I stumbled across this title and given the short length quickly finished it. Unfortunately the introductory pages were probably the best.
Gay begins by outlining a lavish dinner at a meeting of the G-8. She then writes “in contrast to the diners at the G-8 Summit one billion people around the world are undernourished. Many millions more are starving, many of them babies. They lack the minimum amount of food for health and growth. Yet farmers and ranchers produce more than enough food every year to feed everyone on earth but much of that food does not get the people who need it most. In some places food has become a precious item almost like gold.”
Gay also notes “The main cause of hunger and starvation is poverty. Around the world one billion people live on less than $1 per day. Poverty itself is the result of many things including social inequalities, government corruption and global economics. These same forces often prevent food supplies from reaching the people who need them.”
Gay quickly jumps from topic to topic and does a great job of providing statistics. Gay outlines ideas like the SNAP challenge and the correlation between poverty and obesity.
Gay has a negative view of factory farming. Next Gay turns her attention to climate change, with a focus on water and how higher temperatures will lead to drought and rising oceans. She notes that LA, New York, and Miami could end up under water. Gay also addresses genetic engineering of food and animals, food politics, and food as a weapon.
Gay concludes by advocating sustainable agriculture, eating insects, and organic farming.
This book reads mostly like a fact sheet and it lacks the depth that I would like to see. If the author is going to advocate for eating insects or a pill for food then there needs to be a more robust discussion about why that is necessary. Gay has a negative outlook for the future and wants everyone to adapt to her standards to save the world but she is not convincing in her approach. She mentions prominent cities that could end up under water but makes no attempt to explore innovations that could prevent that even if the sea rose to the levels she predicts.
Overall this book asks some very important questions at the beginning but does not adequately answer them. It goes from a promising start to a poor ending. I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.
I have enjoyed the previous books I read by Ben Macintyre. I picked this one up not knowing anything about Ursula Kuczynski. She grew up to be a very successful spy for the Soviet Union and received the code name Agent Sonya. I looked forward to reading this. Shortly after I began reading I was hoping I would read about when she would be caught.
Ursula lived a remarkable life. Born in Germany and coming of age in the 1920’s she was exposed to a world of turmoil. She became a committed communist early in life and would not be deterred from her ideology.
She traveled the world first leaving Germany for the United States partially to avoid marriage. She became a member of the Communist Party of the United States. After a stint in the USA she returned to Germany and married the man she had left behind. His career took them to China where her career as a spy began. From there she traveled to the Soviet Union for additional training and continued to work as a spy throughout Europe.
I found it ...
“The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas – complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.”
George F. Kennan
