Hoe de wereld eet: Een mondiale filosofie

by Julian Baggini

Ons voedselsysteem is kapot. Tegenwoordig is iedereen voor voedsel afhankelijk van een complex web van productie, distributie, consumptie en afvalverwerking. Dit systeem heeft desastreuze effecten op het welzijn van onze planeet, de verdeling van rijkdom en onze eigen gezondheid.



Julian Baggini biedt in dit boek een scherpe analyse van dit probleem en formuleert filosofische principes voor een betere, rechtvaardigere en gezondere voedselvoorziening.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History, Science, Politics

536 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 22, 2025

About the author

Julian Baggini is a British philosopher and the author of several books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is the author of The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments (2005) and is co-founder and editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 1996 from University College London for a thesis on the philosophy of personal identity. In addition to his popular philosophy books, Baggini contributes to The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, and the BBC. He has been a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time.

Reviews

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julian Baggini is a British philosopher and prolific nonfiction author of philosophy books; his 2024 book How the World Eats represents quite a shift in his writing portfolio as he takes on the weighty (pun semi-intended) topic of global food consumption from an interdisciplinary lens. Baggini touches upon issues of food production and sustainability through the lens of stability of food supply chains, disparities between overfed (read: obese and overweight) and underfed populations, and how persistent or pliable various cultures' historical diets have been in the face of increasing ultra-processed foods that have pervaded much of the West and beyond.

I enjoyed this read, though it is a very saturated (another pun semi-intended) topic where it's hard for a new entrant to be groundbreaking or even particularly novel. I think the uniqueness of this read is in its broad scope and discussion of supply chains on a more macro level (as opposed to authors like Michael Pollan, who examine this from a more micro lens).

Further reading: similar books I've read
The Way We Eat Now: How the Food Revolution Has Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World by Bee Wilson | my review
Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken, MD (Baggini cites this book extensively)
The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat by Tim Spector, MD
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future by Rob Dunn
Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future by Bartow Elmore
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball - a peripheral read looking behind the curtain at a 21st century crop and livestock farm

My statistics:
Book 80 for 2025
Book 2026 cumulatively

[Caleb Fogler · Rating 3 out of 5]

How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy is an interesting book about the state of the world’s food chain. But I’m not sure how I feel about everything states in the book and a lot of this takes time to consider.

Baggini takes a wide overarching approach to his food theory and uses many interesting examples of his arguments throughout the book. Many aspects I think are agreeable by the majority of people and some I’m interested in seeing their success in the future.

Overall I enjoyed it… I think? The studies on differences in diets across the world were the most interesting part to me, but I do think it takes a certain level of background knowledge to completely understand all of concepts. Which is not something I have on this subject.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up because I read a lot about food and farming. At first I was liking it but then he kind of seemed to lose the plot (for me at least). I agree with his premise that, "A food system needs to be underpinned with principles, and if we are not clear what they are, they will often default to values we may not hold to be the highest, such as economic efficiency, convenience and productivity." (p. 41) The book is divided into 4 categories - land, people, other animals, and technology. In each, Baggini looks at how people have eaten both historically and today and what we can learn from these food cultures in order to attempt to shape a global food philosophy. Still sounds great, but in my opinion it was a little all over the place. I also felt like he didn't show much in the way of farmers/cultures doing things well - more of don't do this or the ones that he highlighted as doing well were things that couldn't be reproduced (like Native Inuit or Hadza hunter/gatherers). In the end his seven principles of a global food philosophy won't stand up to actual implementation because of one thing - money. Corporations will NEVER do better if it means they make less money and for the most part our current food system in most of the world is a business for making money. Overall, there were some parts I liked, some I had to drag myself through. I'm not a philosopher or into philosophy so maybe I'm not the intended reader. But I am VERY into food, farming, and humane meat so this should appeal to someone like me.

