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Robert L. Paarlberg
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Food Politics: What Everyone Needs To Know Paperback – 25 September 2013

by Robert Paarlberg (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 131 ratings
Edition: 2nd
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Food Politics What Everyone Needs to Know
Food Politics What Everyone Needs to Know
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The politics of food is changing fast. In rich countries, obesity is now a more serious problem than hunger. Consumers once satisfied with cheap and convenient food now want food that is also safe, nutritious, fresh, and grown by local farmers using fewer chemicals. Heavily subsidized and underregulated commercial farmers are facing stronger push back from environmentalists and consumer activists, and food companies are under the microscope. Meanwhile, agricultural success in Asia has spurred income growth and dietary enrichment, but agricultural failure in Africa has left one-third of all citizens undernourished - and the international markets that link these diverse regions together are subject to sudden disruption.

The second edition of Food Politics has been thoroughly updated to reflect the latest developments and research on today's global food landscape, including biofuels, the international food market, food aid, obesity, food retailing, urban agriculture, and food safety. The second edition also features an expanded discussion of the links between water, climate change, and food, as well as farming and the environment. New chapters look at livestock, meat and fish and the future of food politics.

Paarlberg's book challenges myths and critiques more than a few of today's fashionable beliefs about farming and food. For those ready to have their thinking about food politics informed and also challenged, this is the book to read.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199322384
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199322381
  3. Edition
    2
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press, Usa
  5. Publication date
    25 September 2013
  6. Part of series
    What Everyone Needs To Know?
  7. Language
    English
  8. Dimensions
    20.57 x 2.03 x 13.72 cm
  9. Print length
    280 pages
  10. See all details
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Product description

Review

"The author is an academic, not a journalist, and his efforts to get the food facts right ring through every page. Paarlberg challenges many of the ideas that are frequently voiced - but rarely questioned - in popular food discourse...Although many of his claims call into question sacrosanct principles in activist and academic circles, there are good reasons to hear Paarlberg out; he backs up his arguments with data, and writes based on decades of experience as a political scientist and policy analyst working in the field." --Nature Geoscience

"Paarlberg's book is a timely contribution to the discussion about the politics of food, both domestically and internationally.... Although advocates of alternative farming methods are unlikely to agree with Food Politics, they should nevertheless read it. Paarlberg is a serious, knowledgeable scholar." --Journal of Politics

"[Paarlberg] is one of the most distinguished academics in the field of global food politics and is able to draw on a lifetime of research. Although the book is clearly underpinned by a considerable body of evidence, the writing style is engaging and easily digestible. It would serve as an excellent introduction to the topic for students." --International Studies Review

"Going well beyond its title, Food Politics addresses key questions about agriculture, including consumers' concerns about food safety, producers' concerns about price volatility, and taxpayers' concerns about subsidies. Paarlberg organizes his material around a long list of questions about food policies and practices...His answers to these and many other questions are accessible and nuanced." --Foreign Affairs

"A much needed corrective to a clanging bandwagon of culinary protest that asks well-off consumers to drop out, stay local and go green, while the rest of the world worries about its next bowl of rice." --The Texas Observer

"The great strength of Food Politics is the breadth of topics covered. For an undergraduate class, this book will provide students exposure to the world of food production and provisioning and the underlying political and social ideas and research that shape food and our relationship to it....As the subtitle suggests, Paarlberg covers almost every topic that one should know about food. Additionally, Paarlberg uses simple but precise language to cover the vast array of food topics...The strengths of the book encouraged me to use it in a directed readings course." --The American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Review

"The author is an academic, not a journalist, and his efforts to get the food facts right ring through every page. Paarlberg challenges many of the ideas that are frequently voiced - but rarely questioned - in popular food discourse...Although many of his claims call into question sacrosanct principles in activist and academic circles, there are good reasons to hear Paarlberg out; he backs up his arguments with data, and writes based on decades of experience as a political scientist and policy analyst working in the field." --Nature Geoscience "Paarlberg's book is a timely contribution to the discussion about the politics of food, both domestically and internationallyEL. Although advocates of alternative farming methods are unlikely to agree with Food Politics, they should nevertheless read it. Paarlberg is a serious, knowledgeable scholar." --Journal of Politics "[Paarlberg] is one of the most distinguished academics in the field of global food politics and is able to draw on a lifetime of research. Although the book is clearly underpinned by a considerable body of evidence, the writing style is engaging and easily digestible. It would serve as an excellent introduction to the topic for students." --International Studies Review "Going well beyond its title, Food Politics addresses key questions about agriculture, including consumers' concerns about food safety, producers' concerns about price volatility, and taxpayers' concerns about subsidies. Paarlberg organizes his material around a long list of questions about food policies and practices...His answers to these and many other questions are accessible and nuanced." --Foreign Affairs "A much needed corrective to a clanging bandwagon of culinary protest that asks well-off consumers to drop out, stay local and go green, while the rest of the world worries about its next bowl of rice." --The Texas Observer "The great strength of Food Politics is the breadth of topics covered. For an undergraduate class, this book will provide students exposure to the world of food production and provisioning and the underlying political and social ideas and research that shape food and our relationship to itEL.As the subtitle suggests, Paarlberg covers almost every topic that one should know about food. Additionally, Paarlberg uses simple but precise language to cover the vast array of food topics...The strengths of the book encouraged me to use it in a directed readings course." --The American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press, Usa; 2 edition (25 September 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199322384
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199322381
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20.57 x 2.03 x 13.72 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 131 ratings

