Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet

Regenesis

The Sunday Times bestseller 
*Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize* 
A New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year 
 
'This book calls for nothing less than a revolution in the future of food' Kate Raworth 
 
From the bestselling author of Feral, a breathtaking first glimpse of a new future for food and for humanity 
 
Farming is the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction - and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticise urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. We have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry. 
 
Now the food system itself is beginning to falter. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, we can resolve the biggest of our dilemmas and feed the world without devouring the planet. 
 
Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.

This book calls for nothing less than a revolution in the future of food - one that will literally transform the face of the Earth, to make food affordable for all while restoring the living world. Such a vision sounds near impossible, but Monbiot reveals the food pioneers whose extraordinary innovations could bring it within reach. Never shying from controversy, Regenesis weaves the poetry of soil into the politics of farming to shake the ground on which we all grow. This is Monbiot's masterpiece: an urgent and exhilarating journey into remaking what and how we eat

Regenesis speaks to us like a poem that begins with a phantasmagoria of that which lies under the soil, offers a magnificent political economy of global food production and concludes with a hopeful vision of a techno-ethical equilibrium between Humanity and Nature. It must be read

People from all walks of life should read this remarkable book. It is in my view one of the two or three most important books to appear this century

Prof. Sir David King, former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government

As we begin to rethink our relationship with Nature, the unstinting work of George Monbiot becomes ever more valuable. Monbiot has been at the cutting edge of the discussion for decades, and his extraordinary book covers this complex, evolving subject with depth and breadth, sincerity and humour. I never cease to be surprised by the unexpected perspectives he brings to bear, leading me through problems I never envisaged and solutions I never imagined. We are left with the hope that the solutions might triumph, that we might make it through

A book offering evidence-based hope is a rare thing in these days of climate and nature emergency - yet that's exactly what George Monbiot has written. Inspiring and compelling, Regenesis sets out a transformative vision of a new food future with the potential to both restore nature and feed the world. Monbiot's blueprint is both wildly ambitious and deeply practical, and might well be our last best hope of stopping the sixth great extinction

This remarkable book, staring curiously down at the soil beneath our feet, points us convincingly in one of the directions we must travel. I learned something on every page

George Monbiot clears paths towards solutions that lie dormant within us, which, if embraced, could transform our world and our societies into better places. He reaches for new ideas that might ignite the collective consciousness in a push to protect, rather than tragically destroy, the biosphere. Read George Monbiot and you will meet the cheerful courage and passion of a fellow traveller on this earth who seeks authentic hope

For anyone who cares about where our food comes from and its impact on the planet Regenesis is essential reading. This deeply researched book lifts the lid on our current methods of food production and all its dirty secrets: but more than that it provides a blueprint for the future. Monbiot pursues the key question: how can we have healthy food that's cheap enough for everyone to eat? His answers provide critical pathways towards a way to feed the planet

Forget Elon Musk's dry-as-dust retro sci-fi fantasies, George Monbiot gives us an inspiring vision of the future that is alive and kicking and grounded in the latest scientific discoveries. George Monbiot has combined his gifts as an investigator, interviewer and witty storyteller to create an exhiliarating epic!

A fascinating and ultimately positive book ... a harmonic vision of how changing our relationship to land use, farming and the food that we eat could transform our lives

Wonderful ... Monbiot shows that the thin layer on which all terrestrial ecosystems stand is alive with organisms as diverse, fascinating and mysterious as any found above ground. He shatters the shibboleths of farming, showing the way to a radical transformation of agricultural practices and exciting new opportunities for nourishment

Regenesis is a world-making, world-changing book; at once visionary and rigorous and practicable. It rings and sings throughout with Monbiot's extraordinary combination of passion, generosity and justice. It is braced by his unshakeable commitment to bettering the planet for all its inhabitants, human and other-than-human. It is a thrilling work, more ambitious even than its predecessor, Feral, and it gripped me as I read. Recognising that "the future is underground", Monbiot shows us that the possibility for a transformed relationship with food, the living world and each other lies just beneath our feet, right under our noses

