The Tastemakers by David Sax Page B

the dirt and planting the seed that they hope will one day change the way we eat. Agriculture’s tastemakers are arguably the most potent trendsetters in the food world and have been for all of human civilization. Ten millennia ago someone in the plains of the Fertile Crescent had the thought to take the seeds from the strands of wild emmer and Einkorn wheat growing in the fields (grains that Roberts has lately revived) and plant them in a controlled area, which they could water, protect, and harvest on their own. At the same time, in China, farmers in wet lowlands were using the heartiest varieties of wild rice they collected, known as Oryza sativa, and planting them in paddies that they shaped to retain water (Roberts uses similar techniques). These innovations, which are some of the earliest forms of agriculture, not only led to better food supplies for these enterprising farmers, they also completely shifted humanity’s way of life from mobile hunter-gathering tribes to geographically rooted agricultural societies. We built our towns and cities not because we liked an area but because it waswhere our wheat and rice were growing, and we had to stay nearby to guard and tend to it. With a predictable source of grain, humans were able to domesticate animals by feeding them, leading to a tremendous increase in protein, which allowed more of us to survive and procreate, and a form of labor, which allowed us to farm larger areas of land more efficiently and to travel greater distances.
    The excess food from these crops formed the backbone of what would become the financial system, as farmers in one village exchanged grains and surplus foods with others. A new crop or a better variety of a staple crop provided a substantial advantage for trading with others and led the tribes and groups who developed them to sources of power. In his best-selling book
Guns, Germs, and Steel
, author Jared Diamond argued that the rise in Eurasian civilization and its continued dominance over civilizations in the southern hemisphere can all be traced back to what essentially were the food trends that came out of the early days of agriculture. Those who developed better grains for cultivation grew bigger and stronger; were able to devote more free time to specialized tasks, such as developing education, technology, and political alliances; and could use domesticated animals to acquire power through trade and warfare. Each subsequent agricultural innovation, from the ability to make oil and ferment dairy for cheeses and yogurt to the invention of preservation techniques, which facilitated travel, fundamentally altered the world. Each new agricultural trend, whether it was a new spice or variety of vegetable or a better breed of animal, pushed our interconnectivity and civilization along.
    As it evolved, the business of agriculture focused increasingly on efficiency. Agricultural faculties at universities allowed the greater study of plant and animal breeds, and the emerging fields of agricultural science focused the study of breeding and selection to find newer, more profitable plant and animal breeds. Chemistry opened up our understanding of plant physiology and made possible the introduction of pesticides and fertilizers. The Agricultural Revolution in England, led by these advances, opened the door for the Industrial Revolution, which in turn provided the machines that made modern high-yield farming possible. Though this trend has had dramaticsocial and political consequences, ranging from a decline in global famines to the shrinking of rural communities and environmental degradation, industrial agriculture has allowed many in the industry to focus their energy on innovation around new products, ranging from new conventional breeds of fruits, vegetables, and animals to genetically modified strands of rice with bits of fish DNA in them in order to make them more drought and pest resistant. By the twentieth century, concerns over soil erosion