The last supper How to overcome the coming food crisis

Sam Kass, 1980-

Book - 2025

"A former senior food policy advisor to President Obama breaks down how changing the way we eat can help fix the climate crisis, from rethinking daily habits to investing in new technology. As a chef in high-end restaurants, and later, in the home of then Senator Barack and Michelle Obama, Sam Kass read a lot about how eating organic and buying local was the key to remaking a food system otherwise built on climate-change-causing petroleum. But when he followed the Obamas into the White House, he realized something: While it's easy to identify the problems in our spoiled food system, fixing it is not as simple as getting your eggs from the farmers' market. Now investing in startups trying to solve the environmental and human c...hallenges of climate change in food and agriculture. In The Last Supper, Kass shares everything he's learned, simplifying it all down to what he calls "The Core Principle": Maximize nutrient production while minimizing environmental damage. He lays out an accessible, action-based plan to save the environment, and in turn, ourselves, based on four pillars of change: Culture: shifting the way we think about and approach the environment as individuals is the foundation of broader change Policy and legislation: the limited but important role of policy and how change is made on a governmental level and what we can do about it Business: How to change the businesses that provide the food we eat as the only path to change our food system Technology: a deep dive into the future with the new and innovative technologies researchers are using to save the environment, from CRISPR and Loam Bio to the magic of mycelium and the secret weapon that is regenerative farming Through anecdotes, interviews, and an astounding amount of research, The Last Supper gives us the tools we need to make a difference"-- Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Genres
Informational works
Instructional and educational works
Documents d'information
Matériel d'éducation et de formation
Published
New York : Crown [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Sam Kass, 1980- (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
246 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780451494962
  • Part I: Setting the table. A mindful meal ; Four ways to save ourselves (maybe) ; Here and now
  • Part II: The four pillars of change. Changing culture ; Changing policy ; Changing business ; Changing technology
  • Conclusion: a fork in the road.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Former Obama-era White House chef Kass looks at the difficulties that lie ahead in putting food on the table. Kass allows that he's a more privileged eater than most: He buys his meat from an organic farm, with a whole chicken costing a whopping $40. "While I love that chicken and believe it tastes better and is better for the planet," he concedes, "this is not a model that will work to feed the world today." Given that big agriculture and big business "exert enormous influence over what and how Americans eat," difficult choices confront the food system, and changing that system will require an overhaul of American culture to favor, for instance, consumption of less meat and more homegrown veggies. It will also require getting food companies to be proactive, including recognizing the central role of big agriculture in a growing cause for food crises: climate change. Positive models help, whether Walmart's efforts to reduceE. coli in field vegetables or Michelle Obama's White House food garden. Critical, too, by Kass's account, is the work that chefs have done and can do to educate the dining public, as they once did with sea bass and swordfish to replenish natural stocks and are now doing with local farm- and garden-to-table menus. "People are more likely to adjust their food choices when they feel emotionally understood, supported, and engaged," he observes, an aperçu that may not mean much to food stamp recipients or residents of famine-ridden lands in the developing world. For all that, there are some big-picture reforms in the works, including global carbon markets, regenerative agriculture, and climate-adapted seed stocks--and, as Kass notes, "this stuff already exists and is being used on real farms." There's a lot to chew on here, some of it bitter. It's a good call to action all the same. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.