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

Author(s): Mark Bittman

Biography & Memoir

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.

The history of Homo sapiens 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.

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'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.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9781328974624
  • : Houghton Mifflin
  • : Houghton Mifflin (Trade)
  • : 45359200.0
  • : February 2021
  • : {"length"=>["9"], "width"=>["6"], "units"=>["Inches"]}
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : 368
  • : 394.120973
  • : English
  • : 2104
  • : Hardback
  • : Mark Bittman