270: George Monbiot: 'Protein production must move from farm to factory'

<div>“Monbiot has that most aggravating of gifts, the ability lucidly to point out things that people desperately do not want to be true."<br> <br> </div> <div>That's a quote from Henry Dimbleby, the man who proposed <a href="https://foodmatterslive.com/discover/article/governments-national-food-strategy-proposes-to-introduce-salt-tax-reformulate-the-sugar-tax-and-cut-down-on-animal-protein/">the UK's new national food strategy</a>. He is, of course, talking about journalist, author and activist George Monbiot.<br> <br> </div> <div>In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, George joins Stefan Gates to discuss the future of food production both in the UK and around the world.<br> <br> </div> <div>"We are looking at the possibility of systemic environmental collapse," George says. "We tell ourselves we put our survival above everything else. I see no evidence of that at all."<br> <br> </div> <div>He raises many concerns about the current food system in his new book <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/317/317018/regenesis/9780241447642.html">“Regenesis: feeding the world without devouring the planet”</a>.<br> <br> </div> <div>But the most pressing concerns centre around soil and the use of land for agriculture.<br> <br> </div> <div>He says the book came about through his newfound "obsession with soil", something he describes as being "the most complex ecosystem on Earth.<br> <br> </div> <div>Soil, he says, is home to as diverse and abundant an ecosystem as a coral reef or rainforest. But it is being destroyed.<br> <br> </div> <div>He says farming is "by far the greatest cause of the destruction" of ecosystems, habitats, climate breakdown, pollution of rivers and seas, loss of wildlife and extinction: "We are eating the planet."<br> <br> </div> <div>So, what is the solution? George Monbiot believes a number of things need to change, and he believes they can change.<br> <br> </div> <div>Listen to the full episode to hear his views on why agricultural subsidies are getting in the way of progress,