Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal: A Food Science Nutrition History Book

by Mark Bittman

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and pioneering journalist, an expansive look at how history has been shaped by humanity’s appetite for food, farmland, and the money behind it all—and how a better future is within reach.

The story of humankind is usually told as one of technological innovation and economic influence—of arrowheads and atomic bombs, settlers and stock markets. But behind it all, there is an even more fundamental driver: Food.

In Animal, Vegetable, Junk, trusted food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of how the frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most catastrophic moments, from slavery and colonialism to famine and genocide—and to our current moment, wherein Big Food exacerbates climate change, plunders our planet, and sickens its people. Even still, Bittman refuses to concede that the battle is lost, pointing to activists, workers, and governments around the world who are choosing well-being over corporate greed and gluttony, and fighting to free society from Big Food’s grip.

Sweeping, impassioned, and ultimately full of hope, Animal, Vegetable, Junk reveals not only how food has shaped our past, but also how we can transform it to reclaim our future.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, History, Science, Audiobook, Health, Environment

455 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2021

About the author

MARK BITTMAN is one of the country's best-known and most widely respected food writers. His How to Cook Everything books, with one million copies in print, are a mainstay of the modern kitchen. Bittman writes for the Opinion section of New York Times on food policy and cooking, and is a columnist for the New York Times Magazine. His "The Minimalist" cooking show, based on his popular NYT column, can be seen on the Cooking Channel. His most recent book, VB6, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in its first week on sale.

Reviews

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a difficult read for a woman who grew up on a farm. Mind you, it was a small farm and we did mixed farming, a rarity these days. I learned to milk cows and to gather eggs. God help you if you said you were bored in the summertime! Mom would send us directly to the garden to pick peas, beans or berries. If none of those were ready, there was always weeding, a thankless task, as boring and repetitive as housework. The big days, when one of Mom's sisters would generally come over, were the canning days (pickles, relish, fruit) or chicken “processing" which involved decapitation (scary when you’re a kid), feather plucking (stinky), and evisceration (most fascinating, but I couldn't be convinced to do it). We ate venison until Mom announced that we were well enough off to eat our own beef & pork. We probably had a very healthy diet.

But as time went on, we were pushed more and more towards the “efficient “ factory farm model. I once asked my dad if he was disappointed that he didn't have a son to take over the farm. He replied that he was relieved that none of us felt compelled to carry on.

The adoption of agriculture has certainly led us directions that weren't readily apparent at the outset. Truly, it seemed like a good idea at the time. There are a lot of these books that examine the food industry and its many flaws. What it comes down to is big food businesses being greedy and exploitative. They don't want to pay workers, hence migrant labourers from Latin America. Our immigrants, who desperately need jobs, end up working horrible jobs in meat packing plants. Covid revealed how little their employers valued them and their health. We produce enough food worldwide to feed all seven billion of us, but distribution is uneven and governed by uncontrolled capitalism. What ever happened to earning enough to be comfortable and to helping our neighbours who have less? When did everyone decide that we should all aspire to be billionaires and grind others into the dust to achieve it?

This is a bit of a depressing read—agriculture, which should just be pure food production, turns out to have driven our history. Colonialism, slavery, monoculture crops, pesticides, genetically modified seed, ultra-processed foods, global warming, ongoing inequality, and forced migration. It's enough to make me long for a little piece of land with a well and a garden plot.

My to-do list:
- Support legislation to make life better for migrant labourers and low paid people in the food industry (remember that grocery store staff were called heroes during the pandemic and the grocery stores withdrew their higher pay at the first opportunity, despite making record profits?)
- Here in Canada, we need to provide a fast track to citizenship to Temporary Foreign Workers and welcome families of these folks.
- Community gardens! Enable city dwellers to grow some of their own food.
- Weed ultra-processed foods from my diet. I know this is difficult. I’ve developed a taste for some of it (Hawkins Cheezies, I'm looking at you).
- Support marketing restrictions, especially those targeting advertising junk to children.
- Support local farmers and growers. Shop at farmers markets. Buy local produce at the grocery store. Eat seasonally. (Half the reason I love cherries so much is that they are only available for a short time each year).
- Reduce meat consumption. Yes, it's delicious, but I can enjoy it sparingly.
- Support more palatable food in hospitals and elder housing facilities. Better food helps people heal faster and our elders deserve to look forward to their meals.

