Yesterday the Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, Jonathon Porritt, gave this review of Famine in the West:
“As you might imagine, “Famine in the West” doesn’t beat around the bush. The combination of diminishing supplies of cheap fossil fuels plus the rapidly worsening impacts of climate change points to a future of food scarcity and possible famine in many parts of the world. Our un-preparedness in the face of such a threat is startling, and the institutionalised denial on the part of our media, political parties and business leaders defies belief. You would have thought that what is happening in Australia might have sent out a few warning signals. The fact that John Gossop is himself a farmer makes it all the more compelling, providing us with a robust and authoritative antidote to the dangerously irrelevant “business as usual” bullshit that dominates so much of today’s debate about the future of farming.”