A 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
Jessica Barnes is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and the School of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of South Carolina. She is author of Cultivating the Nile: The Everyday Politics of Water in Egypt, also published by Duke University Press, and coeditor of Climate Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives on Climate Change.
"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."
*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."
*American Anthropologist*
"A timely contribution to critical food studies, bringing global
attention to the vulnerabilities within grain supply chains and
their impact on ordinary people’s lives. . . . The evocative
writing, along with numerous images, maps, and wonderful full-page
photographs between each chapter, transport the reader to the
worlds of bread and wheat in Egypt."
*AAG Review of Books*
"Staple Security is a masterpiece of rich ethnographic detail
and collaborative research about the cornerstone of the Egyptian
diet: bread and wheat. . . . A major strength of this book is
methodological: It provides a blueprint of how to study the human
experience of a staple, from its cultivation to consumption."
*AAG Review of Books*
"A concise, focused, and illuminating book. Staple Security makes a
valuable contribution to the existing literature on food security
by exploring the ways in which people actually understand their own
sense of security vis-à-vis food, and how they then go about
achieving and safeguarding that security. For these reasons, it is
necessary reading for all those concerned with issues of food
production, policy, and procurement, not just in Egypt or the
Middle East, but in the Global South more broadly."
*AAG Review of Books*
“Barnes deftly weaves together interviews and ethnographic
observations with statistics and newspaper headlines to build her
case throughout the book . . . An ambitious accounting of complex
processes for ensuring security at multiple scales, from the
household to the nation.”
*Medical Anthropology Quarterly*
"Excellent. . . . Jessica Barnes . . . [has] given us a lot to chew
on."
*Middle East Journal*
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