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Mark bittman pad thai5/7/2023 The Irish famine was the first well known one and I guess you could say the first politically caused famine as opposed to more environmentally caused famine. And that’s something that developed from the 15th to the 18th century. You could certainly argue that agriculture, agriculture slavery and capitalism are all tied together. Yeah, there’s a zillion examples in the book and elsewhere of capitalism and its impact on agriculture. We should qualify, so called free market capitalism, since it’s socialism for big corporations and dog-eat-dog for everybody else or whatever. The book contains quite a harsh critique of how free market capitalism has caused great problems in our food systems. So, I don’t think you could say agriculture, which just means growing food or growing stuff, is a bad thing. And you could certainly argue that agriculture is damaging to the environment, the public health and so on right now. On the other hand, one could argue that the quality of life did not go up, but went down when agriculture became common. So if you think that’s beneficial, that’s really great. Agriculture has enabled billions of people to have been alive, and be alive, than would be possible without agriculture. The population 10,000 years ago was a fraction of what it is now. Jared Diamond is, I think, the first guy to say the agricultural revolution is not all peaches and cream. You say that the advent of organized agriculture could be one of the most disastrous things we ever did. I can’t imagine doing anything bigger or more important. But this was the book I wanted to write, I think, for the last 20 or even 30 years. But How to Cook Everything was really important to me and my career. I guess the obituary writers decide that or something. I think it is the most important piece of work I’ve done. Many people will know you for the cookbooks you’ve written. The Guardian spoke to Bittman about the book – his comments are edited for length and clarity.
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