ABOUT BOOK

This book was motivated by the need to approach with a fresh look what we regard as perhaps ~the most embarrassing ~predicament of the Anthropocene/Capitalocene (Capra and Mattei, ~2015, Altvater et al., 2016, Moore, 2017). We live in an era with roughly the same number (about ~one billion) of over-fed people and of people lacking access to nutritious food (which means ~that do not know in the morning if they will be able to feed themselves and their children during ~the day). Our era also stands out by the remarkable amount of food that is wasted in some ~parts of the world and by the unprecedented number of livestock that populates this planet ~(Patel and Moore, 2017). Moreover, in the current phase of neoliberal capitalism that dominates ~in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene, the ecological footprint is out of control; some rich people ~(the majority in the Global North and the elite in the Global South) can enjoy every day food ~shipped from thousands of miles away on gas gulping aircrafts and boats that pollute the environment ~beyond imagination. Such luxury, the result of the worldwide colonization of diets, ~would be impossible without a very significant environmental subsidy; if all the externalities ~had to be internalized, eating Nile Perch would be unaffordable to most people everywhere. ~The subsidy is ultimately paid by the poor in the South and, in general, will certainly be paid ~by future generations. Unless we deal with and avoid the hidden social and environmental costs ~that are so far unaccounted for in the hegemonic food system (TEEB, 2018)