BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Geographic Society -- Exhibit: Food

DC -- Natl Geographic Society -- Exhibit: Food:

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Description of Pictures: FOOD: Our Global Kitchen
October 16, 2014 – February 22, 2015
Explore the complex and intricate food system that brings what we eat from farm to fork. In sections devoted to growing, transporting, cooking, eating, tasting, and celebrating, the exhibition illuminates how our world eats and the future of food.
With opportunities to taste seasonal treats in the working kitchen, cook a virtual meal, see rare artifacts, and peek into the dining rooms of famous figures throughout history, visitors will examine the intersection of food, nature, culture, health, and history—and consider some of the most challenging issues of our time.
Exhibit tours will be offered daily; free with Museum admission.
This exhibition is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org).

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NGSFOO_141018_010.JPG: Grow Starting with a seed: If you've ever planted a garden, raised children or even tended a tomato plant, you know some of the challenges involved in growing food. Imagine growing enough to feed the world's ever-increasing population -- the effort today takes up about 40 percent of our planet's ice-free land surface. Over the centuries, humans have shaped the crops we grow and the animals we raise to suit our needs, creating countless varieties adapted to local conditions. And we've also come up with many different systems for growing food, depending on everything from climate and soils to the people and technology available.
2. NGSFOO_141018_014.JPG: The Future of Food National Geographic explores how to feed our growing planet.
3. NGSFOO_141018_040.JPG: Food Waste More than 30% does not get eaten There are many ways of moving food from farms to consumers -- but a lot gets lost along the way. The problem is much bigger than just what's visible to consumers; loss occurs throughout the food system. But in places like the United States, where food is most abundant, immense amounts of food simply get thrown away -- wasting all the labor, resources and greenhouse-gas emissions involved in growing the food in the first place. Lost in Transit: The food you throw in the garbage is just the last step on a long journey; this wall shows how loss and waste occur at every stage. Very different kinds of loss and waste, however, occur in different countries.
4. NGSFOO_141018_046.JPG: Popcorn: The indigenous people of the Americas invented the process of making popcorn. But eating popcorn at the movies didn't become popular in the United States until the 1930s, with the arrival of "talkies" -- movies with sound. Before then, the sound of people crunching popcorn during silent movies was likely distracting.
5. NGSFOO_141018_063.JPG: Modern Markets: Many Ways to Trade: People have been exchanging foods for thousands of years -- whether along the ancient Silk Road or on airplanes that transport food around the world overnight. Today, the movement of food is more complex than ever. Giant ships transport ingredients to every corner of the planet, networks of trains and trucks move food within countries and an increasingly international food culture transforms regional dishes into universal plans of global cuisine. Around the world, policy, economics and culture collide to help determine who eats what. Top 10 Global Food Exports (by weight, 2009):
  1. Wheat 162.0 million tons
  2. Maize 110.9 million tons
  3. Soybeans 89.9 million tons
  4. Sugar 57.0 million tons
  5. Palm Oil 38.8 million tons
  6. Rice 32.8 million tons
  7. Barley 28.3 million tons
  8. Bananas 20.1 million tons
  9. Rapeseed (canola) 18.9 million tons
  10. Beverages (nonalcoholic) 15.7 million tons
6. NGSFOO_141018_068.JPG: Top 10 Food Importers (by weight, 2009)
  1. China 84.8 billion tons
  2. Germany 47.1 billion tons
  3. Japan 46.2 billion tons
  4. United States 43.9 billion tons
  5. Netherlands 39.4 billion tons
  6. Spain 28.8 billion tons
  7. Italy 28.6 billion tons
  8. Mexico 27.6 billion tons
  9. Belgium 26.6 billion tons
  10. United Kingdom 25.0 billion tons
7. NGSFOO_141018_078.JPG: Top 10 Food Exporters (by weight, 2009)
  1. United States 157.7 billion tons
  2. Brazil 80.1 billion tons
  3. France 53.2 billion tons
  4. Canada 51.2 billion tons
  5. Germany 37.9 billion tons
  6. Ukraine 36.6 billion tons
  7. Argentina 36.1 billion tons
  8. Netherlands 32.6 billion tons
  9. Australia 30.6 billion tons
  10. Russia 27.6 billion tons
8. NGSFOO_141018_081.JPG: Trading Food for Fuel: More Brazilian sugar ends up at the gas pump than at the grocery. Converting sugarcane to ethanol releases less carbon dioxide than almost any other kind of biofuel production, but using crops and cropland for biofuels can drive up food prices and devastate natural ecosystems.
9. NGSFOO_141018_084.JPG: Trading Contracts: Selling physical good items is only one part of the food trade. At commodity exchanges, food manufacturers, farmers and even financial companies buy and sell contracts on crops and livestock, allowing manufacturers and farmers to cope with price risk. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, for instance, futures contracts in corn and soybeans are among the most traded agricultural commodities.
10. NGSFOO_141018_086.JPG: Trading Recipes: Pizza highlights how cultures integrate different foreign food traditions into new local dishes. For instance, a common Swedish pizza combines the classic southern Italian specialty with Indian and European flavors by adding toppings like curry, ham and bananas.
11. NGSFOO_141018_089.JPG: Trading Spices: At one of West Africa's largest markets, vendors sell over 200 different plant species. The most popular are spices that double as herbal medicines, such as calabash nutmeg, Guinea pepper and grains of selim, a pungent pepper substitute. Like most foods, these spices primarily travel within their country of origin.
12. NGSFOO_141018_092.JPG: Trading Processed Foods: Processed foods, such as pastries, beer and canned soup, represent the end of a worldwide supply chain. Raw materials get transformed into more profitable food items and then sold. Processed foods make up the majority of Australia's food imports, while countries like Germany and France both export and import large quantities of processed foods.
13. NGSFOO_141018_095.JPG: Trading Locally: India produces nearly 30 percent of the world's bananas -- more than all of Central and South America combined! In the western hemisphere, bananas are a classic export crop, shipped by the ton in refrigerated containers from tropical countries to their cooler neighbors. But almost none of India's bananas are exported: more than 99 percent of the bananas grown in India are bought, sold and eaten in India.
14. NGSFOO_141018_098.JPG: Top 10 Global Good and Beverage Companies: These companies account for 26% of global packaged food sales.
  1. Nestle $83.6 US billion dollars, 2007
  2. Pepsico, Inc. $39.5 US billion dollars, 2007
  3. Kraft Foods $37.2 US billion dollars, 2007
  4. Coca-Coca Co. $28.9 US billion dollars, 2007
  5. Unilever $27.0 US billion dollars, 2007
  6. Tyson Foods $26.9 US billion dollars, 2007
  7. Cargill $26.5 US billion dollars, 2007
  8. Mars $25.0 US billion dollars, 2007
  9. Archer Daniels Midland $24.2 US billion dollars, 2007
  10. Danone $20.0 US billion dollars, 2007
15. NGSFOO_141018_103.JPG: Trading Seafood: Japan imports more fish than any other country in the world, and most of it routes through the Tuskijl wholesale seafood market in Tokyo. The global demand for seafood has already depleted fisheries around the world.
16. NGSFOO_141018_104.JPG: Aztec Capital: The Great Exchange: Before you is a small corner of a giant marketplace serving the capital city of the thriving Aztec Empire, in what is now Mexico. The year in 1519. Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes is about to enter the city for the first time, setting off an explosion of cultural exchange that will bring exciting new foods to Europe, Asia and Africa -- and introduce others to the Americas. Never before had so many new foods been spread so far, so quickly; the world has literally never been the same.
17. NGSFOO_141018_113.JPG: Built on a Lake: Tenochtitlan was built on marshy islands in Lake Texcoco, on landfill cut by a grid of transportation canals. The city was so impressive that one Spanish soldier wrote, "We were amazed... some soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream."
18. NGSFOO_141018_115.JPG: In the market: Foods that Go Global Imagine a world without chocolate! Until roughly 500 years ago, no one outside the Americas had ever seen many of the items for sale in this market, including chocolate, vanilla, maize (corn), tomatoes or chile peppers. What's more, no one in the Americas had ever seen beef, cheese, apples, sugar or coffee. These foods, and many others, belonged to separate worlds, divided by a vast ocean. Chiles: People have been enjoying the spicy taste of chile peppers for thousands of years -- but until 500 years ago, only in the Americas. First domesticated in the Americas at least 6,000 years ago, Capsicum peppers were carried far and wide and bred into countless varieties. People in what is now Mexico used chiles in everything from tomales to chocolate drinks to candy for children. ... chiles today Asian... Or American? It's hard to even imagine Chinese, Indian, Thai or other Asian foods without spicy hot peppers. But until Capsicum peppers first reached Asia from the Americas about 500 years ago, Asian foods lacked their characteristic heat -- though they had many other spices.
19. NGSFOO_141018_118.JPG: ... chiles today Asian... Or American? It's hard to even imagine Chinese, Indian, Thai or other Asian foods without spicy hot peppers. But until Capsicum peppers first reached Asia from the Americas about 500 years ago, Asian foods lacked their characteristic heat -- though they had many other spices.
20. NGSFOO_141018_121.JPG: Chiles: People have been enjoying the spicy taste of chile peppers for thousands of years -- but until 500 years ago, only in the Americas. First domesticated in the Americas at least 6,000 years ago, Capsicum peppers were carried far and wide and bred into countless varieties. People in what is now Mexico used chiles in everything from tomales to chocolate drinks to candy for children. ... chiles today Asian... Or American? It's hard to even imagine Chinese, Indian, Thai or other Asian foods without spicy hot peppers. But until Capsicum peppers first reached Asia from the Americas about 500 years ago, Asian foods lacked their characteristic heat -- though they had many other spices.
21. NGSFOO_141018_130.JPG: Maize Maize was by far the most important food in the Aztec Empire. Central to the culture and religion, maize was eaten in many forms still familiar today, including tortillas and tamales, which could be filled with turkey, fish, frogs, rabbits, salamanders or various vegetables. Maize was sold in the market on the cob and as kernels -- as well as in ready-to-eat foods such as stews (pozole) and tamales. ... maize today Corn Meal? In the United States, most corn is not eaten directly by people. What's not made into fuel is mostly fed to animals, or processed into products like corn syrup, corn starch or cooking oil. So in a way, when you eat meat or dairy products from corn-fed animals, soda sweetened with corn syrup or fries cooked in corn oil, you're eating corn, just in a different form.
22. NGSFOO_141018_134.JPG: Tomatoes: The tomato, another food eaten only in the Americas at this time, was first grown in what's now Mexico and South and Central America. The earliest tomatoes were just berry-sized, but by the 1500s, they had been bred into numerous colors and sizes. Many Mexican tomatoes were yellow -- Europeans called them "golden apples" -- though red ones, possibly imported from South America, were also available. ... tomatoes today Pasta.... Americana? In some parts of Italy, pasta with tomato sauce is a quintessential dish. Yet no Italians saw a tomato until they were brought over from the Americas. Even then, tomatoes took years to catch on because Europeans feared they were poisonous. Eventually, though, tomatoes became the preferred topping on pizza and pasta.
23. NGSFOO_141018_138.JPG: Blue-Green Algae Not all Aztec goods became international sensations. One highly nutritious food sold in the Aztec market was dried blocks of algae scooped from the surface of nearby Lake Texcoco. This algae is almost 70 percent protein and is packed with vitamins and minerals. ... algae today Appreciating algae: Today, algae is being reconsidered as a food source, as it grows quickly in both oceans and freshwater. Many seaweeds and other algae are already popular in Japan, and some companies are now experimenting with making algae nuggets and other foods.
