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Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating
Finding opportunities for innovation on the path between farmer and table.
Even if we think we know a lot about good and healthy food--even if we buy organic, believe in slow food, and read Eater--we probably don't know much about how food gets to the table. What happens between the farm and the kitchen? Why are all avocados from Mexico? Why does a restaurant in Maine order lamb from New Zealand? In Food Routes, Robyn Metcalfe explores an often-overlooked aspect of the global food system: how food moves from producer to consumer. She finds that the food supply chain is adapting to our increasingly complex demands for both personalization and convenience--but, she says, it won't be an easy ride.
Networked, digital tools will improve the food system but will also challenge our relationship to food in anxiety-provoking ways. It might not be easy to transfer our affections from verdant fields of organic tomatoes to high-rise greenhouses tended by robots. And yet, argues Metcalfe--a cautious technology optimist--technological advances offer opportunities for innovations that can get better food to more people in an increasingly urbanized world.
Metcalfe follows a slice of New York pizza and a club sandwich through the food supply chain; considers local foods, global foods, and food deserts; investigates the processing, packaging, and storage of food; explores the transportation networks that connect farm to plate; and explains how food can be tracked using sensors and the Internet of Things. Future food may be engineered, networked, and nearly independent of crops grown in fields. New technologies can make the food system more efficient--but at what cost to our traditionally close relationship with food?
Even if we think we know a lot about good and healthy food--even if we buy organic, believe in slow food, and read Eater--we probably don't know much about how food gets to the table. What happens between the farm and the kitchen? Why are all avocados from Mexico? Why does a restaurant in Maine order lamb from New Zealand? In Food Routes, Robyn Metcalfe explores an often-overlooked aspect of the global food system: how food moves from producer to consumer. She finds that the food supply chain is adapting to our increasingly complex demands for both personalization and convenience--but, she says, it won't be an easy ride.
Networked, digital tools will improve the food system but will also challenge our relationship to food in anxiety-provoking ways. It might not be easy to transfer our affections from verdant fields of organic tomatoes to high-rise greenhouses tended by robots. And yet, argues Metcalfe--a cautious technology optimist--technological advances offer opportunities for innovations that can get better food to more people in an increasingly urbanized world.
Metcalfe follows a slice of New York pizza and a club sandwich through the food supply chain; considers local foods, global foods, and food deserts; investigates the processing, packaging, and storage of food; explores the transportation networks that connect farm to plate; and explains how food can be tracked using sensors and the Internet of Things. Future food may be engineered, networked, and nearly independent of crops grown in fields. New technologies can make the food system more efficient--but at what cost to our traditionally close relationship with food?
208 pages, Hardcover
Published March 12, 2019
20 people are currently reading
249 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 23, 2019
Rarely do I have to call quits on a book, but this one was so frustrating that I had to put it down in disgust - not once (I picked it up again, naturally); not twice (I took a breather, then picked it up again); but, unfortunately, three times. After that, I had had enough.
The sins are numerous:
- a lack of paragraph rigour and adequate organizing leaves many of the paragraphs without focus. As a consequence, they drift aimlessly and the reading feels frustratingly effervescent.
- there are no clear instances of case studies, focused points of interest, or examples considered at length. Instead, Metcalfe surfs on interchangeable generalities.
- the thinking is sloppy. Metcalfe is interested in technology and describes herself as a "food futurist." Fine. But more often than not, she abruptly and arrogantly dismisses "traditional" food practices for a theoretic talking point, and when she compared a tiny start up (which, as far as I can tell, isn't yet even to market) favourably against the entire industry of traditional farming, with a comment that such "new farmers" might only risk not learning some few lessons that others might teach them, I had enough. This is silly thinking and it doesn't adequately weigh material practice against the hyperbole of technobabble.
