Against The Grain [Paperback]

Manning believes that the carbohydrate rich crops of wheat, corn and rice are actually bad for us. He is a devotee of the Atkins Diet that preaches that carbohydrates should be avoided as much as possible.

Manning also opposes the way that agricultural concerns "farm the government."

This is a provocative and well-written book.

In making his argument, Manning wanders through numerous disciplines: cultural anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, climatology, cognitive science and ecology, even religion. He begins with an explanation of how agriculture developed and spread despite its apparent disadvantages to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle (worse nutrition, less leisure-time) and then develops these disadvantages more fully, surveying the prevalence of famine in agricultural societies throughout history and moving through the detrimental social and ecological effects of industrial agriculture such as how it enabled the feeding of high concentrations of cheap labor.

'Against The Grain' hits a weak spot in looking at modern agricultural corporations, in particular ADM. At this point, he draws less from his apparent strengths as a writer and person - his awareness and appreciation of nature and his solid understanding of the historical breadth and scope of agriculture's effects - and loses his effectiveness as his underlying anger is displayed. Fortunately he leaves himself time to recover and does so in discussing the formation and driving force behind the modern industrial agricultural diet, arguing that its intention is more to promote efficient (and profitable) agriculture than good nutrition. He ends with a plan for reversing the worst of agriculture's effects through small steps - advocating the patronage of farm stands that are now prevalent in most urban centers (including my Chicago suburb), and giving us a glimpse of how he himself practices food sustainability.

Any book treating a subject as complex as the effects of agriculture on human society, even one with such a narrow focus as this one, could fill volumes of plodding data and cite vast numbers of bibliographical sources. Instead, Manning treats the subject nimbly, almost dancing through his arguments with a sense of precision and conciseness. He uses the term 'gracile' in his book to denote speed and quickness while making a point about antelope, but the term could just as well apply to the book itself. Nevertheless, while I find many of his conclusions convincing, and the ideas themselves both engaging and thought-provoking, I found myself often wishing for more substantial backup for his assertions or a better system of citation. I have read a few books tangential to this material (particularly Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond which alludes to similar conclusions) and am familiar with many of the facts and events used by Richard Manning in developing his ideas, and still it seemed a little light. Someone reading this book without having read anything similar or related might well walk away unconvinced of his credibility or even his earnestness, and that would be a shame.

The book is deceptively easy to read. Despite Manning's obvious passion for the topic, he thankfully doesn't beat you over the head with his rhetoric. But I found that I needed to re-read some sections in order to catch the subleties of his argument (and as I write this I'm wondering when, with the stack of books I keep adding to, I'll have time to read it again). If you read 'Against The Grain' you may find you agree or disagree with Manning's conclusions, but regardless, you should feel that it was worthwhile.

The rest of the book expands on information presented by a number of other authors that take current agriculture to task. At times Manning's polemic style carries these ideas over the top: "We did not create (agriculture)...plants domesticated us." At other times it bludgeons its way into novel insights: "The goal of agriculture is not feeding people; it is the creation of wealth."

His writing, like his thinking, runs hot and cold. A brilliant sound byte may be followed by a sentence that falls one draft short of comprehensibility.

After a bookful of woes, the chapter upliftingly entitled "A Counteragriculture" is a disappointment. After thoroughly building the pemise that totalitarian agriculture has put us in deep global doo doo, Manning devotes a single sentence to the overpopulation problem and narrows his focus onto farmers' markets--a delightful development to be sure, but as an answer to the woes he has enumerated, it's like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Besides, if these farmers were ever to snag enough of the market to threaten Archer Daniels Midland or its corporate brethren, they would be terminated with extreme prejudice.

*Against the Grain* is a thoroughly-researched book, well-documented with science and statistics. With its lively journalistic tone and trove of ascinating facts, it's non-intimidating for the lay reader.