The Food System [Paperback]

Tony Worsley (Author), Geoff Tansey (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1853832774 | ISBN-13: 978-1853832772 | Publication Date: June 1, 1995

Food is a massive industry and the many key players involved have very different interests. In wealthy nations those interests can range from corporate survival and maintaining profitability in a market with limited demand, to promoting a healthy diet and ensuring food safety. For the poor, the emphasis is all too often on simply getting enough to eat. As information technology and biotechnology are set to revolutionize the food system, it is essential to understand the broad context in which the different actors operate, so that all the world's people can enjoy a safe, secure, sufficient and sustainable food supply. This text provides an overview of today's dominant food system - one developed in and controlled by northern industrialized countries, and one that is becoming increasingly globalized.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you want to understand why the world feeds itself in the way it does, you must read this book": Derek Cooper, The Food Programme

About the Author

Geoff Tansey is an independent writer and consultant. He has worked extensively in developing countries for the Department for International Development, Oxfam and the UN, and was recently appointed a Visionary for a Just and Peaceful World by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853832774
• ISBN-13: 978-1853832772
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,367,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Bites, May 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Food System (Paperback)

What is "the food system" and do we want one? Reminds me of hospital dining or "mystery meat" in the high school cafeterias of yore. But here we are: the food system describes the biological, economic and political, and social and cultural intertwining of processes by which people and food come together. This is a global construct, "developed, run and promoted worldwide by economic institutions in the rich and powerful nations."

Tansey, a visiting research fellow at England's University of Bradford, and Worsley, director of the Food Policy Research Unit of CSIRO, Australia (and we don't know what that organization is, sorry) have seemingly put together a truly unique book. It examines everything and everybody from the key players in food production, farmers and workers, processors and distributors, and consumers, to legal, scientific and technological control of food, with, understandably, heavy emphasis on findings from the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The book's most easily accessed information comes from numerous fact-filled boxes, so labeled, with headings such as "Ancient Rome's bread and circuses," "breast milk is best milk", " the Euro biscuit," "mind-mapping," "targeting children," "Norway's food policy," "unwelcome food bugs and their effects," "per capita spending on fast food in selected countries, 1992," and so on. Fascinating "bites" on a range of food subjects.