The ambiguous relationship between food and health across the centuries.

Since the Palaeolithic Age food has been closely linked to the development of the human species, meeting our energy needs and fuelling our cell metabolism. Without food there can be no life. However, over the centuries food and our eating habits have also had a damaging effect, whether through deficiencies, excesses, direct toxic effects or as a vector of pathogenic agents. The human species has known two major food revolutions: one at the start of the Neolithic Age and the other very recently in the years following the Second World War. In this article we will be looking at the ambiguous relationship between food and human health as well as the health of our planet.

Alimentos sin finalidad nutricional en la terapéutica médica hospitalaria de la edad moderna en el Hospital de Santiago de Vitoria (Álava, España) / Food without nutritional purpose in the medical therapeutics in the modern age at Hospital de Santiago in Vitoria (Alava, Spain)

Introducción: con ser importante, la alimentación en los hospitales medievales y modernos distó de la excelencia y abundancia que sugierenalgunos historiadores, probablemente por una incorrecta valoración de la documentación hospitalaria al considerar como destinado a la alimentación todo gasto en alimentos, cuando buena parte tuvo como destino la botica.Objetivo/método: identificar los alimentos utilizados para una finalidad terapéutica no nutricional durante la edad moderna en el Hospital deSantiago Apóstol de Vitoria (Álava, España), describir su sistema de consignación y revisar la bibliografía del periodo para facilitar estrategias devaloración documental a los investigadores.Resultados: entre 1592 y 1813 se identifican 42 grupos de alimentos adquiridos para finalidades terapéuticas no nutritivas. El sistema deanotación en los libros de gastos no es sistemático ni homogéneo sino muy variable y dependiente de quien efectuara el asiento. Se identifican27 términos para el reconocimiento de que un determinado alimento tuviera por destino la botica y no la cocina. Se escogen 14 textos sanitariosdel periodo como bibliografía clarificadora, encontrándose de mayor utilidad para los fines propuestos los manuales enfermeros del siglo XVII.Conclusiones: la variedad y cantidad de alimentos destinados a la botica evidencia el riesgo de confusión en los investigadores no familiarizadosal analizar las dietas hospitalarias desde los libros de contabilidad. La propuesta de términos y estrategias de discriminación del uso nutricionalo no nutricional de los alimentos adquiridos, junto a la recomendación bibliográfica, resulta indispensable para una adecuada valoración de lasdietas hospitalarias históricas. (AU)

Introduction: although important, food in medieval and modern hospitals was far from the excellence and abundance suggested by somehistorians, probably due to an incorrect assessment of hospital documentation, considering all food expenditure to be for food when much of itwas destined for the apothecary’s shop.Aim/method: to identify the foodstuffs used for non-nutritional therapeutic purposes during the modern age at Hospital de Santiago in Vitoria(Alava, Spain), to describe the system of consignment, and to review the bibliography of the period in order to facilitate documentary assessmentstrategies for researchers.Results: between 1592 and 1813, 42 groups of foodstuffs acquired for non-nutritional therapeutic purposes were identified. The system of annotation in the expenditure books is neither systematic nor homogeneous, but highly variable and dependent on who made the entry. Twenty-seventerms were identified for the recognition that a given foodstuff was intended for the apothecary’s shop and not the kitchen. Fourteen sanitarytexts of the period were chosen as clarifying bibliography, finding the 17th century nursing manuals most useful for the proposed purposes.Conclusions: the variety and quantity of foodstuffs destined for the apothecary’s shop shows the risk of confusion in unfamiliar researcherswhen analysing hospital diets from account books. A proposal of terms and strategies for discriminating the nutritional or non-nutritional use ofthe food acquired, together with bibliographical recommendations, is essential for an adequate assessment of historical hospital diets. (AU)

What about Dinner? Chemical and Microresidue Analysis Reveals the Function of Late Neolithic Ceramic Pans.

The Late Neolithic palafitte site, Ustie na Drim, in the northern part of Lake Ohrid (North Macedonia), excavated in 1962, offered ceramic fragments of large, flat, elongated pans. These artifacts could be dated by relative chronology to roughly around 5200-5000 BC. According to their shape and technological traits, the ceramic pans were probably used for baking. The attached materials on the surface of studied pan fragments were sampled for consequent chemical and microscopical analyses (i.e., analyses of starch, phytoliths, and microscopic animal remains). An immunological method revealed the presence of pork proteins in samples. The presence of organic residues of animal origin was, moreover, confirmed by the detection of cholesterol using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Analysis of detected microscopic botanical objects revealed starch grains of several plants (i.e., oak, cattail, and grasses). An interesting find was the hair of a beetle larva, which could be interpreted contextually as the khapra beetle, a pest of grain and flour. Based on our data, we suppose that the ceramic pans from Ustie na Drim were used for the preparation of meals containing meat from common livestock in combination with cereals and wild plants.