- in general, nothing means much in Food Routes. This begins with the title itself, which is inexplicable. The "tale" of growing bananas in Iceland is referenced in a very quick, throwaway sentence early on in the book, sans descriptive context. As far as I can tell, it doesn't recur, and neither bananas nor Iceland appear in the index to help me locate the "tale" proper, if Metcalfe does bother telling it. Which raises the question: why advertise your book on the idea that it tells "tales from the logistics of eating" such as "growing bananas in Iceland" if you don't tell "tales", which are recognizable vignettes or focused examples, and especially if you don't discuss the one in your title?! Is that too much to ask?
- too often, the book reads as if Metcalfe simply sat down and casually began to talk out loud. Sentences are fragments, organization is missing (as discussed), and the flow is breezy. Without a compelling set of case studies, then, why would anyone read this?
From what I can tell, the reasons to spend much time with this book are few. A shame. Perhaps those who struggle through the entirety will gain more from it.
The sins are numerous:
- a lack of paragraph rigour and adequate organizing leaves many of the paragraphs without focus. As a consequence, they drift aimlessly and the reading feels frustratingly effervescent.
- there are no clear instances of case studies, focused points of interest, or examples considered at length. Instead, Metcalfe surfs on interchangeable generalities.
- the thinking is sloppy. Metcalfe is interested in technology and describes herself as a "food futurist." Fine. But more often than not, she abruptly and arrogantly dismisses "traditional" food practices for a theoretic talking point, and when she compared a tiny start up (which, as far as I can tell, isn't yet even to market) favourably against the entire industry of traditional farming, with a comment that such "new farmers" might only risk not learning some few lessons that others might teach them, I had enough. This is silly thinking and it doesn't adequately weigh material practice against the hyperbole of technobabble.
- in general, nothing means much in Food Routes. This begins with the title itself, which is inexplicable. The "tale" of growing bananas in Iceland is referenced in a very quick, throwaway sentence early on in the book, sans descriptive context. As far as I can tell, it doesn't recur, and neither bananas nor Iceland appear in the index to help me locate the "tale" proper, if Metcalfe does bother telling it. Which raises the question: why advertise your book on the idea that it tells "tales from the logistics of eating" such as "growing bananas in Iceland" if you don't tell "tales", which are recognizable vignettes or focused examples, and especially if you don't discuss the one in your title?! Is that too much to ask?
- too often, the book reads as if Metcalfe simply sat down and casually began to talk out loud. Sentences are fragments, organization is missing (as discussed), and the flow is breezy. Without a compelling set of case studies, then, why would anyone read this?
From what I can tell, the reasons to spend much time with this book are few. A shame. Perhaps those who struggle through the entirety will gain more from it.
November 9, 2020
I enjoyed the sceptical take this book has towards trends, however I didn't always find the perspective it was pushing particularly credible either
June 22, 2020
A little disappointed that I spent my own money on this book... I can’t say I learned much from this book—Metcalfe jumps from topic to topic so quickly, nothing gets and in-depth look. The “growing bananas in Iceland” mentioned in the title? Literally one sentence in the book that said essentially “they tried it and it was economically unsustainable.” Pretty disappointing how little food justice, inequality and general economics was mentioned. Seemed mostly like a place for Metcalfe to write how she wants the future of food to be—does she know that we live in a capitalistic society so most of her final thoughts are pretty unrealistic??
