I remember watching a TV programme a few years back that contrasted the medieval engineering culture of Western Europe with that of China. I can't for the life

I remember watching a TV programme a few years back that contrasted the medieval engineering culture of Western Europe with that of China. I can't for the life of me remember the historian's name, but his theory seemed to have some merit. His basic argument was that there was a fundamental difference in diets between the two cultures. China was primarily a rice-growing culture, which meant that they needed a large amount of space and irrigation to create paddy fields. Once the rice was grown, it was simple to harvest and the only further treatment it needed to be rendered edible was boiling. All in all, the Chinese culture had quite a low-tech solution to the problem of feeding large amounts of people. On the other hand, rice was not native to Western Europe and impossible to cultivate there anyway. In order to feed its population, European culture grew grains such as wheat, oats and barley, which were not only far harder to harvest but required grinding / milling and baking into bread before they could be rendered edible. Compared to the Chinese rice-based solution, the Western Europe model required a lot more technology. There was, therefore, a much higher demand for technological, engineered solutions to the problem of providing mass sustenance. In turn, this demand led to the adoption of such advances as horse collars, mills, ploughs, crop rotation and horseshoes. All these things were expensive and often required collective solutions. The historian's main hypothesis was that the effect of this continual (and necessary) improvement of farming techniques was to engender a culture of engineering in Western Europe. Regardless of where the innovations came from (and they were often cribbed from other cultures, often Middle Eastern) the continual and expensive process of re-engineering farming practices led directly to the development of engineering as a discipline. I really wish I could remember the guy's name.