ประวัติศาสตร์กินได้

by Tom Standage, โตมร ศุขปรีชา (translator)

“…อาหารคือรากแห่งอารยธรรมทั้งปวง ปราศจากอาหาร อารยธรรมไม่อาจเกิดขึ้นได้ แต่เมื่อมนุษย์วิวัฒนาการขึ้นมาได้เพราะอาหารแล้ว ชั้นต่อมาเราจะพบว่ามนุษย์ได้นำอาหารมาใช้ในแง่มุมอื่นๆ อย่างกว้างขวางมาก เช่น ใช้เป็นเครื่องมือทางการทหาร เครื่องมือแห่งการต่อสู้ทางอุดมการณ์ หรือแม้กระทั่งเครื่องมือในการโกหกหลอกลวงในระดับชาติและระดับโลก พูดอีกอย่างหนึ่งได้ว่า มนุษย์ได้ใช้อาหารในการทำลายกันและกันอย่างสาหัสด้วย

ประวัติศาสตร์ที่ปรากฎอยู่ในหนังสือเล่มนี้จึงไม่ใช่ประวัติศาสตร์แข็งกระด้างที่เต็มไปด้วยตัวเลขและสถิติ แต่เล่าถึงเรื่องที่เกี่ยวพันกับเรา ทุกเช้า กลางวัน และเย็น นั่นคือเรื่องของอาหาร แต่เป็นอาหารที่โยงใยไปถึงสังคม การเมือง ศาสนา ปรัชญา เศรษฐศาสตร์ และหลายครั้งเป็นแง่มุมง่ายๆ ที่เราคิดไม่ถึง

สำหรับผล การอ่านหนังสือเล่มนี้ทำให้บาปตะกละไม่เป็นเพียงบาปส่วนตัวอีกต่อไป แต่บาปตะกละสอนเราถึงการอยู่ร่วมกันของมนุษยชาติ และเป็นสิ่งหนึ่งที่บอกใบ้ว่า เพราะอะไรมนุษย์ถึงได้วิวัฒนาการมาได้ถึงทุกวันนี้ เรื่องส่วนตัวแท้ๆ อย่างการหยิบอาหารใส่ปาก จริงๆ แล้วกลับเป็นเรื่องสาธารณะอย่างยิ่งด้วยในเวลาเดียวกัน”

โตมร ศุขปรีชา

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Food, Science, Food History, Audiobook, Food and Drink

320 pages

First published April 16, 2010

About the author

Tom Standage is a journalist and author from England. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked as a science and technology writer for The Guardian, as the business editor at The Economist, has been published in Wired, The New York Times, and The Daily Telegraph, and has published five books, including The Victorian Internet[1][2]. This book explores the historical development of the telegraph and the social ramifications associated with this development. Tom Standage also proposes that if Victorians from the 1800s were to be around today, they would be far from impressed with present Internet capabilities. This is because the development of the telegraph essentially mirrored the development of the Internet. Both technologies can be seen to have largely impacted the speed and transmission of information and both were widely criticised by some, due to their perceived negative consequences.

Standage has taken part in various key media events. He recently participated in ictQATAR's "Media Connected" forum for journalists in Qatar, where he discussed the concept of technology journalism around the world and how technology is expected to keep transforming the world of journalism in the Middle East and all around the world.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Margitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb summarizes this book perfectly.

Tom Standage can be relied upon to do comprehensive research for his non-fiction books. This book explains the history of mass-produced food, sedentism, the disappearance of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the use of food as weapons, or forms of power, from the earliest records available throughout the world. The period spans from thousands of years before Christ until now. The establishment of civilizations occurred when humans reconfigured, or modified plants for cultivation and plants ultimately did the same to humans!

The evolutionary process, changing from hunter-gatherer to agricultural sedentism, spanned over thousands of years. Complex societies in Mesopotamia took five millennia to develop, with those in the Americas and China taking thousands of years. As urban societies became more prominent, a diversity of jobs and professions resulted from it, which expanded the choices in lifestyle and social strata. It was all made possible by the farmers who remained on the land and producing more food than their subsistence lives required and could provide food to the masses living elsewhere.

Quite why humans switched from hunting and gathering to farming is one of the oldest, most complex, and most important questions in human history. It is mysterious because the switch made people significantly worse off, from a nutritional perspective and in many other ways. Indeed, one anthropologist has described the adoption of farming as “the worst mistake in the history of the human race.”

Genetic manipulation took place ever since people got the idea to harvest seed and plant it, domesticating certain species and ensuring the livelihoods of human beings.

An important point in the book is that everything we eat is genetically manipulated species of plants and animals - man-made technologies. The history behind it is not only important, but it also brings valuable balance to any conversation around genetics and the role of natural selection.

Corn, cows, and chickens as we know them do not occur in nature, and they would not exist today without human intervention. Even orange carrots are man-made. Carrots were originally white and purple, and the sweeter orange variety was created by Dutch horticulturalists in the sixteenth century as a tribute to William I, Prince of Orange. An attempt by a British supermarket to reintroduce the traditional purple variety in 2002 failed, because shoppers preferred the selectively bred orange sort.

Natural selection took place long before it became a Darwin theory. It also happens in nature, with insects pollinating different species with each other's genetic materials, resulting in new species occurring over a period of time.

That may explain why domesticated plants and animals are so widely assumed to be natural, and why contemporary efforts to refine them further using modern genetic-engineering techniques attract such criticism and provoke such fear. Yet such genetic engineering is arguably just the latest twist in a field of technology that dates back more than ten thousand years. Herbicide-tolerant maize does not occur in nature, it is true—but nor does any other kind of maize.

Most of the information contained in the text will probably be familiar to most of us. However, the comprehensive collection of information from all over the world, ensures a much greater understanding of the modern trends and importance of food production. Most importantly, the author shares his views on modern food production; the current challenges and dangers. Our biggest problem is high numbers in human populations and the limited natural resources to feed everyone.

I love the author's work, and I love this kind of topic. It is impossible to really summarize this book, there's just too much to mention. All I can add is that it enhances our understanding of the world around us and how everything, from politics, religion, economy, and every other element defining our history and existence, is morphed into one comprehensive explanation with food as the underlying vein of life.

Agriculture would surely not be allowed if it were invented today. And yet, for all its faults, it is the basis of civilization as we know it. Domesticated plants and animals form the very foundations of the modern world.