If Covid-19 has taught us nothing else, we now know the limitations of our food supply system. I've never seen more empty shelves in the stores. Various things that I couldn't find: garlic, baking powder, rice, and eggs. I know I'm going to be checking labels for things like country of origin now. Covid revealed that Canada had no vaccine production facilities and weren't making our own PPE. Yes, under normal circumstances we can import them cheaper, but we have to admit that some things are just worth spending more on. Health and food are among them.

Cross posted at my blog:

https://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.c...

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly Junk, Barely Any Meat. This anti-capitalist, anti-European, anti-agriculture screed is little more than a run down of a leftist view of world history (with concentrations in the post-Industrial Revolution world) as it relates to food . It often points to old and out-dated research in support of its claims, and its bibliography is both scant - barely 1/3 the size of similar nonfiction titles - and not cited in the text at all. (Instead, it uses a system of referring to a particular phrase on a particular page number inside the bibliography itself, rather than having a notation in the text of the narrative. Which is obfuscation intended to hide the text's lack of scholarly merit, clearly.) For those who know no better, it perhaps offers an argument that will at least confirm their own biases. But for anyone who has studied any of the several areas it touches in any depth at all, its analysis is flawed due to the very premises it originates from. All of this to say, this is a very sad thing. Based on the description of the book, I genuinely had high hopes for it, as food and its history and future is something that truly fascinates me and this could have been a remarkable text. Instead, it is remarkable only for how laughable it is. Not recommended.

[Chantal Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't come across Mark Bittman's work before, but 'Animal, Vegetable Junk' is a marvel of research and argument.

The book is chronological, beginning with a summary of the birth of agriculture. I scanned this bit, I'll admit - this period in history has already been well-covered in 'Sapiens' by Yuval Harari (who gets a mention).

Where Bittman excels is the history of agriculture and the food industry in the USA. Now, I'm British, but I didn't really have a problem with the American focus. I assume the American food industry has served as a model for much of the rest of the world. The book certainly answers the question of "just why does America have such an obesity problem?". And while Bittman's writing isn't at the same level as Yuval Harari's (but then again, that author is in a league of his own), it still comes with plenty of shocks and some great one-liners like: "Bread had become a vitamin pill in the form of a sponge cake".

Another thing to truly commend the book for is its exposure of structural racism. I knew, like anyone does, that food is just one of many issues wrapped up with racial inequality in the USA. But I had no idea just how powerful the collaboration has been between historical and modern racism, and the depravities of the American food system.

Essential reading - for those in America and beyond.

(Just one quibble - early on, the author says that primates are the only animals known to make tools - but corvids are also known to do this)

With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this ebook, in exchange for an honest review)

[Cathi Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book has radicalized me.
Not many books do that right?
The first 1/3 of the book is a terrific mad dash through the history of agriculture. Wow what a ride. The fundamental change that becoming agrarian did to the human race ...yes obvious but...more children because (duh) you don’t have to carry them around like you did when you were a nomadic hunter gatherer. A quote
“Larger populations demanded that land become more productive. When that wasn’t possible...more land had to be found. This usually meant mobilizing armies.”
So more war
Imperialism and colonization.
Slavery.
Famine.

Deforestation overgrazing failure to fallow monoculture UPC (ultra processed foods)
Another quote
“Food was no longer something you cultivated outside your door...it was produced far afield, by exploited labor overseen by strangers then shipped in unimaginable quantities to supply huge markets.”
Last quote
“The riches of the rest of the world were stolen to create a powerful,beautiful and cultured Europe.”

After this history lesson the statement that food security is a political issue is no longer in question.

Our historic (and current) treatment of Blacks and Indigenous people in this country was the foundation that allowed the White population to dominate. What if free land HAD been given to freed slaves?! (Instead of limiting the Homestead Act to white males) Would our society be different today? Maybe. The issue of reparations is a hot button topic even today but when you read the history —and the inaction(and outright discrimination of the USDA) yes we are obliged to make amends
The middle third is mostly about the American way of farming and the triumph of “science” over sense. I am of the generation that believed that only science could solve world hunger. Yes the factory farms are unnerving but what is the alternative...hunger? After reading this I no longer believe this. It is not science to ignore the degradation of the soil water and air because of factory monoculture farming. We have an agricultural system built on profit that ignores science
“Organic” has become a marketing ploy that doesn’t address the underlying problems. Crop rotation soil health fallowing...farmers who do this can increase yield without resorting to GMO seed super hybrids antibiotics and monoculture Add in the use of real scientific methods in farming that set soil health as a paramount goal and you’re even reducing your carbon footprint.
I don’t mean to write the whole book in this review but every page is astounding.
The exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers from the Social Security Act and the Fair Labor Standards in 1938 because of southern Democrats. And the vestige of that (tipping excluded from minimum wage) continues today.

