The End of Food, Paul Roberts
The End of Food, Paul Roberts
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The End of Food

Author: Paul Roberts

Narrator: William Dufris

Unabridged: 15 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/21/2008


Synopsis

The frightening truth about the modern food system.

The bestselling author of The End of Oil turns his attention to food and finds that the system we've entrusted with meeting one of our most basic needs is dramatically failing us. With his trademark comprehensive global approach, Paul Roberts investigates the startling truth about the modern food system: the way we make food, market and consume it, and even think about it is no longer compatible or safe for the billions of consumers the system was built to serve. The emergence of large-scale and efficient food production changed forever our relationship with food and ultimately left a vulnerable and paradoxical system in place. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide are "over-nourished," according to the World Health Organization, and are at risk of obesity-related illness, while roughly as many people are starving. Meanwhile the natural systems all food is dependent upon have been irreparably damaged by chemicals and destructive farming techniques; the pressures of low-cost food production court contamination and disease; and big food consumers, such as China and India, are already planning for tightened global food supplies, making it clear that the era of superabundance is behind us.

Vivid descriptions, lucid explanations, and fresh thinking make The End of Food uniquely able to offer a new, accessible way to understand the vulnerable miracle of the modern food economy. Roberts presents clear, stark visions of the future and helps us prepare to make the decisions—personal and global—we must make to survive the demise of food production as we know it.

About Paul Roberts

Paul Roberts is the author of The End of Oil, which was a 2005 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award Finalist. He is a regular contributor to Harper's, for which he has written about the food, energy, timber, and auto industries, as well as the destruction of the Florida Everglades. A long-time observer of both business and environmental issues, he is an expert on the complex interplay of economics, technology, and the natural world. He resides in Leavenworth, Washington.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrew

A very good book, better written than many. It would have more power if the author wasn't making a career out of "The end of ___" as titles for books. It forces him to make things seem more dire than they are, and when things ACTUALLY ARE quite dire, his authority is easier to question. b/c he’s cul......more

Goodreads review by Tate

“For thousands of years, food has mirrored society. It provided the substance and ideas that brought forth civilization, as well as the mechanisms by which civilization now seems to be taking itself apart. At the start of the twenty-first century, we are closer to that precipice than we have ever be......more