This took me a good couple of months to work my way through slowly, that’s what happens when you read a book about something you don’t know much about. Before Brexit reared it’s ugly head I wouldn’t have thought about reading a book on this subject, but I’ve read enough about the precarious nature of the UK’s food supply chains over the last few years that I was interested in getting a better grounding on the issues involved.

I’m probably not the only person feeling like this. The author points out that we have an “imperial arrogance” where we assume the world will fill our supermarket shelves, and a “leave it all to Tesco et al” faith in the market and neither of these are sustainable. I found lots of interesting snippets of history in the book, for example, ignored 1936 warnings that Britain needed to be more sustainable before war food rationing, and the way towns were built where they were because they were surrounded by fertile farmland that has now been swallowed by housing. There is loads of interesting background here.

In the conclusions here the author writes that change can’t be left to individuals - pointing out that no matter how good our own diets are (however you define good) it’s no good if everyone else is cancelling you out: “The Great Food Transformation requires change to happen collectively, across the population, allowing for diversity. This process will require enormous effort and goodwill. That Brexit walked the country into this realization is perhaps a good thing.”. (I don’t think he’s right convinced Brexit is a good thing, just that it’s made large looming problems more visible than they were.)

All in all it was a good read, and one I’ll be returning to in order to pick out more details. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for anyone else to read but I’m glad I did. I’ve already forgotten a lot of what I’ve read but I’ll feel better informed in future as a result of having read this.