This fall, Food Tank serves up a list of 23 new titles that explore the complex world that food eaters face today. Awaiting Their Feast, and Life and Death of the American Worker dive into some of the realities that workers face within the food system. Transfarmation and Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public Health focus on the experience within the animal agriculture industry. And historians take readers back to the origins of the modern food system in books including Devoured, Leftovers, and Nuggets of Gold. From essays to plant-based cookbooks, there’s something here for every reader to curl up with.
1. Against the Grain: How Farmers Around the Globe Are Transforming Agriculture to Nourish the World and Heal the Planet by Roger Thurow
In Against the Grain, journalist and writer Roger Thurow highlights the lived experience of farmers who struggled more each year to cultivate their lands as they battled the crippling side effects of industrial agriculture practices. With stories from around the world, the book showcases the methods these farmers have found to work with natural forces and regenerate the land we all rely on to feed us.
2. Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to COVID-19 by Lori A. Flores (Forthcoming January 2025)
Awaiting Their Feast lays out the contradiction between the high demand in the United States for Latinx food and labor, and the disproportionate rates of criminalization and exploitation that face Latinx food industry workers in the U.S. History professor Lori A. Flores follows stories of food workers across the Northeastern United States and showcases their treatment since WWII, highlighting the irony of the food insecurity that many experience.
3. Censored Landscapes: The Hidden Reality of Farming Animals by Isabella La Rocca González (Forthcoming November 2024)
Censored Landscapes, is a compilation of poetry, narrative and photography that centers on the animal agricultural industry, showcasing landscapes often unseen by the everyday consumer. Author, artist, and activist Isabella La Rocca González invites the reader to confront a reality of animal suffering and environmental harm, while offering a perspective on action and healing.
4. Cooking Mindfully: Make Food Your Ally with Sustainable, Low Waste Recipes for Every Season by Kait Welch (Forthcoming December 2024)
Cooking Mindfully is both a cookbook and a guide for low-waste, seasonal living from the mind of Modern Hippie founder Kait Welch. The book is organized by season, with dishes ordered so that the reader can utilize the scraps from one recipe as a key ingredient in the next. Welch also provides tips on best shopping and harvesting practices to help eaters start cutting waste even before they reach the kitchen.
5. Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South by Ayurella Horn-Muller
Devoured explores the history of Kudzu, a perennial weed from Eastern Asia that took root in the southern United States. The plant was originally sold as both a cheap feed for livestock and a way to replenish soil, but eventually lost favor due to its aggressive growth. Environmental journalist Ayurella Horn-Muller examines Kudzu’s full story, and ties in the plant’s fall from grace with a U.S. history of “othering” people and things that come from far away.
6. Food Economics: Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health by William A. Masters and Amelia B. Finaret
An open access textbook, Food Economics offers an introduction to economic principles while describing the evolution of food and agriculture systems in the U.S. and worldwide. Chapters touch on topics including the consequences of individual choice and the factors that shape them, collective action and government programs, and international trade and value chains.
7. From the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture by Stephanie Anderson (Forthcoming November 2024)
Offering a message of hope, From the Ground Up highlights the efforts of women throughout the United States who are driving food systems change. Author Stephanie Anderson reports on the stories of women in agriculture, restaurants, advocacy groups, and investment firms, who are making sustainability and inclusivity the priority. From a woman who starts a CSA to address a local food desert to a mother and daughter who run a diversified fruit and vegetable farm, each chapter tackles a different topic and offers an inspirational example.
8. Handcrafted Careers: Working the Artisan Economy of Craft Beer by Eli Revelle Yano Wilson
Sociologist Eli Revelle Yano Wilson examines the craft beer industry through a lens of race, gender, and the swiftly changing nature of work. Drawing from the stories of everyday workers, Handcrafted Careers gives the reader a perspective on how a niche industry allows some people to turn a passion for homebrewing into a lucrative career, and why. But it also unpacks the unequal pathways to success, and explores the forces that privilege some individuals over others.
9. In Search of the Perfect Peach: Why Flavour Holds the Answer to Fixing our Food System by Franco Fubini
Franco Fubini, CEO and founder of UK-based green grocer Natoora, shares his obsession with flavor by taking readers along on a hunt for the perfect peach. This international adventure encourages the reader to think outside of appearance and convenience to transform the food system, and to consider the season and the region when seeking to enjoy the best possible flavor.
10. Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public Health edited by James Merchant and Robert Martin
This compilation of essays explores the history and consequences of the movement that led to industrialization of animal production. Covering topics from difficulties with regulation to the negative environmental impact of factory farming, chapters examine the current system of meat production from a broad public health perspective.
11. Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family’s Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer by Brian Reisinger
Writer and fourth-generation family farmer Brian Reisinger highlights the precarious realities of life for his family as they fight to preserve their jobs and their family heritage. High food prices and supply chain insecurities are only some of the challenges that farmers struggle with every season. Land Rich, Cash Poor showcases these elements while weaving in potential solutions to food system challenges.
12. Leftovers: A History of Food Waste and Preservation by Eleanor Barnett
Leftovers traces a complex history of food waste and food preservation, dating back to the 16th century in Britain. Cultural historian and author Eleanor Barnett weaves historical trends and contexts in with a variety of ingenious methods for storing and preserving foods that give the reader insight into current attitudes towards food waste.
13. Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company by Alice Driver
The culmination of four years of intensive reporting, Life and Death of the American Worker documents the daily struggles and workplace injustices that led workers to bring a lawsuit against meat processing giant Tyson Foods. From a dangerous chemical spill to the COVID-19 pandemic, Alice Driver’s book showcases the voice of the immigrant workforce that organized and fought against working conditions that were killing them.
14. My Regenerative Kitchen: Plant-Based Recipes and Sustainable Practices to Nourish Ourselves and the Planet by Camilla Marcus (Forthcoming October 2024)
In My Regenerative Kitchen, New York chef, restaurateur, and sustainability activist Camilla Marcus focuses on what home cooks can do everyday in the kitchen to promote a regenerative food system. Recipes focus on using the entirety of plants and bringing a zero-waste mentality to the kitchen, while promoting healthy and delicious eating.
15. Nuggets of Gold: Further Processed Chicken and the Making of the American Diet by Patrick Dixon (Forthcoming October 2024)
The humble chicken nugget is at the center of this book that examines the culture of food in the U.S. Author Patrick Dixon follows the rise of poultry’s popularity in the country as he connects the dots between the stories of workers, businesses, and eaters. In doing so, he argues that price and convenience made the chicken nugget an economical choice for the consumer who wanted to maximize health within the realities of budget and time constraints.
16. Radical Food Geographies: Power, Knowledge and Resistance edited by Colleen Hammelman, Charles Z. Levkoe, and Kristin Reynolds
This collection of essays examines where power in the food system is concentrated internationally, and presents action-oriented approaches to building a more just and equitable food system. Covering topics including migrant labor in organic agriculture, gentrification through taste, and Black urban agrarianism, Radical Food Geographies analyzes food systems challenges across the globe and invites the reader to engage with these systems both theoretically and concretely to contribute to social change.
17. Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World by Roger Crowley
Author and historian Roger Crowley details the voyages and adventures that made spices—products that are uniquely lightweight and lucrative—the first globally traded commodity. With an eye for geographical and geological detail, Spice invites the reader to learn more about a complex history, and appreciate the way that global demand for food and power has shaped the world.
18. The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos by Mark Easter
The Blue Plate is not a cookbook, but rather a guide to understanding the most pressing questions about eating sustainably. Ecologist Mark Easter examines the foods we eat as they move along the supply chain from soil to seller. His narrative helps readers understand the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the food’s journey and recommends in-season, local alternatives to many common, high-carbon food choices.
19. The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing
The Garden Against Time is an ode to the joy of working with the land and cultivating beauty outdoors. But it also raises important questions about who has access to such a paradise. Author Olivia Laing brings poetry to her personal experiences in the garden while encouraging the reader to put their own hands in the earth and make their own discoveries. And she shows that embracing biodiversity in the backyard can be a crucial step for connecting with nature as it is, while at the same time envisioning how things could be better.
20. The Heart Healthy Plant-Based Cookbook by Hari Pulapaka and Jenneffer Pulapaka (Forthcoming October 2024)
A collaboration between a professional chef and a lifestyle medicine expert, this cookbook brings readers a multitude of ways to showcase the bounty of their garden. Recipes are accompanied by tips for stocking the pantry and building the eating habits that support heart health.
21. The Problem With Solutions: Why Silicon Valley Can’t Hack the Future of Food by Julie Guthman
A critique of the technological fixes that Silicon Valley offers to the food crisis, The Problem With Solutions urges the reader to think critically and contextually about the issues the food system faces. Author and geographer Julie Guthman points out the problems that tech ventures tend to create, showing readers that they may not provide the answers people are looking for.
22. Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming by Leah Garcés
Transfarmation details the complications inherent in the factory farming system and presents solutions that support the farmers, the animals, and the communities that surround them. CEO and President of Mercy for Animals Leah Garcés draws on interviews and fieldwork, as well as her long career in animal protection, to show readers a hopeful path forward.
23. Transforming Food Systems: Narratives of Power by Molly D. Anderson
In Transforming Food Systems, Professor Molly D. Anderson examines the competing narratives of food system transformation. Drawing on interviews and speeches from policymakers, philanthropists, academics, researchers, workers, and advocates, she breaks down different theories of change. Ultimately, Anderson uplifts the most promising pathways that will help the world achieve food systems that are more regenerative and equitable.
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