Barley
Though barley is mainly known in today’s society as primarily an ingredient for beer, it has been feeding humans for millennia. It's cultivation and history can be traced back over 10,000 years to one of the first cultivated grains in ancient agriculture. Over the centuries barley has changed in its uses, production, and cross-breeding. From its humble beginning in the fields of Mesopotamia, to today's worldwide status, barley has become one of the top four produced crops in the world.
Barley is one of the most ancient grains and has even played an important role in Greek and Roman culture. It was a food that gave the Olympic athletes strength. Romans were known as Hordearii. "Barley Men" or “Eaters of Barley”. In ancient Greece the ritual significance of barely could date back to the earliest stages of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the annual rites performed by the ancient Greeks near Athens in honor of the Greek Gods Demeter and Persephone.
Barley was also grown on the South West shores of the Sea of Galilee, in what is now Israel and in settlements dating back 10,000 years. Barley was also held in high esteem in Egypt. It was used in religious ceremonies, and pictured on Egyptian coins. Along with emmer wheat, barley was a staple cereal in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians used barley for making food products such as bread, and also brewed barley into a drink . The Egyptians were an advanced civilization who were able to cultivate crops is dry areas. The people used a type of irrigation where they used the flooding of the Nile River (see image 4) in order to water their crops to save them from drought.
Barley was also grown in the Middle East before 10,000 B.C. Barley's cultivation in China and India occurred later. Barley wa...
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...er is actually very simple. Some people even do it at home. The malt companies just do it on a bigger scale. Beer is mostly fermented barley. You can make beer out of almost any grain. Barley is a better choice because of it’s high sugar content. After the yeast is added, the yeast eats the sugar and produces alcohol in the fermentation process.
Barley is much more than just an important ingredient for beer. It has a long history and many uses and varieties. It has fed humans and animals since the beginning of time. It creates jobs and puts money back into the world, national, and local economy. Over the years it has become a worldwide commodity. It has changed over time as seen in cross-breeding to make different varities for different uses. Barley production is a boost to local and world economies as well as serving as a basic staple food for humans and animals.
After a brief history of corn, comparing the United States with China, and Hungary will give a wide range of countries and cultures to display how each view corn. Then, ancient legends of how corn came to be, how it is revered, and how it was planted according to the Native Americans will be examined.
It’s a possibility, some archaeologists say.” The author continues by noting that people did the hard work to cultivate grains for feasts and important community gatherings. Beer is sacred stuff in most traditional societies. The main point is since people had to stay to look over their crops, people settled at a permanent place and then they were coming into contact with other people more often, spurring the establishment of social customs. The author continues to talk about the history of the grains and agriculture. Hayden, who is an archeologist talks about that when there are feasts, it would be expensive to serve and prepare food but beer would be cheap and could be afforded by the majority of people. This is the one of the for the people that motivated them to cultivate cereal grains. The author continues to note that, feats are essential for people because it would bring the people closer together and creating the supporting network and developing more complex kind of societies. Beer played a huge role in making a feast beautiful. The brewing of beer has also developed new technologies which made the people’s life a lot easier. Finally, beer has made human’s life more enjoyable and
In every beer, the most important ingredient is malt. Bottom fermenting beers uses barley malt, while top fermenting beers allow the use of other malts. For example, in addition to barley malt, wheat malt will be used. In Athenian Brewery S.A, special malting and brewing barley types have been germinated and cultivated. Important to the barley cultivators are full kernel, fine spelt (husks) and rich enzyme content. Most beer barley types have a lower yield than the barley that feeds animals. With their special ingredients, though, they reach a high yield during fermentation and add to beer's noble taste.
Today, a group of crops called cereals provide over half of all calories eaten by humans. Five of the current twelve leading crops are cereals: sorghum, wheat, barley, corn, and rice. The people of West Africa and Sahel domesticated sorghum; the people of the Fertile Crescent domesticated wheat and barley; the people of Mesoamerica domesticated corn; and the people of China domesticated rice. Corn took a large amount of effort and time to domesticate, resulting in a slower population growth than that seen in the other countries that domesticated major cereals. The major cereals of eastern Asia and the Americas had reduced protein quantities that led to many nutritional
Wang, Nussbaum-Wagler, Li, Zhao, Vigouroux, Faller, Bomblies, Lukens & Doebley. “The Origin of the naked grains of maize.” Nature. Vol. 436. 4 August 2005. 714-719.
After potatoes were widely spread through Europe and Africa, they were introduced into East Asia. Following its introduction into China at the end of Ming Dynasty, potatoes became one of the most popular crops in the country. Ironically, despite of the distance of South America and North America, North...
“Corn is one of humankind's earliest innovations. It was domesticated 10,000 years ago”(Ackerman, J, 1 Jan. 2002). With the advancements of corn starting ten thousand years and still continuing genetic modification today, we are able to morally provide for the world.