24. NGSFOO_141018_141.JPG: How Mexican? This traditional Mexican meal would not exist if not for international trade and cultural exchange -- beef, cheese, onions, chicken and wheat all originated outside the Americas. Native to the Americas: * Tomatoes * Beans * Chiles * Corn * Turkey Not Native to the Americas: * Beef * Cheese * Onions * Chicken * Wheat
25. NGSFOO_141018_148.JPG: In the Market: Meat and More: Grasshoppers: Hundreds of species of insects were eaten in what is now Mexico. Toasted grasshoppers were a common food in the in the ancient Aztec market, and are still sold by street vendors in Mexico today. Dogs: Domesticated dogs were available for purchase in the market; most were fattened up with avocados and corn and sold for meat, like pigs, cows and lambs are today. Turkeys: One of the few animals raised for meat in the Aztec Empire was the turkey. This large bird quickly became very popular in Europe; by 1550, the turkey was the food of choice for Christmas dinner in England. Why was it so popular? One attraction was its huge, feathery tail, which reminded Europeans of the prized peacock -- to which the turkey is related. Maguey Worms: Maguey "worms" -- actually moth larvae -- were a delicacy in the Aztec court and are still popular today.
26. NGSFOO_141018_155.JPG: In the Market: Magueys and More: Maguey: The maguey, a type of agave, has thick, fleshy leaves like a cactus. Its leaves, flowers and stalks can all be eaten. Especially prized, however, is its sweet sap or nectar, which was used as a sugary syrup, or fermented to make the popular alcoholic drink pulque. Chayote: Chayote is a wrinkly, pear-shaped squash, in the gourd family, that has been eaten in Mexico for hundreds of years and is still popular today. Maguey "Heads": After the leaves were cut off, the maguey's huge "heads" were often roasted in large underground pit ovens. The modern drink tequila is distilled from the fermented juice of the pressed heads. Squash Blossoms: Many parts of the same plant might be eaten, including the roots, stems, leaves and flowers -- such as these squash blossoms. They can be roasted, stewed or placed under tortillas. Prickly Pear Cactus: The flat pads of the prickly pear cactus, still eaten today, are called nopales. They can be eaten raw, pickled, fried, boiled, grilled, baked or stewed and have an earthly taste.
27. NGSFOO_141018_159.JPG: Long Distance Trade: Archaeological evidence shows that trade goods such as chocolate, seashells, turquoise and parrots were exchanged over long distances well before the Aztec Empire existed, linking the Anasazi people of what is now the southwestern United States to cultures hundreds of miles to the south. Trading the Turquoise: Turquoise that originated in what's now the southwestern United States has been found more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) to the south. Trading for Chocolate: This ceramic vessel found in Chaco Canyon was made between AD 1000 and 1125. Laboratory tests showed that it once contained chocolate -- but since the nearest cacao trees are over 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) to the south, the cacao beans must have been obtained through trade.
28. NGSFOO_141018_163.JPG: Thieves filled empty cacao husks with filler such as ground avocado pits to use as counterfeit money. Cacao Beans: Chocolate was not eaten as candy or cake, but was used in sauces or drunk in bitter beverages. Chocolate drinks were made with water, not milk -- there were no cows in the Americas at the time. Though usually served unsweetened, chocolate was often flavored with chile peppers, corn meal or flowers.
29. NGSFOO_141018_165.JPG: Chocolate as Money In the market, cacae beans were used as money. The Aztec ruler Moctezuma II demanded sacks of cacao as tribute from conquered villages, and reportedly had hundreds of millions of cacao beans in his treasury. A 16th century Aztec tribute list includes 20 loads of cacao and 800 chocolate cups. What could you buy with cacao beans? 3 cacao beans = 1 turkey egg 30 cacao beans = 1 rabbit 300 cacao beans = 1 large turkey 1 cacao bean = 5 green chile peppers 1 cacao bean = 1 ripe avocado 1 cacae bean = 1 large tomato, 20 small tomatoes
30. NGSFOO_141018_174.JPG: Eating Insects: Though insects may be an unpopular food in some countries, this taboo is far from universal. Much of the world appreciates insects as a tasty and nutritious food, especially where meat is rare. Insects are high in protein, vitamins and minerals, and they grow faster while consuming fewer resources that farm animals raised for meat.
31. NGSFOO_141018_177.JPG: Aztec Market What's for Dinner? The people who shopped in the Aztec market ate mostly maize (corn), beans and vegetables; meat was rare. Though wild game, turkeys, fish, frogs, salamanders, iguanas, insects, insect eggs and larvae could all be found in the great marketplace of Tlatelolco, in what is now Mexico City, the majority of foods for sale were plant-based.
32. NGSFOO_141018_182.JPG: Foods of Power: Many of the foods in ancient Mexico had ritual uses or spiritual significance. Chocolate, for instance, was more than mere food -- it was also an offering to the gods. The objects in this case speak to traditions that go back hundreds of years before the Aztec Empire, some by a thousand years or more.
33. NGSFOO_141018_185.JPG: High on Chocolate: Chocolate contains small amounts of caffeine, the main stimulant in coffee. Since coffee did not exist in the Americas at the time, chocolate would have been among the most stimulating foods available. One Spaniard wrote, "When one has drunk this beverage, one can travel all day without fatigue and without taking any nourishment." Among the locals, chocolate was considered too stimulating and intoxicating for women and children.
34. NGSFOO_141018_193.JPG: The first commercial kelp farm began with 3,000 linear feet of kelp line in 2009. Last year they farmed 30,000. -- How to Farm a Better Fish, June 2014 National Geographic Magazine
35. NGSFOO_141018_195.JPG: Ways of Growing: There are Many Kinds of Farming: More than one billion people work in agriculture today. Whether raising oysters off the coast of France, planting maize in Kenya, or simply gathering wild food, people use varied and ingenious methods to feed their families, their neighbors -- and often, strangers on the other side of the world. Whether food comes from small family plots or large-scale commercial farms, every system of agriculture presents both opportunities and challenges.
36. NGSFOO_141018_201.JPG: France: Growing Oysters in Cancale: For more than 3,000 years, humans have practiced various forms of "aquaculture" -- that is, growing aquatic plants like seaweed and raising fish and shellfish. Today, aquaculture provides about half of all the fish and shellfish people eat. In Europe, 90% of cultivated oysters are raised in one country: France. And the French eat most of what they produce. On average, residents of France eat about four pounds (1.8 kilograms) of oysters every year, the most of any nation.
37. NGSFOO_141018_203.JPG: Aquaculture Pros Conserving wild species: People farm more than 200 species of fish and shellfish. Farming means we don't have to take from the wild -- a good thing when so many species are under threat. Containing disease: Closed-containment systems are increasingly used. This way, fish are isolated -- if a disease breaks out, it does not spread to the wild population. Bivalves clean the water: Oysters, mussels, claims and other bivalves can actually make the water cleaner! They filter plankton and sediment naturally, and they don't need to be fed supplemental nutrients. Cons Pollution: A farm of 200,000 salmon can create as much fecal waste as a town of 20,000 to 60,000 people. In open-water pens, this waste is released into surrounding waters and can be very damaging. Disease can also spread to the wild population. Habitat loss: While oyster beds can create habitat, other types of aquaculture may destroy it. In recent decades, 20 to 35 percent of the world's mangroves have been lost -- largely due to the conversation of coastal area to shrimp aquaculture. Overfishing: Unlike bivalves, some aquaculture species are fed a diet containing fish. One-third of the global wild fish harvest goes into making fishmeal or oil. While some of this is for livestock feed and industrial purposes, most is used to feed other fish!
38. NGSFOO_141018_212.JPG: Urban Agriculture Castles in the Sky? By 2050, there will likely be two billion more people. Feeding them the way we do now would require immense amounts of agricultural land we don't have. But 70 percent of people will live in cities -- so why not grow food there, where they live? Urban farms can be found today in yards, roofs and balconies. Some have even proposed farming skyscrapers! Tray elevator in central tower lifts seedlings to the top; mature plants are harvested at the bottom. Spiral structure allows light in from any angle. Thousands of [plants are grown in pots and moved down the ramp as they grow. Trays and pots are disinfected and reused; excess water and nutrients are recycled.
39. NGSFOO_141018_219.JPG: Vertical Farming Pros: * Produces fresh, healthy food year round * Protects food from weather extremes and many pests * Reduces transportation from farm to city * Allows for recycling of water and nutrients, reducing waste Cons: * Very expensive to build * High energy requirements, especially to provide supplemental light and heat * Can't feed everyone this way: produced limited quantities at high cost and won't work for livestock or grains at large scales
40. NGSFOO_141018_222.JPG: Moo-Less Meat: Scientists have already cultured muscle tissue from pigs, cows, and other animals in the lab. But they still have to figure out how to improve the flavor and texture and make it in large quantities using sustainably sourced ingredients, which will take many years. Raising beef uses 20 times more water per calorie that growing cereal grains for human food. In the US, it takes 29 calories of feed to produce just one calorie of beef. 35% of all crops go to animal feed.
41. NGSFOO_141018_235.JPG: Future of Growing: How can we feed a growing population with limited resources? Will we one day grow meat in labs and salad in skyscrapers? Who knows -- but something has to change. By 2050, there will likely be nine billion people to feed, and our planet is already under stress. Agriculture is a leading threat to rivers, lakes and coastal environment, and up to 40 percent of all cropland worldwide is experiencing soil erosion, reduced fertility or overgrazing. As our climate changes, so will the ways we grow our food. Fortunately, many people are working on ways to produce more healthy and delicious food while sustaining the environment.
42. NGSFOO_141018_239.JPG: More Efficient Farms: All over the tropics, forests are being converted to pastures and farmland: 80 percent of all new tropical farmland is created by replacing forests, with huge environmental costs. But we could produce 50 percent more food without new farmland by increasing yields, shifting diets and using water and fertilizer more efficiently. This map shows where the biggest gains could be made.
43. NGSFOO_141018_242.JPG: Animal Welfare Raising Food Animals: In recent decades, the way we raise food animals has changed in some places. Increasingly, livestock are raised by large-scale operations in which thousands of animals are housed inside enclosed structures. These systems can be efficient at producing meat and animal products at relatively love cost. But there are other costs -- namely, the creation of concentrated animal wastes and concerns about the health and welfare of the animals, farmworkers and consumers. Animals raised in this way face crowded conditions and numerous diseases. Antibiotics are used to combat these diseases and to promote faster growth. In the United States, up to 80 percent of the antibiotics given annually go to food animals. Alternative systems in which food animals are treated humanely can address welfare concerns and provide animal products that are healthier and safer for human consumption.
44. NGSFOO_141018_245.JPG: Fields of Corn: Miles of Maize: More corn is grown around the globe than any other grain: over 900 million tons in 2010, using 13 percent of all cropland. Corn plants grow from seeds to towering stalks -- some types reach more than 12 feet (4 meters) high -- in only a few months. This translates to as much as five inches (13 centimeters) a day during some growth stages!
45. NGSFOO_141018_255.JPG: Vertical Gardens: Can you grow food year-round, even in the winter? Can you garden in a tiny, city apartment? Yes... and yes! The living plants in this vertical garden are edible greens. They grown indoors, hydroponically -- that is, without soil. Their roots derive nutrients from fortified water, which continuously drips through the system in a low-energy cycle. It requires technology, but without the need for soil, hydroponic gardens can grow food almost anywhere, even in the desert or outer space. Pest and weed control is easy.
