The End of Food
Feb.08, 2010 in
Food
- ISBN13: 9780547085975
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product DescriptionSalmonella-tainted tomatoes, riots, and skyrocketing prices are only the latest in a series of food-related crises that have illuminated the failures of the modern food system. In The End of Food, Paul Roberts investigates this system and presents a startling truth—how we make, market, and transport our food is no longer compatible with the billions of consumers the system was built to serve. The emergence of large-scale and efficient food production forever chang. . . More >>
Tags: Food
February 8th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Paul Roberts’ End of Food is plagued by the same problems found in his previous book, The End of Oil.
Parts of both books are interesting as they shed light on some immediate concerns.
But ultimately both books suffer from his obvious lack of understanding of technological innovation (we have heard ‘the end of food’ in the 60s, 70s and 80s as well) and simple economics.
This book is only for those on the far left who have been convinced we are running out of everything for over 40 years.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Since Ehrlich and the Club of Rome, we’ve seen a number of attempts to resurrect the dire, zero-sum predictions of Thomas Malthus. And yet the world enjoys more food and less hunger each year as human beings learn to trade and cooperate over greater distances. That old bugbear, “overpopulation” rears its head again in an effort that reveals an author that is, himself, malnourished when it comes to economics.
Readers will find familiar scapegoats in big box stores that in reality increase the availability of food to everyone — especially the poor. Agricultural subsidies and trade barriers are the real culprits when it comes to price spikes and food shortages. But the “End of Food” is yet another attempt to roll back the gains made by globalization — gains that have filled more bellies than any nostalgia for local growers and rehashed Malthusianism.
Sadly, books like this are an intellectual drought in the garden of plenty. Reflective and open-minded types will turn their eyes to the works of Julian Simon, the ingenuity of Norman Borlaug, and greater understanding of the ecosystem of prices and incentives that enable food markets adapt and change to meet the demands of a healthier, better-fed global population.
Sorry, Mr. Malthus. No more cause for pessimism, today, than in the 18th Century.
Rating: 1 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
THe funny thing about the modern era is how it has consistantly been shaped by the idea of the coming doomsday. The method (nuclear war, overpopulation, climate change) shifts with the wind, but the constant is a belief in the inevitable fall of our “evil” civilization unless we sign up for one political agenda or another.
Paul Roberts is making a career in trading on fear. He was crowned as a genius for writing a book about an energy crisis (the end of oil) shortly before the crisis arrived. As a followup, he is selling on fears about food.
This book is poorly researched, badly organized and doesn’t quite understand what point it wants to make. It can’t decide if it wants to be whiny book about how walmart for social changes in America because it sells cheap food or if it wants to trade in hysteria about rising food prices and diminishing food resources. He can’t decide if he wants to complain about the efficiency of a meat diet or global warming or family social dining habits.
And in the end, the book doesn’t lead anywhere. It ends with Roberts putting out a political agenda about food. Ironically (in a sad sense),
Roberts perscription for fixing his food “crisis” in the end are all the things that the world has been doing for the last 50 years. Bluntly, we need to apply brute force science to food production with a goal of increasing production regardless of consequences or costs.
He pushes genetic modification as one answer. He pushes the elimination of meat production in favor of factory farmed fish as another. And he wants international planning to drive food production.
In summary, he doesn’t make his case or lay the groundwork for the changes he is suggesting. He can’t construct an argument to save his life and depends on a shotgunning facts out as a substitute.
Rating: 1 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Just to echo other reviews. Food has been too easy over the last few decades. Be prepared for the problems in the near future.
Rating: 5 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I had read Roberts’ earlier “the end of oil” and had forgotten how difficult it was to read through. This book is slightly less interesting despite the more interesting topic, which in theory should be more malthusian than the end of oil, but Roberts treats every issue with a very vacillating, politician-like ambiguity. It’s surprising for example that he doesn’t make more out of the peaking of fossil fuels in relation to fertilizer for food production. Every time he comes near to making a point he hedges and describes the optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints without really taking a stand.
Typical of his writing style as well is his tendency to travel all over the globe interviewing random peasants, farmers, executives, etc. , as if a travelogue somehow makes the subject more accessible. Presumably this is because he is a journalist, not an expert per se in the issue of agriculture or food. But after so many round the world trips interviewing a farmer in china for ex. and his woes the reader begins to get tired of his peripatetic descriptions.
In summary I found it hard to really get a grip on any of the issues he presents except in a very vague way and I found it equally hard to get all the way through to the end without giving up. And this is not because I don’t find the issue serious– if anything, I think he is far too optimistic: the lack of freshwater supplies, peaking of fossil fuels, lack of arable land, increasing loss of topsoil, increasing population pressures, will probably result in some kind of malthusian crisis.
Rating: 2 / 5