You thought Fast Food Nation was a stinging indictment of US food practice, and it was. It also had information about how to improve food safety, worker health, and general quality of life.
Against the Grain author Richard Manning is apparently opposed to agriculture. Not even agriculture as practiced in the US by giant combines with tons of pesticides and petroleum fertilizers, mind you. He’s more or less opposed to agriculture, which despite the various problems he describes with it, is still the foundation of global society.
Yes, the particular fertilizers used by US agribusiness are ruining our waterways, and yes, the US agricultural subsidy system is screwed up beyond belief. Let’s reform them. Let’s eat organic. Let’s eat low on the food chain, low on the processing scale, be aware of the petroleum in our breakfast cereal. But come on– you’re attacking agriculture and describing it as the bane of global existence? Gimme a break. You can tell he’s on thin ice when he begins romanticizing the hunter-gatherers and talks about how important it is to hunt your own elk. Yeah, I’ll be sure to do that.
Secretly Ironic 