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Contents:
1 - Contemporary challenges; 2 - Framing; 3 - Trade; 4 - Processing, Retailing and Consumption; 5 - World Tables.
Review:
One of the most important aspects given the amount of information available today is that we encourage people to look at it. It's no good suggesting they make judgements on what they see unless they are interested enough to study it in the first place. There's no doubt that food issues are one of the key topics. Everyone has experience of it and usually there are some deeply held ideas and ideals even in the younger student. The aim then is to get these two elements together.
This text is one attempt to generate interest in the complexities of the modern food production industry. As the title suggests it's not a text in the conventional sense but an annotated atlas of key measures in the agricultural scene. Each double page contains a full colour world map (using several of the more common projections). In addition there is a brief overview of the topic under discussion along with some banner headlines focussing on a key point. In terms of material covered, the text is divided into five parts and 42 individual topics. The first four parts look at various aspects of food supply and production whilst the fifth is a shorter version of the FAO tables quoted by a range of organisations. Part 1 looks at the challenges facing food production. The first topic, not surprisingly, focusses of whether there is enough food to go around. The conclusion is the usual 'yes' and the answers looking at inequalities of supply, demand and ability to pay are also well known. Such topics help the debate along. Other topics are newer or less well known. For example, there is much concern about over- and under-supply of food. It makes up a data set in part five and is a key topic in part one. Seeing a percentage oversupplied in Africa should bring about some questioning but this will aid understanding of a topic recognised as becoming increasingly complex. Food aid as power and water challenges are two other controversial subjects. Part two moves on to farming. In many ways this is a more focussed chapter because it is concerned only with the production side. Nevertheless, we do find controversial issues such as mad cow disease and genetically modified crops in this section. Part three looks at trade. One of the key aspects of modern food production is that we have global trade in items that were once only seen as a local source. Whereas this gives us a far greater range of produce to choose from (providing we are in the part of the world that can pay for it) it also has considerable impact upon global ecologies. Perhaps the most surprising map in this section covers the 'fair trade' concept (surprising in the number of nations which don't subscribe to the idea!). Part four looks at consumption. Like the first part this contains a great deal of controversial material including diets, additives, organic foods and consumer awareness.
This is a superb production. The full colour maps and general production methods are extremely high making this a book people will want to study. The careful selection and presentation of data means that the reader gets a chance to see major trends without being buried in the mass of data that can accompany these maps. Since references are clear, anyone wanting to find out more could easily do so (notwithstanding that the food industry is not always open about the process). This is a great mixture of production and data. It should be seen as an essential text on the library shelves.