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Robert L. Paarlberg

Robert L. Paarlberg

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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
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ron herring
5.0 out of 5 stars What a terrific book for teaching!
Reviewed in the United States on 23 February 2015
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What a terrific book for teaching! The only complaint the students had was: 'it's too optimistic.' So then we read The End of Food and -- you guessed it -- 'it's too pessimistic.' That's actually a good pairing: Paarberg's techno-market optimism is a good foil for doomsday scenarios so common in the media. The formatting in Paarlberg's book is user-friendly, intuitive. The Q and A format is stimulating and retains focus for each section. Paarlberg's prose is admirably clear and jargon-free except when explaining jargon that students will encounter in political discourse. The coverage is broad and many concrete examples illustrate important points effectively, culled from experiences all over the world. Food Politics is a sophisticated treatment of a very broad canvass of important issues.
11 people found this helpful
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KittyMac
5.0 out of 5 stars I wish this was forced reading for everyone!
Reviewed in Canada on 18 June 2014
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This book corrected a lot of false assumptions I had (and I thought I was someone who avoided assumptions!) and it is very readable: well written and brief. If you only want info on one topic, the chapter you want is likely just ten or twenty pages. But it's not frivolous! There's a LOT of data. I have a bad habit of underlining, and I found something mind-blowing to underline at least a couple times on every page!
If you have a cousin who rants ignorantly about GMOs, you can likely get them to read the GE chapter since it's quite brief. Likewise if your coworker spouts crazy ideas about how to help third world starvation, they can read the chapter on that in a lunch break or two. If you see someone at yoga who's smug about how virtuous they're being by eating local &/or organic, you can show them the chapters on those topics and they should have no problem skimming through them and getting the book back to you at your next yoga class. If you want to loan it out like this, I suggest using felt pens to colour the edges of the chapters, so for instance if your friend needs to learn about the obesity epidemic, you can tell them "read the purple part"... easy as can be. Of course they might get tempted to glance at the rest of it too (it's pretty hard to put down!) but it's easier to PICK UP when the amount of "assigned reading" is not too large.
Prejudiced people especially (but all of us to some extent) resist taking up a dry, long book to educate themselves on a topic they find offensive, which is why the brevity of these chapters is so valuable. Unlike bigger volumes, the people who need to read this ACTUALLY MIGHT READ THIS. It has a good chance of enlightening people who, like me, didn't even realise they had jumped to conclusions about food-related issues, or even people with intense biases, and is a good foundation for a healthy debate on any of the many topics it covers.
The author is educated and thorough, but not an expert in the field. This is PERFECT. There are too many books spreading ignorance because they're written by prejudiced folks who do not really know anything on the subject but are simply "following their gut" (like those who abhor anything not "natural" without caring about what's actually best for the environment). There are also many books written by experts which get dismissed, unread, because the audience perceives it to be propaganda ("Of course you are pro-fertilizer! You are a fertilizer researcher!"). This guy is unbiased AND knows his science. He's following neither his gut nor his paycheque but his RESEARCH.
I actually bought a second copy of this so I can loan it out and still have my own copy in case it doesn't come back.
I LOVE this book.
One person found this helpful
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Ashley Babics
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book if you are looking for facts presented in ...
Reviewed in Canada on 26 September 2015
Verified Purchase
Great book if you are looking for facts presented in a completely unbiased manner... no opinions here. A bit dry at times but exceedingly informative.
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Mr. J. Prochazka
2.0 out of 5 stars Needs to be read with author's bias in mind
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 June 2014
Verified Purchase
I am not convinced by the enthusiasm of some US reviewers about this book being an excellent guide in the field, since Prof. Paarlberg is strongly and openly endorsing agricultural genetic engineering companies such as Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer (himself being ardent GM advocate and occasional adviser to Monsanto Company), cheer leading for Gate's Foundation's contribution to agriculture (Gate's Foundation however also invests into most major oil companies for a quick buck returns, which obviously contradicts their other efforts). Further there is downplaying of the effects of commodity speculations on commodity price stability or subtly lampooning food advocacy NGO's. The book should be read with these bias in mind. On top, and I think most dangerously, the book is deceptive in what it does not tell you, which are issues that did not perhaps fit with Prof. Paarlberg's views in the subject I suspect. The bottom line is that this is far from a balanced account of problems and solutions for today's developing and developed countries' agriculture.I expected far more balanced publication from Oxford University Press in respect to political economy stances. In addition the book does not include citations and referencing to support Paarlberg's arguments in either first or second edition.
12 people found this helpful
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Sara Hessenflow Harper
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding overview of food issues and politics
Reviewed in the United States on 13 January 2011
Verified Purchase
I have worked in the field of agricultural and environmental policy for over a decade and found Paarlberg's book to be one of the best overviews of food and ag politics out there! The author does a terrific job of explaining the political issues surrounding food and agricultural policy and is able to present the perspective of environmentalists and the ag industry alike. I know just how hard it is to try to bridge these two worlds. With books like this one, the job gets easier!
6 people found this helpful
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