Some quotes that stood out to me:

Quotes I liked:

"But it should at least give pause for thought: is disgust at meat eating really a sign of a more civilised society or simply a mark of one that has become detached from the realities of life and death?" (p. 15)

"The right goal is for people to have enough money to eat, not for food to be made so cheap that even the destitute can afford to eat it and only the desperate are willing to produce it." (p. 116)

Quotes I disagree with:

"Now, for the first time, we have the option of a vegan future. If we do not take it, our continued use of livestock and the methods we use to rear them will both stand in need of justification." (p. 258) [NOT everyone who eats meat, eats industrial, CAFO meat - I will NOT become vegan and I will continue to support local farmers doing things in regenerative ways.]

"If you are regularly working with glyphosate, concerns about the health risks of your exposure are legitimate, but as someone who eats food made from glyphosate-treated GM crops, there is no good evidence that your health is at risk." (p. 269) [I vehemently disagree with this. We have NO idea what this stuff is doing over time, to children, etc. Glyphosate and Monsanto don't need to be ANY part of any food system.]

[Alexa Selden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book! Baggini talks about food in a very digestible way (pun intended). He gives you a lot to think about regarding the choices and ideas about food. 10/10

[Kirsten]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/bo...

[Jung]

"How the World Eats" by Julian Baggini is a deeply reflective exploration of the global food system, examining how what we eat is shaped by history, culture, economics, and ethics—and how, in turn, our eating habits shape the world around us. With philosophical insight and global perspective, Baggini guides readers through the hidden machinery behind food production, distribution, and consumption. He argues that food is far more than sustenance or taste; it is a mirror of our values and a central feature of how societies function. As modern food systems face mounting ecological, ethical, and health challenges, Baggini proposes that meaningful change begins with understanding, and ends with a commitment to wiser, more principled choices.

Baggini opens with a reminder that most people know surprisingly little about the origins of their meals. Even something as mundane as a bowl of cereal represents a vast and opaque network of patents, chemicals, transport, and policy decisions that span continents. While these systems allow for unprecedented abundance and variety, they also create disconnection, obscuring the ethical and environmental costs of what ends up on our plates. Despite global food output being sufficient to feed the world’s population, hunger remains widespread. Simultaneously, overeating and obesity plague wealthier nations. These contradictions reflect how unevenly the benefits and harms of modern agriculture are distributed. As biodiversity declines and climate change accelerates, it becomes clear that the way we feed ourselves is a central problem—and potentially a key solution—in the broader environmental crisis.

The book dives into traditional foodways to offer both critique and inspiration. Among the Hadza people of Tanzania, Baggini finds one of the world’s last remaining hunter-gatherer societies. Their lifestyle is strikingly sustainable, drawing only what is needed from their environment without depleting it. Far from being primitive or limited, the Hadza diet is remarkably diverse and adaptive, challenging romanticized or inaccurate visions of ancient eating habits like those found in the modern paleo diet. The Hadza demonstrate how humans evolved to be dietary generalists, responding flexibly to changes in weather, landscape, and resource availability. Their microbiomes—far more varied than those in industrialized populations—reveal the health benefits of diets built around seasonal, whole, and minimally processed foods. Their approach to food distribution is equally instructive: meat is shared communally, emphasizing social cohesion and mutual support over private ownership. Though we cannot feasibly return to this way of life, the Hadza offer essential insights into how food systems can align more closely with ecological balance and social equity.

Baggini contrasts this with the story of the Netherlands, a small country with an outsized influence on global agriculture. After experiencing famine during World War II, the Dutch revolutionized their food production using intensive, high-tech methods. By embracing the tools of the Green Revolution—synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanization—they achieved extraordinary yields, particularly in greenhouse-grown produce like tomatoes. But this success came at a cost. The environmental burden of Dutch agriculture, from nitrogen runoff to air pollution, is among the highest in Europe. Recognizing these limits, the Netherlands has since become a hub for sustainable innovation, from precision farming to closed-loop systems that minimize waste. What emerges is a case for 'sustainable intensification'—producing more food with fewer inputs and lower environmental impact. Rather than promoting a single ideal method, Baggini argues for adaptive, pluralistic strategies that take into account local climates, soil types, and cultural practices. The key lies not in ideology but in context-sensitive experimentation and cooperation.

