Transforming Food Systems: The Quest for Sustainability - Paperback

by Dave Watson (Author)

• Sets out the historical context for understanding the current challenges facing food production
• Gives a unique overview of the range of reformist, progressive and radical solutions to reforming the global food system
• Provides a framework for comparing the relative strengths and weaknesses of different solutions

Back Jacket

"This book provides an authoritative account of the evolution of the global food system and the various prescriptions for reform currently in play. Using the conceptual prism of regimes of accumulation, it helps make sense of different alternative food systems and sheds light on the prospects for incremental and radical reform. With over 120 pages of references, it will provide an invaluable source for students and scholars interested in the sustainability of food."
Professor Neil Ward, University of East Anglia, UK and author of Net Zero, Food and Farming: Climate Change and the UK Agri-Food System

"Written from a supply side perspective, this is an excellent, well-written and comprehensive synthesis of a huge volume of literature on ways to improve the sustainability of food systems. I enjoyed reading it."
Professor Tim Benton, Distinguished Fellow - Environment and Society Centre, Chatham House - Royal Institute of International Affairs, UK

There is an almost universal recognition that modern agri-food supply chains are unsustainable. They are seen as both contributing to and vulnerable to climate change, too reliant on environmentally-damaging synthetic inputs, as undermining biodiversity, generating significant losses and waste and failing to deliver the nutritious food required for a healthy, balanced diet.

This book traces the evolution of the current global food production system and reviews competing approaches to achieving more sustainable production, starting with 'neo-productivist' and 'reformist' approaches which promote new technologies as a way forward, such as genetic modification, vertical farming and synthetic foods (plant-based meat alternatives and cultured meat).

The book also considers the pros and cons of 'progressive' approaches, such as regenerative and organic agriculture, as well as the more radical solutions which seek to achieve a more fundamental reform of the food system.

Dr Dave Watson is a leading authority on sustainability issues affecting agriculture. He has taught at the University of Hull, UK as well as managing research programmes for the International Livestock Research Institute, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

Author Biography

Dr Dave Watson is a leading authority on sustainability issues affecting agriculture. He has taught at the University of Hull, UK as well as managing research programmes for the International Livestock Research Institute, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.