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An Edible History of Humanity

3.49 of 5 stars 3.49 · rating details · 799 ratings · 148 reviews

The bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses brilliantly charts how foods have transformed human culture through the ages.

Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertain...more

Hardcover, 269 pages

Published May 19th 2009 by Walker & Company (first published January 1st 2009)

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Jan 02, 2013 Joel rated it 3 of 5 stars

A book about how the foods people eat have affected the development of human civilization. There aren't really any new ideas here, and compared to a book such as Charles Mann's "1493", for instance- about the exchange of species between the Old World and the New, and its sometimes catastrophic effects- Standage's effort is rather lightweight. The book is not nearly comprehensive; the author focuses mainly on the development of the major cereal grains (maize, wheat, rice), plus potatoes and spice...more A book about how the foods people eat have affected the development of human civilization. There aren't really any new ideas here, and compared to a book such as Charles Mann's "1493", for instance- about the exchange of species between the Old World and the New, and its sometimes catastrophic effects- Standage's effort is rather lightweight. The book is not nearly comprehensive; the author focuses mainly on the development of the major cereal grains (maize, wheat, rice), plus potatoes and spices; fruits, vegetables, livestock, and dairy are barely mentioned at all. Both chronologically and geographically, there are massive gaps in Standage's narrative. But this shouldn't necessarily be considered a defect; the subject matter is far too broad to be encompassed by any one book.

Aside from its unavoidably scattershot nature, the book's main flaw is the author's digressions away from history to address food-related challenges and issues facing the modern world; biofuels, the eat-local movement, environmental damage from widespread use of industrial fertilizer, and so forth. He makes some solid points in those digressions, but also makes quite a few statements that are sheer opinion, unsupported by any facts in the text. For instance, while discussing biofuels, he points out that American-made corn ethanol is far less efficient at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions than Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, yet the American government imposes a tariff on the Brazilian stuff and subsidizes the corn ethanol; he comments that "corn ethanol seems to be an elaborate scheme to justify farming subsidies, rather than a serious effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions". A reasonable point. But he then goes on to categorically dismiss biofuels in general; "what is clear is that the use of food crops for fuel is a step backward." That's actually not particularly clear, nor is it supported by anything else in Standage's book.

But such digressions are only a small part of this book. Otherwise, it functions as a useful primer on how agriculture has shaped human history. People already knowledgeable about the subject won't find any new concepts here (although they may find details they didn't yet know). However, people who are interested in history, but have only been exposed to the sort of history taught in schools (an endless progression of wars and dates and empires and Great Leaders), will find this to be a fascinating, very readable introduction to a very different way of looking at history. The early chapters, exploring theories of how agriculture and civilization first developed, are particularly good. All in all, this book is a solid choice for the casual reader; just be aware that, when the book turns to the modern world, the author has a bit of an agenda.(less)

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Jul 27, 2012 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

The information contained in this book is excellent, full and very interesting. I listened to the audiobook and was disappointed with the frustrating narration and slightly stilted organization of the writing. Regardless of the minor writing style distractions and the major narration distractions, I would highly recommend the book.

I recently read Tom Standage's "History of the World in 6 Glasses." Similar to "An Edible History of Humanity," 6 glasses is a not-quite-chronological and broad-rangin...more The information contained in this book is excellent, full and very interesting. I listened to the audiobook and was disappointed with the frustrating narration and slightly stilted organization of the writing. Regardless of the minor writing style distractions and the major narration distractions, I would highly recommend the book.

I recently read Tom Standage's "History of the World in 6 Glasses." Similar to "An Edible History of Humanity," 6 glasses is a not-quite-chronological and broad-ranging history of the world focused on one aspect of humanity. Also similar to 6 glasses, Edible History is organized what feels like a 5 paragraph essay format or a textbook chapter. Standage starts with his general introduction to the chapter topic, fills it out with specific examples, interesting details and related stories or anecdotes. Unfortunately, he tends to then restate his "thesis" or the main chapter points before moving on to a related but separate topic which he introduces using similar phrasing to the previous topic introduction. I found this annoying at first (in both books) but was less bothered as the audiobook progressed (I skimmed the summaries in the 6 glasses book which I read instead of listening to).

