An Edible History of Humanity - Tom Standage

An Edible History of Humanity was sort of entertaining, as it contains lots of colorful anecdotes, but much of it felt like a less substantive (and very derivative) version of Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemna (cf the discussion of corn). Moreover, I came away feeling like behind his pseudo-intellectualism, Standage is either really ignorant, or sort of a schmuck. His political beliefs, when they show through, are disturbing.

For example, Standage describes several instances of famines in which the native community starved, while exporting their food for consumption by wealthy foreigners.* However, evidently without realizing the irony in his position, Standage remains shockingly, unabashedly colonialist - he explains the danger of the current popularity of "local food" by stating that, "an exclusive focus on local foods would harm the prospects of farmers in developing countries who grow high-value crops for export to foreign markets. To argue that they should concentrate on growing staple foods for themselves, rather than more valuable crops for wealthy farmers, is tantamount to denying them the opportunity for economic development." I was dumbfounded when I read this... Below I have excerpted only 2 of several passages where Standage plainly describes the misery that results when poor farmers grow crops for wealthy foreigners, but this does not seem to have shaken his ideology.

He also extensively lauds the virtues of nitrogen farming while devoting exactly 1 paragraph to its dangers, trivializes the organic movement, and is a bit over-the-top in his rah-rah Capitalist, anti-Communist jingoism ("Is it a coincidence that the worst famine in history occurred in a Communist state?"). He's the business editor at the Economist, so maybe that explains it?

Anyway, I wish he would take some time out from copying Pollan's rhetoric to read a little Chomsky.

Sigh!

* On p.135, he states that "by the early 1840s, imports from Ireland were supplying one sixth of England's food. This food was produced by men who worked on the best, most easily cultivated land and were typically given small patches of inferior land on which they grew potatoes to support themselves and their families. The English could only keep eating bread, in short, because the Irish were eating potatoes." He later describes, on p.188, how under Mao in China, "the main cause of the famine was not inadequate food production so much as the farmers' lack of entitlement to it. The food they produced went to feed people in the cities, Party officials, and foreigners."

The Dirty Life

This excellent book is kind of a family chain-letter. First read, I think, by Jillian, who gave it to Marcia, who gave it to Karen, who gave it to Linda, who gave it to me! Who's next? Don't break the chain!

Kristin Kimball was an archetypal New York free-lance writer, pitching a story on the local organic food farm scene. She interviews the highly energetic and charismatic Mark, and before you know it, has abandoned her New York apartment, singles scene and budding writing career for a truer, close-to-the-earth life.

But wait! Farming, as Mark wants to do it, growing everything a small upstate NY community needs and selling to customers who would contract for a season's worth of produce, herbs, maple syrup, dairy products and meat, is crazy ambitious and exhausting! Kristin works so hard, she nearly forgets that she has trouble committing to a relationship, even to someone as solid, admirable, (and manic) as Mark. But plans for a farm-based wedding move ahead at breakneck speed, even though Mark and Kristin have no time to buy wedding clothes, fix up the barn, repair the house, find enough chairs, and prepare for guests. OK, no spoilers - you have to read it to find out how these dilemmas are resolved. And you should read it, because Kristin is a hell of a writer. The wonderfully lyrical descriptions of fields, flowers, horses, and home are kept in balance by the her superb ability to convey the crushing workload, heartaches, and pain of farming. Really a terrific read!