46. NGSFOO_141018_259.JPG: Reshaping our Foods Where did our crops and farm animals come from? Most of the plants and animals we raise for food barely resemble their wild ancestors; they have been dramatically changed by humans. Thousands of years ago, for instance, there was no maize, or corn -- today's massive cobs were bred from a wild grass. Through selective breeding, we have made food bigger, easier to store and more resistant to pests and disease. We've altered flavor, yield and much more, breeding countless new plant and animal varieties specifically adapted to our needs. From grass to maize: Archaeologists have uncovered the early ancestors of modern-day corn, which was bred thousands of years ago from a wild grass called teosinte.
47. NGSFOO_141018_263.JPG: How It Works How to change a wild plant into a useful crop The main method, practiced for thousands of years, is to select seeds from plants with desired traits, or breed animals with qualities you like, so those traits are passed on to offspring. After many generations, the selected traits predominate. Suppose you want to breed a bigger pumpkin. One way is to harness the power of evolution -- a process that can be summarized by the acronym VIST: Variation, Inheritance, Selection, Time.
48. NGSFOO_141018_266.JPG: From grass to maize: Archaeologists have uncovered the early ancestors of modern-day corn, which was bred thousands of years ago from a wild grass called teosinte. Variation: There is always a natural range of variation among individuals, like size in fruits and vegetables. Inheritance: These differences can be passed on to the next generation. Selection: So if people select seeds from the largest individuals, the resulting plants will likely be larger, too. Time: Over many generations, the average size can increase dramatically.
49. NGSFOO_141018_270.JPG: Evolution on hyperspeed: Nowadays, people don't just wait for new traits to emerge in crops through natural variation. By irradiating seeds or exposing them to chemicals, researchers can produce many new mutations and then select the useful ones. Another technique called marker-assisted selection can rapidly identify strains with genes that produce desired traits.
50. NGSFOO_141018_273.JPG: Genetic Engineering: Scientists can now copy genes that produce desired traits from one species directly into the DNA of another. Crops are genetically modified for a range of purposes including herbicide tolerance and pest resistance. This process is controversial, with a mixed picture in terms of costs and benefits. Furthermore, the long-term health and ecological consequences are unknown, though evidence is emerging of herbicide resistant "super" weeds in fields of GM crops.
51. NGSFOO_141018_276.JPG: Who grows cassava? 900 million people Less than 1% North America & Europe 23% South America 18% Africa 59% Asia/Pacific Though unfamiliar to many in North America, cassava is one of the most important foods in tropical regions, providing critical food for more than 900 million people. About 400 million get more calories from cassava than from wheat and rice.
52. NGSFOO_141018_283.JPG: Square Melons: In Japan, some melons grow in near-perfect cubes. These shapes were not produced by selective breeding. Instead, farmers grow the melons in clear boxes that control their final shape. But the seeds of these melons would still produce round melons, not cubes.
53. NGSFOO_141018_286.JPG: Size & Shape Bigger... and better? When it comes to many foods, bigger often seems better. A large apple will sell for a higher price than a smaller one, for instance. Thanks to selective breeding, farmers have modified many foods so that whatever parts are eaten -- whether the leaves of some plants or the tails of some animals -- are now much larger than in their wild ancestors. Starting out small: Why do wild berries almost always look smaller than farmed ones? Farmers usually choose the biggest berries to replant each year. So every generation, the average size gets a little bigger. After many generations, these little changes add up. Size: Strawberry: Breeding them Bigger: The heaviest strawberry ever grown weighed half a pound (231 grams) -- as much as some oranges. Yet larger berries can be much less flavorful and contain lower nutrient concentrations that smaller ones. Shape: Watermelon: Bigger and Juicier: Most wild watermelons were originally small and bitter. But breeders gradually turned watermelons into huge balls of sugar and water. Size: Fat-Tailed Sheep: Bigger than most: In many parts of Asia and the Middle East, sheep are bred for large, fatty tails, which are prized in cooking. The tails can become so huge that they must be dragged in special carts. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus recorded seeing sheep using such carts more than 2,000 years ago.
54. NGSFOO_141018_290.JPG: Yield: Chickens 12 eggs a year The closest ancestor of today's chickens is the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia. A member of the pheasant family, it lays approximately 10 to 15 eggs a year and looks much like today's most common breeds of domesticated chickens.
55. NGSFOO_141018_292.JPG: 364 eggs a year: By breeding for higher yields, farmers have increased the egg production of domesticated chickens from about a dozen to roughly 200 to 300 eggs a year. One chicken even laid 364 eggs in a single year.
56. NGSFOO_141018_295.JPG: Supporting civilizations: Grain helped feed the first cities in the Middle East at least 5,000 years ago. Feeding large populations requires a dependable source of food that can be stored for long periods. Empires were built on barley, wheat and other agricultural products, which could feed armies, support a governing class and free workers to develop other trades. The Sumerian Ziggurat of Ur, built more than 5,000 years ago, showed what civilizations could accomplish when agriculture freed workers from the daily pursuit of food.
57. NGSFOO_141018_301.JPG: Size: Atlantic Cod: Smaller and smaller: Atlantic cod were once so large that fishermen reported catching "man-sized" cod in Canada. In 1895, a six-foot (1.8-meter) cod was caught off Massachusetts and the nearly five-foot (1.5-meter) sculpture of a cod at the Boston Statehouse may reflect what was once a common size for the fish. But years of selectively removing the largest cod has left behind fewer, smaller fish.
58. NGSFOO_141018_304.JPG: Tradeoffs: Unintended consequences of overfishing: Atlantic cod populations are under severe fishing pressure -- overall numbers have dropped by 90 to 99 percent in the North Atlantic since 1970. By removing the largest fish, fishermen have left behind a population of smaller adults that mature younger. Worse yet, the removal of a top predator has significantly altered the entire ecosystem.
59. NGSFOO_141018_307.JPG: Size: Atlantic Cod 1890s: Six feet 1970s: Two feet 1980s: 18 inches
60. NGSFOO_141018_319.JPG: Tradeoffs: Bye-bye, bananas? Bananas are the most popular fruit in the world. Though hundreds of traditional varieties are still grown in the tropics, most bananas raised for export come from a single group of genetically identical cultivars, the Cavendish group -- which is now threatened by a deadly fungus. Scientists are working to develop a new, disease-resistant banana, and the fate of large-scale banana plantations like this one hangs in the balance.
61. NGSFOO_141018_326.JPG: Location Adapted to local environments A plant or animal is no use to humans if it can't survive where we want to raise it. So people have bred thousands of new varieties specifically adapted to the locations where they are grown.
62. NGSFOO_141018_329.JPG: Location: Potatoes: South American plant goes global: Between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago, local people in South America's Andes Mountains bred a poisonous plant into edible potatoes. Thousands of kinds of potatoes still grow in the Andes, in different spots on the mountains -- whether high or low, sunny or shady -- have potatoes suited to that location. From this region, potatoes spread around the world, and many new varieties were especially adapted for their new growing conditions. Potatoes are now the world's fourth most important staple food crop.
63. NGSFOO_141018_332.JPG: South America Potato Park, Peru: Potato Park, or Parque de la Papa, is a preserve in the Andes where hundreds of traditional varieties of potatoes are grown, preventing them from disappearing forever.
64. NGSFOO_141018_333.JPG: Ancient potatoes: Thousands of traditional potato varieties are still grown in the Andes Mountains of South America, where they were first domesticated; a sampling is shown here, with their traditional Quechua names. These ancient heirlooms provide vital genetic diversity from which to breed modern, disease-resistant strains.
65. NGSFOO_141018_336.JPG: Ancient potatoes: Thousands of traditional potato varieties are still grown in the Andes Mountains of South America, where they were first domesticated; a sampling is shown here, with their traditional Quechua names. These ancient heirlooms provide vital genetic diversity from which to breed modern, disease-resistant strains.
66. NGSFOO_141018_339.JPG: Tradeoffs: Potato famine: It took over 100 years to adapt potatoes to the climate of northern Europe, but eventually, potatoes thrived there. One variety, known as the Lumper, became the primary food of Ireland. This dependence on a single variety proved disastrous. In the 1840s, a fungus struck the potato crop, triggering a famine in which crop failure and continued exports of other foods resulted in the deaths of one in eight Irish people in three years. Fortunately, the genetic diversity conserved in the Andes let Ireland adopt more fungus-resistant breeds. Potato blight: Ireland's tragic potato famine was caused by the potato blight Phytophtora infestans, which also attacks tomatoes. Born to be Fried: In the US, a potato variety called the Russet Burbank remains the primary potato for French fries. It has an ideal size, shape, texture and sugar content for frying -- and it grows well in places like Idaho and Washington. China: Number one nation: Potatoes are now grown in over 100 countries and have been adapted to grow in locations ranging from sea level to mountainsides. The world's largest producer and consumer of potatoes is now China.
67. NGSFOO_141018_342.JPG: Potato famine: It took over 100 years to adapt potatoes to the climate of northern Europe, but eventually, potatoes thrived there. One variety, known as the Lumper, became the primary food of Ireland. This dependence on a single variety proved disastrous. In the 1840s, a fungus struck the potato crop, triggering a famine in which crop failure and continued exports of other foods resulted in the deaths of one in eight Irish people in three years. Fortunately, the genetic diversity conserved in the Andes let Ireland adopt more fungus-resistant breeds.a.
68. NGSFOO_141018_345.JPG: Born to be Fried: In the US, a potato variety called the Russet Burbank remains the primary potato for French fries. It has an ideal size, shape, texture and sugar content for frying -- and it grows well in places like Idaho and Washington.
69. NGSFOO_141018_348.JPG: China: Number one nation: Potatoes are now grown in over 100 countries and have been adapted to grow in locations ranging from sea level to mountainsides. The world's largest producer and consumer of potatoes is now China.
70. NGSFOO_141018_350.JPG: Taste It's all about the flavor Once people learned to modify their foods through selective breeding, one obvious goal was to create pleasing flavors -- whether by growing an extra spicy pepper or a super-sweet apple or carrot.
71. NGSFOO_141018_352.JPG: Crap Apple: Small and bitter: Most wild apples are small and bitter, like these crab apples.
72. NGSFOO_141018_359.JPG: Taste: Apples: Kept sweet by cloning: Believe it or not, almost every apple you eat was produced by cloning. Why? Apple seeds are just too variable: Plant a seed from a Golden Delicious, and most likely you'll get ... a crab apple. To grow sweet apples, you have to clone other sweet apples.
73. NGSFOO_141018_362.JPG: How to clone an apple: To clone apples, people snip live branches from trees known to produce tasty apples and attach them to the trunks of other trees. The new apples are genetically identical -- literally, clones -- of the original tree. This process is called "grafting."
74. NGSFOO_141018_365.JPG: 7 times less bitter: Domesticated apples are about seven times less bitter, and half as sour, as wild apples.
75. NGSFOO_141018_367.JPG: Taste: Chiles: A better pepper: The indigenous peoples of the Americas bred peppers that were much spicier and much easier to grow in varied climates than the black pepper grown in Asia. These American chile peppers quickly became adopted all around the world, including Asia -- but their origins are all in the Americas.
76. NGSFOO_141018_370.JPG: Germ killers? Chiles were often thought to keep food from spoiling in warm climates. Modern research confirms that chiles do in fact have antimicrobial properties, which may have evolved to protect the peppers themselves from fungus.
77. NGSFOO_141018_374.JPG: Bird buddies: Birds can't taste capsaicin, the chemical that makes chile spicy for people. So birds eat all the chile peppers they want and scatter the seeds over wide areas -- which in turn helps the wild plants spread.
