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How to Feed the World: The History and Future of Food
An indispensable analysis of how the world really produces and consumes its food
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and a scientist's exploration of how we can successfully feed a growing population without killing the planet
We have never had to feed as many people as we do today. And yet, we misunderstand the essentials of where our food really comes from, how our dietary requirements shape us, and why this impacts our planet in drastic ways. As a result, in our economic, political, and everyday choices, we take for granted and fail to prioritize the thing that makes all our lives food.
In this ambitious, myth-busting book, Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world why are some of the world’s biggest food producers also the countries with the most undernourished populations? Why do we waste so much food and how can we solve that? Could the whole planet go vegan and be healthy? Should it? He explores the global history of food production to understand why we farm some animals and not others, why most of the world’s calories come from just a few foodstuffs, and how this might change in the future.
How to Feed the World is the data-based, rigorously researched guide that offers solutions to our broken global food system.
We have never had to feed as many people as we do today. And yet, we misunderstand the essentials of where our food really comes from, how our dietary requirements shape us, and why this impacts our planet in drastic ways. As a result, in our economic, political, and everyday choices, we take for granted and fail to prioritize the thing that makes all our lives food.
In this ambitious, myth-busting book, Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world why are some of the world’s biggest food producers also the countries with the most undernourished populations? Why do we waste so much food and how can we solve that? Could the whole planet go vegan and be healthy? Should it? He explores the global history of food production to understand why we farm some animals and not others, why most of the world’s calories come from just a few foodstuffs, and how this might change in the future.
How to Feed the World is the data-based, rigorously researched guide that offers solutions to our broken global food system.
- GenresNonfiction
Audible Audio
Published March 4, 2025
16 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Vaclav Smil
70Ìýbooks4,248ÌýfollowersVaclav Smil Ph.D. (Geography, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences of Pennsylvania State University, 1971; RNDr., Charles University, Prague, 1965), is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 2010 was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 14, 2025
I think I would’ve liked it better if I didn’t listen to it as an audiobook so may go back and reread. Author has well written arguments with strong quantitative back up but felt redundant at points. And probably just not a good book to listen to so dampened my read.
March 26, 2025
Overall a pretty optimistic read, crammed full of statistics. Enjoyed the thought experiments around whether or not veganism or vegetarianism are suitable for the global population. Wished the discussion on efficiency vs. ethics of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations was twice as long.
April 2, 2025
Somebody please get this guy an editor with a sharp red pencil! While it is full of factual information, the writing style makes it really hard to digest.
The sentences are mostly way too long and convoluted. They require the reader to go back and read the sentence multiple times to figure out what it's saying. And there are so many numbers in line with the text that it's hard to figure out what he's saying. Pulling some of that out into separate examples, possibly with equations, would really help. Just substituting words that are too difficult for simpler words would help.
The author also spends way too much time talking about himself and how he is more correct than some other author. I don't want to know that he's holding a grudge against somebody else. Just the facts, please.
He has written a lot of books with really interesting titles, but I don't think I'm going to want to read any of them if they're written in a similar fashion to this one.
The sentences are mostly way too long and convoluted. They require the reader to go back and read the sentence multiple times to figure out what it's saying. And there are so many numbers in line with the text that it's hard to figure out what he's saying. Pulling some of that out into separate examples, possibly with equations, would really help. Just substituting words that are too difficult for simpler words would help.
The author also spends way too much time talking about himself and how he is more correct than some other author. I don't want to know that he's holding a grudge against somebody else. Just the facts, please.
He has written a lot of books with really interesting titles, but I don't think I'm going to want to read any of them if they're written in a similar fashion to this one.
April 3, 2025
I went in excited: I've heard great things about author and it's a topic that really interest me. But, I had to abort this one. It's good quality but not readable. this is more of an academic/reference book, not a consumer-facing book for general society. He's smart, well informed, and backs up points with plenty of info, but the information is not presented in a digestible manner.
I aborted at the part where he starts to take shots at other academics/thinkers such as Jared Diamond, as it verified my hunch he doesn't really care all that much about the mainstream/non-fiction reader audience, but is in far more concerned with his perception amongst fellow academics.
Nah bro, you gotta do better if you want your ideas to reach a wider audience.
My advice for the author: Lose the ego, and write with a wider audience in mind. Perhaps take some 'fundamentals in storytelling' classes, because there are absolutely none of those displayed within this book.
I aborted at the part where he starts to take shots at other academics/thinkers such as Jared Diamond, as it verified my hunch he doesn't really care all that much about the mainstream/non-fiction reader audience, but is in far more concerned with his perception amongst fellow academics.
Nah bro, you gotta do better if you want your ideas to reach a wider audience.
My advice for the author: Lose the ego, and write with a wider audience in mind. Perhaps take some 'fundamentals in storytelling' classes, because there are absolutely none of those displayed within this book.
April 7, 2025
It's easy to get blurred eyed with all the numbers but the overall optimism and realistic analysis is sobering and worth knowing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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