Quite informative book on the current landscape of food in relation to technology and climate change. One thing that bothered me was the author's need to describe their interviewee's appearance. It was a bit distracting and sometimes seemed a bit mean-spirited. Did we really need to know someone has a paunch? ( )

I've read quite a few books that focus on climate change and how we as a global community will have to adjust to live in the new world. The Fate of Food deals exclusively with food science by looking at innovative farming techniques, robotic harvesting equipment, genetically modified foods, and cloned farm animals. (There's lots more she examines in rich detail but I don't want to spoil the excitement of discovery for you.) The author travels all over the world to see how different countries and individual farmers (of various sizes) are pivoting and adjusting the way that they manufacture and even distribute food.

One of the coolest sections of the book explores urban hydroponics centers where iron rich greens are farmed using seeds, a piece of cloth, misted water, and lots of monitoring technology. Think of the energy savings if you can get these foods using less water, less soil, and more efficient distribution routes! The overall theme of the book was one of hope for the future as long as we come together as a global community to create new and better ways to produce food in an ethical way that does not further damage our fragile planet. I believe (and so does Little I think) that this is absolutely possible so rather than being a "doom and gloom" depiction of how much we've messed up this is more of a "look at all of the cool things we're already doing!" approach which I really appreciated (and needed).

This is a great book for anyone who's feeling anxious about the state of the planet and/or interested in ways to decrease your carbon footprint and do some planting of your own. Sow the seeds of your own success! ( )

Though I've read extensively on this topic, the readability lagged (or perhaps the times made it seem so.) Still looking for an answer to a fundamental question about GMO Bt maize and other species; again not addressed here. Little calls it a success story. But what about the natural consumers of the rest of the plant? Are we sterilizing this land from all insect life?

Unappetizing. ( )

Explores a multidisciplinary approach to feeding future populations while reducing the waste of perishables and water supplies. I greatly appreciated the author's respect for both traditional food systems as well as modern food innovators and her not trying to pigeon hole the reader into an either-or situation. I found it to be a highly refreshing mix of nutritional pragmatism and thinking outside the box. Informative, well-researched, sometimes funny, and certainly worth the read even if you don't consider yourself all that interested in what you're ingesting. ( )

The main way that most people will experience climate change is through its impact on food - what they eat, how it's grown, the price they pay for it, and the availability and choice they have. - quote in the book from Tim Gore, head of policy and climate change for Oxfam.

A fascinating and educational exploration at how food production must evolve to feed our increasing population in this world of extreme weather patterns.

The author is comprehensive in her analyses of what had generally been presented as an either-or argument: for the return-to-nature style of agriculture (which is not possible for the projected population) or for engineering resilience into our foods through genetic modification (the main obstacle of which is people's fears over technology).

I really appreciated Little's consistent promotion for a third way of doing things, not an eradication of one argument for the complete pursuit of another, but an amalgamation of both. She never advocates for extremism, but lays out her findings fairly and logically, that the solution depends on the context. Urban environments and rural environments require different farming techniques, different food plants require different techniques for efficacy in growth, transportation and spoilage also need to be taken into account for where and how these foods are grown, etc.

There's so much to learn from and like about this book. And a review of this book will really just turn out to be a pale-ghost of a summary of all of Little's findings. So, if you've ever been slightly concerned about the state of food production and supply in our troubled modern world, this is the book for you. If you want to learn about how technology is solving our mass-production agricultural issues, this is the book for you. If you want a logical, open-minded book about the possibilities involved in our food futures, this is the book for you. This is a really really good book and the time to read it is right now, I cannot emphasise this enough.

Further reading: on the roles of robots in farming. ( )