'Food safety has become one of the most salient quality-of-life issues. Using a 'politics of scale' framework, John K. Yasuda sheds important light on the politics of food safety in China. He also helps us appreciate the challenges of governance in large-scale polities.' Dali L. Yang, University of Chicago 'Why do government regulations designed to safeguard the public so often fail to achieve this goal in practice? John K. Yasuda's On Feeding the Masses provides a fresh answer to this important question by going deep inside the Chinese state. Yasuda finds that the lackluster performance of China's national food safety system stems not from corruption, lack of state capacity, or recalcitrant bureaucrats, but from 'scale politics,' that is, the difficulties of coordinating knowledge, procedures, and rules across different levels of government. Yasuda's 'politics of scale' theoretical framework, which he elucidates and tests with impressive subnational and cross-national evidence, offers an exciting new way for scholars and practitioners to understand and manage the challenges of multilevel governance.' Richard Snyder, Brown University, Rhode Island '... Yasuda's new book On Feeding the Masses: An anatomy of Regulatory Failure in China is worth the wait. ... Part of the appeal of Yasuda's conceptual framework is its ability to incorporate so much analytical territory. Overall, Yasuda's book will appeal to political scientists and policy analysts researching China, as well as anyone researching or working in the food industries in China. It is also an excellent teaching resource for undergraduate and graduate courses on food and government in China.' Sacha Cody, newbooks.asia