The doctrine of local food is dead. Farmer's Markets are merely a lifestyle choice for the affluent middle classes. And 'organic' has become little more than a marketing label that is way passed its sell by date. That may all be a little hard to swallow for the modern, ethically-aware food shopper but that doesn't make it any less true. And one of the country's most vocal critics of how and what we eat in the 21st century is ready to explain exactly why. Along the way he will debunk a supermarket trolley full of myths and shoot a lot of the food world's most cherished sacred cows.
This engaging, witty and honest narrative is driven by the appetite of one, large, man: Jay Rayner. It is written from the point of view of someone who lives to eat, but who fully understands there is a world beyond the high-end obsessions of the farmers market. Combining sharply-observed memoir--of growing up with the UK's most famous agony aunt who also happened to be a bloody good TV chef, of witnessing the arrival of McDonald's and Dayville's ice cream in Seventies London, of working as a butcher's boy--with serious hard-nosed reportage, Jay Rayner will take apart the conventional wisdom in foodie circles. For here is the reality. Within a few decades we will have nine billion mouths to feed, and we aren't going to do that by flogging free range chickens from a stall in Borough market.
Jay explains in forensic detail why the cult of local food is over, why the doctrine of organics has been completely superseded by the demands of sustainable intensification and why the future lies in large scale food production rather than the cottage industries that too many 'foodinastas' cheer lead for. From the terraced hillsides of Rwanda, to the corn fields of Illinois, to the killing lines of a Yorkshire abattoir Rayner take the reader on a journey that will change the way they shop, cook and eat forever. And give them a few belly laughs along the way.
