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How to Feed the World

A Factful Guide

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

In this ambitious, myth-busting book, leading scientist and internationally bestselling author Vaclav Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world today:

Why are some of the world’s biggest food producers also the countries with the most undernourished populations?

Why is food waste a colossal 1,000kcal per person daily, and how can we solve that?

Could we all go vegan and be healthy? Should we?

How will we feed the ballooning population without killing the planet?

How To Feed The World shows how we misunderstand the essentials of where our food really comes from, how our dietary requirements shape us, and why this impacts our planet in drastic ways. Ultimately, this data-based, rigorously researched guide explains how we will survive and thrive long into the future.

‘There is no author whose books I look forward to more’ BILL GATES

‘There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil’ GUARDIAN

© Vaclav Smil 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

 Politics & Government Science Solar System

Critic reviews

There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil (BILL GATES)
A compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it's going (STEVEN PINKER on NUMBERS DON’T LIE)
There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil . . . The nerd's nerd
A fact-filled, punchy book . . . Smil's fascination with numbers is infectious
‘How to Feed the World had a lot to teach me – and I’m sure it will teach you a lot, too. It challenges readers to think differently about a problem we thought we understood’ (Bill Gates)
Another masterpiece from one of my favourite authors (BILL GATES on the New York Times bestseller HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS)
Very informative and eye-opening in many ways (HA-JOON CHANG, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism on the New York Times bestseller HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS)
The word "polymath" was invented to describe people like him (BILL GATES)
Smil’s art is that he immerses readers rather than overpowering them, while delivering clear takeaway messages: that we must learn to do more with less, that we ought to be wary of any radical solutions, and that we must accept that any gains will be gradual (Caroline Eden)
Concise and erudite . . . How to Feed the World is weighted with statistics, but there is something light and irresistible about the way Smil structures his argument and propels his narrative . . . The breadth of Smil’s knowledge is as impressive as the depth (Talha Burki)
All stars
Most relevant
This book reads like someone decided to spend a few months self-learning about food systems without talking to anyone who really understands it.

Smil spends hours on irrelevant or self-evident questions like "why can we make photosynthesis work harder?" and "couldn't we all eat like gorillas?" that no serious food systems scholar needs to consider. Meanwhile he spends almost no thought on one of the biggest food issues of our time "should we be eating animals?" which he answers in one sentence with the glibness of a 14 year old.

The un-selfawareness, the triteness, and the bizarre selection of topics worth studying makes this an irritating book to read.

I can see why some would say that Smil does good second and third level analysis of complex problems. But he does this in a very ignorant fashion, blowing past and ignoring complex and nuanced conversations that are happening in this field of study to plant his flag firmly on one obscure fact and say "ha ha, I bet you didn't think about this!".

You will learn nothing meaningful from this book about the world food system. You might pick up some interesting factoids about termites.

An amateurish take on a complex problem

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