25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good In-Depth Discussion of Modern Agribusiness and Greenwashing, February 26, 2010
This review is from: Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It (Hardcover)
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Many of you thinking about buying this are expecting somethng similar to the "Diet for a Small Planet", which is, in part, a cookbook for vegans and vegetarians. There are no recipes in this book.
What this is, is a very well done discussion of green farming, agribusiness, and what to do to eat greener. There are several chapters discussing the greenwashing of agribusiness, and how marketing makes us think that products are "green" which inherently are not. It's fascinating reading.
Specifically, there has been an enormous amount of discussion in the popular press in recent years about how agribusiness-grown foods are better for the planet because they're more efficiently grown--which isn't true; the numbers that have been manufactured to make agribusiness look good don't take into account the sheer volume of fossil fuels required to transport food.
There are also some interesting discussions about how to get sustainable beef: the author talks about carbon sinks in grassland; some ecologists have noted that large swaths of grassland hold even more carbon than forests. If we could just keep cows out of feedlots, then it would be a lot more o.k. to eat beef.
Then, the author goes off on a "green farming" tangent that is a little hard to stomach because her ideas about real farming aren't realistic; the author goes into a long discussion of green farming and rhapsodizes at great length about "growing what would grow there naturally."
No offense, but you know what grows in much of the breadbasket of the United States (California and Texas) without huge amounts of transported water? Nothing.
Despite some of the unrealistic ideas, there are some neat ideas in the chapters on green farming.
The author tells you what to actually eat near the end of the book. It's the usual, "Food, mostly plants." to quote Pollan, and preferably local.
This is very well thought-out, analytically sound, reference for anyone interested in farming or ranching in a sustainable way. It's much better logically than much of what gets published in the popular press.
Who would like this: ecologists, farmers, ranchers, owners of small family farms, people involved in urban planning, and anyone who wants a more in-depth discussion of green farming techniques.
Who wouldn't like this: PETA apologists, and vegan evangelists. She has some negative things to say about them.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Setting the record straight, February 25, 2010
This review is from: Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It (Hardcover)
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This book brings out the important point that agriculture, not transportation, is the sector that makes the largest impact on global climate change. Lappe is a journalist with a lifelong interest in sustainable food (her mother wrote the classic "Diet for a Small Planet"). In this book, she discusses the various ways that our eating choices affect climate change. She explains how the practices of industrial food producers add to greenhouse gases, from fossil use to produce nitrogen fertilizers, to increased methane production from livestock waste, to clearing rainforests for crop and livestock production. She notes in particular how increased meat consumption worldwide has been responsible for more land clearance for feed production, increased production of nitrogen fertilizers to grow the feed, and increased methane release from animal waste. The book is divided into 4 sections: Crisis, Spin, Hope, and Action; the final section includes specific suggestions for how individual consumers can reduce their share of the impact food production makes on climate change. Sources are documented with endnotes. The book also includes a selected biography and a list of learning resources for further information.
The book caught my attention in the first chapter, where Lappe introduces the idea that current agricultural practices pose a serious threat to the climate. I was quite interested in learning more about the issues. Lappe does an admirable job of explaining why methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and how agriculture, especially industrial agriculture, promotes the production and release of methane. Lappe is clearly quite impassioned by the topic of climate change and environmentalism. Perhaps because of this, she occasionally strays off topic, tackling broader issues of greenwashing and climate change, rather than maintaining her focus strictly on food and agriculture. She also comes down heavy on all aspects of industrial agriculture, arguing that their attempts to capture methane for energy production or create biofuels from animal waste are greenwashing. Certainly, growing animals for the creation of biofuels would be ridiculously inefficient as a means of producing energy, but tapping some of their wastes for energy production, if the waste is being produced anyway, seems preferable to other ways of dealing with the waste, which result in more emissions. Overall, I found the book quite informative about this important topic, but not entirely focused.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting reading, March 10, 2010
This review is from: Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It (Hardcover)
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If you are already aware of the relationship between climate change and the food we eat, this book might not serve as a real eye-opener. However, if you're just becoming aware of this relationship, I would recommend this book wholeheartedly. It's packed with information including things we can do to live and eat more responsibly, and it's easy to read.
Obviously, you may not agree with everything the author says, but it's hard to dispute that there are some big problems out there that should be addressed.
We need to start "voting with our dollars" at the supermarket. If we keep buying meat, veggies, etc. that were grown irresponsibly, the big corporations will keep delivering them to our grocery store shelves. All of our little changes can add up to something big if we just make an effort.
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