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Eating to Extinction
- The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them
- Narrated by: Dan Saladino
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
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Publisher's summary
This audiobook is read by the author.
Dan Saladino's Eating to Extinction is the prominent broadcaster’s pathbreaking tour of the world’s vanishing foods and his argument for why they matter now more than ever
Over the past several decades, globalization has homogenized what we eat, and done so ruthlessly. The numbers are stark: Of the roughly 6,000 different plants once consumed by human beings, only nine remain major staples today. Just three of these - rice, wheat, and corn - now provide 50 percent of all our calories. Dig deeper and the trends are more worrisome still:
The source of much of the world’s food - seeds - is mostly in the control of just four corporations. Ninety-five percent of milk consumed in the United States comes from a single breed of cow. Half of all the world’s cheese is made with bacteria or enzymes made by one company. And one in four beers drunk around the world is the product of one brewer.
If it strikes you that everything is starting to taste the same wherever you are in the world, you’re by no means alone. This matters: When we lose diversity and foods become endangered, we not only risk the loss of traditional foodways, but also of flavors, smells, and textures that may never be experienced again. And the consolidation of our food has other steep costs, including a lack of resilience in the face of climate change, pests, and parasites. Our food monoculture is a threat to our health - and to the planet.
In Eating to Extinction, the distinguished BBC food journalist Dan Saladino travels the world to experience and document our most at-risk foods before it’s too late. He tells the fascinating stories of the people who continue to cultivate, forage, hunt, cook, and consume what the rest of us have forgotten or didn’t even know existed. Take honey - not the familiar product sold in plastic bottles, but the wild honey gathered by the Hadza people of East Africa, whose diet consists of 800 different plants and animals and who communicate with birds in order to locate bees’ nests. Or consider murnong - once the staple food of Aboriginal Australians, this small root vegetable with the sweet taste of coconut is undergoing a revival after nearly being driven to extinction. And in Sierra Leone, there are just a few surviving stenophylla trees, a plant species now considered crucial to the future of coffee.
From an Indigenous American chef refining precolonial recipes to farmers tending Geechee red peas on the Sea Islands of Georgia, the individuals profiled in Eating to Extinction are essential guides to treasured foods that have endured in the face of rampant sameness and standardization. They also provide a roadmap to a food system that is healthier, more robust, and, above all, richer in flavor and meaning.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Critic reviews
2022, New Yorker Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022, Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022, Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
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Story
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.
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Mostly Junk
- By Daniel Ducat on 05-22-21
By: Mark Bittman
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Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World
- A History
- By: William Alexander
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Supported by meticulous research and told in a lively, accessible voice, Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World seamlessly weaves travel, history, humor, and a little adventure (and misadventure) to follow the tomato's trail through history. A fascinating story complete with heroes, con artists, conquistadors, and—no surprise—the Mafia, this book is a mouth-watering, informative, and entertaining guide to the food that has captured our hearts for generations.
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Interesting, witty and charming!
- By CAESAR B on 09-09-23
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The Secret History of Food
- Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat
- By: Matt Siegel
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Is Italian olive oil really Italian, or are we dipping our bread in lamp oil? Why are we masochistically drawn to foods that can hurt us, like hot peppers? Far from being a classic American dish, is apple pie actually...English? Matt Siegel sets out “to uncover the hidden side of everything we put in our mouths”. Siegel also probes subjects ranging from the myths - and realities - of food as aphrodisiac, to how one of the rarest and most exotic spices in all the world (vanilla) became a synonym for uninspired sexual proclivities.
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Really interesting! Little darker than I thought…
- By Not Public on 09-11-21
By: Matt Siegel
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A Taste for Poison
- Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them
- By: Neil Bradbury Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals, and political assassins to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin and tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom, A Taste for Poison leads listeners on a fascinating tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive - or don’t.
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Poison, Murder, and So Much More!
