It is what matters most to to most people for most of the time

From Near A Thousand Tables: A History of Food by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

The great press baron Lord Northcliffe used to tell his journalists that four subjects could be relied on for abiding public interest: crime, love, money, and food. Only the last of these is fundamental and universal. Crime is a minority interest, even in the worst-regulated societies. It is possible to imagine an economy without money and reproduction without love but not life without food. Food, moreover, has a good claim to be considered the world's most important subject. It is what matters most to to most people for most of the time.

All true. And an extreme example of the Paradox of Value or, more strikingly, the Diamond-Water paradox.