Food Tank is rounding up 20 books to help everyone deepen their understanding of food systems. Cookbooks like Toya Boudy’s Cooking for the Culture and Jerry Mai’s Vietnam: Morning to Midnight include recipes to stimulate reader’s awareness around food and identity. Fresh Banana Leaves by Jessica Hernandez reveals the power of Indigenous knowledge systems in rebuilding a more sustainable and just global food system. And Costing the Earth calls for an overhaul of the world’s approach to finance to save the planet. By highlighting stories of struggle, channels for hope, and frameworks for change, these 20 books will captivate readers and ignite collective action toward a better future for everyone.
1. Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec
Becoming Kin details how going backwards to Indigenous ways of knowing may guide readers to reimagine a different future in which the land is relative, not a resource. Entwining stories of her ancestors alongside her own, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec helps readers understand settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. Becoming Kin encourages readers to reflect on their own identity and education as they forge a new relationship between humans and the environment.
2. The Climate Optimist Handbook by Anne Therese Gennari
The Climate Optimist Handbook enters the world at a critical moment. Anne Therese Gennari guides readers to shift perspective on the climate crisis so that they can act from a place of optimism and hope, rather than one of fear. Taking readers on a journey of empowered awareness, this handbook calls all readers to recognize that the future is truly up to us. With the courage to act, humanity has much to win.
3. Cooking for the Culture by Toya Boudy
Cooking for the Culture celebrates New Orleans food and its Black culture through the words of Toya Boudy, a born and raised local chef. This cookbook gives readers the inside scoop on Boudy’s original television competition recipes, from Sweet Cream Farina at the crack of dawn to Jambalaya and Red Gravy for dinner. Weaving traditional dishes from home into personal stories from her childhood, Boudy’s cookbook highlights the ways in which food and identity intertwine.
4. Costing the Earth by Eric Archambeau
In Costing the Earth, Eric Archambeau argues that in order to save the planet, world leaders must radically overhaul finance. Archambeau supports his claim with stories from his own career path, including venture capital in Silicon Valley and climate focused work in agriculture. Costing the Earth is both timely and relevant, calling for the corporate sector to go beyond media friendly pledges to advance impact goals on the same basis as profitability goals.
5. Crushed: How a Changing Climate is Altering the Way We Drink by Brian Freedman
Crushed invites readers on a trip through the world of wine and spirits, sharing the stories of growers and producers from eight key regions that are being affected by the climate crisis. Amid stories from fires in California’s wine country and hailstorms in Bordeaux, Brian Freedman intertwines tales of success as producers adapt to meet the ever-changing climate. Crushed is for everyone who fancies a nice dram of wine or whiskey, giving readers the opportunity to understand the evolution of their beloved beverages from ground to glass.
6. Farm: The Making of a Climate Activist by Nicola Harvey
In Farm, Nicola Harvey explores the complex arguments surrounding food and climate change that are too often rendered as black and white. Harvey shares the excitement and hardships of her personal transition from an inner-city lifestyle to a cattle farm in rural New Zealand. Farm spotlights the challenges of new farmers confronting the status quo of the industrialized food system, while also just trying to survive.
7. Food System Transformations: Social Movements, Local Economies, Collaborative Networks Edited by Cordula Kropp, Irene Antoni-Komar, and Colin Sage
Food System Transformations examines the role of local food movements in devising solutions to global food issues. Drawing on fieldwork from across the world, this research provides a fresh perspective on the role of grassroots initiatives in building more sustainable and socially just food production systems. Food System Transformations represents a ‘second generation’ movement, imagining a world in which local autonomy directly contributes to healthy nutrition worldwide.
8. Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez
Although Indigenous communities are among the most affected by the climate crisis, their scientific knowledge systems remain largely ignored in mainstream environmental discourse. In Fresh Banana Leaves, Jessica Hernandez challenges this narrative, breaking down why western conservation isn’t working. As she introduces and contextualizes Indigenous knowledge systems, Hernandez reveals how humans can save the world through processes that heal and regenerate rather than displace and destroy.
9. From the Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities by Alison Sant
From the Ground Up shows the unique ways cities in the United States are working to mitigate and adapt to climate change while building equitable communities. Harnessing urban-experimentation and community-based development, expert Alison Sant reveals how to raise the bar in communities from places of survival to places where everyone can thrive.
