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realmagicfakereality's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
themahtin's review against another edition
5.0
The beginning of this book is a bit hard to get through (farmer suicides), but it's worth it.
seclement's review against another edition
3.0
This book is an interesting read and contains a lot of important information about the state of the global food system and how it got that way. It is, however, quite biased and not always factually accurate. It's not so much that the information is wildly inaccurate, but more about the shaping of the narrative, which has a tendency towards exaggeration. This is understandable, as the situation is urgent and completely shameful, but the author's personal views have a clear and significant influence into what data is shared and how that is presented. It is not a quantitative data-heavy book, actually, so when I am talking about "data", I am more talking about empirical data from case studies and anecdotal information presented as fact. I think that if I had read this book when it first came out, I would have been more shocked and engaged with the information, but admittedly the book now seems a bit "old hat" sadly, which means the same situations are still ongoing. It's worth a read as an introductory book on the topic of commodity markets and global food systems, but I would say that you should take the information with a grain of salt and investigate further any topics that you find shocking and/or critical to your own understanding of the topic.
jmbq_reads's review against another edition
2.0
I've known from other readings that the conglomeration of the food industry (as well as agribusiness) has caused some of the biggest problems in our food supply chain, but this book helped shed light on the effects of those monopolies on the developing world and even on labor here in the U.S. For that alone, it was worth the read. Unfortunately, the book could have done with a great deal of editing and cleaning up (waaaaaay too many sentence fragments).
tessaays's review against another edition
3.0
Mixed views on this. Some chapters really came across as having an agenda, which isn’t a problem in and of itself, but in this case is an issue because the author comes across as hopelessly biased and you don’t trust him to give you both sides of the story. For example, the first chapter on farmers striking in response to WTO policies fails to mention the enormous welfare benefits created by trade liberalisation. It actually improved after that - lots of interesting tidbits about the global food system - especially in the US. I think the beginning just irked me and I was less patient with the rest.
bluenicorn's review against another edition
2.0
*Edited*
I had to give up on this one. First of all, hard to find- I had to interlibrary loan it from an academic library in another state.
Also, this was written in a more scholarly tone than I care for pleasure reading.
I had to give up on this one. First of all, hard to find- I had to interlibrary loan it from an academic library in another state.
Also, this was written in a more scholarly tone than I care for pleasure reading.