cheeseburger or the pain one must go through for fresh abalone. He covers all the dilemmas regarding the consumption of an omnivore as far as buying the “food” that was also used in feedlots, to the organic, freshly grown and gathered fungi and fava beans. I’ve been well informed and can no claim I am less ignorant to the topic of food. I may now think twice before I take a bite out of anything, such as where it came from or how it got to be. As for now, I am really craving some chicken nuggets from McDonalds.
In the first third of the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, he draws the reader in by bringing to light many interesting facts about corn that most individuals may not realize. He states that the majority of food that people consume contains corn. Although people of Mexican descent are usually referred to as the “corn people”, Americans have now surpassed them in the amount of corn consumed in their daily diet. Corn is consumed in a variety of forms and many of the animals that are eaten by Americans, such as the chicken, pig, turkey, and lamb are fed corn. When a person eats these animals, he or she is essentially increasing their corn intake, and in most cases without even realizing it. The corn crop has spread vastly and is massively produced because it is efficient. Unlike other crop plants, corn can survive in harsh weather conditions and it is light and easy to transport. Maize is also self-fertilized and pollinated by wind, and it has evolved over time and continues to evolve, into new forms and new uses.
...nergy from an acre of Iowa farmland. Unfortunately, for more than fifty years, farm policies is designed to encourage the overproduction of this crop and hardly any other. It simply because the government subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country. While the surgeon general is warning the epidemic of obesity, our government is still signing bills encouraging the river of cheap corn flowing. It is clearly shown that food production in America is partly a mixture of politic, economic and morality.
Ploeg, M. ver; Breneman, V.; Farrigan, T.; Hamrick, K.; Hopkins, D.;Kaufman, P.; Lin, B. H.; Nord, M.; Smith, T.; Williams, R.; Kinnison, Access to affordable and nutritious food measuring and understanding food deserts and their consequences : report to Congress ([Rev. Sept. 3, 2009] ed.). (2009). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
This research paper are for those who tend to eat food specifically geared toward their culture and have never veered from it. One would see this research essay as a form of reference/reasoning to their many questions regarding the upheld idea that soul food is the only predominant food choice in the typical African American home. It also signifies the reason it is held at the highest standards of those within the African American race/community. It also centers around those who wish to enjoy other foods but are culturally stuck to eating only things that are generalized to what is considered a norm within their community or race. My goal is to educate those who have been deterred form trying new foods, due to lack of support
Many African-Americans consume what is known as “soul food”, for which, it is very popular within the black community. Soul food is an African-American cuisine that can be traced back as far as African, however, the term itself was not coined until the mid-1960s. It also comprise an important element of the cuisine of the general American south. Soul food was adopted and modify during the African slave trade and it was during this time food African cuisine and southern European cuisine became one big melting pot.
The Bean Trees is a novel which shows Taylor’s maturation; it is a bildungsroman story. Taylor is a developing or dynamic character. Her moral qualities and outlook undergo a permanent change. When the novel begins, Taylor is an independent-minded young woman embarking on an adventure to a new world. She has no cares or worries. She is confident in her abilities, and is determined to make it through life on her own. As she discovers new things and meets new people, Taylor is exposed to the realities of the world. She learns about the plight of abandoned children and of illegal immigrants. She learns how to give help and how to depend upon the help of others. As she interacts with others, those people are likewise affected by Taylor. The other developing characters are Lou Ann Ruiz, Turtle, and Esperanza. Together they learn the importance of interdependence and find their confidence.
Fast food consumption is taking America by a storm and it is for the sake of our lives. Fast food relies heavily on industrialized corn because of how cheap and easy to grow it is. With that being said, animals are being fed with corn rather than being fed with grass. In the Omnivore’s Dilemma, Rich Blair who runs a “cow-calf” operation s...
Berry does not hesitate in using harsh words and metaphors like “the hamburger she is eating came from a steer who spent much of his life standing deep in his own excrement in a feedlot”(Berry 10). This provokes the readers to feeling horrible about industrial eating. He uses our pride while pointing to the lies of the make-up of industrial foods. He plays on human self-preservation when writing about chemicals in plants and animals which is out of the consumer’s control. He tries to spark a curiosity and enthusiasm, describing his own passion of farming, animal husbandry, horticulture, and gardening. The aspect of feelings and emotions is, perhaps, the strongest instrument Berry uses in making his
Mintz, Steven. "Food in America." Digital History. History Online, 2007. Web. 01 Apr. 2012. .
A surprising fact is that most of the corn we produce in the United States is not actually eaten. In 2008 the United States produced a total of 12.1 million bushels of maize. Of that 5.2 million was used as livestock feed, 3.6 million for ethanol production, 1.8 million for exporting, .9 million for production of starch, sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, and oils, and finally .3 million for human consumption in grits, flour, alcohol, etc.
Decades later, and even in a new age of American “freedom” and “opportunities,” not much has really changed. In the American food industry, the presence of an oppressive class system is very rampant; hidden from view, but influential as ever. Because the way the food reaches our plates straight from the stores makes it seem like a simple method of growing and transporting, the complex system, or system of systems, is very much hidden behind a wall of what it seems to be. Citizens fail to realize that in this food supply chain, everyone plays a vital role, whether directly or passively contributing to the system. In 1880, roughly “80% of Americans worked in agriculture toiling to feed themselves and others,” which is now reduced to 2% of Americans