An Edible History of Humanity is a perfect coffee table book. But it is also a great way of enjoying and stimulating interesting conversations around a dinner table. Uhummmm .... I've said that before already.
Another of the author's books: A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage. I still mean it though :-)

The chapters are divided into topics such as:
Part I: The Edible foundation of civilization - The invention of farming; the roots of modernity.

Part II: Food and Social structure - Food Wealth and Structure; Follow the food.

Part III: Global highways of food - Splinters of Paradise; Seeds of Empire.

Part IV: Food, Energy and Industrialization - New world, new foods; The Steam Engine and the potato

Part V: Food as a weapon - The fuel of war; Food fight.

Part VI: Food Population and Develepment - Feeding the world; Paradoxes of plenty.

Then, 288 pages later, the tale is told. Great references are provided in the bibliography at the back of the book.

I did not read the book in one sitting. I left it next to my bed and indulged in the mornings when the first coffee was ready and there was an hour of blissful silence before the day started. It made the book so much more interesting for me to absorb the information slowly and think about it. Since there is no agenda behind the author's work, just the sharing of non-biased history, it allows the reader to relax and just enjoy it.

Yes, I'm really enjoy these kind of books. Here's two others to consider for non-fiction reading friends:
The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According To Coffee by Stewart Lee Allen;

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan

[Mohammad Hrabal · Rating 4 out of 5]

خوراک، و آب، پایه و مایه‌ی زیست همه‌ی جانداران است. انسان هومو ساپینس، همه‌ی تاریخ دویست هزار ساله‌اش را گردآورنده‌ی خوراک و شکارگر بود تا این‌ که از حدود ده‌ هزار سال پیش، ناآگاهانه، تولیدکننده‌ی خوراک، یعنی کشاورز شد. پیامد کشاورزی یک‌جانشینی و پیدایش شهر و ساختارهای حکومتی و ده‌ هزار ساله‌ی بشر را رقم زده و سبب پیدایش و فروریزش امپراتوری‌ها شده‌ است. تام ستندیج به شیوه‌ای داستان‌ گونه روایتی خواندنی و دلنشین از این کشاکش بشر برای زیست و ماندگاری‌اش به دست می‌دهد. پشت جلد کتاب
واقعیت ساده این است که کشاورزی سخت غیر طبیعی‌ست و پیش‌ از هر کنش انسانی جهان را تغییر داده و بر محیط طبیعی تأثیر نهاده است. کشاورزی سبب نابودی جنگل‌ها، ویرانی محیط طبیعی، جابجایی زیست وحش «طبیعی» و انتقال گیاهان و جانوران هزاران کیلومتر دور از زیست‌ بوم‌های اصلی‌شان شده‌ است. این کار همراه است با بهبود ژنتیکی گیاهان و جانوران تا موتاسیون یافته‌های بزرگی پدید آیند که در طبیعت نیستند و بیشتر وقت‌ها بدون دستیاری انسان نمی‌توانند زنده بمانند. کشاورزی شیوه‌ی زیست شکارگری-گردآوری را که ده‌ها هزار سال انسان را خوراک داده بود یکسره زیر و رو کرد و انسان را به راهی انداخت که زندگی پرتنوع و راحت شکارگری و گردآوری را واگذارد و زندگی‌یی پر رنج و زحمت در پیش گیرد. کشاورزی اگر بنا بود امروز ابداع شود، مطمئناً هیچ‌ کس زیر بارش نمی‌رفت. با این حال، کشاورزی با همه‌ی کژی‌ها و کاستی‌هاش شالوده‌ی تمدنی است که آشنای ماست. گیاهان و جانوران اهلی پایه‌های جهان کنونی‌اند. صفحه ۴۲ کتاب
می‌گویند مری آنتوانت، ملکه‌ی فرانسه، وقتی شنید کشاورزان نان ندارند بخورند گفت: «بگویید کیک بخورند.» این یک روایت از داستان است که او این جمله را هنگامی گفته بود که بینوایان دم دروازه‌های کاخ از گرسنگی می‌نالیدند؛ در روایتی دیگر هنگامی‌ که ملکه سوار بر کالسکه از توی شهر پاریس می گذشته و حال نزار مردم را دیده این را گفته بوده. یا شاید این حرف را وقتی زده بوده که توده‌های گرسنه در ۱۷۷۵ به نانوایی‌های پاریس یورش بردند و سبب تأخیر تاج‌گذاری شوهرش لویی شانزدهم شدند. در واقع شاید او هرگز چنین سخنی نگفته بوده. این هم یکی از افسانه‌هایی است که به این ملکه‌ی بدنام بسته‌اند، ملکه‌ای که مخالفان سیاسی‌اش پیش‌ از انقلاب فرانسه در ۱۷۸۹ به انواع عیاشی‌ها و هرزگی‌ها متهمش می‌کردند. ولی این جمله چکیده‌ی درک مری آنتوانت است در مقام کسی که دلش برای مردم گرسنه می‌سوزد ولی از فهم دردشان عاجز است. صفحه ۱۲۶ کتاب
آیا رخ دادن بزرگ‌ترین قحطی تاریخ در کشوری کمونیستی اتفاقی است؟ به باور آمارتیا سن، اقتصاددان هندی و برنده‌ی نوبل اقتصاد سال ۱۹۹۸، این‌چنین نیست. به دید او، ترکیب دموکراسی نمایندگی و مطبوعات آزاد احتمال بروز قحطی را بسیار کم می‌کند. او در ۱۹۹۹ نوشت: «در تاریخ هولناک قحطی‌ها در جهان، هیچ قحطی اساسی در کشوری دموکراتیک با مطبوعاتی به نسبت آزاد پیش نیامده است.»
«به هر کجا نگاه کنیم استثنایی بر این قاعده نمی‌بینیم: قحطی‌های چندی پیش سومالی و اتیوپی یا دیگر رژیم‌های دیکتاتوری؛ قحطی‌های اتحاد شوروی در دهه‌ی ۱۹۳۰؛ قحطی چین در ۱۹۵۸-۱۹۶۱ و شکست جهش بزرگ به پیش؛ یا از آن‌ هم زودتر قحطی‌های ایرلند یا هند در زیر حاکمیت بیگانه. چین گرچه اقتصادانه در بسیاری از جهت‌ها به تراز هند بود، با این‌ حال (برخلاف هند) به قحطی دچار شد، آن‌ هم بزرگ‌ترین قحطی گزارش‌ شده در تاریخ جهان. نزدیک به ۳۰ میلیون تن در قحطی ۱۹۵۸-۱۹۶۱ مردند، در عین‌ حال سیاست‌های غلط حکومتی همچنان تا سه سال آزگار تصحیح نشده ماندند. هیچ انتقادی از این سیاست‌ها نشد زیرا نه حزب مخالفی در پارلمان بود، نه مطبوعات آزادی، و نه انتخابات چند حزبی‌یی. درست همین نبود چالش به سیاست‌های سخت خطا اجازه داد تا همچنان ادامه یابند، چه باک اگر سبب مرگ میلیون‌ها تن می‌شدند.» صفحه ۱۹۱ کتاب
۱۴۰۴/۰۶/۲۶

