Food Revolutions: From Paleo to AI

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This chapter examines how scientific revolutions, discoveries, and technologic inventions shape human diets and impact the environment, from the Paleolithic Era to the present, highlighting how we access, prepare, and consume food. It illustrates that Stone Age hunter-gatherers were largely vegetarians who consumed a plant-based diet and scavenged animals. Sapiens began growing crops and raising animals during the Neolithic Revolution (birth of agriculture), resulting in poorer diets and social inequalities. Farming was mechanized during the Industrial Revolution intensive chemical practices enhanced crop growth while selective breeding increased yields, the hallmarks of the Green Revolution. It explores seminal science and technology breakthroughs, including the human genome (Genetic Revolution), computing (Digital Revolution and Information age), and now artificial intelligence (AI), that continuously transform food access, shopping, cooking, and eating. Finally, it highlights the Top 20 food and drink inventions, musing when genetic engineering (GMOs) and artificial intelligence (AI) will join the list.