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The link between food and land has never been broken, but it has been transformed by the power of industrial society and the availability of cheaply-priced energy. Victorian Quaker social campaigner Joseph Fisher travelled across Europe in 1865, writing a series of letters about food production of the day, in much the same way as we would write a blog today.
What it explains very well is why the foundations of modern urban living are a lot less robust than some would have us believe. In this short book, Fisher was writing at a time when European cities were able to take long-haul food procurement as a primary source of food for urban populations.
It was written at a time when the political power that derived from owning land in England was in full retreat from the economic firepower of industrial empires and burgeoning urban middle classes. The comparisons with other neighbouring European states are useful introductions to inform further research by supplying some historical background and supplying contemporary analysis.
More enlightened and compassionate than Cobbett's rural rides a century earlier, Fisher's steam-powered odyssey presents the statistics upon which he bases his conclusions. So even if it is a partial account, the substance and any gaps in the basis for his arguments are at least clear for all to see.
Fisher writes clearly and sticks to his point: he is neither stuffy nor afraid to speak his mind. Very readable, an authentic voice from an age of transition.