A brilliant, mesmerizing, vital book. Beneath each square meter of soil live thousands of species, and each chapter of George Monbiot's eye-opening exploration of that soil and its potential is similarly, dynamically rich-delivering a whole new way of thinking about our agriculture and our diets, our climate and our future. And much needed hope, besides

A genuinely brilliant, inspirational book ... George Monbiot embarks on a journey of discovery, realising that soil and its role in our life is bigger than everything else. Halfway through, I felt like a child who was bursting to share a secret with anyone who would listen. By the time I had finished reading, I felt as if the purest mountain stream had washed through my brain, and Monbiot had shared the most fundamentally important insight of his life

Sir Tim Smit, Founder of the Eden Project

You may think you are across environmental and climate change issues, but think again. This passionate, extraordinary book opens up a compelling and vital new dimension: food and the way the world farms

With rigour, singular bravery and an infectious love for the living world, George Monbiot presents the Silent Spring of our time. Regenesis is an eye-watering reckoning of humanity's land and food crisis and an astonishing vision of survival and restoration. Monbiot takes us on a journey from the rhizospheres and the drilospheres through soil ecology, cultural myths, to the future of food all bound together with his own wonder-ful, beautifully-written observations. There is no topic more important for planetary survival than land and food, and there is no writer willing to dispense of bullshit, tell us the truth, and take on powerful forces and perceived wisdom like George Monbiot. A visionary, fearless, essential book

Monbiot rolls up his sleeves and pulls on his boots for an uncompromising session of agricultural dragon-slaying and foodie myth-busting. Unafraid to propose a new world order for farming and food production that is kinder to both people and planet, Regenesis is rigorous and restive, but also witty, original and humane. Let us hope it is read, digested and acted on by people, politicians and policy-makers the world over

I am so grateful George Monbiot has applied his razor sharp intellect, bountiful curiosity and love for the land to the complex and fundamental issue of what we eat. This book offers a deep dive into the most essential question of our time - how might we feed ourselves without destroying our planet in the process?

This is an important book and a gripping read. It will enflame vested interests on all sides. Because Monbiot has that most aggravating of gifts - the ability lucidly to point out things that people desperately do not want to be true

How can we ensure that everyone is fed without destroying the biosphere? Regenesis is a lively and deeply researched enquiry that confronts our dilemmas head on. There are no easy answers, but Monbiot provides a brilliant guide to asking the right questions. Transformation is urgently needed and this book shows how it is possible

George Monbiot is a very skilful writer, and Regenesis shows all his powers at full stretch. He seems to see more fully than almost anyone else in this field, with a clarity of attention both to the smallest realities of a handful of soil and to the widest implications of the way human beings have lived and continue to live in the world. Telling things in the right order doesn't seem like one of the functions of the imagination, but again and again Monbiot shows that it is, with all the imaginative sympathy of a great storyteller as well as the overarching understanding of a moral visionary. This is a fine and necessary book

George Monbiot is one of the most fearless and important voices in the global climate movement today

I used to look up to the stars for thoughts of infinity, eternity and divine cooperation. This book revealed to me I could find the same inspiration beneath the soles of my feet in less than a foot of soil. My walks on earth will never be the same as they were. The writing, observation and devotion is infectiously compelling. The learning is deep and immense

A magnificent new overview of how we might live and feed ourselves without destroying ourselves ... It is riveting ... Along with a dazzling array of stats, there's also impressive investigative reporting ... rich food for thought, devastating figures, startling insights and even the odd joke ... A hugely important read

A call to raze the pastoral imaginary so that we can begin to think clearly about how we produce food and steward the soil ... To have any chance of turning the age of extinction into an age of regeneration, systemic reform, based on the facts, not pastoral myth-making, is essential

