Book review: Accounting and Food: Some Italian Experiences

Food plays a fundamental role in human life. Food is a necessity, it is the lifeblood of human existence. Humans cannot survive without it. From prehistoric times, the development of the human race, as well as the majority of human activity, has been strongly intertwined with food, its search, its lack or its abundance. Being so strongly related to human life, food is also an expression of the popular culture because it develops within a particular context and becomes part of the traditions and histories pertaining to a specific territory. More recently, food culture has gained increasing attention from the media, with the proliferation of food TV channels and programmes, as well as the publication of thousands of cooking books and restaurant guides. Food is also a global issue because not everyone has access to food, and this puts their survival at risk. Indeed, while in developed countries food is over-celebrated and abundant – sometimes even wasted – in less developed parts of the world, food is lacking and people are dying of hunger. As a consequence, global organisations such as Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are constantly collaborating with governments worldwide in developing policies for food sustainability and security. The book Accounting and Food, edited by Luciano D’Amico, Roberto Di Pietra and Massimo Sargiacomo, is focused on the crossroad of this complex and multifaceted topic. The book explores some of the ways accounting practices have been linked to food and suggests new paths of research in the accounting and accounting history field.