The Political Economy of Food for Your Non-Foodie Friend in Under 120 Pages

ric Holt-Giménez, former executive director of Food First, adds the themes of agriculture, food policy, and food justice to Polity Press’ Global Futures Series with Can We Feed The World Without Destroying It? Following previous publications in this series, this is a brief (118 pages) yet comprehensive introduction to the political economy of food written by one of the foremost authorities on food justice. Readers start at the food system’s twisted capitalist roots and finish with hope in the transformative power of foodbased social movements, food sovereignty, and agroecology. Holt-Giménez critically interrogates the question posed by the title, rhetorically answering simultaneously yes, no, and neither yes nor no. No, we cannot feed the world under the current system; but also yes, we can feed the world through systemic, fundamental changes to capitalism itself. This, he argues, “requires a critical understanding of capitalism” which, once attained, can be leveraged to “unleash the tremendous social power within the world’s food systems not just to change the way we produce and consume our food, but also to transform society itself” (p. 9). This essay starts the reader on a whirlwind history of the capitalist food system, introduces failed historical fixes and impending climate catastrophes, and ends with a firm call to action. Chapter One, “The Politics, Power, and Potential of Food,” introduces the food system not as a bucolic scene in which farmers grow sustenance for the population, but as a market sector operating within capitalism, in which farmers produce a commodity to be sold on the market. Understood E