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The Fate of Food
The Fate of Food: What We'll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World | Amanda Little
10 posts | 6 read | 18 to read
In this fascinating look at the race to secure the global food supply, environmental journalist and professor Amanda Little tells the defining story of the sustainable food revolution as she weaves together stories from the world's most creative and controversial innovators on the front lines of food science, agriculture, and climate change. Climate models predict that global food production will decline every decade for the rest of this century due to drought, heat, and flooding. With water and food shortages looming globally, the search for new methods of supplying water and food is on. The Fate of Food will be the first book to connect the categories of food science, innovation, and climate change and tell the defining story of the sustainable food revolution that aims to feed 9 billion people in a hotter, smarter world. From dairy farms in India where microchips embedded in cow flanks transmit real-time data about the animals' health and milk quality to the fields of Nigerian farmers who are growing the world's first drought-tolerant rice, The Fate of Food tells the story of human innovation through food, examining both old and new approaches to food production and their costs and benefits in an era of climate change. Amanda Little, environmental journalism professor at Vanderbilt University, seeks to answer questions such as: Can GMOs actually be good for the environment? What are the most sustainable, long-term sources of protein? What would it take to eliminate harmful chemicals from farming and processed foods? Her investigation takes her to the most extreme frontiers of modern food production and tells the stories of the most creative and controversial innovators, such as the engineering whiz who grew up on a farm in Peru and later developed robots that can weed and manage pests on crops, or the chemical engineer who developed membranes that can transform ocean brine and even sewage into hyper-pure drinking water. Along the journey, readers will gain a deeper understanding of climate change, as well as a sense of awe and optimism about the scope of human ingenuity--and the hope that a solution is on the horizon.
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RamsFan1963
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#notbookrelated While reading Little's The Fate of Food, she mention a meal substitute called Soylent. Its named after the crackers in the 70s movie Soylent Green. If you've seen the movie you might think that's a bit macabre. Anyway, I don't know if I'd want to live on the drinkable meals, but they are surprisingly tasty, contain about 400 calories and loads of protein. The banana flavor tastes like liquid banana bread.

CocoReads Interesting. What‘s the carbs/sugar info? I‘m always looking for something that‘s got nutrients but is easy to grab for extra busy days, but as a diabetic-I have to watch the carbs. 3y
Buechersuechtling I am sceptical but curious. 3y
RamsFan1963 @CocoReads 21g fat, 36g carbs, 20g protein. 20% of your daily vitamin needs. I don't think I'd want to drink them 3 meals a day, everyday, but often at work I don't get to take a real "lunch break" so this is perfect for me to drink on the run and still feel like I've eaten. You do get a full feeling after you finish a bottle, not hungry like an hour later. 3y
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AmyG I remember the movie. 😳😬 3y
MsMelissa I recently completed a four shake meal a day program that lasted three months (medically supervised). I actually enjoyed it, and want to go back on it. Makes meal planning so much easier 😂 3y
RamsFan1963 Soylent Green is People!!!! ☠☠☠☠ 3y
CampbellTaraL I enjoyed this book, but the whole time she was taking about this product, I couldn't help but think of the other Soylent 🤢 3y
RamsFan1963 @taraWritesSci Yes the first time I drank it, someone said what if it had bits in it. I almost gagged on it from laughing 🤢🤢🤣🤣 3y
CampbellTaraL @RamsFan1963 😂 ew! That's horrible, but amazing 3y
55 likes9 comments
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RamsFan1963
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Pickpick

A fascinating look into how climate change will impact future food sources, how we will grow foods, and what strange choices (insect proteins anyone? A nutritional drink called Soylent after the movie Soylent Green?) we might have to make to feed our families. 4 🍎🍎🍎🍎
7th book #ShutdownReadathon @Squidget

DieAReader 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 3y
DieAReader I think I‘ll pass on both but, most especially the insect protein🚫🪳🪲 3y
Buechersuechtling Please no. No Soylent Green‼️ (Reason in the „spoiler“-comment.) 3y
Buechersuechtling I did a quick online research and found out, I remember correctly that „Soylent Green is people!“ 🤢 3y
48 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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Megabooks
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Pickpick

Little investigates what we‘ll be eating in the future & ways to feed the burgeoning population sustainably. She travels to Israel‘s desalination plants, looks at the pluses & minuses of GMO crops in Africa, Chinese organic farming, & raising fish through aquaculture. While the entire book was fascinating, I was most interested in my local grocery chain‘s efforts to reduce food waste & the eerie (IMO) efforts to grow animal muscle with stem cells.

