Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know
– New book by Robert Paarlberg (Paperback), Oxford University Press,
USA (April 7, 2010) p 240. ISBN-13: 978-0195389593. Amazon price
$11.53; Kindle Edition $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/Food-
The politics of food is changing fast. In rich countries, obesity is
now a more serious problem than hunger. Consumers once satisfied with
cheap and convenient food now want food that is also safe,
nutritious, fresh, and grown by local farmers using fewer chemicals.
Heavily subsidized and under-regulated commercial farmers are facing
stronger push-back from environmentalists and consumer activists, and
food companies are under the microscope. Meanwhile in developing
countries, agricultural success in Asia has spurred income growth and
dietary enrichment, but agricultural failure in Africa has left one
third of all citizens undernourished. The international markets that
link these diverse regions together are subject to sudden disruption,
as noted when an unexpected spike in international food prices in
2008 caused street riots in a dozen or more countries.
In an easy-to-navigate, question-and-answer format, Food Politics
carefully examines and explains the most important issues on today’s
global food landscape, including the food crisis of 2008, famines,
the politics of chronic hunger, the Malthusian race between food
production and population growth, international food aid,
controversies surrounding “green revolution” farming, the politics of
obesity, farm subsidies and trade, agriculture and the environment,
agribusiness, supermarkets, food safety, fast food, slow food,
organic food, local food, and genetically engineered food.
Politics in each of these areas has become polarized over the past
decade by conflicting claims and accusations from advocates on all
sides. Paarlberg’s book maps this contested terrain through the eyes
of an independent scholar not afraid to unmask myths and name names.
More than a few of today’s fashionable beliefs about farming and food
are brought down a notch under this critical scrutiny. For those
ready to have their thinking about food politics informed and also
challenged, this is the book to read.
‘Political scientist Paarlberg calls on years of food-policy work and
casts his net far and wide in highly opinionated discussions of food
shortages and safety, organics, and obesity. He believes that the
unsuccessful farm bill labors under the weight of Congressional and
lobbyist interests who care only about profits, not good policy,
while the “green revolution” is largely perpetrated by zealots more
focused on idealism than science.
Factory farming is essential, Paarlberg argues, and, by the way,
international food aid is manipulated by everyone from the Department
of Defense to the shipping lobby. The facts and figures he provides
are dizzying, and the quick shifts in subject matter will likely
leave readers wishing Paarlberg had chosen to focus his attention on
a facet or two of this enormous subject. Ultimately Food Politics is
best used as source book for those uncertain where to begin but
desiring something more substantial than bland green guides. Consider
it a cram course in how the world eats, and then use this knowledge
to support further inquiry. –Colleen Mondor’