- By Rebecca Hill on 02-12-22
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A Gardener's Guide to Botany
- The Biology Behind the Plants You Love, How They Grow, and What They Need
- By: Scott Zona
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever wonder if plants sleep or why their leaves are shaped a certain way? The inner workings of the plants you love are revealed and celebrated in this guide by botany expert Dr. Scott Zona. A Gardener’s Guide to Botany is not just another book on how to grow plants. Instead, it’s a botanical journey into what makes plants tick, delivered in layman’s terms that are easily understood and appreciated by both advanced gardeners and first-timers. It’s the chlorophyll-infused science behind the plants you know and love, whether you grow them indoors or out.
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Excellent book
- By Kathi B. on 09-26-23
By: Scott Zona
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Extra Virginity
- The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil
- By: Tom Mueller
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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For millennia, fresh olive oil has been a necessity - for food, medicine, beauty, and religion. Today's researchers continue to confirm the remarkable, life-giving properties of true extra-virgin, and "extra-virgin Italian" has become the highest standard of quality. But what if this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt?
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Great subject, sad story
- By Robert on 12-26-12
By: Tom Mueller
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Seed Money
- Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future
- By: Bartow J. Elmore
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Monsanto, a St. Louis chemical firm that became the world’s largest maker of genetically engineered seeds, merged with German pharma-biotech giant Bayer in 2018 - but its Roundup Ready® seeds, introduced 25 years ago, are still reshaping the farms that feed us. When researchers found trace amounts of the firm’s blockbuster herbicide in breakfast cereal bowls, Monsanto faced public outcry. Award-winning historian Bartow J. Elmore shows how the Roundup story is just one of the troubling threads of Monsanto’s past, many told here and woven together for the first time.
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informative. and a bit depressing
- By Gregory X on 01-09-24
By: Bartow J. Elmore
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Banana
- The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
- By: Dan Koeppel
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Banana combines a pop-science journey around the globe, a fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise, and a look into the alternately tragic and hilarious banana subculture (one does exist) - ultimately taking us to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes, in a race to save the world's most beloved fruit.
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Very Good Book - History, Science, and Economics
- By Jose on 11-08-17
By: Dan Koeppel
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The Botany of Desire
- A Plant's-Eye View of the World
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant—though this time the obsessions revolves around the intoxicating effects of marijuana rather than the visual beauty of the tulip. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin?
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"The Botany of Desire" – A Fascinating Fusion of History, Science, and Philosophy
- By Rich N. Jester on 07-05-23
By: Michael Pollan
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The Omnivore's Dilemma
- A Natural History of Four Meals
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another, this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance.
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Great book; didn't love the reading
- By Lily on 11-02-08
By: Michael Pollan
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The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs
- By: Tristan Gooley
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The ultimate guide to what the land, sun, moon, stars, trees, plants, animals, sky and clouds can reveal - when you know what to look for. Includes over 850 outdoor clues and signs. This top 10 best seller is the result of Tristan Gooley's two decades of pioneering outdoors experience and six years of instructing, researching and writing. It includes lots of outdoor clues and signs that will not be found in any other book in the world.
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not quite
- By Paul in Tucson on 01-21-20
By: Tristan Gooley
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Crossings
- How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
- By: Ben Goldfarb
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the US alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill.
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Great book, but narration doesn’t fit.
- By Anonymous User on 09-22-23
By: Ben Goldfarb
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The Story of Human Language
- By: John McWhorter, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
- Original Recording
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Language defines us as a species, placing humans head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators. But it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries, allowing us to ponder why different languages emerged, why there isn't simply a single language, how languages change over time and whether that's good or bad, and how languages die out and become extinct.
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You'll Never Look at Languages the Same Way Again
- By SAMA on 03-11-14
By: John McWhorter, and others
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Botanical Curses and Poisons
- The Shadow-Lives of Plants
- By: Fez Inkwright
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In both history and fiction, some of the most dramatic, notorious deaths have been through poisonings. Concealed and deliberate, it's a crime that requires advance planning and that for many centuries could go virtually undetected. And yet there is a fine line between healing and killing: The difference lies only in the dosage!
