Review of The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Robert

Kelly, Rachel

LeDoux, Timothy

English

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

Journal of Rural Social Sciences Volume 25 Issue 1 Volume 25, Issue 1 Article 11 4-30-2010 Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food Rachel Kelly Michigan State University Timothy LeDoux Michigan State University Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss  Part of the Rural Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Kelly, Rachel, and Timothy LeDoux. 2010. "Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food." Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 25(1): Article 11. Available At: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol25/iss1/11 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Population Studies at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Rural Social Sciences by an authorized editor of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 25(1), 2010, pp. 135–138.Copyright © by the Southern Rural Sociological AssociationWayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food (No-Nonsense Guide Series).Oxford, England: New Internationalist Publications Ltd., 2008 (192 pp.), ISBN978-1-904456-96-4, US$13.95.Reviewed by Rachel Kelly and Timothy LeDouxIn 2007, an amalgamation of rising fuel costs, natural disasters, declining foodreserves, increased biofuels production on agricultural lands, and the mountingdemand for a meat-based diet created a global food crisis in which food pricesskyrocketed. Subsequently, these events pushed millions of people around the worldinto poverty and created political and economic instability along with violent socialunrest in three dozen countries. Tackling these problems, let alone rethinking thestructure of the global food system, might appear daunting to the average reader.However, Wayne Roberts, a food activist who works for the Toronto Food PolicyCouncil, takes advantage of this opportunity to provide an optimistic and succinctaccount of the structural contradictions in the modern food system along with hisrecipe for creating an alternative system. Designed to be read in a few hours, TheNo-Nonsense Guide to World Food adeptly guides the reader through the complexweb of issues surrounding the global food system and suggests how an informedcitizenry can implement change. This book touches upon a wide range of philosophical, social, economic, andpolitical issues related to the global food system. Everything from theindustrialization of food, food security, and food waste to the environmental impactsof agriculture, global trade regimes, and alternative social movements are woventogether into a concise account of the global food system. No matter what the issue,Roberts consistently draws upon agrarian ideals in his analysis by exhibiting a deepconcern for the increasing corporate concentration in agricultural production. Thisis evident in his critique of the Modernist food system as well as his constructionof an alternative Fusion movement. Essentially, the Modernist food system is thedominant industrial food system, replete with its social, economic, andenvironmental quandaries. Fusion, on the other hand, is Roberts’ vision for bridgingthe divide between consumers and farmers in an attempt to reassert food as a publicgood and reclaim the commons. In the Fusion system, food is not simply acommodity but rather a spiritual and cultural manifestation of humanity that valuesthe environment and the worth of people.1351Kelly and LeDoux: Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World FoodPublished by eGrove, 2010136 JOURNAL OF RURAL SOCIAL SCIENCESRoberts’ insightful accounts of the numerous Fusion food movements that havearisen in response to the Modernist food system are the greatest strength of thebook. With great passion, Roberts describes how groups like Via Campesinaattempt to reestablish the connection between people, culture, food, and theenvironment while battling corporate attempts to commoditize food. In essence,Fusion movements revolve around community-based themes of food sovereigntyand food democracy, which are grounded in the belief that people can activelyinfluence the policies and practices that control, shape, and transform their foodenvironment. In direct contrast to ‘consumer sovereignty’ or ‘voting with yourfork,’ whereby consumers attempt to affect social change at an individual level(Johnston, 2008; Pollan, 2006), these movements are centered on collective attemptsto create and maintain sustainable, self-reliant and culturally appropriate local andregional food systems.Roberts’ faith and confidence in the power of Fusion permeate every page of thebook. Even in the darkest corners of the Modernist food system, Roberts findsbeacons of nurturing sunshine. Peppered throughout the book are suggestions forhow to improve certain aspects of the modern global food system. For example,Roberts foresees the spread of ‘smart food systems,’ which similarly tomultifunctional farms in Europe will provide various services aside from foodproduction (e.g., ecological services). Yet, Roberts’ overt optimism regardingFusion movements is also a major weakness of this book.Roberts’ unreflexively praises the localization of the food system as the lynchpinof resistance to the modern food system. Alternative movements promoting localfood systems are considered more sustainable, equitable, community-oriented,ethical, caring, and democratic than the conventional system. Yet despite the appealto localism, Roberts neglects to question its objectives and assumptions. AsHinrichs (2003) and DuPuis and Goodman (2005) have argued, uncriticalconceptions of localism are not emancipatory; they can be dangerous. While thelocal could be an option for regaining control of the modern food system,unreflexive localism can hide many historical forms of inequality and overlook thecomplex power geometries embedded in locales. By recognizing the sociallyconstructed, dynamic, and relational nature of localism, activists open the possibilitythat other scalar movements might provide long lasting sustainable solutions to theills of the modern food system. Moreover, such a realization provides a frameworkfor activists to build coalitions and movements across space that avoids the pitfallsof taking for granted an exploitative pre-given collective identity grounded in alocality.2Journal of Rural Social Sciences, Vol. 25 [2010], Iss. 1, Art. 11https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol25/iss1/11BOOK REVIEWS 137Despite these shortcomings, several chapters of the book could be used assupplemental reading for introductory courses on the global food system or as casestudies for course sections exploring alternative food movements. Furthermore, aninstructor might find it practical to combine this book with a screening of a filmsuch as Fresh. Fresh would be a good choice because it includes footage of thesustainable urban farms of ‘Growing Power’ run by Will Allen, whom Robertsrefers to in the final chapter as a Fusion-minded entrepreneur. Such a movie mayhelp students better appreciate the significance, not only of what Allen is doing, butof what Roberts is trying to convey about the Fusion food system.Overall, Roberts has a knack for making complicated global food matters easierto understand. He provides a compact lucid account backed by peer-reviewed andnon-peer-reviewed references, charts, and tables of many critical components of themodern food system and the various counter-movements aimed at reforming thecurrent system. Nonetheless, Roberts’ overlooking of important issues such asmigrant worker rights and food regulatory regimes, combined with the superficialtreatment of key alternative food movements such as the fair trade and organicmovements, will leave many informed readers wanting a more detailed and nuancedcoverage of the complexities of today’s food system, as well as any long lastingsustainable alternative systems. In the end, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Foodwill be a success among like-minded activists, but will leave academics yearning fora richer account.Rachel Kelly is a graduate student in the Department of Community, Agriculture,Recreation, and Resource Studies at Michigan State University. Timothy LeDouxis a graduate student in the Department of Geography at Michigan StateUniversity. Contact information: Rachel Kelly, Department of Community,Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies, Michigan State University, EastLansing, MI 48824 USA (email: kellyra2@msu.edu). REFERENCESDuPuis, E. M. and D. Goodman. 2005. Should We Go “Home” to Eat? Toward aReflexive Politics of Localism. Journal of Rural Studies 21: 359–71.Hinrichs, C. C. 2003. The Practice and Politics of Food System Localization.Journal of Rural Studies 19: 33–45.Johnston, J. 2008. Counterhegemony or Bourgeois Piggery? Food Politics and theCase of Foodshare. Pp. 93–119 in The Fight Over Food:Producers, Consumers, and3Kelly and LeDoux: Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World FoodPublished by eGrove, 2010138 JOURNAL OF RURAL SOCIAL SCIENCESActivist Challenge the Global Food System, edited by W. Wright and G.Middendorf. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Pollan, M. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. NewYork: The Penguin Press.4Journal of Rural Social Sciences, Vol. 25 [2010], Iss. 1, Art. 11https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol25/iss1/11

Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1382&amp;context=jrss

Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)