The Middle section also includes a survey of nutrition (or the lack) but much of this is well known especially if you’ve read Michael Pollen’s books.

The last third tries to be the hopeful part highlighting the green shoots of change. Not that much joy and it kind of ends suddenly with a “support the Green New Deal” without the same detail from the rest of the book. Clearly he had reached the “publish now” deadline. But...from being a “the Green new Deal goes too far and is more than climate change” I now understand the connections between a living wage sustainable agriculture and climate change.

So green shoots
Prairie strips
Kernza
Full Belly Farm
HEAL (Health environment agriculture labor) food alliance
Our Roots
ALBA (agriculture and land based training association)

In summary he says we need to move to a system of agriculture whose primary purpose is nourishment not the current system of profit (above nourishment...is it even a factor to Big Ag?)
Big Ag wants us to worry over feeding 10 billion which allows them to focus on higher yields (and higher profits) but this is a misdirection.
Last quote (really)
“There is already enough food ...for all humans to live well and without ravaging our planet. To let desperation and scarcity myths guide our vision is to fall into industry’s hands. Better to prioritize food security for all and intelligently use the abundance that already exists.”
Amen

[Ramblin Hamlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Miffin Harcourt for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book is published Feb 2nd

I have read a few, of Bittman’s other books and I enjoyed them, sadly, this one fell a little short for me. I appreciated some of the history in the first few chapters. I’m talking about century old history that I was not aware of. I also appreciated the last two chapters where he shared what is being done now to help heal our environment and what we can do to continue down the path of change.

The middle section of the book felt a little dry and biased. It struggled to keep my attention though a large chunk of it. It felt very textbookish for me and I could only read it in small chunks. I also could have done without shaming pregnant mothers and families who choose to formula over breastfeeding. Essentially, it alluded to kids being picky eaters because of how the babies mother ate when pregnant and/or because of being given formula and pureed foods. I cringed when they talked about the “stoplight method” in regards to foods. Nothing makes a kid or person want food more than when you are told you can’t have it.

We do have issues with our food system. There is much that needs to change and this book does present some good ideas for that. So I guess my recommendation is read the first and last few chapters and call it a day.

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
Koks 40% knygos - apie agrokultūrą, jos istoriją nuo atsiradimo iki šių dienų. Tiksliau - ji kritikuojama. Tačiau visa tai jau, manau, daugeliui girdėta, kad ir iš čia irgi paminimo Harario knygų. Tad, šiek tiek nuobodžiavau. Skaitant toliau, jau darėsi kiek įdomiau. Nors šiaip jau, visa knyga yra ištisinė agrokultūros, kapitalizmo (nors kliūna ir TSRS kolektyvizacijai), žemės ūkio korporacijų, vakarų pasaulio gyventojų mitybos kritika. Dar autorius prognozuoja kas mūsų laukia netolimoje ateityje, jei nesiimsim skubių gamtosauginių veiksmų. Ir jau pačioje pabaigoje (pagaliau) siūloma išeitis - ekoagrokultūra. Ar tik nepavėluota?

[Judith von Kirchbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming February 2nd Mark Bittman’s highly informative “Animal - Vegetable - Junk” was a fascinating read - highly recommended to any science nerds and history bugs out there, or anyone else since we all need and consume food every day.

Synopsis: The history of Homo sapiens is usually told as a story of technology or economics. But there is a more fundamental driver: food. How we hunted and gathered explains our emergence as a new species and our earliest technology. The quest for food for growing populations drove exploration, colonialism, slavery, even capitalism. A century ago, food was industrialized. Since then, new styles of agriculture and food production have written a new chapter of human history, one that’s driving both climate change and global health crises. Best-selling food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of the story and explains how we can rescue ourselves from the modern wrong turn.

