by Matt Siegel
55. consumes about three pounds: Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, 24.
56. the layer of food-grade wax: Sarah Zhang, “What Life Is Like When Corn Is off the Table,” The Atlantic, January 18, 2019, www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/what-its-like-be-allergic-corn/580594.
57. used to make them ripen quicker: Ibid.
58. corn-based dextrose: Ibid.
59. the coating that protected it: Martin Elkort, The Secret Life of Food: A Feast of Food and Drink History, Folklore, and Fact (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1991), 146.
60. a slew of corn-based binders: Title 9, Animals and Animal Products, Chapter III, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Department of Agriculture, Subchapter E, Regulatory Requirements Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act, Part 424, Preparation and Processing Operations, Subpart C, Food Ingredients and Sources of Radiation.
61. when Taco Bell admitted: Eliza Barclay, “With Lawsuit Over, Taco Bell’s Mystery Meat Is a Mystery No Longer,” National Public Radio, April 19, 2011, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2011/04/22/135539926/with-lawsuit-over-taco-bells-mystery-meat-is-a-mystery-no-longer.
62. consumers filed a lawsuit: Michael Duvall and Bety Javidzad, “‘Grass-Fed’ Case Dismissed: Reasonable Consumers Would Not Expect Cows to Be Fed ‘Only’ Grass,” JDSUPRA, April 2, 2019, www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/grass-fed-case-dismissed-reasonable-76511.
63. only around 10 percent: Elkort, The Secret Life of Food, 147.
64. it’s also an industrial ingredient: “A Tale of Two Corns.”
65. in the paper: Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, 23–24.
66. another few billion bushels: Barton and Clark, “Water & Climate Risks Facing U.S. Corn Production,” 19.
67. roughly a third: Ibid.
68. The Energy Independence and Security Act: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Alternative Fuels Data Center, US Department of Energy, December 19, 2007, https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/eisa.
69. Ethanol accounts for: “U.S. Bioenergy Statistics,” US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/us-bioenergy-statistics/us-bioenergy-statistics.
70. about 98 percent: “Monthly Grain Use for Ethanol Production,” Renewable Fuels Association, https://ethanolrfa.org/statistics/feedstock-use-co-product-output.
71. approximately 10 percent: “How Much Ethanol Is in Gasoline, and How Does It Affect Fuel Economy?,” US Energy Information Administration, May 14, 2019.
72. 1.1 billion metric tons: “World Agricultural Production (Table 04: Corn Area, Yield, and Production),” US Department of Agriculture, February 2019, 18.
73. a primary food source: Serna-Saldivar, Corn, 436.
74. 20 billion feed animals: “Global Livestock Counts: Counting Chickens,” The Economist, July 27, 2011, www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2011/07/27/counting-chickens.
75. more than $2.5 billion: “Ranked Sectors: Agribusiness,” Open Secrets, www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/ranked-sectors.
76. $5 billion in corn subsidies: “Corn Subsidies in the United States,” Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database, https://farm.ewg.org.
77. publicly emptying cans: “New Coke,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/New-Coke.
78. more than forty thousand complaints: David Treadwell, “New Formula Woes: Coke Furor May Be ‘the Real Thing,’” Los Angeles Times, June 27, 1985.
79. Society for the Preservation of the Real Thing: “The Story of One of the Most Memorable Marketing Blunders Ever,” Coca-Cola Company, www.coca-colacompany.com/news/the-story-of-one-of-the-most-memorable-marketing-blunders-ever.
80. up to 4,200 calls a day: Russel Sackett, “Thirsting for Days When the Fizz Was Familiar, Gay Mullins Crusades to Can the New Coke,” People, June 24, 1985, https://people.com/archive/thirsting-for-days-when-the-fizz-was-familiar-gay-mullins-crusades-to-can-the-new-coke-vol-23-no-25.
81. back to its original formula: James B. Cobb, “What We Can Learn from Coca-Cola’s Biggest Blunder,” Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2015, https://time.com/3950205/new-coke-history-america.
