Kiss the Ground: How the Food You Eat Can Reverse Climate Change, Heal Your Body Ultimately Save Our World by Josh Tickell

Kiss the Ground: How the Food You Eat Can Reverse Climate Change, Heal Your Body Ultimately Save Our World Reviews

• 
  Bam cooks the books ;-)

  Another fascinating and somewhat scary book about what we are doing to the soil and water that nurtures all life on earth through our current farming techniques and practices.
  
  Did you know that "...conventionally farmed food requires three pounds of toxic chemicals per American per year"?
  
  In his new book coming out later this month (November, 2017), Josh Tickell talks about the history of farming, the growing use of chemicals to increase yield and how he believes that 'the way we practice agriculture today leads to the process of desertification that is destroying the production of the places where we grow food.'
  
  Tickell believes a more beneficial way to work the land is through 'regenerative' agriculture, 'a form of agriculture that employs the power of life to create life.' Regenerative agriculture builds soil fertility. The methods are simple: 'cover the soil with a living plant at all times, don't till, use sprays sparingly if at all, get ruminants and their manure onto the land, rotate crops, and always be a student of your soil's health.'
  
  For someone who is trying to eat a healthy diet, Tickell also has a section on 'The Healthy Plate' with good tips, such as 'Reverse your plate: eat more veggies, less meat, and less processed food.'
  
  Tickell warns us that our future depends on the condition of our soil; in fact, the very fate of our species depends on it. And the time to worry about it is RIGHT NOW!!
  
  Many thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this important new book. I think I will be reading it again many times in the months to come.
• 
  Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤

  What an absolutely fantastic book! Wow! If you think a book about soil would be boring, you obviously have not read Josh Tickell's Kiss the Ground. It is a book that both scares you and offers you hope, and it is chock-full of so many interesting facts that there's not a boring page in it.
  
  Josh Tickell takes us back to the beginning of agriculture, discussing how our modern practices evolved from those ancient ones, how we've kept the negative aspects and then added more of our own. He discusses the life of soil, how it is regenerated, the ecosystems which feed and create healthy soil, and what exactly healthy soil is (one handful of it contains more life forms than all the humans that ever lived on Earth!).
  
  Our current agricultural practices are rapidly desertifying the soil, which makes it impossible to grow food. As our population is exploding, we are left with less and less arable, healthy soil in which to grow our food. Our current practices are also greatly contributing to climate change. However, we need not continue on the same path. Mr. Tickell talks to various farmers who practice organic regenerative farming, explains what that means and how it can help save us and our planet, and make life better for the millions of animals we raise. Through the right farming methods, we can actually pull carbon out of the air and store it back in the earth where it belongs and can nourish our food. We need not poison ourselves and our Earth with massive amounts of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides (in the USA, we currently use 3 pounds per year per person!); instead we can farm in a way that we get maximum nutrition from our food without all the harmful chemicals currently poisoning our food. Also discussed is how we can help the environment (and ourselves!) through what we choose to eat.
  
  There is just so much in this book that it's impossible to talk about it all. For me, what makes an excellent non-fiction book is that I learn a lot from it. "Kiss the Ground" certainly fits this. It's not dry in the least either, as some vastly informative books are. I had a hard time putting this book down, it was just so interesting.
  
  If you garden or farm, if you're concerned about climate change and like learning about ways you can make a difference, if you just enjoy non-fiction books that are well-written and informative, be sure to add "Kiss the Ground" to your reading list.
  
• 
  Kristina

  I feel like we (i.e., Americans, humans, inhabitants of this globe) are at a crossroads. Global political alliances are shifting, wars drone on and on, ancient cities lay in ruins, the press is under attack, the seas are rising, and climate change threatens everything. Some days I just want to hide my head under my pillow and cry or stand in the middle of the street and scream. But then, I pick up a book like KISS THE GROUND and suddenly I am filled with hope. And hope is definitely what I need. (Full disclosure: this review is based on reading an ARC.)
  
  From the foreword by John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods, and the inspirational and touching Introduction by the author to the very last word in the last chapter, The Regenerative Revolution, KISS THE GROUND is a manifesto of hope and a motivational call to personal action.
  
