Description
Book SynopsisEgyptians often say that bread is life; most eat this staple multiple times a day, many relying on the cheap bread subsidized by the government. In
Staple Security, Jessica Barnes explores the process of sourcing domestic and foreign wheat for the production of bread and its consumption across urban and rural settings. She traces the anxiety that pervades Egyptian society surrounding the possibility that the nation could run out of wheat or that people might not have enough good bread to eat, and the daily efforts to ensure that this does not happen. With rich ethnographic detail, she takes us into the worlds of cultivating wheat, trading grain, and baking, buying, and eating bread. Linking global flows of grain and a national bread subsidy program with everyday household practices, Barnes theorizes the nexus between food and security, drawing attention to staples and the lengths to which people go to secure their consistent availability and quality.
Trade Review"The book’s forte lies in the wider use of a range of sources, including ethnography, interviews with various actors in Egypt, participant observation, newspapers and archival materials. . . . Another strength is how the book draws connections with issues of staple security in countries in Africa but also from other continents. Barnes also provides extensive illustrations that are well linked to the content of each chapter. The concept of staple security is of value to anyone interested in the subject of food and politics as well as food histories." -- Chama Kaluba Jickson * H-Environment *
"Barnes’s Staple Security is an important contribution to the existing literature that unravels the myriad relationships, histories, and politics coalescing around one commodity or staple, similar, for example, to studies of sugar, coffee, and rice. One could imagine scholars and students from agrifood studies, Middle East and North Africa studies, anthropology, and geography finding much value in this text."
-- Megan A. Carney * American Anthropologist *
Table of ContentsA Note on Transliteration and Units vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
1. Staple Becomings 39
2. Gold of the Land 81
3. Grain on the Move 113
4. Subsidized Bread (
with Mariam Taher) 153
5. Homemade Bread 191
Conclusion 225
Notes 239
References 271
Index 289