78. NGSFOO_141018_378.JPG: SHU Index
79. NGSFOO_141018_381.JPG: Scoville Index How Hot? How do you measure spiciness? Scientists give each pepper a number rating in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). These numbers tell you how much sugar water needs to be added to a ground-up pepper until its heat can't be tasted. The hottest peppers need to be diluted a million to one before the heat disappears, for an SHU of 1,000,000. Today, though, machines measure the chemicals that make each pepper hot.
80. NGSFOO_141018_384.JPG: Taste Tomatoes Bred for transport by truck Wild ancestor: The ancestors of today's tomatoes, which still grow wild in Peru, were the size of peas. Soft and juicy: Over the centuries, farmers bred many varieties of delicious, juicy tomatoes -- but they couldn't be transported very far, because they would quickly rot or be crushed. Hard and flavorless: Today, most supermarket tomatoes are picked green and hard, trucked long distances and then turned red with ethylene gas. Because they have been bred for yield, hardiness and "shelf life," not flavor or nutrition, their taste can be very disappointing.
81. NGSFOO_141018_388.JPG: USA Growing Corn in Iowa Almost 25 percent of all cropland in the United States is devoted to growing corn. But nearly all of the corn grown in the US is "field corn," used to make animal feed, ethanol fuel, corn syrup and other industrial products. Less than one percent is sweet corn, the type we commonly eat as corn on the cob, for example. The vast majority of the corn planted in Iowa is genetically modified. In the US, there is currently no national labeling system for genetically modified foods.
82. NGSFOO_141018_393.JPG: Large-Scale Commercial Farming Pros Larger yields, less work: When a single high-yield crop is planted over a vast area, specialized farm machinery can do much of the work. Without this equipment, it would take many more people to produce the same amount of food. Lower prices: Economies of scale have allowed large-scale farms to produce more food at lower financial cost, generally reducing prices for the consumer. Standardization: Through uniform production practices, famers [sic] can maintain consistent quality. Large-scale buyers, such as manufacturers of French-friend potatoes, care strongly about consistency. Cons Lack of resilience: When a single crop is planted, an unusual weather event or pest can wipe out the entire crop. In 1970, the Southern corn leaf blight devastated farms across the country. Resource intensive: Farmers often have to use chemicals -- herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers -- to increase crop yields and profitability, sometimes harming the local environment and contaminating water downstream from farms. Reducing biodiversity: By planting a single crop over a large area, habitat for pollinators and the natural enemies of agricultural pests may be destroyed. Pesticides also kill beneficial insects and microorganisms.
83. NGSFOO_141018_403.JPG: Transport Buying, selling, shipping, sharing Many of us don't grow our own food: we typically buy it from grocery stores or small markets. The food on the shelves of your local store may have traveled across an ocean to reach you -- or just across the road. Apples, for instance, are an important crop in New York and Washington State, but are also shipped globally from New Zealand and Chile. All around the world, food is exchanged in may ways -- among family, friends and neighbors, in stores and markets, in restaurants, between governments and corporations. And whether we use bicycles or container ships, humans have been as creative in coming up with ways to trade and transport food as they have in growing, cooking and eating it.
84. NGSFOO_141018_411.JPG: Plant Diversity Varied Seeds Although we cultivate only a fraction of the world's plant species, those we do farm come in a wide variety. There are 30 species of wheat... representing many thousands of varieties! Some are resistant to pests, some can withstand drought and some just taste good. By selecting for, or combining, desirable traits, farmers and scientists are able to develop new -- and better -- varieties. Yet much plant variety is at risk. Here are some of the ways that people are working to conserve this diversity, even as monoculture -- the planting of a single variety -- has become widespread.
85. NGSFOO_141018_414.JPG: Supporting Native Habitat: Conserving land is a critically important way to maintain plant diversity. Parque de la Papa (Potato Park), comprising 22,000 acres (8,900 hectares) and six villages in the Peruvian Andes, aims to sustain the native habitats -- and traditional growing methods -- for about 900 varieties of potato.
86. NGSFOO_141018_418.JPG: 4.5 million seed samples Global Seed Supply: Nestled underground chambers built into permafrost on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, the Global Seed Vault can store up to 4.5 million unique seed samples from food crops and their related wild species. Those seeds are a backup supply, in case politics, war, climate change or other factors cut off access to those stored in less-remote seedbanks. On-farm Conservation: In Nepal, farmers have partnered with scientists to register Pokhaerli Jehobudho -- a specially bred mix of several of the rice varieties that grow in Pokhara Valley> This is one way to maintain diversity: supporting farmers in planting their own seed, year after year. As local environments change, plants adapt and new varieties emerge. When farmers buy seed commercially, a few varieties often dominate and local varieties can die out.
87. NGSFOO_141018_420.JPG: Svalbard Global Seed Vault
88. NGSFOO_141018_423.JPG: Global Seed Supply: Nestled underground chambers built into permafrost on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, the Global Seed Vault can store up to 4.5 million unique seed samples from food crops and their related wild species. Those seeds are a backup supply, in case politics, war, climate change or other factors cut off access to those stored in less-remote seedbanks.
89. NGSFOO_141018_429.JPG: Conserving Diversity Why Do We Need Variety? Your local grocery store or farmers' market may seem like a cornucopia of amazing foods -- more diverse than ever before. But is it? There are thousands of plant species that are edible to humans, but we actually use only a small portion for food. And while the shelves may be full of meat, milk and eggs, these come from just a few breeds of livestock; many others are in danger of becoming extinct. So farmers and scientists are developing creative methods, from community and international seed "banks" to habitat and on-farm conservation, to protect plant and animal diversity.
90. NGSFOO_141018_432.JPG: "Cooking" without Heat Making a yummy dish doesn't always mean heating food: Why cook food, anyway? Sometimes it's simply to make things taste better. Heat also causes chemical reactions that make food easier to chew and digest -- plus it kills germs. Bacteria, fungus, mold and yeast need your food as much as you do, and a hot stove or oven generally kills these microbes. But there are other ways to prevent the growth of microbes. What's more, some microbes are actually good for us: they can make food more nutritious, taste better or last longer.
91. NGSFOO_141018_435.JPG: Microbes in Us: Some microbes cause diseases -- but others are crucial to our health, assisting our immune system, digestion and vitamin synthesis, for example. Scientists are now mapping the microbial DNA present inside humans and studying the complex relationship with our microbial partners, which we are only now beginning to understand.
92. NGSFOO_141018_437.JPG: Keeping Food Fresh No fridge? No problem! One familiar way to keep food fresh is to keep it cool: cold temperatures slow the growth of microbes that spoil food and cause disease. But even before refrigerators were invented, people had discovered other ways to preserve food. Need to keep food from spoiling? Just add...
93. NGSFOO_141018_443.JPG: Canning: Canning dates back to the early 1800s when French chef Nicolas Appert invented the technique. The French military had offered a reward for anyone presenting an effective way to preserve food for soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars. Canning protects food from spoiling in two ways: sterilizing the food by heating it enough to kill all microbes and preventing new microbes from entering the sealed container once the food cools.
94. NGSFOO_141018_445.JPG: Pickling: Pickled foods are prepared by soaking them in an acid such as vinegar. Sometimes the acid is added, but sometimes it's simply produced by live bacteria inside the food itself. Acids prevent many harmful microbes from growing, which is why pickling vegetables and other foods like hard-boiled eggs makes them last longer.
95. NGSFOO_141018_447.JPG: Sugar: Sugar, like salt, keeps bacteria from growing by drawing water from cells. When cooked in sugar, fruit becomes "preserves" such as jam, jelly or marmalade. "Candied fruit," which has been sugared and dried, can last for years.
96. NGSFOO_141018_449.JPG: Salt: Salt keeps microbes from growing by drawing water out of their cells. Heavy salting can preserve many foods for a year or more.
97. NGSFOO_141018_451.JPG: Smoke: Smoke adds flavor -- and when combined with other preservation methods, prevents meat from spoiling. Wood smoke contains several chemicals that prevent microbes from growing, including acids, antioxidants and antimicrobial disinfectants.
98. NGSFOO_141018_454.JPG: Drying: Drying food prevents spoiling because bacteria, yeast and mold cannot grow without water. People have been drying fruit, fish, meats and other foods for thousands of years, using sunlight, fire, hot sand and exposure to cold temperatures and low humidity.
99. NGSFOO_141018_462.JPG: Dishing it Up: From Chopsticks to Cheese Graters: Whether stirring simmering soup with a spoon, twirling pasta on a fork or dishing up stir-fried tofu with chopsticks, most people rely on utensils at almost every meal. Many utensils have a long history: stones sharpened for cutting -- basically knives or choppers -- are perhaps the oldest human tools, and chopsticks and spoons have been in use for many, many generations. But while humans have been adapting natural objects like shells for use as spoons for thousands of years, forks arrived on the scene much more recently.
100. NGSFOO_141018_463.JPG: Smell chambers for cinnamon and ginger
101. NGSFOO_141018_468.JPG: What's the Recipe? A Collection of Global Cookbooks: While people have been cooking for hundreds of thousands of years, cookbooks are comparatively recent. Until the 1800s, widespread use of cookbooks was rare. Many people, including cooks, couldn't read, and recipes were traditionally passed along by word of mouth, often from mother to daughter. But today written recipes, whether collected in The Joy of Cooking or downloaded with the latest cooking app, are widely available, offering not only instructions for tasty meals but also a window into our aspirations in the kitchen.
102. NGSFOO_141018_471.JPG: Oldest recipes: Dating from about 1750 BC, this Babylonian clay tablet contains the oldest known collection of cooking recipes. One of two tablets from this time, together they include recipes for 25 types of meat and vegetable stew. Both were written in cuneiform, probably by trained scribes.
103. NGSFOO_141018_474.JPG: France: La Guide Culinaire: Born in 1847, Auguste Escoffier was often called the "king of chefs and the chef of kings." At London's Ritz Carlton Hotel in the early 1900s, he did indeed serve monarchs as well as celebrities. His cookbook Le guide culinaire remains a bible of sorts for classic French restaurant cooking, with an emphasis on "proper" techniques, such as making stock and butter-rich sauces.
104. NGSFOO_141018_481.JPG: United States: The Joy of Cooking: First published in 1931 by Irma S. Rombauer, a St. Louis housewife, and revised by her family over the years, the classic American cookbook The Joy of Cooling has sold about 18 million copies and is still going strong. A clearly written guide for both beginning and experienced cooks, Joy can be found on kitchen shelves across the United States and even the world. Tastes like chicken? Comprehensive in scope, The Joy of Cooking has long included tips on the practice of preparing and cooking wild game. A line drawing in older editions revealed how to skin a squirrel (left) and text elsewhere notes that cooks should "trap 'possum and feed it on milk and cereals for 10 days before killing."
105. NGSFOO_141018_486.JPG: Taste: Science in the Kitchen: How do we sense food? The human mouth can sense at least five tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savory). But the full flavor of a food is much more than just these basic tastes -- think of the subtle differences between the flavors of strawberry and cherry. All five senses, and most of all your brain, work together to create the perception of a flavor. Many other factors are also at work, including anatomy, genetics, evolution, culture, memory and marketing.