July 16, 2020
I think logistics is a really interesting topic, so I thought I would really like this book as it is about the logistics of food. Unfortunately this book was written in a dry, incredibly vague, uninteresting way. I can think of various ways to make this book more interesting. Part of it were just bizarre. Several times, the author introduced us to a specific person in the food industry presumably to humanize it and to give details, but neither was done. In one place, we are introduced to a woman who runs a bakery in Russia. I think she got all of two paragraphs. It says with new laws and sanctions, she can't export like she wanted. Then we never hear about her again. We are introduced to a man who runs a pizza shop in New York City. He is referred to numerous times, but we learn basically no details about his pizza shop other than he inherited it from his father. We learn he had to change logistics after Hurricane Sandy, but absolutely no details about those changes. The entire point of this book is logistics, and we get no details on those logistics, so why were we even introduced to him? The book discusses how food ingredients can be combined from other ingredients from far off places. We get no real examples of this. This would be a really interesting topic to explore with details, but it never occurs. It was incredibly frustrating to read about these topics that sound interesting, but then get no details to actually learn about them. Since the pizza shop was introduced, why couldn't a very detailed description of all the ingredients and where they come from and how they get to the shop have been given? This book just had so many missed opportunities. The most details given were the final chapter where the author is imagining how the future will be with food. Ironically the pizza shop owner is still there, and based her descriptions of the future, our friend the Joe the pizza shop owner must be 200 years at that point, but oh well.
January 11, 2022
The narrator Donna Postel of the audiobook was really good, but the book itself was so unorganized that I had to abandon it 1/4 into the book. Many topics could've been so engaging & informative if the author took a more logical approach arount them - it just seemed like unorganized rambling of a university professor who doesn't know how to teach, since Robyn mentioned that she's lectured at universities.
November 20, 2019
I had high hopes for this book, it was even mentioned in Nature's books of the week a while back. It turns out that sometimes reading books about something you work with closely isn't all that great because there were points I was just getting super upset with how the author approached some topics. It was bad to the point of hilarity - e.g. LCA was dismissed in about a page!
September 12, 2019
Interesting, if repetitive and slightly clinical.
May 18, 2021
As a scientist and a physician, this book was terrible. As a lover of great writing, it was worse. I blame the editor(s). Someone should have provided this author with some guidance.
January 3, 2025
I expected this overview of the food supply chain to contain more stories from the author’s life and more subjects interviewed. Instead the book is largely secondary sources where sources exist at all. Most of the book is just filler - paragraphs and paragraphs of speculations and musings about how technology will save our food supply chain. The book is overly optimistic about technology and embraces a neoliberal view on the role of government. Skip this book.
December 16, 2020
It’s a lot about how the writer likes to see the future but not really substantiated
Took me forever to finish the book tbh. Could have been written in 20% of the pages.
I did like the example about the pizza shop.
Took me forever to finish the book tbh. Could have been written in 20% of the pages.
I did like the example about the pizza shop.
September 11, 2023
Would I purchase this book in print? No.
The book jumps around entirely to much, it skims topics that would be of great interest. The format of this book, is poor at best. Some of the info is vastly misleading also.
The book jumps around entirely to much, it skims topics that would be of great interest. The format of this book, is poor at best. Some of the info is vastly misleading also.
August 30, 2021
few good points in the book
December 27, 2019
Doesn't stand out from others in this space
January 21, 2021
This book is really short (about 200 pages) considering the amount of material it covers. The author, Robyn Metcalfe, discusses current issues, challenges, and potential ways forward about where our food originates from, how it gets processed, and finally, how it gets delivered to us in grocery stores.
What I found particular engaging about Metcalfe's writing was that she gave many examples of specific foods (pizza, burgers, etc) in order to highlight the globalization of food and farming, instead of being vague and unspecific. This really helped solidify her argument about how unlike before, the foods we eat are compiled from ingredients pulled from places across the world which require coordination, organization, and, unlike other global products, are perishable and therefore on a timeline.
A more nuanced approach that Metcalfe took in discussing the globalization of food was the lack of access that many rural areas are now beginning to experience, dubbed "food deserts". The juxtaposition she presented with the abundance of quantity of food grown with the lack of nutritious food in these deserts was quite nice. The crux of this problem is again, how food is harvested, stored, and transported to where it needs to go.
Metcalfe ends her book with hopeful optimism in technology - that given the technological advances in the last few decades, the way food is harvested and delivered to consumers will become more optimized and efficient.