  If there is one thing that binds all creatures together it is the need to eat. Changing our food systems--and our personal food choices--is the key to changing our relationship with our planet and with each other. And in KISS THE GROUND, Josh Tickell provides the information (complete with references) and motivation we need to transform ourselves from merely takers to caretakers. Of our soil. Of our bodies. Of each other.
  
  KISS THE GROUND is essential reading for anyone who eats.
• 
  Dorine

  KISS THE GROUND by Josh Tickell is an absorbing tale that could save us from ourselves. In our hurry to increase production of the food we eat, we’ve alleviated the nutrients and poisoned our environment. But there is hope, beginning with this book and regenerative agriculture.
  
  For clickable links to further viewing/reading -
  read this review on my blog.
  
  There are a lot of books out there that are full of hype and a fear factor regarding our environment. This isn’t that kind of book. It’s scary, but with good reason, as well as providing the answers to fix the mess we’ve made.
  
  Josh Tickell covers food history and our current situation intelligently. Civilizations have ended due to lack of food. If you think it’s not your problem, this book will prove that it’s a global situation that can no longer be ignored. There is a way out, and each of us can make a difference.
  
  In my opinion, this book should be required reading in high school and college. It’s science and history rolled together into an entertaining format, giving hope for our future on this planet. The Tatanka (American Buffalo) played such a relevant role for many tribes, but also for the biodiversity of our land. The reader travels with the author as he meets with the Rodales and many other significant influences in farming. Completely absorbing for a plant nerd like me!
  
  The section on soil and no-tilling is fascinating, but I had to re-read it several times as I kept getting lost. I think it will depend if farming is your life, or not – or whether your field of study has been horticulture, to judge for yourself if this information is too extensive. I find it fascinating, but I needed to take it in small doses.
  
  It took me months to read this book. And not because it wasn’t interesting. Quite the contrary, because I feel it’s the best book I’ve read on the revolution of farming. It’s jam-packed with stories, proof, and detail that took me on a journey I loved. I savored this book each time I picked it up, often re-reading sections to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
  
  At one point, KISS THE GROUND read like a thriller to me. I had all these light-bulb moments, realizing this is the book that will save the American farmer, if only we’ll listen. It made me so excited that I told everyone I know about this book. I know it has changed my thinking for my tiny rural garden, as well as the community garden we hope to build. It’s also amazing for those interested in a healthy eating lifestyle. With excellent ideas and an action plan, KISS THE GROUND needs to be read by everyone who believes in the healing power of food.
  
  BUY THE BOOK!
  
  For further enlightenment, listen to this podcast with Josh Tickell. It’s uplifting and will convince you to read this book, or see the documentary when it comes out. If you enjoy the first podcast, there’s more positive energy in this one with Ryland Engelhart. Wanting to know more about Josh Tickell, I found my new favorite listening spot at the Front Row Factor and bought the book as well.
  
  If you too want a positive outlook on what can be done about climate change, then start with KISS THE GROUND and get busy! I’m forever changed because of it.
  
  Highly Recommended!
  
  Review by Dorine, courtesy of
  The Zest Quest. Digital advanced copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review.
• 
  Donna

  This is nonfiction health & science. I've had this book for some time and have finally read it. I liked this, but there wasn't much in here that I haven't read elsewhere. However, I appreciated the messages. Grow your food. Eat whole foods especially vegetables. Don't use chemicals. Avoid processed food or at least, eat less of it. How important it is to restore eco-systems. All these things that are well and good. This is important in our world as it is and there is a need to be proactive, I'm just not sure this was completely successful in conveying that.....so 3 stars.
• 
  Dianna

  This is one of those books that make you depressed and hopeful at the same time. Josh Tickell outlines how our current agriculture system is ruining our land and climate. At the same time he presents solutions for solving our problems, converting to a gentler, more sustainable agriculture that would take carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil, thus ameliorating both our global warming problem and our agriculture problem simultaneously. It is great to know that there are answers!
  
  The depressing part comes in where I realize that people in the United States, at least, are highly unlikely to actually effect any kind of significant change. We don't seem to want to pre-emptively fix problems, we wait until it's too late and the disaster has already struck.
  
  This will also be a documentary at some point; I'm looking forward to seeing it!
  
  https://kisstheground.com/
• 
  KC

  Same shit, different day. Some scientific explanations,otherwise not impressed and I can't believe that the CEO of Whole Foods wrote the forward. What a joke. What about this Whole Foods...less waste, less packaging, and more bulk? Those kind of stores are popping up all over the world and making a huge impact on the environment and the consumer. Just saying.
• 
  Jess

  Everyone needs to read this book.
  
