I recently finished Paul Roberts’ The End of Food. Don’t read it. I can sum it up in one word: DOOM.
This book explores the current system of food production as it has moved from the western world and is currently moving into the developing world. As food has become more available, food production has become more specialized and more cutthroat. Profit margins keep getting cut all along the chain so that it becomes necessary to produce more volume of higher value products which leads to pushing the system well past its tolerances for safety and sustainability. The system will fail dramatically – whether it’s due to an epidemic, climate change, an economic crisis, or some other factor. There is no hope or solution, we’re all going to die when the system finally collapses.
It’s this total lack of even a glimmer of hope that I found most peculiar about this book. Usually the author has some kind of solution, however impractical and fanciful it may be. To his credit, the author doesn’t seem to delight in our certain doom.
The more I read, the harder I found it difficult to take this book seriously. If we’re all inevitably doomed (even the survivalists are included) then what’s the point? He doesn’t say so explicitly but it seems that the purpose of this book is that after the crisis comes and most of the population is wiped out, the survivors will be able to look at this book and tell each other that this guy saw it coming.
From spiked’s review:
What isn’t entirely clear to me is why the book was written, other than to make its readers anxious – or rather, to appeal to a generalized sense of anxiety that already exists. The book seeks to throw up terrible scenarios that might occur, but rather than suggesting that society might innovate around these emerging problems to develop something better, the assumption seems to be that big corporations will buy off our useless political leaders or that the technical problems we face are simply insurmountable. — Rob Lyons
Really, don’t read this book. The only reason to read it is if you’re deeply pessimistic and want confirmation that the human race is doomed. Go listen to a TED talk where problems are faced with courage and resourcefulness. Go plant a tree or a garden. If this book is right, you’re dead no matter what you do and if it’s wrong the solutions are going to come through thoughtful action and not from pessimistic navel gazing.