The narrator's faults I had more trouble moving past. When the book began I thought I was listening to a filmstrip narration or an educational video being show during a particularly boring elementary school class. Later, when I had come to terms with the filmstrip-voice (though I never liked it), I was pained by the voices used by the narrator to distinguish quotes from various famous characters in the book. The Christopher Columbus voice was annoying, the Adam Smith voice was painful and the French pronunciation was painful to anyone who doesn't expect a nasal R in people and place names.

My frustrations with repetition and terrible narration aside, I enjoyed the book greatly. I was particularly pleased with some explanations on various topics that were more complete and more clear (except when spoken in French) than those I have read in previous books. I tend to devour a lot of this sort of book--idiosyncratic histories of specific topics--and I felt like this book was a complement to those I have read. On the few occasions when the author repeated information I already knew, he generally quickly related it to his topic of food and other ideas he had also been discussing.

Though the book suggests it will simply be a history of food, the author does an excellent job of integrating and incorporating politics, world events and individual experiences into his interpretation. I look forward to reading more of Tom Standage's work (hopefully with a different narrator).

There were a few remarkable specific areas where Standage improved upon my previous understanding of events or issues. Standage gave a much better explanation of the development of maize than I encountered in my previous reading (particularly Gavin Menzies' problematic 1421). I also was fascinated with the discussion of the health benefits of hunter-gather societies over agricultural ones and the explanation of why the nutritionally inferior agriculture took over and transformed the world.

Unfortunately I took notes for this book on my iPhone Audible App and the automatic spelling correction has replaced my note about something in 6000BCE in the near east with "bug blogs" I'm guessing they didn't have bug blogs in 6000BCE, so I'll have to go back and figure that out.(less)

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Dec 24, 2011 Lisa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'll start by admitting that I gave up on this piece of trash half way through the audiobook. After 5 hours of horrid narration I did not hear a single fact that was news to me, nor even an interesting interpretation of known facts.

The writing is disjointed, and meaningless extra words and phrases are thrown in so that the whole thing comes across as a first year history student's lazy attempt to meet the word count requirements for his assignment. The author also editorializes in random, bizar...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, food-and-drink, non-fiction, favorites

This book is a great way to look at a variety of historical developments. It examines the origins of agriculture, and the positive and negative effects that it had on neolithic humans (Early farmers were malnourished and averaged several inches shorter than their hunter-gatherer predecessors). It examines how farming dovetailed with organized societies and cities. It examines the allure of spices, and the effects the trade networks, and the searching for alternatives to these networks, impacted...more This book is a great way to look at a variety of historical developments. It examines the origins of agriculture, and the positive and negative effects that it had on neolithic humans (Early farmers were malnourished and averaged several inches shorter than their hunter-gatherer predecessors). It examines how farming dovetailed with organized societies and cities. It examines the allure of spices, and the effects the trade networks, and the searching for alternatives to these networks, impacted knowledge of the world and cartography (a la The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice). It examined the role of food in governance, conquest, and propaganda. The author examines how successful military leaders were often experts in logistics and being able to field and feed armies effectively. He also delves into the failures of the Soviet and Chinese collective farm efforts, where ideological purity and appearances were more important than the facts on the ground, leading to catastrophic results. Lastly, the book delves into the world of fertilizer. South American countries fought over deserts due to mineral deposits which were crucial ingredients in fertilizer and countries tried to lay claim to any island which had nitrogen rich bird guano. The book also examines Malthusian crises, and how they can be avoided.

