48 pages • 1 hour read
Tom StandageAn Edible History of Humanity
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Coevolution of Humans and Plants
Imagine buying an expensive orchid at a plant store. You take it home and place it next to a sunny spot by the window. You read about how to care for orchids, and soon you join an online forum for orchid enthusiasts, where you make a few friends. After a few months, you buy new orchids in the hopes of cross-pollinating to create a new breed. This scenario illustrates one of Standage’s main points in the work: As humans change plants, plants change humans. In comparison to the example of the orchid, though, the coevolution of humans and plants through agrarian practices was far more gradual. The early attempts by humans to control their food supply took millenia to develop into the complex relationship between food and society present today. Standage argues that humans were not aware of how drastically their lives were changing, given the span of time over which the change took place. Nonetheless, with each choice that humans made about selective breeding and farming practices, their lives altered in new ways. Humans and food are so interconnected that any alteration in one causes an alteration in the other. By tracing this mutuality from the birth of agriculture, Standage reveals the radical ways in which farming has changed human life.
The origin of change in human society was when humans began to cultivate crops, creating a surplus. Farming allowed people to live more sedentary lives while maintaining a more stable diet, which Standage argues also brought more health issues and malnutrition. Food surplus also created a need for certain actors to manage the extra crops. Big Men emerged to fill this need, representing the beginning of hierarchical structures and chiefdoms. Later, domesticated plants spread across the world through global trade. The connections made among nations contributed to climate change and radically altered cultures. While sharing their plants, people also shared their cultures, customs, religions, languages, and ideas. Societies and ideas grew with complexity, escalated by the Columbian exchange and a desire for power.
As society grew more complex, so did agrarian practices, ultimately leading to the Industrial Revolution and the use of food in war. In Part 5, Standage explains that providing food for soldiers was one of the greatest predictors of military success. Later, leaders such as Joseph Stalin used food as an ideological weapon to expand their control and wealth. Agriculture also created a need for new types of fuel, which led to mining and climate change. Standage emphasizes that farming did a lot more for humanity than merely provide us with a reliable source of food; in fact, farming caused many societies to be needlessly vulnerable to famine. Agriculture shifted people away from small communities of mutual support toward sweeping governments of power and greed.
Humans will continue to coevolve with plants. In the Epilogue, Standage describes the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a highly secure seed bank that holds more than two billion seeds. He highlights the irony that agriculture on Earth is ending the way it began: by the saving of seeds. As humans face new challenges, agriculture will need to evolve to meet them. The ways in which these changes will affect human life are still unknown, but Standage affirms that the evolution of human life is intertwined with that of plants.
Agriculture as a Destructive Force
Many writers and thinkers have connected farming and the pastoral to a more natural way of life, constructing what is sometimes referred to as “the agrarian myth.” In this myth, farming is a peaceful way of living that connects people to the natural world. This myth also suggests that farming liberated hunter-gatherer societies from a lifetime of toil, as farming is more efficient and leaves more time for artistic and innovative pursuits. Standage vehemently denounces the agrarian myth, suggesting that the opposite is true. Rather than connecting people with the land, Standage explains that farming began as a form of battle against the earth: “For the Incas, agriculture was closely linked to warfare: The earth was defeated, as if in battle, by the plow. So the harvest ceremony was carried out by young nobleman as part of their initiation as warriors” (49).
While agriculture paved the way for industrialism and innovative technologies, Standage argues that it has done more harm than good. He highlights the many ways in which farming led to detrimental humanitarian effects. In Chapter 2, Standage establishes his thesis: agriculture has destroyed people and the planet. He then suggests that if agriculture were a modern invention, it would not be allowed to continue due to its detrimental effects. He cites the health effects of agriculture on early societies compared to their hunter-gatherer counterparts. Similarly, the Columbian Exchange expanded agricultural destruction. Trade of goods served as an excuse for murder and domination. It also transported diseases around the world, including many caused by people living close to domesticated animals. When agriculture demanded laborers, countries used enslaved people to maintain production.
Part 5 details the ways in which control of food has enabled violent endeavors. Modern uses of food to win wars and exert control over others mirror agriculture’s early origins when the Incas viewed farming as a type of battle. In Chapter 9, Standage explains the success of many wars as dependent on soldiers’ pillaging of local villages and homes. While food nourished people’s bodies, it also served as a framework for violence. Chapter 10 shows how dictators utilized food as an ideological weapon, framing agricultural practices to fit their unfettered ambitions. These militant leaders used food as it has always been used within an agrarian society: to expand and maintain power.
Standage explains that agriculture has affected more than just people; it has had huge ramifications for all animals, plants, and the planet. Standage argues that farming has capitalized on solar radiation from its inception. The fuel needed to carry out both ancient and modern agriculture makes it impossible for farming to ever be an entirely carbon neutral practice. For Standage, both coal and biofuels suffer from the same calamity: they harm the environment.
Agriculture is a double-edged sword. Throughout the text, Standage highlights how agriculture solved human problems while creating new ones. He argues that the nature of agriculture will not change. Humans will use agriculture to alleviate future issues only to create new challenges. However, he suggests that there is room for optimism as human innovation and intelligence continues to evolve.
Agriculture and Power
Chapter 7 opens with an interesting image: a painting of King Charles II of England being presented with a pineapple by his head gardener. This 17th-century artwork shows King Charles proudly standing in front of the kneeling gardener, his hand outstretched to accept the gift. This painting is not merely depicting a monarch accepting a gift. It is a record of how King Charles used agriculture to gain and maintain power. Standage explains that pineapples were a symbol of wealth and prestige because they were difficult to acquire and rarely lasted the journey from the West Indies. King Charles used his access to pineapples as a demonstration of control: Only the King could obtain these rare fruits, and only he could give them out to others. However, King Charles II was not the first to understand how agriculture might be used in this way. Standage explains that the beginning of farming was the beginning of human hierarchies.
Standage attributes this connection between farming and hierarchies to the surplus made possible by agriculture. As humans were able to produce more food than they needed, they could then use the surplus as leverage with others. Big Men were the early forms of this hierarchical structure, taking it upon themselves to manage surplus food and exchange it through trade. By taking on this job, Big Men established themselves as important individuals in the community—ones at a higher status than others. Standage explains that this concept stands in opposition to how people normally think about food:
We are used to thinking of food as something that brings people together, either literally around the table at a social gathering, or metaphorically through a shared regional or cultural cuisine. But food can also divide and separate. In the ancient world, food was wealth, and control of food was power (32).
The French Revolution, the American Civil War, World War II, and other major historical conflicts were partially determined by the effectiveness of military leaders at acquiring, transporting, and foraging for food. Whoever controlled food controlled the future. In this way, modern warfare reflected early understandings of agriculture.
Standage adds that the use of food as power did not end with the ancient world. In the modern world, wealthy people pursue careers outside of farming; a connection with the land is viewed as labor for those of lower status. Extravagant parties and feasts still serve as mechanisms of power and status, and money is still metaphorically depicted in terms of food: The main earner in a household is the “breadwinner,” and money is sometimes called “bread” or “dough.” Food also continues to play an important role in shaping the outcomes of battle.
Standage argues that food will stay connected to power. Within democratic governments, consumers hold some of this power; that is, through their buying choices, consumers can shape agriculture. The capacity of consumers to effect change, though, depends on the people's will and determination.
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