Kindle Price: $10.58

Save $0.41 (4%)

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

See all
F. Bailey Norwood
Follow
Michelle S. Calvo-Lorenzo
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Agricultural and Food Controversies: What Everyone Needs to Know® 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by F. Bailey Norwood (Author), Pascal A. Oltenacu (Author), Michelle S. Calvo-Lorenzo (Author), Format: Kindle Edition
See all formats and editions
The world is more interested in issues surrounding agricultural and food issues than ever before. Are pesticides safe? Should we choose locally grown food? Why do some people embrace new agricultural technologies while others steadfastly defend traditional farming methods? In the debates about organic food, genetically modified organisms, and farm animal welfare, it's not always clear what the scientific studies are actually telling us.

To understand these controversies and more, the authors of Agricultural and Food Controversies: What Everyone Needs to Know begin by encouraging readers to develop an understanding of how two well-educated people can form radically different opinions about food. Sometimes the disputes are scientific in nature, and sometimes they arise from conflicting ethical views. This book confronts the most controversial issues in agriculture by first explaining the principles of each side of the debate, guiding readers through the scientific literature so that they can form their own educated opinions.

Questions asked:
- Are organic foods truly better for your health?
- Are chemical fertilizers sustainable, or are we producing cheap food at the expense of future generations?
- What foods should we eat to have a smaller carbon footprint?
- Does buying local food stimulate the local economy?
- Why are so many farm animals raised indoors?
- Should antibiotics be given to livestock?
- Is genetically-modified food the key to global food security, and does it give corporations too much market power?
- Is the prevalence of corn throughout the food system the result of farm subsidies?

Providing a combination of research and popular opinions on both sides of the issue, Agricultural and Food Controversies: What Everyone Needs to Know allows readers to decide for themselves what they personally value and believe to be important when it comes to their food.
Previous slide of product details
  1. ISBN-13
    978-0199368426
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    November 5, 2014
  6. Part of series
    What Everyone Needs To Know?
  7. Language
    English
  8. File size
    2542 KB
  9. See all details
Next slide of product details

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

All authors are present or former faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University. Their commonality is their commitment to helping the public understand agricultural issues through their teaching, research, and writings.

F. Bailey Norwood is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University. His previous works includes Compassion by the Pound: The Economics of Farm Animal Warfare and Agricultural Marketing and Price Analysis, an undergraduate textbook.

Michelle S. Calvo-Lorenzo is an Assistant Professor of Livestock Well-Being and Environmental Management in the Department of Animal Science at Oklahoma State University.

Sarah Lancaster is an Extension Scientist at the Range Cattle Research and Education Center at the University of Florida.

Pascal A. Oltenacu is a Professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Florida.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00O0URM02
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (November 5, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 5, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2542 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 165 pages
  • Customer Reviews:

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. F. Bailey Norwood

    F. Bailey Norwood

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    F. Bailey Norwood has a PhD in economics and is an associate professor at Oklahoma State University, where he researches farm animal welfare and teaches agricultural economics courses.

    His novel, Matrona's Four Children, was written out of a need for fiction that educates while it entertains, with the goal of encouraging economic and historical literacy, as well as a love of reading. Most other novels about economics are either mean-spirited towards certain political flavors or have a "cheesy" plot. Bailey wanted an engrossing novel that helped both liberals and conservatives contribute toward the common good while also living a happy, meaningful life.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Michelle S. Calvo-Lorenzo

    Michelle S. Calvo-Lorenzo

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  3. Sarah Lancaster

    Sarah Lancaster

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  4. Pascal A. Oltenacu

    Pascal A. Oltenacu

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
75 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Philippides
5.0 out of 5 stars I would recommend this book to all who want to be well ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2015
Verified Purchase
I would recommend this book to all who want to be well informed about our food. Well explained, with scientific rigor, the book explain the main food controversies. I enjoyed reading it.
The authors are subject matter experts. Bottom line: be reassured, what we eat is safe
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Art
5.0 out of 5 stars They needed this book for a class and was happily surprised when it was very informative I learned a ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
They needed this book for a class and was happily surprised when it was very informative I learned a lot from the class and the book
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
Beautiful book. Very new. Terrific condition
Helpful
 Report
Elijah Chen
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2017
Verified Purchase
Gets the job done
Helpful
 Report
Valentine
5.0 out of 5 stars Dependable Source of Information
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2015
Verified Purchase
Excellent book and very thought-provoking. It's very helpful to receive this info from the academics' point-of-view also.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Adam Glynn
1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2017
Verified Purchase
I didn't feel like it added much to the conversation.
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2016
Verified Purchase
Excellent and factual book! Very good read.
Helpful
 Report
P. Troutman
2.0 out of 5 stars Bait and switch
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book is disappointing. Its opening chapter bills itself as an objective take on the many debates surrounding the growing of food, but it falls short of that standard. It feels less like “What Everyone Needs to Know” and more like “What We Think You Should Think.”