  
• 
  Ariel

  3.75 stars. This book was fine! Good, even! But you know... there is always that one book that comes along - especially when you've been reading about and are interested in a particular subject - that is the "marker" that you're ready to read about the topic at a deeper, more nuanced level. What would have been a good - even tremendously good - book at the beginning of your reading jag, now feels like you're retreading familiar ground. So, that was my experience with this book. It's interesting! There's good stuff here! But I feel like I'd already read most of it before? But that's not the book's fault, it's mine. Time for a new reading angle on agriculture, climate change, and how to shake-up our terrible system, I suppose. I did like the tips at the end for moving to a more regenerative form of eating/living (as in regenerative agriculture, not some sci-fi shit). And hey, it was the nudge I needed to eat a salad for lunch today, so everyone wins, right?
• 
  Renee Bialas

  This book was super informative and an interesting look into a lot of the topics surrounding regenerative vs. organic vs. conventional farming. I do have to critique the final chapters on weirdly trying to appeal to diet culture with the "eat regenerative, lose weight" vibes, which was unnecessary imo. I felt the author got a great variety of people to talk to and really focused on engaging and lifting up the farmers. I am excited to watch the Netflix documentary on this to see how they compare!
• 
  Annapurna

  For being only 350ish pages, I'm ridiculously impressed by how this book ties in so many complex systemic concepts that are involved in and control our (it mainly focuses on the US) industrial agricultural system. It very concisely and clearly explains basically all of Geog 130 (if you were lucky enough to take it back when it was good ha ha eek) plus specifics of soil chemistry and EJ of herbicide use and a more in-depth look at farmers lives and the pressures they are facing. Did I actually already know/had learned about most of this before? Yes. I did take a lot of food classes, as I was a food systems minor. So I think this book is more aimed at people who are either now learning about and getting interested in food or who don't know anything about ag, but I still felt my inner food nerd absolutely delight over it. What I loved is that at the end of the book it says, okay so what do you do if you aren't a farmer? And has an entire chapter of tangible action items that you can do as a consumer that are broad and ranging so there is certainly something accessible to anybody, like yes this is what the movement against climate change needs right now. Another thing that I guess should have been obvious is how clearly it addresses that carbon sequestration needs to happen in the soil (ie forests as a long term carbon sink are actually because of their soils, not their trees, it just frustrates me a lot ... tree planting schemes bug me too but we can talk more later), that is made clear right off the bat w the Paris permaculture plan.
  
  Critiques! I had some vague memory of criticisms about the movie but wanted to read just being as critical as I could and look it up more after. So enters the reality that you can love something and be critical of it/call for better (a la RBG). First of all, on almost the first page of the book, it addresses that it is only a summary/cannot encompass everything, so to its credit, Tickell acknowledges that everything mentioned has more depth right away. My biggest critiques were that it doesn't address race and vulnerability in the herbicides discussion and that there is no discussion of connections/implications of the organics trend being so expensive and being inaccessible or exclusive to many communities. For that matter, the book doesn't discuss food sovereignty or food justice, but to be totally fair I think Tickell would say his focus was more on the production of food? For example, the book isn't interested in food distribution issues (although it does talk about how flooding foreign markets with our overproduced grain as a form of "aid" is bad) but does talk about how soil impacts a food product's nutrition. But the critique that you can't talk about one without the other I would say is also fair. What bugged me the most though is that it really applauds Whole Foods (granted, this is pre Amazon owning it) but doesn't talk about how inaccessible and expensive Whole Foods is. However, one of the action items / talking points is getting EBT and food stamps at farmer's markets.
  
  This book isn't blind, it discusses EJ and climate refugees/climate disparity ie desertification. It talks a lot about "European contact" and how destructive it has been -- could it change that language to more directly address the white supremacy and violent genocide that phrase tries to encompass? Absolutely. Tickell is invited to the Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to specifically interview and talk about bison and grazing and how integral to traditional and indigenous food systems bison were and that they were hunted specifically as a tool of violence against indigenous communities. When talking about ranchers in the North Bay, he specifically addresses that the rancher who owns and runs the farm learned her methods from her adoptive grandfather, a Native American who taught her traditional ecological knowledge about animal management. The same credits and lessons of learning about polyculture and no-till and such are not really discussed. While he doesn't say white people invented regenerative ag I can see how that is the impression, he doesn't really say otherwise either. Given that there is actually nearly no discussion of race at all, you are left to assume that the book is pretty white and doesn't have farmers of color / bipoc voices interviewed.
  
