There are many informative books on the subject of food and farming. I have included some in the book like those of Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, Frances Moore Lappe and Eric Schlosser, the four most important food writers of our time. Here are my other favorites. Nestle is mentioned below as well.
1. Full Moon Feasts/Food and the Hunger for Connection
by Jessica Prentice. Prentice prepares locally grown meals followed by a discussion of the nutritional wisdom of our ancestors and of indigenous and traditional peoples around the world.
Her book follows the thirteen lunar cycles of an agrarian year, from the midwinter Hunger Moon and the springtime sweetness of the Sap Moon to the bounty of the Moon When Salmon Return to Earth in autumn. Each chapter includes recipes that display the flavors of foods tied to the ancient rhythm of the seasons.
Prentice decries our modern food culture composed of mega-farms and factories. She describes the physical, emotional, cultural, communal and spiritual pain and disconnection caused by chemical foods and provides real food alternatives. Full Moon Feasts is a celebration, not a dirge.
I heard Prentice speak at a localvore potluck supper in Montpelier in September of 2006. What I didn't realize at the time was that she co-founded the localvore movement in the U.S., which began in the San Francisco Bay area. Jessica is a professional chef, activist and founder of Wise Food Ways (wisefoodways.com). Check out her web-site.
2. The Organic Life
If you want to read a treatise on why local is the only way to go try out Joan Gussow's, The Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader. Joan's search covers the basics of nutrition and focuses on the fundamental principle that we must return to the source; local sustainability is built on an ecologically sound food supply. Joan is no ivory tower theoretician; she committed herself through the school of hard knocks to prove that eating local in the Northeast was feasible and delicious.
You should taste her "Tomato Glut Sauce" if you don't believe me. It's more forgiving than my Aunt Sarah's great lemon meringue pie. The ingredients, other than tomatoes, garlic and vinegar are pretty much up to you. Gussow has dedicated her life to the land ethic and the disappearance of local farmland, the heroism of farmers, and the seduction of the global marketplace.
3. Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real food and the People Who Grow It, Chronicle, 2005 by Michael Ableman.
The book profiles small farms across North America including Vermont's own, Strafford Organic Creamery.
Ableman was asked to speak in Vermont in 1995. His visit helped sow the first seeds for the Vermont Fresh Network, which was established a year later to build partnerships between local farmers, chefs and consumers. For information about Michael Ableman and his work, go to: www.fieldsofplenty.com.
Abelman is the founder and executive director of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, a non-profit organization based on one of the oldest organic farms in southern California where he farmed from 1981 to 2001. Abelman's first book is called, From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World, 1993. His second book is On Good Land, The Autobiography of an Urban Garden. Another book, Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age, focuses on sustainable community solutions.
4. What To Eat: An Aisle by Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating. Marion Nestle's new book is a consumer's guide to food shopping. This is a hands-on how to shop book. What To Eat comes highly recommended from yours truly. I heard Marion speak at Shelburne Farms in Vermont in the summer of 2006. Marion did research for What to Eat. She went to a number of supermarkets and read lots of labels. It was very confusing as to what most of the labels meant and complicated, especially the information on fish -- farmed raised, organic, artificial natural colors, feed, etc. etc. She came to the conclusion that certified organic fish is a joke. She said, "which of the ten kinds of organic lettuce should I buy, anyway?"
5. Joel Salatin has a number of books including his most recent one, Holy Cow and Hog Heaven. Joel raises grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, and rabbits at Polyface Farm, in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. He is also the author of Salad Bar Beef, Pastured Poultry Profits, You Can Farm, and Family Friendly Farming; all available from Acres, U.S.A.
Quotes from Joel: He says, "I want to dress my beef and pork on the farm from where I've coddled and raised them. But zoning laws prohibit slaughterhouses on agricultural land.
"But what about dressing a couple of animals a year in the backyard? How can that be compared to a ConAgra or Tyson facility? In the eyes of the government, the two are the one and the same.
"Every T-bone has to be wrapped in a half-million dollar facility so that it can be sold to your neighbor. The fact that I can do it on my own farm more cleanly, more humanely, more responsibly, and in a more environmentally friendly manner doesn't matter to the government agents who walk around with big badges on their jackets and wheelbarrow-sized regulations tucked under their arms."
These quotes were taken from an article in Acres, U.S.A., called Everything I Want to Do is Illegal. September, 2003. Vol 33, No.9 by Joel Salatin
6. Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind USDA's War On A Family Farm
by Linda Fallace, Chelsea Green Publishers 2005. This is a remarkable story of how the federal government made legal, political, and economic war on the Fallace family's sheep farm by removing all the sheep. This issue has never been resolved.
7. Healthy Foods from Healthy Soils- A Hands on Resource for Educators by Elizabeth Patten and Katy Lyons. Tilbury house, Publishers, Gardiner, Maine 2003 This book is divided into four sections: Where Does Your Food Come From, Choosing Food for Body & Soul, Putting "Garbage" to Work, and Let's Grow Our Own. It gives creative ways to teach children of kindergarten age through grade six by sharing stories, games, hands-on-activities, songs and puppets.
8. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats New Trends Publishing, Revised Second Edition, October 2002
This guide to traditional foods contains a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in our diets. Fallon dispels the myth of the current low-fat diet. Throughout time people have fermented vegetables in order to preserve them. These vegetables are good for our digestion and provide the needed enzymes and nutrients for our health.
Nourishing Traditions is all about eating fat and losing weight, wild fermentation, pickling vegetables, making sauerkraut and so much more. Did you know that you can use the whey from raw milk to ferment vegetables?