This book seemed excellently researched. The author also took on current issues, such as organic farming, food miles, sustainability, and bio-fuels. With these topics, there was a distant eye which made me think a lot about them. For example, with some foods, a significant part of their environmental impact comes with the cooking and serving, so a crappy kitchen can undo much of the environmental good of a food choice. Similarly, certain foods just grow better in different locals, and that can have enormous environmental impact. The author was able to look at the positives and negatives of agriculture that relies on fertilizer and specialized crops or organic or traditional methods and heirloom varietals. One of the most interesting points was that if everything was grown organically, much more land would need to be converted to farmland to feed the world's population. So in certain ways fertilizer intensive agriculture can preserve wilderness. Overall, the author sees the importance of all of the different strategies that humans use to feed themselves.(less)

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Feb 26, 2011 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book makes for good, light reading. (I got through it an evening, and since I’m a slow reader, I know it demanded little of me.) Those uninformed about history might find the material new. But people who are well-read on the birth of civilizations, or humanity’s complicated dance with the environment (both now and in the past) are aware of the social, technological, economic, cultural, societal, and political aspects of that yummy stuff we call our sustenance. This is a solid, single-volume...more

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Aug 05, 2009 Steven Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This work, authored by Tom Standage, has a specific focus (Page ix): "This book looks at history in another way entirely: as a series of transformations caused, enabled, or influenced by food." This is hardly a revolutionary topic. Anthropologists have long examined the interactions of subsistence styles--from hunting-gathering to the modern industrial and postindustrial state. This volume, though, provides an accessible introduction to the relationship between changes in food choices and societ...more This work, authored by Tom Standage, has a specific focus (Page ix): "This book looks at history in another way entirely: as a series of transformations caused, enabled, or influenced by food." This is hardly a revolutionary topic. Anthropologists have long examined the interactions of subsistence styles--from hunting-gathering to the modern industrial and postindustrial state. This volume, though, provides an accessible introduction to the relationship between changes in food choices and society, culture, and politics.

The book explores a number of subjects in turn. There is some repetition, but not so much as to be obtrusive to the reader. Part I explores the invention of farming/agriculture and the changes wrought thereby in human society and culture (Standage attributes the rise of civilization to this change from the prior hunting-gathering style). There is a nice discussion of the role of domesticating maize, rice, and wheat (among others). Many have observed that increasing surpluses of food due to farming led to social differentiation and hierarchy, Part II of the book considers that relationship. Part III examines food trade, with some detailed consideration of the role of spices. Indeed, the desire for Europeans to import spices from afar helped create an international trade. Food, too, was tied to the Industrial Revolution, the subject of Part IV. Part V looks at the relationship between food and war. The last part (VI) considers "Food, Population, and Development."

The final chapter wraps things up and raises some interesting issues, including the rise of the East in recent decades. He notes that China and India are rapidly becoming major economic powers, and that their food supply has a role in this.

All in all, a useful volume for those who want an introduction to the subject. There is not a lot that is going to be new to the person who has read in this area. Nonetheless, a decent introduction to the subject. . . .

The book is functionally written, although the words do not sing from the pages as one reads.
(less)

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Jun 23, 2009 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this highly informative and interesting book, Tom Standage chronicles the evolution of food, explaining how humanity's first meals were hunted and gathered by people who literally lived off the land and how a shift towards farming and a development of agriculture prompted the first civilizations to be built. As people and cultures evolved, so did food's place in society, and as Standgae relates, food became, by turns, a power to exploit, a wealth to hoard, and a very special focus of politics...more In this highly informative and interesting book, Tom Standage chronicles the evolution of food, explaining how humanity's first meals were hunted and gathered by people who literally lived off the land and how a shift towards farming and a development of agriculture prompted the first civilizations to be built. As people and cultures evolved, so did food's place in society, and as Standgae relates, food became, by turns, a power to exploit, a wealth to hoard, and a very special focus of politics. From the spice trade to the special cultivation of seeds that will miraculously survive disease and drought, Standage gives us the history of food as it relates to the history of people, societies, and governments in an engaging and interesting buffet that will delight and titillate even the most quaint appetite.

The sheer amount of information in this book was very impressive. Standgae has a way of making all of these minute bits of information not only interesting, but important. Far from being a weighty and dry tome, this book had me involved and curious from the very first pages. The information provided is obscure yet relevant in today's society, where it seems that everything of consequence is minutely examined; after reading this book, I came to see that food is of much greater consequence then I had previously thought.

