The Penguin Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why [Paperback]

Eric Millstone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0142002240 | ISBN-13: 978-0142002247 | Publication Date: March 25, 2003

From the excessive use of grain to satisfy meat-eating demands to the safety of new food technologies, The Penguin Atlas of Food utilizes ninety-six pages of maps and graphics to show how the food chain is affected by historical events, political economy, natural disasters, and changing lifestyles.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

By means of colored maps, bar graphs, pie charts, and data tables, Millstone and Lang make comprehensible a wealth of complex statistical data on where the food we eat comes from, who eats what, who produces it, and what that means for nutrition, the environment, and economics. In full-color graphics, the authors show how nations compare with one another on such diverse topics as disease, over- and under-nutrition, animal feeds, pesticide use, trade flows, staple foods, fast food, alcohol consumption, and advertising. The authors clearly intend to demonstrate the results that globalization and technological advance have wrought. Graphs on food aid clearly show that despite its huge aid outlay, the U.S. actually contributes through governmental channels comparatively little of its wealth. Supplementing the graphs, a massive table lays out precise numbers from which the graphs were generated, and a bibliography provides guidance through the source documentation. Most all data cover the years 1999-2001. This is a significant and valuable guide to worldwide food-related statistics. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Dr. Erik Millstone is a senior lecturer in science policy at the University of Sussex.

Tim Lang is chair of Sustain and a consultant to the World Health Organization.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142002240
• ISBN-13: 978-0142002247
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #680,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simple and direct on food and agriculture, August 6, 2005

By 

Francesco Lovecchio (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Penguin Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why (Paperback)

The Atlas of food is not a cookbook but a cursory view of food and agriculture around the world in 100 pages or so. Rich of tables, charts and histograms of different shapes and colors, it provides a basic knowledge on food industry. The book is divided into five parts: Contemporary Challenges (population and productivity, environment, consuming diseases, over and under-nutrition in the world, and food aid); Farming (mechanization, animal feed, genetic modification, pesticides, fishing, biodiversity and sustainable farming); Trade (flows, animal transport, food miles, subsidies, trade disputes, fair trade); Processing, Retailing and Consumption (staple foods, processing giants, probiotics and cholesterol lowering food, organic food, fast food, food additives, eating out and alcohol); and world tables on agriculture and consumption.

If you want to know the state of the world of under-nutrition and over-nutrition, or that the amount of grain needed to feed one person for one year on a meat-based diet is 930 kg or on a grain-based diet is 180 kg and many more questions answered, then this is the book. Very good for students and general readers. However, if instead you want to have a deeper look at food and agriculture and related issues then visit the website of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (...).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative, November 20, 2004

By 

Jennifer A. Wickes "Food Writer" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Penguin Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why (Paperback)

As industrialization and technology take over our lives, we become more sedentary. Through the riches of our country, we can afford more meat, dairy products and processed foods; thus, contributing to our poor health, "over-nutrition", otherwise known as the Western Diet.

Erik Millstone works at the University of Sussex in Science Policy. He has been working on food-related issues for almost 30 years. Tim Lang is a professor of food policy at City University in London. He is, also, a consultant to the World Health Organization. With the aid of Axel Drescher, a professor of Applied Geography at Freiburg University, they have formulated this educational book about "who eats what, where and why".

While rich industrialized countries thrive in excess and develop diseases from over-consumption (such as, diabetes), these countries are also feeding a bulk of our grain to feed livestock, when over 40 million people a year die of starvation.

This book is filled with statistics, bar graphs, charts and miscellaneous graphics that help aid in our understanding of food's role in modern life. The book is divided into five parts: Contemporary Challenges (feeding the population, environmental challenges, disease, nutrition and more); Farming (mechanization, genetic modification, pesticides, sustainable farming and more); Trade (animal transport, fair trade, tariffs and more); Processing, Retailing and Consumption (staple foods, Organic food, fast food, alcohol and more); and World Tables (agriculture and comsumption).

This is not a cookbook, nor a glamorous journey through each country's cuisine, however.

Upon studying this book, I ponder the ideas of vegetarianism for a healthier way of life, and as an objection towards the feeding of livestock in lieu of providing grain for starving nations. I, also, think of how we have looked for ways on simplifying our lives with remote controls, garage door openers, email, kitchen appliances, washers and dryers, and how ultimately, we have complicated it more. This reminds me of a movie I once saw: The Gods Must Be Crazy. Although this movie takes on a more comedic approach of two wildly different cultures in South Africa, still it does demonstrate what both cultures have gained and lost due to industrialization.

Information found in this book can help educate the reader on how the food on their plate came to be and at what cost to society. For anyone that eats, and that is everyone, we should all read this book and become more educated on how we are contributing, both positively and negatively, to our society.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book exposing the machine/industry behind what we eat, August 31, 2004

By 

W. Chen "circusoflife" (TiERRA / EARTh / TERRAin) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Penguin Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why (Paperback)

Over the last few years I have developed an interest in finding out where things come from and how they are built/grown/processed. Specifically the everyday things we take for granted in our consumer society. Whether it be food products, electronics, autos, clothing, energy products, or the raw materials it takes to build these products.

Sort of like discovering your family history maybe, except I'm doing it for the things we consume. I have traveled for 1+ year over the last 2 years. Most recently 7 months straight through Asia and Australia, and parts of Arabia.

When I first heard about this book at the New Internationalist magazine website the title intrigued me immediately. I quickly ordered a copy on Amazon.

This book (As I've discovered many of the titles in the Penguin Atlas series) is so easy to read and conveys so much information with just a quick glance. The author has covered so many aspects of the "modern food chain." Many that even those who might consider themself knowledgeable probably would not have thought of. Each 2 page spread's statistical sources are identified in the back for further research.

This is one of those books that I feel should be distributed for free to every household in heavy consumer nations (US, Japan, Western Europe, Australia).

As international trade continues to skyrocket more books like this are needed on a host of other industries/categories - like some of the ones I mentioned earlier. As much as a book can, this book goes a long way toward reducing the ignorance of reality caused by the disconnect from where things come from and where they are consumed.