TheAromaofBooks I've read a few articles lately about growing “meat“... it just feels so gross & unnatural! One article even suggested that we could grow meat from our OWN stem cells & basically eat yourself & I was genuinely disturbed that that would even cross someone's mind as a possibility! 😳 3y
Megabooks @TheAromaofBooks it does!! It just seems so weird. Very Franken-foods. And I can‘t even imagine eating myself. That‘s some soylent green sh!t! 🤢 3y
SamAnne @TheAromaofBooks I‘m with you. All I can think about are the Chicken Nubbies from Margaret Atwood‘s Maddadam trilogy. 3y
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Linsy
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Pickpick

ChickieNobs are real!!! 😱 This is an excellent book; so many fascinating things going on in the food industry. #liveandlearn #booked2020

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CampbellTaraL
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Pickpick

I checked out the audiobook via the library and just finished it today. I'm running out tomorrow after work to pick it up in hardback, it's that important of a book. This is not necessarily narrative-driven, but the incredible amount of research, world-wide travel and interviews, and her humbleness is exactly the kind of nonfiction we need to help educate people.

My review of the book is in the comments, I just really needed to gush first.

CampbellTaraL Takes on the polarizing camps in food and redirects everyone's attention to a 3rd way that incorporates the best of both sides. Little is honest about her own hangups on the indoctrination of certain food movements, and the reality of what it's going to take to feed the entire world in an equitable manner. She travels across the globe to show how local peoples are already ahead in adapting both traditions and technology to improve food statements. 4y
34 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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CampbellTaraL
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A chill night of working on a sweater and listening to a book, even if it is a daunting topic.

Reggie Is there hope? 4y
CampbellTaraL @Reggie yes...maybe? I'm not far into the book but already I'm impressed by the work of farmers in Africa taking a third path approach that incorporates the ideas of many agricultural camps. We just need to keep our western tendencies of dominance out of their way. 4y
40 likes2 comments
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Lindy
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Pickpick

Environmental journalist Amanda Little travels around the world to report on food science ingenuity and agricultural innovations. Vital research is being done to ensure global food security in the face of water shortages and climate change. This #audiobook is both informative and optimistic.
P.S. In the section on Soylent and other adult pablum meal replacement products, I thought about the novel Sourdough by Robin Sloan.

saresmoore Sourdough was my introduction to the non-astronaut meal replacement concept and I‘d like to keep it filed away in the fiction part of my brain. BUT, I‘m very intrigued by this book! 4y
Lindy @saresmoore Speaking of keeping things filed in the fiction part of one‘s brain, the inventor of Soylent named it for the dystopian thriller Soylent Green. 4y
saresmoore Fascinating! And a bit disturbing. 🤨 4y
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Lindy
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One head of romaine lettuce takes about 3.5 gallons of water to cultivate, a significant statistic, especially in regions facing escalating water shortages.

marleed That‘s fascinating! I‘ve read that almonds take an incredible amount of water to grow, as well. I think it has much to do with the need for moisture the areas in which they are successfully grown. 4y
Lindy @marleed Yes, very interesting to look at water use in agriculture as a whole. Almond trees are not particularly thirsty if they are situated on north-facing slopes (in the northern hemisphere) for example, plus like all trees they contribute to soil water retention. 4y
marleed This is so intriguing to me. I wish I understood some of what you know! 4y
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Lindy
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Often dismissed as the deplorables of the plant kingdom, weeds are in fact elegant masters of adaptation and procreative prowess.

wanderinglynn Plus, they‘re edible. 👍🏻 My current tea has dandelion root and herb in it. 4y
Bklover And they are pretty!! 4y
ljuliel Most people around here hate dandelions in their yards. I can‘t wait to see the first one because it means summer is on the way ! 4y
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Lindy @wanderinglynn Yay for you! I also enjoy dandelions in many forms. I roast my own dandelion and chicory roots for beverages. 4y
Lindy @Bklover Very true! 4y
Lindy @ljuliel I‘m with you. Baby dandelion greens are one of the first things I harvest from my yard. 4y
38 likes1 stack add6 comments
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MaGoose
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I just picked up the tagged book from the library. I'm hoping to squeeze it in among all my other reads. I haven't started it yet, so not sure if I'll get into it or not.

@amanda61 I just sent you an email from a different email address - janeacairns@outlook.com. Hopefully, you'll get this one. 😊

Amanda61 @MaGoose I received this one!! That's so weird. 5y
MaGoose @Amanda61 Yaay!! 5y
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