Author(s): Carolyn Steel
Cities cover just 2 per cent of the world's surface, but consume 75 per cent of the world's resources. Global food production increased by 145 per cent in the last 4 decades of the 20th century - yet an estimated 800 million people are still hungry. In 2005 British supermarkets sent half a million tonnes of edible food to landfill - the whole food sector put together sent 17 million tonnes. One quarter of the British population is obese - one in three meals we eat is a ready meal why? The relationship between food and cities is fundamental to our every day lives. Food shapes cities, and through them, it moulds us - along with the countryside that feeds us. The gargantuan effort necessary to feed cities arguably has a greater social and physical impact on us and our planet than anything else we do. Yet few of us are conscious of the process and we rarely stop to wonder how food reaches our plates. "Hungry City" examines the way in which modern food production has damaged the balance of human existence, and reveals that we have yet to resolve a centuries-old dilemma - one which holds the key to a host of current problems, from obesity, the inexorable rise of the supermarkets, to the destruction of the natural world. Carolyn Steel follows food on its journey - from the land (and sea) to market and supermarket, kitchen to table, waste-dump and back again - exploring the historical roots and the contemporary issues at each stage of food's cycle. She shows how our lives and our environment are being manipulated but explains how we can change things for the better. Original, inspiring and written with infectious enthusiasm and belief, "Hungry City" illuminates an issue that is fundamental to us all.
A passionate, important and visionary book about how our cities are fed, and how this affects our lives and our planet
"'Absolutely crammed with eye-opening facts and figures, a hugely readable account of the part we individually play in a global problem. Highly Recommended'" Publishing News "Hungry City is a sinister real-life sequel to Animal Farm with the plot turned upside down by time in ways even George Orwell could not have foreseen" Observer "Exuberant, provocative ... her desire that we understand better and think more about our food, how much we waste, how much energy it consumes and how we dispose of it - is in the real sense of the word - vital" -- David Aaronovitch The Times "Hungry City is a smorgasbord of a book: dip into it and you will emerge with something fascinating" Independent "She can precis her specialist sources briskly, and her own direct research (e.g. a mega kitchen for cooking ready meals) is lively" -- Vera Rule Guardian
Carolyn Steel is an architect, lecturer and writer. Since training at Cambridge, she has combined architectural practice with teaching and research into the everyday lives of cities, running design studios at the LSE, Metropolitan University and at Cambridge, where her lecture course 'Food and the City' is an established part of the degree programme. As well as being a director of Cullum and Nightingale Architects, she was a Rome scholar, has written for the architectural press, and has presented on the BBC's One Foot in the Past.