Tritico nihil est fertilius: «Nothing is more prolific...

Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetHavre og mykotoksin 1

Tritico nihil est fertilius: «Nothing is

more prolific than wheat».

The cultural and cultivation history

of wheatIWGS 13, BOKU, Tulln

Åsmund Bjørnstad, Norwegian University of Life Sciences

April 24 2017

Take home messages

• Wheat is as deeply imbedded in the «wheat sphere» as

rice in Asia and maize in America

• The availability for all in the 20th century has affected its

elevated image

• But potentially a powerful force if invoked, cf. the Arab

Spring Eish!

• The current vogues of ancient grains, artisan bread or

gluten confirm the central image of wheat

• Combine the rich molecular biology with traditions to tell

stories of wheat to teach real human history

• Do it in text books, on bags of flour, pasta or bread… Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 2

«Nothing is more prolific than

wheat» Pliny the elder (23-79 AD), Naturalis

Historia

• Points to yield potential of

«winter wheat»:

• But demanding: No grain

… absorbs a greater

quantity of nutriment

• “the substance which

Nature destined for the

principal nutriment of man”

• To be discussed critically:

• Latin discutio, Greek

κρίσις, krisis: threshing of

grains

Pliny the elder (23-79 AD)

Naturalis Historia Book 18,

ch. 21Tittel på presentasjon 3

But emmer was more prolific under

common conditions:

• Pliny: “The most hardy kind, in the very coldest places, in

soils but half tilled or extremely hot, and destitute of

water”

• The three-month wheat (Triticum trimestre): matured in

90 days

• Isaiah 28,25: Sow wheat first, then barley, and emmer on

the margins

• Emmer means starch corn: Amelkorn, amidonier from

amylum =non-milled, amylose

Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 4

And emmer (far) essential for

Roman identity and rituals

• The sacred confarreation:

• Conferred by eating the

“cake of marriage”

• Also called ador, cf.

adoration, adorable

• To Pliny far embodied

Rome’s past of modesty

and morality


Still Pliny praised «winter

wheat» for its quality

• “The very choicest, white, destitute of all flavor, not

oppressive to the stomach.

• furnishes bread of the very finest quality and the most

esteemed delicacies of the bakers”

• Naked – white – sifted – fresh

• All of which increase the price of the already scarce grain


How does wheat mark class, ethnic

identity and symbols in history?

• As subsistence in stratified Fertile Crescent societies

• As the first globally traded grain in Greece and Rome

• As food for all in the 20th century


A very brief biological history

of wheat

• The hulled wheats:

einkorn, emmer: Before

8000 BC

• The free-threshing

tetraploid wheats: Ca 7500

• The free-threshing

hexaploid wheats: Ca

7000

• The free-threshing mixed

both 4X and 6X

• The added adaptability

and quality of 6x Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 8

(Emmer map, Zaharieva et al 2010)

The names of wheat tell

history

• The white grain – compared to barley and rye : Old-

German weizzi (white), wheat/white,; Estonian nisu, milk

• The most common grain: frumentum , French

blé/froment, Germanic korn/corn, Italian grano/granum

• The ground grain, crushed, flour: Latin Triticum, Slavic

пшеница (psenica), Germanic meal

• The bread grain: Arab khubz (bread), Semitic kbd, “the

heavier of the grains”


What makes wheat white?

• By chemical absorption

(lack of yellow pigments,

PPO oxidation)

• By physical dispersion

(like bread crumb, paper,

snow)

• By social prestige and

price

• By moral or ritual purity

• By additives: Chalk the

most ancient of whiteners

Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 10Noodle colours, from Dr. X. He,

CAAS, now CIMMYT

Whiteness and a demanding crop made wheat

prices high

• Mesopotamian currencies:

• 1 shekel = 180 grains of wheat = 8.3 g silver = 0.6 g gold

• Still in our speech: a grain of gold, gold standard

• The Law of Moses: the sacrifice «shall be of fine flour» of

wheat

• Sifted 11–13 times – the finest flour in Antiquity!

• Egypt: emmer the staple bread - mostly for the elite


Wheat in Middle East

religions

• Jewish and moslem traditions interpret the Tree of

knowledge in Eden as wheat

• Hafez (Persia, 1321-1389): If Adam sold the garden of

Eden for two grains of wheat, why cannot I sell the

garden of this world for one grain of barley?

• Generally, wheat has twice the value of barley

• West Asia remains the primordial wheat culture and

consumption


Wheat and Greece

• The Greek elite ate wheat, barley for the populace

• (Or the Spartans, Troy a late stronghold of einkorn)

• But Greece needed to trade wheat, from the Black Sea to

Egypt and Spain!

