Given the immensity of the job in bringing about lasting widespread solutions on a planet inhabited by seven billion people, Ms. David allows herself to wish that everyone who eats would read this book. At the very least, she might hope to make converts out of those who, like her, care deeply about the environment. After all, there are few if any aspects of living that reveal to us more plainly our dependence on natural systems than the food that nourishes us.
     “I had this epiphany one night, sitting at my kitchen table, that every issue I cared about crossed the dinner plate,” says David, explaining how she chose to focus her energies on food. “If you care about global warming, you have to care about agriculture; you have to care about how much meat we’re eating. These are environmental issues.”
     Environmental in nature though the issues may be, Ms. David also offers the possibility that, not unlike the positive byproducts of fixing climate change, the steps that we could take to improve our situation with food have upshots of their own.
     “Going back to local regional farms is going to nurture the soil, instead of depleting it,” she says. “It’s going to make the food healthier, instead of making us unhealthy. You go right down the line — the solutions are going to enrich us in every way.”