The Problem with Solutions

Why Silicon Valley Can't Hack the Future of Food

By: Julie Guthman

Narrated by: Lisa S. Ware

A concise and feisty takedown of the all-style, no-substance tech ventures that fail to solve our food crises.

Why has Silicon Valley become the model for addressing today's myriad social and ecological crises? With this book, Julie Guthman digs into the impoverished solutions for food and agriculture currently emerging from Silicon Valley, urging us to stop trying to fix our broken food system through finite capitalistic solutions and technological moonshots that do next to nothing to actualize a more just and sustainable system.

The Problem with Solutions combines an analysis of the rise of tech company solution culture with findings from actual research on the sector's ill-informed attempts to address the problems of food and agriculture. As this seductive approach continues to infiltrate universities and academia, Guthman challenges us to reject apolitical and self-gratifying techno-solutions and develop the capacity and willingness to respond to the root causes of these crises. Solutions, she argues, are a product of our current condition, not an answer to it.

©2024 Julie Guthman (P)2024 Ascent Audio

Great information

Great information and insight into the tech ecosystem. The point is not that problems are unsolvable, but that "solutions" are too narrow and apolitical to have true impact. importantly, this book does not just critique the industry and throw up its hands; alternative approaches (in all their complicated, nuanced glory) are also on offer.