Saying No to a Farm-Free Future: The Case for an Ecological Food System and Against Manufactured Foods

Smaje has written a thoroughly researched and reasoned counterpoint to the ‘ecomodernist’ ideological approach to food production, setting out why a food system based on energy-intensive industrial processes centralised in corporate controlled factories is not only undesirable but also demonstrably impractical versus the harnessing of natural ecosystems and photosynthesis to grow crops on sustainable farms.Smaje also argues that not only is the ecomodernist dream of an entirely city-based civilisation similarly undesirable from an environmental sustainability point of view given the levels of energy required & waste produced, but that a transition back to a more rural, decentralised society may be inevitable in order to sustain an ever-growing human population whilst reducing our use of fossil fuels.Smaje also makes the case for the centrality of livestock in a sustainably food system, fulfilling their ecological niche in recycling captured sunlight & nutrients while building soil health.A thought provoking read.

An important, considered contribution to the current environmental sharing vs sparing debate. What is best for the environment, farming in harmony with natural ecosystems, producing food on land that is shared habitat with wildlife, or industrially producing food in concentrated intensive agricultural systems and factories, so 'sparing' land for rewilding and the sole use of wildlife? We evolved in nature and have always produced food by harnessing nature, until now, when some argue we should employ technology to remove ourselves from nature. In Saying No to a Farm Free Future, Chris Smaje argues persuasively that this is not desirable or possible and that farming in harmony with nature is the only logical way it can be done and that doing so benefits the environment, people and wildlife.

Worth reading if you want some rather chuckle-inducing comedy, but some of this is frankly nauseatingly silly. Written in an angry rush; editor-free scribbling. Gave my copy to the local charity shop but they aren’t impressed.