REGENESIS: FEEDING THE WORLD WITHOUT DEVOURING THE PLANET
BY GEORGE MONBIOT, ALLEN LANE, £20 (HB)
For those with little prior knowledge about land use, farming and food production, this book is an eye-wateringly robust read. If you are a farmer, a stiff drink may be required to take in the author’s vision of “farm-free” food. Monbiot, a seasoned environmental campaigner, dives deep into a subject few outside academia can, or wish to, articulate. He notes that the conditions that enable us to grow sufficient food are shifting, waving a red flag for what lies ahead in the book.
By examining a lump of soil, he eloquently expands on the little we know about soil – one of the most important “life-support systems” on which humans rely. When food is globally less diverse, Monbiot sharpens his pen, challenging the dominance of standardised diets and “industrialscale” farming that pursues efficiency but threatens resilience. Under the profusely referenced chapter titled “Agricultural sprawl”, there’s no escape either for perceived-as-benign organic practices in “arrogating the right to eat farm animals”.
With one third of the book given over to reference notes, this scientifically dense polemic vents Monbiot‘s frustration on why can’t we see the science for the facts in front of us. Perhaps what’s missing is hearing from more people. After visiting a fruit and vegetable grower, a handful of innovative farmers and a food bank, he seems to run out of steam in exploring a wider range of pragmatic solutions.
I suspect this isn’t the author’s primary role, as the book is not an agenda for agriculture – it’s a provocation to think about unsustainably profligate consumption. For that reason alone, it’s worth a read; you don’t have to buy into the author’s ideology to think more about what you put on your plate.
Rob Yorke, rural commentator