Title: Regenesis
Author: Geore Monbiot
Publisher: Allen Lane
Regenesis by George Monbiot
Allen lane – an imprint of Penguin books since 1967
ISBN 9780241447642
“ George Monbiot wants to kill farming” screamed the Murdoch media in the UK in May 2022. Having not bought a newspaper since 1991, I’ve been around long enough to recognise something that was going against the establishment so my curiosity was raised.
Of course, I have been aware of George for many years and, it’s fair to say, I find his stuff both fascinating, compelling and, most critically, well researched. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything he says. I can’t bring myself to find much merit in electrical generation through nuclear, in whatever form it takes even though George has come around to it but I would rather form an opinion from well-researched pieces than rely on the general social media / mainstream media hype out there and George has always done a good job of presenting his case.
So I spent the money and bought the book. I was not disappointed.
The subtitle to the book is “ Feeding the World without devouring the planet”. As a Druid, this book just reached out to me on many levels (no surprise there then).
The book basically breaks down roughly into three levels: A look at current food production, a look at emerging “alternative” food production based on traditional process’s and lastly, alternative foods now being created by completely new food production methods and ingredients.
The first section of the book deals with current farming practices, it’s consequences for the environment and the weakness’s of being intrinsically tied to the current economic model. George backs up his conclusions with an extraordinarily large section of notes (as in over 85 pages of notes!) and pretty depressing reading some of it is. Anyone who has ever looked into some farming practices will be aware of the problems of industrial food production, numbers are key. The Global Food System and it’s enforcement of the “standard farm” model has resulted in unprecedented increases in yields at the cost on unprecedented destruction of the environment.
It’s this chapter where the subject of soil ecology comes in. I have looked at this subject myself previously, the fact that, on a global average, we have just 6 inches (150 mm) of soil to grow everything we need to survive is a fact that goes un-noticed by the majority. But the subject itself is as fascinating as any documentary about any exotic far off wilderness. Problem is, we actually know very little about the specifics of soil which, when you think about our utter reliance on this thin layer, is quite extraordinary.
The next section involved George going out and engaging with people currently at the forefront of developing alternative farming practices that seek to work with nature as opposed to the industrial driven practices of chemically enhanced large scale yields. There are some very interesting approaches which are described well but what I particularly liked was that both George and the people he was talking with also revealed the shortcomings of their current work. No “good news” selective sight dressing up here, “grown up” discussions about the advantages and shortfalls, a refreshing change and a good reality check.
Lastly, he moved on to new technological driven methods of food production based upon both microbes and bacterial matter. Sounds initially a little off putting but as he says in the book, if someone was to offer you a new life in a land of “mammary secretions and insect vomit” you may not feel that would be a good move but a land of “ milk & honey” sounds much more “palatable”. Of course, the first description is actually a very accurate description of that second one, the power of words.
All in all, a very good, thought provoking read that left me both depressed at the reality of industrial food production and uplifted at the methods, approaches and results of people prepared to invest time and money into the alternatives away from the destructive Global Food model. The World badly needs books like this and I notice George getting some flak from vested interests out there. But then, when you are at the forefront of change, this is often the consequence of going against those vested interests. And just to be clear, George doesn’t present an “anti-farmer” approach but rather champions an “anti–environment damaging one” that can be adopted if chosen.
Highly recommended.
Neil Pitchford
June 2022