Food production can appear chaotic at first sight, but those doing tbe heavy lifting have a fair grsp of what is required. More to the point, even if it may not be immediately obvious, there will usually be a number of integrated systems monitoring crucial processes. Take canned foods, for instance. The underlying technology is an oversize pressure cooker, which has been in constant use since Denis Papin invented what came to be known as the Papin digester in the latter half of the 18th century. Down the intervening centuries canning technology improved dramatically, not that anyone who was not involved with the day to day minutiae of contemporary products would ever have guessed. There is more than a touch of national pride surrounding the lives and work of such industry demigods as Nicolas Appert; Antoine-Augustin Parmentier;Louis Pasteur. Here are a few examples of the genre: French inventions, capital F ; French national pride in its canners is very commendable, but overlooks a few small but significant glitches.
Urban Food Chains
the links between diet and power
