How Food Really Works

How Food Really Works

The Science of Feeding our Growing Planet

Summary

‘There is no author whose books I look forward to more’ BILL GATES

In this ambitious, myth-busting book, leading scientist and internationally bestselling author Vaclav Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world today:

Why are some of the world’s biggest food producers also the countries with the most undernourished populations?

Why is food waste a colossal 1,000kcal per person daily, and how can we solve that?

Could we all go vegan and be healthy? Should we?

How will we feed the ballooning population without killing the planet?

How Food Really Works shows how we misunderstand the essentials of where our food really comes from, how our dietary requirements shape us, and why this impacts our planet in drastic ways. Ultimately, this data-based, rigorously researched guide explains how we will survive and thrive long into the future.

‘There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil’ GUARDIAN

Reviews

  • There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil
    BILL GATES

About the author

Vaclav Smil

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. No other living scientist has had more books (on a wide variety of topics) reviewed in Nature. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.
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