RaveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)Saladino’s method is digressive, and all the better for it ... The effect, as in so many chapters, is to ground the local instance in a rich and wide-ranging context ... Eating to Extinction operates on parallel time scales, as a polemic on the urgent need for action on agricultural diversity, and as a deeply researched, if accessible, history of food and drink production ... [Saladino\'s] prose: brisk, unornamented, yet rich in the sort of visual and anthropomorphic metaphor that helps to shed light on sometimes complex botanical and phytomorphological material ... The larger argument: vivid, but with the reportorial discipline of the radio journalist. Its satisfactions come from Saladino’s ear for a human story and the breadth of the landscapes, and ecosystems, it covers ... The effect of this is to give the reader more than just the vicarious pleasure of travelogue. Compared to the dry, statistic-heavy utilitarianism of many books on the modern global food system, Saladino’s study is immersive, evocative on a planetary scale, and appropriately so if we are to consider how best to protect the planet’s resources.
