Ending Hunger by Anthony Warner

Ending Hunger - The Quest to Feed the World Without Destroying It, is a book written by Anthony Warner and published by One World Publications in 2021. After graduating from university, Anthony worked as a professional chef for many years in kitchens across the UK and London. He is also the author of a famous book called the Angry Chef (which I have not read but plan to do so) and maintains a very active blog on food which can be accessed at https://angry-chef.com/

Ending Hunger is a fantastic book and provides innumerable insights into the world of food, diets, society, eating & nourishment trends and dispels a lot of popular myths around something very basic namely food. The book touches on pretty much all the key aspects around food and reveals arguments from both sides of the aisle; namely the quest to appropriately feed a burgeoning population and the environmental impact of an ever growing food production system. 

Normally when I review a book, I will highlight important facts, learnings, insights and conclusions. In some cases I may not agree with all the conclusions and will state where I disagree. For this book review there will be no deep insights or conclusions. So why did I decide to deviate from the approach? 

This book is about food, hunger, feeding us as individuals and feeding the world at large. Food is a basic human function that we all take for granted. Whilst awareness levels around food and nutrition have been rising; on an individual basis we still appreciate very little about the food that we eat. It is for this fundamental reason that I implore people to read this book.  

As a book on food and hunger, it goes into the history of food, hunger, famines, food systems and their developments and transformational events that have led to the modern system that we know of. It also goes into the challenge of feeding an ever growing population, the demands this is making on the environment and some harsh trade offs we shall face if we don't change course. The book also covers what we have done well in the recent past and some of the more horrific mistakes that have caused millions to suffer and die. Despite all this, the book is most definitely not alarmist!

Sustainability, pollution, carbon & GHG emissions and the degradation of land and water are front and center of every discourse these days. The book covers these topics in extensive detail and will give the reader a panoramic view of all these key issues in reasonable depth. Reading these chapters will most definitely provide you with unique perspectives across each of these key challenges. After reading these chapters, I hope the next time you engage in a discussion around these topics, you will base your arguments on facts rather than emotion outbursts or social media posts.

Meat, chicken, beef and GHG emissions are also covered in depth. The sustainability versus the suitability arguments around eating meat and growing livestock is a hotly contested topic in today's world with extremely polarising views. By reading the chapters around meat, you should be able to secure sufficient facts, reject a few common myths and form your own view on this topic, which I hope is a balanced one.

If you have been shopping for your food, especially in developed markets, two words that seem to be very popular are 'local & organic'. Whilst its natural to gravitate towards shelves that are lined with local and organic produce; we know little about the impact and challenges especially achieving scale when it comes to organic farming. With a whole chapter dedicated to local and organic, you will get up, close and into the specifics of local and organic food production concepts. 

Up next is GMO. If organic has its dedicated following of warriors, GMO has a wider & even more vocal and vehement collection of detractors. I knew little of GMO till I attended a talk by Sydney Brenner in Singapore. Brenner was born in South Africa, won a Nobel prize in medicine, worked closely with Watson & Crick and lived the latter part of his life in Singapore. His talk on many things including GMO was very illuminating and the book re-enforced his views on the subject. GMO is a complicated topic and I am glad Warner has spent a fair detail around GMO to give the reader a more accurate or dare say a more balanced picture around GMO. Once you know more about GMO then its natural for you to ask more about artificial proteins and the rise of companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Fret not, cause this is also covered and Warner shares a glimpse of what the future beholds in this regard. 

If we are talking about food, the development of food and food systems, meat v/s vegetables, GMO, local, organic etc, the one thing that is common across all of them is 'wastage'. If anyone is keen to know more about food, it's a must to know about food wastage. Closely linked to wastage is 'single use plastic' and again the author does a wonderful job to present a balanced and fair view to the reader. 

By now you have guessed that I have enjoyed this book. Yes, I have learnt a lot, and a few (maybe quite a few) myths have been blown away. My approach to food, whether its buying it or eating it or realising the impact of the food that we eat is transformed after reading this book. The wonderful parts about the book are the final few chapters. They detail what we can do as a community and as an individual to improve and enhance the food system of the world. 

We owe it to ourselves and the future generations that the dual purpose is met; namely a growing population is better fed but also the earth where all our food comes from is taken care of and nurtured.  What better way to sum this up than with a quote from the book - "A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit" 

Read this book and you wont be disappointed! 

https://www.amazon.com/Ending-Hunger-quest-without-destroying/dp/1786079267  

The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard

The Mosquito is the title of the book written by Timothy Winegard and is published by the Penguin group first in 2019. Timothy Winegard is an assistant professor of history and political science at the Colorado Mesa University and has written three other books besides this one. 

This book was on my reading list for a few reasons. Firstly, we are in the midst of a pandemic, so health related topics are interesting reads per se. Plus, I live in a tropical country (Singapore) where the preponderance of mosquitoes is definitely a problem. Thankfully, Singapore takes the threat from mosquitoes very seriously & is ruthlessly efficient in combating them! Finally, around ten years back, when I had just moved to Singapore from London, I had to rush back to Bombay as my mother had contracted Malaria and was hospitalised. This is how The Mosquito by Winegard arrived on my reading radar screen.  

