FEBRUARY 2021 - AudioFile
A great storyteller, food writer Bittman narrates this history of food (from “sustainable to suicidal”) in a friendly, accessible way that invites listeners to consider food’s centrality to everything, including pressing issues such as climate change and social justice. Sounding engaged and conversational as he shares his research on how we got to our current state of affairs (he’s crunched down much history in this remarkably digestible offering), Bittman offers a frank, sobering assessment of “where we’re at.” That includes highlighting the dangers of monoculture, industrial agriculture, brutal labor practices, and poisonous pesticide use. Fortunately, his chapter titled “The Way Forward” illuminates steps toward progressive, sustainable agroecology practices listeners can support to create lasting changes to our food systems—now that they’re aware of the logic behind them. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
03/15/2021
Bittman (VB6) eviscerates agribusiness in this cultural and economic history of the ways humanity feeds itself. Bittman begins with the invention of agriculture, when the shift to cultivating crops meant that people began to protect their land interests. Population increased, diets became more monotonous, and greater demands on the soil meant conquering more land. But Bittman’s main focus is on the past two centuries of American agriculture. Westward expansion and the desire to increase land yields led to technical innovations including chemical fertilizers, the tractor and the factory farm, and the rise of a “food industry” that prioritized business needs over human ones. Bittman also calls out the racist history of American food practices, from the exclusion of Blacks from the Homestead Act to contemporary supply chains that create “food deserts” that disproportionately impact Black Americans’ health. The final segment leans into an “agroecological” perspective and a return to centering the health of the earth via legislation that stewards the land and positions food as nourishment rather than product. Bittman covers a huge swath of human history, and examines his fraught topics with just enough optimism to leave readers more motivated than reeling. Anyone concerned about the injustices cooked into the food system owes it to themselves to pick this up. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Epic and engrossing...a clear and compelling compendium of modern agriculture....[Bittman] has earned the right to damn the evident flaws of our system."—The New York Times Book Review “An expert’s vigorous argument for systemic food reform.”—Kirkus Reviews “Little in the present food world escapes [Bittman's] critical eye...[his] work is certain to increase controversy over the future of food.”—Booklist “The climate crisis, COVID-19, and the recent reckoning with systemic and institutional racism have all revealed the many cracks in our global food system. In this thorough and revealing book, Mark Bittman discusses how we got to this point when reform is so essential, and presents the solutions to improve how we grow, distribute, and consume our food. A must read for policymakers, activists, and concerned citizens looking to better understand our food system, and how we can fix it.”—Vice President Al Gore “Compelling and ambitious, Bittman's Animal, Vegetable, Junk is the authoritative text on the 1.8 million year history of the food system. We begin our journey with the first taming of fire to hunt and cook, witness the use of fire in indigenous swidden agriculture to prepare the ground, and finally arrive at the fanning of revolutionary fire of peasant farmers organizing against multinational agribusiness. Bittman leaves no stone unturned in the quest to understand how Big Food expropriated our land, water, and sustenance. Everyone who eats needs to read this book. The future of our species and our planet depends on it.”—Leah Penniman, founding co-director of Soul Fire Farm and author of Farming While Black “Eating well, as Mark Bittman has taught so many of us over the years, is as much about collective health as it is about elegant recipes. In his most radical and profound book to date, Bittman brings his trademark wit, precision, and user-friendliness to a sweeping history of sustenance. The result is a joyful and transformational read.”—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything “A brilliant and insightful explanation of the food system. Bittman's writing is succinct and entertaining, and his recommendations are spot on.”—David A. Kessler, M.D., former FDA commissioner and author of The End of Overeating and Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs “It’s easy to be jealous of Mark Bittman. He knows how to cook everything, and he writes so clearly that you’ll feel you can too. Now, he brings his prodigious talents to a history of how we eat. Once again, he has trimmed the fat and delivered it all. From the origins of the human diet to the World Trade Organization, you’ll find how they’re all connected in a broken food system. And his analysis is so compelling, you’ll not only understand what’s wrong, but also how to start to make it better.”—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved “If you, like me, think and worry about what you eat and also about the planet that is actually providing sustenance to you—and the other 7 billion of us—you need to read this amazing book. You also, as Mr. Bittman suggests, need to become an eater and an advocate, and push for the policy change needed to give everyone access to the nutritious food necessary to survive and thrive.”—Ted Danson, actor and activist “This is the perfect book for this moment in time, and Mark —
