Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal

From hunting and gathering to GMOs and ultraprocessed foods, this expansive tour of human history rewrites the story of our species--and points the way to a better future.<\/strong><\/div>\nThe history of Homo sapiens<\/em> is usually told as a story of technology or economics. But there is a more fundamental driver: food.

How we 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. <\/div>\nA century ago, food was industrialized.

Since then, new styles of agriculture and food production have written a new chapter of human history, one that\'s driving both climate change and global health crises. Best-selling food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of the story and explains how we can rescue ourselves from the modern wrong turn.