Colossally important... You've got to read it

A treasure trove of hope and solutions, and a vision for a sustainable, healthy, equitable world. We meet inspiring farmers as well as some radical solutions ... Comprehensive, devastating, rousing ... An essential book

Big ideas, beautifully written and the portraits of people building the alternatives are gorgeous! Makes you angry and enraptured with the beauty of the natural world all at once

A paean to the wonder that is the ecology of soil, scientifically informed and beautifully told. The perfect bank holiday read

Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford

Phenomenal. Clear, eloquent, fearless and devastating in its analysis. A revolution in the future of food

Glorious ... intelligent, deeply researched .... The point Monbiot makes so ably and so necessarily is that system change is both essential and possible through a complexity of solutions ... The stakes could not be higher. If a book can change hearts and minds about one of the most critical issues of our time, this rational, humane polemic is it

Revolutionary ... Rigorous, bold and clear-sighted ... To conjure the miracle of more food with less farming, we need to rethink what lies beneath our feet

Vivid and memorable... Regenesis is a compelling, deeply researched account of a deeply broken food system and how we might heal it

A compelling story of soil, food and farming

Ambitious and deeply researched ... Monbiot exposes, with journalistic flair, the 'gulf between perception and reality' about where and how our food is produced ... it includes some fascinating case studies ... bristling with ideas and imagination

Eye-opening, persuasive, meticulously researched [...] Monbiot thinks globally [... and] his arguments take account of the needs of everyone in society

A paean to soil, told more gracefully and memorably than anyone before him... Regenesis is likely to become a classic. Monbiot is a writer of the first rank

Inspiring, courageous, and bursting with ideas

George Monbiot is an author, Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner. His bestselling books include Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life and Heat: How We Can Stop the Planet Burning; his latest is Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis. George co-wrote the concept album Breaking the Spell of Loneliness with musician Ewan McLennan, and has made a number of viral videos. One of them, adapted from his 2013 TED talk, How Wolves Change Rivers, has been viewed on YouTube over 40 million times. Another, on Natural Climate Solutions, which he co-presented with Greta Thunberg, has been watched over 60 million times.

For the first time since the Neolithic, we have the opportunity to transform not only our food system but our entire relationship to the living world. 
 
Farming is the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction - and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticise urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. We have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry. 
 
Now the food system itself is beginning to falter. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, we can resolve the biggest of our dilemmas and feed the world without devouring the planet. 
 
Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.

This Can't Be Happening

In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement. 
 
In the galvanising speeches and essays brought together in This Can't Be Happening, George Monbiot calls on humanity to stop averting its gaze from the destruction of the living planet, and wake up to the greatest predicament we have ever faced. 
 
Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.

George Monbiot (b. 1963) is a world-renowned investigative journalist and self-confessed professional troublemaker, who has been a leading voice in the campaign for climate justice for over thirty years.

Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental movement today. 
 
In these galvanising speeches and essays, George Monbiot calls on humanity to stop averting its gaze from the destruction of the living planet, and wake up to the greatest predicament we have ever faced.

How We Can Stop the Planet Burning

Heat

'With a dazzling command of science and a relentless faith in people, George Monbiot writes about social change with his eyes wide open' Naomi Klein 
 
'A manifesto for change ... The combination of practical detail and creative thinking is immensely impressive' P. D. Smith, Guardian 
 
We know that climate change is happening. We know that it could, if the worst predictions come true, destroy the conditions which make human life possible. Only one question is now worth asking: can it be stopped? In Heat, George Monbiot shows that it can. 
 
In every case, he supports his proposals with a rigorous investigation into what works, what doesn't, how much it costs and what the problems might be. He wages war on bad ideas as energetically as he promotes good ones. He is not afraid to attack anyone - friend or foe - whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged. Heat also contains a breath-taking new exposure of the corporations trying to stop us from taking action.