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an avid book reader, I always hunger for the next great story, be it based on real events or fantastical fiction. Tom Standage presents this book to explain how food has helped shape and influence major events in history, using a number of great examples while keeping the reader entertained. He begins by taking things as far back as possible, with a focus on man’s creation myths tied to corn or maize, which were essential parts of the early diet of those who roamed the earth. As Standage did in one of his other great books (A History of the World in 6 Glasses), he argues that the emergence of cereal grains helped to create a sedentary population and thereby developed a farming mentality. This permitted the emergence of cities and larger communities, which served to socialise people. Food has also helped create a sense of hierarchy in societies, which emerged early on in the hunter/gatherer collectives. Those in charge of finding food took on positions of power and control, which they exerted effectively. Leaders soon rose from the group, usually through natural character traits or physical stature. However, Standage argues that not all societies permitted this standout role, choosing modesty and a communal way of life. Food could also be seen as a currency, which exacerbated the view of power, as people traded and bartered with food, while taxes could also be placed on items that came from outside the local community.

This leads to Standage’s third area in which food helped shape world history, trade and travel. As exotic items came from the Far East, the Greeks and Romans marvelled at the different spices that came to be used in various forms. With the need to seek elsewhere, spice routes emerged and Europeans traveled far to seek them out. This permitted the discovery of new lands and peoples, which influenced how the world would progress. Standage explains how new ideas about food production also arose, as the Chinese, Indian, and Native American communities were studied, which influenced European ideas for how they might improve their own crops and cooking techniques. Much as the British Empire was solidified with the sale and exporting of tea, the Dutch took a position of power when it came to spices, using their colonial interests to procure and distribute various spices. With the arrival of some products from the New World, came new and interesting foods to the Old World, many of which were exotic and never dreamed up by Europeans. The emergence of pineapple in England not only denoted a posh new fruit for the locals to try, but also showed how Charles II held sway over his colonial lands. Standage explores the importance of these new foodstuffs and how they became central to the advancement of world history. Much time is spent discussing the great potato, which was seen as both something for the upper classes (as the French used them in glorious ways) and of the abject poor, who would live on them when nothing else could be grown. However, with all these new items came new issues, including rot and famine, which cost many people their lives and livelihood.

Standage continues his detailed analysis by showing how food could also be used as a weapon, killing more than any traditional military tool. Napoleon’s miscalculations when invading Russia in 1812 cost him greatly because French troops ran out of food and could not continue, forcing the ‘little general’ to retreat after trying to take Moscow for his own. Power also came in the form of communist collectives, where Stalin and Mao tried to use agricultural plans to support their respective countries, but things became dire and massive famines ensued. Standage explores this at length and leaves the reader in little doubt that suffering through lack of food proved to be more punishing than any musket or bullet. The last portion of the book looks to the green movement of food, its growth with the assistance of some outside forces. Nitrogen has been proven to be a much needed substance to spur along the growth and healthy development of crops. The controversies around fertilizer and modification outside of the ‘normal’ means is surely one that continued into the 21st century, but there is no easy answer. Many have tried to create bumper crops, but at what cost? Food may be the sustaining force that keeps humans alive, but does there come a time when too much tinkering makes our food worse for us, rather than better? This is highly thought provoking piece that kept me completely hooked until the very last page. I love learning so much and Tom Standage delivers in this literary ten course feast. Recommended to those who enjoy learning about the nonfood uses of food, as well as the reader with a passion for history of a different variety.

I mentioned in a previous review of a Tom Standage piece how much looking at history and world events through unorthodox means makes me appreciate it even more. The author does a masterful job throughout, filling this book with information open to multiple interpretations on a subject few would likely have expected to be its foundation. While only offering a brief outline of his arguments above, I have tried to show how Standage uses an array of concrete examples to substantiate his hypotheses in each chapter. These twelve strong chapters explore the history of a food based theme and then discuss social, political, and economic impacts on world history. The writing is not overly academic, but there is also more than a superficial analysis of the topics at hand, requiring more than a passing interest in the topic to really extract all that Standage has to offer. I was pleased to have been so enthralled and to be able to push through as my mind tries to understand the topics Standage puts on offer. I will need a while to truly comprehend all that I read and how food has made such a difference.

Kudos, Mr. Standage, for an amazing reading experience. I hope others will find your books and discover the magic you weave into every page!

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't keep notes throughout this book, but I should have. Standage did a great job showing various trends throughout history which made the last quarter about current times make far more sense. This is a high level look at food in general, some specific species & populations, but still distant. That was good for the purposes of the book, but I hope readers think about what these distant descriptions mean in reality.

Malnutrition leading to infant mortality, shorter stature, & susceptibility to disease are horrible. How hungry does a woman have to become before she is 'less fertile'? How long does hunger have to gnaw at a child before they grow up inches shorter? I know they can still feel full, but lack critical nutrients with the same result, but that generally leads to more sickness. How would it feel not to name a child until it is several years old due to the likelihood of losing it?

Still, Standage's agnostic overview helps make a lot of sense out of the economics of foods & the trends they or their lack engendered. This was especially interesting as he got closer to the present. What should I make of Fritz Haber, the German chemist who made nitrogen fertilizer possible, who later used these same skills & processes to create the first chemical gases used in WWI? His discussion of The Green Revolution, GMOs, & various farming techniques was also fascinating.

The Table of Contents is a pretty good indicator of what I ran into.
The edible foundations of civilization
The invention of farming
The roots of modernity
Food and social structure
Food, wealth and power
Follow the food
Global highways of food
Splinters of paradise
Seeds of empire
Food, energy and industrialization
New world, new foods
The steam engine and the potato
Food as a weapon
The fuel of war
Food fight
Food, population, and development
Feeding the world
Paradoxes of plenty

I'm so glad I gave this author a second chance. (I tried A History of the World in 6 Glasses & didn't care for it.) This was a fantastic exploration of one of the most important pieces of our civilization & I highly recommend it to all.

