Summary

In the opening pages of "Food," Schlossberg sets out to explore the ways in which the food system works and does not work, not only the waste and emissions it produces, but its history and trends.

In "The Greediest Crop," Schlossberg claims corn is the most pervasive problem with the agricultural system. While much corn is used for human consumption, other large percentages are devoted to animal feed and ethanol. Corn takes up 10 percent of all US agricultural land. Because of the amount of land devoted to corn cultivation, natural grasslands have been destroyed in the Corn Belt. The same is true in Brazil and Malaysia: forests destroyed to create room for more cropland. These monocultural trends, or growing single crops across large areas, leads to lack of biodiversity and makes the region vulnerable to extreme weather patterns. Monoculture...