A dazzling command of science and a relentless faith in people ... I never miss reading him.

An impressive piece of investigative journalism

A book anyone who thinks they know what should be done about global warming must read

At last the global movement has found a vision.

Monbiot's book has an infectious and practical 21st century spirit

The combination of practical detail and creative thinking is immensely impressive.

One of the best-informed people about climate change ... comprehensive and compelling

Turns number crunching into inspiration for social change.

'I defy you to read this book and not feel motivated to change' The Times 
 
We know that climate change is happening. We know that it could, if the worst predictions come true, destroy the conditions which make human life possible. Only one question is now worth asking: can it be stopped? In Heat, George Monbiot shows that it can. 
 
In every case, he supports his proposals with a rigorous investigation into what works, what doesn't, how much it costs and what the problems might be. He wages war on bad ideas as energetically as he promotes good ones. He is not afraid to attack anyone - friend or foe - whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged. Heat also contains a breath-taking new exposure of the corporations trying to stop us from taking action. Inspiring, original, burning with energy, this book could change the world.

Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding

Feral

Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life

'Captivating. Will change the way you think about the natural world, and your place in it' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall 
 
In Feral, George Monbiot, one of the world's most celebrated radical thinkers offers a riveting tale of possibility and travel in the wild 
 
How many of us sometimes feel that we are scratching at the walls of this life, seeking to find our way into a wider space beyond? That our mild, polite existence sometimes seems to crush the breath out of us? Feral is the lyrical and gripping story of George Monbiot's efforts to re-engage with nature and discover a new way of living. He shows how, by restoring and rewilding our damaged ecosystems on land and at sea, we can bring wonder back into our lives. Making use of some remarkable scientific discoveries, Feral lays out a new, positive environmentalism, in which nature is allowed to find its own way.

George Monbiot is always original - both in the intelligence of his opinions and the depth and rigour of his research. In this unusual book he presents a persuasive argument for a new future for the planet, one in which we consciously progress from just conserving nature to actively rebuilding it

Feral has really opened my mind to the history and possibilities of our landscape. It reflects a very real need in us all right now to be released from our claustrophobic monoculture and sense of powerlessness. To break the straight lines into endless branches. To free our land from its absent administrators. To rewild both the landscape and ourselves. It is the most positive and daring environmental book I have read. In order to change our world you have to be able to see a better one. I think George has done that

Part personal journal, part rigorous (and riveting) natural history, but above all unbridled vision for a less cowed, more self-willed planet, this is a book that will change the way you think about the natural world, and your place in it. Big, bold and beautifully written, his vision of a rewilded world is, well, truly captivating

It could not be more rigorously researched, more elegantly delivered, or more timely. We need such big thinking for our own sakes and those of our children. Bring on the wolves and whales, I say, and, in the words of Maurice Sendak, let the wild rumpus start

This is prose style as auditory experience; what majesty the eye notes in the landscape is echoed in the vocabulary. ... This is nature writing prepared to go off at a tangent when it needs to, prepared to explore the byways of our passions. Yes, there is a wildness here and it's a welcome one

George Monbiot studied zoology at Oxford, and has spent his career as a journalist and environmentalist, working with others to defend the natural world he loves. His celebrated Guardian columns are syndicated all over the world. He is the author of the bestselling books Captive State, The Age of Consent, Bring on the Apocalypse and Heat, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed and No Man's Land. His latest book, Feral, was shortlisted for the Great Outdoors Book of the Year award. Among the many prizes he has won is the UN Global 500 award for outstanding environmental achievement, presented to him by Nelson Mandela.

How many of us sometimes feel that we are scratching at the walls of this life, seeking to find our way into a wider space beyond? That our mild, polite existence sometimes seems to crush the breath out of us? Feral is the lyrical and gripping story of George Monbiot's efforts to re-engage with nature and discover a new way of living. He shows how, by restoring and rewilding our damaged ecosystems on land and at sea, we can bring wonder back into our lives. Making use of some remarkable scientific discoveries, Feral lays out a new, positive environmentalism, in which nature is allowed to find its own way.

