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| Photo Credit: Nrbelex |
Eighteen
months ago I read a book that changed my life. Yeah, yeah, I know...
sounds corny. But it's not what you think. This book changed my life not
because of what it said but because of what it didn't say.
On
a nothing-special summer afternoon in 2010, I sat in the Cambridge
Public Library preparing a speech on something I'd been studying for
decades. I plugged "world hunger" into the library's computer. Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know popped up.
Perfect,
I thought. I knew I would have differences with the book because I'd
just read a critique of the views of its author, Robert Paarlberg, by my
daughter Anna Lappé on the Foreign Policy website. But I'm always eager to know how those with whom I disagree make their case. Noticing that Food Politics was
published by Oxford University Press, I felt confident I could count on
it being a credibly argued and sourced counterpoint.
So I began reading.
"I couldn't believe my eyes" doesn't do justice to the shock I experienced.
The book's subtitle suggests coverage of essential food issues and its back cover indicates Food Politics is
not just another example of "conflicting claims and accusations from
advocates," but rather "maps this contested terrain." Yet, I was finding
only one piece of
the "map" with key issues at the center of the global food debate
omitted altogether. But what was jaw-dropping for me was that Food Politics lacked any citations for the book's many startling claims. READ MORE
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