An Edible History Of Humanity Summary

The book tells the history of human civilization through the development of our food production and culture. A highly relevant book to present although food is a special type of natural resource or products hereof and history is a wider subject than conflict. The gradual transition towards hierarchical social order is described. Especially the significance of irrigation is compelling.
Their are some theories of irrigation: one theory contends that a big man or leader can become more powerful by coordinating agricultural activity. The irrigation system might also need to be defended, using full-time soldiers funded by the food surplus and places under the leaders control. Another theory suggests that the communal storage of agricultural surpluses

might provide the leader with an opportunity to establish greater control over his followers. Increasingly elaborate public-works projects the legitimize the leader’s position and require a growing number is administrators, who emerge as the ruling elite. A third suggestion is that competition for agricultural land led to warfare between communities in areas where such land was environmentally circumscribed. When one village defeated another it then appropriated the defeated village’s land or forced its people to hand over a proportion of their harvest every year. In the event of drought or a bad harvest, however, it is impossible to imagine villages with food reserves coming under attack from neighboring villages where the food had run out. Modern Maize and cereals involved from ancient plants with very different characteristics by porto-farmers planting seeds from plants with desirable traits. Such mutations made them more practical as foodstuffs but unable to survive in the wild.
In the book An Edible History of Humanity a great tale of a near-global multi-millennial trade war over spices.

A mostly non violent conflict that occasionally flared into brutality. And indirectly contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire that spent two digit tonnes of gold on importing spices annually, which later helped spread the plague to Italy. Later in the 16th century the English and Dutch stepped up to compete in spice trade and global violence. Some regimes were established to control nutmeg and mace production. Locals were enslaved for workforce, power was ruthlessly enforced by mercenary samurai warriors hired in Japan and problematic villages razed. Spices commanded such high prices because of the mystery surrounding them as well as their string flavors and strong, pleasant scents. Battles were fought over control od the spice trade, especially by the Portuguese, but in the end, as people grew tired of over spiced food, and the mystery surrounding the spice’s origins were discovers, spices greatly decreased in value. However, the spice trade influenced explores to go out in search of new trade routes to cut out Muslim middlemen, discovering new routes to Asia and even the discovery of the

Americans.
Part four of the book An Edible History of Humanity explains how Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte won numerous battles thanks to superior logistics, and how the English lost the American Revolutionary War due to inadequate supplies. But besides the stories of how food has influenced war we also get the story of how war inspired culinary research. And it concludes with the stories of how sabotage of supplies helped settle the American Civil War and how the German General Rommel fought and lost his North African battles over and because od Middle Eastern oil supplies. Proto- farmers actually worked much harder than hunter-gatherers got provide enough food, and many even suffered from malnutrition. The average height also fell on farming communities. However, the proto-farmers, the slow shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture seemed logical. Hunter-gatherers had been planting small crops in certain frequented areas to ensure sufficient supply. As groups became more sedentary, the full transition to farming seemed logical after success with basic ecosystem manipulation. Sedentism also caused a population growth, which may have agriculture more attractive, though this theory has holes.
Once fertilizer was invented it became the new limit defining factor in agricultural production.

Hence subject of competition and conflict. Exports boomed, and in 1879 the War of the Pacific broke out between Chile, Peru and Bolivia over the ownership of a contested nitrate-rich region in the Atacama Desert. When Fritz Haber invented nitrogen fertilizer could be produced chemically and naturally deposits would not have to be fought over any more. Before food was as plentiful as it is today, it was used as unofficial currency. Rulers taxed food production to sustain the army and other of the elite’s activities. Foods, along with humans in some cultures, were often sacrificed to the gods, with the belief that it nourished them. Some leaders were also thought to have power over a harvest.
While Maize thrived among Mediterranean countries, potatoes were met with prejudice do to its ugly appearance but eventually became a staple of Ireland, who used the calories to provide wheat for England. New crops increased output pin the same area of land, allowing England to have plenty of food, land, and export enough to begin industrialization. Coal further increased production in Britain, allowing it ti collect large enough profits in industrial goods to import foods, freeing up

land.
The industrialization of the western world has, for the first time, caused Asia to lose its spot as the wealthiest area of the world. However, recent trends show Asia returning to its place of power. Modern conveniences and increased industrialization has reduced the appeal of numerous children, surely to cause the world population to peak relatively soon.
The Green Revolution and industrialization have allowed humanity to progress at a much greater rate, but has caused environmental problems that need to be the focus of our next step forward.