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love history books which take unconventional perspectives. Tom Standage's An Edible History of Humanity is one such. This book does not tell you anything that a reasonably erudite reader does not know: what it does is to show everything through a different angle. Stephen King narrates an incident where, looking out of an attic window at a set of flower pots his wife had put out to dry, he perceived a garden-like effect: this was the inspiration behind his story Secret Window, Secret Garden. Sometimes, an unusual perspective can be extremely enlightening.

This book is not a history of food - different types, production and evolution: rather, it is about how humankind's march though time was inextricably linked with food - its availability, means of production and storage, ethnic preferences and even potential use as a weapon. As we look at familiar historical events through these gastronomic lenses, we come to appreciate just how deeply dependent we are upon our stomachs.

The book is divided into six parts of two chapters each, apart from an introduction and an epilogue. The first part talks about the invention of farming, and how the domestication of wild plants in turn domesticated human beings. Even though the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was more egalitarian and the food habits healthier, humankind had settled down before they could have second thoughts on it: and before they knew it, they were growing into communities, and the thing called civilisation had started! (This is also explained in much more detail in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.)

The second part talks about how the production of grain, and the storage of surplus, gradually resulted in the rise of the "Big Man" who had excess food and could distribute largesse at his convenience. He slowly moved on to become the feudal lord, chief and then the king. Agriculture also gave rise to its attendant mythology, and the king soon became the representative of God on earth. The inequalities in the distribution food made the primitive socialism of the hunter-gatherers a thing of the past, and the basis of modern society with its tiered structure was laid.

Part three describes how the spice trade virtually opened up the world: how the craving of the Europeans for "exotic" oriental herbs lead to widespread exploration, discovery and trade. Since these were carried out by mercenary ruffians like Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, soon trade became robbery, and colonialism was born. This part is a real eye-opener on how a non-essential seasoning item like pepper virtually changed the course of history.

Part four is about how the brutal colonial machine devastated the third world to make their fortunes out of food. However, it seemed that humankind was growing too fast for it to produce food to feed itself - which gave rise to the famous Malthusian disaster theory. But the Industrial Revolution which started off in Britain, created more efficient ways of processing food and freed people from constant farm toil; also, the mobility and variety of edible items increased the efficiency of agriculture multi-fold. Humankind entered into its next phase.

Part five is about how food influenced war both positively and negatively. Starting from Alexander onwards, efficient commanders managed food logistics better; and this had an enormous impact on the result of their campaigns. Similarly, the destruction of food and food supply chains were one of the most successful strategies in war to demoralise the enemy and ensure surrender. This part also describes how ideological obstinacy and outright stupidity caused famines in Stalin's Russia and Mao's China, and other restrictive regimes. Ultimately, Soviet Union's downfall was in part due to their misguided agriculture policies which deprived the people of food.

Part six is about the second food crisis, especially in the third world, and how it was managed through the development of nitrogenous fertiliser (of personal interest to me - I started my career in a fertiliser company!) and genetically modified seeds, and how relative prosperity has resulted in the resurgence of Asia, particularly China and India, with the "Green Revolution". (Since the book was written at the end of the last decade, it is more optimistic than anyone would now be, with the world in the throes of a gigantic recession, compounded by a global pandemic.) It rounds off the discussions talking about the pros and cons of a world precariously poised on the precipice of climate change.

The epilogue talks about seed banks, and how they aim to keep the future safe for agriculture in case of calamities. Humanity has come full circle in a sense; the journey of civilisation had also started with the storage of grain.

A very satisfactory read.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll start by admitting that I gave up on this piece of trash half way through the audiobook. After 5 hours of horrid narration I did not hear a single fact that was news to me, nor even an interesting interpretation of known facts.

The writing is disjointed, and meaningless extra words and phrases are thrown in so that the whole thing comes across as a first year history student's lazy attempt to meet the word count requirements for his assignment. The author also editorializes in random, bizarre ways. For example while discussing the spice trade, he suddenly goes on a tangential rant about his disagreement about the "eat local" movement. He justifies his position against eating locally by talking about the western tradition of colonizing and trading with far off countries. However he has no observations or opinions, or even mention, of the genocide and slavery that accompanied these activities.

The author sounds like a throwback from the 1940's, speaking in favour of colonialism, monoculture, heavy food exportation and even saying that it is in the best interests of developing countries to dedicate their land to the export of cash crops.

And the narration is even worse than the writing. The writer has tried to stretch out the book with a lot of excerpts from historical documents and the narrator does voices for these excerpts that are at best silly and annoying but often just sound racist. If the excerpt was written from a western historian, the narrator does a voice that sounds like Johnny Carson's swami character. But for the many excerpts from non-western sources, the narrator does accents such as "slow indian" that are unbelievably offensive.

[Ricky · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book SUCKS. How do you give an "edible history of humanity" without talking in-depth about SLAVERY. and THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN FOOD PRODUCTION. that was my first reaction. It would be more accurate if he called the book, "An Edible History of European Humanity: The Only Humanity Worth Noting" or "An Edible Ignorance of the Dehumanization of Most of Humanity." The only time he tries to speak for the lower classes is when he's railing against communism. I also noted very early on that Standage is pro-"biotech" aka GMOs, which are destroying not only crop diversity and the environment, but indigenous knowledges and sovereignty as well. He just has a very linear, progress-driven model of human history. He's constantly quoting Malthus, with the whole "we're all going to suffer and die because of over-population!" which is a trap that could be avoided by not viewing history as linear, but as cyclical.
I read the book for the history lesson - which there was some of, so that was ok I guess.
All in all, I do not recommend.

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I certainly can and do consider Tom Standage’s An Edible History of Humanity interesting and educational enough to have kept on reading until the book’s end, I also must point out that I have equally found the information and the details Standage presents and his personal food history based opinions not always to my reading tastes and to my academic attitudes and considerations. And indeed, An Edible History of Humanity has unfortunately therefore also been a tome where I often have felt that I actually kind of needed to force myself to pick up the book again after putting it down and in fact only managed to completely finish An Edible History of Humanity by skimming over a goodly amount of Standage’s presented text (but skimming also does not mean that I was not careful with my perusal, just that in order not to get too frustrated with An Edible History of Humanity I did have to skim over some of Standage’s printed words).