This book comes across as another example of a genre I find unhelpful: the smug economist explaining the world to the ignorant masses. The economist dons the mantle of the tough-minded, clear-sighted realist who demolishes the superstitions of the idealistic who try to make the world a better place but are in fact in victims of their own silly romantic ideas. The hard-headed economist knocks sense into the soft, irrational moonbeamers with his unblinking application of data. He shows them how we live in a panglossian world and how the masses should just sit back and accept the wise passivity of doing nothing. The economist explains his theory of how the world ought to work *in theory* and then berates the world for being more complicated. Man, is he heroic!

But oh wait, he gushes and blushes and swoons schoolgirl over the free market. Suddenly, data doesn’t matter — the conquering male’s got this perfectly elegant theory and if the world doesn’t fit, the world is wrong!

I say this partially tongue-in-cheek but not as much as I wish I was. The attitude seems to be something that too many economists inhale in the air of grad school. It’s tiresome and really distracts from the important ideas of the profession.

This book isn’t as a blatant in certain ways and adds a few twists (e.g., trying to use Science as a club), but it’s very unhelpful and an oddly weak title for Oxford University Press.

People in the food movement are unlikely to feel that they got a fair shake in this book. If you’re trying to set it up so opposing ideas go toe-to-toe, then presumably you’d take the best possible arguments from each side and the result would leave everyone a little humbler. Instead, it’s like a debate on libertarian vs. socialism with a freshman who just discovered Ayn Rand going up against Bernie Sanders. A thoughtful libertarian isn’t going to feel it’s a fair debate. It’s clear the authors don’t have a good feel for the food movement but are more motivated by irritation at the documentaries on Amazon.

Further, their use of evidence doesn’t seem very sporting. If the food movement folks have evidence, the authors argue that there is opposing evidence and therefore the data is inconclusive. (Shrug the shoulders.) They don’t do that when they want to make a point. They run with the evidence that works for them. Frequently, they conclude that the issue depends on whether you can trust government and big corporations and they do, so that’s that. To give an example of their attitude: “This [corporate influence on government stances on GMOs] is not a belief that the authors’ [sic] share, but there are smart people of high character who do believe this conspiracy theory, and their side of the story deserves to be heard.”

They also take some positions that people are unlikely to find reassuring and rather provocative for an introduction to the subject. If you know anything about economics, the issue of negative externalities [costs that producers don’t pay but fob onto the public at large] is seen as a market failure and tremendous amounts of ink have been spilt trying to figure out how to get producers to accurately incorporate costs so that markets perform better. This book, however, says, “If investors wanted that money to help clean America’s lakes and rivers, they would donate it to a nonprofit organization instead of buying corporate stocks. But they didn’t, and so we shouldn’t expect Monsanto to try to save the world, but only generate products that other people will pay for.” Hmm. . .

One of the things that the book ignores is obesity. This is quite an oversight and it almost feels deliberate, as it would so profoundly call into question the authors’ attitude that “the market is an aggregate of people’s wants, so what it produces must be what people want.”

In short, the book does a decent job of listing questions about the food system, but beyond that, it’s a good concept for a book but poorly executed. It would have been much more useful if, instead of interjecting their own opinions, the authors had teased out more the differences in the kinds of research opponents use, so readers would feel like they didn’t need to go read it all themselves. As is, I’m looking forward to going through the notes (on the lead author’s webpage, not in the book), but that’s about it.

None of this is to say that food movement folks are right — I wrote an essay in 2012 trying to severely challenge local food and read this while working on a related essay — but rather, the debates are worthy of better books.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Ashley Babics
3.0 out of 5 stars Presented some good information. I found it to be pretty obviously ...
Reviewed in Canada on September 26, 2015
Verified Purchase
Presented some good information. I found it to be pretty obviously biased in favor of agribusiness and the presentation of 'both sides' to be similarly biased. Still contains some useful information... read it critically.
Report
Leon
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting stuff.
Reviewed in Spain on August 1, 2015
Verified Purchase
Quite a lot of interesting stuff and certainly a lot of food for thought. Giving a balanced argument on both sides of controversial subjects is difficult but the author makes a dammed good stab at it.
Report

Report an issue


Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report