82. interrupted General Hospital: “Was the ‘New Coke’ Fiasco Just a Clever Marketing Ploy?,” Snopes, May 2, 1999, www.snopes.com/fact-check/new-coke-fiasco.
83. “decision of historical significance”: Jube Shiver, Jr., “‘Classic’ to Be Sold Along with Widely Resisted New Formula: Coca-Cola to Bring Back ‘the Real Thing,’” Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1985.
84. the company had been: Pamela G. Hollie, “Advertising; Coke Held Not to Be Real Thing,” New York Times, August 15, 1985, www.nytimes.com/1985/08/15/business/advertising-coke-held-not-to-be-real-thing.html.
85. it’s deficient: Albala, Food, 293–94.
86. the human body can make: Tsutomu Fukuwatari and Katsumi Shibata, “Nutritional Aspect of Tryptophan Metabolism,” International Journal of Tryptophan Research 6 (suppl. 1) (2013): 3–8.
87. neither corn, beans, nor squash: Jane Mt. Pleasant, “Food Yields and Nutrient Analyses of the Three Sisters: A Haudenosaunee Cropping System,” Ethnobiology Letters 7, no. 1 (2016): 87–98.
88. nixtamalization: Simon Quellen Field, Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2012), 192.
89. from the Aztec nextli: Cynthia Clampitt, Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2015), 7.
90. made corn kernels: Smith, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, vol. 1, 341–44.
91. released pectin: Paul Adams, “Transforming Corn,” Cook’s Illustrated, August 14, 2016, www.cooksillustrated.com/science/789-articles/feature/transforming-corn.
92. gave corn an earthier flavor: Ibid.
93. including much of: Kiple and Ornelas, The Cambridge World History of Food, vol. 1, 108.
94. so named in 1771: Trager, The Food Chronology, 160.
95. condition also causes: R.P.P.W.M. Maas and P.J.G.M. Voets, “The Vampire in Medical Perspective: Myth or Malady?,” QJM: An International Journal of Medicine 107, no. 11 (2014): 945–46.
96. within a year of each other: Jeffrey S. Hampl and William S. Hampl III, “Pellagra and the Origin of a Myth: Evidence from European Literature and Folklore,” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 90, no. 11 (1997): 636–39.
97. “Just as vampires”: Ibid.
98. known as Casal’s necklace: D. Segula et al., “Case Report—A Forgotten Dermatological Disease,” Malawi Medical Journal 24, no. 1 (2012): 19–20.
99. the general vicinity of Transylvania: Katharina M. Wilson, “The History of the Word ‘Vampire,’” Journal of the History of Ideas 46, no. 4 (1985): 577–83.
100. researchers also discovered: Mathilde L. Tissier et al., “Diets Derived from Maize Monoculture Cause Maternal Infanticides in the Endangered European Hamster Due to a Vitamin B3 Deficiency,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284, no. 1847 (2017): 20162168.
101. developed black tongues: Jason Daley, “Diet Deficiency Can Lead to Cannibal Hamsters,” Smithsonian, February 2, 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/corn-diet-turns-french-hamsters-cannibals-180961987.
102. it took scientists: Brian A. Larkins, ed., Maize Kernel Development (Oxfordshire: CABI, 2017), viii.
103. Joseph Goldberger: Daniel Akst, “The Forgotten Plague,” American Heritage 51, no. 8 (2000), www.americanheritage.com/forgotten-plague.
104. sewage systems: Giulio Alessandrini and Alberto Sala, Pellagra, translated by E. M. Perdue (Kansas City: Burton, 1916), 318.
105. attempted to treat it: Akst, “The Forgotten Plague.”
106. Goldberger had injected himself: Ibid.
107. “Meanwhile—a slow”: Real Life Comics, Nedor Publishing Company, no. 12, July 1943.
Chapter 5: Honey Laundering
1. “Instead of dirt”: “Jonathan Swift,” Oxford Essential Quotations, 6th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).
