Comprehensive and Enlightening
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If you are are interested in food, or farming, or the environment, you have to read this book. But my feeling is that EVERYONE should read this book, and then pass on their copy to their MP to read. Colin Tudge covers an extraordinary breadth of topics and is entertaining, thought-provoking and refuses to be bound by established thinking. Far from being blinkered - as claimed by another reviewer - his approach is open and wide-ranging. But while acknowledging the benefits we have gained from modern science and technology he powerfully exposes the flaws in how that knowledge has been applied. Compelling and convincing, and educational in the best sense, I highly recommend this book.
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A Dreadful, Disappointing Piece of Work
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I expected better from Colin Tudge after his intriguing "The Day Before Yesterday" but this is a terrible, blinkered book. How can we be expected to treat seriously a 400+ page book on world agriculture that devotes 2 pages to discussing the effect of subsidies such as the European Union's Common Agricultural Program? Tudge bizarrely praises democracy in the abstract yet never misses an opportunity to take cheap shots at Western politicians. Politicians aren't perfect but who does Tudge think elects them? Try being a politician in a farming constituency in America, France or Ireland who stands up for abolishing subsidies and see how far you get. There are many problems - in developed and developing countries - affecting agricultural. This book doesn't have the answers because it has a blinkered view of the problems.
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Thought Provoking & Enlightening
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This is a book written by a scientist who has learned the art of writing well. Tudge explores the central theme of the book - that the growing population of the world will need feeding to a point where we are 9 billion of us on Earth before any fall can realistically be expected - by drawing on a wide range of well researched sources.
He covers a lot of ground: for example, traditional farming techniques in China are contrasted with modern industrial farming in North America & Europe. Tudge speculates on how traditional land-efficient farming can be combined with an urban situation to maximise food production without demolishing the remaining countryside and wild places of the World. He touches (in a timely fashion, as it has turned out) on the impact of the biofuels "revolution".
The book succeds, at least in my opinion, in exploding the myth that modern farming is actually efficient and demonstrates compellingly that we can feed ourselves in the future by gentle improvement on tradional techniques and that modern intensive farming, with or without GMOs, could instead be our down fall.
The writing is fluent, though possibly a little long winded, and some points are laboured perhaps a bit to much; perhaps Tudge underestimates his ability to explain things clearly, a talent he actually has in spades. Nonetheless, this is an excellent book for anyone interested in sustainable developement. I'd give it 4-and-half stars if I could.
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The good stuff is in there, but...
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There is a lot of 'refer to this chapter, refer to that chapter' and unnecessary waffle, this book could be half as long and a lot easier to read.
However, there are some enlightening moments and some good theory in the book, along with the reality. A shame it takes so long to get there.
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Don't eat another bite till you've read this book
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Colin Tudge has a knack for making complex issues clear and for explaining the science behind everyday life. In So Shall We Reap he takes on the food production system and shows how the agrichemical revolution has unbalanced the planet's economy and how cheap food actually costs us a great deal more than it seems. His solution, 'enlightened farming' isn't that far away from organic farming, but takes a more global view and is the better for it. The book is ultimately optimistic because we know all the answers to these problems, all we need is the will to put them in place. Anyone who cares about the food they eat and the world they live in should read this book and then lend it to a friend.
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