When the Second World War ended and food rationing gradually became a thing of the past in the United Kingdom, the first bananas to arrive in stores were so exciting, so tantalizing, that children would wolf them down — skin and all. It was the dawn of a new era. An exotic fruit once available only to the rich and well traveled took hold with the masses.

New foods often precede new knowledge. As part of our month exploring the future of food — and how what we eat will change us — we’ve collated a list of articles and videos to bring you up to date on the world’s eating habits and its outlook.

While you read, take stock of this:

“The doctrine of foods is of great ethical and political significance. Food becomes blood, blood becomes heart and brain, thoughts and mind stuff. Human fare is the foundation of human culture and thought. Would you improve a nation? Give it, instead of declamations against sin, better food. Man is what he eats.”

— Ludwig Feuerbach, Concerning Spiritualism and Materialism (1863/4)