Customer Reviews:
 Eat This Book! May 8, 2008
This book is brilliant. The other review complains about the lack of solutions, but the point of this book is clear, to state the problems. The writing is sharp, the descriptions are shocking, and the conclusion leaves things finely poised between a desire to rush out and change the world, and the sad reflection that we are so far away from where we need to be.
This book is something of a summary of work to date. For more detail, see his others books, especially "So shall we reap."
 All heart no head March 26, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The title of this book was intriguing and I was keen to know what the author's solution was to the problems of over-consumption and waste in modern agriculture. Tudge gives us lots of passion - he cares a great deal about his subject - but I feel that this is his problem. I never felt in reading the book that I got much in the way of dispassionate analysis. Rather, the book veered more towards the polemical. If you give your work a title such as this, a degree of detachment is vital if you are to make your point effectively. That said, the author describes many things well and there are some very interesting passages dealing with modern research into nutrition and livestock farming.
The author advocates Enlightened Agriculture as the answer to our food problems. There are no surprises in what this involves. Growing food close to where it is consumed and in season with minimal chemical interference and maximum use of modern science to manage the land intelligently and sustainably. One cannot help agreeing with him, but the book leaves some vital questions unanswered. For example, how would a system such as this handle crop failure? He also believes that Enlightened Agriculture would require 20% of the UK workforce to return to agriculture, rather than the 1% currently employed thus. I felt he failed to explore the ramifications of such a radical change in any thoroughness.
Food for thought, yes, but frustratingly many more questions than answers. I finished still unconvinced that 'feeding people is easy'.
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