Many of us take for granted the convenience of cooking up a pre-made pizza or a home-cooked meal, but have you ever stopped to think about the innovations that led us to this point? We owe much of our progress as a society to the development of food and nutrition over the years. It’s what powered our evolution as a species and has shaped how we live since the Neolithic revolution.
Join us as we take a journey through the history of food guided by Seamus Higgins, author of the new book Food and Us: The incredible story of how food shapes humanity. We will explore the intricate interplay between our genetic and physical makeup, and how the food we eat plays a part. We will also discuss what changes are needed in our current food systems as urbanisation grows – what societal costs will these changes bring?
Seamus Higgins
Seamus began his career in the food industry as an electrical engineer and has since worked/consulted on various engineering and management positions with several leading international food companies, including Nestlé and Premier Foods. He joined the University of Nottingham in 2017 as course director to develop a new MSc programme in Food Process Engineering. He combines his passion for a more sustainable world and novel food manufacturing techniques with a new generation of process engineers at the University of Nottingham, supporting institutions and wider society.
Seamus is an associate fellow of IChemE, an associate of the Food Systems Institute and a fellow of the Higher Education Authority in the UK. He is also an editorial board member of the Journal of Food Process Engineering.
About the book
Food and Us explores humanity’s extraordinary food journey over the past three million years, examining its profound impact on both our physical and cultural evolution. Food has been a driving force behind our development, transitioning us from hunter-gatherers to contemporary urban societies. The 20th century heralded a significant transformation resulting in rapid changes such as population growth and industrialised agriculture, while also pressing environmental and sustainability concerns.
Recent developments in the food industry have also significantly altered consumer eating habits, often clashing with our biology and impacting body composition. Exploring these issues from an economic, social, political and individual perspective underscores the urgent need for a shift in our current food systems model.
The book is available to order here. Use code FOOD25 at checkout to get 25% off. This code is valid from 1st December 2025 until 23:59 on 31st January 2026.
To aid accessibility, automatically generated closed captions – which can be turned on and off at your leisure – will be available to all those attending live. Please note, a certificate of attendance will be provided soon after the event. You do not need to request this – only those who attend the webinar live will be eligible.
