Regenesis

Humanity may have a chance, perhaps for the first time since the Neolithic, to reshape not only how it produces food but how it relates to the rest of living nature. Agriculture is the largest driver of environmental harm on the planet, yet it receives far less public scrutiny than it deserves. Cities are often criticised for their spread, but farmland covers more than thirty times that area. Over millennia we have turned vast stretches of the earth into fields and pasture, cleared forests, driven out wildlife, and polluted rivers and seas, all in the name of feeding ourselves. The paradox is that millions still go hungry, and the system meant to end hunger is now showing signs of strain.

Monbiot argues that this dilemma can be resolved, and that the world can be fed without consuming the planet in the process. His case rests on recent advances in soil ecology. As scientists understand the living communities beneath our feet in greater detail, it becomes possible to grow more food while farming less land. The book follows the people working on these methods: a fruit and vegetable grower who is rethinking how fertility works, breeders developing perennial grains that would free fields from the plough and from chemical inputs, and researchers seeking new ways to produce protein and fat.

The smallest organisms, Monbiot suggests, may be central to this shift. Their work could help humans live at peace with the planet, restore the systems that sustain life, and move the world out of an era of mass extinction into what he calls an age of regenesis. George Monbiot is a British journalist and author known for his columns in The Guardian.