Now while I do indeed consider both what the author has written in An Edible History of Humanity regarding the global history of food interesting and enlightening enough in and of itself, the way in which Tom Standage presents his research and findings and some of his personal takes on for example the advent and success of agriculture, I do find these more than a bit problematic and a trifle too lacking in academic rigour. In other words, that for a non fiction book which is supposed to be based on the realistic global history of food, An Edible History of Humanity at times (and in my opinion) tends to sound a bit too fantastical and not all that reliant on actual and factual reality (not enough for me to consider An Edible History of Humanity as unacceptable with regard to it being a book based on facts and data but with enough instances to make me personally shake my head a bit and indeed to for a star ranking only consider An Edible History of Humanity with but a three star rating, and yes, I also do think that I am being rather generous here, for my reading experience has not really been all that joyful, interesting yes, but still with way too much to be desired).

[Mag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standage looks at food from a geopolitical, anthropological and ethical point of view. The book is mainly about how food and agriculture have changed and keep changing history and development of humankind.

I didn’t find absolutely everything of interest to me there- for example, I have read about spices and their role in the progress of mankind a countless number of times by now. But there was enough other information to make it for a worthwhile read.

Here are some tidbits of what I found interesting.
Standage stands on middle ground between organic fundamentalism and blind faith in biotechnology. He deftly overthrows a few myths about organic food unspoiled by civilization by pointing out that no crops are ‘unengineered’ or organic anymore and have not been since the beginnings of agriculture. The varieties of plants we eat today are very different and very remote from the plants they originated from. Almost none of the foods we eat today can really be described as natural. Carrots, for example, used to come in white or purple. The sweeter orange variety that we eat nowadays was created by Dutch horticulturalists in the 16th century. Grains we eat today were simple grasses with potential. By the same token, the varieties if rice and wheat we eat today differ significantly from the varieties people ate at the beginning of the last century.
When fertilizers were introduced after the First World War, grains started to grow lanky and tall and kept folding over themselves. So new short stalk, big seadhead, disease resistant varieties were widely introduced. Nowadays, 100% rice harvested in China and 74% of it in Asia overall, and 90% of wheat in Latin America and 86% in Asia are of the new varieties, and cereal yields in those countries have grown faster than the population.
There has been an effort to preserve the seeds of traditional varieties of plants around the world, and Norway built a global seed depository- Svalbard Global Seed Vault seven hundred miles from the North Pole to house them. The need for such a facility became pressing after various wars destroyed national seed banks in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and with them ancient varieties of fruits and cereals forever.

An obscure maize grass and other grains we eat nowadays managed to ‘domesticate’ man by making him adopt a new sedentary lifestyle. Funnily enough, the hunter-gatherers were taller and healthier and agriculture initially made man malnutritioned, shorter and more prone to degenerative diseases like arthritis, but allowed him to reproduce much more. The hunter-gatherers were healthier but not so numerous. It’s agriculture that led to the population explosion, and it will be the global industrialization that most probably will put a stop to it. The main reason for that is that when a society makes a transition from an agricultural to an industrial state the average wealth of that society increases and the population growth declines.

Standage also discusses the new trend of trying to produce everything locally and says that it only makes so much sense. The carbon footprint is actually smaller when crops are produced in conditions suitable for them climatically, so it’s cheaper and less exhaustive for the environment to grow oranges in Egypt and potatoes on Prince Edward Island, for example. In fact, lambs reared in England have a bigger carbon footprint than those imported to England from New Zealand, transportation included. The same goes for biofuel- even though it’s well intentioned, it’s a bad idea according to Standage.

He also makes interesting observations about food used as a political weapon. Notably, he discusses Berlin blockade and food airdrops among others, and notices after Amartya Sen, an Indian economist who won a Nobel prize in Economics in 1998, that the combination of democracy and free press make famines much less likely to occur. The worst famines in history happened in communist and dictatorial states- China, the Soviet Union, Ethiopia and Somalia, and many dictators have blackmailed their countries’ populations with food.
3.5/5

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it’s hard for me to rate and review this book. And, I did read it when I was having a hard time reading and was probably more in the mood for a good novel. But I love this subject matter. I’ve read other history of foodstuffs books and I am fascinated.

This book felt confusing because on the one hand it seemed to try to be comprehensive, a complete history up to a possible future, yet so much was left out. The information that was provided was for the most part fascinating (and I did learn a lot, though I argued at times too) but I found the writing style rather dry at times.

So many different kinds of information were given that, even though it seemed to be well designed, it also seemed too all over the place. Reading section by section did help make the experience more enjoyable for me.

I liked the (trade routes) map and the pictures, though I wish there had been more of them (or none) and at times I wondered why one photo and not another.

The whole idea (from the beginning of the book) of humans going from hunter-gatherers to farmers/using agriculture being a negative, I didn’t buy, all the way to (the end of the book) about the seed banks, about which I already knew, and which I find wonderful and important.

This book does show how food has been so important for so many reasons and how it’s influenced religions, cultural life, economics, population growth, warfare, revolutions, exploration, nature, industrialization, and quality of life, etc. etc. etc. Except for the discussion of the seed banks, I found the historical information much more interesting than the more current material.

My favorite tidbit from this book was learning the definition of spices, such as pertaining to Alexandria, Egypt in fifth century A.D.: They were “expensive imported goods.” So, tigers were on the list of spices, yet black pepper was not. Who knew?! Not me. I love learning this kind of stuff.

This book reminded me of many other similar books and of other subjects I’ve studied. Even more than the other history of food books it reminded me of the reading I did for a history of medicine class in college.

Fascinating but I wish it had either included more/been a much longer book or had narrowed down the topic and explored it in more depth.

Even though I’m not a huge fan of the author’s writing style, I might be interested in reading his A History of the World in 6 Glasses book because that subject also looks really interesting to me.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes—caused, enabled, or influenced by food—has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.

The first civilizations beyond hunter-gatherers were built on barley and wheat in the Near East, millet and rice in Asia, and corn and potatoes in the Americas. Why farming created a strictly ordered social hierarchy in contrast to the loose egalitarianism of hunter-gatherers is, as Tom Standage reveals, as interesting as the details of the complex cultures that emerged, eventually interconnected by commerce. Trade in exotic spices in particular spawned the age of exploration and the colonization of the New World.

