Food Fight

Reviews / Votes

Gillespie writes beautifully with an urgent clarity. This isn't just a good read, it's an essential reference for anyone hoping to understand the food system, why it's broken and how we might imagine fixing it. Scholarly, literate and deeply moving - Gillespie deftly draws on global expertise built over four decades working in nutrition and food policy. Food Fight is the essential food book of this year and years to come -- CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN, author of ULTRA PROCESSED PEOPLE If you want to change our rotten corrupt food system, you first have to understand it. Food Fight is the gripping book we have been waiting for, from a veteran of the food wars. Essential reading for anyone interested in our health and the planet -- TIM SPECTOR, author of SPOON FED and FOOD FOR LIFE Eye-opening . . . Food Fight tackles a crucial issue at an important moment, offering rich detail on how our food is produced, traded and consumed and why the system must change * * Nature * * In Food Fight, [Gillespie] marshals his skills as a researcher and a campaigner to deliver a punchy polemic backed up with hard, often astonishing, facts. Anyone who reads his book will want to add their voice to the calls for change, which we can only hope will soon become a clamour -- JULIAN BAGGINI * * Literary Review * * From his years of experience working in international nutrition, Gillespie has on-the-ground knowledge of why and how global food systems lead to widespread hunger, obesity and environmental damage, and what needs to be done to make those systems healthier for all. He makes it clear that this food fight is crucial to take on -- MARION NESTLE, author of FOOD POLITICS What sets Stuart Gillespie's voice apart is compassion and authority from a lifetime working with hungry people. Up there with Marion Nestle's Food Politics, Food Fight exposes the dark arts of the food industry and the frustrating lack of political will. Like hers, Gillespie's anger burns off the page. But Gillespie also looks at where in the world it is going right -- PEN VOGLER, author of SCOFF and STUFFED The need for a radical overhaul of our food system has never been more urgent. Food Fight powerfully articulates the intricate web of historical, economic and political factors that have led us to this point of crisis. It is a clarion call for action, demanding that we rethink and restructure our food systems not just for today, but for generations to come. We owe it to our children and our planet to move beyond incremental reforms and embrace true transformation -- HENRY DIMBLEBY, author of RAVENOUS Fresh, engaging . . . It's a book about our changing conversation around food, changing government policy on food and a huge degree of optimism. I would recommend this book not only for a deep dive and analysis on "how did we get here" but also "how do we get out of here?" -- DAN SALADINO * * BBC Food Programme's 'Food Books of 2025' * * Stuart Gillespie has spent over forty years working on the front-line of nutrition policies across the world - in this brilliant book, he pulls together why we're still seeing such high levels of malnutrition in the world, the role of corporations and key suggestions on how to improve it. A must-read for those interested in food and nutrition -- DEVI SRIDHAR, Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh and bestselling author of PREVENTABLE Stuart Gillespie's decades in the trenches and in corridors of power have made him a clarion of reason and good sense in the battle against hunger. With ripping prose and a global sweep, Gillespie deploys a lifetime's evidence and brilliant argument to show that the only reasonable way to fix our food system is to transform it completely -- RAJ PATEL, author of STUFFED AND STARVED: THE HIDDEN BATTLE FOR THE WORLD FOOD SYSTEM