  So there's that, now I just googled the critique, several op-eds pop up but I don't think the original thing I saw (it was on Instagram I believe?). Anyways, what shows is exclusively about the movie which I've never seen but I'll say this -- I am anti-Leonardo DiCaprio's movies (mostly, I guess I haven't seen them all to be fair) so I'm not surprised. Ask me about Chad Hanson he's the worst. In fairness, the book also has a lil disclaimer type right at the beginning that says the movie doesn't capture it all. But I'm not going to try to defend the movie in any way, I haven't seen it but based on those and having read the book I'm going to say it probably isn't worth my time. (Just thought of something, did the cognitive bias work the other way where I set out to find so many problems in it that I ended up being less harsh? Interesting and possible) Overall, there are critiques/failings/whiteness in this book, it is far from perfect, and while acknowledging that I think it does a great job of explaining / teaching / convincing and am honestly so impressed at how neatly it captured the science and economics and culture of shifting industrial farming and food production in just one book because they are things that took several semester-length classes to teach me at Berkeley.
• 
  Merry

  Who'da thunk? A book about dirt - and it's absolutely fascinating. And scary. And hopeful. I'd like to buy dozens of copies and send to members of Congress (don't believe everything those lobbyists tell you), the White House (that's totally useless; I'll save my money), and the entire Walton family (between Walmart and Sam's Club, the Waltons are pretty powerful people when it comes to making industries change their practices). After explaining how human farming practices have evolved over the centuries, the author explains that what U.S. macro farmers are doing is ruining our environment. They have gotten into a vicious cycle of depleting the soil thus requiring more fertilizers (as well as insecticides and pesticides), further degrading the soil and requiring more fertilizers, on and on and on. Of course the soil is part of a larger ecological system, so climate change is accelerated. It just never ends. But Mr. Tickell also talks to farmers who are practicing organic regenerative farming, providing hope that we can turn things around. There is so much in this book it's impossible to capture it all here. This book is definitely a wake-up call to all of us.
• 
  Pedro Assunção

  As an individual concerned about climate change, as a hiker, biker and runner that loves the wilderness, I always assumed that forest protection and reforestation were the smartest ways to store carbon in the planet.
  This book opened my horizons towards the role soil can play as a natural way of storing carbon.
  Though I think the book would be a much better read without touching the impact of food on our body and without exaggerating by claiming the soil can ultimately save our world.
  Soil can however, help
• 
  Diane

  Josh Tickell’s life-long pursuit of revealing the truth behind sources we take for granted has given depth and experience to his new book, Kiss the Ground. Tickell (tick-ELL) travels throughout the US and France to interview farmers, scientists, politicians and entrepreneurs to understand why our planet is turning into a desert and what each of us can do about it. The information can be harsh, but then, our planetary situation is frightening. In order to help we must first understand. He ends the book with interviews of people who are making a positive impact on regenerative farming practices, as well as pages of suggestions on how an individual living anywhere can help slow global warming and desertification. Part of his point is that you don’t have to be a farmer to help build soil.
  Obviously, Tickell’s solution is care for the soil. Reading descriptions of dark, carbon-rich healthy soil makes one yearn to touch and smell it, because it is so rare, and it shouldn’t be. Without giving anything away, soil protection, soil building and soil respect will heal our planet more than any other change we as the dominant species can make. We live in the anthropocene era where human behavior affects the entire planet. We need to grow up and take long-term responsibility for our actions. Tickell offers solutions of how this can be accomplished.
  Tickell writes about regenerative living. The term sustainability has become commonplace in our lexicon, but that term implies that we maintain an existing situation while putting the brakes on further degradation. Regeneration is the improvement of a situation, and it is as attainable as sustainability.
  In my opinion the most important take-away information from Kiss the Ground is how integral soil health is to creating oxygen on the planet, and how modern agriculture creates the same desertification that it is fighting. Being a permaculturalist I appreciate the scientific explanations offered in the book, such as exactly how disking kills soil, and about how chemicals affect phytoplankton which in turn affect our atmosphere. I especially appreciate the rare good news about how there are politicians with workable plans that, if followed, will have tremendous positive impact on our environment. At this writing there are tremendous fires burning valuable treescapes throughout Montana and California; parts of Mexico, Bangladesh and Texas are under water and the largest hurricane recorded is approaching Florida. Populated islands are disappearing through rising ocean levels. The effect on non-human species is catastrophic and heartbreaking. All of this can be fixed with global attention to soil. Kiss The Ground offers hope and help on how to achieve that goal.
  Diane Kennedy, Finch Frolic Garden Permaculture.
  