Review: The book tackles the history of agriculture, how damaging it has been and continues to be, and how it can be reshaped to respond to climate change and a world population of 10 billion people. I thought it was very interesting, I love history books with different focus points and my history nerd side was fully satisfied by the analysis of developments from early times through Middle Ages to modern times and industrialized agriculture from subsistence farms to large scale monoculture. Bittman excels in writing an accessible and gripping account of the history of agriculture and food industry. Speaking truth to power where simple profit interests were the leading decision components.
Bittman does not come across as a radical, as suggested in some reviews, more as an observer and gatherer of scientific information. I thought the book was well researched and provided the background studies that statements relied on which is what I expect of scientific writing.
Bittman is not recommending a specific diet or specific steps but he is showing which initiatives are leading the way in a good direction for combatting hunger and environmental effects and ends the book on a hopeful note.

Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the eARC - opinions expressed are my own !

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cookbook author and journalist Mark Bittman has written a well-researched history of food and agriculture which helps us understand how we've gotten to the mess we are in with ultraprocessed foods today. I've been on a kick the last 18 months or so to learn everything I can about the food we eat after starting the EatRealAmerica.com program sponsored by our local hospital. Earlier this year I read Michael Moss's Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions which dovetails perfectly with this information. Bittman would like to see more support for the progressive New Green Deal as the best path forward and encourages regenerative farming techniques. Personally, I believe the more we know, the better choices we can make for the future. The simplest health advice? Eat real foods in moderate amounts.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential reading.

In recent years in non-fiction, there was a trend of describing human history through one particular commodity or phenomenon: cod, chickens, cotton, mosquitos - you name it. While most of them bring an interesting new perspective and surprising facts, they are usually also shamelessly biased towards their subjects, overestimating their importance and influence.

That is not the case with “Animal, vegetable, junk”, because food unquestionably is one of the most important things that impacted our history (the only other example of such consequence that comes to my mind is that of infectious diseases). History of food means mainly the history of agriculture (or, later, "the Big Ag"), which maybe doesn’t sound too exciting but, believe me, it is. I would never think that I would be so fascinated with methods of soil treatment or farm industrialization.

Mark Bittman is a great storyteller and can make almost any topic interesting. His writing is clear, witty, opinionated, full of interesting anecdotes and colorful characters. But it is a pleasure mixed with dread, as you learn more and more about what kind of world we’ve all created and how we turned our food into junk. Thankfully, the last chapters leave us with some hope and a plan of counteraction.

Thanks to the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

[Carol Roh · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing I have always wondered about small organic farming is whether it is really a solution for feeding the world. This book answers that question solidly--and so many more. It is harsh where it needs to be harsh, but incredibly hopeful, as well. Oh, and the answer is yes. peasant farming feeds 70% of the world using 25% of agricultural resources. The other 75% is big ag, producing mostly crops (corn and soybean) that we don't even eat or that go into products that can barely be called food. An amazing and enlightening read.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're familiar with Mark Bittman's work, you know that he's passionate about food, how and what we eat, and the future of the planet. If not, know that he's been committed to these issues for years and this is the culmination of a lot of his research over the years. Beginning with a history of agriculture in the US and continuing through to how we must look at it in the future, it is at times a book which might aggravate but it will always inform. You, like me, might not agree with some of his assertions (notably about feeding infanta and children) but his views are thought provoking. His journalistic style is well suited to the subject (which could have been either a screed or too intense in lesser hands). I've been a fan of his for years and have watched his evolution. This is a terrific addition to his library. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Informative and instructive, this is a must read for his fans and for those interested in the food industry.

[Tanja Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched rant on how farming went wrong. How it went from small farms to massive ones, with the help of equipment and chemicals, destroying ecosystems and human health in the process.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Nonfiction and so many other genres like Environment, Health, Science, Food, and more. I found this to be a fun read. Usually I find it bothersome when books like this are so narrow in focus like this is the only way to look at things. But I enjoyed the food for thought and that this could be a good avenue to open dialogue because there does NEED to be dialogue. I'll rephrase...there needs to be movement with decisive action. Often the government wheels move slowly when it comes to any change.

What I liked the most in this book was the new view...maybe not new, but the way the evolution of agriculture was laid out. It made me think things I've never even once considered. So 4 stars.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This new book by Mark Bittman, food critic of the New York Times, is an interesting overview and synthesis of how the global and especially the US food system got to be the way it is today. That is, primarily serving the needs of investors, while inflicting widespread damage on the environment, human health, and the economic well-being of farmers. In the final chapter he points to some hopeful signs, but on the whole it's a sobering indictment of the American food production system.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Torn between three and four stars.
I loved the first half, the history of food and agriculture and how we got to where we (mostly America) are.
The second half seemed incredibly one sided and judgmental. I guess I was hoping for a bit less soapbox and bit more balanced, journalistic presentation of both sides.
Despite all this, Mark Bittman is a very good writer and I enjoy the way he puts words on the page.

