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Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and What to Do About Them Paperback – May 1, 2021

by Tim Lang (Author)

4.5 105 ratings

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The British were once famous worldwide for being uninterested in food and our food being brown. This is no longer the case. UK food has changed remarkably in the last half century. Our food has Europeanised (pizza is children's favourite food) and internationalised (we eat the world's cuisines), yet the food culture is fragmented, a mix of mass 'ultra-processed' foods (high in salt, sugar and fat) alongside food as varied and good as anywhere on the planet. This is partly the effect of Europeanisation but mainly because the UK has got wealthier, allowing aspirations and tastes to flower. This book takes stock of the UK food system: where it comes from, what we eat, its impact, its fragilities and strengths. It's a book on the politics of food. It argues that the UK's Brexit vote is an enforced opportunity to review our food system. This is sorely needed. A deep reflection by the UK state began after the shock of the Oil/Food Commodity price spike 2007-08 and the Great Recession. This policy was, alas, curtailed by the Coalition and Tory governments which both argued the food system should just keep going as it had been. The future, they said, lay in a burst of agri-technology and more exports to pay for the massive food imports. Feeding Britain argues that this and other approaches are short-sighted, against the public interest, and possibly even strategically folly. Setting a new course for UK food is no easy task, however, but it's a process, this book will urges, that needs to begin.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Present discontents lend urgency to Lang's core message ... Security matters, and that includes food security. Lang has performed a public service.--Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times

Forceful, illuminating, an ambitious manifesto ... The advent of coronavirus has added timeliness to Lang's warning about the fragility of our food supply.--Martin Bentham, Evening Standard

When Lang says that "although not officially at war, the UK is, de facto, facing a wartime scale of food challenge", it's worth paying attention. We are in serious trouble ... It's a simple message, but in the white heat of a crisis, defined by queues outside supermarkets, a useful one.--Jay Rayner, The Observer

Lang practically invented food ethics in this country ... Feeding Britain tells us how we could build a better food system, and shows that it is possible.--Sophie Morris, The Independent

Feeding Britain is distinguished by the clarity and care with which it lays out urgent issues, most centrally that Britain does not produce enough food to feed itself.--Erica Wagner, Financial Times

It is dense with statistics for journalists and academics to harvest and will, I suspect, become the go-to book for anyone interested in what is now going to be a hot political issue.--Jamie Blackett, Daily Telegraph

For years, food policy expert Tim Lang has been an almost lone voice in the wilderness, arguing that UK food security needs to be improved. In his new, very timely book, Lang notes that most consumers think that "as long as there is food on the supermarket shelves, all is well in the world. It is not".--Bee Wilson, The Guardian

About the Author

Tim Lang is Professor of Food Policy at the Centre for Food Policy, City University of London, which he founded in 1994 and directed until 2016. For the last 25 years he has researched, written and lectured on the role of policy in shaping and responding to the food system, particularly in relation to health, environment, social justice, the political economy and consumer culture. He previously spent seven years as a hill farmer, an experience which has shaped his work ever since.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pelican; Reprint edition (May 1, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241404800
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241404805
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.38 x 1.1 x 7.13 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #6,176,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #592 in Agriculture & Food Policy (Books)
- #1,793 in Restaurant & Food Industry (Books)
- #1,982 in Agriculture Industry (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 105 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

105 global ratings

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Top reviews from other countries

lesleyr

Fabulous.... doesn't pull any punches

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is a brilliant support to my dissertation on UK consumption patterns & why it is so hard to "nudge" consumers to eat less mass-produced highly processed meat products.
It's well written by a very experienced & knowledgeable author.... I like him more every chapter I read!!

I suspect that eventually UK will necessarily need to tax these products to dissuade consumers from mindless consumption, a move which will be deeply unpopular but like introduction of seatbelts, crash helmets, stopping drink driving & taxes on smoking products, as the population won't voluntarily give up these personal "freedoms" even if it accelerates climate change, there seems no alternative?.....although thus far our politicians seem oblivious to the urgent "elephant in the room" issue.

Well worth a read & I wish more people would read this to fully understand the issue......because, in the age of information, ignorance is a choice.....

5 people found this helpful

Mme Joanne Mudhar

Vital analysis

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 9, 2020

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Tim Lang is a personal hero of mine, and this book is incredibly timely, devastatingly thorough and well researched (obviously - he is the expert). I always listen out for him on radio programmes about food issues - he always cuts through sound-bites and nonsense and talks sense. We (the UK) have been avoiding addressing the mess that is our food system for far too long through apathy, ignorance, ideology and I suspect just plain laziness on the part of people in power. There is no excuse for this failure with experts like Tim Lang desperately trying to get his well thought-out message through. People are eating badly and going hungry now because we haven't sat up and taken notice of his expertise, there is no excuse for this continuing.

6 people found this helpful

Dr Carl

The book to read during the COVID-19 crisis

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2020

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Many of us are now spending weeks in lockdown, occupying our minds with rehashed opinions about the coronavirus crisis and spurious statistics. Instead, we should be reading books like this which lay bare the absurdities and injustices of of globalization. Lang's book focuses on the sphere of food production and distribution. He has long argued that food is a major dimension of politics and has been one since the beginning of time. Much of the time, however, it is invisible and the inequalities and injustices that surround it go unnoticed, undebated and uncontested. Lang rightly rails against the running down of the UK's indigenous farming and food production and over-reliance on imported, processed and hyped up food. This is bad for our health, bad for social solidarity across age, class and other divides and bad for the planet. It is also bad for many of the countries that export their vital food supplies to the 'Western consumer' at the expense of their own citizens.

The current crisis has demonstrated some of the vulnerabilities of the international food chains. It has also demonstrated that TESCO et al (one of Lang's favourite targets) have, for the time being, met the challenge of maintaining these food chains open, even in conditions of crisis. It would be a serioius mistake to take this for granted in the future and continue with the wanton destruction of indigenous and local food sources and simple unprocessed food. Lang has been warning for years about the absurdities and dysfunctions of our food system and most of his predictions have turned out to be right. This book demands to be read, the voice of its author demands to be heard, and, more importantly, the arguments and policies advocated here demand to be acted upon.

10 people found this helpful

Mr. Stephen Cole

Rivetting overview relevant to us all.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

Have followed Tim Lang for many years and this is a magnificent overview of the problem of food and nutrition in this country. Dense with stats, but (for a nurse, not a nutritionist) remarkably readable and clear. Particularly liked the focus on poverty and health, and indeed the weaving together skillfully of all the interrelated themes. A wonderful achievement, for which I personally am very grateful.

4 people found this helpful