I consider this a companion to Tom Standage's book "History of the world in 6 glasses", where he considers the impact of spices and grains in shaping the course of human civilization and history.
The book gives an eagle's eye view of the important crops that have shaped humanity: rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane, tea, spices. It runs through how food shaped trade, industrialization, wars, and elucidates the importance of the importance of Bosch-Haber process and the green revolution that shaped the course of human demographics in the 1960's. Genetically-modified crops, hybrid seeds, and the importance of preserving the old varieties is stressed. It's less of a history of food, and more of an explanation of the ecosystem of food and related industries.
It's unclear to me how the book would have felt if I had read it as written word: because I listened to it as an audiobook, the words flew by, the chapters passed quicker than I would have hoped for and the book ended just as I was getting into the groove. Playing audiobooks at 2.5x or 3x makes you realize the informational density of the written word isn't that great quite often, and I was left wanting more. I could have listened to the book if it were three times the length it is, easily.
This will likely be a book I keep going back to for reference, or for refreshing my general knowledge on so many different topics related to food.
Hate creating the grade inflation, but this was 9/10 book, highly recommend!
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