Overall, I enjoyed the easy reading of Metcalfe's work. Her writing was not too technical, and she made sure to address her audience at a level where both food scientists and the everyday layman could read and understand her points. Other reviews of her book cited a lack of organization of ideas, messy transitions, and unrealistic expectations for the future of food. While I can see where the author could have improved these things, I do not feel that they take away too heavily from the story she is trying to tell about food. After all, can you fault the author for being optimistic in a time when it is just so incredibly easy to be pessimistic?
What I found particular engaging about Metcalfe's writing was that she gave many examples of specific foods (pizza, burgers, etc) in order to highlight the globalization of food and farming, instead of being vague and unspecific. This really helped solidify her argument about how unlike before, the foods we eat are compiled from ingredients pulled from places across the world which require coordination, organization, and, unlike other global products, are perishable and therefore on a timeline.
A more nuanced approach that Metcalfe took in discussing the globalization of food was the lack of access that many rural areas are now beginning to experience, dubbed "food deserts". The juxtaposition she presented with the abundance of quantity of food grown with the lack of nutritious food in these deserts was quite nice. The crux of this problem is again, how food is harvested, stored, and transported to where it needs to go.
Metcalfe ends her book with hopeful optimism in technology - that given the technological advances in the last few decades, the way food is harvested and delivered to consumers will become more optimized and efficient.
Overall, I enjoyed the easy reading of Metcalfe's work. Her writing was not too technical, and she made sure to address her audience at a level where both food scientists and the everyday layman could read and understand her points. Other reviews of her book cited a lack of organization of ideas, messy transitions, and unrealistic expectations for the future of food. While I can see where the author could have improved these things, I do not feel that they take away too heavily from the story she is trying to tell about food. After all, can you fault the author for being optimistic in a time when it is just so incredibly easy to be pessimistic?
November 25, 2020
Probably every person in America needs to read this book to understand how food is grown, processed, and transported. It was actually very exciting and interesting to see why food routes developed and how much they adapt in real-time to meet the demands of our current food cultures.
Things I learned:
Our food routes are global, and they have been global for a long time. Local food and eating local isn't as efficient, environmentally-friendly, or economical as we want it to be. If people really want to eat only local foods, we will have to do major revamps in our systems.
Balancing food safety, nutrition, affordability, not to mention environmentally-friendly practices is truly delicate and complex. Technology, along with data collection, has some surprising uses.
Bottom line, I have gained a new-found respect for logistics and how important they are in our current world.
I really appreciated the analysis of the way our food routes work today and why we have come to this point. I did not like the forecast-predicting of the way food could be going. I'm disconcerted by the idea of manufacturing food printed in printers, fake meat, and the prediction that people won't be cooking. Perhaps because I think cooking is still an important skill, and the art of taking raw ingredients and preparing a meal is undervalued. I don't see how not cooking is sustainable. My budget demands that the majority of my meals are prepared at home.
Things I learned:
Our food routes are global, and they have been global for a long time. Local food and eating local isn't as efficient, environmentally-friendly, or economical as we want it to be. If people really want to eat only local foods, we will have to do major revamps in our systems.
Balancing food safety, nutrition, affordability, not to mention environmentally-friendly practices is truly delicate and complex. Technology, along with data collection, has some surprising uses.
Bottom line, I have gained a new-found respect for logistics and how important they are in our current world.
I really appreciated the analysis of the way our food routes work today and why we have come to this point. I did not like the forecast-predicting of the way food could be going. I'm disconcerted by the idea of manufacturing food printed in printers, fake meat, and the prediction that people won't be cooking. Perhaps because I think cooking is still an important skill, and the art of taking raw ingredients and preparing a meal is undervalued. I don't see how not cooking is sustainable. My budget demands that the majority of my meals are prepared at home.
March 10, 2019
Reads more as a list of buzzwords and pseudo sci-fi than anything remotely practical in understanding the near future of food system logistics.
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March 29, 2019As heard on the Science Magazine Podcast:
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews