Seed to Civilization: The Story of Food

by Charles B. Heiser Jr.

This is not a book about hunger. Rather it concerns mostly the plants and animals that stand between us and starvation. The subject can be called ethnobiology, the study of plants and animals in relation to humans. This book describes patterns of food use and distribution that have developed from prehistoric times to the present. What are the major plants and animals on which humans subsist? Where do these plants and animals come from? This book addresses these and other questions related to food. It does so in a highly readable format, assuming no prior botanical or zoological knowledge. It organizes the discussion along chapter topics such as " The staff of live." Learn that yams have served as a source of steroid hormones, that sugar is a grass from the South Pacific and observe how cauliflower, kale and brussels sprouts all derive from a single plant species. On the down side, this book's treatment of genetic engineering is outdated and the faith given to improvements in crop production not well reconciled with a concluding chapter on food problems, e.g. pesticide use. But these weaknesses are outweighed to the reader seeking a concise, interesting overview of the foods on which we subsist.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History

254 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1981

About the author

Charles Bixler Heiser Jr.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

That this book was published in 1981 makes it all the more fascinating. In a nutshell, this is a very readable (and mercifully brief) anthropological look at our most important staples: wheat, rice, corn, cattle, sheep, pigs, etc. The grass family alone stands out: corn, rice, wheat, barley, oats, sugar, bamboo (okay, not eaten except the shoot, but still immensely important). You get their origins, dispersal history, and current uses around the world as of 1981. I'm sure many of the gaps in Heiser's storytelling have been filled in somewhat, for instance I know that we use different dates of domestication for several of the livestock species. However, what is striking is the lack of advancement towards alleviating hunger in the world. Heiser actually predicts quite accurately that little will change by 2000 because the problems affecting distribution and less importantly production of food resources are unlikely to change much in 30 years. Only now we have many more people on the planet affected by food scarcity (about 1,000,000,000 people, that's a lot of 0's) according to Paul Roberts, with an embarrassing symmetry of 1,000,000,000 people suffering from health problems related to getting too many calories. In any case, reading this book made me want to learn more about the Green Revolution and its key players, holes in the archaeological record that have been filled in somewhat since publication, and more about "hunger" in general. Any book that leaves you wanting more, in depth knowledge is probably a success. Or maybe not thorough enough. I don't know.

[Emerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously somewhat out of date by now, but a very good introduction into ethnobiology nonetheless.