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Empires Of Food: Feast, Famine, And The Rise And Fall Of Civilization (2010)

by Evan D.G. Fraser(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1439101892 (ISBN13: 9781439101896)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Atria Books

review 1: This book was very disappointing.It makes an argument for a Malthusian trap based on agricultural collapse, and does so poorly.The argument is based around the fact that there have been historic agricultural collapses, but ignores the larger long lasting, and ongoing trend toward both an increase in agricultural productivity and total output.The authors mention relevant factors such as top soil loss, soil depletion, and soil salinity, however they seem to be unaware of how these are mitigated by modern agriculture. Neither author seems to have a background in agriculture, or much knowledge of it.Another annoyance is that if you check their sources, they frequently reference secondary sources.The only redeeming features of the book were the historic anecdotes, which were e... morentertaining.
review 2: The basic outline of the book is good and the authors cover a lot of material in a basically competent way. Furthermore, this is an important subject. The positives of the book are that they basically discuss the history of food during all of world history. I especially liked the discussion of the guano wars (or near wars) of the 19th century. They discuss key issues like "fair trade" and "organic."Also, the book is entertainingly written. You won't fall asleep. I thought that their conceit of following Carletti's adventures around the world was interesting. The main negative of the book is that it is prone to glittering generalizations. Sometimes these generalizations are arguable but controversial, such as their assertions about the fall of the Roman Empire being connected to food, but you get no indication that they are saying something that really could be argued either way. (Joseph Tainter, in "The Collapse of Complex Societies," argues that it has to do with the diminishing returns on looting and pillaging, which was basically the Roman economy.) At other times, the generalizations are really more questionable or flat out wrong. "Even the most ardent peak oilers tend to overlook the fact that fossil fuels make our food," they say on p. 245. Well, I am a regular reader of TheOilDrum.com and I can say that this fact is quite well understood and frequently discussed. At another point (can't locate the page reference) they state that industrialized agriculture has been around for 100 years, whereas it is actually only since World War II that yields have really taken off and factory farming of animals has become entrenched. The second negative is that several important issues are omitted. Not discussed is anything about eating high or low on the food chain. Also not discussed is the key impact of livestock agriculture on soil resources -- much of the American southwest, and North Africa, was made into desert through overgrazing, and this is historically an important issue. Soil erosion is discussed but I thought they could have done a lot more. Also, the price elasticity of food (like that of oil) is very low, another key fact in understanding food economics which is alluded to but never explained. ("Low price elasticity" means that the demand for food is pretty much constant no matter what the price. No matter how cheap that pizza is, you can only eat so much.) These are key omissions for me and a complete book on the history of food and civilization really should discuss them. So, basically, this is about as good a book as a two-star book can be. For someone who doesn't know much about food and for whom this book is their first exposure, it's not bad and I'd give it three or possibly even four stars. For someone who is very well informed, it's a quick read and the problems with the book won't really hold you back from seeing their overall insights. So I would, paradoxically, cautiously recommend it to people even though it has shortcomings just because the subject is important and because they have the outline down, although they are missing key details. less

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