New insights into early medieval Islamic cuisine: Organic residue analysis of pottery from rural and urban Sicily.

Sicily, during the 9th-12th century AD, thrived politically, economically, and culturally under Islamic political rule and the capital of Palermo stood as a cultural and political centre in the Mediterranean Islamic world. However, to what extent the lifeways of the people that experienced these regimes were impacted during this time is not well understood, particularly those from lesser studied rural contexts. This paper presents the first organic residue analysis of 134 cooking pots and other domestic containers dating to the 9th -12th century in order to gain new insights into the culinary practices during this significant period. Ceramics from three sites in the urban capital of Palermo and from the rural town of Casale San Pietro were analysed and compared. The multi-faceted organic residue analysis identified a range of commodities including animal products, vegetables, beeswax, pine and fruit products in the ceramics, with a complex mixing of resources observed in many cases, across all four sites and ceramic forms. Alongside the identification of commodities and how they were combined, new light has been shed on the patterning of resource use between these sites. The identification of dairy products in calcite wares from the rural site of Casale San Pietro and the absence of dairy in ceramics from the urban centre of Palermo presents interesting questions regarding the role of rural sites in food consumption and production in Islamic Sicily. This is the first time organic residue analysis of ceramics has been used to explore foodways in a medieval multi-faith society and offers new pathways to the understanding of pottery use and resources that were prepared, consumed and combined, reflecting cuisine in different socio-economic environments within the pluralistic population of medieval Sicily.

Mapping Early Pleistocene environments and the availability of plant food as a potential driver of early Homo presence in the Guadix-Baza Basin (Spain).

The Guadix-Baza Basin, in SE Spain, harbors hominin fossils and lithic artifacts dated to ca. 1.4-1.3 Ma, representing the first hominin habitat in the Iberian Peninsula and possibly in Western Europe. Recent palynological studies have described a high diversity of plant taxa and biomes existing in the basin at the time of hominin presence. However, the relationship between these hominins and their environment has not been fully explored. Two novel methodologies are developed. The first method maps the distribution of the Early Pleistocene vegetation units based on paleobotanical and paleogeographic data. The second method assesses the availability of edible plant parts using a combination of Early Pleistocene and modern taxa lists. The resulting vegetation maps reveal a great diversity of vegetation types. During dry (glacial) periods, the vegetation of the basin was represented mostly by steppes, with the appearance of forested vegetation only in the mountainous regions. During humid (interglacial) periods, Mediterranean woodlands represented the dominant vegetation, accompanied by deciduous and conifer forests in the areas of higher altitude. The lake system present in the basin also allowed for the presence of marshland vegetation. The assessment of the availability of edible plant parts reveals that early Homo could have found a high number of resources in marshland and riparian environments throughout the year. Mediterranean woodlands and deciduous forests also provided numerous edible plant parts. During dry periods, the availability of plant resources decreased heavily, but the prevalence of marshland and riparian vegetation and of forested vegetation in the areas of higher altitude could have sustained hominin communities during harsher climatic periods. However, the disappearance of the lake system and an increase of aridity after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition and during the Middle Pleistocene probably led to an impoverishment of plant resources available to early Homo in the Guadix-Baza Basin.

What do "barbarians" eat? Integrating ceramic use-wear and residue analysis in the study of food and society at the margins of Bronze Age China.

