Food is vital for our health and welfare, and its production critically affects the environment as well as the wealth of nations. Despite a rapid increase in trade, hundreds of millions of people remain hungry, while chronic obesity is increasing worldwide. Much of the grain that could amply feed the world’s population is fed instead to cattle to satisfy the rich world’s appetite for meat. New technologies, such as GM crops, promise to increase food production, but are they completely safe? How do markets work, and whose vested interests are at stake? What are the impacts of different forms of farming, processing, transportation, retailing and changing eating habits?

Vividly presented through the creative use of maps and graphics, this atlas provides clear, authoritative and comprehensive accounts of the food chain - from plough to plate - and reveals how it affects the lives and livelihoods of us all, farmers and suburban shoppers alike.