Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294697 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Synopsis
The message of "Feeding People is Easy" is the most important that can be conceived. We can feed ourselves forever - without cruelty to livestock and without wrecking the rest of the world. If we do the job properly, we will create human societies that are truly agreeable, co-operative and at peace in which all manner of people with all kinds of beliefs and aspirations can be personally fulfilled. "Feeding People is Easy" homes in, from the onset, on the positives. It shows what each of us can do to help put things right.

Customer Reviews

All heart no head
The title of this book was intriguing and I was keen to know what the author's solution was to the problems of over-consumption and waste in modern agriculture. Tudge gives us lots of passion - he cares a great deal about his subject - but I feel that this is his problem. I never felt in reading the book that I got much in the way of dispassionate analysis. Rather, the book veered more towards the polemical. If you give your work a title such as this, a degree of detachment is vital if you are to make your point effectively. That said, the author describes many things well and there are some very interesting passages dealing with modern research into nutrition and livestock farming.

The author advocates Enlightened Agriculture as the answer to our food problems. There are no surprises in what this involves. Growing food close to where it is consumed and in season with minimal chemical interference and maximum use of modern science to manage the land intelligently and sustainably. One cannot help agreeing with him, but the book leaves some vital questions unanswered. For example, how would a system such as this handle crop failure? He also believes that Enlightened Agriculture would require 20% of the UK workforce to return to agriculture, rather than the 1% currently employed thus. I felt he failed to explore the ramifications of such a radical change in any thoroughness.

Food for thought, yes, but frustratingly many more questions than answers. I finished still unconvinced that 'feeding people is easy'.

Eat This Book!
This book is brilliant. The other review complains about the lack of solutions, but the point of this book is clear, to state the problems. The writing is sharp, the descriptions are shocking, and the conclusion leaves things finely poised between a desire to rush out and change the world, and the sad reflection that we are so far away from where we need to be.
This book is something of a summary of work to date. For more detail, see his others books, especially "So shall we reap."

Tudge gives us a nudge in the right direction
Feeding people is easy, you just let them do it for themselves; that is the underlying premise of this book. Anyone expecting this to be a step-by-step guide to feeding a population will be disappointed. Neither is all the information exclusive to Tudge, although he collates & presents it very well. He also stresses the fact that each & every one of us are stakeholders in the food production business, and from that we can't escape, but it also gives us great individual power to influence change directly. Those already versed in sustainable food will find themselves nodding & noting fresh perspectives for future reference. Those not familiar with the solutions, or even the problems, may learn much & be encouraged to read (and do) more. Those with a cynical view & the idea that multinationals money & governments can and will save us will probably waste their time reading this book, but perhaps not, so give it a go.