The Siwa archaeological culture (ca. 3350 and 2650 cal yr BP) has often been associated with the tribes referenced in textual sources as Qiang and Rong: prized captives commonly sacrificed by the Shang and marauding hordes who toppled the Western Zhou dynasty. In early Chinese writings, food plays a key role in accentuating the 'sino-barbarian' dichotomy believed to have taken root over 3000 years ago, with the Qiang and Rong described as nomadic pastoralists who consumed more meat than grain and knew little of proper dining etiquette. To date, however, little direct archaeological evidence has allowed us to reconstruct the diet and foodways of the groups who occupied the Loess Plateau during this pivotal period. Here we present the results of the first ceramic use-wear study performed on the Siwa ma'an jars from the site of Zhanqi, combined with the molecular and isotopic characterization of lipid residues from foodcrusts, and evidence from experimental cooking. We report molecular data indicating the preparation of meals composed of millet and ruminant dairy among the Siwa community of Zhanqi. Use-wear analysis shows that Zhanqi community members were sophisticated creators of ceramic equipment, the ma'an cooking pot, which allowed them to prepare a wide number of dishes with limited fuel. These findings support recent isotope studies at Zhanqi as well as nuance the centrality of meat in the Siwa period diet.

Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE.

Although the key role of long-distance trade in the transformation of cuisines worldwide has been well-documented since at least the Roman era, the prehistory of the Eurasian food trade is less visible. In order to shed light on the transformation of Eastern Mediterranean cuisines during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, we analyzed microremains and proteins preserved in the dental calculus of individuals who lived during the second millennium BCE in the Southern Levant. Our results provide clear evidence for the consumption of expected staple foods, such as cereals (Triticeae), sesame (Sesamum), and dates (Phoenix). We additionally report evidence for the consumption of soybean (Glycine), probable banana (Musa), and turmeric (Curcuma), which pushes back the earliest evidence of these foods in the Mediterranean by centuries (turmeric) or even millennia (soybean). We find that, from the early second millennium onwards, at least some people in the Eastern Mediterranean had access to food from distant locations, including South Asia, and such goods were likely consumed as oils, dried fruits, and spices. These insights force us to rethink the complexity and intensity of Indo-Mediterranean trade during the Bronze Age as well as the degree of globalization in early Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.

O uso terapêutico dos alimentos em meados do século XIX / The therapeutic use of food in the mid-19th century

Introdução: No decorrer do século XIX surgiram as primeiras informações a respeito das substâncias químicas contidas nos alimentos. A partir dessas descobertas, a higiene alimentar como meio terapêutico estabeleceu critérios para a prescrição de azote (nitrogênio) e carbone (carbono), bem como recomendações alimentares nos diferentes ciclos de vida e estados de convalescença. Objetivos: Este trabalhou buscou analisar como e para que fins eram prescritos alguns alimentos cuja composição química era caracterizada pela presença do azote (nitrogênio) e carbone (carbono). Método: Foram utilizados como fonte de pesquisa os cadernos de visitas (prontuários) de embarcações encontrados no Arquivo Histórico da Marinha Portuguesa, os tratados médicos do período e publicações referentes à história da ciência e nutrição. Resultados e discussão: Nos cadernos de visitas consultados (anos 1859 e1863), as refeições à base de alimentos de origem animal (ricos em azote), como os caldos de carne e de galinha, foram as mais prescritas aos doentes, pois se pautavam nos princípios da dieta fibrinosa, que promovia a reparação tecidual e crescimento da matéria orgânica. Considerações finais: Ao longo dos dois últimos séculos, muitas teorias a respeito da função dos alimentos se modificaram, mas parte significativa de seus pressupostos foram constituídos no decorrer do século XIX.

Introduction: During the 19th century, emerged the first information about the chemical substances contained in food. From these discoveries, food hygiene as a therapeutic mean established criteria for the prescription of nitrogen (nitrogen) and carbon (carbon), as well as dietary recommendations in the different life cycles and convalescent states. Objectives: This work sought to analyze how and for what purposes some foods whose chemical composition was characterized by the presence of nitrogen (nitrogen) and carbon (carbon)were prescribed . Methodology: The visiting notebooks (medical records) of vessels found in the Historical Archive of the Portuguese Navy, medical treaties of the period and publications referring to the history of science and nutrition were used as a research source. Results and discussion: In the consulted notebooks (years 1859 and 1863), meals based on animal foods (rich in nitrogen), such as meat and chicken broths, were the most prescribed to patients, as they were based on principles of the fibrinous diet, which promoted tissue repair and growth of organic matter. Final considerations: Over the past two centuries, many theories about the function of food have changed, but a significant part of their assumptions were made during the 19th century.

The prehistoric roots of Chinese cuisines: Mapping staple food systems of China, 6000 BC-220 AD.

