How to Feed the World: A Factful Guide

In this ambitious, myth-busting book, leading scientist and internationally bestselling author Vaclav Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world today: Why are some of the world’s biggest food producers also the countries with the most undernourished populations? Why is food waste a colossal 1,000kcal per person daily, and how can we solve that? Could we all go vegan and be healthy? Should we? How will we feed the ballooning population without killing the planet?

How Food Really Works shows how we misunderstand the essentials of where our food really comes from, how our dietary requirements shape us, and why this impacts our planet in drastic ways. Ultimately, this data-based, rigorously researched guide explains how we will survive and thrive long into the future.

Review

There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil -- BILL GATES

A compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it's going -- STEVEN PINKER on NUMBERS DON’T LIE

There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil . . . The nerd's nerd ― GUARDIAN

A fact-filled, punchy book . . . Smil's fascination with numbers is infectious ― THE TIMES on NUMBERS DON’T LIE

‘How to Feed the World had a lot to teach me – and I’m sure it will teach you a lot, too. It challenges readers to think differently about a problem we thought we understood’ -- Bill Gates

Another masterpiece from one of my favourite authors -- BILL GATES on the New York Times bestseller HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS

Very informative and eye-opening in many ways -- HA-JOON CHANG, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism on the New York Times bestseller HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS

The word "polymath" was invented to describe people like him -- BILL GATES

Smil’s art is that he immerses readers rather than overpowering them, while delivering clear takeaway messages: that we must learn to do more with less, that we ought to be wary of any radical solutions, and that we must accept that any gains will be gradual -- Caroline Eden ― Financial Times

Concise and erudite . . . How to Feed the World is weighted with statistics, but there is something light and irresistible about the way Smil structures his argument and propels his narrative . . . The breadth of Smil’s knowledge is as impressive as the depth -- Talha Burki ― Lancet

 

About the Author

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. No other living scientist has had more books (on a wide variety of topics) reviewed in Nature. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.