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Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It by Tom Philpott
rosepoints's review against another edition
4.0
in "perilous bounty," tom philpott primarily focuses on the ecological degradation caused by agriculture in california and the midwest. more specifically, he touches upon california's water crisis in terms of decreasing snowmelt and depleted aquifers, soil erosion in the midwest, toxic algal blooms caused by fertilizer runoff, and the regional shifts in climate caused by global warming. altogether, i would categorize this as an environmental science book rather than a book that focuses on food.
overall, i appreciated the emphasis on broader, systemic solutions rather than individualistic ones, and he specifically writes, "we have reached the limits of 'market-as-movement' to transform the food system... well-off consumers should vote with their forks three times a day, but the pace of positive change they create has been no match for big food's massive inertia and the rapid advance of climate change." he's entirely correct in that, and it's refreshing to see this in his writing. he suggests various solutions like the use of cover crops in the midwest, scaling back agriculture to meet california's current water supply, shifting federal policy and government subsidies away from monocultures of corn/soybeans and towards alternative options, and encouraging agriculture in other regions of the US to support local and regional food chains. because i'm not an expert in agriculture, i have no idea if these solutions are feasible, but to me, his reasoning seemed sound enough.
i also appreciated his explanation of the science behind the environmental phenomenon occurring. for every piece of jargon he used, he offered a working definition, and i felt like he did his best to explain scientific concepts to a general audience. there are a few places here and there where i wondered if this would be understandable to a layman (ex: the explanation of california's wet / dry phases and the semipermanent pressure systems between the poles and subtropic regions, i could see someone not fully understanding the el nino effect in california there). however, it's pretty decent compared to other nonfiction books out there. good scientific communication is hard!
in terms of improvements, i did think that the midwest section was less organized compared to the previous chapters on california. it's not going to hinder your understanding of the concepts imo but it could have been organized to flow better from topic to topic. i also wish that there was a touch more discussion on the social ramifications of big agriculture in the united states. for example, he briefly touches on the labor required for melon farming in the california section, and he mentions the impact of immigration and deportation policies as well as the rise of minimum wage. however, it's a brief sentence or two and then he barrels onward to focus on water consumption of nut farming. i understand that this is a book primarily focused on ecological degradation, but i wished that there was just a little more discussion on the people impacted and involved in big agriculture as well. i'd rather have that than the lengthy discussion on the author's experience with interviewing someone from monsanto.
altogether, it's worth the read, and i enjoyed the book - would recommend!
overall, i appreciated the emphasis on broader, systemic solutions rather than individualistic ones, and he specifically writes, "we have reached the limits of 'market-as-movement' to transform the food system... well-off consumers should vote with their forks three times a day, but the pace of positive change they create has been no match for big food's massive inertia and the rapid advance of climate change." he's entirely correct in that, and it's refreshing to see this in his writing. he suggests various solutions like the use of cover crops in the midwest, scaling back agriculture to meet california's current water supply, shifting federal policy and government subsidies away from monocultures of corn/soybeans and towards alternative options, and encouraging agriculture in other regions of the US to support local and regional food chains. because i'm not an expert in agriculture, i have no idea if these solutions are feasible, but to me, his reasoning seemed sound enough.
i also appreciated his explanation of the science behind the environmental phenomenon occurring. for every piece of jargon he used, he offered a working definition, and i felt like he did his best to explain scientific concepts to a general audience. there are a few places here and there where i wondered if this would be understandable to a layman (ex: the explanation of california's wet / dry phases and the semipermanent pressure systems between the poles and subtropic regions, i could see someone not fully understanding the el nino effect in california there). however, it's pretty decent compared to other nonfiction books out there. good scientific communication is hard!
in terms of improvements, i did think that the midwest section was less organized compared to the previous chapters on california. it's not going to hinder your understanding of the concepts imo but it could have been organized to flow better from topic to topic. i also wish that there was a touch more discussion on the social ramifications of big agriculture in the united states. for example, he briefly touches on the labor required for melon farming in the california section, and he mentions the impact of immigration and deportation policies as well as the rise of minimum wage. however, it's a brief sentence or two and then he barrels onward to focus on water consumption of nut farming. i understand that this is a book primarily focused on ecological degradation, but i wished that there was just a little more discussion on the people impacted and involved in big agriculture as well. i'd rather have that than the lengthy discussion on the author's experience with interviewing someone from monsanto.