The global chocolate industry serves as a striking example of how food can embody systemic injustice. A simple chocolate bar involves a long chain of production that begins with cacao farmers in West Africa, who often earn less than a dollar a day. Meanwhile, most of the value is added far from the farms, in wealthy nations that handle processing, marketing, and distribution. This dynamic reflects the broader pattern of commodification in agriculture, where food is treated as a standardized, interchangeable good rather than a product of specific lands and communities. Farmers are squeezed to increase yield and uniformity, sacrificing biodiversity and local food sovereignty. Fair trade initiatives offer marginal improvements, but Baggini notes that they fall short of addressing structural inequities. Even well-meaning efforts are vulnerable to market pressures, and global corporations frequently retreat from sustainability commitments when profits decline. The chocolate industry illustrates how deep change will require more than ethical shopping—it demands policy reform, market restructuring, and a rethinking of what we value in food.

Corporate influence in the food system is another central concern. Baggini discusses how major food companies have prioritized branding and distribution over nutritional quality or taste. As seen in the example of Modelo beer becoming the top-selling brand in the U.S., success is often driven more by cultural marketing and corporate strategy than by product excellence. The shift toward corporate control—what scholars call the 'corporate food regime'—has enormous implications for public health. Children have been aggressively targeted by food marketing in schools and media, while food production continues to exceed actual nutritional needs, incentivizing overconsumption. Even companies with ethical aspirations find themselves constrained by shareholder demands and competitive pressures. Executives who prioritize social or environmental goals are often removed when those goals conflict with profit expectations. Baggini argues that voluntary ethical practices are insufficient. To align corporate power with the public good, regulation is essential—not to limit innovation, but to ensure it occurs in ways that benefit people and ecosystems.

The livestock industry exemplifies both the diversity and the dilemmas of modern agriculture. In parts of Patagonia, traditional ranching still allows cattle to roam vast open lands, moving seasonally and contributing to the regeneration of grasslands. Elsewhere, however, factory farming dominates. In these concentrated systems, animals live in confined spaces under stressful and unnatural conditions, and are bred for rapid growth with little regard for welfare. These practices raise ethical questions and contribute heavily to environmental degradation, especially through feed production and methane emissions. Yet, livestock farming doesn’t have to be inherently harmful. When managed well, grazing can be carbon-neutral or even beneficial to ecosystems. Baggini points to examples of reform, such as the adoption of slower-growing poultry breeds and bans on wasteful or cruel practices. He suggests that a middle path exists—one that maintains some animal agriculture but drastically reduces its scale and improves its ethics.

Genetic modification, often a controversial topic, is approached by Baggini with clarity and nuance. He dispels the myth that 'natural' foods are untouched by human intervention, noting that many modern crops—including some labeled organic—were shaped by intense and often artificial selection. Genetic modification and newer techniques like CRISPR offer the potential to produce crops that are more resilient, nutritious, and environmentally friendly. The case of Golden Rice, engineered to prevent vitamin A deficiency, shows how beneficial technologies can be blocked by regulatory and ideological barriers. Baggini emphasizes that the debate over GMOs is less about scientific evidence than it is about competing worldviews. He advocates for careful use of technology that serves public interests rather than corporate monopolies. Embracing innovation does not require abandoning caution, but rejecting it wholesale based on outdated fears undermines real progress.