• 
  Wendy Millet

  A comprehensive and provocative read highlighting new solutions, new heros, new ideas and describing how we can make the world better by working with nature and solving for complexity. The examples highlighted in these chapters are inspiring - leaders of a new movement. And offering hope! Highly recommend this!
• 
  Lyzz

  Def giving me the understanding I need for a healthier world. Learned so much right in time for gardening season:)
• 
  Alyson

  Even better than I hoped for. Just wow.
• 
  Lacey

  So, so good. A must read for anyone concerned about our food system and the health of our future.
• 
  Sam

  This book is a solid starting point to making a difference in so many ways.
• 
  Doniga Markegard

  Josh Tickell brings so much passion through this deeply moving and honest book. He balances the real life stories with well researched facts in a way that opens awareness into the planets soils and life supported by the soils. This book serves as a bridge from the status quo of how we live to a regenerative possibility of humans as being part of nature and the solution to climate change.
• 
  Caroline Bergman

  This book does a fantastic job of outlining the most promising solution I have heard of to not only stop climate change but reverse it. It is a must read, especially for anyone interested/concerned about health, our food systems, or protecting the planet.
• 
  Susan Violet

  I would file this wonderful read on the shelf next to "The Hidden Half of Nature", "The Omnivore's Dilemna", and "The Ecology of Care" in being both highly informative and highly readable, well-researched treatises on just what the subtitle says: how changing our eating habits may have that power to profoundly affect the planet. While I hesitate to wave the flag of 'saving our world' and 'reversing climate change', the role of agriculture in climate change and (obviously) in our health is absolutely critical to appreciate, and I commend Josh for having done a wonderful job of compiling both a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the intricate weavings between our food, the ground beneath our feet, climate (both of the planet and that between our ears) and community. Highly recommend both as an introduction to the nuances of regenerative agriculture and the importance of our soils to the health of both the planet and ourselves; and to those of us actively working in the field, as a refreshingly positive, global view of the movement we are a part of.
  
  *This book was made available for free for review purposes.
  
  Thank you so much to both Josh and Kiss The Ground for your work.
• 
  Sue

  I opened Kiss the Ground thinking I would read a purely environmental book. I was pleasantly surprised that, with every turn of the page, I was learning so much about history, politics, cultures, and science while being thoroughly entertained by Josh Tickell's story telling style of writing. I highly recommend this book. I have already been telling my networks to order it. It's subject matter and detail are so timely for our geo-political climate and the current state of agro-politics. We don't have another generation to wait to address these issues & Josh lays out the challenges and possible solutions. It is written in a way that makes this book relatable to a very diverse readership.
• 
  Michael Reilly

  I don’t think words can do justice to how important this book is for our future. I want so desperately for it to be read by EVERY American. If there is one book you must read in the next year, read Kiss the Ground.
  
  Josh Tickell covers a lot of territory in this book. Many of these topics, from soil fertility to the woes of our Standard American Diet (SAD) have been written about with great expertise over the years. Trickell references or expands upon most of these experts… from Sir Albert Howard to Michael Pollan.
  
  I’m a self-taught regenerative food advocate, and I’ve read volumes about the topics Tickell discusses. So I had to think hard to myself: What’s different about this book? What makes it stand out? 
  
  My answer to this has to do first with Tickell’s writing style. He has a gifted way of presenting this very serious subject matter in a fluid narrative, weaving together the variety of subtopics that are all essential to the whole exposition. I breezed through it in just a few days, compared to most books about food, health, soil, agriculture, etc., that can get fairly dry and weighty.
  