[Jack Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

The food system in the United States is messed up. I imagine anyone reading this book agrees with the idea, unless they work for Big Food and are keeping up with public discourse. In a nod to Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Bittman states his central argument and takes us back to the beginning of time. It was a bit extravagant and unnecessary for me as I just read Sapiens. Still, Bittman's unique voice shines through in his writing, keeping the text interesting enough to continue reading.

I view myself as well-read in nutrition literature. Hence, none of the ideas presented here are new. But, Bittman cites his references and hits on all the major nutritional reviews of the past century. The key takeaway - processed foods aren't good for you. Instead, processed foods are the byproduct of the excesses of the American farming system, amplified by strong government support. After WWII and the recovery of European farming systems, the U.S. farming system faced an existential crisis. We produced too much of too few crops. Rather than scale back the industry, Big Food pushed forward by inventing new foods and pushing them to the general public.

For anyone who follows the food industry, it's not a new story. But Bittman offers insightful historical context for government backing of Big Food (again, it's nothing new) and presents his arguments in a concise, entertaining manner. I enjoyed everything except the final two chapters, which dealt with the solution. I flip through an entire book before starting a review to ensure I don't only write about the last couple of chapters. If I did, I would rate this text far lower. After presenting a compelling narrative leading us to the present, Bittman offers a scattershot of solutions in a whirlwind 40 pages at the end. It took me four days to get through this section. Like Sapiens, it's often best to address causes and solutions in different books for this reason. The narrative gets muddled. I can only read about a myriad of small-scale solutions for so long before I get lost in my thoughts. Leave it for the website or the next book.

I won't let the unfocused ending spoil the magnificent body of the work. Bittman bit off a lot when he decided to craft a narrative explaining today's horrific food system. And he does an excellent job, adding to my list of recommended reads for people interested in the complexities of our food system today.

[Tom Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t a perfect book—it meanders, gets caught up at times, is strident, cranky, opinionated, and occasionally makes some iffy presumptions (for instance imputing the thoughts of early man). And if your political worldview and/or ideology is right-of-the-dial this book might drive you crazy (for that I say, good!). But for me, the liberal perspective is a feature, not a bug.

Food is political and has always been that way—a concept so simple it’s hard to grasp. But it’s a profound truth and helps to explain, for example, why our food system is where it is and why (whether you know or admit it or not) we’re in crisis and heading for a fall. It also explains past famines, wars, social structures, etc, which the book does a good job illuminating. But I’m more concerned with the present and future.

There’s nothing particularly natural or inevitable about the way we grow, distribute, and consume food today. It’s just where history is, where systemic decisions are driven more for money for the providers than for the health of the consumers (or of the earth). Food should nourish the body, not primarily enrich pocketbooks.

And personally, it’s probably better if you avoid overly processed junk food and eat natural whole foods.

TLDR
The insanity of the brand of myopically voracious GDP capitalism we’ve hitched a ride to is gonna kill us all, in a multitude of ways.

This is an important book. Read it!

[Kim Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was just ok. The book tried to cover too much. There were some interesting tidbits here and there but a lot of this has been covered in other books.

I found some of the research cited outdated and I did not like that the so called facts were not footnoted - even in the back where there was some attempt to cite references by chapter, the citations were not adequate.

It is obvious the author is agenda driven- to end modern agriculture. I feel he does not have a good enough grasp of all that entails and he certainly does not acknowledge what is being done already in modern agriculture to try and mitigate concerns of sustainability. There is both good and bad in modern ag and no doubt some changes are needed but in this book modern ag is the enemy.

The author may know about food and cooking, but his knowledge of food production and advances in modern ag is sadly lacking.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting history of food production and agriculture.