Keeping the COVID 19 virus aside (this is a rare global pandemic event), mosquitoes are by far the single largest animal / insect group that's deadliest to humans. They have been occupying the pole position as the cause of human deaths (not counting chronic diseases like cardiac arrests and strokes etc) year after year; followed sadly by humans themselves. For instance, Malaria, transmitted via mosquitoes, is one of the leading causes of child mortality accounting for around 10% of child deaths. Geographically, Africa bears the brunt of the impact of most of the diseases transmitted via mosquitoes but has also made the most progress as well. 

Chapter 1 - Toxic Twins is an excellent chapter to read. If you have little time, I suggest just read this chapter. The chapter tells you everything in a nutshell about this deadly creature. As a start, mosquitoes are the root cause of Malaria but also Dengue, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya, Zika, West Nile etc. By now you should get the drift that this is a serious topic that you should know a bit more about. 

Next, this is a creature that is wired to survive so forget about quick fixes here. Scientists claim that the mosquito has been around for around 190 million years or so; humans less than a million just to set the context. Clearly they, 'the mosquitoes', know how to live, prosper and navigate on Earth. This is also a creature that has perfected her art of attacking humans (yes 'her' because the female species is the deadly one). The link below, is a short documentary that the author recommends to watch. In just over 3 mins, this video will demonstrate, just how utterly sophisticated the  mosquito is. After reading that chapter & watching this video you will be convinced this is a very deadly, sophisticated killing machine that has honed its skills over centuries and claimed many lives in the process. 

"How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood | Deep Look"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD8SmacBUcU

Winegard says mosquitoes have killed around half of humanity since inception in various ways so we must pay respect to this creature. [Note this is his estimate not mine]. However, I have cross-checked this claim and Nature, corroborates this view via their article Portrait of a SerialKiller.  https://www.nature.com/articles/news021001-6

Given its deadly impact, it would interesting to list a few prominent people that have been afflicted with disease or died because of the mosquito. These include Alexander the Great (one potential cause of death Malaria), Julius Caesar (contracted Malaria), Christopher Columbus, Oliver Cromwell, Charles V, Vasco De Gama, Byron, Lincoln and Kennedy just to name a few. [Note: given that Malaria's modern scientific diagnosis and attribution to mosquitoes as a carrier vector is only very recent, thanks to work of Ronald Ross in the late 1800s, historians have to triangulate people's affliction to Malaria and other diseases through anecdotal evidence].   

For many years before Ronald Ross, the world was unable to link mosquitoes to malaria and the causes for the fevers, chills and deaths were attributed to bad air, miasma. But not all were searching in the wrong places. 

Winegard states that the Indian physician Sushruta as early as in the 6 C BCE was not only linking water as a key cause to the spread of malaria but also mosquitoes. In his detailed compendium, he singled out five mosquito species & their bites as deadly causes for fevers, chills, vomiting, diarrhoea, shivering etc. Sushruta was right about his research and observations but sadly as Winegard writes "Dr. Sushruta's astute reasoning and keen observations went unheeded for millennia".  

Its not that humans have not fought back against the mosquito. They have; through the slow process of evolution as a start. People with sickle cell traits possess a degree of immunity to certain strains of malaria and its not surprising that African Americans and Africans suffer from this sickle cell mutation which confers a degree of immunity to the malarial parasite.  Then came quinine that comes from the bark of the Cinchona tree. It's tremendously bitter and hence it's mixed with other drinks to mask its bitterness. The prevalence of Gin & Tonic especially with British officers combating Malaria in India is attributed to this reason. The importance of quinine was also felt in the American Cvil War when Northern troops had a steady supply of quinine compared to the Southern armies.  

As the scientific age dawned, more measures were taken to combat the menace especially after the work of Ronald Ross and Robert Koch. Mosquito nets, DDT, vaccines etc all played a role and started making an impact in controlling the spread of mosquitoes. But the diseases carried by the mosquitos have also fought back. They have mutated, evolved and become drug resistant making it an ongoing battle between us and them. Most notable in this regard, is Zika which made its re-appearance in a more potent form and in locations that were not endemic to Zika in the past including places like Brazil and Singapore. 

Climate Change is also a key accelerator for the spread of these diseases. Mosquitoes live in warmer climates so areas that are cooler were spared from this deadly killer. But now, Mosquitoes and Malaria are being found in temperate highlands as well as temperatures have begun to rise. Further, as forests are cleared and humans occupy these space, the natural habitat of mosquitoes is being disrupted causing them to infect more people that invade their homes.    

The book also chronicles the impact mosquitoes and their diseases on key global events; perhaps in a detail more than I expected and enjoyed. The author argues that mosquitoes have played decisive roles in battles and military engagements in the past as armies have been defeated through the spread of diseases like Malaria. For the author, the mosquito has played a pivotal role across all major events and has actively shaped the arc of history. To me, whilst the impact of disease on historical events cannot be underplayed they are rarely the sole cause of how things turned out the way they did. An allied book on this concept to read is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. 

Overall it's an informative book that provides the reader with a very unique perspective. It is also a topic which has not been written extensively about so when a book is dedicated to this creature it becomes a worthy read in my view. My gripe with the book is a lot of emphasis and details went into the historical events stretching back to the Greeks and ending in modern times. I would have liked to have balanced the historical impact with more scientific inputs & knowledge around mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. 

https://ourworldindata.org/malaria [useful data on malaria via graphs]

 

https://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Human-History-Deadliest-Predator/dp/1524743410