Animal, Vegetable, Junk

A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal: A Food Science Nutrition History Book

Mark Bittman, Bittman, Mark

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780358645528
• eBook ISBN: 9781328971623
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"Epic and engrossing." —The New York Times Book Review

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and pioneering journalist, an expansive look at how history has been shaped by humanity’s appetite for food, farmland, and the money behind it all—and how a better future is within reach.

The story of humankind is usually told as one of technological innovation and economic influence—of arrowheads and atomic bombs, settlers and stock markets. But behind it all, there is an even more fundamental driver: Food.
 
In Animal, Vegetable, Junk, trusted food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of how the frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most catastrophic moments, from slavery and colonialism to famine and genocide—and to our current moment, wherein Big Food exacerbates climate change, plunders our planet, and sickens its people. Even still, Bittman refuses to concede that the battle is lost, pointing to activists, workers, and governments around the world who are choosing well-being over corporate greed and gluttony, and fighting to free society from Big Food’s grip.
 
Sweeping, impassioned, and ultimately full of hope, Animal, Vegetable, Junk reveals not only how food has shaped our past, but also how we can transform it to reclaim our future.

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

ABCD (Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus), 207–8

Action for Children’s Television, 199

addiction, food, 191–93

additives, food, 136–39, 150–51, 154

AFL-CIO, 127

Africa, 42–45, 48–49, 62–64, 159

African Americans. See Black Americans

Agent Orange, 214

agribusiness. See industrial agriculture

Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933), 118

Agricultural Revolution, xii, 10–19

Agricultural Systems of the World (Grigg), 60

An Agricultural Testament (Howard), 225

Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act (1954), 166–68

Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), 287

Agriculture Treadmill, 105–8, 165

agroecology, 264–68, 278–79. See also sustainability

ALBA (Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association), 287

alcohol, 76

Alexander II of Russia, 109

Allen, Will, 272

alternative agriculture, 284–86

Amazon rainforest, 14, 30

American diet. See processed and ultra-processed foods

American Heart Association, 184, 187

American Medical Association, 155

animal cruelty, 253–57

animal industry. See also cattle industry

antibiotic use, 171

calorie concentration, 178

chickens, 169–72, 253–57

early domestication, 14–15, 28–29

enclosure, 40–41, 47, 53

extinctions, 65

feed production, 76–79, 169–72, 178, 228, 256, 291

hybrids, 162

land usage for, 94

mass production, 169–72, 253–57

meatpacking industry, 77–78, 131

pork, 76–78, 130–31, 253–57, 279–80

role in climate change, 244–45

vertical integration in, 171–72

Anthropocene, 296

antibiotics, 171, ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraphs
• Introduction
• The Birth of Growing
• The Food-Brain Feedback Loop
• Soil and Civilization
• Agriculture Goes Global
• Creating Famine
• The American Way of Farming
• The Twentieth Century
• The Farm as Factory
• Dust and Depression
• Food and the Brand
• Vitamania and “the Farm Problem”
• Soy, Chicken, and Cholesterol
• Force-Feeding Junk
• The So-Called Green Revolution
• Change
• The Resistance
• Where We’re At
• The Way Forward
• We Are All Eaters
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Selected Readings
• Index
• Read More from Mark Bittman
• About the Author
• Connect on Social Media