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The narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 05-23-22
By: Fez Inkwright
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Crying in H Mart
- A Memoir
- By: Michelle Zauner
- Narrated by: Michelle Zauner
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian-American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
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Broken Korean
- By Tim on 04-21-21
By: Michelle Zauner
What listeners say about Eating to Extinction
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- KK
- 04-16-22
Very Interesting and So Necessary
The history and relevance of our foods, the humans who have tended them and what can be done to save an ailing earth is well written and read. The narrator was the author and he did an excellent job.
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- Susan
- 05-16-22
Homage to Oysters
Who knew we owed so much to oysters? Thank you, excellent creatures of the sea!
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- Leslie
- 04-06-22
Really makes you think 🤔
This book will have you reevaluating how you enjoy a simple meal. What was once something tasty can now connect you to history in an almost religious way. It had me thinking about my own heritages and thinking about trying childhood meals again, but from scratch. It also had me rethinking about my garden this year. Definitely will be going some different things if I can get my hands on them.
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- Robert
- 02-09-22
A hard copy of this book will be on my shelf.
This book has earned a spot on my shelf at work. Each chapter hammers home the importance of our attention to the world around us. It reminds the reader how impactful we are on the environment around us, and the importance that we need to pay to our past experiences. If one chapter does not reach you at a primal level, another will. If you are plant based, your eyes should be opened to the monoculture that likely allows you to actually live the way you are choosing to live. If you love your steak, it will make you think more about buying farm-to-table or eating more local, different meats. If you are passionate about cheeses, wine, beer, spirits, your morning coffee....this book is a call to arms for everyone. We are all involved with food, we all eat, we are all responsible for our sustainable future.
Most importantly, the book is approachable, giving enough detail, but never going so deep in a topic that you lose interest and feel overwhelmed.
I can not say enough about this book and have recommended it to pretty much everyone who I have spoken to during the week or so it has taken me to digest the book in its entirety.
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- Craig Kibbe
- 05-21-22
To Know our self inflicted vunerability
This is a superb book detailing our foods, where they have come from and how, in a short time, humanity has so simplified our diversity that we now stand exposed to great shortages and starvation...
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1 person found this helpful
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- Auskan
- 04-01-23
Well worth the time
Absolutely fascinating deep dive into why the food we eat today became what it is and what other varieties used to enjoy popularity, as well as why they are no longer favored. Sometimes it made me sad, often helpless as one person, to do anything to change the situation. But at the same time, knowledge is power and the more people who have the information, the greater the chance someone who can change it, will listen.
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-04-22
Fantastic!
A very interesting and compelling read regarding human culture, the world we live in and the crazy complex interface that is how we sustain and nourish ourselves. The tone stayed light despite some serious subject matter and the examples were fascinating.Yet another reason to fight to preserve biodiversity amongst others!
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- Maria Florencia Linares
- 05-06-24
Eye opening ingredient and foods review
Appreciate the global angle to ingredients and foods that the author brings. The value of biodiversity in an area “functional” and “cultural” to humans, layers on top of other kingdoms widely covered and researched.
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- Joe Goodwin
- 06-15-22
pleasurable listening.
enjoyed this book on the way to work. good information and pleasantly narrated. Thoroughly enjoyed!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Catalina Hoyos
- 06-30-23
A necessary read
I found this book so important for everyone to read. A crossroads of flavors, culture, fear, and hope it reminds us of our place in a systemic world, and shines a light on how our intellect has created systems, so simplified by our own difficulty to hold multiple truths in our brains, that we might be driving our own extinction. Don’t fret, there is plenty of hope, and of people doing the right things to help us all start building in a different direction, and creating more resilient, and diverse alternatives.
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1 person found this helpful