In his closing reflections, Baggini outlines seven foundational principles that could guide us toward a better food future. These include recognizing the interconnected nature of food systems, striving for circular economies that reduce waste, embracing diverse methods suited to local contexts, re-centering food itself (rather than commodities or profits), applying both innovation and tradition wisely, treating animals with compassion, and ensuring fair outcomes for all people involved in the food chain. He argues that change doesn’t require extreme upheaval or ideological purity. Instead, we need consistent, purposeful reforms that bring our actions into alignment with values most people already share. Just as food cultures have shifted in the past, they can evolve again—toward systems that nourish both people and the planet.

Baggini’s "How the World Eats" is both a critique and a hopeful call to action. Through philosophy, science, and storytelling, he reveals the deep entanglements between food, society, and the environment. While the challenges are vast, the path forward is not obscure. By reimagining how we think about food—not only as consumption, but as a reflection of relationships and responsibilities—we can begin to build a world where eating is an act of sustainability, justice, and care.

[Jan Peregrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

How the World Eats~~~~

Do you wonder why in the 21st century there are still so many millions of hungry or starving people in the world? Do you think advanced technology should be helping us solve world hunger within a badly-functioning food system? If so, you're not alone. Julian Baggini's 2025 book, How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy seeks to answer these concerns by explaining why we first need to follow the seven principles of holism, circularity, pluralism, foodcentrism, resourcefulness, compassion, and equitability. All of them will be sustainable as well.

While I have long been vegetarian or vegan, Baggini does not recommend any one diet beyond a focus on whole foods, which are found in fresh produce. He's not a nutritionist or medical doctor, but a philosopher who listens to selected experts. His research doesn't include how many top medical organizations, public and private institutions, and celebrity and champion athletes highly promote a diet without farmed animal meat and their secretions.

I heartily agree with Baggini as to the seven food system principles listed above. Our global food system is indeed still operating as it did when much of the world was divided into colonizers and the colonized. There's less and less of any of those principles with each passing day.

Baggini makes the crucial point that we as consumers will never be able to solve the deep problems in our never-well-functioning food system, even with technology's innovations, until we all agree to honor those principles. I think he's right. There can never be one diet for all to thrive on, just like we all need a diversity or pluralism of people to make and sustain a strong democracy.

True enough, but Baggini fully understands the nasty problems with farming many more animals than are in the world and asks us to greatly reduce such overconsumption. Who doesn't recognize how inhumanely we treat these billions of suffering animals, yet tries to rationalize their animal flesh diet?

But Baggini is himself guilty of rationalization and made me quite upset. He applauds the few hunter-gatherer groups remaining today and how we can best revere animals by thanking them for dying for us. Think of Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea, how the fisherman revered his big fish who was struggling for hours to live.

Bullshit!

That fish was finally overpowered by the powerful fisherman with his hook. Just like the farmed animals are overpowered by our tactics.

I recommend Baggini's book with a few reservations. He's right that we need government to better regulate a more just food policy, but he's wrong that we require some animal protein for our robust health and that cultured meat will never take off. We can make it happen if we convince governments to work with us and to promote those seven principles.

[Wei Tong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books about food, and I thought this book had so much potential when I saw that it was sorted into different themes / different chapters relating to food systems in different countries. But it was honestly too long and draggy. I enjoyed some chapters more than others.

Here are some of my favourite parts of the book:
- What makes humans unique is that we will actually undereat if we don't get enough gastronomic stimulation.

The nutritionist paradigm
- Rather than hubristically trying to micromanage our diets to optimise health and longevity, based on a few biomarkers, we should simply focus on eating a diet based on real, whole foods.
- The nutritionist paradigm is that we can break down all foods into specific nutrients or phytochemicals and measure what that does to the body. But most maintsream nutritionists are accepting at least parts of the critique against the nutritionist paradigm. The form in which we ingest food makes an important difference to how we digest and process it. For example, if you eat a whole fruit the sugars will be released into your bloodstream more slowly than if you were to blitz it up into a smoothie, even though atom for atom it would add up to the same thing. The nutritional profile of both the whole fruit and the smoothie would be identical, but the former is better for us than the latter. This is the clear and uncontroversial demonstration that you can have identical nutritional composition without nutritional equivalence.