106. NGSFOO_141018_494.JPG: Waste in America: Your family's share: About 414 pounds (188 kg) of food is discarded for each person in the United States each year at home, in stores and in restaurants. That's 1,656 pounds (751 kg) for a family of four -- the amount in this sculpture. And this is just consumer waste -- even more food is lost on farms and in processing and transportation. What a family of four throws out each year: 1,656 lbs What Americans throw out each year: 126 billion lbs 19% milk & dairy, except eggs 14% grain products 10% added sugar & sweeteners 8% processed fruits & vegetables 18% meat, poultry, fish & seafood 7% fats & oils 2% eggs, nuts, other 22% fresh fruits & vegetables
107. NGSFOO_141018_497.JPG: The Effect of Advertising: Billions of dollars are spent to shape the food preferences of consumers and steer them to certain brands of foods.
108. NGSFOO_141018_507.JPG: Groceries for a week: What people eat depends in part on where they live. In some places only local products are available or affordable. But more and more, people have access to the foods and cuisines of far-flung cultures -- baguettes in Beijing, for example, as well as international brands of processed foods. Photographs of families posed with a week's worth of groceries document the variety in kinds and quantities of food consumed around the world.
109. NGSFOO_141018_509.JPG: United States: 3,774 caloric intake available daily per person 69.4% population overweight The Fernandezes San Antonio, Texas US $242.48 weekly food expenditure Egypt: 3,338 caloric intake available daily per person 69.8% population overweight The Ahmeds Cairo US $68.83 weekly food expenditure
110. NGSFOO_141018_512.JPG: Mexico 3,145 Caloric intake available daily per person 69.1% population overweight The Casaleses, Cuernavaca US $189.09 weekly food expenditure United States 3,774 Caloric intake available daily per person 69.4% population overweight The Cavens, American Canyon, California US $159.18 weekly food expenditure
111. NGSFOO_141018_515.JPG: Australia 3,054 Caloric intake available daily per person 61.3% population overweight The Malloys, Brisbane US $303.75 weekly food expenditure Great Britain 3,412 Caloric intake available daily per person 61.5% population overweight The Baintons, Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire US $253.15 weekly food expenditure
112. NGSFOO_141018_518.JPG: Ecuador 2,754 Caloric intake available daily per person 56% population overweight The Aymes, Tingo US $31.55 weekly food expenditure Australia 3,054 Caloric intake available daily per person 61.3% population overweight The Molloys, Brisbane US $303.75 weekly food expenditure
113. NGSFOO_141018_521.JPG: Germany 3,496 Caloric intake available daily per person 54.8% population overweight The Melanders, Bargtehehide US $500.07 weekly food expenditure Ecuador 2,754 Caloric intake available daily per person 56% population overweight The Aymes, Tingo US $31.55 weekly food expenditure
114. NGSFOO_141018_523.JPG: Italy 3,671 Caloric intake available daily per person 49.2% population overweight The Manzos, Palermo, Sicily US $260.11 weekly food expenditure Guatemala 2,219 Caloric intake available daily per person 53.9% population overweight The Mendozas, Todo Santos, Cuchumatan US $75.70 weekly food expenditure
115. NGSFOO_141018_525.JPG: Philippines 2,379 Caloric intake available daily per person 26.9% population overweight The Cabanas, Manila US $49.42 weekly food expenditure Mongolia 2,249 Caloric intake available daily per person 47.1% population overweight The Batsuuris, Ulaanbaatar US $40.02 weekly food expenditure
116. NGSFOO_141018_527.JPG: China 2,951 Caloric intake available daily per person 25% population overweight The Dongs, Beijing US $155.06 weekly food expenditure China 2,951 Caloric intake available daily per person 25% population overweight The Cuis, Weitaiwu village, Beijing Province US $57.27 weekly food expenditure
117. NGSFOO_141018_531.JPG: Chad 2,114 Caloric intake available daily per person 15.7% population overweight The Mustaphas, Dar es Salaam village US $18.33 weekly food expenditure Mali 2,174 Caloric intake available daily per person 21% population overweight The Natomos, Kouakourou US $26.39 weekly food expenditure
118. NGSFOO_141018_533.JPG: India 2,459 Caloric intake available daily per person 11.2% population overweight The Paktars, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh US $39.27 weekly food expenditure Chad 2,114 Caloric intake available daily per person 15.7% population overweight The Mustaphas, Dar es Salaam village US $18.33 weekly food expenditure
119. NGSFOO_141018_536.JPG: In the United States more than half of hungry households are white, and two-thirds of those with children have at least one working adult. -- The New Face of Hunger, August 2014, National Geographic Magazine
120. NGSFOO_141018_541.JPG: Too Little Lands of Scarcity Around the world, about 870 million people are hungry -- that's one in eight. Whether chronically malnourished or facing starvation as a result of crisis, they do not have access to enough food. In developing countries, more than 100 million young children are underweight. Hunger around the globe: In some African countries, more than 35 percent of the population is undernourished (dark blue). The largest total number of chronically malnourished people live in Asia -- even though many Asian countries have lower levels of hunger (lighter blues), they include the world's largest populations. There are more hungry people in the world that the combined populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union. 98% of the world's undernourished live in developing countries 1 in 8 people worldwide is [sic] undernourished
121. NGSFOO_141018_545.JPG: 98% of the world's undernourished live in developing countries
122. NGSFOO_141018_550.JPG: There are more hungry people in the world that the combined populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union.
123. NGSFOO_141018_551.JPG: 1 in 8 people worldwide is [sic] undernourished
124. NGSFOO_141018_554.JPG: Why Too Little? Unequal Access: Enough food is produced in the world to feed everyone, but it is not distributed equally. Underlying problems of poverty, political dysfunction and lack of access to land and resources contribute to world hunger. Natural disasters and armed conflicts, as well as volatile food prices and trade policies, also play a role. Hunger in the Americas: Haiti, Guatemala, Paraguay, Bolivia and Nicaragua have the highest hunger levels in the Americas. Hunger in Africa: Although millions remain hungry in sub-Saharan Africa, levels actually have decreased since the 1990s. Investing in small farms can help. Hunger in Asia: Most of the world's undernourished people live in Asia, the world's most populous continent -- more than 400 million in India, China, and Pakistan alone. Hungry: Hunger levels Top 20 countries: The hunger level for a particular country is determined by counting the number of people who are undernourished -- for adults that means consuming fewer than 1,800 calories a day -- and dividing by the total population. Burundi -- 73% Eritrea -- 65% Zambia -- 47% Haiti -- 45% Ethiopia -- 40% Mozambique -- 39% Tanzania -- 39% Congo -- 37% Uganda -- 35% Namibia -- 34% Chad -- 33% Zimbabwe -- 33% North Korea -- 32% Tajikistan -- 32% Yemen -- 32% Liberia -- 31% Central African Republic -- 30% Guatemala -- 30% Kenya -- 30% Sierra Leone -- 29% What is food scarcity? Experts who monitor world hunger use the term "food secure" to mean that enough food is available, people can afford it and get to the place where it is sold or traded, and that it is safe and nutritious. Even in countries where relatively few are undernourished, getting steady meals can be a challenge for many. In 2011, almost 15 percent of US households were not food secure at some point during the year. Marketing: Some food manufacturers promote high-calorie foods that are low in vitamins and minerals. These foods are often inexpensive but high in fat and sugar. One-two punch: Some countries face problems of both hunger and obesity, including Egypt (photo). Where undernutrition remains a problem, people are vulnerable to infectious disease. At the same time, with more high-fat, high-sugar and high-calorie foods available, obesity is on the rise -- along with heart disease and diabetes.
125. NGSFOO_141018_558.JPG: Why Too Little? Unequal Access: Enough food is produced in the world to feed everyone, but it is not distributed equally. Underlying problems of poverty, political dysfunction and lack of access to land and resources contribute to world hunger. Natural disasters and armed conflicts, as well as volatile food prices and trade policies, also play a role.
126. NGSFOO_141018_560.JPG: Hunger in the Americas: Haiti, Guatemala, Paraguay, Bolivia and Nicaragua have the highest hunger levels in the Americas. Hunger in Africa: Although millions remain hungry in sub-Saharan Africa, levels actually have decreased since the 1990s. Investing in small farms can help. Hunger in Asia: Most of the world's undernourished people live in Asia, the world's most populous continent -- more than 400 million in India, China, and Pakistan alone.
127. NGSFOO_141018_563.JPG: What is food scarcity? Experts who monitor world hunger use the term "food secure" to mean that enough food is available, people can afford it and get to the place where it is sold or traded, and that it is safe and nutritious. Even in countries where relatively few are undernourished, getting steady meals can be a challenge for many. In 2011, almost 15 percent of US households were not food secure at some point during the year.
128. NGSFOO_141018_570.JPG: Hungry: Hunger levels Top 20 countries: The hunger level for a particular country is determined by counting the number of people who are undernourished -- for adults that means consuming fewer than 1,800 calories a day -- and dividing by the total population. Burundi -- 73% Eritrea -- 65% Zambia -- 47% Haiti -- 45% Ethiopia -- 40% Mozambique -- 39% Tanzania -- 39% Congo -- 37% Uganda -- 35% Namibia -- 34% Chad -- 33% Zimbabwe -- 33% North Korea -- 32% Tajikistan -- 32% Yemen -- 32% Liberia -- 31% Central African Republic -- 30% Guatemala -- 30% Kenya -- 30% Sierra Leone -- 29%
129. NGSFOO_141018_572.JPG: Marketing: Some food manufacturers promote high-calorie foods that are low in vitamins and minerals. These foods are often inexpensive but high in fat and sugar. One-two punch: Some countries face problems of both hunger and obesity, including Egypt (photo). Where undernutrition remains a problem, people are vulnerable to infectious disease. At the same time, with more high-fat, high-sugar and high-calorie foods available, obesity is on the rise -- along with heart disease and diabetes.
130. NGSFOO_141018_578.JPG: Why Too Much? Living big The obvious explanation for the global rise in obesity is that people are eating more and are less physically active than in the past. But that's not all: genetic factors, lack of sleep, industrial chemicals in the environment and microbes in the digestive tract may also play a role. Obesity, oil and urbanization: Many countries in the Arab League are seeing rapid increases of obesity levels in recent decades -- in some of these countries, more than 70 percent of the population is overweight. Pacific Islands obesity: People in the Pacific Islands have the world's highest obesity levels, in part because imported, high-calorie foods have replaced traditional diets in recent decades. Healthy Balance Nutritional breakdown: Chemically speaking, food is mainly made up of fat, protein and carbohydrates, which have calories (a measure of energy). It also contains water and small amounts of vitamins and minerals. All of these nutrients are needed for good health. In fact, it's possible to become overweight and malnourished at the same time by eating too many foods, like candy, that provide calories but are low in vitamins and minerals. Today: Big Food: In the United States, portion sizes have expanded so much that a restaurant meal today is about four times larger than in the 1950s. 1950s: Hamburger: 3.9 oz Soda: 7 oz Fries: 2.4 oz Today: Hamburger: 12 oz Soda: 42 oz Fries: 6.7 oz What is overweight? Adults are considered overweight if they have a body mass index, or BMI, between 25 and 29; 30 or higher is considered obese. BMI compares a person's height and weight. For two people of the same height, the one who weighs more has a higher BMI. Overweight/obesity levels: Top 20 countries: This bar graph (left) gives the percentage of a country's population that is overweight and obese as defined by body mass index, or BMI (below). Jordan -- 69% overweight, 34% obese Mexico -- 69% overweight, 33% obese Bahamas -- 69% overweight, 35% obese United States -- 69% overweight, 32% obese Egypt -- 70% overweight, 35% obese Bahrain -- 70% overweight, 35% obese Bahrain -- 70% overweight, 33% obese Belize -- 71% overweight, 35% obese Saudi Arabia -- 71% overweight, 35% obese United Arab Emirates -- 72% overweight, 34% obese Qatar -- 72% overweight, 33% obese St. Kitts and Nevis -- 76% overweight, 41% obese Micronesia -- 77% overweight, 42% obese Kuwait -- 79% overweight, 43% obese Marshall Islands -- 80% overweight, 47% obese Kiribati -- 81% overweight, 46% obese Palau -- 82% overweight, 51% obese Samoa -- 86% overweight, 56% obese Tonga -- 88% overweight, 60% obese Cook Islands -- 91% overweight, 64% obese Nauru -- 93% overweight, 71% obese
131. NGSFOO_141018_582.JPG: Why Too Much? Living big The obvious explanation for the global rise in obesity is that people are eating more and are less physically active than in the past. But that's not all: genetic factors, lack of sleep, industrial chemicals in the environment and microbes in the digestive tract may also play a role.