• Socrates: No man is fit as a statesman who does not

understand the issue of wheat

• Even more when they adopted baking from Egypt ca 500

BC


The Roman Empire was built

on wheat

• Baking and baker slaves

taken to Rome ca 178 BC

• Roman politics centered

on stable grain supplies;

• During Augustus: 320 000

citizens entitled to 5 kg of

wheat per day

• Bread and circus: freely

distributed during the

games

• Hordearii: gladiators were

fortified on barley Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 14

The tomb of Eurysaces: the

knighted ex-slave baker

The immense dimensions of

the Roman wheat supplies

• Half a million tons per year for doles only

• In winter on all roads leading to Rome

• Overseas grains to Ostia, then onto barges hauled

upstream for 16 km

• Took 4 weeks to reach the Aventino

• The biggest grain store, the EMPORIUM, was 4 times

larger than the Colosseum!


Wheat and health: an ancient

discussion

• Pythagoras, Plato and Hippocrates favoured barley bread

(cyphes)

• But Aristotle the wheat bread amylois (a white starch-

based bread?)

• Julius Caesar always had white fresh bread from his

personal baker

• Augustus “preferred black bread to honey cakes”.


The Roman Empire followed the

European winter wheat borders (and

North-Africa to the Levant)


Wheat vs rye marked national

and class identity in Europe

• Wheat and rye marked national borders, sharpened in

times of war

• French prisoners in Germany had to eat the dark rye

soldier’s bread Komissbrot: Quel sale pain! (What dirty

bread)

• Wheat and rye also marked class borders

• In Paris or London even beggars did not accept rye

• But wheat bread was often poor

• Proverb: Moitiè mie, moitiè son (half crumb, half bran):

«not so good»

• In rye lands the new-weds had a few days of wheat bread

(Semmelwoche) after the wedding

• North European proverb: To sell like hot wheat bread

Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitet 18

Christian identity was always

rooted in wheat

• John 12:24: «I am the grain of wheat» - not barley

• Thomas Aquinas «only the finest white flour of wheat»

acceptable in church Eucharists

• Universal, no matter what grain is the daily staple (like

rye in Russia, tef in Ethiopia)


Wheat, maize and European identity

in the New World (Figueroa 2010)

• A continent without wheat or grapes: was it inhabitable?

• Indian corn was nourishing, but unthinkable in church

• 1523: Successful crop in Coyacan (Mexico City)

• But wheat brought trials and failures for centuries

• “A hostile environment for both wheat and Christianity”

(Acosta, 1590)


«From a single seed» (Symko 1999):

Wheat became food for all

• Red Fife,1842

• Turkey from the 1870s

• Wheat in N-America: a

historical lesson in plant

adaptation

• The hard wheat + roller

mill + steam trains & ships

made wheat for all

• Also from Russia, Ukraine,

Australia

• Breeders in Europe had to

match the hard wheatsNoregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 21

(Olmstead & Rhode 2011)

The 20th century: «White bread» means

«US middle class» (Bobrow-Strain , 2013)

• 1900-1930: White bread advocated as hygiene, science

• Dark meant unhygienic, touched by dark-skinned dirty

sweaty bakers

• “Not merely white bread, but the whitest of the white”

• “Food faddists” opposed refined and bleached flour:

“only undenatured wheat… is a true nerve, blood and

bone food.”

• 1930’s: The ready-sliced wrapped Wonder bread

prevailed

• 1940: >50% of conscripts had vitamin deficiencies

• Enriched white bread embodied national fortitude in

wartime Noregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 22

From white bread to white trash

• A symbol of American affluence after WWII

• In the Cold War: superior to the dark Russian bread

• The 1960s-70s: a hippie home baked tasty bread revolt

• “Eaters of Wonder bread/ must be underbred/ so little to

eat/ where’s the wheat?”

• A cheap, tasteless bread for the white trash

• Wholegrain artisan ancient grain bread for the new

aristocracy

• The image of wheat inverted!


From the sacred wheat bread

of Rembrandt and Chagall


To the desecrated baguettes

of Helion and Dali


Or «Wheatfield- a contradiction»Agnes Denes’ 2 acres of wheat on the landfill facing the Twin

Towers in Manhattan in 1982


Conclusions

• Wheat is as deeply imbedded in the «wheat sphere» as

rice in Asia and maize in America

• Potentially a powerful image once invoked: The Arab

Spring Eish!

• Wheat price is not an issue of the past

• Price control of bread was lifted in France in 1987, in Italy

in 2006

• The current vogues of ancient grains, artisan bread or

gluten confirm the image of wheat

• Use the rich biology and traditions of wheat to tell stories

of wheat to teach basic human historyNoregs miljø- og biovitskaplege universitetTittel på presentasjon 27

Further reading

• «Wheat – its role in Social and Cultural life», World

Wheat Book III, Bonjean et al 2016

• Our Daily Bread. Vidarforlaget Oslo 2012

https://bokeksperten.no/boker/andre-

emner/kulturhistorie/kulturhistorie/our-daily-bread

• New edition to be published by Springer in 2018

• Aaron Bobrow-Strain White Bread: A History of the Store-

bought Loaf. Beacon Press 2013


https://bokeksperten.no/boker/andre-emner/kulturhistorie/kulturhistorie/our-daily-bread

Tritico nihil est fertilius: «Nothing is more prolific...

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