Getting Salty

It’s the lament commonly heard throughout Studentland: “Why didn’t they teach us THIS in school?” when they stumble across some new and vitally-needed information.

Three things to say:

1. Don’t stop learning, ever.
2. Don’t depend solely on others for learning.
3. What “needs” to be learned is fractal in nature; the deeper one delves, the level of detail scarcely changes.

I say this as I read Mark Kurlansky’s “Salt: A World History.”

It is what it says it is – it traces the history of salt through the first written records to where I am now, namely the scarcity of salt being a factor that hindered the Confederate States during the American Civil War.

Now had this book been taught in high school, where the lack of learning is lamented by those who discover new and vital knowledge once they leave, questions would arise: Why focus on salt? What about the broader scope of history? They must learn the broadest of things between Neanderthals and the Moon Landing. Salt is too much detail, too much in the weeds (thus why “everything” or “insert unlearned thing here” can’t be taught in school; there’s simply too much to learn.

But if you want to know about salt, read Kurlansky’s book. He’ll teach you more than you ever wanted to know about the subject.

A few things I’ve learned:

Venice, Italy, thrived on the salt trade. And was built on sandbars 25 miles from the coast. So if the city’s sinking now, it might be because it’s built on landfill in a lagoon more than the fact that the sea levels are rising.

Vikings left off most of their raiding when they began their own salt works and started selling salted cod in Europe.

Salt was vital to the westward expansion of the United States.

Salt began to lose its importance as a food preservative when canning and bottling were developed – which brought industrial disruption. Per Kurlansky:

In 1830, a canning plant was built in la Turalle [France] the sardine fishing town across the opening of the Guerance swamp from Le Croisic. The plant flourished, and gradually most of the area’s salt fish business collapsed, unable to compete with canned products. In time, much of the French Atlantic salt fish industry disappeared.; A similar fate befell much of the salted herring industry to the north and anchovy industry to the south.

The collapse was furthered a hundred years later(!) by the development of mass fast freezing techniques by Clarence Birdseye in 1925 and the development of railroad networks and market systems that sped up the distribution of fresh food.

Disruption before the age of tech disruptors. I *LOVE* finding these things out.

And this is broadly learned yet – Kurlansky tells an exhaustive salty tale.