An interesting look at biodiversity across the UK and how the smallest lifeforms impact our food system - a bit drier/more scientific than I was expecting!

Perhaps it wasn’t wrong to say that Regenesis is a kind of manifesto on saving the planet, focussing on the issue of food security. The manifesto departs from the premise that we could converge the ideas of mitigating climate change and ensuring our food security. One of the ideas that George Monbiot advocates through this book is the necessity to secure our foods without farming. He isn’t shy to put bluntly that what he advocates is a Counter-Agricultural-Revolution, exposing the problems that exist with our agricultural system. An optimist, Monbiot believes that our climate problems could be averted easily if all people change to a plant-based diet, which he admits is an unrealistic solution given the convergence between food and culture, as well as the existence of meat lobbyists advocating against the move.

Securing our foods without farming is not a joke that Monbiot throws up randomly here. He shows that it is technologically possible to cultivate enough foods to feed the population through alternative moves such as fixing the quality of soils, increasing the diversity of the creatures in farmland by rewilding, as well as relying more on bacteria to synthesise alternative foods that meet our nutritional needs. As an advocate, he shows that the real challenge that has been stymieing the transition is not technology but rather the government that keeps subsidising farming, as well as the food industry and meat lobbyists that are benefited by the preservation of the status quo. I like how detailed Monbiot describes his vision, including the need to ensure people in the traditional farming industry remain employed in his Regenesis plan.

I think this is the kind of book that policymakers would need to read. The ideas are controversial, as Monbiot himself criticised the movements advocated by some other climate and food activists such as Michael Pollan who says we should eat real food, which by his definition goes as “things that your great-grandmother (or someone’s great-grandmother) would recognize.” But the definition of real food is different throughout the ages and it is quite unrealistic to fulfil our food security using a simple traditional approach to define what qualifies as real food. Monbiot attempts to show that there is the need to converge both traditional and innovative approaches, by embracing the “return to nature” approach as well as genetic modification using bacteria to fulfil our food demands.

Regenesis is an extremely well researched and hard-hitting book. It is far more comprehensive on what has happened to the surface of our planet than any other book I have read. There are a lot of new ideas – all of which are worth exploring and of vital importance for governments, food industry, farmers and food consumers.

George Monbiot starts with a fascinating look at our soil – the richness of life it contains (bugs, bacteria etc) which most of us are largely unaware of. Ploughing, fertilizers, livestock and poor planning has degraded the planet’s surface to an alarming degree. While meeting the food demands of a growing population is by itself challenging, it will be even more so with global warming set to take a toll. However, though we have the means to avert it, progress is limited. The meat industry is one of the biggest culprits but is extremely influential with governments and very cleverly keeps people hooked to their products. In contrast to plant protein, beef and lamb protein requires 80 times the land, and degrades the atmosphere with methane emissions and uses up foodgrains which could feed people. The evidence also points to plant protein being healthier. But the industry has deep pockets and is able to bulldoze governments for subsidies – so is able to sell products fairly cheap. In contrast, plant alternative startups face an unequal playing field. As a result, healthy eating is today 3-5 times more expensive. Monbiot mentions that if the government were to subsidize fruit, vegetables and nuts – we would have a far healthier planet with fewer obese people and also cut many serious ailments. The same holds for dairy – milk has been positioned as a vital health drink but only about ~3.5% of the volume has any nutritional value. The meat industry also plays on the fact that habits are difficult to change and most people approach their food habits like religion; however unhealthy it is – they defend it and try to convert others to their ways. Monbiot says that typically the tipping point is reached after the % of population manages to reach 25%.

Monbiot meets several experts and farmers who are trying new ideas. This makes for fascinating reading and a lot of it is also surprising – ploughing and fertilizers may not be necessary and there are other ways to keep your soil healthy and increase your yield. There are also some interesting facts – farmers irrigating their land in East India and Bangladesh lead to some additional rainfall in East Africa! If you grow your own food or aspire to, some of the later sections have new ideas well worth pursuing.

The below is a quote I came across recently.
“Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food” – Michael Pollan

Monbiot also refers to this and takes off on this and argues that we need to make use of the new knowledge we acquire rather than this premise. I agree with him but think he is missing an important point in the intent behind this quote – processed food, industrialized farming has wreaked havoc on our planet.

This book was an eye-opener in many ways and would say is vital reading. The arguments in the book for an urgent need for change is very compelling.

Provocative and inspiring reading especially the second part of the book where Monbiot introduce us to a a few radical farmers who pioneer ways to grow food that does not destroy the soil's health and fertility.

Working my way through some of the Wainwright shortlist - this is brilliant. Some really eye opening facts about the farming industry and genuinely hopeful ideas of how to improve things.

Having read George Monbiot’s journalism, I knew Regenesis would be a brilliantly argued and carefully researched read on the challenges of providing enough food, and protecting the climate, by reimagining farming. What I hadn’t anticipated was the lyrical beauty of the writing.

In the opening chapter Monbiot describes in gorgeous detail his (community-run) orchard, the blossom, the fruit, and the mysterious ecosystem that is soil. He discusses the creatures, bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi (drawing on Merlin Sheldrake’s brilliant Entangled Life) and how maintaining and improving soil is an essential, and overlooked, part of the challenge.

Unfortunately, much of contemporary farming worldwide actively damages soil, air and water. Monbiot looks at how government subsidies, introduced to ensure food security, actively encourage environmentally damaging practices, returning to the theme of his Rivercide documentary on how chicken waste pollutes rivers. Farmers, he argues provocatively, no longer farm food, but subsidies. Their most lucrative fields are on spreadsheets.

