FOODOPOLY

A forceful argument about our dysfunctional food system.

Hauter, the executive director of Food & Water Watch, has gathered statistics and stories to back her argument that the United States is in a food crisis, caused by government deregulation and by consolidation and control of the food supply by a small number of powerful corporations. Inadequate regulation of the food industry, she writes, has led to the poisoning of people and the dangerous overuse of antibiotics in animals. After a bit of history on farm policy, Hauter examines the consolidation of the food chain from crop seeds to retail stores, dotting the text with bold graphics that depict the extent of the power of leading corporations. To inform readers of the direness of the situation and to arouse their indignation, she reveals the cruelty to animals and the pollution of the environment that is part and parcel of the factory farming of cattle, hogs and chickens; she challenges the biotechnology advances that have led to the genetic modification of food crops; and she exposes large-company practices that are changing the organic food industry. She calls for the mobilization of a grass-roots movement to bring about the changes that she argues are essential to making the country’s food system economically and ecologically sound. Hauter urges the movement that has been promoting local, sustainable food production to expand, to join with other progressives, and to become political activists and fight for the reinstatement and enforcement of antitrust laws that will enable midsize farms to once again flourish.

While the text can be wordy and repetitive, the author’s message is clear, and the graphics pack a punch that hammers it home.