The End of Food

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of food? Maybe well garnished food at a fancy restaurant or maybe something yum cooked by you mom or spouse? But food has a history and a story to tell. Paul Roberts documents it's story in "The End of Food".

The story begins with mankind's first interaction with food ie as a hunterer-gatherer. Then man invented agriculture, an invention that changed our lifestyle. For centuries, he produced what he and maybe his community consumed.

Now, food is an industry just like any other, characterized by large scale, value-addition and ruthless efficiency. It has pushed food a wide variety of food into the plates of people. But this commodification of food has downsides. Quality control has become a huge issue. The scale of food demand has also moved out production to cheaper countries crowding out the traditional produce. Unlike earlier, food is consumed where it is not produced.

This is a mind-blowing book documenting our current state of production and consumption of food. Please do read it - it's "food for your thoughts".