There are many positive views on the genetic altering of corn. Consumers always look for the shiny, beautiful food with delicious taste. By genetically engineering corn, it can become sweeter and have a better overall appearance. (16) Along with this pleasing appearance, comes its improved resistance for insects, disease, and other pests. This means that new forms of corn now possesses the ability to overcome pests and even weeds that once weakened or killed the young plants. As a result, corn can be grown where there used to be a lot of infestation. (13) In the process, this would also kill insects. Furthermore, corn has more nutritional benefits. Corn now has additional vitamins and minerals because of genetic engineering to provide greater
When corn was introduced to Spain in the 18th century, it helped to feed a rapidly growing population. The crop quickly spread throughout the European and Asian continents, reaching all the way to China within a century. The Russians used it for cornmeal and mamaliga, which is a type of porridge. Corn was also more filling than the previous staples like wheat and rice meaning that more people could be healthily fed with less money. The crop utilized fields that would have been deemed as useless in growing any other crop besides the potato. However, feeding a rapidly increasing population was not corn's only role in European history. It was also fed to livestock. The crop's multiple uses led to a higher demand that people like William Cobbett met. In his Cottage Economy of 1821 it read, "I, last April sent parcels if the seed into several countries, to be given away to working men, this corn is the very best hog-fattening in the world." Some Europeans developed pellagra, which is caused by a lack of niacin from eating too much corn. "Nevertheless, the golden grain wa...
The Ancient Egyptians called their country Kemet, which means “Black Land.” The dark soil from the Nile River was very fertile. The Nile overflowed at the same time every year, leaving farmers with very fertile soil. The Nile provided much needed water for their crops during the dry season by using their irrigation system. The Nile River also provided the Egyptians with drinking water, and a way for them to travel, allowing them to explore and trade. In addition, the desert around the river was called “Red Land” by the Egyptians. This is where they lived, grew and prospered. The desert provided much gold for the Egyptians to trade with other countries or to keep for themselves. They brought back silver from Syria, cedar wood, oils, and horses from Lebanon, copper from Cyprus, gems from Afghanistan, ebony, wood, and ivory from Africa, and incense from Punt.
Throughout the history of the human race there have been a great number of crops that were discovered, planted, and over time domesticated. Wheat in the Middle East, rice in Asia, and rye in Eastern Europe are all some of today’s staple crops that feed millions every day. Crops like these make up over 50% of the world’s total food supply. However, the third most eaten crop in the world is maize, or corn, which provides 21% of human nutrition. Today maize feeds millions across the world, but its history is different from the others.
In the case of this project, Corn or Maize is used to produce starch that enables pharmaceutical companies and industries to produce the medicinal drugs that are in high demand to help cure or slow down the effects of diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis.
Most people know of foods like bread and cheese, but many, however, do not know how they are created. The processes they are created through, as well as many other products, are done through the method known as fermentation. Fermentation creates many of the foods and beverages that we all come to regularly eat and drink. Such examples include dairy and yogurt which is created through lactic acid fermentation. Alcoholic drinks are done through a process called ethanol fermentation. The use of fermentation was an important tool for ancient societies in the past that gave way to the development of staple crops that governed their lives such as wheat and grapes. It gave rise to new techniques in creating foods that would not have been possible without the methods of fermenting. The discovery of the fermentation process, and its development over centuries, subsequently led to its emergence as an important aspect in foods and beverages as well as it being a process being used in several industries to make useful different products.
Barley has a very debatable origin. There are two different thoughts as to where barley was originally cultivated. J.R Hardin says that barley cultivation originated in Egypt. There is evidence of barley grains found in pits and pyramids of Egypt over 5000 years ago. There has also been ancient glyphs or pictorials showing barley dating back to 3000 BC. There have also been references to barley and beer making in ancient Egyptian and Sumerian writings. (4). The other thought is that barley was originally cultivated in China around 1500-2000 BC. This is evident by ancient pottery found depicting the end of the famine by having barley fall out of the sky (2). Barley cultivation also seems to have been evident in other parts of the world at later times. For example northwestern Europe is estimated to have civilizations cultivating barley around 3000 BC.
Cereals, millets and legumes are generally pre-processed by fermentation, germination (malting), cooking, milling and roasting to enhance their functional and nutritional values. Germination/sprouting/malting is a biochemical process which involves transition of a seed from dormant state to vital active state. The prime objective of this traditional process is to promote the development of hydrolytic enzymes that are not active in raw seeds (Dewar et al., 1997). Malting is a complex process that involves many enzymes; important ones are -amylase, -amylase, -glucosidase, and limit dextrinase that improves the nutritive value of foods through controlled germination followed by controlled drying of the kernels. Since germination is cheap and more effective in improving nutritional value it was incorporated in mixes to contribute to the nutrition of people (Rusydi et al., 2011).