Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape

Description

You may not be aware of this - not consciously, at least - but you do not control what you eat. Every mouthful you take is informed by the subtle tweaking and nudging of a vast, complex, global system: one so intimately woven into everyday life that you hardly even know it's there. The food system is no longer simply a means of sustenance. It is one of the most successful, most innovative and most destructive industries on earth. It sustains us, but it is also killing us. Diet-related disease is now the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world - far worse than smoking. The environmental damage done by the food system is also changing climate patterns and degrading the earth, risking our food security. Few people know the workings of the food system better than Henry Dimbleby, founder of the Leon restaurant chain, government adviser and author of the radical National Food Strategy. In Ravenous, he takes us behind the scenes to reveal the mechanisms that act together to shape the modern diet - and therefore the world. He explains not just why the food system is leading us into disaster, but what can be done about it.

Henry Dimbleby is the co-founder of LEON, and the Director of The Sustainable Restaurant Association. In 2013, he co-authored The School Food Plan, which set out actions to transform school meals and food education in schools, and his work with DEFRA culminated in the National Food Strategy policy proposal. His work has been praised by figures including Yotam Ottolenghi and Sir Partha Dasgupta. Jemima Lewis is a weekly columnist for the Telegraph, and the former editor of The Week.

Praise for Henry Dimbleby's National Food Strategy: 'From field to fork, extraordinary work is being done to try and build a better food system for everyone ... [including] Henry Dimbleby's ambitions for safe, healthy and affordable food' - HRH King Charles III 'This is a compelling and overdue plan of action. If the Government adopts it, we will, at last, be putting our food system on the right path to health and prosperity' - Prue Leith 'Dimbleby has worked through an incredibly complex landscape and resulted in a set of comprehensive, eminently workable recommendations that are practical and will have a direct impact on our lives' - Tom Kerridge 'There is a nutritional gap between rich and poor in this country, and it's a slowly unfolding tragedy. Dimbleby not only recognises this - he has a plan to do something about it' - Dame Louise Casey