2. “Haceos miel”: “W. Gurney Benham,” Cassell’s Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words (London: Cassell, 1914), 738.
3. “He that would eat”: Jennifer Speake, ed., Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 6th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 89.
4. “The honey is sweet”: Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack (Waterloo: U.S.C. Publishing, 1914), 48.
5. exorcise evil spirits: Hilda M. Ransome, The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore (New York: Dover, 2004), 36.
6. poured it onto walls: Bodog F. Beck, Honey and Health (New York: McBride, 1938), 201.
7. early Christians used it: Bee Wilson, The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us (New York: Macmillan, 2014), Apple Books ed.
8. medieval Jews smeared it: Ivan G. Marcus, Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996).
9. Chinese placed it: Beck, Honey and Health, 228.
10. in traditional Hindi weddings: Ibid., 224–25.
11. Hitler gave honey: Judith Sumner, Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2019), 127.
12. in ancient Germany: Beck, Honey and Health, 223.
13. honey can crystallize: “Honey Crystallization,” Honey Hotline Fact Sheet, National Honey Board Food Technology, Product Research Program; “Composition of American Honeys,” Technical Bulletin no. 1261, US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, April 1962, 3, 11.
14. “is no sooner full”: Ernest Weekley, Words Ancient and Modern (London: John Murray, 1965), 53.
15. “Honie-moone”: Ibid.
16. “Hony-moon”: Ibid.
17. Il mele catta: “Honey,” OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88159.
18. the practice goes back: Maggy Saldais, Tony Taylor, and Carmel Young, Oxford Big Ideas History 7 Australian Curriculum (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2011), 128.
19. science of attracting: Personal interview with Sean O’Donnell, October 7, 2019.
20. Goldilocks concentrations: Hany K. M. Dweck et al., “The Olfactory Logic Behind Fruit Odor Preferences in Larval and Adult Drosophila,” Cell Reports 23, no. 8 (2018): 2524–31.
21. possibly on the season: Rik Clymans et al., “Olfactory Preference of Drosophila suzukii Shifts Between Fruit and Fermentation Cues over the Season: Effects of Physiological Status,” Insects 10, no. 7 (2019): 200.
22. the thirst and stress levels: Wolf Huetteroth and Scott Waddell, “Hungry Flies Tune to Vinegar,” Cell 145, no. 1 (2011): 17–18.
23. you’re probably best served: A. W. Morrill, “Experiments with House-Fly Baits and Poisons,” Journal of Economic Entomology 7, no. 3 (1914): 268–74.
24. erythritol: Brooks Hays, “Popular Artificial Sweetener Also Works as Pesticide and Insect Birth Control,” UPI, May 23, 2017.
25. beer outperformed: Morrill, “Experiments with House-Fly Baits and Poisons.”
26. “the crack cocaine”: Quoted in Erika Engelhaupt, “Flies Could Falsely Place Someone at a Crime Scene,” National Geographic, February 22, 2016, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2016/02/22/flies-could-falsely-place-someone-at-a-crime-scene.
27. “white man’s flies”: Gilbert Waldbauer, Fireflies, Honey, and Silk (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 140.
28. indigenous cultures were cutting: Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (New York: Scribner, 2004), 668.
29. people in the Middle East: Alan Davidson and Tom Jaine, The Oxford Companion to Food, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 787.
30. Romans were boiling: Darra Goldstein, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 397.
31. today’s legal limit: “Bottled Water Everywhere: Keeping It Safe,” US Food and Drug Administration, April 1, 2019, www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/bottled-water-everywhere-keeping-it-safe.
32. lead intoxication: Milton A. Lessler, “Lead and Lead Poisoning from Antiquity to Modern Times,” The Ohio Journal of Science 88, no. 3 (1988): 78–84; “Lead Toxicity: What Are Possible Health Effects from Lead Exposure?,” Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, June 12, 2017.
33. Salem witch trials: Linnda R. Caporael, “Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?,” Science 192, no. 4234 (1976): 21–26.
