Cities | The No Nonsense Guide To World Food
"What does it mean that over half the world’s population now lives in cities? What is the impact of this mass migration on the global food industry? Globe and Mail columnist John Lorinc and activist Wayne Roberts, of the Toronto Food Policy Council, will discuss such timely issues at the joint launch of Lorinc’s Cities: A Groundwood Guide (Groundwood Books) and Roberts's The No Nonsense Guide to World Food (Between The Lines). Scholar and author Amy Lavender Harris will moderate the discussion and an extended Q&A with the audience. – A This is Not A Reading Series event presented by Pages Books & Magazines, Between The Lines, Groundwood Books, Take Five on CIUT and EYE WEEKLY.
The year 2007 marked a defining moment in human history — for the first time, more people were living in cities than in rural areas. This thought-provoking book by cities specialist John Lorinc considers the enormous implications of the mass migration away from rural regions.
Cities have always been the incubators of new ideas, economic innovation and social reform. But in the twenty-first century, the demands and expectations placed on cities are unprecedented. In the developed world, city-dwellers must find ways to deal with chronic inner-city poverty and homelessness, massive over-consumption of energy and non-stop suburban sprawl. Mega-cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America face the massive challenges of poverty, burgeoning populations, vast slums, housing demolitions and a surge in tropical storms resulting from global warming.
Lorinc predicts that solutions will emerge from neighborhoods and dynamic networks linking communities to governments and the broader urban world. Some of these measures will be local, while others will borrow from successful urban ventures in other cities and metropolitan regions.
But beyond the search for better housing, transit, economic opportunity and security within neighborhoods, today’s city-dwellers confront a fundamental question about what it means to live in our urban world. How do people from vastly different cultures and economic circumstances learn to accommodate one another’s needs within the confines of very dense and complex mega-cities? This is the challenge that lies at the very heart of life in this new century.
John Lorinc is a journalist who specializes in urban/municipal issues, business, politics and culture. He has won numerous National Magazine awards for his coverage of urban affairs. Lorinc is a former national affairs chair of PEN Canada and a founding member of the Canadian Coalition for School Libraries. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Food security is a topic that is increasingly in the public consciousness. Covering fast food, health food, institutional food, and more, this timely guide shows how “real food” has become increasingly scarce, dominated as it is in the West by agri-business and supermarkets. In the no-nonsense tone for which these guides are known, Wayne Roberts covers nutrition, health, economics and more. He also gives examples of effective food-ways being developed by individuals, communities, and governments.
An essential guide to this important issue, this book will appeal to students, food professionals and activists, public health staff and concerned citizens – anyone who aims to understand the world food system and how it can be improved.
Wayne Roberts is a leading North American writer, activist and practitioner in community food security. Author and columnist for NOW magazine, he’s on the board of the Community Food Security Coalition and Food Secure Canada, and coordinates the Toronto Food Policy Council, the most respected city food group in the world.
Amy Lavender Harris teaches in the Department of Geography at York University. She is the author of countless scholarly and popular articles. Harris maintains the popular blog Reading Toronto and contributes to Spacing magazine. She is the author of Imagining Toronto, forthcoming from Mansfield Press.
