Eat up At one time the distance from field to plate was only a few miles People bought foods in season from local markets who were supplied by local farmers Today we can buy exotic foods from distant lands whenever we want Food is traded across the world so now the distance from field to plate can be thousands of miles A bit of everything We eat food to provide our bodies with essential nutrients so we can grow and stay healthy Humans are known as omnivores or eaters of both meat and plants Our early human ancestors got their food by hunting animals and collecting plants and fungi to eat Plants only Some people choose not to be omnivores and prefer to eat just plants algae and fungi and nothing else They are called vegans and vegetarians Some vegetarians might also eat eggs and dairy products such as cheese and yogurt but neither vegans nor vegetarians eat meat A variety of good wholesome foods is essential for a healthy life
Foods from around the world can now be easily enjoyed at home The right color Tacos meatballs and noodles The kinds of food we eat most are usually determined by where we come from Chinese food is very different from Mexican food which in turn is different from Italian food However the food industry today has become so international that people can eat all these foods at any time in many cities around the world The color of food was important to our ancient ancestors The color of fruit for example told them when it was ripe and ready to eat Purple or green mold on food indicated it was rotting and unsafe to eat More recently scientists wanted to see if color still affects the way we look at foods today They colored foods such as freshly baked bread with purple blue and green edible dyes and offered them to people Nobody would eat them The blue gray patches are a fungus called mold It shows this bread is not safe to eat
Food origins Our earliest ancestors hunted wild animals and collected the tastiest plants but it soon became clear that they could get more food and more easily if they looked after animals and controlled how plants grew This was the start of agriculture and the beginning of the journey from field to plate Tracing food origins Wild cattle Many foods we eat every day Ferocious wild cattle known as the aurochs have ancient origins To find out when were once scattered all over Europe and and where they first occurred scientists Asia They were powerful and dangerous study their DNA DNA is in every living cell animals These cattle were tamed by a brave and carries the instructions for what a farmer on an ancient farm in what is now plant or animal will be like and how it will Iran All of today's cattle can be traced back grow DNA also gives us an idea of what to this single herd of just 80 animals that the ancestors of modern foods were like lived about 10 500 years ago DNA can tell us when and where people grew the first crops and raised the first animals and it is surprisingly accurate Ancient peoples were afraid of wild bison and aurochs The aurochs were eventually tamed but the bison were not
The ears of rice bend over with the weight of the ripening grains Wild fowl Wild rice Rice was one of the earliest crops to be cultivated and today it is a dietary staple for millions of people around the world All varieties of rice can be traced back to one wild species that grew in the valley of the Pearl River in southern China between 8 200 and 13 500 years ago The red jungle fowl of India and Pakistan is the ancestor of all the chickens in Europe the Americas the Middle East and Africa The ancient Egyptians called it the bird that gives birth every day Asian chickens have a different Jungle fowl ancestor Wild potatoes Almost every variety of potato we grow today originally came from a type of wild potato that grew on the islands of the Chiloé Archipelago off the coast of south central Chile It was brought to Europe by Spanish explorers in 1562 first to the Canary Islands and later to mainland Europe
