Summary of Mark Bittman's Animal, Vegetable, Junk

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Our brains’ ability to learn and change has made it easier for us to obtain food. We have always had omnivorous diets, eating whatever we could forage or catch.
#2 Our ancestors were hardwired to eat what they could, when they could. They had little ability to preserve the bounty of a big kill, so they stuffed themselves on the spot and took what they could carry. This is why overeating is so difficult to stop once it has begun.
#3 Cooking made available countless new foods that could not be eaten raw, and with them, more nutrients. It also reduced the time humans spent foraging, and allowed them to survive on almost any combination of meat, fish, vegetables, and grains.
#4 While the old belief was that men hunted while women gathered, research now shows that this was not the case. Women had more varied roles than just gathering, and it is likely that every able-bodied person took part in gathering.

Sujets

• Agriculture
• Food
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 16 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822510968
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Mark Bittman's Animal, Vegetable, Junk
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Our brains’ ability to learn and change has made it easier for us to obtain food. We have always had omnivorous diets, eating whatever we could forage or catch.

#2

Our ancestors were hardwired to eat what they could, when they could. They had little ability to preserve the bounty of a big kill, so they stuffed themselves on the spot and took what they could carry. This is why overeating is so difficult to stop once it has begun.

#3

Cooking made available countless new foods that could not be eaten raw, and with them, more nutrients. It also reduced the time humans spent foraging, and allowed them to survive on almost any combination of meat, fish, vegetables, and grains.

#4

While the old belief was that men hunted while women gathered, research now shows that this was not the case. Women had more varied roles than just gathering, and it is likely that every able-bodied person took part in gathering.

#5

Hunter-gatherers were extremely flexible in their diets, and they thrived on it. They ate what their surroundings provided them, and they moved around a lot, in search of food, which they usually found.

#6

The first area to practice organized planting and adhere to its rules was the Fertile Crescent, which stretched from the Nile River in the west to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the east. The area is sometimes called the Eastern Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, or the Middle East.

#7

The first agriculture was nomadic herding, in which groups roamed with herds of their animals in search of pasture and variety of diet. Shifting horticulture, where forests and grassland were cleared by fire and then planted, was the easiest way to create new farmland.

#8

The process of farming and developing civilizations was a two-way street. It allowed societies to grow and develop, but it also changed the way we lived by creating a dependence on grains.

#9

The Agricultural Revolution was a change that occurred around 5,000 years ago, and it led to the largest human population ever. It was also a change that bred injustice, poverty, disease, slavery, and war.

#10

The development of agriculture was a disaster for the majority of humankind. It made us hungry, caused us to become sick and weak, and eventually led to the development of infectious disease, class distinction, and armies.

#11

Soil is a living thing that changes and grows. It gives to us, and in return it needs care. Without care, using soil will kill it. The health of society depends on that care, which ultimately is the job of the farmer.

#12

There are four ways to replenish soil nutrients: fallowing, planting cover crops, rotating crops, and fertilizing. All of these have been used by farmers since agriculture began.

#13

The first fertilizing methods were unintentional: animals or humans added their waste to the soil because it was convenient. But as populations grew, there was pressure for soil to be more productive and increase its yield.

#14

As agriculture began to take over the world, the soil began to deteriorate. As more was demanded of the soil, its health was sacrificed and productivity declined. Only the solutions of sustainable agriculture and new land could resolve the problem.

#15

Elitism is historically present in all societies, and it is impossible to do large projects such as building cities and temples alone. Thus, someone had to take responsibility for organizing solutions to municipal issues, and someone had to orchestrate intervillage relationships.

#16

The first states were developed by the Egyptians, who used their agricultural surplus to fund massive public works projects. Other cultures used their agricultural surplus in different ways. The first public water tank and citywide sanitation systems were built in the cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, on the Indus River in present-day Pakistan.

#17

The Americas were also blessed with numerous important endemic plants, which were developed and cultivated by the native populations. Corn, which was developed by the Maya, became supremely productive. It is not a near-ideal food, however, because it must undergo a special process to maximize its nutritional potential.

#18

The Maya and other Mesoamerican societies flourished for thousands of years, until their thin tropical soils gave way. Without domesticated animals for manure, they had to push onto more erodible lands. And as their population increased, food became scarce.

#19

The exploitation of the earth and the monoculture it produced led to the need for more food, which was provided by the plow. This led to the shift in roles between men and women as men took over farming and began to develop ideologies of inequality.

#20

The division of labor arose in these regions because the land was not productive enough to feed the growing and increasingly urban populations. As a result, the Greeks first colonized nearby and then more remote areas, as far away as the Black Sea in the east, Egypt in the south, and Catalonia, two thousand miles to the west.

#21

The Roman Empire was, like many other empires, dependent on food imports. The soil of distant lands was exhausted, while interior soils prioritized export products like olives and grapes. Until the empire’s downfall, Roman agricultural technology rivaled that of China.

#22

The Middle Ages, which lasted from roughly 500 CE to 1500 CE, are often called the Dark Ages. While Europe was still thriving in the East, the reading and writing of Greek and Latin had all but disappeared there, and the science those civilizations developed had been forgotten.

#23

Food shortages and the resulting famines that periodically affected Western Europe were a result of its agricultural and social systems, which were still based on the feudal system. The Black Death, which arrived in 1347 from international trade, caused a population reduction of around a third.