Canadians are failing to balance reasonable food consumption with sufficient and sustainable production.
The modern agricultural system is producing more and more food. Too much food. The cost is enormous: excess nutrients are contaminating the air and water; soil is being depleted; species loss is plunging us toward the sixth extinction; and farmers, racking up debt, are increasingly vulnerable to economic and climatic shifts.
At the same time, people are consuming too much food. Two-thirds of health-care costs in Canada can be attributed to chronic diseases associated with unhealthy eating. And then there is the waste - householders, food processors, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers collectively waste 40 percent of the food produced.
A radical rethink is required. We need to move from excess to enough.
"So much more than a treatise on food security... It's spiritual ecology in practice and at its finest."
Anita Stewart C.M. LLD; Food Laureate, University of Guelph & Founder of Food Day Canada
"Ralph weaves his personal experiences growing up on a farm in Wellington County, with his professional experiences as an agriculturalist, teacher, mentor and researcher."
Laurent Van Arkel, Van Arkel Farms, Dresden, ON
"This is a deeply personal but also profoundly analytical treatise on how to save ourselves and other species...Ralph Martin is Canada's Wendell Berry."
Rod MacRae, PhD; Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University