132. NGSFOO_141018_584.JPG: Today: Big Food: In the United States, portion sizes have expanded so much that a restaurant meal today is about four times larger than in the 1950s. 1950s: Hamburger: 3.9 oz Soda: 7 oz Fries: 2.4 oz Today: Hamburger: 12 oz Soda: 42 oz Fries: 6.7 oz
133. NGSFOO_141018_590.JPG: Healthy Balance Nutritional breakdown: Chemically speaking, food is mainly made up of fat, protein and carbohydrates, which have calories (a measure of energy). It also contains water and small amounts of vitamins and minerals. All of these nutrients are needed for good health. In fact, it's possible to become overweight and malnourished at the same time by eating too many foods, like candy, that provide calories but are low in vitamins and minerals.
134. NGSFOO_141018_597.JPG: What is overweight? Adults are considered overweight if they have a body mass index, or BMI, between 25 and 29; 30 or higher is considered obese. BMI compares a person's height and weight. For two people of the same height, the one who weighs more has a higher BMI.
135. NGSFOO_141018_600.JPG: Too Much: Lands of plenty: Worldwide, more than a billion adults -- about 35 percent -- are overweight or obese, even more than are undernourished and hungry. That does not include an additional 42 million young children who are overweight. Being overweight can carry long-term health consequences, including heart disease and diabetes. More than 1 in 10 adults are obese Obesity has more than doubled since 1980 More people are overweight than undernourished Overweight populations around the globe: Countries with the highest percentage of overweight people (dark orange) tend to be industrialized and urbanized. Yet obesity is rising in some developing countries as well.
136. NGSFOO_141018_605.JPG: Overweight populations around the globe: Countries with the highest percentage of overweight people (dark orange) tend to be industrialized and urbanized. Yet obesity is rising in some developing countries as well.
137. NGSFOO_141018_608.JPG: Eat The world on a plate If you could sit down for a meal in any part of the world, at any time in history, what meal would you choose? The diversity of human food is extraordinary. What we eat depends on the landscape around us, our traditions and technologies, how we make a living and what we believe. Our family's food might come on a plate -- another may be spread on a tray, wrapped in a leaf or poured in a bowl. Behind every meal is a story about the person who ate it, the culture that shaped it and the place and the era in which it was served.
138. NGSFOO_141018_612.JPG: Livia Drusilla Appetizers in Ancient Rome What was it like to dine with the Romans? Imagine sharing an evening meal some 2,000 years ago with Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus, first emperor of Rome. At the country home of this powerful hostess, dinner would likely begin with a rich array of savory starters, some familiar, others intriguingly different from modern European cuisine.
139. NGSFOO_141018_615.JPG: Livia Drusilla (58 BC - AD 29) Old World Elegance In this gracious room, the table is set for Livia Drusilla, empress of ancient Rome. As the wife of Augustus Caesar, Livia presided over the highest echelons of Roman society some 2,000 years ago, when Rome's power was still expanding. When dining at her country villa just north of the city, she could afford the finest of the empire's cuisine. The appetizers presented here are just the beginning of an elegant three-course Roman meal. Table Service: A bustling team of slaves and servants prepared and delivered gustatio, mensa prima and mensa secunda, the three courses that made up a Roman cena, or evening meal. Dining While Reclining: A formal Roman dining room is known as a triclinium, from a Greek word meaning "three beds." Three couches stood around a small table where the meal was served. Each couch could fit three guests, who reclined on their left sides, so their right hands were free for eating. If unexpected guests turned up, they sat just behind the reclining diners and were known as umbrae, or shadows.
140. NGSFOO_141018_618.JPG: Dining While Reclining: A formal Roman dining room is known as a triclinium, from a Greek word meaning "three beds." Three couches stood around a small table where the meal was served. Each couch could fit three guests, who reclined on their left sides, so their right hands were free for eating. If unexpected guests turned up, they sat just behind the reclining diners and were known as umbrae, or shadows.
141. NGSFOO_141018_620.JPG: Livia Drusilla (58 BC - AD 29) Old World Elegance In this gracious room, the table is set for Livia Drusilla, empress of ancient Rome. As the wife of Augustus Caesar, Livia presided over the highest echelons of Roman society some 2,000 years ago, when Rome's power was still expanding. When dining at her country villa just north of the city, she could afford the finest of the empire's cuisine. The appetizers presented here are just the beginning of an elegant three-course Roman meal.
142. NGSFOO_141018_625.JPG: What's on the table? Livia Drusilla Honeyed Wine: Early Roman commonly diluted their wine, made from local grapes. They also often sweetened it with honey for an aperitif known as mulsum. Salted Sea Urchins: With an empire that nearly surrounded the Mediterranean Sea, the early Romans prized fish and shellfish. Salted sea urchins with a delicate fish sauce were recommended after a trip to the baths. Herbal Salad: Romans in the upper classes delighted in herbs, greens and other vegetables, and often grew their own. The salad shown here combines leek, mint, cilantro, parsley and thyme with salted fresh cheese, crushed in a mortar and dressed with vinegar and oil. Eggs in Pine-Nut Sauce: A traditional meal in Livia's day began with eggs. "From egg to apple" was a Roman way of saying "from start to finish." This egg dish is flavored with local pine nuts, the herb lovage, black pepper imported from India, and garum, a salty sauce made from fermented fish. Fresh Eggs: Like many wealthy Romans, Livia was a passionate gardener. She is said to have cultivated her own variety of fig, known as the Liviana. Olives: The pungent taste of olives was as popular in Rome 2,000 years ago as it is today. Romans used a wide array of curing techniques to create different flavors.
143. NGSFOO_141018_628.JPG: Livia Drusilla (58 BC - AD 29) Imperial Hostess Fish for an ancient Roman dinner, from a mosaic in Pompeii A noblewoman from an illustrious family, Livia owned her own villa just outside Rome. The display presented here is an imaginative re-creation of a richly decorated room discovered in the villa's ruins. White it may have had many purposes, some scholars thing that on occasion, this cool, sunken chamber could have been used as a triclinium, a place for festive drinking and dining.
144. NGSFOO_141018_631.JPG: Special Sauce No Roman meal was complete without garum, a sauce made by mixing crushed fish with salt and allowing it to ferment in the sun, then saving the clear liquid that formed at the top. The varieties of garum ranged from pungent and salty to mild and subtle. Just as modern Europeans use salt and pepper, early Roman diners used fine-quality garum at the table, adding it to dishes to suit their own tastes. What Was Missing? Early Romans enjoyed many foods that were still popular in Italy today, including bread, olives, cheese, fish, shellfish and wine. But some staples of modern Italian cuisine were unknown at this time. Tomatoes: Tomatoes originated in South America and were unknown in Italy until the early 1500s, when Europeans brought them back from the Americas. Pasta: Ancient Romans made laggnum, thin sheets of dough that may have been a forerunner of lasagna. But laganum was likely fried, rather than boiled, as pasta is today. The first clear evidence of boiled noodles in Italy dates to the early Middle Ages. Coffee: Ancient Rome had no expresso, cappuccino or caffe latte. In Livia's time, the coffee plant grew only in Ethiopia. Coffee beans would not be roasted and traded for another thousand years. Citrus fruits: Citrus fruits originated in Asia. Citron, a bitter fruit used as medicine, was the first to arrive in Rome. Oranges and lemons may have turned up late in Livia's life but aren't mentioned in recipes from the time.
145. NGSFOO_141018_635.JPG: Jane Austen Ice Cream Before Electricity Known for her sharp-witted novels about love and manners among the English gentry, Jane Austen did most of her writing in the early 1800s, more than a century before most European households had electricity. Although she lived comfortably and ate well, she had fewer food choices than most English people do today At the time, a summer treat as simple as ice cream was quite a luxury.
146. NGSFOO_141018_641.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817) Summer Refreshment English author Jane Austen completed her best-known novels in the early 1800s, at a country house she shared with her mother and sister. The family had servants, a beautiful garden, a large kitchen and a cellar to keep foods cool. But Austen enjoyed even finer things at the home of her wealthier brother Edward. His large estate came equipped with an icehouse, so he could serve chilled treats like ice cream on hot summer days. Godmersham Park, Kent, home of Jane Austen's brother Edward Inside an Icehouse: Before electric refrigeration, a well-to-do English family with a large estate could have ice cut from frozen ponds in winter and packed into an icehouse: a sunken, shaded shelter that kept the ice cold into the summer months. Diagram: A layer of earth covered the roof, for insulation. A vaulted or domed roof covered a deep underground chamber. A drain at the bottom carried melt-water away. Some icehouses had a hatch on top, for pouring ice in. Entrances had both inner and outer doors to keep out warm air. Icehouses typically stood in shady areas, protected from sun. Icehouses became popular in England in the 1700s, but in Asia they are thought to date back more than 2,000 years. This traditional mud-brick icehouse, or yakhchal, preserved ice in the desert heat of central Iran.
147. NGSFOO_141018_644.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817) Summer Refreshment English author Jane Austen completed her best-known novels in the early 1800s, at a country house she shared with her mother and sister. The family had servants, a beautiful garden, a large kitchen and a cellar to keep foods cool. But Austen enjoyed even finer things at the home of her wealthier brother Edward. His large estate came equipped with an icehouse, so he could serve chilled treats like ice cream on hot summer days. Godmersham Park, Kent, home of Jane Austen's brother Edward
148. NGSFOO_141018_646.JPG: Inside an Icehouse: Before electric refrigeration, a well-to-do English family with a large estate could have ice cut from frozen ponds in winter and packed into an icehouse: a sunken, shaded shelter that kept the ice cold into the summer months. Diagram: A layer of earth covered the roof, for insulation. A vaulted or domed roof covered a deep underground chamber. A drain at the bottom carried melt-water away. Some icehouses had a hatch on top, for pouring ice in. Entrances had both inner and outer doors to keep out warm air. Icehouses typically stood in shady areas, protected from sun. Icehouses became popular in England in the 1700s, but in Asia they are thought to date back more than 2,000 years. This traditional mud-brick icehouse, or yakhchal, preserved ice in the desert heat of central Iran.
149. NGSFOO_141018_653.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817) Decorative Dessert In Jane Austen's day, only the most privileged English families served "ices" -- frozen desserts made of fruit, sugar and water or cream. Cooks often pressed these concoctions into fruit- or flower-shaped molds to make frosty, alluring sculptures. "For Elegance and Ease and Luxury," Austen wrote while staying at the manor house of her wealthier brother Edward, "I shall eat Ice & drink French wine" -- two exclusive treats that she did without at her own modest home. Special Attraction: Long before ice cream could be bought in a carton and taken home, it was served as a novelty at English pleasure gardens -- commercial parks with fanciful walkways, fountains, theaters and ballrooms. From 1810 to 1804, Jane Austen lived with her parents across from one of these colorful playgrounds, Sydney Gardens in the city of Bath. World Favorite: Today, variations on the ice cream idea can be found around the world. Italians created gelato, which is similar to ice cream but with less butterfat. A Japanese confection called mochi ice cream is a ball of pounded sticky rice with an ice cream filling. Sorbets, frozen desserts made with sweetened water, have many variations, from Hawaiian shave ice to Indian chuski.
150. NGSFOO_141018_659.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817) Decorative Dessert In Jane Austen's day, only the most privileged English families served "ices" -- frozen desserts made of fruit, sugar and water or cream. Cooks often pressed these concoctions into fruit- or flower-shaped molds to make frosty, alluring sculptures. "For Elegance and Ease and Luxury," Austen wrote while staying at the manor house of her wealthier brother Edward, "I shall eat Ice & drink French wine" -- two exclusive treats that she did without at her own modest home.
151. NGSFOO_141018_661.JPG: Special Attraction: Long before ice cream could be bought in a carton and taken home, it was served as a novelty at English pleasure gardens -- commercial parks with fanciful walkways, fountains, theaters and ballrooms. From 1810 to 1804, Jane Austen lived with her parents across from one of these colorful playgrounds, Sydney Gardens in the city of Bath. World Favorite: Today, variations on the ice cream idea can be found around the world. Italians created gelato, which is similar to ice cream but with less butterfat. A Japanese confection called mochi ice cream is a ball of pounded sticky rice with an ice cream filling. Sorbets, frozen desserts made with sweetened water, have many variations, from Hawaiian shave ice to Indian chuski.
152. NGSFOO_141018_669.JPG: Kublai Khan An International Cuisine Flavors from eastern, western and central Asia mixed at the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongolian ruler who conquered China and became the first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271-1368). Like his grandfather Genghis Khan, this fabled leader dreamed of a world empire, and he dined on a sumptuous multicultural cuisine.
153. NGSFOO_141018_676.JPG: Kublai Khan (1215-1294) Meal for a Mongol Emperor When Mongol ruler Kublai Khan became emperor of China in the late 1200s, he set the stage for a remarkable culinary exchange. Kublai Khan was born on the Mongolian steppe, but he modeled his rule on the customs of China. As the head of an alliance of Mongol rulers, he claimed power across the vast expanses of central and western Asia. At Kublai Khan's court, inventive cooks blended foods from these distant regions for a delicious array of exotic and original meals. Asian Fusion: To create an imperial meal like the one shown here, Kublai Khan's cooks combined techniques and ingredients from the far corners of the Yuan empire, as well as lands controlled by less powerful Mongol rulers, or khans. Turkik Central Asia: Noodles Persia and Middle East: Chickpeas Safflower Sharbat Mongolia: Mutton Fermented mare's milk Nettles Oleaster fruit China: Carp Mandarin oranges Tsao-ko cardamom How Do We Know? No menus survive from Kublai Khan's court, but his diet can be pieced together from an imperial cookbook published not long after his reign. Titled Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor's Food and Drink, this book contains dozens of recipes for soup, the classic one-pot meal of the nomadic Mongols.
154. NGSFOO_141018_678.JPG: Kublai Khan (1215-1294) Meal for a Mongol Emperor When Mongol ruler Kublai Khan became emperor of China in the late 1200s, he set the stage for a remarkable culinary exchange. Kublai Khan was born on the Mongolian steppe, but he modeled his rule on the customs of China. As the head of an alliance of Mongol rulers, he claimed power across the vast expanses of central and western Asia. At Kublai Khan's court, inventive cooks blended foods from these distant regions for a delicious array of exotic and original meals.
155. NGSFOO_141018_680.JPG: Asian Fusion: To create an imperial meal like the one shown here, Kublai Khan's cooks combined techniques and ingredients from the far corners of the Yuan empire, as well as lands controlled by less powerful Mongol rulers, or khans. Turkik Central Asia: Noodles Persia and Middle East: Chickpeas Safflower Sharbat Mongolia: Mutton Fermented mare's milk Nettles Oleaster fruit China: Carp Mandarin oranges Tsao-ko cardamom How Do We Know? No menus survive from Kublai Khan's court, but his diet can be pieced together from an imperial cookbook published not long after his reign. Titled Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor's Food and Drink, this book contains dozens of recipes for soup, the classic one-pot meal of the nomadic Mongols.
156. NGSFOO_141018_683.JPG: What's On the Table? Kublai Khan Flower-shaped Dumplings: Pockets of dough stuffed with meat or vegetables have a long history from China to the Middle East. The mutton dumplings shown here were likely borrowed from Turkik people in Central Asia, but modified with a dash of Chinese mandarin orange peel and dyed with safflower blossoms for a golden hue. Green Onions: Airag was served with green onions at the court of Kublai Khan. Airag: This drink of fermented mare's milk, also known as koumiss, has been a staple of Mongolia and other parts of Central Asia for thousands of years. Red-Currant Sharbat: Sweet, refreshing drinks made from fruit syrup are traditional in Iran, an area that was ruled by Mongols during Kublai Khan's reign. The word sharbat comes from an Arabic word, which gave us syrup, sherbet and sorbet. Fried Fish: Fried carp is a Chinese dish. In one recipe from the Yuan Dynasty, the fish are marinated in coriander and bean paste, fried in vegetable oil and tinted amber with safflower dye. Steamed Mutton: The most important dish on Kublai Khan's table was probably mutton, the traditional food of the steppe. As nomads, the Mongols butchered sheep from their own herds and ate the meat grilled, boiled or steamed. Oleaster Fruit Soup: Imperial cooks added a Chinese spice called taso-ko cardamom and Middle Eastern chickpeas to Mongolian mutton soup. This version is flavored with nettles and oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia), a mildly sweet fruit that grows wild on the Mongolian steppe.
157. NGSFOO_141018_689.JPG: Kublai Khan (1215-1294) A Moveable Feast Like his nomadic ancestors, Mongol emperor Kublai Khan moved with the seasons, from his winter capital, Dadu -- not Beijing -- to his summer one in today's Inner Mongolia, called Shangdu, or Xanadu. He often stayed in a breezy garden outside his marble palace at Shangdu, holding court in his "pleasure palace" -- an opulent house made of cane that could be taken down and put up very quickly, like a traditional Mongolian ger, or yurt. Marco Polo: Venetian merchant Marco Polo may have visited Kublai Khan at Shangdu, and he described the hospitality at palace banquets: "Officers.... are continually visiting every part of the hall, inquiring of the guests if there is anything with which they are unprovided, or whether any of them wish for wine, milk, meat, or other articles, in which case it is immediately brought to them." Behind the Scenes: Mongol courts were filled with foreigners, so Koreans, Persians Russians, Kashmiris and Tibetans could easily have worked in the kitchen of Kublai Khan. To prevent poisoning, key posts such as cook, table manager and waiter were filled by an elite group of imperial bodyguards.
158. NGSFOO_141018_692.JPG: Kublai Khan (1215-1294) A Moveable Feast Like his nomadic ancestors, Mongol emperor Kublai Khan moved with the seasons, from his winter capital, Dadu -- not Beijing -- to his summer one in today's Inner Mongolia, called Shangdu, or Xanadu. He often stayed in a breezy garden outside his marble palace at Shangdu, holding court in his "pleasure palace" -- an opulent house made of cane that could be taken down and put up very quickly, like a traditional Mongolian ger, or yurt.
159. NGSFOO_141018_694.JPG: Marco Polo: Venetian merchant Marco Polo may have visited Kublai Khan at Shangdu, and he described the hospitality at palace banquets: "Officers.... are continually visiting every part of the hall, inquiring of the guests if there is anything with which they are unprovided, or whether any of them wish for wine, milk, meat, or other articles, in which case it is immediately brought to them." Behind the Scenes: Mongol courts were filled with foreigners, so Koreans, Persians Russians, Kashmiris and Tibetans could easily have worked in the kitchen of Kublai Khan. To prevent poisoning, key posts such as cook, table manager and waiter were filled by an elite group of imperial bodyguards.
160. NGSFOO_141018_698.JPG: Otzi A 5,000-Year-Old Meal Some of the most intriguing information we have about prehistoric food in Europe comes from a slim, brown-eyed traveler now known as Otzi, brown-eyed traveler now known as Otzi, who may have been a cattle owner or village chief some 5,000 years old. After he died in the Alps, snow and ice covered is body and kept it preserved. By examining samples from his mummified remains, researchers have been able to pinpoint with surprising precision the composition of Otzi's last meals.
161. NGSFOO_141018_701.JPG: Frozen Dinner Ancient Relic: The remains of the man now called Otzi first came to light in 1991, when two hikers spotted his head and shoulders poking up from the ice in an alpine glacier. The body still wore bits of clothing, and several tools, including an ancient-looking copper ax (below), were scattered nearby. Carbon dating later proved this mysterious "iceman" was a relic from around 3100 BC, close to the time when people in what's now England started building the circular monument Stonehenge. Dried Fruit: Otzi was traveling in early summer, when fresh meat wasn't available, but he may have had dried fruit from the season before. His intestines contained traces of fruit, and at the site where he died, researchers found remains of a kind of wild plum called sloe (Prunus spinosa). Dried Meat: Otzi's final meal included a helping of meat, as revealed by animal fibers discovered in his stomach. DNA tests have traced the fibers to ibex (Capra ibex), a kind of wild goat. For long-distance travel, Otzi probably carried the meat dried, wrapped in bracken leaves. Bread: Particles of einkorn, an ancient variety of wheat, were found in Otzi's digestive system. They were particularly fine textured, suggesting the grains had been ground and made into bread. Other finds from the area show that people sometimes used a heated stone as a griddle to cook sourdough. Birch-Bark Container: Otzi carried two jars made of birch bark. Inside one, scientists found maple leaves and traces of charred wood. To light fires for cooking and warmth, Otzi may have brought smoldering embers from place to place in this jar, wrapped in fresh leaves for insulation. Inside the Iceman: To learn how Otzi lived and died, scientists have analyzed CAT scans of his body and collected tiny samples from his organs using computer-guided titanium tools.
162. NGSFOO_141018_708.JPG: Wangari Maathai Fresh, Local and Nutritious Environmental and human rights advocate Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots campaign to restore forests and improve living conditions in rural Kenya. To help Kenyan families keep nutritious food on the table, her organization offers tips for planting and maintaining kitchen gardens -- small plots of vegetables for home-cooked meals made with fresh ingredients like the one shown here.
163. NGSFOO_141018_710.JPG: Kenyan Comfort Food From the Ground Up: While working with women's groups in Kenya in the 1970s, Wangari Maathai learned that village women had to travel far to find firewood for cooking. She suggested planting trees, and this simple project grew into a movement. Since 1977, when she founded the Green Belt Movement, more than 40 million trees have been planted in Kenya, restoring forests that protect the soil and water. Tea: Maathai was born in Kenya's Central Highlands, a region with rich red soil and frequent rains. The highlands' fertile slopes are ideal for growing tea, brewed with milk and sugar in Kenyan homes. Irio: Maathai belongs to Kenya's Kikuyu ethnic group, who traditional live by farming. Educated in the United States and Europe as well as Kenya, she enjoyed simple dishes like irio, a Kikuyo stew of potatoes, corn, peas and greens cooked and mashed together in the Kikuyu language, irio simply means "food," and Maathai said the dish always reminded her of the earth. Chicken Stew: In Kenyan villages, meals are centered on grain and vegetables, but a cook might add a meat dish, and Maathai liked to eat her irio with chicken strew. Nobel Laureate: For her contributions toward sustainable development, Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
164. NGSFOO_141018_715.JPG: Michael Phelps An Olympic-Sized Breakfast As a young athlete, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps liked to visit his favorite diner and order enormous breakfasts like this one. Phelps was then a growing teen, but even as an adult, when his training was extremely intense before the 2008 Olympic Games, he ate an estimated two to three times what is recommended for an active man. Phelps could eat that much without gaining weight because his activity levels were extreme -- he swam six days a week, for up to six hours a day.
