An Edible History of Humanity Quotes

“Food has a unique political power, for several reasons: food links the world’s richest consumers with its poorest farmers; food choices have always been a potent means of social signaling; modern shoppers must make dozens of food choices every week, providing far more opportunities for political expression than electoral politics; and food is a product you consume, so eating something implies a deeply personal endorsement of it. But”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“Spices were certainly regarded as antidotes to earthly squalor in another, more mystical sense. They were thought to be splinters of paradise that had found their way into the ordinary world.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“these sacrifices sustained the cosmic cycle: Maize became blood, and blood was then transformed back into maize. Sacrificial victims were referred to as “tortillas for the gods.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“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. From prehistory to the present, the stories of these transformations form a narrative that encompasses the whole of human history.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“Similarly, Basques are assumed to be the most direct descendants of hunter-gatherers, for two reasons. First, the Basque language bears no resemblance to European languages descended from proto–Indo-European, the language family imported into Europe along with farming, and instead appears to date back to the Stone Age. (Several Basque words for tools begin with “aitz,” the word for stone, which suggests that the words date from a time when stone tools were in use.) Second, there are several Basque-specific genetic variations that are not found in other Europeans.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“Farming may have been prompted by social competition, as rival groups competed to host the most lavish feasts; this might explain why, in some parts of the world, luxury foods appear to have been domesticated before staples.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“One such factor was greater sedentism,”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“The short answer is that they did not realize what was happening until it was too late.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“Dental remains show that farmers suffered from tooth decay, unheard of in hunter-gatherers, because the carbohydrates in the farmers’ cereal-heavy diets were reduced to sugars by enzymes in their saliva as they chewed.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“In effect, hunter-gatherers work two days a week and have five-day weekends.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity

“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 Orange.”
― Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity