Good Food is Everybody's Business
We’ve pulled five books from the GoodFood World library, spanning a critical period in American agriculture – the late 1880s through the early 1940s. Before the development of “agro-chemicals” as an off-shoot of chemicals used in both World Wars, farming methods were naturally “organic.” These books, while considered somewhat dated today, are our grandfathers and great-grandfathers teaching us how to care for the land and animals.
The wealth of the world comes from the land, which produces all the direct and immediate essentials for the preservation of life and the protection of the race. The farmer, who produces all the necessities and many of the luxuries, and whose products are in constant demand and never out of vogue, should be independent in mode of life and prosperous in his fortunes.
Michael Pollan calls her one of his food heroes. Barbara Kingsolver credits her with shaping the history and politics of food in the United States. And countless others who have vied for a food revolution, pushed organics, and reawakened Americans to growing their own food and eating locally consider her both teacher and muse. Joan Gussow has influenced thousands through her books, This Organic Life and The Feeding Web, her lectures, and the simple fact that she lives what she preaches. Now in her eighties, she stops once more to pass along some wisdom—surprising, inspiring, and controversial—via the pen.
More and more people are eating organic food because they want a healthier and safer alternative to “conventional” food. They want food produced without toxic pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, and genetic engineering. They want food that sustains both human health and the environment. The Organic Food Handbook written by Ken Roseboro examines this important trend and provides a concise, simple guide to buying and eating organic food.
What if you can’t afford nine-dollar tomatoes? That was the question award-winning journalist Tracie McMillan couldn’t escape as she watched the debate about America’s meals unfold, one that urges us to pay food’s true cost—which is to say, pay more. So in 2009 McMillan embarked on a groundbreaking undercover journey to see what it takes to eat well in America. For nearly a year, she worked, ate, and lived alongside the working poor to examine how Americans eat when price matters.
There is a new wave of interest in good food, food you can trust, and food production on all scales. The literature of food and farming go back a long way, and there is a rich literature of food production just beginning to be explored. Here is a selection of books from the GoodFood World library touching on the heart and soul of farming for your late winter reading.
How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become “white trash”? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders, and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like. White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender.
This certainly is not an all-encompassing list of books for the reader who wants to know more about genetically engineered or genetically modified foods. It is a place to begin reading and to learn more.