I really enjoyed the sections that dealt with the propagation of special seeds that were basically engineered to maximize the growth and nutritional output of the various crops. Standage explains how just a small strip of a plant called teosinte was eventually bred into the corn that we now find in the supermarket, and how wheat was altered to be shorter, stronger and more easily harvested. Other chapters dealt with how transporting food across the ocean actually made great strides in spreading Islam beyond it's traditional boundaries, and how the rise of industrialization both in food production and in other sectors changed our history, particularly in Europe.

I was constantly amazed by this book because the information was so varied and there was so much more than just food encapsulated within these pages. From the topic of food logistics during war to a special section called "Food As a Weapon," Standage imparts his wisdom like a particularly friendly and engaging professor. I found the book to be very conversational, and though the information presented was academic most of the time, I didn't feel that the author was making his explanations impenetrable with concepts or topics that the average reader could not understand. I don't even think that one needs to have a background in history to appreciate or understand this book because Standage does a great job of filling in the gaps about what was going on in the various sectors of the world during the time frames he is examining.

This book doesn't really talk about food a a gustatory experience: you won't find recipes or tales of exotic meals. What you will find is the progression of food from an object of sustenance to an object of power, and onwards towards its scientific manipulation and use as a precursor of both population explosion and decline. You will find out why the Aztecs began to sacrifice food to their gods in favor of people, and why a small chemical reaction dramatically changed the way food was grown. You will find out how food was preserved throughout history (one of my favorite sections, I have to say), and how food had direct responsibility for the slave trade. This book provides the answers and explanations for many of the food questions that you may have never even thought about, and gives an accurate and flavorful account of just how and why things end up on our plate.

I am not normally a reader of non-fiction, and although this book wasn't exactly what I expected, I found it totally absorbing. Once again, I followed my husband about the house reading quotes and passages to him, which is something I only do when a book has me completely hooked. I liked the fact that the author was very direct and didn't meander, and that all his facts were so relevant towards today's food-conscious mindset. I think that this would be a great read for anyone who has even a modicum of curiosity about food, or if you are fond of non-fiction that is extremely well written. An excellent book that I am sure will enable some excellent conversations. Highly recommended. (less)

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May 18, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tom Standage’s AN EDIBLE HISTORY OF HUMANITY is exactly that--it is a digestible broad account of humanity through the scope of food. The book is broken up into sections that explain how time and again food changed the face of humanity. For example food is credited with civilization, exploration, and industrialization. Since humans have to eat, this book not only explores the evolution of food, but also how food helped evolve culture.

Standage is particularly apt at explaining terms, and theorie...more

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May 15, 2009 Corinne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: advance-reader-s-copy

This book isn't really about eating food. It's not about tasting food or cooking food. An Edible History of Humanity is about food's place in world history - the roles it has filled, the drama that has sometimes surrounded it and the absolute necessity for our world to deal with it on a daily basis.

We start at the beginning, learning about hunter-gatherers and the transition to more farming-based agriculture. Food is discussed as a major reason why the world started being explored by countries t...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in food and human culture

Shelves: borrowed, non-fiction

This book is a survey of human history from the vantage point of our relationship with food, and covers a broad span of time, from the beginnings of agriculture to modern debates around food such as genetically modified organisms and local eating.

Most fascinating to me were some of the connections between a degradation of health (as seen in the archaelogical record) when humans began settling into communities and depending on farmed foods rather than the hunter/gatherer procurement strategies, a...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Erica rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-challenge-2011

This book SUCKS. How do you give an "edible history of humanity" without talking in-depth about SLAVERY. and THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN FOOD PRODUCTION. that was my first reaction. It would be more accurate if he called the book, "An Edible History of European Humanity: The Only Humanity Worth Noting" or "An Edible Ignorance of the Dehumanization of Most of Humanity." The only time he tries to speak for the lower classes is when he's railing against communism. I also noted very early on that Standag...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book had a few digressions that lost me, but mostly it was interesting and provocative. I find fascinating his reporting that humans' transition to agriculture from hunting gathering may have given us stability and civilization - but had deleterious consequences for health (in the short term, at least) and for our planet.

