A menu for an edible future. In a world expected to reach a staggering population of 10 billion by 2050, and with global temperatures rising fast, humanity must fundamentally change the way it grows and consumes food. Uncertain Harvest brings together scientists, chefs, activists, entrepreneurs, farmers, philosophers, and engineers working on the global future of food to answer questions on how to make a more equitable, safe, sustainable, and plentiful food future. Navigating cutting-edge research on the science, culture, and economics of food, Ian Mosby, Sarah Rotz, and Evan D.G. Fraser present a roadmap for a global food policy, while examining eight foods that could save us: algae, caribou, kale, millet, tuna, crickets, milk, and rice. "Engaging, insightful, clever, sobering, and hard-hitting!" - Steffanie Scott , co-author of Organic Food and Farming in China "Uncertain Harvest offers an unflinching look at some of the biggest challenges we face today. By bringing together scholars from the fields of food studies, geography, and history, the book offers insightful answers to the questions: How did we get here and what lessons can we learn from our past? And how might the most commonly-touted 'future of food' solutions play out, both globally and locally?" - Ann Hui , author of Chop Suey Nation "What happens when a historian, an activist, and a techno-optimist come together to envision our food future? A surprisingly balanced and compelling snapshot of what's possible: local problems get local solutions, and the ancient art of feeding ourselves benefits from a much-needed update. At last, hope we might actually be able to count on." - Dan Barber , author of The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food

A menu for an edible future. In a world expected to reach a staggering population of 10 billion by 2050, and with global temperatures rising fast, humanity must fundamentally change the way it grows and consumes food. Uncertain Harvest brings together scientists, chefs, activists, entrepreneurs, farmers, philosophers, and engineers working on the global future of food to answer questions on how to make a more equitable, safe, sustainable, and plentiful food future. Navigating cutting-edge research on the science, culture, and economics of food, Ian Mosby, Sarah Rotz, and Evan D.G. Fraser present a roadmap for a global food policy, while examining eight foods that could save us: algae, caribou, kale, millet, tuna, crickets, milk, and rice. "Engaging, insightful, clever, sobering, and hard-hitting!" - Steffanie Scott , co-author of Organic Food and Farming in China "Uncertain Harvest offers an unflinching look at some of the biggest challenges we face today. By bringing together scholars from the fields of food studies, geography, and history, the book offers insightful answers to the questions: How did we get here and what lessons can we learn from our past? And how might the most commonly-touted 'future of food' solutions play out, both globally and locally?" - Ann Hui , author of Chop Suey Nation "What happens when a historian, an activist, and a techno-optimist come together to envision our food future? A surprisingly balanced and compelling snapshot of what's possible: local problems get local solutions, and the ancient art of feeding ourselves benefits from a much-needed update. At last, hope we might actually be able to count on." - Dan Barber , author of The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food

Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth-century merchant as a narrative guide, Empires of Food vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past 12,000 years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate--and offers fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. In energetic prose, agricultural expert Evan D.G. Fraser and journalist Andrew capture the flavor of places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain, taking us from the first city in the once-thriving Fertile Crescent to today's overworked breadbaskets and rice bowls in the United States and China.
Cities, culture, art, government, and religion were founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses. Complex societies were built by shipping grain up rivers and into the stewpots of history's generations. But evenutally, inevitably, the crops fail, the fields erode, or the temperature drops, and the center of power shifts. Cultures descend into dark ages of poverty, famine, and war.
A fascinating, fresh history told through the prism of the dining table, Empires of Food offers a grand scope and a provocative analysis of the world today, indispensable in this time of global warming and food crises.