Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Food

A visitor examines Edvard Munch's The Scream at the National Museum in Oslo, Norway. 

Security Stopped Climate Activists From Gluing Themselves to ‘The Scream’

As similar protests play out throughout Europe, museums consider how to respond

Dried medjool dates at a market in Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates.

The Sweet and Sticky History of the Date

Throughout the Middle East, the versatile fruit has been revered since antiquity. How will it fare in a changing world?

The 6,000-year-old watermelon seeds from Uan Muhuggiag (left) border a child eating a modern watermelon.

Why Prehistoric Herders Didn’t Spit Out Their Watermelon Seeds

Thousands of years ago, Saharans ate the kernels before the fruit became sweet

Truffles have spread around the world, including to countries in South America.

How Truffles Took Root Around the World

For centuries, the wild delicacy grew only in Europe. But improved cultivation techniques have enabled the pricey fungus to be farmed in new places.

The centuries-old tradition involves sorting these woolly creatures after a summer of free-grazing on mountain grasses and berries in the highlands.

Iceland’s Annual Tradition of Counting Sheep Is Far From Sleepy

Every fall, across the country, farmers and their friends and family gather to sort the ewes and rams that spent the summer free-grazing

Last Generation protesters throw mashed potatoes at a Monet painting in Germany. 

Why Are Climate Activists Throwing Food at Million-Dollar Paintings?

In the most recent stunt, protesters tossed mashed potatoes at Monet’s “Grainstacks” in Germany

Researchers detected toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, benzene and other harmful compounds in samples from unlit gas stoves.

Gas Stoves Are Leaking Toxins Into California Homes

Researchers found cancer-causing benzene and other air pollutants in samples from 159 Golden State residences

Prickly pear fruit growing on cactus

Is There a Market for Edible Cactus in the United States?

Often treated as a weed, the versatile prickly pear cactus could be the next big specialty crop

A mosquito larva launches its head to capture prey dangled in front of it.

Mosquito Larvae Launch Their Heads to Capture Prey

Advances in technology allowed researchers to film these cannibalistic insects hunting for the first time

Researchers excavating a large wooden post

Cool Finds

Ancient Maya Salt Makers Worked From Home, Too

Archaeologists in Belize have found 1,500-year-old salt kitchens attached to workers’ homes

Two Hadza men in Tanzania carry bows and their catch.

Our Ancestors Ate a Paleo Diet, With Carbs

A modern hunter-gatherer group known as the Hadza has taught researchers surprising things about the highly variable menu consumed by humans past

An experimental vineyard at Cornell AgriTech’s McCarthy Farm in Geneva, New York, where researchers are studying hybrid grapes

Are Hybrid Grapes the Future of Wine?

Scientists, growers and winemakers are working with experimental varieties to adapt to the effects of climate change

Fishers caught about 108 million pounds of lobster in 2021, valuing a record $725 million at the docks.

Lobsters Placed on ‘Red List,’ Angering Maine Fishing Community

Seafood Watch announced that consumers should avoid lobsters, because their traps threaten the endangered North Atlantic right whale

Ads like this one for Tesco turkey in London may no longer be allowed in the Dutch city of Haarlem starting in 2024.

A Dutch City Is Banning Some Meat Advertisements in Public Spaces

The climate change-motivated move is accompanied by bans on fossil fuel ads elsewhere in the Netherlands

Dehydrated carrageen looks nothing like the beautiful red fronds easily identified in coastal rocky pools.

A Brief History of Ireland’s Carrageen Moss Pudding

The curious dessert—combining a seaweed found on the Emerald Isle’s coast with dairy—lies in the hands of regular folks who enjoy a challenge

A vendor displays chili peppers at a local market in India. 

Why Do Some Humans Love Chili Peppers?

An anthropologist traces the origins and paths of one of his favorite kinds of plants

Breadfruit grows on trees.

Is Breadfruit the Climate Change-Proof Food of the Future?

New research suggests it will fare better than our current staple crops under warming conditions

Few arguments showcase the fraught politics of state foods than the debate over red and green chiles in New Mexico.

The Contentious History of Official State Foods

How a bill about muffins, chili, or plums becomes law—or doesn’t

Left, the Pula Arena is the sixth-largest Roman amphitheater still standing and one of the best preserved. Right, the port in the coastal town of Fažana.

In Istria, Roman Ruins, Unique Wines and Prized Truffles Await

Journey to the coast of Croatia, where you’ll encounter an inviting coastline, ancient mummies and so much more

Research indicates that those of us in the West should eat less meat to live more sustainably.

How Much Meat Should We Eat?

To be sustainable, scientists say we should consume fewer animals products

Page 18 of 86