1
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. Cambridge
University Press. 2007.
Globalization is a process that eases the flow of people, objects, places, and
information.1 One of these objects is food. Author Kenneth P. Kiple demonstrates the flow
of food in his book, A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. As the title
implies, the book provides an account of the globalization of food over the past ten
thousand years. It acts as a history book for food, starting with its humble beginnings in its
place of origin and following it to the present day as it has spread across the world.
The author argues two main points, the first being that food is important because it
led to the establishment of human civilization. This is significant because without human
civilization, globalization would not be possible. The second point illustrated is that after
human civilization was established, it was able to develop because people modified food.
This second point has a profound impact on both human civilization and on food; the
modification of food led to humans forming larger societies that later started branching out
and coming into contact with each other. This contact meant food being spread from one
region to another. Kiple argues his points using extensive detail, history, and in-depth
looks at specific regions and foods.
Kiple organizes the book in a manner that is easy to follow and simple to
understand. The book unfolds in chronological order, starting thousands of years ago when
humans were hunter-gatherers. In the very first chapter, the reader learns how huntergatherers hunted large and small game and picked wild plants for consumption. Hunter1
George Ritzer. Globalization: A Basic Text. (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2010), 2.
2
gatherers were nomadic and moved where their food sources did. Slowly, hunter-gatherers
learned to domesticate wild plants and animals. Kiple notes, though, that the domestication
process was an extremely slow one.2
From here, Kiple devotes a whole chapter each to this domestication process of
both plants and animals. In Chapter Two, there are separate sections devoted to the most
important animals that became domesticated. These include the cow, pig, sheep, goat, yak,
camel, and water buffalo. These animals were domesticated for their meat, hides, and
milk.3 Chapter Three focuses on plant and crop domestication and has the same layout as
the previous chapter, with extensive sections devoted to wheat, oat, barley, rice, and
millet.4
The main argument in these two chapters is that hunter-gatherers went from
hunting wild animals and picking wild plants to domesticating them. Because of this
domestication, there were surpluses of food. Extra food meant that hunter-gatherers no
longer needed to spend all of their time hunting and gathering. They were able to stay in
one place and create permanent settlements, and had free time. Also because of the food
surpluses, the population was increasing, and what was once a group of wandering huntergatherers turned into large villages. This marked the beginning of civilization.5
2
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 1-13.
3
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007),14-24.
4
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 25-35.
5
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 35.
3
Kiple illustrates this point by citing specific examples of the formation of early
civilizations. A notable one is the case of Egypt in Chapter Five. He states that huntergatherers traveled up the Nile to follow their prey and to escape the increasing aridity of
the expanding Sahara desert. The soil on the banks of the Nile was moist and rich due to
the annual flooding of the river, and therefore was appropriate for planting seeds. There
were also fish in the Nile that served as a food source, so hunter-gatherers could stay put to
get their food. With the flooding of the river, irrigation techniques were developed to get
crop yields, and large animals were domesticated to pull plows to harvest large amounts of
crops. What were once hunter-gatherers on the move became a small settlement.
Domesticating food led to surpluses, and the population grew significantly, so settlements
became villages throughout the Nile River valley. There arose a need to organize the
surplus food, and a priestly class developed to fulfill this purpose. The priests were in
charge of food storage and allocation. Once the food was harvested, the priests collected it
and redistributed it out to the masses, and then set a certain amount aside to save in case of
a drought. The priests recorded the harvests on tablets. They developed symbols and turned
it into a writing system. The case of Egypt illustrates how food was important in creating a
civilization: instead of hunting animals and picking wild plants, hunter-gatherers learned to
plant crops near riverbeds and use irrigation and animals to help harvest. This led to food
surpluses and a growth in the population, which allowed for the settlement to develop
further. Organization became necessary, and a social class emerged. The priests were at the
top of the social ladder and had control over resources like food, whereas the harvesters
were at the bottom and had to obey the orders of the priests, even if they did not want to
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hand over their surplus crops. Finally, the development of writing is significant. First it
was used to record food, but gradually it was used to record songs and stories, and with
this culture was born. The age of hunter-gatherers was over, and human civilization had
now taken shape, all because humans were able to domesticate food.6
Kiple also uses China as an example when talking about Asia in Chapter Four. The
Yangtze River would flood, and this is how China developed one of its staples: rice. Rice
had been cultivated on dry land in Southeast Asia, but in China, larger crop yields were
possible because of irrigating water from the Yangtze. This wet rice cultivation helped
China achieve success like Egypt. China’s populations doubled in two centuries because of
the extra food. A notable difference from the case of Egypt, however, is the split cultures
in two regions of China. The different climates in the cool, dry north and the wet, warm
south meant that different food was cultivated and consumed. Those in the North
considered themselves superior to those in the South because of the cuisine. Because of
food, different cultures and cuisines emerged in the region, and China was divided.7
The book continues to goes along in chronological order, with civilizations now
growing immensely larger and more powerful. Kiple mentions the vast Roman Empire, the
Middle Ages in Europe, and exploration to the Americas, or the “New World.” Food
continued to be domesticated throughout these periods of human civilization. An important
advancement in agriculture was the development of crops that were drought resistant and
that could grow in nutrient-poor soil. Because people were able to achieve this (after many
6
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 51-55.
