Once upon a time, Mankind across the globe hunted and gathered, obtaining the nutrition and materials only available to each group locally, and at the expense of great time and effort. Thankfully, the use of fire and various methods of cooking made these foods much more nutritious, pound for pound, and much easier and quicker to digest, and more completely as well. Mankind continued to prosper for quite a long period of history, with these methods alone.
However, after a time, Mankind turned to agriculture, animal husbandry, and more importantly, selective breeding, to fulfill the needs of growing and complex societies. The ability to feed many more people with much less time and effort expended further fueled the burgeoning population and complexity of these civilizations. The Libraries of Alexandria and the Great Pyramids were built not just with stone and sweat, but with meats, fruits, nuts, grains... food of every kind, available in sufficient abundance.
Today, we face the oncoming consequences of an overpowering, overwhelming, and largely unforeseen change in all the civilizations of the world -- whereas formerly, only an elite handful of intellectuals have ever been publicly credited with the hunting of great ideas, and the painstaking gathering of data and scientific evidence, now these activities are available to nearly anyone, and at a fraction of the price, before, during, and after the process.
To be continued...