Socialist Standard No. 1390 June 2020

The author of the book review on food production has received the following reply from the book’s author:

“Thank you very much for your kind message below left on my website and for your very generous and thoughtful review of Sitopia. I am delighted that you liked the book so much and feel that there is much in it with which socialists could agree – I do consider myself a socialist at heart and clearly the metaphor of society being a place in which everyone eats well – and by implication has the means of leading a good and meaningful life – is, I believe, at the heart of socialism. We are clearly agreed that capitalism has proved itself unable to deliver such an outcome – and I accept your point that one cannot lay the blame for totalitarian regimes such as those of modern China and Russia at the feet of Marx – although I found myself very taken with Proudhon’s argument that his optimism in vesting all power in the state had its own inbuilt pitfalls! In any case, I welcome your comments, and with the caveat that I am just an architect who has learned to think through food and by no means a scholar in political philosophy, I should be delighted to continue the dialogue!
With very best wishes, Carolyn Steel.”