Perilous Bounty

The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It

De: Tom Philpott

Narrado por: Eric Meyers

Bloomsbury presents Perilous Bounty by Tom Philpott, read by Eric Meyers.

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

An unsettling journey into the disaster-bound American food system, and an exploration of possible solutions, from leading food politics commentator and former farmer Tom Philpott.

More than a decade after Michael Pollan's game-changing The Omnivore's Dilemma transformed the conversation about what we eat, a combination of global diet trends and corporate interests have put American agriculture into a state of "quiet emergency," from dangerous drought in California—which grows more than 50 percent of the fruits and vegetables we eat—to catastrophic topsoil loss in the "breadbasket" heartland of the United States. Whether or not we take heed, these urgent crises of industrial agriculture will define our future.

In Perilous Bounty, veteran journalist and former farmer Tom Philpott explores and exposes the small handful of seed and pesticide corporations, investment funds, and magnates who benefit from the trends that imperil us, with on-the-ground dispatches featuring the scientists documenting the damage and the farmers and activists who are valiantly and inventively pushing back.

Resource scarcity looms on the horizon, but rather than pointing us toward an inevitable doomsday, Philpott shows how the entire wayward ship of American agriculture could be routed away from its path to disaster. He profiles the farmers and communities in the nation's two key growing regions developing resilient, soil-building, water-smart farming practices, and readying for the climate shocks that are already upon us; and he explains how we can help move these methods from the margins to the mainstream.©2023 Tom Philpott (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Reseñas de la Crítica

Shutting your eyes may be presidential policy, but Philpott won’t let us get away with it. He wants to focus our attention squarely on the environmental consequences of the global and, especially, the American way of raising food. Nothing, his new Perilous Bounty reminds us, is going in the right direction. . . We can’t lose sight of the land, water and air that need the loudest and longest advocacy. Perilous Bounty will line up many new recruits.

The most important book on the food system in years.

[Philpott] makes a solid case that our intensive, industrial farm practices are draining California aquifers and causing severe fertile soil erosion in the Plains states. . . The book acknowledges a body of news reporting on this issue but deftly pulls together the whole crisis. Philpott is a veteran reporter for Mother Jones magazine and he has himself been a farmer, so he knows the language of agriculture.

We should all listen to Tom Philpott. Farming in the United States is in grave danger, and this vitally important, lucidly written book opens our eyes to the disastrous environmental and health crises that have resulted from our current industrial agricultural practices.

In Perilous Bounty, Tom Philpott probes what’s wrong with Big Agriculture—examining how it depletes California’s water, poisons water in the Midwest, and ruins soil resources—and proposes ways to reconfigure the food system to better promote health and sustain the environment. This must-read book is deeply researched, compellingly written, and thoroughly inspiring.

Tom Philpott knows how to farm and how to write. His warning in Perilous Bounty offers a simple choice. We can change our centralized, industrialized, corporate-controlled system of food production—or watch it collapse.

Since Tom Philpott is among the first rank of food and farming writers it comes as no surprise, but Perilous Bounty is a tour de force — it showcases the danger we’re in as the environmental vise tightens, and how we might still find our way out of this hole.

Tom Philpott has been one of the leading lights in food-and-farming journalism over the last decade. In Perilous Bounty, he continues to show why his voice is a much-needed one, warning us about the impending collapse of industrial agriculture – and revealing what we can do about it.

There is no food writer I respect more than Tom Philpott. Perilous Bounty is masterful, important, and sobering — a must-read for anyone who eats and hopes to continue doing so in our changing world.

A Must Read for Everyone Who Eats

A phenomenal work!
Really does a terrific job of clearly explaining the unintended consequences of U.S. food policies.
Describes the forces at work in opposition to more sane, healthy, and sustainable agriculture.
Outlines possibilities to transition out of the agribusines-dictated status quo that impoverishes farmers, land and water resources, and people.
We have a shared responsibility to understand our part in this food chain.

please read this book

outstanding critique of American farming. clear warnings about the impact of climate change on agriculture and looming water shortages. highly recommended. we must act now

Without Water and Soil, We die!

Tom Philpot gives us the opportunity to understand that if we don't change our food system, we are finished.

Changes in Farming Practices to Save Our Food Sources and Environment

This well researched and well written book gives us all the information and incentive necessary to insist on change thru both our vote and our forks! Giant agri businesses will continue to place profit as a higher priority than the health and well-being of consumers and the soil and water resources needed to feed a hungry world. We need to change the way farm subsidies are awarded to incentivize rewarding wise farming practices and protect midsize and smaller farmers from extinction- especially when they are farming in environmentally safe ways.

Communist nonsense

Full of facts. Fluffy solutions, summed up with communist nonsense. But the author makes one point clear, the only real solution is drastically fewer humans.