The History of Food
Exerpt from the epilogue of "Food in History" by Reay Tannahill published in 1973 by Stein and Day
"For thousands of years, the search for food has helped to shape the development of society. It has dictated population growth and urban expansion, profoundly influenced economic, social, and political theory. It has widened the horizons of commerce, inspired wars of dominion, played no small role in the creation of empires, precipitated the discovery of new worlds. Food has had a part in religion, helping to define separateness of one creed from another by means of dietary taboos. In science, where the prehistoric cook's discoveries about the effect of heat applied to raw materials laid the foundations on which much of early chemistry was based. In technology, where the water wheel first used in milling grain was to achieve immense industrial importance. In medicine, which was based largely on dietary principles until well into the eighteenth century. In war, where battles were postponed until the harvest had been gathered in and where well fed armies usually defeated hungry ones. And even in relations between peoples, where for thousands of years there has been a steady undercurrent of antagonism between those whose diet consists mainly of grain and those who depend on animal foods.
In the last analysis, of course, food is not only inseparable from the history of the mankind but essential to it. Without food there would be no history, no mankind.
The truth of this - it might be thought self-evident - proposition is frequently forgotten in a world preoccupied with currency crises, computers, and communication satellites, but if, in the decades to come, population growth and environmental pollution follow the catastrophic course forecast by a number of modern ecologists, acute food shortages could prove a harsh reminder of it."
