I liked the approach. I like how the author brought the reader's attention in the early chapters. I don't know, in the midway, I lost my interest to finish this book. It has a broad topic, difficult to concentrate on. Perhaps it's just me. The topic is too broad and this book has to be read when you are not in hurry, take your time to digest. But I like the topic, it's about the how we solve our food problem in this crisis era.

This book contains more fodder for thought than I expected from a book about ‘food’. The content picks off from the author’s previous work which I have not had the opportunity to read, but I just might.


The chapters are widely divided into the following criteria: food, body, home, society, city and country, nature and time. Each chapter then does an in-depth drill into the past, the present and the future of trends, possibilities and sensibilities of the people of the time.
It was a fascinating book that I could (for once) read at a stretch if time worked in my favour. I had to surface once in a while to spout any relevant, interesting point to anyone within listening distance. I cannot talk of individual facts because there’d be too many; one can use this as a call to reexamine trends of consumption. The author talks of how access to and requirement of food for sustenance helped design civilization.


The sources of information are straightforward and elaborate. It is a book I would highly recommend to people on the lookout for a well-written introspective book about how food continues to shape us and how we might want to take an active role in shaping our behaviour in that regard to save our futures.


The book does not look at anything with rose-coloured glasses and has a lot of hard truths within it, and the content will take a while to digest completely (if one can ignore the bad, unintentional pun here).

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I didn't know what to expect from this book before I read it, and woah I was so delightfully taken by surprise! The way it's written, the breadth of topics touched and the beauty of ideas evoked: stunning.

I received a Net Galley copy of this book, now to the review:

‘Sitopia’ is not another boring policy book. Steel draws on sources as diverse as ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’ to the latest reported findings (whether global or local); she draws on philosophy (whether ancient or more modern!) and science and always remembers to bring the discussion back to lived experience and, of course, to food. Firmly rooted in the discourse it seeks to examine ‘Sitopia’ is a brilliant way in to a global conversation that is still going on and opens the door to other thinkers while very calmly making its own case for a way forward using the evidence.

Now, if you’ll excuse me - I’m off to keep finding out more and try living a little differently.