Sitopia: How Food Will Save the World

From our hunter-gatherer ancestors to the gargantuan appetites of modern metropolises, from our individual dietary choices to the monopolies of the agri-food industry, food has conditioned our bodies and our homes, our cities and our landscapes, our political life, our economy, our values, and our ways of thinking. But in the face of climate change, ecological destruction, and the explosion of obesity and famine, food threatens our future. The cause? The low value our industrial societies place on it, and the growing distance they maintain between producers and consumers.
Yet, Carolyn Steel is convinced that food is by far the most powerful tool we have to address the challenges and seize the opportunities of our urban and digital age. By restoring its true value, it becomes possible not only to reverse the harmful effects it causes, but also to use it as a lever for action and transformation toward a better society, a better place to live.
Drawing on insights from several disciplines—philosophy, history, architecture, literature, politics, and science—as well as stories from farmers, designers, and economists, Carolyn Steel proposes to redefine our relationship with food, with the new golden rule: “Feed thy neighbor as thyself.”