What can we learn from a return to the classics? Part 1

So, in my infinite wisdom, not satisfied with interrogating complexity through a complex systems theory lens- or critiquing modelling- I have decided that we need to return to an analysis of the ancients. Yes, in this blog I return to the mythical plains of Ancient Rome and Greece for a discussion of the cyclical nature of food crises, the social and cultural aspects that we often forget to include in our macro-analyses of food and the power-dynamics surrounding food.

The story of a stable and secure food supply for all is only a very recent phenomenon: and only a phenomenon for those lucky enough to live in the developed world- the majority of us who are now completely disjoined from the source of much of the food that we eat. However, food crises are not a thing of the past- far too many people are still classified as hungry (925 million people according to the WFP in Sept 2010), 98% of whom live in developing countries. In Ancient Greece and Rome, there was a regularity and inevitability of crises of food shortage and hunger, which is reflected not only in the importance given to food through religious ceremonies, sacrifice etc but through the laws and institutional arrangements to safeguard the supply and distribution of food as well as by its lavish consumption by the elites who has access to it (Garnsey, 1999: 2). The food system was fragile and people were vulnerable to hunger- much the same as today in vast areas of the world. Much of the discussion about today's food system is that it is unprecedented- that is true in terms of scale and global connectivity. However, I argue that the processes underlying the current food system are the same as those that underlay the food system around the Mediterranean, especially under the Roman Republic:

1- agricultural supply subject to environmental variability
2- an urban population that needs to be fed from rural farms
3- a food processing and distribution system controlled by the private sector
4- rich elites who can afford to buy food from exotic locations as a symbol of status and wealth
5- these elites often over-indulging to the point of obesity
6- the state still very much in control of what and how food is traded and distributed: regulation because they know that democracy and a hungry populace will hold them to account
7- a process whereby food can be redistributed to the needy outside of conventional trade: before this was done by euergetism (generosity for the benefit of the civic community by the elite acting as individuals) and now this is done through the process of food aid (WFP, USAID etc...)

However, contrary to our current food system, there was a much finer recognition of the importance that food played in their lives- as well as its volatility- and so there was a much greater focus on storage and reserves and on how to get food from where it could best be grown (North Africa in particular) to the great urban centre that was Rome.

What can we learn from backcasting our glance to look at the cycles that food has undergone over the millennia? What led to the failure of these food systems and, similarly, what made them resilient to shocks? Did private enterprise succeed in redistribution where public institutions failed or euergetism as too small a scale to be a great socio-economic leveller? (Garnsey, 1999: 6) and if this is the case, what would a modern equivalent be?

Although these processes defined a much smaller and arguably less complex food system than the global one we currently inhabit, they nevertheless hold true... see Part II for the next discussion

L
xxx