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Environment

Vaclav Smil's take on how to feed future populations has one big flaw

How to Feed the World, Vaclav Smil's "big numbers" book about future food supply, fails to address the impact of climate change

By Michael Le Page

20 November 2024

2XXTC85 Fish Farm on Sea, Hatchery Fishing, Greece Aquaculture, Marine Fish Farm. Sea fish farm cages and fishing nets, farming fish, with marine landscape an

Are fish farms like this one in Greece truly becoming more efficient?

Elena_Alex_Ferns/Alamy

How to Feed the World
Vaclav Smil (Penguin Books)

We had better hope that Vaclav Smil is wrong about the world’s food system. If he is right, the implication is that we will end up bulldozing what little remains of nature to keep the food we like on our plates.

The message I took from his new book, How to Feed the World: A factful guide, is that the food system pretty much has to be the way it is, and that there will…

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