Seed to Civilization: The Story of Food

The bulk of the book examines basic food plants and animals: meats, cereals, legumes, sugar, starchy staples (potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams), oils, and other plants used for beverages and spices. Heiser provides many captivating details, enhanced by some 100 photographs, about a range of topics from archaeology to ethnobotany.

This new edition contains completely updated dietary information, additional background on the origins of maize in the light of new findings, a critique of the increasingly popular ”pseudocereals” such as Amaranthus, and a balanced appraisal of seed and gene banks. The book ends on a somber note with an even-handed assessment of our present and potential food supply, and includes recommendations for improving our cultivation and production of food sources. This book is must reading for anyone interested in the problem of feeding the world’s teeming millions over the next half century.