[Graeme]

The End of Food By Paul Roberts $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ith at least 100 million people in 22 countries threatened by the global food crisis, world leaders are meeting in Rome to discuss a joint response. But to settle on solutions, we must understand root causes. But these are just proximate causes, others argue. The real culprit? The global food system itself: its inherent vulnerability, lack of democracy and increasingly concentrated power.

As more of the planet shifts to our centralized, industrial model of food procurement and our over-processed, fast-food style of food consumption, we are careening ever faster, Roberts argues, down an unsustainable road.

Indeed, Roberts' book might more aptly have been titled "The End of Our Oil-Addicted, Energy-Intensive, Monopolized Food System," but that doesn't really roll off the tongue. (Plus, it wouldn't have so clearly been tied to his previous book, "The End of Oil.")

Roberts is strongest when he discusses, at the book's end, what we can do. With the industrial food system responsible for as much as one-third of global greenhouse-gas emissions (and livestock production alone accounting for 18 percent of emissions), now is not the time for half-measures. Sure, we can (and should) make constructive consumer choices, Roberts argues. He passionately calls for us to head back to our kitchens, for instance. And he writes that "if we're to have any chance of meeting future food demand in a sustainable fashion, lowering our meat consumption will be absolutely essential."

But he also calls for a "kind of direct action": "That means lobbying Congress to reform the farm program ... It means demanding that Congress increase funding for research into alternative farming methods ... It means lobbying school boards to improve lunch programs and dump junk food. It means working with the plethora of local and regional groups who are already building regional food systems. Ultimately, it means taking back control of your own food."

[Fishman]

Anywhere in the book about the need to ramp up birth control? Abandoning junk food, though a lofty goal, is a p#ss in the wind. Cutting back on meat won't happen unless necessity demands it.

[dohboi]

It was just reviewed in the NYTimes.

[CarlosFerreira]

The man is probably right, but we need more. It's not just more food; it's more local food, more family planning, eventually a new trend towards vegetarianism. As Fishman said, people in the Western World won't happily eat less unless they have to, and that includes non-necessary food, like snacks.

Funny: a thread just came up a few minutes ago concerning reducing the calories intake per person.Perhaps people are beginning to talk about it.

[Ludi]

The Food Race