Animal, vegetable, junk : a history of food, from sustainable to suicidal

Summary: How humankind first hunted and gathered explains our emergence as a new species and our earliest technology. Our first food systems, from fire to agriculture, tell where we settled and how civilizations expanded. The quest for food for growing populations drove exploration, colonialism, slavery, even capitalism. A century ago, food was industrialized. Since then, new styles of agriculture and food production have written a new chapter of human history, one that is driving both climate change and global health crises. Bittman offers a panoramic view of the story and explains how we can rescue ourselves from the modern wrong turn. -- adapted from jacket

Record details

ISBN: 0358645522
ISBN: 9780358645528
Physical Description: xiv, 370 pages ; 24 cm
print
Edition: First Mariner Books paperback [edition].
Publisher: Boston : Mariner Books, 2022.
Copyright: ©2021

Content descriptions

General Note:	"A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"--Title page verso.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 347-349) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	The food-brain feedback loop -- Soil and civilization -- Agriculture goes global -- Creating famine -- The American way of farming -- The farm as factory -- Dust and depression -- Food and the brand -- Vitamania and "the farm problem" -- Soy, chicken, and cholesterol -- Force-feeding junk -- The so-called green revolution -- The resistance -- Where we're at -- The way forward -- Conclusion: We are all eaters.