Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat

There are those I know who will not eat delicious strawberries out of season. In spite of a worldwide food network, there is a growing movement to eat locally as a healthier alternative to mass-produced factory farms. Undoubtedly, another rationale is that smaller farms are less destructive than massive industrial farming. The author and agricultural expert, Robert Paarlberg has an argument that economies of scale may be a better option for saving the planet. He argues that industrial farming methods have been cleaned up and that the true causes of food dysfunction are non agriculturally based products; reliance on junk food rather than real food. He argues that small farms cannot adopt better methods of growing food as the larger farming industries can. Also, there are places in the world that will not be productive for agriculture due to a variety of causes. He has jam-packed the book with scientific data and recent improvements to the agricultural complex. There remain, though, those of us who look at the system of food distribution and find it fragile. For us, local makes much more sense, but it is very interesting to learn an opposing argument from this expert.