I became fascinated by the intersection of food, sustainable agriculture, and culture when I moved to Iowa. I had long been an environmentalist, but moving to the land of big corn forced me to rethink food production. I wrote a book that explored agricultural narratives in India (Growing Stores from India) and developed a class on Religion and Food. I then became curious about how people and communities translate their values of sustainability into practice. For example, how do you decide what to eat, and who gets to decide? These books helped me think about links between food, sustainability, and culture and the power to decide what to eat.
I wrote...
Living Sustainably: What Intentional Communities Can Teach Us about Democracy, Simplicity, and Nonviolence
In Living Sustainably, A. Whitney Sanford reveals the solutions that such communities have devised for sustainable living while highlighting the specific choices and adaptations that they have made to accommodate local context and geography. She examines their methods of reviving and adapting traditional agrarian skills, testing alternate building materials for their homes, and developing local governments that balance group needs and individual autonomy. Living Sustainably is a teachable testament to the idea that new cultures based on justice and sustainability are attainable in many ways. Sanford's engaging work demonstrates that citizens can make a conscious effort to subsist in a more balanced, harmonious world.
In the first half of the twentieth century, Russian botanist Nikolay Vavilov travelled the world collecting seeds representative of agricultural biodiversity.
In light of hunger and famine in the newly formed Soviet Union, Vavilov hoped to find and create hardy strains that could survive the Soviet climate and alleviate hunger. What he found, however, was not just the importance of saving seeds but also the cultural knowledge and traditions necessary for these seeds to flourish.
Nabhan’s retelling of Vavilov’s travels shows why simply maintaining a seed bank is not enough. Instead, we must also preserve traditional knowledge along with the seeds. To me, Vavilov’s quest reveals the importance of food democracy, that people maintain control of the foods they eat.
Two explorers and the fate of the world's food. The future of our food depends on tiny seeds in orchards and fields the world over. In 1943, one of the first to recognize this fact, the great botanist Nikolay Vavilov, lay dying of starvation in a Soviet prison. But in the years before Stalin jailed him as a scapegoat for the country's famines, Vavilov had traveled over five continents, collecting hundreds of thousands of seeds in an effort to outline the ancient centers of agricultural diversity and guard against widespread hunger. Now, another remarkable scientist - and vivid storyteller -…
In Fast Food Nation, journalist Eric Schlosser traces the growth of fast food across the US and shows how franchises have standardized both agricultural and social life in the process.
As the demand for McDonalds’ fries and hamburgers soared, for example, farmers adapted potato and meat production to strict new specifications. Similarly, fast food franchises reshaped labor practices in the process.
Schlosser’s book was the first to reveal the extent to which fast food changed environmental, social, and health landscapes in the US. And, more important, we see how much fast food—which promises choice—has instead reduced agricultural biodiversity and food choice in the process.
Now the subject of a film by Richard Linklater, Eric Schlosser's explosive bestseller Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World tells the story of our love affair with fast food.
Britain eats more fast food than any other country in Europe. It looks good, tastes good, and it's cheap. But the real cost never appears on the menu.
Eric Schlosser visits the lab that re-creates the smell of strawberries; examines the safety records of abattoirs; reveals why the fries really taste so good and what lurks between the sesame buns - and shows how fast…
What should we eat, and how do we choose? Where does our food come from?
In Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan traces the origins of four meals to help answer this question. Each of these meals represents a food production system, big organic, industrial agriculture, for example. He takes us from a McDonald’s meal (hint: it’s corn) to a hunt.
In reading this book, I especially loved his investigative journalism, how he explored the environmental, social, and economic ramifications of each food and its system of production.
The New York Times bestseller that's changing America's diet is now perfect for younger readers
"What's for dinner?" seemed like a simple question-until journalist and supermarket detective Michael Pollan delved behind the scenes. From fast food and big organic to small farms and old-fashioned hunting and gathering, this young readers' adaptation of Pollan's famous food-chain exploration encourages kids to consider the personal and global health implications of their food choices.
In a smart, compelling format with updated facts, plenty of photos, graphs, and visuals, as well as a new afterword and backmatter, The Omnivore's Dilemma serves up a bold message…
Instead of merely critiquing existing food systems, Will Allen’s Good Food Revolution documents a path forward that he himself created in Milwaukee, WI.
After a career spanning professional basketball and food production, Allen created Growing Power, an urban farm in an impoverished area of Milwaukee focusing on fish and produce. More important, Growing Power helps local youth and addresses the systemic racism that many face.
What I especially love about this book is that Allen shows the power of urban agriculture to change lives. Many denigrate community gardens and similar projects, stating that they can’t feed everyone. True, but they do provide education, community, and opportunities, Allen and Growing Power show food democracy can change a community.
A pioneering urban farmer and MacArthur Genius Award-Winner points the way to building a new food system that can feed- and heal- communities.
The son of a sharecropper, Will Allen had no intention of ever becoming a farmer himself. But after years in professional basketball and as an executive for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Procter & Gamble, he cashed in his retirement fund for a two-acre plot just outside Milwaukee's largest public housing project. The area was a food desert with only convenience stores and fast-food restaurants to serve the needs of locals.
Despite financial challenges and daunting odds, Allen…
Foodtopia tells us about people and communities who taking control of their own food production.
Throughout US history, many groups have sought alternatives to the dominant food culture, including Thgoreau, the Nearings, and, more recently, millennials. While many of us would like to have food alternatives, it can be difficult to figure out how to do this.
Kelley’s book provides details and descriptions of how these back to the land movements worked against the grain and the choices they made in doing so. These stories and examples help us see that there are alternatives to existing food systems, then and now.
"Insightful...empathetic...a thoughtful consideration of a topic that will have a substantial impact on our future."-Booklist
Readable Feast, 2022 Book Award Finalist
Ever wonder if there's a better way to live, work, and eat? You're not alone. Here is the story of five back-to-the-land movements, from 1840 to present day, when large numbers of utopian-minded people in the United States took action to establish small-scale farming as an alternative to mainstream agriculture. Then and now, it's the story of people striving to live freely and fight injustice, to make the food on their table a little healthier, and to leave the…
Susan Tate Ankeny left a career in teaching to write the story of her father’s escape from Nazi-occupied France. In 2011, after being led on his path through France by the same Resistance fighters who guided him in 1944, she felt inspired to tell the story of these brave French patriots, especially the 17-year-old- girl who risked her own life to save her father’s. Susan is a member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, the Air Force Escape and Evasion Society, and the Association des Sauveteurs d’Aviateurs Alliés.
The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.
This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States history to earn a pilot's license, and the first female Asian American pilot to fly for the military.
Her achievements, passionate drive, and resistance in the face of oppression as a daughter of Chinese immigrants and a female aviator changed the course of history. Now the remarkable story of a fearless underdog finally surfaces to inspire anyone to reach toward the sky.
One of WWII’s most uniquely hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.
Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women’s and WWII history books.…