It’s understandably a challenge to distil a colossal amount of research into a flowing document. Also the author’s Frenchness seeps through in regular reminders, including when she cannot refrain from commenting on how well colonised the tongues are of the Vietnamese doctors and scientists she interviews.

It is nonetheless an important read on the capture of the world's food supply; what we're eating, breathing, drinking; and (understatedly) the literal casualties of callous capitalist greed.