We conducted a meta-analysis of published carbon and nitrogen isotope data from archaeological human skeletal remains (n = 2448) from 128 sites cross China in order to investigate broad spatial and temporal patterns in the formation of staple cuisines. Between 6000-5000 cal BC we found evidence for an already distinct north versus south divide in the use of main crop staples (namely millet vs. a broad spectrum of C3 plant based diet including rice) that became more pronounced between 5000-2000 cal BC. We infer that this pattern can be understood as a difference in the spectrum of subsistence activities employed in the Loess Plateau and the Yangtze-Huai regions, which can be partly explained by differences in environmental conditions. We argue that regional differentiation in dietary tradition are not driven by differences in the conventional "stages" of shifting modes of subsistence (hunting-foraging-pastoralism-farming), but rather by myriad subsistence choices that combined and discarded modes in a number of innovative ways over thousands of years. The introduction of wheat and barley from southwestern Asia after 2000 cal BC resulted in the development of an additional east to west gradient in the degree of incorporation of the different staple products into human diets. Wheat and barley were rapidly adopted as staple foods in the Continental Interior contra the very gradual pace of adoption of these western crops in the Loess Plateau. While environmental and social factors likely contributed to their slow adoption, we explored local cooking practice as a third explanation; wheat and barley may have been more readily folded into grinding-and-baking cooking traditions than into steaming-and-boiling traditions. Changes in these culinary practices may have begun in the female sector of society.

[Food in contemporary Spain through NO-DO newsreel.] / La alimentación en la España contemporánea a través del No-Do.

The NO-DO, a weekly projection of the Franco regime, created as a diffusion service of obligatory exhibition in Spanish cinemas, constitutes the greatest audiovisual historical background for the contemporary history of Spain in the 20th century. The analysis and study of these newsreels and documentaries illustrate parallel to the political and socioeconomic evolution of that time, how the process of food and nutritional transition took place. The main objective of this work was to analyse and reflect on the image that these newsreels and documentaries offered to the Spanish population on the field of nutrition and the development of the different tendencies in the diet of this period. In order to carry out this study, an extensive list of descriptors specific to the discipline of nutrition and food was drawn up so that it could serve as a tool for searching for references collected both in newsreels and in documentaries, through the web search engine of the NO-DO on-line archive that is included in the Spanish Film Library's collection. Once the search was carried out and the exclusion criteria were applied, according to the subject of the study, there were analysed a total of 169 newsreels and 5 documentaries. The analysis of the results obtained allowed a general review of this era through the process of nutritional transition that the country experienced in these decades (1943-1981).

El NO-DO, programa semanal creado como un servicio de difusión de obligatoria exhibición en los cines españoles durante la dictadura franquista, constituye el mayor fondo histórico audiovisual para la historia contemporánea de España durante el siglo XX. El análisis y el estudio de estos noticiarios y documentales ilustran, de forma paralela a la evolución política y socioeconómica de aquel momento, cómo tuvo lugar el proceso de transición alimentaria y nutricional. El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo principal analizar y reflexionar acerca de la imagen que el NO-DO ofrecía a la población española sobre el ámbito de la nutrición y el desarrollo de las distintas tendencias en la alimentación de esta época. Para la elaboración de este estudio, se elaboró una amplia lista de descriptores propios de la disciplina de la nutrición y la alimentación de modo que sirviera como herramienta para la búsqueda de referencias recogidas tanto en los noticiarios como en los documentales, a través del buscador de la web del archivo online del NO-DO que se incluye en los fondos de la Filmoteca Española. Realizada la búsqueda y aplicados los criterios de exclusión, atendiendo a la temática de estudio, se analizaron un total de 169 noticiarios y 5 documentales. El análisis de los resultados obtenidos permitió una revisión general de esta época a través del proceso de transición nutricional que vivió el país en estas décadas (1943-1981).

