Feed the Planet - (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Acclaimed photographer George Steinmetz documents the awesome global effort that puts food on our tables and transforms the surface of the Earth. With a foreword by Michael Pollan and an introduction and informative captions by veteran environmental journalist Joel K. Bourne Jr., Feed the Planet brings the impact of visual images, accompanied by clear explanations and accurate information, to one of humanity's deepest needs, greatest pleasures, and most pressing challenges: Bringing nutritious and sustainably produced food to the Earth's growing population, in the face of destabilizing climate change. It's the rare book that reveals how the world works, laying the groundwork for thinking about how our personal choices shape the future well-being of everyone. Do you know where your food comes from? To find out, photographer George Steinmetz spent a decade documenting food production in more than 36 countries on 6 continents, 24 US states, and 5 oceans. In striking aerial images, he captures the massive scale of 21st-century agriculture that has sculpted 40 percent of the Earth's surface. He explores the farming of staples like wheat and rice, the cultivation of vegetables and fruits, fishing and aquaculture, and meat production. He surveys traditional farming in diverse cultures, and he penetrates vast agribusinesses that fuel international trade. From Kansas wheat fields to a shrimp cocktail's origins in India to cattle stations in Australia larger than some countries, Steinmetz tracks the foods we eat back to land and sea, field and factory. He takes us places that most of us never see, although our very lives depend on them"--

Book Synopsis

"The aerial images are revelatory, sometimes unsettling and surprisingly beautiful" (New York Times Book Review)

Acclaimed photographer George Steinmetz documents the awesome global effort that puts food on our tables and transforms the surface of the Earth

With a foreword by Michael Pollan and an introduction and informative captions by veteran environmental journalist Joel K. Bourne Jr., Feed the Planet brings the impact of visual images, accompanied by clear explanations and accurate information, to one of humanity's deepest needs, greatest pleasures, and most pressing challenges: Bringing nutritious and sustainably produced food to the Earth's growing population, in the face of destabilizing climate change.

It's the rare book that reveals how the world works, laying the groundwork for thinking about how our personal choices shape the future well-being of everyone.

Do you know where your food comes from? To find out, photographer George Steinmetz spent a decade documenting food production in more than 36 countries on 6 continents, 24 US states, and 5 oceans. In striking aerial images, he captures the massive scale of 21st-century agriculture that has sculpted 40 percent of the Earth's surface.

He explores the farming of staples like wheat and rice, the cultivation of vegetables and fruits, fishing and aquaculture, and meat production. He surveys traditional farming in diverse cultures, and he penetrates vast agribusinesses that fuel international trade. From Kansas wheat fields to a shrimp cocktail's origins in India to cattle stations in Australia larger than some countries, Steinmetz tracks the foods we eat back to land and sea, field and factory. He takes us places that most of us never see, although our very lives depend on them.

Review Quotes

"Feed the Planet conveys a message of pressing importance, communicated by images of exquisite beauty. George Steinmetz is one the most unique and astonishing photographers of our time."
---Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild

"Feed the Planet is a masterpiece. Its extraordinary imagery utterly transforms our understanding of what it means to feed the world. Steinmetz has captured the face of a troubled planet never before seen, teeming with astonishing brilliance, unnoticed beauty, and calamitous ecological provocations."
---Paul Hawken, environmentalist and entrepreneur

"Feed the Planet grabs you by the collar, forces you to halt and really see--the intricate dance of our planet, beginning with the very essence of survival: food and agriculture. A remarkable publication and an instant classic on the shelves at Noma."
----René Redzepi, chef/co-owner of Noma

"Feed the Planet is literally a trip around the world's food sources--gardens, oceans, rivers and ranches--as if you were looking down at it all from a hot air balloon. Steinmetz and Bourne have enlivened a generally dry topic with gorgeous photos, history, fun facts, and lore: Coffee was likely discovered (legend has it) by an Ethiopian goat herder who noticed that his goats stayed up all night after munching on a local bean; Spain is the world's largest producer of olive oil; and southern Peru is considered the birthplace of the potato. Not only will you be entertained, but you will also be forced to think hard about the choices you make about what you put on the table every day."
---Sara Moulton, host of "Sara's Weeknight Meals"

"Feed the Planet captures the diversity, challenges, and impacts of feeding the world in all its breathtaking beauty and sobering realities. George Steinmetz's images, from sweeping landscapes to exquisite minutiae, show us the intricacies of where and how our food is produced. No matter how much you think you know about food, Steinmetz's outstanding documentation will shed new light."
---Jason Clay, World Wildlife Fund, USA

"George Steinmetz's work has brilliantly and beautifully captured the intricacies and challenges to the world's food supply chain, which we are grateful to be part of daily as we feed our community."
---Rita Sodi and Jody Williams, Chefs and Owners, Via Carota, Bar Pisellino, Commerce Inn, I Sodi, Buvette, West Village, New York

"If you want to see how the world secures enough food for more than eight billion people in the early twenty-first century, then there is no better visual guide than Feed the Planet."
----Vaclav Smil, author of How the World Really Works

"The pageant of food production is the history of humanity, for better and worse. No one captures that pageant with a keener eye, in wide-angle and in intimate human detail, than photographer George Steinmetz. In this important book, we see what we all would prefer to ignore: the costs of our hungers and wants."
----David Quammen, author of Spillover

"Feed the Planet made me think differently about how each of our culinary ingredients is grown and harvested. Anyone interested in gastronomy should have this magnificent book."

----Ferran Adrià, chef, elBullifoundation

About the Author

George Steinmetz is an award-winning documentary photographer whose large-scale projects on pressing global issues have been published in National Geographic magazine, the New York Times, and many other leading publications. To create Feed the Planet, he visited more than 36 countries, 24 US states, and 5 oceans over the past decade. His books for Abrams include The Human Planet (2020), New York Air (2015), Desert Air (2012), Empty Quarter (2009), and African Air (2008). He lives in New Jersey with his wife, journalist Lisa Bannon. Joel K. Bourne Jr. is an award-winning environmental journalist and the author of The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World (2015). He is a former Senior Editor for the Environment at National Geographic magazine, where he remains a frequent contributor covering agriculture, energy, and environmental issues around the globe. He lives with his family in Wilmington, North Carolina. Michael Pollan is the author, most recently, of This Is Your Mind on Plants (2021) and How to Change Your Mind (2018). His Omnivore's Dilemma (2006) forever changed the way readers thought about food. A professor at Harvard University, he is the recipient of a James Beard Award among many others. He lives in Berkeley.