10. The Fulton Fish Market: A History by Jonathan H. Rees
The Fulton Fish Market by Jonathan Rees explores the evolution of Manhattan’s Fulton Fish Market – one of the largest fish markets in the United States. This historical analysis vividly illustrates how politics, rapid development and overfishing led to the market’s steady decline in the 1920s. Yet Rees’ thoughtful research speaks far beyond the fishing industry, giving insight into how clashes between the natural and built worlds have long shaped American cities.
11. The Future of Food is Female by Jennifer Stojkovic
Three years after founding Vegan Women Summit (VWS), a platform empowering women to build a kinder, more sustainable world, Jennifer Stojkovic brings readers The Future of Food is Female. By spotlighting female leaders, innovators, and changemakers in the plant-based food space, this book paves the way for a reinvented food system which might have the potential to save the planet.
12. Guaraná: How Brazil Embraced the World’s Most Caffeine-Rich Plant by Seth Garfield
In this detailed analysis of Guaraná, Seth Garfield explores the plant’s journey from Brazil’s origin history to its place as the namesake ingredient of a multibillion-dollar soft drink industry. As an emblem of Brazil itself, Guaraná illuminates human impacts upon Amazonian ecosystems and the circulation of knowledge, goods, and power in Latin America’s largest nation.
13. Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods have Shaped Cultures and Communities by Julia Skinner
Alongside the rapid rise of craft beer, kombucha, sourdough and cheese, fermentation has taken flight as a popular topic in both food and health spheres. In Our Fermented Lives, Julia Skinner investigates the fascinating roots of this distinct flavor profile. As Skinner dives into the intersections between fermented foods with human history and culture, she reveals how fermentation has become a powerful instrument in bringing communities together.
14. Quinoa: Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands by Linda J. Seligmann
Quinoa explores the untold story behind the superfood that has surged in popularity worldwide. In this book, Lisa Seligmann travels to the Huanoquite region of Peru to examine how the growing demand for Quinoa has altered the lives of Quechua farmers in the Andean highlands. As Seligmann researches the transformation of a traditional, minor crop into one of the world’s most exquisite grains, she illuminates broader themes of how Indigenous communities have engaged with global food politics.
15. Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate (Expanded and Updated 2nd Edition) by Laura Lengnick
This expanded edition of Resilient Agriculture invites readers to look beyond the desperation of climate crisis headlines to shine light upon various agricultural climate solutions. As Laura Lengnick shares stories of adaptation, she calls attention to the power of resilience thinking in regenerating the well-being of people, the land, and the communities. Whether readers work in the farm and food industry or are simply curious eaters, Resilient Agriculture provides a hopeful perspective for everyone as the world confronts the challenges ahead.
16. Salmon Wars: The Dark Underbelly of our Favorite Fish by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins
Salmon Wars takes readers on a deep dive into the murky waters of the industrial salmon farming industry. By revealing conditions inside hatcheries, investigative journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins document how this industry endangers human health and the environment. Yet through highlighting the stories from big fish farmers and fly-fishing activists, Salmon Wars may serve as a springboard for a more transparent and sustainable fishing industry.
17. Transforming Food Systems Under Climate Change Through Innovation Edited by Bruce Campbell, Phillip Thornton, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Dhanush Dinesh, and Andreea Nowak
Transforming Food Systems Under Climate Change Through Innovation tells readers the story of why food system transformation is essential, and how research can be a catalyst in spearheading that change. Written by a team of researchers from across the globe, this book unites a multitude of perspectives to develop strategies that can be used to approach the future of the food system.
18. Vietnam: Morning to Midnight by Jerry Mai (Forthcoming February 28, 2023)
Join chef and author Jerry Mai as she shares the iconic dishes and street foods that have been long enjoyed throughout Vietnam. From beef pho and banh mi at sunrise to a communal feast of savory snacks and beer at sunset, Vietnam: Morning to Midnight invites readers to experience a day in the life of Vietnamese cuisine from their own kitchens all around the world.
19. A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City by Edward Chisholm
A Waiter in Paris paints an evocative picture of the realities of a waiter’s job. Edward Chisholm’s memoir underlines the contrast between the luxurious experience of fine dining and the far less glamorous world on the other side of the kitchen door. Chisholm’s recollection of his time as a server in Paris illustrates the conflicted experiences of restaurant workers pursuing their dreams as they balance the physical and emotional demands of the fine dining industry.
20. We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years by Kevin Bruce
Written by a food worker and for food workers, We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years presents a unique perspective on the lives of New York City’s food handlers between 1912 and 1937. From strikes to industrial organizing, and from cafeteria servers to food delivery drivers, Kevin Bruce sheds light on the forgotten history of worker organizing in New York City’s hotels and restaurants.
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
