Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Food

Taken by ship to North America and Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, the tiny fruit gave rise to all the many tomato varieties enjoyed today.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Why Is This Wild, Pea-Sized Tomato So Important?

Native to northern Peru and southern Ecuador, this tiny and rapidly vanishing tomato boasts outsized influence on world gastronomy

Ensuring a bountiful harvest will require some ingenuity.

Anthropocene

How Will We Feed 9 Billion People on Earth of the Future?

This week’s Generation Anthropocene reveals how seeds on ice and poisonous tubers may offer hope for food security

Cool Finds

Here’s How to Make a Record Out of a Tortilla

Yes, it’s edible

People Who Bring Their Own Grocery Bags are More Likely to Buy Junk Food

It’s all about perceived virtue

Cool Finds

In the Future, Grocery Stores May be More Like ATMs

Robots and motion detection expand the idea of what it means to shop

Cool Finds

Canned Goods and Cucumber Seeds: Food Banks Are Starting to Give Out Garden Starters

Canned goods take a backseat to freshly-grown produce

A small cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) hovers on a hedge mustard plant (Sisybrium officinale). While the butterfly might look harmless enough, its caterpillars engage in a chemical war with this mustard plant's cultivated relatives.

New Research

Mustard Is A Product Of Evolutionary Warfare Between Plants And Caterpillars

Plants produce mustard oils to fight off pests in a chemical conflict that’s been waged for millions of years

The Foods Americans Once Loved to Eat

Turtles, beavers and eel were once beloved staples of the continental diet. What happened?

A genetically modified lamb from a research lab in France was accidentally sent to market in November. It's unclear who might have eaten her.

A Genetically Modified Sheep was Sent to a Slaughter House and Sold for Meat

The lamb came from a agricultural research lab and was equipped with a jellyfish gene

Fermented foods, like pickles, may influence social anxiety levels — though it's unclear exactly how and why.

A Pickle a Day May Keep Your Anxiety at Bay

Fermented food appears to calm the nerves of the socially challenged

Napoleon in battle, presumably craving rotisserie chicken

Cool Finds

Napoleon Had a Thing for Rotisserie Chicken

The military powerhouse ate chicken dinners 24/7 — even as his army starved

Some sommelier have taken an interest in pairing strains of marijuana with wine varieties.

Which Wine Should You Pair With Your Weed?

Forget the cheese and charcuterie

New Research

Here’s Why Americans Waste So Much Food

Spoiler alert: desire for freshness, fear of food poisoning play a role

Though still in development, Google's Im2Calorie program can compute the number of calories in a glamor shot of your food.

Google is Trying to Count Calories in Food Porn

All you need is an Instagram photo and an algorithm

Trending Today

Restaurants are Facing an Egg Shortage Thanks to Avian Flu

The outbreak, which spread surprisingly fast, hit farms that produce liquid eggs

Trending Today

Salty Groundwater is Threatening New Mexico’s Chiles

Drought plus salt equals bad news for a state’s signature crop

Trending Today

Auction House is Selling Decades-Old Slices of Royal Wedding Cake

Boxed slices of wedding cakes from British royals are not-so-edible pieces of history

Trending Today

The Most Popular Eating Banana Might Soon Go Extinct

The Cavendish banana is succumbing to a disease that wiped out its predecessor

French supermarkets are now required to donate food that might normally be thrown away around its sell-by date.

French Government Plans to Fine Grocery Stores That Throw Away Food

New regulations require that markets donate extra food or face fines

New Research

Chimpanzees Can Learn to Cook

Given a microwave-like tool, chimpanzees become chefs

Page 64 of 85