The Fatal Harvest Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture. By Andrew Kimbrell (ed.) Island Press, 2002. Reviewed by Teri VanHall Michigan State University April, 2008
To
"consume" means to destroy, as editor Andrew Kimbrell points out in his
introduction of The Fatal Harvest Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial
Agriculture. The title aptly describes the focus on the failures
of "Big Ag" to factor in the total costs of mass food production as
presently practiced. In this series of essays on the human
health, ecological, economic, political, and future costs of our
current model of industrial agriculture, leading scholars of the
subject urge us to rethink our roles as "consumers", and to instead
become conscious "creators" of a new, sustainable food systems paradigm.
The
book opens with introductory essays on seven of the major myths
commonly used to defend industrial agriculture - many of them the same
myths advocacy groups such as The Institute for Food and Development
Policy1 (better known as "Food First"), and Rodale's Cornucopia
Project2, have been dispelling since the 1980's. The principal
myths are as follows:
1) Industrial Agriculture will feed the world (it hasn't yet and can't due to resource depletion and limitations);
2)
it is safe, healthy, and nutritious (endocrine disrupters, neurotoxins,
cancer, diabetes, obesity, allergies are all linked to big ag food
products);
3) it is cheap (it's subsidized and true costs are externalized);
4) it is efficient (it wastes non-renewable resources, including people);
5) it offers more choices (it reduces biodiversity);
6) it benefits the environment and wildlife (it harms both extensively);
and
7) biotechnology will save the day, the planet, and the human race (it
presents untold possibilities of grave danger to people and the planet).
Each
of the myths are countered with research data exposing the fallacies of
the industrial propaganda. While the essays are largely
successful in debunking the corporate hogwash with compelling
arguments, some statements are not clearly cited. Despite the
extensive reference section, the unsourced statements leave the reader
wondering who the intended audience is. Nonetheless, every
food-eater should be familiar with these arguments if he or she wishes
to make informed and deliberate choices.
Part Two
discusses the differences between agrarian and industrial
world-views. Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson each contrast the
driving values and effects of globalized and regional economies, while
Helena Norberg-Hodge and David Ehrenfeld examine biodiversity and
monoculture. Joan Iverson Nassauer and Jerry Mander take a
look at eco-logic vs. machine logic, and the results of using
technology to either carefully enhance or recklessly subjugate
ecological systems. Ron Kroese's essay "Industrial Agriculture's
War Against Nature" is vaguely reminiscent of Vandana Shiva's
essay "Globalization and the War Against Farmers and the Land" in
The Essential Agrarian Reader, both of which enumerate the many ways
industrial agriculture wages symbolic and literal war on biological
systems, rather than responsibly managing them3. Finally, Hugh
Iltis discusses population growth and "the immaculate misconception"
that growing more food with non-renewable resources can sufficiently
address the issue of biological carrying capacity. Taken
together, this section introduces many of the major concepts associated
with agrarian and industrial philosophies.
Part Three centers on
the toxic effects of the industrial philosophy, ranging from
environmental and human health hazards of artificial fertility and
pesticides, to food irradiation, and genetically modified organisms
(GMOs). The essays in this section also show the serious damage
and further risks industrial agriculture poses to soil and water
quality, wildlife, biodiversity, and the critical role of pollinators
in food production. Perhaps the most disturbing theme here is the
underlying erosion of democracy evident in both GMO right-to-know
issues - GMO ingredients are not currently required to be labeled in
the US - and in the legalized corporate externalization of production
costs to communities worldwide.
Rightly so, Part Four
begins with an emphasis on dismantling corporate monopolies of local,
national, and global politics, justice systems, intellectual property
rights and the patenting of life with biotechnology. This section
begs the question, how long will we pledge allegiance, to the dollar,
and to the globalized economy of extortion, and to the corporations,
for which they stand, one world, under fascist rule, with serfdom and
injustice for all? Luckily agrarians such as those whose work is
collected here have been asking the same questions for decades.
Proposed answers include common sense models of organic agriculture,
integrated food systems, community food security, and consumer
education, among others. In a fairly-traded nutshell, these
authors urge, that if we are to witness the creation of a sustainable
food system, then come all ye faithful farmers, rabble-rousers,
Socratic gadflies, to the table of the new paradigm: bang your forks
and raise a wild ruckus, while there is still time.
The final
sections of the book include notes on the contributors, all of whom
have extensive backgrounds in food systems issues and organizations; an
impressive list of selected references and readings; and a wealth of
information on non-governmental organizations working in the various
fields - not labs, pun intended - relevant to the future of food
production. Overall, this is an engaging, informative,
thought-provoking read. I give it two green-thumbs-up, and if I
were a genetically modified, irradiated mutant, I'd give it three.
References
[1] Lappe, Frances Moore, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset. World Hunger: Twelve Myths. New York: Grove Press, 1998.
[2]
Cornucopia Project, Rodale Press. Empty Breadbasket? The Coming
Challenge to America's Food Supply and What We Can Do About It.
Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1981.
[3] Wirzba, Norman (ed). The
Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the
Land. Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2003. Return tohomepage