Library Journal
01/01/2021
Asking "What would a just food system look like?," Bittman considers the place of food in history and the role agriculture plays in human rights, climate change, and social justice. The first part of the book is heavy on history, examining the evolutionary aspects of diet, agriculture, and human consumption, along with sustainability, the importance of soil, and the connection between civilization and agriculture, including the impact of colonialism and political discourse on famine. The second part considers the current state of the modern (mostly Western) diet, factory farming, and the rise of junk food, while the last chapters offers hope and the possibility that we might establish sustainable alternatives to industrial agriculture. Bittman also moves through food and agriculture history to recount the impact of the potato famine in Ireland and how food administrator turned president Herbert Hoover politicized food in order to win office. Bittman's writing can be dense, but he provides a wealth of information, from the "birth of growing" to the history of factory farming, monoculture, "junk," and the future of agroecology. VERDICT Recommended for readers of food and diet history and those interested in the future of agriculture and sustainable farming. —Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib., Miami
FEBRUARY 2021 - AudioFile
A great storyteller, food writer Bittman narrates this history of food (from “sustainable to suicidal”) in a friendly, accessible way that invites listeners to consider food’s centrality to everything, including pressing issues such as climate change and social justice. Sounding engaged and conversational as he shares his research on how we got to our current state of affairs (he’s crunched down much history in this remarkably digestible offering), Bittman offers a frank, sobering assessment of “where we’re at.” That includes highlighting the dangers of monoculture, industrial agriculture, brutal labor practices, and poisonous pesticide use. Fortunately, his chapter titled “The Way Forward” illuminates steps toward progressive, sustainable agroecology practices listeners can support to create lasting changes to our food systems—now that they’re aware of the logic behind them. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-10-21
An urgent call to action from a noted food journalist.
Offering a sweeping history of the ways humans have procured, processed, and consumed food, Bittman focuses on the political, social, cultural, and environmental consequences of the transformation from hunting and gathering to agriculture and of the increased industrialization of the food system. Like authors such as Jared Diamond and Yuval Noah Harari, Bittman asserts that agriculture “sparked disputes over landownership, water use, and the extraction of resources” and has “driven exploitation and injustice, slavery and war.” Colonial powers forced Indigenous people to farm crops that benefited Europeans, “establishing cash-crop monoculture” for maximum profits. Soil depletion spurred a search for fertilizer, from bird droppings (“guano-mania” raged in 19th-century Europe) to ammonia-based chemicals. Machinery, pesticides, and governmental policies abetted industrialized farming: a “push to grow larger and focus on one crop.” The author decries the wanton creation of “engineered edible substances,” which he urges consumers to resist with their wallets and their votes. “Today,” he writes, “government subsidizes a harmful form of production that produces a harmful form of food and forces it into markets everywhere.” The food industry has no motivation to make major revisions; unlike some observers, Bittman is skeptical that “buying right” will lead to reform. “The system itself needs to be changed, its values and goals challenged and reimagined,” he writes. “We need legislation to support agriculture that stewards the land. We need food processing whose goal is to nourish. And we need an economy that supports people who want to grow and cook food for their communities. Those will come about when citizens organize and force government to do its job. A good diet will follow.” Underscoring the connection among food, human rights, climate change, and justice, the author forcefully urges both personal and societal change—e.g., the Green New Deal. “The choice,” he writes, “is to change the system or suffer catastrophe.”
An expert’s vigorous argument for systemic food reform.
