The end of food : the coming crisis in the world food industry

The bestselling author of "The End of Oil" turns his attention to food and finds that the system entrusted with meeting one of the most basic needs is dramatically failing us. With his trademark comprehensive global approach, Roberts investigates the startling truth about the modern food system. Abstract: The bestselling author of "The End of Oil" turns his attention to food and finds that the system entrusted with meeting one of the most basic needs is dramatically failing us. With his trademark comprehensive global approach, Roberts investigates the startling truth about the modern food system

Salmonella-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 changed our relationship with food and ultimately left a vulnerable and paradoxical system in place. High-volume factory systems create new risks for food-borne illness; high-yield crops generate grain, produce, and meat of declining nutritional quality; and while nearly a billion people are overweight, roughly as many people are starving.

In this vivid narrative, Roberts presents clear, stark visions of the future and helps us prepare to make the necessary decisions to survive the demise of food production as we know it.

Publishers Weekly

This potentially interesting investigation into the challenges of global food production and distribution is marred by the burial of its argument at the end of the book. Beneath a history of food (old news to any reader of Michael Pollan), factoid avalanches and future-tense fretting, Roberts (The End of Oil) makes a familiar plea for rethinking food systems. When the author illustrates his points with actual players, the narrative becomes affecting and memorable: a French meat packer shows how retail powerhouses dictate prices; a Kenyan farmer demonstrates how "hunger-ending" technologies are often poorly suited to the climates, soils and infrastructures in malnourished regions. Unfortunately, these anecdotes are overshadowed by colorless recitations of Internet research and data culled from interviews. Roberts worries about our "vast and overworked [food] system" and proffers the usual solutions: eat less (land-based) meat, farm more fish, support regional (not just local) agriculture and pressure food policy makers to fund research into more sustainable farming methods (including genetic modification). Despite the undeniable urgency of the issue, Roberts's arguments are as commonplace as his prescriptions. (June 4)

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Paul Roberts, the best-selling author of The End of Oil, turns his attention to the modern food economy and finds that the system entrusted to meet our most basic need is failing. In this carefully researched, vivid narrative, Roberts lays out the stark economic realities behind modern food and shows how our system of making, marketing, and moving what we eat is growing less and less compatible with the billions of consumers that system was built to serve. At the heart of The End of Food is a grim paradox: the rise of large-scale food production, though it generates more food more cheaply than at any time in history, has reached a point of dangerously diminishing returns. Our high-volume factory systems are creating new risks for food-borne illness, from E. coli to avian flu. Our high-yield crops and livestock generate grain, vegetables, and meat of declining nutritional quality. While nearly one billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, the same number of people—one in every seven of us—can't get enough to eat. In some of the hardest-hit regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of a single nutrient, vitamin A, has left more than five million children permanently blind. Meanwhile, the shift to heavily mechanized, chemically intensive farming has so compromised soil and water that it's unclear how long such output can be maintained. And just as we've begun to understand the limits of our abundance, the burgeoning economies of Asia, with their rising middle classes, are adopting Western-style, meat-heavy diets, putting new demands on global food supplies. Comprehensive in scope and full of fresh insights, The End of Food presents a lucid, stark vision of the future. It is a call for us to make crucial decisions to help us survive the demise of food production as we know it. Paul Roberts is the author of The End of Oil, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award in 2005. He has written about resource economics and politics for numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Harper's Magazine, and Rolling Stone, and lectures frequently on business and environmental issues. Trade is one of the most powerful forces linking our lives, and a source of unprecedented wealth. Yet millions of the world's poorest people are being left behind. Increased prosperity has gone hand in hand with mass poverty. Already obscene inequalities between rich and poor are widening. World trade could be a powerful motor to reduce poverty, and support economic growth, but that potential is being lost. The problem is not that international trade is inherently opposed to the needs and interests of the poor, but that the rules that govern it are rigged in favour of the rich. If Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by one per cent, the resulting gains in income could lift 128 million people out of poverty. In Africa alone, this would generate USD70bn - approximately five times what the continent receives in aid. In their rhetoric, governments of rich countries constantly stress their commitment to poverty reduction. Yet in practice rigged rules and double standards lock poor people out of the benefits of trade, closing the door to an escape route from poverty. Reform of world trade is only one of the requirements for ending the deep social injustices that pervade globalisation. Action is also needed to reduce inequalities in health, education, and the distribution of income and opportunity, including those inequalities that exist between women and men. However, world trade rules are a key part of the poverty problem; fundamental reforms are needed to make them part of the solution. Oxfam's campaign, Make Trade Fair, aims to change world trade rules so that trade can make a real difference in the fight against global poverty. This report gives comprehensive research findings and analysis, presenting a powerful case for changes in trade laws, and a reform agenda to make these changes happen. Salmonella-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 truthhow 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 changed our relationship with food and ultimately left a vulnerable and paradoxical system in place. High-volume factory systems create new risks for food-borne illness; high-yield crops generate grain, produce, and meat of declining nutritional quality; and while nearly a billion people are overweight, roughly as many people are starving. In this vivid narrative, Roberts presents clear, stark visions of the future and helps us prepare to make the necessary decisions to survive the demise of food production as we know it. A Critical And Detailed Analysis Of Inequalities Of World Trade Systems. 1. Trade And Globalisation In The Twenty-first Century -- 2. Trade As A Force For Poverty Reduction -- 3. Left Behind : Poor Countries And Poor People In The International Trading System -- 4. Market Access And Agricultural Trade : The Double Standards Of Rich Countries -- 5. Trade Liberalisation And The Poor -- 6. Primary Commodities : Trading Into Decline -- 7. Transnational Companies : Investment, Employment, And Marketing -- 8. International Trade Rules As An Obstacle To Development -- 9. Making Trade Work For The Poor. [ Written By Kevin Watkins And Penny Fowler]. Cover Title. Make Trade Fair--cover. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 261-269). Investigation of the modern food system: how we make, market, and transport our food is no longer compatible or safe for the billions of consumers the system was built to serve. Large-scale and efficient food production create new risks for food-borne illnes, declining nutritional quality, and an environment were nearly a billion people are overweight and roughly as many are starving. Decisions are provided to survive the demise of food production as we know it Starving For Progress -- It's So Easy Now -- Buy One, Get One Free -- Tipping The Scales -- Eating For Strength -- The End Of Hunger -- We Are What We Eat -- In The Long Run -- Magic Pills -- Food Fight -- Epilogue: Nouvelle Cuisine. Paul Roberts. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [363]-365) And Index. Investigates the truth about the way we make, market, consume, and even think about food, and how this system is no longer compatible or safe for the billions of consumers that it was built to serve. This title offers a way to understand the vulnerable miracle of the modern food economy. Content: Starving for progress (history) -- It's so easy now -- Buy one, get one free -- Tipping the scales -- Eating for strength -- The end of hunger -- We are what we eat -- In the long run -- Magic pills -- Food fight -- Epilogue: Nouvelle cuisine. Takes a close-up look at the modern food system to reveal how food is made, marketed, and consumed, leading to inequities in the global market.