On Food and Cooking

enemies and attract friends with colors, tastes,
and scents, all chemical inventions that have
shaped our ideas of beauty and deliciousness.
And they protect themselves from the
common chemical stresses of living with
substances that protect us as well. So when we
eat vegetables and fruits and grains and
spices, we eat the foods that made us possible,
and that opened our life to a kaleidoscopic
world of sensation and delight.
Human beings have always been plant
eaters. For a million years and more, our
omnivorous ancestors foraged and lived on a
wide range of wild fruits, leaves, and seeds.
Beginning around 10,000 years ago they
domesticated a few grains, seed legumes, and
tubers, which are among the richest sources of
energy and protein in the plant world, and can
be grown and stored in large quantities. This
control over the food supply made it possible
for many people to be fed reliably from a
small patch of land: so cultivation of the