Standage does an excellent job covering the Soviet and Chinese famines of the 20th Century - stories that need to be told more forcefully than they generally are. I also l...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Joan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm very picky about what foodie books I read because a lot of them seem too cutesy and not serious. Because I think the more serious you are about food, the funnier food can be because food is that crazy. Anyway, I loved this book with a passion, mainly because it went into detail about hunter gatherers and I never took hunter gatherers that seriously until I read this and discovered that it's actually easier to be one than to be a farmer and we were very silly to give it up thousands of years...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Rufo Quintavalle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mixed feelings. Found the beginning fascinating when Standage looks at food in prehistoric times but then the book settles into a kind of historical greatest hits - Columbus, Slave Trade, Industrial Revolution, Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz and defeat in Russia - with food as a backdrop. It's not bad but not really ground-breaking either. And the scant attention paid to agro-ecological techniques in the final section irritated me. These techniques have been hailed by the UN as the best way to...more

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Aug 10, 2009 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction-read

Standage, who is the business editor at the Economist, has done a credible job of surveying the influence of food on human history. His overview of theories on the origin of agriculture is a bit light, but his treatment of improved methods of food production as a technological breakthrough that directly assisted industrialization is interesting. Also interesting is his analysis of the spice trade and the Columbian exchange. It is in his writing about the green revolution, biotechnology, organic...more

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Aug 06, 2009 Thomas rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, audiobook

This is not a bad book, merely an unnecessary one. Standage must have realized this, as he begins with a justification for the book. While it is true that this book provides a broader historical treatment of agriculture than anything I have read before, most of the material is familiar. Nor do we get a radical new interpretation of food; Standage starts with the conventional wisdom that agriculture is the basis of civilization and ends with a call for a new green revolution.

As I said, it's not...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a fascinating look at how food has influenced so much of history. I was disappointed in the final chapter on current food systems, however, which I thought was poorly researched. Standage left out many vital pieces to the story such as the full requirement of growing healthy food (it needs more than nitrogen, which he focused on almost exclusively), what kind of soil both industrial agriculture and organic ag leave behind and therefore how long we're able to grow healthy food (or just fo...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Kam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: food, historical, non-fiction, science

Food is, hands-down, one of my favorite topics. I love eating food, and I also love cooking it - as long as I don't have to stand over spattering oil, of course. As a child I was a very picky eater, but over the years I've gotten rid of that habit, and when I go out with my friends and family nowadays I'm more open to trying things out than I was before. I'm also a firm believer in the idea that one of the fastest ways to understand a culture is to understand - and eat - their food.

Filipino food...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

This edible history or humanity was very interesting to me. Much of the stuff about the development of agriculture, plant and animal domestication, and the rise of civilizations was not new to me. However, I enjoyed the heavy emphasis on food's role in "early" human history.

As the book went on, I found the historical eras and events that Standage discussed to be fascinating, especially for the focus of food's importance in motivating world leaders and scientists. Some of my favorite sections wer...more

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May 31, 2010 Austin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just as The Ascent of Money was an explanation of western history through finance, Edible History of Humanity attempts to explain history via humanity's relationship with food. He starts with the development of agriculture and how the requirements of agricultural societies led to larger-scale governments than had ever existed before and organized religion. Standage shows how spice trading drove the first wave of globalization that resulted in colonialism and explains how agricultural advances pr...more

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Jun 13, 2009 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, meridian

Outlines several key "turning points" in history that were caused by food, or the lack thereof. I particularly liked the discussions about the Columbian Exchange (one of the better descriptions of Columbus and other explorers' purposes, methods, and experiences I've read) and food as an ideological weapon during the Cold War (heartbreaking tales of the widespread starvation caused by Stalin and Mao in their single-minded quest to prove communism better than capitalism).