165. NGSFOO_141018_720.JPG: Power Meal Energy to Burn: Competitive athletes like Michael Phelps burn thousands of calories by exercising many hours a day. Even after a breakfast this size, Phelps would still need more fuel for six hours of swimming, which he might complete in one day during heavy training. Five-Egg Omelet: This one omelet contains almost 30 grams of protein -- half of what is recommended for a man to eat in an entire day. Protein is a nutrient that helps build and repair muscles. However, this omelet also contains three times the maximum daily recommendation for cholesterol. Fine for an elite athlete, but not for the average person. Fried-Egg Sandwiches: The lettuce, tomatoes and fried onions in these sandwiches are the only vegetables in this massive meal. To stay healthy, nutritionists recommend eating at least two and a half cups of fruit and vegetables every day and choosing other cooking methods over frying. Coffee: When consumed together with carbohydrates, the caffeine in coffee may help muscles recover from heavy exercise. Many athletes believe caffeine boosts performance, and it is one of the ten stimulants allowed at the Olympic Games. French Toast: Dishes made from grains, like grits, pancakes and French toast are especially high in carbohydrates. Athletes doing more than two hours of strenuous activity a day can load u on foods like these before competing to keep muscles stocked with glycogen, a kind of stored energy. A Little Lighter: For most adults, even those who are moderately active, nutritionists recommend a daily intake of 2,000 to 2,500 calories, made up mostly of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and low-fat meats and dairy products.
166. NGSFOO_141018_728.JPG: Mohandas Gandhi A Vegetarian Tradition By some estimates, 40 percent of the people of India are strict vegetarians, following a tradition that has thrived in the region for more than 2,000 years. Civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) was raised on a meatless diet in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat. In the Jain and Hindu faiths that influence Gajarati culture, meat eating is considered a violation of ahimsa -- a principle that one should do no harm to living beings.
167. NGSFOO_141018_731.JPG: Growing Up Without Meat Free Thinker: Mohandas Gandhi experimented with diet throughout his life, often preparing and eating meals that were quite different from those of his youth. When he was 36, he took a vow of celibacy, and from this point on he avoided many sensual pleasures, including the mouthwatering spices that are a hallmark of Indian cuisine. As part of the struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi also used hunger strikes as a dramatic form of political protest, sometimes going without food for days or weeks at a time. With millions of followers, he was often able to bend the will of more powerful leaders by placing his life on the line. Rotli: The everyday bread of Gujarat is whole-wheat, unleavened and cooked on a griddle, then smeared with ghee, or clarified butter. Shaak: In Gujarat, vegetable dishes called shaak are a traditional part of vegetarian meals. One recipe combined long green beans and eggplant with chiles, garlic, ginger, a spice called adjowan, and asafoetida, a strong-smelling resin that imparts a savory flavor when heated. Rice: Rice is India's leading food crop and a staple of meals in most parts of the country. The average Indian consumes 208 grams -- close to a half a pound -- of rice a day. Kadhi: The typical vegetarian diet in India includes milk products, which don't require the slaughter of animals. A dish known as kadhi is made form yogurt of buttermilk thickened with chickpea flour in Gujurat, it is flavored with cumin, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and chiles -- a distinctive mix of sour, sweet and hot. Water: Before the era of modern plumbing, India had an array of traditional systems for providing drinking water. At the house where Gandhi was born, water from monsoon rains collected on a roof terrace and flowed down a pipe into a private restaurant. Different Diets: When Mohandas Gandhi was in his teens, a Muslim friend introduced him to meat. Gandhi tried it in secret, thinking it might provide strength to overthrow British rule. But after a few meals, he quit to avoid hiding the offense from his mother, a devout vegetarian.
168. NGSFOO_141018_735.JPG: Free Thinker: Mohandas Gandhi experimented with diet throughout his life, often preparing and eating meals that were quite different from those of his youth. When he was 36, he took a vow of celibacy, and from this point on he avoided many sensual pleasures, including the mouthwatering spices that are a hallmark of Indian cuisine. As part of the struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi also used hunger strikes as a dramatic form of political protest, sometimes going without food for days or weeks at a time. With millions of followers, he was often able to bend the will of more powerful leaders by placing his life on the line.
169. NGSFOO_141018_737.JPG: Gandhi (left) with his friend Sheikh Mehtab, who encouraged him to eat meat. Different Diets: When Mohandas Gandhi was in his teens, a Muslim friend introduced him to meat. Gandhi tried it in secret, thinking it might provide strength to overthrow British rule. But after a few meals, he quit to avoid hiding the offense from his mother, a devout vegetarian.
170. NGSFOO_141018_750.JPG: Breakfast What in the world? Do you recognize these common breakfast foods from around the world? Some dishes seem traditional to one culture, but have many far-flung "cousins." Consider fried dough. In the United States, it might take the form of a donut, sometimes dunked in coffee. In China, it is you tiao -- sticks of fried dough -- often dipped in hot soymilk. And in Spain, people enjoy churros, dipped in hot chocolate.
171. NGSFOO_141018_759.JPG: Consuming insects is a good way to boost protein intake. Approximately two billion people around the world eat bugs regularly. -- NatGeoFood.com
172. NGSFOO_141018_762.JPG: What's Next? The future of eating Our population is expanding, while standards of living are also changing and our environment is increasingly strained. How will future food production meet the growing demand? Will our diets have to change? Can technology provide the answers? New trends in biotechnology, health science, processing and cooking technologies, as well as issues like climate change, will all affect what we eat. Exactly which foods will become fashionable in the future is impossible to predict. Most likely, some exist now, but are underutilized; some have yet to be found or invented; and some will be so radically different we would hardly recognize them today as food.
173. NGSFOO_141018_764.JPG: Peach Palm: The peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) grows well in Central and South America and produces a large, nutritious fruit. The tree's spiny trunk makes the fruit hard to harvest -- but breeders are now developing spineless varieties.
174. NGSFOO_141018_766.JPG: Quinoa: This grain (Chenopodium quinoa) from the Andes contains all the essential amino acids the human body needs for protein and has no gluten.
175. NGSFOO_141018_767.JPG: Emmer wheat: While millions are spent on high-tech hybrids, neglected crops like the grain emmer (Triticum dicoccum), which requires less fertilizer and fewer pesticides than current used breeds, are already being grown in places like Turkey.
176. NGSFOO_141018_770.JPG: Insects: Over 2,000 species of insects are already eaten worldwide, including mopane worms (Gonimbrasia belina) in South Africa. Insects are high in protein and require much less land, water and food than animals raised for meat.
177. NGSFOO_141018_772.JPG: Ready Now Underused and overlooked: About 2,500 plant species have been domesticated for food. But today, almost half our food calories come from just three grains: wheat, maize, and rice. What about the thousands of overlooked plant species -- and an untapped diversity of animals? These resources could provide solutions to problems like the need for resilience in our food production systems and the need to meet growing demands without depleting natural resources. Here are a few promising examples.
178. NGSFOO_141018_775.JPG: Sea buckthorn Sea buchthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) uses nitrogen from the air as fertilizer, thanks to specialize bacteria in its roots. These dense roots are also used to prevent soil erosion in China. The berries are hard to pick, but new machines should help with the harvest.
179. NGSFOO_141018_777.JPG: Algae Seaweed and other algae, already popular in Japan, are highly nutritious and can be grown in both fresh water and salt water.
180. NGSFOO_141018_779.JPG: Giant swamp taro The giant swamp taro (Cyrtosperma chamissonis), which grows well in the salty, sandy soil of many Pacific islands, is rich in vitamins and minerals. Yellow varieties are high in beta carotene, which can help prevent blindness.
181. NGSFOO_141018_782.JPG: Minor millets These cereals have been grown in Asia for 6,500 years. Many farmers in India and Nepal are now switching from growing crops like maize and rice back to traditional varieties bred to grow on local mountainsides.
182. NGSFOO_141018_785.JPG: Not Ready Yet Foods of tomorrow Many foods we'll eat in the future don't yet exist. Researchers constantly tinker with plant and animal ingredients, processed foods and even packaging, to improve flavor and nutrition. A few samples are below -- but the biggest changes may come from ideas we cannot yet imagine. Breathable chocolate: Want the flavor of real chocolate, without the calories? You can now inhale tiny particles of chocolate, as a mist. Patch in a pinch: Some essential nutrients could soon be given to soldiers and astronauts through a patch on the skin, for quick absorption in emergencies. "Smart" packaging In the near future, food packaging could monitor foods to detect ripeness or spoiling -- or even actively prevent foods from spoiling.
183. NGSFOO_141018_822.JPG: Day of the Dead: Mexicans welcome the dead back to the world of the living with a special meal on the Day of the Dead, a celebration linked with the Catholic festival All Souls' Day. A family may place food on a decorated altar at home or bring the meal to the grave. The meaning and customs of the Day of the Dead have changed over time. For many Mexican-Americans, the holiday has become a symbol of cultural identity. In some parts of Mexico, local traditions now mix with those of a North American holiday, Halloween.
184. NGSFOO_141018_824.JPG: Eggs as Art: Using a tool filled with melted wax, a Ukrainian artist draws intricate patterns on an egg, a symbol of life for the celebration of Easter.
185. NGSFOO_141018_829.JPG: Sugar skulls: On the Day of the Dead, Mexicans traditionally give each other decorative sweets made of sugar paste or chocolate, often in the shape of little skulls. Sugar figures may also be used to decorate altars for the dead, along with candles, papier-mache skeletons, flowers and favorite foods.
186. NGSFOO_141018_834.JPG: Decorated eggs: The egg, an ancient symbol of birth and renewal, has long been used by European Christians to celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. In Ukraine, some eggs are dyed a single color and enjoyed as food. Others, known as pysanky, or "written" eggs, are adorned more elaborately and never eaten, but displayed or exchanged as gifts. The pysanky shown here are decorated with patterns from many parts of Ukraine.
187. NGSFOO_141018_842.JPG: Passover seder plate: The Jewish holiday of Passover celebrates the ancient Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt. At a Passover meal, called a seder, symbolic foods are displayed on a special plate: bitter herbs for the bitterness of life in slavery; charoset, a mixture of fruit and nuts, for the mortar the Israelites used as enslaved laborers; an egg and a lamb bone for sacrifices practiced in Biblical times; and fresh greens for spring renewal.
188. NGSFOO_141018_850.JPG: Bread of the dead Sugar-dusted bread and rolls with baked-in designs that look like bones are known in Mexico as pan de muerto, or "bread of the dead." On the Day of the Dead, these decorated breads are placed on altars or brought to graves as offerings for relatives who have passed away.
189. NGSFOO_141018_856.JPG: Moche ceramics These pots belonged to the Moche people, who flourished more than 1,200 years ago in northern Peru. The pots were shaped to look like harvested produce: stacked bowls of fruit and peanuts (right), and pacay pods (Inga feuilli, left), legumes cultivated for their sweet, cottony pulp. These images of food were placed in graves, perhaps as symbolic nourishment for the dead.
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