Mr Monbiot’s latest book is an incredibly well researched, passionately written and vibrant account of the current (broken) global food system. He is not reticent in his view: that farming is the most damaging force on the planet: for wildlife and for climate. The whole of Chapter 3 is dedicated to illustrating, with pain-staking insistence, all the problems associated with our current farming practices. His writing style is engaging and easy to read, and I would thoroughly recommend it, but he does not sugar coat the reality, or the challenges ahead.
Our often overlooked soil ecosystem is the first focus of Chapter 1, and its importance is woven as a consistent thread throughout the book. Standard farming practices damage soil health and resilience (through ploughing and chemical use), and is pushing us to a tipping point from which we may not be able to recover. His descriptions of the beauty and complexity of soil made me want to go outside with a spade and a sieve and uncover the diversity within (I’ll be honest, the warm cup of tea and mince pie in hand may have kept me from this). One paper he quotes suggests that areas with lower above ground biodiversity (such as the UK), may have the highest below ground soil bio-diversity (1). Key lesson: we must learn to cherish our soil as more than just the amorphous mud beneath our feet.
The book suggests that land use change is one of, if not the biggest threat. Monbiot insists that moving to a plant based, or more radically, a microbe based diet is critical. His points about meat eating are well know amongst campaigners- that livestock farming causes significant direct and indirect environmental damage, far in excess of the nutrition is provides (2). The term “ghost acres” are put to good use, describing the indirect footprint of farming (particularly livestock but not exclusively). Every field we see, is shadowed by many others; often hundreds of miles away: e.g fields of soy grown in Brazil for our livestock feed, or land used to farm animals that produce manure to be spread on our organic farms. Key lesson: do more with less (Increase the yield, but lower the ecological damage).
If it is so obvious that farming is destroying the planet, then why are we not doing anything about it? Monbiot suggests that our food systems are driven by two seemingly unstoppable forces. On the one hand, you have the “evil” corporations, hungry for financial gain with vested interests to maintain the status quo. On the other side you have the consumers, hungry for idealised stories of the farms and memories of the past: of prancing lambs being shepherded by the righteous custodians of our green and pleasant lands. It is this desire for beauty over truth that Monbiot suggests reinforces and allow the destructive practices to continue- we have very little in the way of counter stories or examples of different ways of being: we eat and farm in this way because that is society’s dominant narrative. Key lesson: we are not demanding change because we do not see the truth.
One of my criticisms of the book, is, that his portrayal of farming, as the ultimate bad guy, does not always give room to nurture positive stories. For example, in some ways I understand his criticisms of urban farming, in that we will not feed the world through city farms, but this is probably where the new stories and narratives will emerge. By 2050, around 70% of the worlds populations will live in Cities (3), so without a connection to the realities of where our food comes why would anyone demand change? But I do agree with him that our urban farms cannot be a picture post card version of farming, it must reflect the truth of what we want our food systems to be. Perhaps this truth is something that we do not yet imagine? The last chapter of the book recommends three questions to ask when evaluating a food system which I like:
“does this deliver more food with less farming?” “who owns and controls it?”, and “is the food it produces healthy, cheap and accessible”. (page 229). Surely not too much to ask, is it? I would recommend reading the book and deciding for yourself (please do let me know).
References:
- Wu, T., Ayres, E., Bardgett, R.D., Wall, D.H. and Garey, J.R., 2011. Molecular study of worldwide distribution and diversity of soil animals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(43), pp.17720-17725.
- See various data sources in my world in Data: https://ourworldindata.org
- https://unhabitat.org/wcr/
- Monbiot, G., 2022. Regenesis: Feeding the world without devouring the planet. Penguin UK.
Friends of the Earth Hull 
A good book review with key lessons to remember. Thank you 🙏🌍
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