Tom Standage

for example, believed men were created five times, each generation being an improvement over the last. Teosinte was said to have been man’s principal food

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

daily use of a saddle quern to grind grain. Dental remains show th

rachis becomes brittle, so that wh

they searched for food, the people saw a dog coming toward them with bunches of long, yellow seeds hanging from its tail. They planted the seeds, which grew into rice and dispelled their hunger forever. In a different series of rice myths, told in Indonesia and throughout the islands of Indochina, rice appears as a delicate and virtuous maiden. The

The tale of the creation of the world and the emergence of civilization told by the Sumerians, the ancient inhabitants of what is now southern Iraq,

Agriculture employs 41 percent of the human race, more than any other activity, and accounts for 40 percent of the world’s land area. (About a third of this land is used for crop production, and about two thirds provide pasture for livestock.) And the same three foods that underpinned

Throughout history, food has done more than simply provide sustenance. It has acted as a catalyst of social transformation, societal organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion.

The story of the adoption of agriculture is the tale of how ancient genetic engineers developed powerful new tools that made civilization itself possible. In the process, mankind changed plants, and those plants in turn transformed mankind.

The political, economic, and religious structures of ancient societies, from hunter-gatherers to the first civilizations, were based upon the systems of food production and distribution. The production of agricultural food surpluses and the development of communal food-storage and irrigation systems fostered political centralization; agricultural fertility rituals developed into state religions; food became a medium of payment and taxation; feasts were used to garner influence and demonstrate status; food handouts were used to define and reinforce power structures. Throughout the ancient world, long before the invention of money, food was wealth—and control of food was power.