Environmental and consumer activists have for a long time blamed pesticides, fertilizers and other aspects of modern farming for causing environmental degradation and human disease. Yet, as the authors of this book show, intensive farming has enabled growth in food production at a rate greater that population growth, thereby ensuring that people are better fed than ever before, whilst simultaneously limiting the effect of farming on the environment. The authors debunk numerous pervasive myths.

Roger Bate is a visiting fellow at AEI.