How the World Eats
A Global Food Philosophy
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- ¥2,600
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- ¥2,600
Publisher Description
How we live is shaped by how we eat. You can see this in the vastly different approaches to growing, preparing and eating food around the world, such as the hunter-gatherer Hadza in Tanzania whose sustainable lifestyle is under threat in a crowded planet, or Western societies whose food is farmed or bred in vast intensive enterprises. And most of us now rely on a complex global food web of production, distribution, consumption and disposal, which is now contending with unprecedented challenges.
The need for a better understanding of how we feed ourselves has never been more urgent. In this wide-ranging and definitive book, philosopher Julian Baggini expertly delves into the best and worst food practises in a huge array of different societies, past and present. His exploration takes him from cutting-edge technologies, such as new farming methods, cultured meat, GM and astronaut food, to the ethics and health of ultra processed food and aquaculture, as he takes a forensic look at the effectiveness of our food governance, the difficulties of food wastage and the effects of commodification.
Extracting essential principles to guide how we eat in the future, How the World Eats advocates for a pluralistic, humane, resourceful and equitable global food philosophy, so we can build a food system fit for the twenty-first century and beyond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Global food systems have grown unsustainable and must be reworked, according to this intermittently illuminating treatise. Philosopher Baggini (How the World Thinks) describes a mismanaged network of foodways, mammoth agricultural companies, and convoluted supply chains that deplete natural resources, spew greenhouse gases, and simultaneously promote hunger and obesity, thanks to overproduction and faulty distribution systems, while reinforcing economic inequality by ripping off farmers. He travels across the world to dissect well-meaning reforms, noting, for example, that the European Union's organic goals can be detrimental in countries like the Netherlands, which lacks enough cultivable land to compensate for the decreased productivity of organic farming. Instead, he offers a holistic philosophy—less a "food system" than an interconnected "food world" that shares resources and relies on country-specific solutions, from Indigenous agricultural practices to food waste reduction initiatives to lab-grown meat (though the technology is not yet functional on a mass scale). Baggini skillfully captures the intricacies of an enormously complex system and its tangled environmental, economic, and public health consequences, though his tendency to entertain and then dismiss solutions as insufficient can become tedious. Nevertheless, it's a worthwhile consideration of a pressing social issue.
