You probably already know much of what Anna Lappe has to say, but it doesn't hurt to reinforce the reasons you might be shying from industrial-farmed food and cutting back on meat, turning vegetarian or buying organic produce. Lappe, whose mother, Frances Moore Lappe, is the author of
Diet for a Small Planet, shows how the food on our tables is contributing to global warming. She tackles why the relationship between agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions has been downplayed for so long. And she gives readers
Hope, a section in which she tells about how some farmers are producing food that regenerates rather than degenerates soil. Lappe presents her views as an enlightened consumer who has done the legwork to bolster her arguments - against contract farming, land grabs and so on. For example, her visit to Shexian, in Anhui province, allows her to see "methane digesters" at work. Lori Blanchard reads in the steady tones you would expect from a book that won't change your life, but will remind you of why you should choose certain foods ahead of others.