Food's influence and importance over the course of history has been just as prevalent in modern times. In the late eighteenth century, Britain's solution to food shortages was to industrialize and import food rather than grow it. Food helped to determine the outcome of wars: Napoleon's rise and fall was intimately connected with his ability to feed his vast armies. In the twentieth century, Communist leaders employed food as an ideological weapon, resulting in the death by starvation of millions in the Soviet Union and China. And today the foods we choose in the supermarket connect us to global debates about trade, development, the environment, and the adoption of new technologies.

Encompassing many fields, from genetics and archaeology to anthropology and economics—and invoking food as a special form of technology—An Edible History of Humanity is a fully satisfying discourse on the sweep of human history. Deliciously interesting from beginning to end.

[Book Shark · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage

"An Edible History of Humanity" is the interesting history of the world through the transformative role of food. Science correspondent and accomplished author Tom Standage follows up his best-seller "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" with another appealing book but this time it's about the intersections between food history and world history. This informative 288-page book is broken out by the following six parts: 1. The Edible Foundations of Civilization, 2. Food and Social Structure, 3. Global Highways of Food, 4. Food, Energy, and Industrialization, 5. Food as a Weapon, and Food, Population, and Development.

Positives:
1. Well-written, well-researched book. Fluid narration.
2. A fun way to learn about history through food.
3. The very interesting topic of food's transformative role as a foundation for entire civilizations. It answers the following question, "Which foods have done the most to shape the modern world, and how?"
4. Standage offers many fascinating historical tidbits throughout the book. "In English a house hold's main earner is called the breadwinner, and money may be referred to as bread or dough."
5. Debunks some perceptions about nature. "A cultivated field of maize, or any other crop, is as man-made as a microchip, a magazine, or a missile."
6. Good use of science to illustrate points. Honestly, where would we be without the grand theory of evolution?
7. The three most significant domesticated plants that laid the foundations for civilization: wheat, rice, and maize.
8. Explains why humans may have switched from hunting and gathering to farming.
9. How the advent of agriculture led to wealth. Food as currency.
10. Religious practices and how it relates to food. "Human flesh and bloods were thought to be made from maize, so these sacrifices sustained the cosmic cycle: Maize became blood, and blood was then transformed into maize."
11. Fascinating history on the appeal of spices. Local and global food.
12. Find out what fruit was known as the "fruit of kings". Find out what vegetable was associated with witchcraft. Great stuff.
13. The impact of Christopher Columbus.
14. Includes the sad history of sugar and slave trade.
15. Many stories involve humankind's quest to feed its populace. The rush to combat famine. The potato famine and its consequences.
16. Adapting. "Britain had dealt with the looming shortage of food by reorganizing its economy. By switching from agriculture to manufacturing, Britain became the first industrialized nation in the world." The fuels of industry.
17. Explains how historical battles were decided by controlling food. The invention of canned foods.
18. The worst famines in history. Not going to "spoil" it.
19. The machine that changed the world of agriculture.
20. The resurgence of new powers.

Negatives:
1. Notes not linked.
2. Some minor formatting issues in the electronic version.
3. Charts and diagrams would have added value.
4. The title may mislead, this book has nothing to do with the taste of food (edible).

In summary, I enjoyed reading this book, Standage provides a fun way to learn about the role of food in history. This book answers to my satisfaction the question of which foods have done the most to shape the modern world, and how? It's not an in-depth book and it certainly is not about the taste of food, but it does provide a fun, accessible way to learn about how food history intersects with world history. I recommend it!

Further recommendations: "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human" by Richard Wrangham, "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky, "Spice: The History of a Temptation" by Jack Turner, "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World" by Dan Koeppel, "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation" and "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan, and "Food in History" by Reay Tannahil.

[Gu Kun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this, in installments, along with Charles C. Mann's The Wizard and the Prophet - on a scale of one to ten (as used in Holland's schools) I would score the latter a 10- , this one a 9,5 - the two best books of the year so far - both books provide a host of information that not only makes a hugely interesting historical tale but is pertinent to some of the most fundamental debates going on today.

[صان · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب خیلی خوبی بود.

تاثیر خوراک رو روی روند تاریخ تعریف می‌کنه. چی می‌شه که کشاورزی می‌کنیم. قبلش چیکار می‌کردیم. چی می‌شه که ادویه جادویی می‌شه و جنگ‌ها سرش در می‌گیره و هنر قرن ۱۷ هلند پربار و پولدار می‌شه. انقدر اطلاعات جالب و قوی داره که نمی‌گنجه بخوام همه‌ش رو اینجا تعریف کنم.

اگر یکم تاریخ دوست دارین، اگر غذا دوست دارین، این کتاب رو حتمن پیشنهاد می‌کنم!

[Jasmine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book on GoodReads!

At the risk of never again winning a book on GoodReads, I can not, in good conscience, recommend this book to anyone.

Aside from being poorly written, this book annoyed me to the point of wanting to put it through the shredder and dump it into my compost pile, to later use in my pesticide-free garden.
Apparently, the answer to the problem of industrialized food problems, food crisis, and overpopulation, is to create more debt for farmers, create more and "better" genetically modified and pesticide infused seeds, and to poison our environment, and thereby ourselves, even further.

"The long term answer is to embark upon a new effort to increase agricultural production in the developing world, by placing renewed emphasis on agricultural research and the development of new seed varieties, investment in the rural infrastructure needed to support farmers, greater access to credit, the introduction of new crop-insurance schemes, and so on."

"It is possible that new genetically modified seeds will deliver on their promise of more efficient nitrogen uptake and water use. New seeds are also being engineered to grow in soils that are too salty for traditional varieties...It is certainly overstating the case to suggest that genetic modification is a "silver bullet" that will fix the world's various food problems. But it would be foolish to rule out its use altogether."

That way, people in developing countries can destroy their environment, and ingest poisons at the rate we here in America do. Super!
The title of this book could also be "Yay industrial agriculture, Yay GMO food, Yay Monsanto! P.S. Local food is only for snobs and yuppies."

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

No, it's not comprehensive - as the intro states, it selectively covers pivotal intersections.
Yes, it does indeed talk about slavery.
No, though it was published in 2009, much of it was clearly written a decade or more earlier, with only some 'new' information.
Some interpretations & conclusions are problematic, a few are just wrong.

