Food During The Middle Age

Science Essay

Ever since man discovered fire, the ways we consumed food changed drastically. We learned how to grill, bake, and steam. In essence, we changed raw and inedible food into delicious and healthy nutrition. We learned how to collect food innovatively and organically through raising livestock and farming produce. We no longer needed to hunt and scavenge for what we needed to survive. But we were able to grow and raise the food at our own will. We also discovered many ways to preserve this food in ways such as freezing, salting, and canning. After many generations have passed and as civilization came and went, different cultures developed their own delicacies and native dishes, so the diets of each food region were unique and different. During the Middle Age, the Silk Road was found. It connected Europe to the Orient, and empires traded native dishes and plants such as noodles and tea with one another, drastically changing the way people ate.
From
that point forward, foreign food became a delicacy reserved only for the rich. Whether they are spices, fruits, or nuts, it is the want for foreign delicacies that have driven the food production system today. Today foreign food is no longer for the rich and many are expecting exotic foods at their doorsteps as it is cheaper and much easier to gain access than before. If one in Vancouver wanted to buy a jackfruit native to south-eastern Asia they could simply buy it at a wholesale supermarket. However the increasing demand is unfit for the complicated and problematic system of the food supply chain. Let us use the jackfruit example. If you wanted to buy a jackfruit, you could simply drive to a market, choose it, buy it, and eat it. However the process behind this is extremely complex, and detailed. First the jackfruit is planted and grown by native Thailand farmers, and then as the fruit matures, it is harvested. The harvested fruit is then sold and travels long distances through trucks into warehouses where it is packaged. The factory then sells it to food distributors, where the jackfruit travels by truck, train, plane, and ship to a supplier in Canada. Once in Canada the supplier sells the fruit to a local supermarket where the consumers buy it. This is only a general explanation of the chain as there is still the process behind finances, profits, transportation regulations and safety regulations. Even though this supply chain is extremely complex, it is the safest and quickest way that humans use to deliver food today. It is relatively safe because this process needs to undergo multiple tests to ensure the consumer’s safety. It is an easy process for the individual groups, since farmers only have to worry about farming and factory workers only have to package. However, nothing is perfect and the supply chain is not an exception. First of all, the price of the product increases with each link of the chain and the distance of the production. Therefore by the time produce reaches the consumers, the price has increased drastically. For instance, buying mangoes from a local farm in the Philippines is much cheaper than buying it from Safeway in Canada, since the links between the steps is much shorter. Next, the process of this chain is time consuming. It takes weeks for the foreign fruit to go through the chain process where it is then distributed. It also takes time for a fruit to be ripe. It has to be left “rotted” so that it is more desirable for the consumer. Lastly, government and environmental regulations prevent many foreign foods to enter into other countries.

However the increasing demand from consumers is unfit for the complicated and problematic system of the food supply chain. The process can be simplified, the production can be altered, or the fruit can be modified so that it can be grown anywhere. There should be a safer and more efficient way to handle exotic foreign foods. One of the ways is through local mass production. If the food is a produce such as guavas, then we can create large greenhouses to mimic the temperature and environment so the fruit can grow and mature properly. As a result, exotic produce would be available locally. This could affect the international trade process, and it would take time for society to adapt to the change, but the result would be worthwhile as it is more efficient and it would cost less. We could also modify the food genetically so that it can grow in any environment. This would require a lot of research and experimentation, but by doing so, any fruits and vegetables can be grown locally taking away the issues and regulations over border laws and shipping prices. If the product is unable to be produced locally a new of transporting food would have to be invented to make up for the lost time.
Right now food products are mostly transported by trucks and trains as it is the most efficient and inexpensive way of transportation. However, they have a flaw when connecting between different modes of transportation. the train have to unload the produce and put it on a truck before further progress, this costs valuable time, and there can be new solutions. An innovative way to solve this issue is by connecting a pipeline from the factory directly to a distribution center close to the destination. The pipeline would have a mini maglev system that would transport the food product to its destination at extremely fast speeds similar to the speed of an aircraft. The pipeline would only have one purpose, which would be to transport fresh food products across regions, therefore there would not be any other usage so that the pipeline would be always ready to transport
food.