Regenesis by George Monbiot (content precis)

This is written for my own reference but it may be helpful to visitors. 

Brief overview of 'Regenesis - feeding the world without devouring the planet'

Published by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2022.

Ch. 1 - What Lies Beneath Soils and their staggering complexity

Ch. 2 - What Lies Ahead

Complex systems, the Global Standard Diet; food systems over concentrated into the hands of the few, lack of resilience, inflexible nodes in supply chains.

Ch. 3 - Agricultural Sprawl

River pollution; livestock land take; plastics (p.66)

Ch. 4 - Fruitful

All about Tolly (Iain Tolhurst) at the Hardwick Estate in the Chilterns

Ch. 5 - The Number of the Feast

Food and people; food banks

Ch. 6 - Putting Down Roots

Deep rooted crops; no-till farming, perennial crops.

Ch. 7 - Farm Free

Precision fermentation and other lab-grown food production

Ch. 8 - Pastures New

Pastoral myths that perpetuate a rosy view of farming; perverse, destructive farming policies.

Ch. 9 - The Ice Saints

A short coda about praying to ice gods.

Plus 86 pages of chapter references.

The above precis are the main themes that have stuck in my mind, but this book is an absolute treasure trove of useful information about the state of current farming and developments in alternative farming techniques, presented as a journey of discovery. It is very heavy reading in places, not shirking on science or politics. In others, the writing gives the reader a beguiling picture of nature that reminds me of passages in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, when he evokes images of The Shire and Ithilien.