altogether, it's worth the read, and i enjoyed the book - would recommend!
jeff's review against another edition
5.0
A very well balanced but critical look at modern systemic issues in agriculture. I appreciated the detailed focus on water, and explaining the way that smart producers made a series of well-intentioned decisions that led to new natural resource challenges.
kwheeles's review against another edition
5.0
Well-woven look at the two geographic areas with concentrated food supply output/risk in America, the midwest (soy/corn/meat) and the California Central Valley (fresh fruits and vegetables). Examines the economics, environmental impact and sustainability of our dependence on these potential points of failure. The author's travel and interviews lend a ground level human perspective that makes it a pleasure to read.
debr's review against another edition
4.0
An important, deeply researched and astounding accounting of the ways in which agribusiness has overdrafted our air, soil and water resources. Eminently readable, deeply concerning, and important. Tom Philpott does a great job presenting the case for why the agricultural path the US us on is both unsustainable and extraordinarily difficult to shift given the political and economic investments in the status quo.
mkesten's review against another edition
4.0
Two summers ago visiting the beautiful island of Santorini I noted with extreme disgust that the island’s two million visitors each year drank bottled water that was exclusively imported. The island had virtually no fresh drinking water. Plastic bottles, plastic that was endangering sea life and creeping into our food, were everywhere.
In Perilous Bounty I learned that farming families in parts of Central California won’t drink the water from their own taps because it comes from wells dug so deep into the ancient aquifers that it increasingly comes mixed with arsenic from the earth’s core.
So these largely poor people buy water in plastic bottles, much like tourists in the Aegean Sea. To drink. Even to wash their children.
This story is largely about weakening supplies of fresh water for agriculture in California and the decline of soil in Iowa due to agribusiness.
In California we see the pressure on agribusiness coming from the decline in the snowpacks of the Sierra Madre mountains, the over-use of subterranean aquifers, but also from the diversion of the Colorado River and the snowpacks of the Rocky Mountains.
Equally alarming is the history of massive rainstorms which historically hit the area once every 100 years or so but will likely occur more frequently as global warming evaporates more Pacific Ocean waters more quickly.
If California public officials have plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people in the Central Valley on short notice, it seems unlikely they have plans to quickly evacuate millions of beef cattle, dairy cows, and hogs from the same area. The prospect of millions of floating dead farm animals is nauseating in the extreme.
The decline of Prairie soil is equally worrisome and a long term threat to corn and soybean growers. As is the leaching of poisonous insecticides and fertilizers into the Mississippi and Lake Erie water basins where it results in algae blooms, dead fish, and list livelihoods.
Much if this is not not new journalism.
Some of things that occurred to me before include:
- Iowa corn and soybean farming hasn’t been profitable on average for the past 30 years; profitable for the seed, insecticide, fertilizer and farm machinery companies, but not for the farmers themselves.
- Large parts of Central California are sinking by about 10” per year as the aquifers empty out.
- the scale at which Wall Street (and Toronto’s Bay Street) shifted money out of money-losing sub-prime investments and into pistachio, almond, and grape-growing agricultural lands, bidding up the prices of such land
- in the late 1800’s John Rockefeller eschewed buying oil wells and instead controlled the distribution and processing system. That game plan is pretty much in evidence in today’s agribusiness. Consolidation of meat packers, distributors, petro-chemical giants and commodity traders seems to have taken the fun out of farming.
The author of this book sees some daylight in all the gloom, but I found it misplaced given the financial stakes involved and the speed at which we have degraded the environment.
I also found it supremely ironic given the political narrative in the US about the cultural divide between Middle America and the coastal cities.
1) Monoculture isn’t just an Iowa problem. It is poisoning the heartland and the Gulf Coast equally.
2) California’s power brokers aren’t in Hollywood or Berkeley. They wear flannel shirts and cowboy hats and say “Yahoo!!” with feeling.