34. precursor of LSD: Dieter Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller, “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out—and Accidentally Discover LSD,” Scientific American, May 17, 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/lsd-finds-its-discoverer.
35. “Honey was so extraordinary”: Wilson, The Hive.
36. “honey falls from the air”: Aristotle, Aristotle’s History of Animals in Ten Books, translated by Richard Cresswell (London: George Bell and Sons, 1887), 129.
37. “mostly at the rising”: Quoted in Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Honey-Bee (New York: Dutton, 1911), 9.
38. enslaved insects: Christopher Lloyd, What on Earth Evolved? . . . In Brief: 100 Species That Have Changed the World (London: Bloomsbury, 2011).
39. bees merely transferred: Dovid Heber, “Do Bee Don’t Bee: A Halachic Guide to Honey and Bee Derivatives,” STAR-K Kosher Certification, Fall 2010, http://www.star-k.org/articles/kashrus-kurrents/624/do-bee-dont-bee.
40. scholars decided these: “Keeping Kosher: When Jewish Law Met Processed Food,” Gastropod, July 25, 2016, https://gastropod.com/keeping-kosher-jewish-law-met-processed-food-transcript.
41. More than half: Martin Elkort, The Secret Life of Food: A Feast of Food and Drink History, Folklore, and Fact (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1991), 197.
42. the FDA approved: “K053095-Derma Sciences API-MED Active Manuka Honey Absorbent Dressing,” US Food and Drug Administration, July 12, 2007.
43. there’s further evidence: James Austin Stewart, Owen Lane McGrane, and Ian S. Wedmore, “Wound Care in the Wilderness: Is There Evidence for Honey?,” Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 25, no. 1 (2014): 103–10.
44. A 2004 study: Ibid.
45. outperforms leading cough medicines: Ibid.
46. kills antibiotic-resistant bacteria: Paulus H. S. Kwakman et al., “Medical-Grade Honey Kills Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria In Vitro and Eradicates Skin Colonization,” Clinical Infectious Diseases 46, no. 11 (2008): 1677–82.
47. honey is naturally acidic: Natasha Geiling, “The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life,” Smithsonian, August 22, 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690.
48. This is why: Mickey Parish, “How Do Salt and Sugar Prevent Microbial Spoilage?,” Scientific American, February 21, 2006, www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-salt-and-sugar-pre.
49. Honey also contains: Geiling, “The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life.”
50. primarily as a medical-grade: Cyril P. Bryan, trans., Ancient Egyptian Medicine: The Papyrus Ebers (Chicago: Ares, 1930), 23, 32, 73, 155.
51. penis water: Ibid., 18.
52. treating burns with crushed cake: Bryan, Ancient Egyptian Medicine, 33, 69, 102, 112.
53. no one else: Lucy M. Long, Honey: A Global History (London: Reaktion, 2017), 105–06.
54. Botulism spores thrive: “Botulism,” World Health Organization, January 10, 2018, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/botulism.
55. There’s an old story: Wilson, The Hive.
56. used honey as embalming fluid: Ibid.
57. Bronze Age burial sites: Paul Salopek, “Honey, I’m Dead,” National Geographic, May 13, 2015, www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/articles/2015-05-honey-im-dead.
58. leaking out of coffins: Eva Crane, The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting (New York: Routledge, 1999), 510.
59. but also into gall: Walter K. Kelly, trans., The Poems of Catullus and Tibullus, and The Vigil of Venus (London: George Bell and Sons, 1887), 82.
60. tameless and deceitful brat: Bec
k, Honey and Health, 212.
61. his habit of ruining marriages: Lucius Apuleius, The Very Pleasant and Delectable Tale of Cupid and Psyche, translated by Walter Pater (San Francisco: Taylor, Nash and Taylor), 1914.
62. “As Cupid was stealing”: Venus with Cupid the Honey Thief, Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459077.
63. The inscription is based: “Theocritus,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Theocritus.