Whole systems approach
- We need a whole systems approach to viewing food. The nature and nutritional value of each food can only be fully understood once we understand how it interacts with other parts. For example, as a chemical, nitrogen is nitrogen, but it behaves differently in the atmosphere to how it does when fixed in the soil. Similarly, a vitamin in a whole fruit is absorbed differently to a pure vitamin in a pill. In the vast and complex food world, these interactions are of vital importance. When looking at the use of technology for food, the need is always to take a holistic, systems-level approach.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a philosopher who knows a lot about the “global food system” (GFS). What is that? The GFS is a combination of: 1) the national and regional food systems that can be found around the world; 2) the national and regional political/regulatory regimes associated with food around the world; 3) the various sets of food culture and practices around the world; 4) the operations and strategies of the global food industry; 5) the current state of science and serious research on matters of food, nutrition, food and chronic illness/cancer/etc; and 6) the current state of efforts to bring all of the above together in a comprehensive and principled view of food in the world.

???

What is going on here? The agenda is way too broad and the details are way to complex for there to be much hope of this project being carried off successfully.

Having said this, I appreciate the scope of the aspiration, the learning that Baggini brings to the task, and the honesty that he displays in attempting to sort things out. It is admirable. The book is well done and succeeds far more than I ever thought possible. It is a good introduction to the global food industry and how it interacts with political, cultural, and environment factors around the world. I will need to read this again to really appreciate it.

But I can strongly recommend it now.

[john lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book. He's a good writer, he keeps you interested. He surveys the world food entity by looking at the fringes, that is, how hunter-gatherers survive, the Intuits in antarctica, and small countries like Netherlands.

Of course, the concern is NOT to eat ultra-processed food. Eat real food, which on some level we are all trying to do. He takes a philosophical approach, so it's fairly high level.

He does not delve into the world of global food companies, doesn't follow, for example, a box of cereal from field to store shelf--it would have been interesting to have done so (again, philosophy).

His solution? "... breaking down corporate power, changing the incentives, getting government to have a vision, changing the entire-work-life balance, changing our whole attitude to food, changing our educational system, changing trading relations, and so on and so on." In other words, no small task!!

Baggini is from the UK. He's written probably a dozen books, so there's plenty of other to read, which I hope to do.

Highlights... a great description of natural selection.
More accurately, natural selection has no purpose. Survival of the fittest is not the aim of nature, it is rather the only thing that can happen when there is nothing or no one imposing any other goal.

[Synthia Salomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

How the World Eats (2024) examines how different societies approach food production and consumption, from traditional hunter-gatherers to industrial farming operations. It explores the complex global food web while investigating cutting-edge technologies, processed foods, and commodification.

Through this worldwide culinary journey, it distills essential principles for a more sustainable, ethical, and equitable food future.


“our food systems reflect profound cultural values while facing critical sustainability challenges. From hunter-gatherer practices to corporate agriculture, each approach reveals different relationships between humans, animals, and the environment. By embracing holism, circularity, plurality, foodcentrism, resourcefulness, compassion, and equity, we can create better food futures. Small, purposeful adjustments that align our existing values with our practices can transform how we eat, benefiting both people and the planet.”

[Josiah Tharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taking us on a grand tour of our global food system, Mr. Baggini explores numerous cultures and settings in a quest to see what is and is not working. He is no idealogue, proselytizing for this or that diet or way of life, and this is much to the benefit of his book. Rather than setting forth specific guidelines, we are introduced to broad principles to be adapted to each situation.

This is a wonderful and thought provoking book. It is neither a Luddite condemnation of all intensive agriculture nor a techno-optimist manifesto about how science will solve our problems. Rather, we are invited to examine what lessons can be learned from the past, what incentives currently guide our science, and how we can imagine new incentives to produce more wholesome results.

