(Roughly) Daily

That sentiment dates for the middle of the 19th century. The business of feeding humans (and our livestock) has changed a good bit since. George Steinmetz has traveled the globe documenting current practices. While (on the evidence of his remarkable photos) the process is still beautiful, it does raise some important questions…

Since the domestication of plants began some 11,000 years ago, humans have converted 40% of the earth’s surface into farmland. With the global population expected to reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050, combined with the rising standard of living in rapidly developing nations, it is estimated that we will have to increase the global food supply by 60%. The Feed the Planet project is an examination of how the world can meet the rapidly expanding challenge of feeding humanity without putting more natural lands under the plow. Most of us only come into contact with raw food in the supermarket, and are unaware of the methods used to raise it. In many cases, the food industry goes to significant lengths to prevent us from seeing how our food is produced. Access to this information is central to the personal decisions we make about what we eat, which cumulatively have huge environmental impact. This project seeks to show how our food is produced, so that we can make more informed decisions…

Many more striking photos, and their illuminating stories, at: “Feed the Planet.”

* Edward Everett

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As we study sustenance, we might recall that it was on this date in 1825 that Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City were granted the first U.S. patent for food storage in tin cans. Canning had been practiced at an “industrial” scale in the U.S. since 1812 (when Kensett established the first U.S. canning facility for oysters, meats, fruits and vegetables in New York); Daggett and Kensett had been canning seafood since 1819.