Mostly it's engaging, interesting, but insufficient. 3.5 stars because I'm glad I read it and do recommend it to those of you interested, but rounded down because it's just not all that valuable.

One illuminating data point: "... Ireland, where the population increased from around 500,000 in 1660 to 9 million in 1840--something that would not have been possible without the potato."

I don't imagine I'll read more by the author but I will investigate.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what I was expecting with this edible history of humanity, but somehow there was more about politics and war than I was craving.

The author is fond of statistics and sweeping statements, and as a result I often found myself either bored or dismissive.

For example, he takes an almost binary approach to hunter/gatherers and their counterparts, farmers. A group of people —Standage suggests— must be one or the other, but based on my scant knowledge of First Nations communities, they were often hybrid cultures: they would migrate to access seasonal food supplies to hunt and gather, but they also tended to plots in a form of agriculture, such as maintaining clam beds and berry patches. Even in more recent times, farmers hunted and gathered to supplement food supplies.

There is a rich harvest of information here, everything ranging from the spice trade, to slavery and the manufacture of sugar, to the green revolution and Malthusian predictions. Standage says in the modern day food has become a consumer status symbol (such as fair trade or organic options); yet also provides many examples throughout history where food items (such as spices or pineapples) were luxuries denoting wealth and privilege.

Did you know you could rent a pineapple to make your dinner party appear more posh? Oh, the things we now take for granted . . .

[Noreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. Significant historical events all covered from food impact perspective. Starting with Portuguese forays for spices. The Muslims were a trading culture, not a military culture. When Portuguese discovered spices in India, Muslim rulers were shocked to discover the Portuguese willing to massacre and level cities and ships with innocent families. Portuguese wanted to cut out Venetian and Florentine traders. Napoleon genius at strategy involved food supplies for 3-5 days, then allowed soldiers to take food/forage from countryside, preferably at harvest time. Biggest mistake was assuming he would move ahead in Russia but an early winter spoiled his plans. His army starved. In the American Revolutionary War, the British assumed loyalist Americans would feed and house British troops. British soldiers starved, abandoned by their King. Stalin after WWII determined to show rest the f world his Communist system was superior, collectivized farms in Ukraine. Protesters sent to Gulags, farmers were accused of hiding grain. Mao determined he was going to one-up Russia, not only in food production but steel manufacturing. When collectivized farms failed, farmers accused of hiding grain. Any Chinese politician who protested was sent to prison, no one would say the truth. Local leaders made up numbers that would please Mao. Mao’s ignorance of metallurgy produced only pig iron. Communist policy failed because people starved. Not until Mao died were some reforms made. Berlin airlift was extraordinary 9 month American effort, Germans will never forget. India has never had a mass starvation on the scale of Russia or China.

Without sugar there might not have been as much slavery. Without the potato 🥔 England might not have been first country to industrialize.

Norman Borlaug deservedly won Nobel Peace prize for shorted stalk wheat and rice, to feed many people from less land.

[Corinne Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn't really about eating food. It's not about tasting food or cooking food. An Edible History of Humanity is about food's place in world history - the roles it has filled, the drama that has sometimes surrounded it and the absolute necessity for our world to deal with it on a daily basis.

We start at the beginning, learning about hunter-gatherers and the transition to more farming-based agriculture. Food is discussed as a major reason why the world started being explored by countries that could afford it - and how food has been used throughout the centuries as a way to separate the wealthy from the masses. I was amazed by how many different conflicts and events were somehow or another related to special foods or a lack of food or an abundance of food - and how often food was used as a weapon. Some of the information is anecdotal, some is downright scientific or straight from a history textbook. It all merges together in body of knowledge that was, for me, completely fascinating and utterly readable. But then again, this stuff really interests me. I always wanted to read around someone so I could talk about the things I was learning.

I appreciate that this was truly a world history - I learned about Africa, the spice islands, Europe and America, India and China. Often it was the interaction between countries and their foodstuffs that was discussed in the context of each nation's desire to have enough food to feed its population and at the same time to hopefully have enough left over to export. What a delicate balance, this feeding of a people. How intricate and essential food is to our daily living. It's interesting to look over history as a whole - to see how far we've come technologically and where we are headed. And yet, when you think about it - the vast majority what we eat, right now, was originally a seed in the ground, a seed that is the descendant of thousands of other seeds. How close we really are to where we started from.

[David Schwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a history book showing how food in general has shaped world history. This is one of those rare books that presents facts many would have learned in school and showing connections that you did not realize were there. This book changed my view of some key events in European history. This book is deceiving in that it promotes deep thinking about certain events. The book is a bit rambling in places and that led me to only give 4 stars.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at food and history. From prehistoric times, to how farming lead to the rise of cities and social hierachies, to the desire for spices leading to exploration, to the Berlin food drops. This book is a snapshot of the effects that food, both shortages and surpluses, have on human history.

A fascinating read for anyone interested in social history. Or food. Or both.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A historical survey of the social, technical, political and economic effect of food on human history.

My ebook version was a modest 270-pages. It had a 2009 US copyright.

Tom Standage is an English journalist and author of non-fiction. He’s written more than six (6) books. This is the first book I’ve read by the author.

This book is a somewhat patchy directed reading on the effects of food and food production on human history. It is split-up into six (6) sections. For example, “Food and Social Structure”, “Food as a Weapon”, and “Food, Population and Development”. Some of the sections are better than others, with the sections in the later part of human history being amongst the best. The largest proportion of the book concerns agriculture and plant-based food. I frankly thought animal husbandry received short shrift in the narrative. In addition, synthetic and artificial foods and their production were not discussed. The ‘technical’ sections were amongst the best done. For example, the hybridization of cereal crops (rice, maize and wheat), production of chemical fertilizers, and population dynamics were very good. Many but not all of the economic sections were good. I thought the historical influence of “spices” and the then new technology of global commerce to be amongst the best of those. However these sections were inconsistent. For example, the compare and contrast of Stalin’s Ukrainian famine to Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ famine felt incomplete despite the later being the greater disaster. The sociology and anthropology sections were the weakest. One question I never saw answered, was what modern forms of farmer organizational behavior result in the highest agricultural productivity and why? (Collective farming doesn’t seem to work.) Finally, I note that the book is 10-years old, and many of the statistics, current technology and archeological examples were out-of-date by this reading.

