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and investment, not to mention the dramatically large amount of energy it requires when compared to traditional ways of raising livestock. Even if that requirement was brought down, scaling up the nascent cultured meat industry to a global level comes with its own set of unknowable challenges. On the flip side, Smil plays out the unrealistic world we would live in under a mass-adoption of veganism, especially for its seemingly environmental friendliness. Carbohydrates are not much of a challenge, but high-quality proteins would be. Yes, grain legumes such as
beans would fill this role, but for that to happen, consumption (and the requisite, sometimes energy and water- intensive production) would need to go way, way up. In the end, it is the balanced, moderated diet that wins out, nutritionally, economically and environmentally. Ever the scientist, Smil is careful to point out that future scientific discoveries can change the viability of any sort of diet or industry. The book also puts the value of food itself in perspective, comparing it to the valuation of a smartphone. Such a comparison might seem absurd until Smil picks apart all of the things that have to happen along the farm to fork supply chain and questions why, as important as it is, getting a banana shipped around the world and into a supermarket is somehow less expensive than shipping an iPhone from a factory overseas to a retail shop. Yet a world where all those bananas went away would be vastly more dire than one where all the iPhones went away. As is the practice throughout the book, a simple thought experiment (imagine life with no smartphones compared to life with no food) frequently leads the reader to a “well, I never thought about it like that” conclusion. That’s not to say the points the book makes are overly simplistic or stuffy.
When dismantling the argument put forth by some anthropologists and historians that agriculture itself led humanity to centuries of warfare and tyranny, Smil deadpans, “perhaps wheat is also responsible for all atrocities and natural disasters.” Elsewhere when refuting the claim that wheat consumption impacts longevity, he asks, “are the debilitating health effects of the finest Italian flour counteracted by climate or language or different hand gestures?” So, how do you feed the world? As Smil repeatedly points out through the book, reducing food waste is a start. “Global food production now averages about 3,000 kcal per person; daily global food waste is about 1,000 kcal per person,” he writes. “And yet there is no urgency about changing that. If you were, constantly, losing a third of your income, you’d try to do something about it.” Recognizing that animal protein is not going away anytime soon (and that replacing it with fruits and nuts may not be any better for the environment), Smil is a proponent of shifting from energy, grain and water-intensive red meats, especially beef, to ones that use much less of all those things, such as chicken. Now there’s something to chew on the next time you read a restaurant menu.
“If you were, constantly, losing a third of your income, you’d try to do something about it.”
Vaclav Smil
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Photo: Vaclav Smil
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