New insights on Neolithic food and mobility patterns in Mediterranean coastal populations.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this research are to explore the diet, mobility, social organization, and environmental exploitation patterns of early Mediterranean farmers, particularly the role of marine and plant resources in these foodways. In addition, this work strives to document possible gendered patterns of behavior linked to the neolithization of this ecologically rich area. To achieve this, a set of multiproxy analyses (isotopic analyses, dental calculus, microremains analysis, ancient DNA) were performed on an exceptional deposit (n = 61) of human remains from the Les Bréguières site (France), dating to the transition of the sixth to the fifth millennium BCE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The samples used in this study were excavated from the Les Bréguières site (Mougins, Alpes-Maritimes, France), located along the southeastern Mediterranean coastline of France. Stable isotope analyses (C, N) on bone collagen (17 coxal bones, 35 craniofacial elements) were performed as a means to infer protein intake during tissue development. Sulfur isotope ratios were used as indicators of geographical and environmental points of origin. The study of ancient dental calculus helped document the consumption of plants. Strontium isotope analysis on tooth enamel (n = 56) was conducted to infer human provenance and territorial mobility. Finally, ancient DNA analysis was performed to study maternal versus paternal diversity within this Neolithic group (n = 30). RESULTS: Stable isotope ratios for human bones range from -20.3 to -18.1‰ for C, from 8.9 to 11.1‰ for N and from 6.4 to 15‰ for S. Domestic animal data range from -22.0 to -20.2‰ for C, from 4.1 to 6.9‰ for N, and from 10.2 to 12.5‰ for S. Human enamel 87 Sr/86 Sr range from 0.7081 to 0.7102, slightly wider than the animal range (between 0.7087 and 0.7096). Starch and phytolith microremains were recovered as well as other types of remains (e.g., hairs, diatoms, fungal spores). Starch grains include Triticeae type and phytolith includes dicotyledons and monocot types as panicoid grasses. Mitochondrial DNA characterized eight different maternal lineages: H1, H3, HV (5.26%), J (10.53%), J1, K, T (5.2%), and U5 (10.53%) but no sample yielded reproducible Y chromosome SNPs, preventing paternal lineage characterization. DISCUSSION: Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios indicate a consumption of protein by humans mainly focused on terrestrial animals and possible exploitation of marine resources for one male and one undetermined adult. Sulfur stable isotope ratios allowed distinguishing groups with different geographical origins, including two females possibly more exposed to the sea spray effect. While strontium isotope data do not indicate different origins for the individuals, mitochondrial lineage diversity from petrous bone DNA suggests the burial includes genetically differentiated groups or a group practicing patrilocality. Moreover, the diversity of plant microremains recorded in dental calculus provide the first evidence that the groups of Les Bréguières consumed a wide breadth of plant foods (as cereals and wild taxa) that required access to diverse environments. This transdisciplinary research paves the way for new perspectives and highlights the relevance for novel research of contexts (whether recently discovered or in museum collections) excavated near shorelines, due to the richness of the biodiversity and the wide range of edible resources available.

Accurate compound-specific 14C dating of archaeological pottery vessels.

Pottery is one of the most commonly recovered artefacts from archaeological sites. Despite more than a century of relative dating based on typology and seriation1, accurate dating of pottery using the radiocarbon dating method has proven extremely challenging owing to the limited survival of organic temper and unreliability of visible residues2-4. Here we report a method to directly date archaeological pottery based on accelerator mass spectrometry analysis of 14C in absorbed food residues using palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0) fatty acids purified by preparative gas chromatography5-8. We present accurate compound-specific radiocarbon determinations of lipids extracted from pottery vessels, which were rigorously evaluated by comparison with dendrochronological dates9,10 and inclusion in site and regional chronologies that contained previously determined radiocarbon dates on other materials11-15. Notably, the compound-specific dates from each of the C16:0 and C18:0 fatty acids in pottery vessels provide an internal quality control of the results6 and are entirely compatible with dates for other commonly dated materials. Accurate radiocarbon dating of pottery vessels can reveal: (1) the period of use of pottery; (2) the antiquity of organic residues, including when specific foodstuffs were exploited; (3) the chronology of sites in the absence of traditionally datable materials; and (4) direct verification of pottery typochronologies. Here we used the method to date the exploitation of dairy and carcass products in Neolithic vessels from Britain, Anatolia, central and western Europe, and Saharan Africa.

Food, nerves, and fertility. Variations on the moral economy of the body, 1700-1920.

In the literature investigating the long history of appeals to 'nature', in its multiple meanings, for rules of conduct or justification of social order, little attention has been paid to a long-standing tradition in which medical and physiological arguments merged into moral and social ones. A host of medical authors, biologists, social writers and philosophers assumed that nature spoke its moral language not only in its general economy, but also within and through the body. This is why, for instance, many critics of Malthus argued that physiological self-regulating mechanisms ensured a spontaneous adaptation of fertility to the circumstances. Beliefs in a beneficent economy of nature persisted when Providence was replaced by evolution. To some, they provided reasons for hope even when others worried about 'unfit' members of society increasing at a quicker rate than 'fit' ones. The nerves gradually replaced food and blood as moral mediators between society and the body. When faith in bio-social progress was shaken by degeneration theories, and fin de siècle anxiety concerned underpopulation rather than overpopulation, not an insignificant proportion of those who emphasised the bad effects of modern (hyper)civilisation resorted to ideas and arguments based on a view of the body in which physiology and morality worked together. A common language and common assumptions linked the Kulturpessimisten to their optimistic eighteenth-century colleagues, in spite of their different forecasts. The present paper traces continuities and discontinuities in the operation of a persistent set of interrelated ideas and assumptions on the coalescence of the physiological and the moral across disciplines and contexts.

