Food Tank is compiling a list of books that will engage, educate, and inspire you this summer. Rethink your relationship with gardening in Tama Matsuoka Wong’s Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager, or learn about food systems innovations in the face of climate change in Food Systems of the Future. From guides teaching you how to create your own permaculture garden to personal memoirs of food and family to investigations of community food systems, this list has everything you’re looking for in your next summer read.
1. A Call to Farms: Reconnecting to Nature, Food, and Community in a Modern World by Jennifer Grayson (Forthcoming July 9, 2024)
Investigative journalist Jennifer Grayson writes an eye-opening account that details the challenges new farmers will face in an era of climate change and food inequality. As part of her research, Grayson immersed herself in a farmer training program, where she met farmers and food activists, and she profiles them throughout the book. A Call to Farms documents the regenerative, sustainable practices emerging farmers are committed to using to help reverse climate degradation and inequity.
2. Barefoot Biodynamics: How Cows, Compost, and Community Help Us Understand Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course by Jeff Poppen
In Barefoot Biodynamics, Jeff Poppen integrates stories from his time in rural Tennessee in his guide to biodynamic principles and practices. Poppen reflects on the influential teachings of scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, offering some of Steiner’s concepts in readable, engaging language. Poppen’s work will appeal to those who are just beginning to think about biodynamics, as well as experienced farmers and gardeners seeking new insight.
3. Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-Mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food by Michelle T. King
Chop Fry Watch Learn shares the history of modern Chinese food through the story of Fu Pei-Mei, the woman credited with introducing the world to Chinese cooking. Historian Michelle T. King weaves together anecdotes from her own life, historical phenomena, and stories of shifting international relations. King explains how Fu became a critical culinary figure and how her influence continues to span borders and generations.
4. Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them by Tim Lang
Tim Lang writes a detailed account of the United Kingdom food system, explaining its strengths, weaknesses, and human and environmental impacts. He investigates how UK food culture has grown fragmented, relying on both ultra-processed and diverse, high-quality foods. Feeding Britain argues that, although it will take time, transforming the UK food system is in the public interest and is a process that must begin now.
5. Food Margins: Lessons From an Unlikely Grocer by Cathy Stanton
In Food Margins, anthropologist Cathy Stanton delves into her own journey to help save a small food co-op in western Massachusetts. Rooted in her own experience working to keep this co-op open, Stanton explores the challenges that small businesses face in the shadow of giant corporations and the deep racial and class inequities that compound such struggles. The story of the co-op and Stanton’s efforts is rooted in the understanding that this tale is just one of many in a time when food systems are growing increasingly inequitable and unsustainable.
6. Food Systems of the Future by Scientific American Editors
Food Systems of the Future explores new, innovative, and sometimes controversial methods to ensure a sustainable food system in the face of climate change. The book discusses topics such as processed food, genetically modified crops, and the journey to discover and create foods with minimal environmental impact. As the human population continues to rise and the food system remains under threat, Food Systems of the Future provides practical and hopeful insights.
7. Food Systems Transformation in Kenya: Lessons from the Past and Policy Options for the Future by Clemens Breisinger, Michael Keenan, Juneweenex Mbuthia, and Jemimah Njuki
Food Systems Transformation in Kenya provides accounts of Kenya’s past and present food system, with insights from Kenyan and international experts representing a range of disciplines. The authors offer an in-depth analysis, with evidence-backed sections discussing the sustainability and health implications of the food system as it stands today. They also provide specific policy recommendations for the future and discuss how Kenya could serve as a role model to other nations in food systems-led transformation.
8. Forage. Gather. Feast. by Maria Finn
Maria Finn’s cookbook features recipes with forge-able foods, specifically those that can be foraged in diverse landscapes across the West Coast of the United States With beautiful food photography and over 100 recipes, Forage. Gather. Feast. will allow West Coast inhabitants to find food inspiration all over their natural environment. Recipes include Fire-Roasted Butter Claims with Seaweed Gremolata and Spruce Tip and Juniper Berry Sockeye Salmon Gravlax.
9. Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley
Frostbite is an engaging exploration of refrigeration, describing how artificial refrigeration spurred a new era in human nutrition. Nicola Twilley discusses the arguable benefits of refrigeration, including access to season- and region-defying produce, as well as its drawbacks. She explains that the U.S. food system as it exists today would not be possible without refrigeration and it has distorted our relationship with food. As countries across the globe rush to build large refrigeration networks, Twilley urges readers to understand its costs.
10. How to Create a Sustainable Food Industry: A Practical Guide to Perfect Food by Melissa Barrett, Massimo Marino, Francesca Brkic, and Carlo Alberto Pratesi
How to Create a Sustainable Food Industry will help readers understand sustainability as it relates to the food and agriculture industries. This guide explains the sustainability of specific food products and demonstrates how a business can successfully communicate their practices to customers. Using real-world examples, this book debunks myths surrounding the food system and provides practical advice for working toward more sustainable processes.
11. Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager by Tama Matsuoka Wong
Skilled gardener and forager Tama Matsuoka Wong educates and inspires in Into the Weeds, encouraging readers to approach gardening with openness and adaptability. Wong explains that gardening does not need to be complicated or elaborate, it can be simple, and beauty can be found everywhere. Through a plant ID guide, recipes with foragable ingredients, and instructions to build simple structures and beautiful crafts, Into the Weeds teaches readers practical skills while also motivating them to rethink their relationship to gardening.
12. Living with the Trees of Life: A Practical Guide to Rebooting the Planet through Tropical Agriculture and Putting Farmers First by Roger Leakey
In Living with the Trees of Life, Roger Leakey draws upon his extensive experience in agriculture and forestry to present a practical path forward in a world facing climate change, deforestation, and social injustice. Leakey focuses on the tropics and subtropics, tracing many existential problems in those regions to the breakdown of agriculture systems. He explores how cultivating indigenous trees and investing in new, modified tree crops can produce food, medicine, money, and jobs.
13. The Self-Sufficiency Garden: Feed Your Family and Save Money by Huw Richards and Sam Cooper
The Self-Sufficiency Garden is a comprehensive guide to cultivating a garden that can nourish a family. The book shows readers how they can grow enough for five portions of vegetables a day for four people, spending an average of four hours in the garden per week. In addition to detailing how to create and set up the garden, Huw Richards and Sam Cooper provide a month-by-month guide for the growing year, as well as a myriad of ways to make use of this produce in the kitchen.
14. Transforming School Food Politics around the World edited by Jennifer E. Gaddis and Sarah A. Roberts
In Transforming School Food Politics around the World, editors Jennifer E. Gaddis and Sarah A. Roberts craft a collection of essays that feature people across the globe who have advocated for public school food programs that advance education, health, justice, food sovereignty, and sustainability. Young people, mothers, teachers, farmers, and policymakers share their stories, demonstrating the crucial role that school food programs play in caring for and educating children.
15. Permaculture Gardening for the Absolute Beginner: Follow Nature’s Map to Grow Your Own Organic Farm with Confidence and Transform Any Backyard into a Thriving Ecosystem by Josie Beckham
Permaculture Gardening for the Absolute Beginner is a comprehensive guide to permaculture, detailing the principles of permaculture, instructions for creating garden beds, how to integrate animal life, food preservation strategies, and much more. Josie Beckham’s insights will be transformative for anyone seeking to start a permaculture garden, from those who have never planted a seed to experienced gardeners.
16. Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape by Henry Dimbleby
Ravenous dives into the destructive nature of the food system, explaining how it has grown into one of the most harmful industries in the world. Henry Dimbleby explores how destructive, behind-the-scenes forces operate in the food system, destroying both the environment and human health. In addition to illuminating the damaging nature of the food system, Ravenous explains what can be done to mitigate these issues and work toward a more sustainable future.
17. Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho
In this food memoir, Grace M. Cho details her upbringing in a xenophobic small town as the daughter of a Korean bar hostess and white American merchant during the Cold War. Cho’s life changed when her mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, and she combed through recipes, past family events, and global history, attempting to uncover the roots of her mother’s condition. Tastes Like War documents Cho’s revelations as she cooked meals from her mother’s childhood and shared conversations and meals with her aging mother.
18. The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh
The Nutmeg’s Curse traces the roots of the current climate crisis to Western colonialism and its joint exploitation of people and the natural environment. Amitav Ghosh tells the story of nutmeg as a parable for the inseparable relationship between humans and the Earth and the colonial perspective that has ultimately led to the crisis people are facing today. Through essays exploring historical events, contemporary inequities, and the threads that follow the past through the present, Ghosh presents a compelling, sharp critique of Western society.
19. Why I Cook by Tom Colicchio (Forthcoming October 31st, 2024)
Why I Cook provides readers with an unparalleled look into the life and history of Tom Colicchio, award-winning chef and television personality. This memoir details Colicchio’s journey from a child in a working-class family in New Jersey to young chef in New York City to the celebrity that he is today. The book also includes heirloom recipes, current family favorite meals, and photos from Colicchio’s childhood.
20. Young Changemakers: Scaling Agroecology Using Video in Africa and India by Paul Van Mele, Savitri Mohapatra, Laura Tabet, and Blessings Fao
Young Changemakers is a collection of stories and insights from 42 young people across the continent of Africa and India who created farmer-to-farmer learning videos to promote agroecology in their respective communities. Detailing the backgrounds, challenges, and successes of each project, this publication demonstrates the immense positive impact of farmer-to-farmer education and the critical role of youth activism in these efforts.
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