[ᛚᚨᚱᚲᚨ × ᚠᛖᚾᚱᛁᚱ (Semi hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Three things are true at the same time. The world is much better; the world is awful; and the world can be much better.”
- Max Roser, philosopher

Even though Max Roser's quote references many aspects of this world, in this book particularly the author and food writer Mark Bittman applies it to the food system, and more specifically the one present in the USA. The book is divided in three sections: “The Birth of Growing”, “The Twentieth Century”, and “Change”.
In “The Birth of Growing” we learn how we evolved from being hunters and gatherers to the current condition of breeders and farmers, an evolutionary step that, as we will see, is the inherited cause of many of our world's problems. A first look at the matter can be found in the second chapter, where the author explains the foundation of Eurasian and American civilization, their periods of prosperity and decline, and their causes. The same aspects in a different part of the world, the New one, will be explored in chapter three, with a particular remark on the destruction brought by the colonialists, and the enslavement of black people. From here, we will proceed to see how Englishmen exploited not only the American colonies, but also Ireland, India and China, originating famines at home and overseas. In the last chapter of the section, the issue of soil impoverishment is tackled, as well as the reason America wasn't (yet) affected, but instead flourished, at our future's health cost.
“The Twentieth Century” is now all about America: how it evolved from the Industrial Revolution and WWI, and how the codependency of farmers and banks starts are all topics covered in the first chapter. It goes on deepening the understanding of food as a political weapon that gave birth to the food industry and new versions of food we all know nowadays, as well as the brand and marketing to sell them created in this period. In the second half of this section, the protagonists are the health consequences of this new processed food, what has been done about it and the beginning of lies so hard to uncover once and for all. On the same wave, we'll also see how fast food originated, and how junk food is engineered to be addictive from a young age, with particular attention to sugar, salt, and saturated fats. The last chapter will change the topic yet again, getting into the consequences of the United States as leader of the global agricultural industry: the big lie of the Green Revolution spreads around the globe, not unlikely its pesticides and GMOs with their consequences on the environment.
The author leaves us with a (partial) bright sight on the matter: “Change”. Like its name reveals, it is all about what we have done and what we can do to improve our health and environment. Now obvious things such as the “Four Laws of Ecology” by Barry Commoner had to be written, in sharp opposition to the “Four Laws of Capitalism” of John Bellamy Fosters [both can be found here], and the important first steps into this battle, in which a better attention on labels and the kind of product we buy (with particular attention to the bio ones) lead the way for a more sustainable way of life. Switching to a plant-based diet will also impact largely, without the negative effects (ecological and moral) of both industrial animal production and fishing; the author also points out how farming and climate change influence each other, and reminds us of the first positive changes to our food system, such as agroecology.
In conclusion, according to Mark Bittman we don't know what a functioning food system would look like, but we have the guidelines to get there, and it must be based on cooperation, while its goals must be equality, justice, and judicious treatment of the Earth.
I'm only a beginner for what concerns the topic from a point of view strictly historical, so I can't say much about that, if not that the style of the book reminded me of another book, although of a different topic (history of human societies): Guns, Germs and Steel . The facts are presented in an exhaustive and yet not pedantic nor overwhelming way.
From an environmental point of view, however, I had my fair share of articles and books on the argument, and most of all, I have first-hand experience from the years spent being a vegan, with particular attention to animal welfare and the advantages of a plant-based diet for the environment, animals and people. In those paragraphs in which the author explained the correlation between the elements involved, I found myself nodding along and appreciating the way he expressed the most critical (and difficult) facts and thoughts on the matter. As the author rightfully said

Not everyone realizes it, but plants create biomass, and animals, for the most part, consume it. Plants turn sunlight, air, water, and soil into stuff, including food. Dependent and even parasitic, animals do none that: We can create biomass only by helping and encouraging — or at least not hindering or destroying — the work of plants. Yet, pathetic as we are in that regard, we’ve become the only creatures in history who can destroy the world.

Another important aspect that gets discussed is equality, something that in a civilized world should exist in every aspect of human life, and yet it's missing in its basic forms. Bittman addresses the injustice women, black people, and other minorities (only to name a few) are subdued to, something it's difficult to imagine in a simple act of survival as providing food for ourselves and our families might seem. Once more, food isn't just food, but the way we think about it and the way we approach it can change everybody's lives.
This book opens your eyes on the perversity of a system that manages to camouflage itself, that promotes itself among the good guys, the one attending to your every need, while it's inexorably chewing and spitting our home and the people that it thinks disposable, all in the name of profits.