There is nothing utopian about this book. It is clear eyed at every turn. But it does give a framework for imagining a food system that is sustainable, equitable, ethical, and nutritious.

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out seeing the author talk about how things work in different cultures throughout the world and wondering how he could possibly avoid cherry picking his examples since there are so very many different cultures in the world. During the book, as I saw examples given from more cultures and not always just the same ones, I felt that Julian Baggini had done sufficient research to draw from a meaningful number of places. The work and the thought that went into this book are beyond reproach. So is the thoughtful consideration of each topic. After I stopped worrying about an insufficient number of sources, I began to feel that there was too much or the “but on the other hand” approach. It seemed that every point or idea was followed by a disclaimer. I liked the ideas in the book and I appreciate its thoroughness and the work behind it, but the writing itself did not engage me. I think many words could be taken out and the book would be more readable if it was considerably shortened.

[StudiousBagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot from and gained interesting context for a variety of food topics. A point that sticks out to me is how wasteful agriculture can be for the sake of consistency. Other topics include:

How the land is used, who exports the most with their land, specifically the market for coffee and chocolate, food corporations, the life of animals can be very cruel, food security and income inequality, efforts to be sustainable, food loss and food waste, advances in technology like artificial meat and GMOs like golden rice, topics in nutrition.

Audiobook

[Matthijs van der Voorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved it as a food technology student. The book adresses a wide variety of problems in the current food chain, going into depth without needing too much prior understanding.

I would definitely recommend it for anyone working in the food industry or interested in the problems the industry faces regarding sustainability and ethics.

[Serge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Glad I assigned it for my rising sophomores. Circularity, plurality, holism, harmony, food-centrism, equity, and compassion are great principles for organizing food regimes around the world and the deleterious role of commodity crops in the globalized diet. Took over 13 hours to read the book as an audiobook. Pretty sure I could have completed the print version more quickly.

[Petraq · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

I loved reading this one. I have always enjoyed the kinds of books that talk about the world and the way people around it live, practice their lifestyle (cooking and eating in this case) and I quite liked the philosophical ideas that were presented here. It is a book I can see myself revisiting.

[Pearlyn Lim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides an indepth coverage of food philosophy primarily in USA and western Europe. Its omission of how India, China, the Middle East and Asia's philosophy towards food has evolved renders its title inappropriate and over-promising. After all, a good 60% of the world's population is in Asia.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scientific/philosophical/historical deep dive into anything and everything related to food -- hunting-gathering, slavery, big business, culture, organic farming, sustainability, CAFOs/animal husbandry (/vegetarian/veganism), disease spread, processing/ultra-processing (UPFs), GMOs, gene editing, high-tech/"nutritionism"/dietary engineering, food waste, etc!

[Fish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth the read for a lot of good info about food as a social issue even tho bro defends capitalism in the end as not wholly evil despite saying throughout the book that capitalism is the root of food inequity. Read with a dash of salt (lol).

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eat local and avoid chemicals. But lots on destroyed habitat changes what people eat

[Staci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and informative dive into a complicated subject. Highly recommend.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Luciano · Rating 2 out of 5]

More a common sense desiderata than a deep investigation, plus boring to read...

[Maggie Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

underrated nonfiction! food philosophy policy my favorites topics 🫶🏼

[Ruth Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[NJM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shows how philosophy can be to put to practical use in any area, in the case, the global food system.

[Kerim Ramadan · Rating 2 out of 5]

About 150 pages too long. Some interesting insight into how food gets to our plates.

[Alice Xie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply well researched, thorough dive into the current state of food systems. I appreciate the well balanced approach that dispels some knee-jerk liberal reactions to global conglomerates' role in managing complicated issues. An enlightening and nuanced academic exploration.

[Thejessicaness · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad this wasn't just a look at bread - how it's grown, eaten, and wasted, but a look at the systems that make up all the world and how different cultures and soil types would have to be addressed in the most efficient way for them to thrive in our ever changing climate.