9. The Eco-Foods Guide: What's Good For the Earth is Good for You, is authored by Cynthia Barstow, a professor at UMass in Amherst. The guide costs US $17.95 and is available from New Society Publishers. PO Box 189, Gabriola, Os., BC VOR 170, Canada, phone 800-567-6772, or online at www.newsociety.com
10. The End of Food by Paul Roberts
If you want to read a book with an historical perspective on our current food system and how it came to be, read this one. Robert's says the modern food economy -- entrusted to meet our basic needs -- is growing less and less compatible for consumers who need healthy, nutritious food. Robert's goes even deeper into the subject than Michael Pollan, the food author and guru.
TELEVISION
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Vermont Public Television launched a brand new food series called "Feast in the Making" in the summer of 2007. The show highlights local chefs, farmers, and food. In the opening show, the chief chef of the show, Sean Buchanan, featured Doug Mack of Mary's Restaurant at Baldwin Hill in Bristol, the hoop greenhouses of Vermont Herb and Salad in Benson, and the grazing dinner during Vermont Fresh Network's Annual Forum. The purpose of the series is to show the average consumer what eating local is all about and the implications for the local economy.
NEWSLETTERS
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1. Acres USA
This is by far the best national journal on sustainable agriculture and politics. It virtually stands alone with a track record of over 30 years of continuous publication. Each issue contains material on farm and food issues and sustainable agriculture.
To subscribe, call (800) 355-5313 or (512) 892-4400.
2. Hoard's Dairyman - The National Dairy Farm Magazine
P.O. Box 501
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538
(920) 563-5551
Hoard's is available online. It is the best dairy magazine and has been around forever. In 1871, W.D. Hoard of Jefferson, Wisconsin founded the first dairymen's association. The magazine began in 1885.
3. Farming: The Journal of Northeast Agriculture
This is the most informative farm magazine in the Northeast.
(800) 422-7147 PO Box 449 St. Johnsbury, VT 05819 I've referred to it many times in this book. Go online and order your free subscription. And remember, you must to order it each year.
4. Small Farmer's Journal
Conceived in 1976, the journal is a large (11 by 14 inch) black and white quarterly packed with information. This small family-held publishing company focuses on natural farming and stock raising, organic agriculture, small family farms, alternative farm research, and animal-powered farming including horse-drawn implements and equipment sales. Its values are "Farming as a Way of Life Versus Farming as an Industrial Process."
SFJ
P.O. Box 1627
Sisters, Oregon 97759
(541) 549-2064 or (800) 876-2893
Or go online at Small Farmer's Journal
5. Milkweed
John Bunting, a dairy farmer from Wisconsin and writer for the farmer-produced journal, Milkweed, says that milk prices are manipulated by corporate agriculture such as Kraft Foods. Anti-trust laws designed to prevent monopolies like Kraft are simply not enforced. You can subscribe to Milkweed at P.O. Box 10, Brooklyn WI 53521.
6. Farm Aid Newsletter
Go on the web and sign up for the Farm Aid e-newsletter. The seeds of Farm Aid were planted in Philadelphia in 1985 when Bob Dylan, performing at a Live Aid benefit for Africa, said something should be done to help American farmers. Farm Aid has raised more than $29 million over two decades. Its goals include supporting family farms, fighting corporate agriculture, advocating fair prices and encouraging people to buy food locally. There are ongoing Live Aid benefit concerts with stars such as Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Neil Young, the Farm Aid co-founder, performing. Young grew up in a small farm town in Canada.
7. Biodynamic Quarterly
This sustainable ag magazine is the longest-running publication of its kind. It's been published since the 1940s in the U.S. and is based on the work of Rudolf Steiner who gave a series of lectures in 1925 to a group of farmers in East Germany. Biodynamics is unique in its flavor and message providing a balance between materialism and spirituality in the fields of farming and gardening.
BD Quarterly
25844 Butler Road, Junction City, Oregon 97448
(541) 998-0105 www.biodynamics.com
8. Co-op America Quarterly Newsletter
1612 K St. NW, #600, Washington, DC 20006
(202) 872-5307
An informative newsletter that focuses on fair trade issues, sustainable farming, corporate responsibility, climate change, and green/eco issues.
9. Organic Farming Research Foundation -- a monthly organic farming newsletter: P.O. Box 440, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 (831) 426-6606 www.ofrf.org
10. Seeds of Change
An informative monthly e-newsletter that deals mostly with gardening but also with farm issues such as alternative fuels, slow food, permaculture and organics. There is a chat room.
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VERMONT PUBLICATIONS
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1. Vermont Commons
A great Vermont newsletter that deals with sustainable ag issues, global warming, alternative energy solutions and Vermont independence. (4 issues a year)
308 Wallis Drive
Waitsfield, VT 05673
(802) 279-3364 www.vtcommon.org
2. Local Banquet:
P.O. Box 69
Saxton's River, VT 05154 (802) 869-1236
3. Edible Green Mountains:
150 Dorset Street
South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 651-1030
FILMS
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Many films have been mentioned in the book. Here are some others.
THE FUTURE OF FOOD - by Debra Koons Garcia
It premiered at the Film Forum in NYC on September 14, 2005.
For more information, check it out on the web.
Inquiries should be emailed to info@lilyfilms.com
The film is about the food industry, biotechnology, and the farmers fighting huge multinational corporations, such as Monsanto, that have taken control of the world's food system. The film gives voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by genetically engineered food and patented seed technology.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO - From Agent Orange to Genetically
Modified Crops - A film by Marie-Monique Robin
For more information go to www.Monsantofilm.com
This is a shocking film on this giant multi-national corporation.
HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD- ONE MAN ONE COW ONE PLANET
This is a great film on how Biodynamic farming is being used as an alternative to the Green Revolution in India. A Must-See Film.
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