Chow, Down: 'The End of Food'

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

TITLING YOUR BOOK "The End of Food" might sound a bit alarmist, but for author and journalist Paul Roberts, it's merely a fact.

When he began writing the book in 2004, "There were these problems underlying [the food industry] that were getting worse and worse," Roberts said. "There was certainly a food safety problem, there were concerns about imported food, there were concerns about industrial farming. ... And then it was just in the last year that we've added the biofuel thing to it and started adding the price factor, as well."

In other words, there's a lot wrong with how the current global food economy operates. In "The End of Food," Roberts explains how the dominant model of industrial-scale food production, which has created food more cheaply than ever before, is unsustainable.

Unlike other books that have popped up in recent years covering similar territory — Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma," Marion Nestle's "What to Eat" and Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" just scratch the surface — Roberts focuses not on nutrition, history, sociology or the politics of food. Instead, he looks at the complex systems involved in what is generally and simply thought of as the food industry.

Some of the interrelated systems Roberts has taken into account include energy and oil, the search for alternative fuels, rising food prices, U.S. government policies, international trade law, the use of water and human health.

"Up until recently, [the food economy] was a thing of beauty. It did — sort of — everything right," he said. "For most of the last century, it's been good news from the food front: more food, more cheaply, more convenient, it was safer."

The reason for the current food crises, Roberts said, stems from a variety of causes. "I think that once a system is in place and you invest a lot of money, the stakeholders are all reluctant to change it. We focus a lot on big food companies, of course, because they're the most visible and they certainly do a good job of fighting to maintain the status quo.

"But policymakers don't like to come up with new policies because it's hard and politicians get campaign contributions. It's a system they know and understand. The USDA is built around the current system, and to redo it would be hugely painful."

Additionally, as more and more farmland is used to grow grain for biofuel research, the availability of those grains for human consumption will decrease. Roberts, also the author of 2004's "The End of Oil," believes that is a bit misguided.

"I think it's a very complicated question because we clearly need alternatives to oil. ... I don't think it makes sense to commit ourselves to a pathway that is going to have a large share of the cropland devoted to fuel production — not until we're really certain of food supply and food demand."

Ethanol and E. coli aside, "I don't mean to paralyze people with fear," Roberts said. "But I think that it is really important that people begin to recognize that it's not an absolute certain thing that you're going to be able to get all those [foods] anymore.

"Some of it may just be not available; some of it we may recognize is too expensive from a resource standpoint, but it's going to change."

» Washington Ethical Society, 7750 16th St. NW; Wed., 7:15 p.m., free; 202-882-6650.

Written by Express contributor Katherine Silkaitis
Photo courtesy Houghton Mifflin