It took me a while to read this book not because it was boring but because there was so much good stuff in it, I needed to take time to savour it all! I’ll summarise in bullet points:

• Content and subject matter were all backed up by creditble sources. I believe I heard the author, George Monbiot in one podcast said that he did so much research for this book that he could have earned another Uni degree! But you know what? The book didn’t read like an academic text. His writing style was flowing and easy to understand. Monbiot is a master story teller.

• The thorough discussion on soil ecology was so fascinating. I would never look at soil the same way again!

• According to Monbiot, the reason we as a society haven’t let go of farming altogher is because we idolise and romantise farms as peaceful and farmers as landcarers and heros. Surely, they are not causing the greatest environmental damage to this planet – they are after all in children’s stories and how could we get angry at a man who stands on a hill gazing into the distance looking at the sunset?

• Monbiot says that we as the people could overthrow the corporate lobyists and special interest groups and take back control of the global food system.

• We should eat farm-free food. There is a protein that humans could eat made out of bacterial microbes. There is a company that is actually making protein from thin air. It’s amazing. This will eliminate the need for land to grow food and farm animals.

So there you go! If you want to learn about how the earth’s farming system is creating havoc to our ecology and environment and how we could combat this – please read this book. Highly recommended!