The fact that this book has so many bad reviews is testament to the fact that it is successful: it is confronting some widely held beliefs (among many) with facts disputing these beliefs. Many adherents dislike such a confrontation, and their response is to dismiss the evidence and post a one-star review.
The author strives at length to clarify that he is sympathetic to the ideals of locavores, fans of organics, opponents of GM foods, etc. But it's hard to miss the tone of provocation that seeps through. I think that provocation is warranted, though I predict it will ultimately turn potential converts away rather than convert them.
The author's main beef is with the fetishization of "food miles" (the distance food travels from the farm to the market), rather than many other more important contributors of food's environmental impact (including the production process and the cooking method). It is hard to reasonably disagree with this argument (though clearly many people do). He expands to criticize proponents of organic farming, opponents of GM food, meat eaters, and opponents of aquaculture. These arguments are more open to debate. Then, in the last chapter (besides the conclusion), he brings everything together with a criticism of how food policy in most countries (including the US) and internationally is doing exactly the opposite of what it should be doing. I would have preferred more meat to this section of the book, although this part is much more in line with the locavore/organic ideology than the rest of the book.
If you care about food, sustainability, the environment, or world poverty, then you should read this book. If you disagree with the conclusions, you should think about why you do, and if you have good reasons for doing so. I would suspect that you don't.
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Bad quality.
The book (new) was incorrectly put together. It goes to page 34 then jumps to page 230. And when you do find the page u have to read from right to left as the pages were glued backwards.
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Ray
You learn new things every time you read this book
Reviewed in Japan on July 26, 2019