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Eating Tomorrow: The Battle for the Future of Food
Adapted from the conclusion to Eating Tomorrow (New Press 2019)
If anyone at the World Food Prize ceremonies in October 2017 back in Iowa was paying attention, reality was waving its arms in warning about our unsustainable model of agricultural development. Days before, Reuters had reported that the continued development of high-yield agriculture had generated a “global grain glut” that had driven crop prices so low farmers weren’t sure they could afford those technologies.[1] Meanwhile, the FAO had announced that the number of people suffering chronic hunger had increased 5% the previous year.[2] Hunger amid plenty.
No one at the annual agribusiness celebration was paying attention. With the usual pomp and circumstance the World Food Prize Selection Committee awarded the 2017 prize to Akinwumi Adesina, former director of the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa, oblivious to the program’s failures. Meanwhile, the nitrates flowed freely down the Des Moines River, again threatening to shut down the city’s water supply. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico hit a new record, growing to the size of New Jersey.
We will never restore balance in our agricultural ecosystems if we can’t restore a reasonable balance between family farmers and agribusiness. Right now, agribusiness is calling all the shots, from…
