How we live is shaped by how we eat. You can see this in the vastlydifferent approaches to growing, preparing and eating food around the world -from the hunter gatherer Hadza in Tanzania whose traditionally sustainablelifestyle is being squeezed by a crowded planet, and the subsistence ricefarmers of Bhutan who toil without machinery to feed themselves from theirsmallholdings, to Western societies whose food is mostly farmed or bred invast intensive enterprises. But while traditional approaches to providing foodare often more in harmony with the natural environment, they cannot providefor a human population increasing to an historic peak.

Most of us rely on acomplex global food web of production, distribution, consumption and disposal,which is now contending with unprecedented challenges. We face both hunger andobesity, bumper crops and catastrophic environmental damage, food that ischeap for many and unaffordable for others. Julian Baggini expertly exploresthe best and worst food practices in a huge array of different societies pastand present to identify the principles that can guide our future.

The need fora better understanding of how we feed ourselves has never been more urgent. Wide-ranging, eye-opening and definitive, How the World Eats advocates for apluralistic, humane, resourceful and equitable global food philosophy, withfood firmly at its centre, so we can build a food system fit for thetwenty-first century and beyond.