7
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 41-46.
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centuries of course from trial and error experiments between different existing crops),
crops were able to grow in other regions of the world than where they originated. This
human manipulation made it possible for food to be brought to other parts of the world,
and food globalization was born. This idea develops later on in the book when Kiple talks
about scientists creating genetically modified food that withstand almost any climate. 8
Kiple expands on this by talking about popular trade routes between regions. When
the Silk Road opened, Europeans were able to access tea and spices from Asia and bring
them back across the continent to Europe. Without food domestication, humans would
have never settled down, and civilizations would have never been established, so wild
plants and animals would have stayed in the region where they originated. Later in history,
when European explorers sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, they came across the regions of
Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. They established permanent settlements there,
which meant a need for food to feed the settlers. Europeans introduced new foods to the
regions where they settled. One of the ways they did this was through the slave trade: not
only were crops from Africa aboard European ships that went to the Americas, but so were
slaves. Slaves brought with them their knowledge of cooking and preparing food. They
took the foods they encountered in the Americas and used it in their cooking, so now food
was being prepared in a new way.9 Again, without the establishment of civilization (which
includes culture and cuisine), food would not have been able to flow around the world and
be manipulated further.
8
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 233-237.
9
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 113-126.
6
From looking at the resources used in the Notes section, it is clear that Kiple
researched many sources, in fact hundreds, ranging from factual articles to region-specific
case studies to other books on the subject of food. It is notable that Kiple used some of his
own work for this book.10
Kiple received a PhD in Latin American History from the University of Florida and
became a Distinguished University Professor in 1994. He has written approximately fifty
articles and chapters, and his research interests include biological history, the history of
disease, and food and nutrition. A Movable Feast is based largely on The Cambridge
World History of Food, a volume which Kiple helped edit.11
This book is obviously useful for anyone wanting to learn more about food
globalization. It is also of use for those researching the beginnings of human civilization
and early human interaction. Those interested in trade would also find A Movable Feast a
valuable resource to look into, because some of the first exchanges between people
consisted of plants and spices. In addition, university professors and students of all levels
and disciplines within the humanities may find this book a useful tool for understanding
the relationship between food, people, and the development of societies. Finally, those in
the nutrition field could learn a lot about the eating habits of early humans and how this
has a link to what modern humans eat. Even those looking for a good read or who are
looking to learn something new should indulge in A Movable Feast to broaden their
10
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 307-352.
11
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), xii.
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horizons. Kiple’s book will satisfy many, as it is packed with knowledge without being
dense or boring. It is roughly three hundred pages but a fast read.
The only thing that readers should be wary about is the tendency Kiple has to
repeat himself; he frequently will make a statement on one page, only to have it turn up
again pages later. For example, in the beginning chapters, he repeatedly states where
certain foods originated. This is a good reminder when several different foods are being
mentioned, but stating the same thing over and over, for example that wheat originated in
Southeast Asia,12 can sometimes distract from the argument. He also uses a lot of different
dates when discerning when food domestication occurred, and these dates vary by region.
It can be difficult for the reader to wrap their head around when the African yam was
domesticated versus the Asian yam.13 This repetition appears mostly in the first part of the
book, so it does not cause too much of an issue.
Throughout the book, Kiple enriches the text with quirky facts, and this lends
another strength to the book. Who would have guessed that that pepper was once worth its
weight in gold, or that onions were used to cure sore throats and foot fungus?14 These facts
are the spice that set A Movable Feast apart from other books on the same topic, and make
it enjoyable to almost anyone. It satisfies the reader, but also provokes the reader to think
about where their food came from, especially since the modern world has become
extremely interconnected.
12
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 26.
13
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 39.
14
Kenneth P. Kiple. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 103.
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