7 minute read
Book review
Review by Ursula Arens RD
Ursula has a degree in dietetics and currently works as a freelance writer in Nutrition and Dietetics She enjoys the gifts of Aspergers.
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ENDING HUNGER The quest to Feed the World Without Destroying it
AUTHOR: ANTHONY WARNER PUBLISHER: ONEWORLD PUBLICATIONS, 2021 HARDBACK: £16.99
Many dietitians will know Anthony Warner as the prone-to-expletives ‘angry chef’ blogger, throwing acid science onto dietary fad bubbles. His latest book is perfect for dietitians who want to highlight the big issues surrounding environmental sustainability.
Anthony eviscerates fuzzy foodie concepts from wellness promoters. With stones of facts and data, he crushes unproven wishclaims that promote books or cures or products or influencer scores.
And now, in his third book, Warner warns that we cannot continue to produce food in ways that threaten the finite resources of our terrestrial environment. Weaving environmental sustainability metrics into food production and dietary choices is confusing and complicated, and can result in 100 shades of grey rather than binary decisions. The problems and themes are global, and Anthony shows no mercy in his spotlights of confused, selfish and hypocritical behaviours and demands made by us, the well-fed (actually, very overfed) affluent consumers. We want cheaper foods and better foods and environmentally sustainable foods that make us feel virtuous.
The reality check that Anthony starts with is the threat of hunger. He shares private observation of hunger within his family. But not-enough-food has been the daily concern for most people over history, and readers are reminded of the bleak predictions of Thomas Malthus in 1798, that starvation would always be the rate-limiting step to societal development. And being very hungry is still the daily anxiety of a billion undernourished people today. But past human skill and genius now allows us abundance of delicious and varied foods at ever lower prices (proportionate to earnings). Anthony rightly reminds us to pay tribute to Nobel prize winner Norman Borlaug, who developed strong short wheat that was higher yielding and allowed mechanised harvesting. Interesting fact: 20% of global calories now come from the single plant, wheat. But what future tools are in the pipeline to feed ever-growing populations in environmentally sustainable ways?
ORGANIC PRODUCTION IS NOT THE ANSWER By any calculation, reducing unit yields will not feed the predicted two billion additional mouths by 2050. Anthony states a bit unfairly that there are no significant nutritional differences between organic and conventional crops, but that is not the main issue. Cocktail effects of pesticides are impossible to research because pesticide safety assessments are by single product, and usually ignored in affluent consumer consideration of organic choice. And insects. We all ‘like’ bees because they ‘give’ us honey, but the well documented ecological collapse of insect populations is very alarming; these tiny creatures form the ecological base for all mammal life, and no itchy buzzy critters means no birds and bees (literally and metaphorically).
While organic food supply is niche, covering only 1.4% of global farm
production, Anthony cheers for the wealthy few, willing to pay more for organic avocados and turmeric foamy drinks and cute misshapen vegetables. Organic production methods have to be brave and innovative, and no-till alternatives to improving soil quality, including more use of cover crops, do reduce the polluting and deadening effects of (more efficient) monoculture production methods. Supporting organic production may be a luxury for the few, but funds problem solver methods for future agricultural challenges.
GENETICALLY MODIFIED OR EDITED FOODS? GM technology is already very widely used, although not yet permitted for human foods sold in the UK as a result of a general ban in the EU (and the judgement that gene modification and editing are essentially the same interventions). There is much public resistance to GM foods, but is this due to ignorant romanticism and unfair alarmist hype from environmental and consumer groups?
Nutrient improvement of foods is frequently promoted as a potential benefit. ‘Golden rice’ has been in a perennial swirl of debate for decades. Promoters claim a new vitamin A source in a commonly eaten food to address deficiency in many Asian and African populations, versus critics claiming it is a high-tech solution for a low-tech problem caused entirely by poverty and economic imbalance. Carrots, for example, provide the vitamin A generating carotenoids, without the corporate patents and controls.
Anthony supports GMO technologies to improve the quality and efficiencies of food production. He gives many examples of ‘better’, including wheat with nitrogen fixing roots not needing polluting fertilizers; crops resistant to fungal and insect damage and so reducing pesticide use; products with greater ripening and size uniformity thus reducing wastage and allowing mechanical harvesting. I observe my own discomfort with GM promises, my confusions over benefits versus risks, my inconsistent enthusiasm for high tech medicines versus traditional food conservatism: I squirm like a worm on a hook. Anthony supports GMO food technologies for foods, and he appears to be in line with the UK rush to lead within Europe to welcome faster and more efficient regulatory approval (Statement from George Eustice, Environment Secretary, January 2021)
MOST PEOPLE EATING LESS MEAT IS ONE OF THE ANSWERS The relative inefficiency of meat as a source of energy, or even protein versus plant sources, is strongly documented. Less familiar are the burdens on water systems, displacement of pristine environments and consequent effects on biodiversity, etc. Beef versus bean protein generates 150 times more greenhouse gases and needs over 100 times as much land. But, of course, it is not so simple. Meat contains micronutrients less available in plant proteins, including bioavailable sources of iron, with a reminder that iron deficiency anaemia is the most common micronutrient ailment in UK women. Also, we love the symbolic and culinary richness of meat. The issue is that many global populations with increasing wealth feel the same way, and the more-people/more-meat predictions offer bleak consequences that must be addressed now. Anthony supports less meat, rather than prescriptive no-meat-miserableness. But much more should be done to encourage beany delights. He loves hummus but gives a ‘no thanks’ to insectbased snacks.
This is a great book. It is perfect for dietitians, opening up the deep debates between more food for more people, balanced with the urgent issues of environmental sustainability. Anthony has delivered another exciting and fact-filled book, that is also very readable and punny funny. His list of acknowledgements captures the diversity of experts showing his attempts to be fair and comprehensive at considering the complexities of important issues, although of course the conclusions are his own. Thank you, Anthony, for being a warner.
The Food People’s ‘in conversation with’ series features people, businesses, brands and entrepreneurs from across the food and drink world, finding out more about why they do what they do and how they are championing change and shifting the future of food & drink. The 10th episode is an interview with Anthony Warner, how he became The Angry Chef, with discussion about his new book Ending Hunger. Click here for the YouTube interview...
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