Grand Food Bargain: And the Mindless Drive for More

The modern food system relies on an illusion of endless abundance, but the planet has its limits. Kevin Walker's book "Bigger Isn't Always Better" explores the unintended consequences of our myopic focus on quantity over quality, such as the Cavendish banana's vulnerability to disease and the free markets' undercutting of opportunity. He argues that shifting our mindset is essential to renegotiate the grand food bargain, one individual decision at a time.

Format: Hardback
Length: 360 pages
Publication date: 29 March 2019
Publisher: Island Press

Americans have a great deal when it comes to food, with countless varieties of convenient products available in our grocery stores. However, the modern food system relies on an illusion, as it depends on endless abundance, while the planet has its limits. This also applies to a healthcare system that must absorb rising rates of diabetes and obesity, as well as workers who must labor harder and faster for less pay.

Through beautifully-told stories from around the world, Kevin Walker reveals the unintended consequences of our myopic focus on quantity over quality. A trip to a Costa Rica plantation illustrates how the Cavendish banana became the most common fruit in the world and also one of the most vulnerable to disease. Walker's early career in agribusiness taught him how pressure to sell more and more fertilizer obscured what that growth did to waterways. His family farm illustrates how an unquestioning belief in free markets undercut opportunity in his hometown.

By the end of the journey, we not only understand how the drive to produce ever more food became hardwired into the American psyche, but why shifting our mindset is essential. Walker argues that it starts with remembering that what we eat affects the wider world. If each of us decides that bigger isn't always better, we can renegotiate the grand food bargain, one individual decision at a time.

Weight: 624g
Dimension: 238 x 171 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781610919470