3) The heartland of America is as far from free enterprise as its ever been and its hard to imagine things loosening up. The farmers of Iowa are completed tied up by oligopolies. In this economy, there really is no freedom of choice or hope of innovation on any scale that can disrupt the status quo. Likewise farmers in California will see water regulations and labour laws that will dictate their businesses for the forseeable future. I see this in my own sector, I see it in many others as well.
Big data. Consolidation. Increased automation and artificial intelligence. These will guide agribusiness.
In Perilous Bounty I learned that farming families in parts of Central California won’t drink the water from their own taps because it comes from wells dug so deep into the ancient aquifers that it increasingly comes mixed with arsenic from the earth’s core.
So these largely poor people buy water in plastic bottles, much like tourists in the Aegean Sea. To drink. Even to wash their children.
This story is largely about weakening supplies of fresh water for agriculture in California and the decline of soil in Iowa due to agribusiness.
In California we see the pressure on agribusiness coming from the decline in the snowpacks of the Sierra Madre mountains, the over-use of subterranean aquifers, but also from the diversion of the Colorado River and the snowpacks of the Rocky Mountains.
Equally alarming is the history of massive rainstorms which historically hit the area once every 100 years or so but will likely occur more frequently as global warming evaporates more Pacific Ocean waters more quickly.
If California public officials have plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people in the Central Valley on short notice, it seems unlikely they have plans to quickly evacuate millions of beef cattle, dairy cows, and hogs from the same area. The prospect of millions of floating dead farm animals is nauseating in the extreme.
The decline of Prairie soil is equally worrisome and a long term threat to corn and soybean growers. As is the leaching of poisonous insecticides and fertilizers into the Mississippi and Lake Erie water basins where it results in algae blooms, dead fish, and list livelihoods.
Much if this is not not new journalism.
Some of things that occurred to me before include:
- Iowa corn and soybean farming hasn’t been profitable on average for the past 30 years; profitable for the seed, insecticide, fertilizer and farm machinery companies, but not for the farmers themselves.
- Large parts of Central California are sinking by about 10” per year as the aquifers empty out.
- the scale at which Wall Street (and Toronto’s Bay Street) shifted money out of money-losing sub-prime investments and into pistachio, almond, and grape-growing agricultural lands, bidding up the prices of such land
- in the late 1800’s John Rockefeller eschewed buying oil wells and instead controlled the distribution and processing system. That game plan is pretty much in evidence in today’s agribusiness. Consolidation of meat packers, distributors, petro-chemical giants and commodity traders seems to have taken the fun out of farming.
The author of this book sees some daylight in all the gloom, but I found it misplaced given the financial stakes involved and the speed at which we have degraded the environment.
I also found it supremely ironic given the political narrative in the US about the cultural divide between Middle America and the coastal cities.
1) Monoculture isn’t just an Iowa problem. It is poisoning the heartland and the Gulf Coast equally.
2) California’s power brokers aren’t in Hollywood or Berkeley. They wear flannel shirts and cowboy hats and say “Yahoo!!” with feeling.
3) The heartland of America is as far from free enterprise as its ever been and its hard to imagine things loosening up. The farmers of Iowa are completed tied up by oligopolies. In this economy, there really is no freedom of choice or hope of innovation on any scale that can disrupt the status quo. Likewise farmers in California will see water regulations and labour laws that will dictate their businesses for the forseeable future. I see this in my own sector, I see it in many others as well.
Big data. Consolidation. Increased automation and artificial intelligence. These will guide agribusiness.
meha's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A difficult book to read because of the sobering content, but well written, detailed and well researched. I’ll be thinking about parallels to Monsanto’s insistence that “because Roundup-resistant weeds haven’t developed in the past, they won’t develop in the future.” for a long time.
zoej515's review against another edition
3.0
The first few chapters were super interesting, but I wish the writing was more accessible to people who don't regularly read Mother Jones.
barfly's review against another edition
5.0
I only wish the every human on earth would read this book and understand the unsustainable implications of our current industrial agriculture nightmare.