The problem isn’t that we can’t produce enough food. In principle, the world already produces enough food for 10-14 billion people. The issue is in the distribution, fragile international supply chains, and the fact that industrial farming is incompatible with mitigating climate change.

Once he has outlined the problem, Monbiot goes on to describe a number of potential solutions. He visits one vegetable grower who emphasises working with and improving the soil, making friends with weeds, because they build soil structure. Another farmer sows crops without ploughing. These aren’t commercially profitable, but then neither, remember, is industrial farming, it is propped up by subsidies that pay people to harm, rather than protect, animals, the land and the climate.

Other chapters look at alternatives to farming as we know it, such as growing protein from bacteria or developing perennial cereal crops, and outline the work of groups such as Fareshare in the UK which distribute food which would otherwise be wasted.

There is some humour too, in Monbiot’s critique of the way we romanticise farms, from children’s fiction to Sunday night comfort TV like Countryfile. He is not afraid to take aim at, er, sacred cows, such as pasture-fed meat – which, he argues, is actually be more damaging in climate terms because of the extra land needed to feed each animal. He also says that locally-sourced food isn’t necessarily better – because transport represents such a small proportion of the carbon cost of food.

Regenesis is a fascinating and thought-provoking read, packed with insight and testament to Monbiot’s commitment to detail (he holds others to the same high standard, even allies who make idyllic claims but can’t provide the evidence to back them up). It is unflinching in outlining the problem, but also inspiring in the solutions it offers.
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I received a copy of Regenesis from the publisher via Netgalley.

In LinkedIn: Need to up your reading? There’s a wealth of new books out in May covering #business #science #health #mindandbody #history and #essays.

📚Regenesis: Feeding The World Without Devouring The Planet by George Monbiot show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.

Regenesis by George Monbiot

“Farming is is the world’s greatest cause of habitat destruction, the greatest cause of the global loss of wildlife, and the greatest cause of the global extinction crisis.”

In his new book, George Monbiot argues that our current system of food production is not fit for the earth, the farmer or the consumer.

In a heavy first few chapters he outlines the destruction that current farming methods are responsible for. Essentially it’s the corporatisation and homogenisation of the food production industry that is destroying the fine balance of our planet’s ecosystem. The farming paradox consists of farmers who are subsisting on subsidies, the rise of dependency on food banks and the destruction of the soil. We can’t afford to produce food or buy it or have the fertile land on which to grow it. But somewhere, of course, someone is lining their pockets by perpetuating this insane status quo.

Monbiot goes on to talk about alternative ideas for food production; options like CSA’s (community supported agriculture), perennial wheat and rice, no till methods, ending livestock farming and cutting meat consumption.

Finally Monbiot returns to his diatribe against sheep (see his previous book Feral) and the myth of our green and pleasant pastoral countryside which has actually become an infertile desert.

We need the tide to turn on our current land use… and soon.

Thanks to @netgalley and Allen Lane for my eARC.

Unfortunately I could not finish this book. I think it is a case of the book just not being for me rather than it being badly written. I thought I could read most environmental and nature based books but the detail within which the first chapter talks about his own orchard bore me to tears so I am not inclined to continue. Sad as I have enjoyed other books by this author!

The first chapter of this book goes into really quite a lot of detail about soil ecology and the various tiny unheralded creatures of the subterranean world we so often ignore. So much that as someone with embarrassingly little knowledge and interest in gardening, I did start to wonder if my enthusiasm for this book, based on having read a few very good books by the same author, was misplaced.
I was also feeling that I have read too many doom and gloom books recently and that I should perhaps lay off for a while, and the next few chapters laying out damage done by the global food system and some current farming practices do make for pretty scary reading.
I should not have worried though, there are some fascinating insights throughout the book. The author is also not scared of pointing out where some traditional green views are misplaced.
For example, the increase in land use required for 'pasture fed' meat. There are also intriguing glimpses of possible innovations that could help with rewilding and move us away from the ever increasing loss of natural habitats to farmland. The bacteria-based pancake springs to mind. Seems like a hard sell, but the book challenges a lot of conventional views in a well researched, interesting read and overall I really enjoyed it.

With 'Feral', George Monbiot had the same influence on rewilding in Britain that Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' had on the use of pesticides worldwide. Can Monbiot do it again with the global agriculture industry?

I hope so. 'Regenesis' is a book that I won't be able to forget, although I am already one of the converted. Even so, my mind was blown within the first few pages, and numerous times after that. I consider myself to be fairly keyed up on the various ways in which agriculture damages the environment, and how the agricultural industry today fails to deliver adequately nutritious food to many. However, I still learned a huge amount, and much that made me furious at how things have gone so wrong. I am not someone given to optimism, and I am keen to see what scientists and other relevant analysts make of the technologies and approaches that Monbiot champions for reforming our food production - but his arguments come across as rational, nuanced, and exciting.

'Regenesis' is much less memoir-ish than 'Feral', although there are enough autobiographical vignettes to give a personable edge to Monbiot's analysis. His visit to a foodbank is particularly poignant to read, and timely considering Jack Monroe's recent Twitter-sparked campaign on food accessibility. It is not quite all doom and gloom; the book opens with a truly beautiful chapter on the soil organisms that Monbiot finds in a spadeful of soil from his community orchard (that's where my brain had its first explosion of wonder).

My one criticism of the book was the omission of the potential to scale up insect farming. If Monbiot feels that insect protein is a dead-end avenue, okay, but I would have liked to know why this is. 'Regenesis' is otherwise an incredibly thorough book (100 of the 350 pages of my PDF version are the notes/references alone), and I am delighted that he has written it - I reckon it'll be the most important book published this year.

(With thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)