Book Review by Nina Furstenau

The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World By Amanda Little

Environmental journalist Amanda Little gives readers a taste of things to come, as her first chapter is titled in her book, The Fate of Food, What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World (June 2019, Harmony, 340 pp). Readers looking for engaging writing on complex topics will be well pleased with Little’s examination. As she recounts her travels around the globe seeking stories and farmers and food systems that illustrate the impact of climate change on our food supply, Little reveals gems of innovation. She takes a close look at salmon, aeroponics, water shortages, lab-grown meat, 3-D printed food, and more, to show the ingenuity of humans in the face of protecting our dinner plates.

Stories reveal robotics that can weed crops and allow growers to reduce chemical use, salmon-growing pods that can evade climate impacts on the oceans, as well as unsettling scenes of dehydrated mixes for pot pies, grayish and freeze-dried, marketed to preppers stockpiling for the time our food supply is actually cut off,  not just camping buffs.

To read this book is to go along as Little asks questions about GMOs, the impact of animal meat diets, chemicals in farming, and more. The imminently readable stories she relates divulge the challenges of agriculture today, yet offer hope for the creation of a food system that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.  Little shows the way with boots on the ground interviews that reveal that solutions are already underway.