  More importantly, the message in Kiss the Ground is momentous in its keen grasp of the most pressing issue of our time. As Tickell says in the introduction: “At its core this book is about food’s ability to alter the world.” Just above that passage, he clarifies that this in not a book about climate change… although it really is. He’s just shifting the focus and that focus so desperately needs to be shifted.
  
  Indeed, there is a risk that the growing crusade against global warming will continue to ignore the importance of food in the equation. I’m not saying the advancements in renewable energy, electric vehicles, and other technology that can wean us off fossil fuels are unimportant. They’re critical; but useless without a tectonic shift in the way we produce and consume food. The environmental movement in general is littered with people who fight against this or that concern - gas pipelines, coal, Trump - all the while continuing to sate themselves through the industrial food system… including plenty of vegans!
  
  As Tickell says toward the conclusion of the book: “Our choice for the future of food therefore is not vegan versus paleo versus omnivore versus vegetarian. Rather, we must choose between a food system that honors and respects the lives of flora, fauna, planet, and people versus a system that demoralizes, dehumanizes, and destroys our biological commons.” That choice is a Regenerative Diet!
  
  This is not some new fad diet for the foodies and social elite. In fact, just the opposite. It is the diet necessary to redress social imbalances throughout the world. The absolute primary human need is food. When people’s access to food is disrupted by poverty, desertification, lack of sovereignty, or erratic weather, or all of the above, desperation sets in. Add to this, our obsession with a consumerist lifestyle and accumulation of commodities - above all when few people are capable of maintaining it - and it can only lead to violence and mutual destruction.
  
  The clock is ticking, and it is indeed scary how few people realize this, particularly those in power. For those of us who are gravely concerned, there is propensity to become depleted… depleted by the reality of endless fields of corn and soy throughout this country, the dominance of processed and CAFO food in restaurants and grocery stores, and a society that continues to value gadgets and hedonism above health and social concerns. But despair will never conquer the army of hopefuls. Josh Tickell is hopeful. He has reason to be. We are gaining more and more knowledge every day about what we need to do to turn things around. Read his book. Be informed. Be hopeful. Play whatever part you can… big or small.
• 
  Klm

  As you'll guess from the title, this book has an agenda. If books having an agenda when they present you with information is something that bothers you, you may not like this book. I'd argue, however, that all popular science books have an agenda, they just may not be clear about it. I like it when a book is upfront about what it wants you to learn.
  
  This book delves into regenerative agriculture, and is a fantastic introduction to the concept if you haven't read much in this area before. It does not prescribe a specific diet (veganism, vegetarianism and meat-eating are all possible under a regenerative model) but it does prescribe dietary changes, specifically around reducing processed food and meat (reducing, not eliminating, and choosing carefully your source - don't panic) and choosing organic and locally, regeneratively grown whenever possible. This is not presented from a health angle but from an environmental angle, and while it's heavy-handed on its derision of herbicide and pesticide use (the phrase "toxic chemicals" is overused) it's a convincing and really interesting argument.
  
  There's a strong climate change angle in here, and I like that it's specific about what counts as regenerative agriculture - as a New Zealander, I'm tired of hearing how we don't have to worry about our farming because it's pasture-based. Nope, that's only step one, friends. New Zealand's dairy production is laughably far away from regenerative despite being pasture-based, and most of New Zealand's beef production is better than dairy but not nearly regenerative. Relatedly, though, the book is very America-centric, which does make sense given how completely bonkers the American food production system has become. However, there's enough globally relevant information for the book to be relevant to most people anyway (and in our increasingly globalised world the American system is affecting most of us at this point, in one way or another).
  
  Ultimately, this book convinced me that organic is better than non-organic BUT is not a solution in itself - you can still degrade soil and farm monocultures organically. It convinced me to go to my local farmer's market much more often. I've already cut out most processed food because I'm trying to use less plastic, but this book helped reinforce another good reason to keep going with that. It inspired me to keep going with my own garden, to play a little with regenerative principles on my own tiny scale. It added to my already frankly upsetting terror of climate change and the useless political systems we have, globally, that may kill us all one day if something doesn't change. It made me feel more sympathetic to farmers, who are really victims in a system that traps them in environmentally disastrous ways of farming. All good things, I think.
  
  Overall, so glad I read this. It might not be wholly convincing to everyone, but I think most people could find elements to like in this book.