Each chapter addressed a d...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Pat rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a really fascinating look at history....."The author shows how one of humanity's most vital needs (hunger) didn't simply reflect but served as the driving force behind transformative and key events in history. Dividing the vast subject into six general sections (such as food's role in the development of societies and social hierarchies, its impact on population and industrialization, and its uses as a weapon both on the battlefield and off), Standage illustrates each section with histor...more

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Oct 04, 2010 Viki Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars

Entertaining read and well written.

He touches on some controversial issues - GM/climate change, but that is it. Its a little disappointing that issues that shape our food landscape and will do in the future were given so few words. But, the book was a historical tour of our food systems, so I suppose I shouldn't have expected more. And, I suspect that had Standage attempted to really tackle these key issues, then I would have had less positive remarks to say about the book - I can't imagine why...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Gregg rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: currnetly-own

I love food and I love history, so naturally I bought this book when I saw it in Barnes and Noble. However, I found myself disappointed.

I had a few issues with the book. I felt that a lot of it simply reiterated what Jared Diamond said in Guns, Germs, and Steel (whom Standage mentions briefly). I found this work was more accessible than GGS. That latter was drier and heavier, though that isn't necessarily a mark of poor quality. However, I was a bit annoyed with the tone. It felt too casual, and...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: agriculture, anthropology, culture, food, conservative, history

A well-written history of mankind and agriculture and how each has influenced the other. This is not a scholarly account, but one written for the general reader, so is short on citations, although it does have a nice bibliography. Standage's account is most interesting when he discusses the pre-Columbian and immediately post-Columbian world, least interesting when he wades into modern day food policy. He clearly has little understanding of the local food movement (he seems to think the entire mo...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Jasmine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I won this book on GoodReads!

At the risk of never again winning a book on GoodReads, I can not, in good conscience, recommend this book to anyone.

Aside from being poorly written, this book annoyed me to the point of wanting to put it through the shredder and dump it into my compost pile, to later use in my pesticide-free garden.
Apparently, the answer to the problem of industrialized food problems, food crisis, and overpopulation, is to create more debt for farmers, create more and "better" genet...more

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Nov 03, 2009 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting and novel treatise on the role of getting food (particularly agriculture) on the development of humankind, and vice versa. The author discusses the transition of people from hunter/gatherers to farmers to modern-day providers, and the interplay with health, wealth, society, and politics.

Along the way he provides more information than I felt I need to know at times, and it can be a little tedious trying to keep all of his numbers straight while listening to an audio-book, b...more

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Aug 21, 2009 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, audio, food, nonfiction, library

Lordy, the first disc is tedious (although the narrator may have something to do with that). But I'm glad I have persisted...it has gotten increasingly interesting. Make no mistake--this is a history book, albeit from an unusual perspective; it is not a typical book for the modern "foodie." (That's not condescending; I love "foodie books." I'm just trying to be descriptive.)

Particularly interesting to me was a brief section discussing locavores and reasons why insisting on only local foodstuffs...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Eileen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic read! The politics of food is certainly one that has driven wars and peace. What the West did with the trading systems of the world gives pause to think about how history has really been shaped. Drives home the point that once humanity became farmers, rather than hunters and gatherers, the real quest for arable land began. Easier to invade and take over another culture or to instigate slavery to solve the food problem. Linked with Empires of Food , another great read, you can see the r...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Taylar rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a 10 hour audiobook but the narrator's voice changes make it worthwhile! Overall, a pretty impressive overview of the role food has played in our lives and how we as humans have evolved based on those roles over time. I wasn't a fan of how the sections were organized (kept jumping between eras and continents) but maybe the written version is easier to follow. I didn't like a lot of his perspectives on many current food topics but that is my opinion- which is very different from his. Good...more

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About Tom Standage

Tom Standage is a journalist and author from England. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked as a science and technology writer for The Guardian, as the business editor at The Economist, has been published in Wired, The New York Times, and The Daily Telegraph, and has published five books, including The Victorian Internet[1][2]. This book explores the historical development of the telegrap...more

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