For decades, Americans believed that we had the world’s healthiest and safest diet. We didn’t worry about its effects on our health, on the environment, on resources, or on the lives of the animals or even the workers it relies upon. Nor did we worry about its ability to endure — that is, its sustainability. We have been encouraged, even forced, to remain ignorant of both the costs of industrial agriculture and the non-environment-wrecking, healthier alternatives. Yet if terrorists stole or poisoned a large share of our land, water, and other natural resources, underfed a sixth of the population and seeded disease among half, threatened our ability to feed ourselves in the future, deceived, lied to, and poisoned our children, tortured our animals, and ruthlessly exploited many of our citizens we’d consider that a threat to national security and respond accordingly. Contemporary agriculture, food production, and marketing have done all of that, with government support and without penalty. That must end. To meet the human and environmental crises head-on, we must ask ourselves: What would a just food system look like? I believe we can answer that question (and I try to), and although getting to that place won’t be easy, it’s crucial — because nothing is more important than food. You can’t talk about reforming a toxic diet without talking about reforming the land and labor laws that determine that diet. You can’t talk about agriculture without talking about the environment, about clean sources of energy, and about the water supply. You can’t talk about animal welfare without talking about the welfare of food workers, and you can’t talk about food workers without talking about income inequality, racism, and immigration. In fact, you can’t have a serious conversation about food without talking about human rights, climate change, and justice. Food not only affects everything, it represents everything. My goals are to show how we got here, to describe the existential threats presented by the state of food and agriculture, and — perhaps most important — to describe the beginnings of a way forward. It’s a given that Big Food, like Big Oil, is unsustainable, if for no other reason than that energy and matter are finite, and the extraction of limited resources is precarious. As with the climate crisis — to which food production is a major contributor — there’s still time to come to our senses and change things for the better. It isn’t a sure bet, but it’s possible. The conversation starts with an understanding of the origins, evolution, and influence of food. Animal, Vegetable, Junk attempts to provide that understanding, and to imagine a better future. It’s a chronological telling that blends scientific, historical, and societal analyses. (It also occasionally reflects my personal experience.) It’s an ambitious book (perhaps too ambitious; you’ll be the judge of that), but one I had to write. I hope it changes the way you think about food, and everything it touches.

Table of contents
I. The Birth of Growing
1. The Food-Brain Feedback Loop
2. Soil and Civilization
3. Agriculture Goes Global
4. Creating Famine
5. The American Way of Farming
II. The Twentieth Century
6. The Farm as Factory
7. Dust and Depression
8. Food and the Brand
9. Vitamania and “the Farm Problem”
10. Soy, Chicken, and Cholesterol
11. Force-feeding Junk
12. The So-called Green Revolution
III. Change
13. The Resistance
14. Where We're At
15. The Way Forward
Conclusion
16. We Are All Eaters

Rating: ★★★★


Other books by the author are all available here.


Top 3 lists on GoodReads on environment
• Best Enviromental Books
• Best Sustainability Nonfiction
• Best Climate Change Books


***Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

[Benjamin Rubenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books like this, which seem like the author would have needed a decade to compile all the info needed, blow my mind. It's an astounding narrative on the history of the food humans have found, grown, created, and consumed. There is much to learn here, but one lesson that sticks out is how it is generally the supply of food--and the foods those suppliers choose to provide--that leads us to eat what we eat. As University of California Press writes in its review, "The author argues instead that our current food environment is the result of calculated, concentrated power—from colonial control to corporations—directing what we grow and how we eat, in a system that demands 'of agriculture not food for people, but goods for market.'"

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly dense, but incredibly necessary!
Nothing like a 300 page book on modern agriculture to remind you why you’re vegan.

I do wish there was more emphasis on Indigenous food sovereignty and Indigenous food ways, but Braiding Sweetgrass is a good supplement for that.

I wrote down a lot of quotes, but I think the one that best sums up this book is, ‘food has always been political.’

[Dan Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing read. First, this is a very derivative work. By that I mean that it is almost a readers digest summary of many other books by other authors. To be fair, Mr. Bittman freely acknowledges these sources in the text, but there isn't much in the way of original work. In the cases I am familiar with, the referenced books provide a much more nuanced and complex discussion of these issues than the simplistic discussion in this book.

Second, everything is filtered through the author's own highly biased beliefs. The author apparently never encountered a problem that can't be attributed to white European men or capitalism, usually both. The book is also heavily anti-meat/animal food. Although the title is Animal, Vegetable, Junk, animal based foods are usually lumped together with junk.

[Susanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While the subject matter interests me immensely, and I enjoy reading the author's columns in the NYT, I found this book hard going. The prose was very dense and dry, and much of it was too preachy and judgemental for me. I did appreciate the historic background given by the author, and the last few chapters where he shared perspectives on what is being done to help heal our environment and what we can do to support this and continue along the path of change.

[Caitlin Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
I want everyone to read this.
I also don't want to recommend it to anyone because I came out the other side pissed off and my ability to cope with hopelessness BARELY outweighed the disaster.

[Sophia Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The larger food system fails to ask the key question: what do we grow food for?”

I’ve been trying to find more holistic, thoughtful and freeing ways of thinking about food and I feel like I just got caught in a downpour of idea raindrops. If nothing else, this book is FASCINATING. Really scratched my history itch. Also my “disciplining our fleshy appetites as a means of loving our communities” itch.

I remember sitting in Dr. Huffs hngr 114 class and hearing him lecture on the skyrocketing number of pesticide suicides among Indian farmers. This was maybe the first time I’d directly encountered the kind of ecological thinking that is actually capable of addressing problems like hunger, climate change, or mental health crises among those who are too financially and socially impoverished to do anything besides rely wholly on the weather. The more I learn, the more I think ecological perspectives are necessary for living and loving well.

This book is a plea for that kind of thinking. It’s not heavy-handed, it just understands the ways in which our bodies, natural environments, economies and care for each other are all deeply interrelated. If you want to learn about how food systems are at the heart of every major human led movement in history, read this book! Also if you’re the kind of person who enjoyed Food Inc, this will REALLY be your thing

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this sweeping popular history of food production, and in particular, the way its situates food policy at the center of all of our conversations about equity. He starts off with the question, "What would a just food system look like?" And then writes, "You can't talk about reforming a toxic diet [reviewer note: Pringles, mmmmmm!] without talking abut reforming the land and labor laws that determine that diet. You can't talk about agriculture without talking about the environment, about clean sources of energy, and about the water supply. You can't talk about animal welfare without talking about food workers, and you can't talk about food workers without talking about income inequality, racism, and immigration...Food not only affects everything, it represents everything" (xiv).

I saw on Goodreads that this discussion makes some people worried that they will lose their FREEDOM, and I considered whether entertaining this history might make it possible for the government to come rip the Pringles can out of my salt-covered fingers. I guess I would say that the ultimate freedom is being able to have this discussion at all, to consider the way those Pringles came to be one of my primary food groups during the pandemic, and what the consequences of my love for these potato-esque treats might be. The freedom to learn and the freedom to participate in policy decisions are the American freedoms that this book asks us to claim.

[Vibliophile · Rating 1 out of 5]

Junkfood...

Or maybe frankenfood would be more apropos.

The book is basically a Leftist rant about the evils of capitalism (which is why socialist countries are so much better off & healthier than us 🙄) and concludes with the promotion of the Green New Deal as the solution to all the ills he outlined. Never mind that even many Democrats admit it's a cringeworthily untenable piece of work.

Our Founding Fathers knew that humanity was not just capable of good but also bad, so they built a political structure with numerous anticipatory safeguards. Socialism is based on the naive idea that everyone will be good & do what's good for the collective. Not only will people frequently do what they want rather than what they should, but sometimes what's good for the individual is at odds with what's good for the collective.

Leftist control wouldn't force our food supply to be healthier - quite the opposite, as history assures us that when humans in power can profit from meeting the needs of the masses as cheaply & minimally as possible, they will.

What a disappointing waste of my time.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an ambitious review of our history of eating, from pre-agricultural times to the current model of multinational agribusiness. The message is that our current model is making us, as well as the environment, sick, and that we need to change it up. As complex as the causes of the problems are, the solutions seem complex as well. Bittman advises personal-level change (i.e. changing our eating habits) as well as advocating for change on a macro level (i.e. supporting the Green New Deal).

I was gobsmacked by Bittman's criticism of Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution. Borlaug won a Nobel Peace Prize, was often called "the Father of the Green Revolution," and is credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation through his work with hybrid seeds. I'd always thought of him as a relatively unsung hero. But Bittman claims that the Green Revolution was never about feeding the world, but "was a front for selling American agricultural machinery, chemicals and seeds."

[Michelle Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read, I learned a lot. I wish someone will do the Canadian version of this. I was hoping to hear more about what the World Health Organization is or is not doing re. Global food security given similarities to big tobacco. I also wanted to learn more about what we now know as modern day food banks, and how it plays into everything . . . or doesn't.