Farmbrarian

If one food is ubiquitous to the local food movement, it is the tomato. As we are in the harvest season, many of you are probably canning some this weekend! We’ve all come to realize that the fruit is incredibly delicious when picked ripe off the vine, but we’ve also learned that it doesn’t travel well. We know that most supermarket tomatoes won’t be any good and that purchasing them outside of the summer months is a joke (hydroponics being a possible exception).

In Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook shows readers that there is a lot more to discuss when it comes to the tomato. For example, most tomatoes available in America, especially in winter, were grown in Florida using obscene amounts of pesticides and fertilizers and picked by laborers under slave conditions. In fact, lawsuits are currently in play utilizing 150 year old laws banning slavery. Yes, tomato growing corporations in Florida are being sued for slavery right now.

Readers interested in the tomato specifically, or more generally in the industrial food system, how it evolved and how to improve it, will find Tomatoland a good read.

Find it on Amazon or at your local library!

Click to find at a library near you!

How can we feed 9.5 billion people by 2070?  Paul Roberts explores this multi-faceted dilemma in his book The End of Food (2009).

The development of the modern, international food system, contemporary farming methods and challenges, and a heavy dose of politics are a few of the topics covered.  Roberts offers a fair balance of viewpoints and presents information in a very digestible format.

Despite walking away with a better understanding of the problems, the players involved, and the steps that are being taken towards improvement, I feel that the book lacks focus and would benefit greatly from better cohesion.

The End of Food is not written to provide the solution, but rather to educate readers on the problem.  Roberts achieves this goal and has therefore provided a useful book in the endless battle to improve our ailing food system.

Read this book if:

• You want good background information on the formation of our current food economy.
• You are interested in food politics (US farm subsidies, the roles/actions of mega-corporations, global considerations, etc.).

Quotes:

• “I think a lot of people would enjoy being farmers, but somehow, as a society we’ve decided that farming is inappropriate” (250).
• “According to surveys by Delate, organic-corn yields in Iowa are now between 90 and 92 percent of conventional yields, while soybeans are at 94 percent” (251).
• “Consumers wishing to avoid transgenic foods cannot, because the industry has successfully blocked any requirement that transgenic crops be labeled – despite surveys showing that nine out of ten consumers want such labels” (256).

Click to find at a library near you!

Jane Goodall is a scientist, scholar, activist and humanitarian best known for her research on chimpanzees. In Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating (2005), Goodall collaborates with Gary McAvoy and Gail Hudson to illustrate how our eating habits impact the world.

Goodall begins with a short discussion on the fundamental role of food in our lives. She moves on to discuss harsh treatments on factory farms, hazardous fishing techniques, the benefits of vegetarianism, the plight of family farmers and the local foods movement. Issues surrounding obesity, hunger and education are also discussed. Most chapters conclude with simple suggestions on how you can help.

The content is thoroughly researched but is not laden with scientific terminology or complex data, making it approachable for all readers. Plus, anecdotes throughout give the scholarly work a more personal feel.

Harvest for Hope is a perfect primer for those wanting to learn about the environmental impact of our current food system. For readers well versed in the arguments against conventional agriculture, not much new information is presented; nonetheless, it is still a worthwhile read.