An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage

Standage explains how just a small strip of a plant called teosinte was eventually bred into the corn that we now find in the supermarket, and how wheat was altered to be shorter, stronger and more easily harvested. I really enjoyed the sections that dealt with the propagation of special seeds that were basically engineered to maximize the growth and nutritional output of the various crops. The information provided is obscure yet relevant in today's society, where it seems that everything of consequence is minutely examined after reading this book, I came to see that food is of much greater consequence then I had previously thought. Far from being a weighty and dry tome, this book had me involved and curious from the very first pages. Standgae has a way of making all of these minute bits of information not only interesting, but important. The sheer amount of information in this book was very impressive. From the spice trade to the special cultivation of seeds that will miraculously survive disease and drought, Standage gives us the history of food as it relates to the history of people, societies, and governments in an engaging and interesting buffet that will delight and titillate even the most quaint appetite. As people and cultures evolved, so did food's place in society, and as Standgae relates, food became, by turns, a power to exploit, a wealth to hoard, and a very special focus of politics. In this highly informative and interesting book, Tom Standage chronicles the evolution of food, explaining how humanity's first meals were hunted and gathered by people who literally lived off the land and how a shift towards farming and a development of agriculture prompted the first civilizations to be built.

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage