This is a course in two halves. For the first three weeks we explore the extraordinary 450 million-year evolution of plants and the inventive ways they solved the many problems arising from the move on to dry land – gravity, nutrition, desiccation and the particularly intractable and surprising issue of reproduction.

After half term we discover how humans adapted this bountiful heritage in the invention of agriculture, why, where and how this happened, and why this step has been described as “the worst mistake in history “. We continue with an overview of the key discoveries and different approaches to food growing in places as diverse as China, the Americas, the Islamic World and Britain. We culminate with the revolutionary changes of the Twentieth Century and the challenges and possibilities of the future.

The course should provide a fascinating new perspective on the plants that grow in your garden.

https://www.fromecommed.org.uk/courses/id/seed-to-fork-the-deep-history-of-food