¿Qué entendemos por inseguridad alimentaria?: la impactante situación en Argentina / What do we understand by food insecurity?: the shocking situation in Argentina

En esta editorial se analiza el concepto de seguridad alimentaria y se desarrollan tres de sus dimensiones (disponibilidad,acceso y utilización). Se destaca que la dimensión de disponibilidad (producción) está en una curva creciente, al tiempo que se plantea la duda sobre el impacto en la salud por los sistemas de producción actual. Esclarece acerca de la situación de inseguridad alimentaria creciente en las dimensiones de acceso (vinculadas fuertemente a las condiciones socioeconómicas) y de utilización (indicadores de epidemia de sobrepeso y obesidad). Por último, aporta información relevada para Argentina y la contradicción de que su población atraviese situaciones de falta de acceso, siendo este país uno de los mayores productores de alimentos a nivel mundial.(AU)

In this editorial, the concept of food safety is analyzed and three of its dimensions (availability, access and use) are considered. It is emphasized that the dimension of availability (production) has an increasing curve, while raising questions about the impact on health by current production systems. It clarifies the situation of increasing food insecurity in the dimensions of access (strongly linked to socio-economic conditions), and utilization (epidemic indicators of overweightand obesity). Finally, it provides relevant information from Argentina and the contradiction of its population attracted by situations of lack of access, being one of the largest food producers countries worldwide. (AU)

Middle Stone Age foragers resided in high elevations of the glaciated Bale Mountains, Ethiopia.

Studies of early human settlement in alpine environments provide insights into human physiological, genetic, and cultural adaptation potentials. Although Late and even Middle Pleistocene human presence has been recently documented on the Tibetan Plateau, little is known regarding the nature and context of early persistent human settlement in high elevations. Here, we report the earliest evidence of a prehistoric high-altitude residential site. Located in Africa's largest alpine ecosystem, the repeated occupation of Fincha Habera rock shelter is dated to 47 to 31 thousand years ago. The available resources in cold and glaciated environments included the exploitation of an endemic rodent as a key food source, and this played a pivotal role in facilitating the occupation of this site by Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

Infrastructures of taste: Rethinking local food histories in Lithuania.

Lithuania hosts a diversity of places that offer consumers a taste of local food, which appear to mirror the recent popularity of local and alternative food initiatives globally. In this paper we show that the proliferation of local foods in the region is not a novel phenomenon, nor is it solely a manifestation of taste preferences or identities associated with food. Drawing on the growing scholarly work on the role of infrastructures in mediating social, economic and political relations, we conceptualize the taste for local food as embedded in broader networks and reproduced through material facilities. To advance this argument, our empirical analysis shows how the infrastructure for local food has been fostered, transformed, threatened, but never eradicated during: the Soviet policies that supported subsidiary agriculture and market infrastructures; neoliberal market reforms in the 1990s that made public markets into mainstays for farmers and consumers; and EU accession that brought more stringent regulations and subsidies. Our research demonstrates that today's taste for local foods in Lithuania is neither a local nor global phenomenon, but an outcome of historical processes that foregrounded the formation of smallholder agriculture, direct sales, and self-provisioning practices in the region. More broadly, our research shows how local food persists as an integral part of a broader agro-food infrastructure.

