Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food

By Frederick Kaufman

A prominent food journalist follows the trail from Big Pizza to square tomatoes to exploding food prices to Wall Street, trying figure out why we can't all have healthy, delicious, affordable food

In 2008, farmers grew enough to feed twice the world's population, yet more people starved than ever before?and most of them were farmers. In Bet the Farm, food writer Kaufman sets out to discover the connection between the global food system and why the food on our tables is getting less healthy and less delicious even as the the world's biggest food companies and food scientists say things are better than ever. To unravel this riddle, he moves down the supply chain like a detective solving a mystery, revealing a force at work that is larger than Monsanto, McDonalds or any of the other commonly cited culprits?and far more shocking.

Kaufman's recent cover story for Harper's, "The Food Bubble," provoked controversy throughout the food world, and led to appearances on the NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Fox Business News, Democracy Now, and Bloomberg TV, along with features on National Public Radio and the BBC World Service.

• Visits the front lines of the food supply system and food politics as Kaufman visits farms, food science research labs, agribusiness giants, the United Nations, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and more
• Explains how food has been financialized and the powerful consequences of this change, including: the Arab Spring, started over rising food prices; farmers being put out of business; food scientists rushing to make easy-to-transport, homogenized ingredients instead of delicious foods
• Explains how the push for sustainability in food production is more likely to make everything worse, rather than better?and how the rise of fast food is bad for us, but catastrophic for those who will never even see a McNugget or frozen pizza

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Sep 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781118234594

Frederick Kaufman

Frederick Kaufman, an English professor by training and profession, has for the past decade focused his attention on the fiction that is money. His unorthodox insights into the ways of Wall Street have resulted in numerous magazine articles for publications ranging from Scientific American to Wired to Foreign Policy to Harper’s, as well as television appearances on NBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business Network, and Democracy Now!, and invitations to lecture in both the United States and Europe, including an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations. This is his fourth book.

Reviews for Bet the Farm

[violetbramble · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is a distinct possibility that one day, in the not too distant future, all of the genetic material in the world will be someone's property, owned and managed by corporations, governments, and very rich people.I bought this book because I thought it was about GMO foods. While there is a short section on GMOs this book is about so much more. Mainly it's about how food became a commodity, traded on the futures market. How people can buy and sell food futures -- food that doesn't exist yet-- and in doing so, make themselves a lot of money, consequently pushing the price of the food that is actually available out of the reach of many. Also discussed is how food science, often described as an essential part of ending world hunger, is also contributing to the increasing cost of food. And the increasing prevalence of poverty and hunger throughout the world.Fascinating. Highly recommended. Food for all is a necessity. Food should not be a merchandise, to be bought and sold as jewels are bought and sold by those who have the money to buy. Food is a human necessity, like water and air, it should be available.- Pearl S Buck

[daumari · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was aware that food prices had gone up in the last five years but had chalked it up to rising fuel costs (that's probably still a factor, but not the most important one). I wasn't aware that 2008 and 2010 were actually wheat surpluses though, while the numbers of hungry rose. Kaufman started off chasing a simple question- Why can't there be healthy, delicious, and inexpensive food for all- and ends up in a rabbit hole of Big Food aggregates making things cheap while squeezing out the small guys, scientists looking for the genetic fix while would-be allies decry their hunt, and eventually to the source of the price paradox: the food commodities market. Food stopped being food and became a widget for cash- except the demand will never cease, and not fulfilling it has dire consequences. Definitely an interesting read.