George Monbiot

Peter Hutchison

Explosive and beautifully told &hellip; these truths can set us free

This brave book borders on being a page turner &hellip; &lsquo;The Secret History of Neoliberalism&rsquo; is really the ultimate crime novel, one in which we all play a part

Incisive, illuminating, eye-opening&mdash;an unsparing anatomy of the great ideological beast stalking our times

The Invisible Doctrine is everything you need. Monbiot and Hutchinson have written the definitive short history of the neoliberal confidence trick

Mrs Thatcher was wrong: there is an alternative. Read this book and rebel

Read it, get angry, demand better!

Vital, vivid, compelling. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how dark money and hidden influence have taken over politics - and the world

An urgent unmasking of some of the most powerful and insidious yet overlooked ideas of our era

This book is dynamite &ndash; shining a spotlight on the evils of neoliberalism, shattering the myth that &lsquo;there is no alternative&rsquo;, and laying the foundations for a new politics

This is the book we have been waiting for. Read it, discuss it with your friends, and join the resistance!

Compelling ... Monbiot and Hutchison shine a bright spotlight on the ideology that governs our lives

A powerful, punchy exposé of the invisible powers that block the road to human and planetary well-being - a must-read

An essential and urgent book that exposes and eviscerates neoliberalism's gruesome creeds with crystal-clear and vital prose. Monbiot and Hutchison have written an accessible, smart, fascinating and readable book which explains the mess we're in, removes the scales from our eyes, and, crucially, shows that an alternative world is possible

Powerfully sharp analysis of the most dangerous economic system on the planet

At a time when the arguments for neoliberalism appear to be taking hold again, in this timely book the authors explain, expose and soundly demolish the concept and its practice with an intellectual vengeance

This book made my blood boil! It tells the infuriating truth about the destructive ideas that have captured politics for a generation and ripped the heart out of our societies

A passionate, informed polemic … packed with detail and incisive analysis

The book will give us ideas, and energise us, and do what neoliberalism doesn’t want us to do, which is imagine a different future. One in which humanity is not primarily organised by greed and private wealth accumulation. There are other factors – a desire for the public good, the capacity to imagine

The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How It Came to Control Your Life)

This book is dynamite' - Caroline Lucas | 'Fantastic' - Mark Ruffalo 
 
We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our lives: our education and our jobs; our healthcare and our leisure; our relationships and our mental wellbeing; the planet we inhabit – the very air we breathe. So pervasive has it become that, for most people, it has no name. It seems unavoidable, like a natural law. 
 
But trace it back to its roots, and we discover that it is neither inevitable nor immutable. It was conceived, propagated, and then concealed by the powerful few. Our task is to bring it into the light—and to build a new system that is worth fighting for. 
 
 
Neoliberalism. Do you know what it is?

George Monbiot

Praise for The Invisible Doctrine

Explosive and beautifully told … these truths can set us free

This brave book borders on being a page turner … ‘The Secret History of Neoliberalism’ is really the ultimate crime novel, one in which we all play a part

Incisive, illuminating, eye-opening—an unsparing anatomy of the great ideological beast stalking our times

Explosive and beautifully told … these truths can set us free

This brave book borders on being a page turner … ‘The Secret History of Neoliberalism’ is really the ultimate crime novel, one in which we all play a part

Incisive, illuminating, eye-opening—an unsparing anatomy of the great ideological beast stalking our times

Explosive and beautifully told … these truths can set us free

This brave book borders on being a page turner … ‘The Secret History of Neoliberalism’ is really the ultimate crime novel, one in which we all play a part

Incisive, illuminating, eye-opening—an unsparing anatomy of the great ideological beast stalking our times

Books by George Monbiot

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