Product Description

With an insightful global approach, Paul Roberts investigates the startling 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. The emergence of large-scale and efficient food production changed forever our relationship with food and ultimately left a vulnerable and paradoxical system in place. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide are 'over-nourished,' according to the World Health Organization, and are at risk of obesity-related illness, while roughly as many people are starving. Meanwhile, the natural systems all food is dependent upon have been irreparably damaged by chemicals and destructive farming techniques.The pressures of low-cost food production cause contamination and disease, and big food consumers such as China and India are already planning for tightened global food supplies - the era of superabundance seems to be behind us. Vivid descriptions, lucid explanations, and fresh thinking make "The End of Food" uniquely able to offer a new and accessible way to understand the vulnerable miracle of the modern food economy. Roberts presents clear, stark visions of the future and helps us identify the decisions both personal and global that we must make to survive the demise of food production as we know it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #182921 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
PRAISE FOR 'THE END OF OIL' 'A tour de force an oustandingly clear, lucid, and readable book about a highly complex issue that is central to our times' Michael Meacher, The Guardian 'A necessary and brilliantly accessible work' Observer 'A combination of reportage, interviews and analysis, this investigation of energy consumption is a highly readable introduction to a frightening future' Irish Times

About the Author
Paul Roberts is the author of the acclaimed bestseller, The End of Oil and a regular contributor to Harper's Magazine. He lives in Washington State, US.

Customer Reviews

Investigating the failing global food machine
Journalist Paul Roberts investigated the global food-delivery system and he reports that food product production and prices have advanced like the production and prices of other contemporary consumer goods. The economics of the food system push an ever-faster product cycle driven by supply-and-demand pressures. The infrastructure that delivers food to consumers uses ever-advancing technology. However, food itself is not an ordinary consumer "product." Inexpensive food is an illusion, because the process externalizes many food production costs as cheap labor or cheap oil. Roberts explains why the food-delivery system is mired in economic, political and cultural problems, and examines the crisis that looms if it runs out of fuel or water, or both. getAbstract recommends this investigation to readers who want to understand the production, market and consumer implications involved in feeding the people on our planet.

Very readable
This is a very readable book. The pace and tone flows well and is rather like that of a TV documentary. This may not be everyone's cup of tea but appealing to those of us who enjoy that format. I'm not too far into the book but everything that Paul Roberts has stated is plain, simple and obvious. By that I mean that he has gathered facts together and predicted the future. I didn't know many of these facts, now I do, the possibilities for the future are obvious. This is a scary book.

Dull.
I've read a lot of books on the subject of food production, and this one didn't add much that I didn't already know. There's plenty of other books on this subject that are much more enjoyable and entertaining yet cover the same ground.