Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat

Paarlberg (Starved for Science), a professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, presents this astute look at food production in the U.S. Noting that food sources and producers—Big Ag, trans fats, GMOs, beef production, the sugar lobby, and farm subsidies—­have been charged as contributors to the shortcomings of America’s food system, he redirects the blame, instead, to Big Food—a term for the powerful and persuasive industry that manufactures and markets what people consume. Citing multiple studies and case histories, Paarlberg rejects positions of popular voices on the subject, such as Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman, that organic farming and locavorism are the answers, although he is in favor of eating less red meat, and highlights modern practices such as precision agriculture and ecomodernism, which reduce waste of natural resources and limit environmental damage. For poor and wealthy Americans alike, Paarlberg says, having too much to eat is now a bigger health problem than having too little. But he leaves the reader with course corrections that seem reasonable. Big Food, faced with the one-two punch of evolving advances in modern farming and a more progressive push at promoting better eating, will, he hopes, respond in positive ways. Environmentally conscience readers will find much food for thought in this informative narrative. [em](Jan.) [/em]