In the Epilogue, Standage sets a very hopeful tone about the Anti-Malthusian food future. He cites the example of the Norwegian, Global Seed Vault on remote Svalbard Island in the Arctic Ocean. It is intended to protect global seed stocks for millennia. The Global Seed Vault flooded in 2017. This was due to unanticipated and accelerated climate change resulting in the melting of the vault's refrigerating permafrost. So much for human foresight.

I know something about food as a commodity. I have a keen interest in “Regionally differentiated agricultural products”, mainly tea, coffee and cocoa. I learned a few things from this book. Parts of the book were really good. I found Standage’s science and presentation to be solid. The technology sections were the strongest, the economic sections were middling, and sociology sections were patchy. The author wrote about what he knew. I would have liked him to be more candid about what wasn't included. However, the ‘better’ sections of the book were the majority. In addition, the variety of the sections kept things moving. This book was not a “great work”. However, it may be helpful in developing a deeper understanding of the targeted historical events and trends.

I’m interested in reading another book by the author, The Victorian Internet (1999) .

[TS Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, any history about food fascinates me. This title was no exception and once again, I've gained some interesting insights.

[ROBERT · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly read fiction. I really enjoy Standage's books because he writes non fiction that entertains and educates me without getting pedantic and overly technical.

Here, he addresses how we have related to growing food throughout humanity. He addresses how it has led to the development of civilization, societal structures, the building of empires, industrialization, its use in wars, its use as energy, exploration to new worlds and in science. He discusses the green revolution and how farming techniques continue to improve. It is just a great drive by history of humanity's growing of food that is still highly informative.

This is my 3rd Standage book. I like Standage and Mary Roach's non fiction books because they are so entertaining. They are just great informative non fiction reads for the fiction readers. Most non fiction books bog me down if they aren't biographies.

This was a 4.3 for me.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting history. Terrible audiobook.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about how the foods people eat have affected the development of human civilization. There aren't really any new ideas here, and compared to a book such as Charles Mann's "1493", for instance- about the exchange of species between the Old World and the New, and its sometimes catastrophic effects- Standage's effort is rather lightweight. The book is not nearly comprehensive; the author focuses mainly on the development of the major cereal grains (maize, wheat, rice), plus potatoes and spices; fruits, vegetables, livestock, and dairy are barely mentioned at all. Both chronologically and geographically, there are massive gaps in Standage's narrative. But this shouldn't necessarily be considered a defect; the subject matter is far too broad to be encompassed by any one book.

Aside from its unavoidably scattershot nature, the book's main flaw is the author's digressions away from history to address food-related challenges and issues facing the modern world; biofuels, the eat-local movement, environmental damage from widespread use of industrial fertilizer, and so forth. He makes some solid points in those digressions, but also makes quite a few statements that are sheer opinion, unsupported by any facts in the text. For instance, while discussing biofuels, he points out that American-made corn ethanol is far less efficient at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions than Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, yet the American government imposes a tariff on the Brazilian stuff and subsidizes the corn ethanol; he comments that "corn ethanol seems to be an elaborate scheme to justify farming subsidies, rather than a serious effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions". A reasonable point. But he then goes on to categorically dismiss biofuels in general; "what is clear is that the use of food crops for fuel is a step backward." That's actually not particularly clear, nor is it supported by anything else in Standage's book.

But such digressions are only a small part of this book. Otherwise, it functions as a useful primer on how agriculture has shaped human history. People already knowledgeable about the subject won't find any new concepts here (although they may find details they didn't yet know). However, people who are interested in history, but have only been exposed to the sort of history taught in schools (an endless progression of wars and dates and empires and Great Leaders), will find this to be a fascinating, very readable introduction to a very different way of looking at history. The early chapters, exploring theories of how agriculture and civilization first developed, are particularly good. All in all, this book is a solid choice for the casual reader; just be aware that, when the book turns to the modern world, the author has a bit of an agenda.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Standage, who is the business editor at the Economist, has done a credible job of surveying the influence of food on human history. His overview of theories on the origin of agriculture is a bit light, but his treatment of improved methods of food production as a technological breakthrough that directly assisted industrialization is interesting. Also interesting is his analysis of the spice trade and the Columbian exchange. It is in his writing about the green revolution, biotechnology, organic farming, and population growth that his limitations show. He dismisses Malthus when he blithely projects the leveling off of population growth at 9.2 billion in 2075. He assumes that a second green revolution (driven apparently by advances in the use of genetically modified organisms) will feed the masses and that "demographic transition" (driven by a desire for a higher standard of living and the movement of more people from agriculture to urban lifestyles) will lead to a gradual decline in population. He seems unaware of the decline in quality of life and the increase in the degradation of the environment that a population of 9.2 billion would cause. He is altogether too sanguine about the benefits of industrial agriculture and dismissive of the value of organic agriculture. He even seems convinced that we can overcome the effects of climate change on agriculture by selective breeding, although this forlorn hope does cause him to advocate for saving as many varieties of crop seeds as possible from extinction. I object to his portrayal of agricultural evolution as progressive (although he does note in passing some of the problems caused by this "progress") and to his assurance that technology will transform the few loaves and fishes into a banquet for the multitudes yet unborn. The Earth is already well past its carrying capacity for humans. When the effects of climate change really become apparent, I fear that Malthus will be proved quite correct.

[حجت سلیمی · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب خوبی است درباره‌ی نگاه به تاریخ بشر با محوریت خوراک.
دوتا نکته‌ی منفی داشت. اولینش این که مترجم به شدت سعی کرده از اصطلاحات عربی استفاده نکنه. درحالی که مثلا «تکامل» رو به کار نبرده و به جاش گفته «اولوسیون» ؛‌اون هم چون که به نظرش «تکامل» درست ترجمه نشده. اما همین مترجم به جای مثلا «بین النهرین» از «میاندورود» استفاده کرده؛ درحالی که اصلا انقدر لازم نیست به نظرم سره نویس باشه.

دوم اینکه جدیدا انسان خردمند رو خوندم و به نظرم اینجور تاریخ‌ها رومیشه جذابتر تعریف کرد. مثل انسان خردمند. اما خب نگارنده خیلی جذاب تعریف نمیکنه. هرچند خود موضوع به خودی خود خیلی جذابه.

[bridgette larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a new perspective about history and the importance of food/agriculture in human evolution. I definitely learned a lot from it and think it has impacted the way I see major historical events.

[Sam Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting—changed my perspective on agriculture and food. This book was filled with things I did not know, and it was an intriguing blend of history, science, and anthropology.