O modelo industrial de produção de alimentos sob a perspectiva da sociedade de risco e do princípio da precaução / Food production industrial model under the perspective of risk society and precautionary principle / El modelo industrial de producción de alimentos bajo la perspectiva de la sociedad de riesgo y el principio de la precaución

Objetivo: Este artigo analisa as relações entre o modelo de produção industrial de alimentos e a existência, na atualidade, de um grande número de pessoas famintas. Metodologia: Foi usado o método dedutivo, amparado em revisão bibliográfica. Resultados: O modelo de agricultura consistente na utilização de enormes áreas de terra para a plantação de poucos produtos, em sua maioria direcionada ao mercado externo, traz consigo a lógica industrial; é agressivo à natureza e altamente dependente da técnica e da ciência. Este modelo não demonstrou melhorias no sentido de aplacar a fome mundial, uma vez que não produz alimentos, mas sim commodities, de modo que é impositivo verificar se é adequado à sociedade de risco e ao princípio da precaução. A sociedade de risco implica reconhecer a existência de uma série de riscos, que devem ser considerados nas decisões políticas e jurídicas, de modo que o Poder Público aja previamente à ocorrência dos possíveis perigos. Do mesmo modo atua o princípio da precaução, segundo o qual a dúvida sempre vem em benefício do meio ambiente. Conclusão: O uso da natureza não deve conduzir ao esgotamento dos recursos, a situações de risco à segurança alimentar ou à distribuição desigual de alimentos, mas sim à adoção de modelos de produção que coexistam com os ecossistemas e cuja finalidade seja, efetivamente, prover alimentos aos seres vivos.

Objective: This paper analyses the relations beween the industrial food production model and the existence of a great number of undernourished people nowadays. Methodology: It was used the deductive method, based on a bibliographical review. Results: The model of agriculture consisting in the use of enormous areas of land for the plantation of a few products, mostly for the outland market, was stablished. The model adopted carries the industrial logic; it is aggressive to nature and highly dependent of technique and science. This model showed no improvement to appease world famine, since it produces not food, but commodities, therefore, it is necessary to verify if it is appropriate to the risk society and to the precautionary principle. Risk society implies acknowledging the existence of many risks, which should be considered in political and judicial decisions, so that the governments act previously to the occurrence of possible damages. On the same basis, acts the precautionary principle, according to which the doubt always benefits the environment. Conclusion: The use of nature should not lead to the exhaustion of resources, risk situations to food security or unequal distribution of food, but to the adoption of production models which coexist with the environment and whose aim is indeed provide food for the living beings.

Objetivo: Este artículo analisa las relaciones entre el modelo de producción industrial de alimentos y la existencia, en la actualidad, de un gran numero de personas hambrientas. Metodología: Fué usado el método deductivo, amparado sobre una revisión bibliográfica. Resultados: El modelo de agricultura consistente en la utilización de largas áreas de tierra para la plantación de pocos productos, la mayoria destinada al mercado externo lleva la lógica industrial, es agresivo a la naturaleza y altamente dependiente de la tecnica y de la ciencia. Ese modelo no ha demostrado mejorías para calmar el hambre mundial, pues no produce alimentos, sino commodities, de modo que es necesario verificar si es adecuado a la sociedad de riesgo y al principio de la precaución. La sociedad de riesgo supone reconocer la existencia de una serie de riesgos, que deben ser considerados en las decisiones políticas y jurídicas, de modo que el Poder Público actúe previamente a la ocurrencia de posibles peligros. De la misma manera, actua el principio de la precaución, según el qual la duda siempre beneficia al medio ambiente. Conclusión: El uso de la naturaleza no debe conducir al agotamiento de los recursos, a situaciones de riesgo a la seguridad alimentar o a la distribución desigual de alimentos, sino a la adopción de modelos de producción que coexistan con los ecosistemas y cuya finalidad sea, efectivamente, suministrar alimentos a los seres vivos.

Urban and nomadic isotopic niches reveal dietary connectivities along Central Asia's Silk Roads.

The ancient 'Silk Roads' formed a vast network of trade and exchange that facilitated the movement of commodities and agricultural products across medieval Central Asia via settled urban communities and mobile pastoralists. Considering food consumption patterns as an expression of socio-economic interaction, we analyse human remains for carbon and nitrogen isotopes in order to establish dietary intake, then model isotopic niches to characterize dietary diversity and infer connectivity among communities of urbanites and nomadic pastoralists. The combination of low isotopic variation visible within urban groups with isotopic distinction between urban communities irrespective of local environmental conditions strongly suggests localized food production systems provided primary subsistence rather than agricultural goods exchanged along trade routes. Nomadic communities, in contrast, experienced higher dietary diversity reflecting engagements with a wide assortment of foodstuffs typical for mobile communities. These data indicate tightly bound social connectivity in urban centres pointedly funnelled local food products and homogenized dietary intake within settled communities, whereas open and opportunistic systems of food production and circulation were possible through more mobile lifeways.