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5 Beaverton Environmental Studies- Food and Famine
1 Burnside Environmental Studies- Food and Famine
3 Burnside Sustainable Living- Food
1 Hawthorne Environmental Studies- Food and Famine
25 Local Warehouse Sports and Fitness- Medicine Nutrition and Psychology
23 Remote Warehouse Politics- General

Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It

by Jill Richardson

Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It Cover

ISBN13: 9780981504032
ISBN10: 0981504035
All Product Details

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

America's food system is dominated by agribusiness and corporate farms, whose destructive practices pollute the environment, are cruel to animals, and offer us unhealthy food choices. Despite this dire situation, most people have little idea how to eat differently, or healthier.

In Recipe for America, food activist Jill Richardson shows how sustainable agriculture — where local farms raise food that is healthy for consumers and animals and does not damage the environment — offers the only solution to America's food crisis. In addition to highlighting the harmful conditions at factory farms, this timely and necessary book details the rising grassroots food movement, which is creating an agricultural system that allows people to eat sustainably, locally, and seasonally.

A call to action for those who are concerned about what they eat and the health of the planet, Recipe for Americashows how sustainable eating nourishes our bodies, our economy, and our environment, and how it is the best hope for the future of food in America.

Review:

"The evils of industrial agriculture are rehashed in this impassioned but sketchy expos. Food activist and blogger Richardson ticks off a familiar menu of food-system dysfunctions: overreliance on pesticides and fertilizer, exploited farmers and workers, horribly abused livestock, obese children who are fed subsidized junk food in school. (She personalizes her critique with reportage from a stint working at Whole Foods and recollections of a period in her life when a lack of access to fresh produce led her to gain weight on a diet of ice cream and beer.) She contrasts these ills with a vision of sustainable agriculture long on bucolic impressionism — 'the baby lambs head-butted their mothers enthusiastically and wagged their tails' — and short on systematic analysis. The author's rabid advocacy of locavorism is especially myopic; she brushes past the costliness and impracticality — 'When buying eggs I ask the farmer how many chickens they own and if these chickens are on pasture' — and ignores critics who argue that locavorism is an energy-inefficient fad. Only the choir will be convinced by Richardson's shallow take on these complex issues." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Book News Annotation:

San Diego-based Richardson is a leading activist in the sustainable food movement. She offers general readers an assessment of the policies needed to fix the American food system. Coverage includes Richardson's route from eater to food activist, the development of chemical agriculture and the problems it causes, how to solve the problems in our food system through sustainable agriculture, what exactly sustainable agriculture is, the development of organic standards, movements in the U.S. to promote sustainable agriculture, and barriers to sustainable food in several areas--labeling, food safety, protecting children, human and animal rights, the farm bill-- and how to remove them. No subject index. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Review:

"Jill Richardson is a fresh voice in the movement to create a healthier and sustainable food system. This book will be part of the burgeoning food social movement, as it provides a guide to the most important issues and how to work on them." Marion Nestle

Review:

"Jill's work at Daily Kos represents the best of the people-powered movement. It's a pleasure to see her work reach a new plateau and come to the attention of a wider audience." Markos Moulitsas

About the Author

Jill Richardson blogs about food issues at Daily Kos and at her own blog, La Vida Locavore (http://www.lavidalocavore.org). She is also a member of the advisory board of the Organic Consumers Association.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
Jason Paluch, July 29, 2009 (view all comments by Jason Paluch)
Jill Richardson has written a fantastically accessible primer on the current American food system, and how we can go about fixing same, with "Recipe for America". Reading this book is like sitting down with her over a cup of coffee (or the beverage of your choice), and having a fun and in-depth discussion of a vital issue which affects all of us, with an incredibly smart and thoughtful person who has completely dedicated herself to the topic. When you finally put "Recipe for America" down, it will be very apparent that Jill Richardson has done a wonderful and convincing job of sharing with us the hard work, research, and insights she's gleaned along her own journey.

As for the Publisher's Weekly piece included above, I have to admit that I'm amazed an anonymous negative screed is accorded such prominence. What credentials on this topic does this anonymous person possess, by the way? We don't even know who wrote that "review", and it will prove clear to anybody who does read this book that the PW reviewer obviously did not even bother reading the entire third section of the book, which specifically puts forth proposals and practical solutions. Also, the reviewer writes as if they are the definitive voice on food issues, while refusing to even attach their name to the review.

"Recipe for America" is right up there with the best books on this issue that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Once I got into it, I could not break away. Highly, highly recommended. Pick it up, enjoy, and thank me later.

Jason D. Paluch
Portland, OR
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zekwean, July 28, 2009 (view all comments by zekwean)
The unhelpful Publisher Weekly's review will prevent many a library and reader from reading this engaging and helpful book. The review is unbalanced, and unfair to the extensive research that went into the book. Jill does make the argument about costs and benefits of growing, selling and consuming more local foods, and she documents the research that caused her to reach her conclusions.

Only the segment of the corporate world that feels threatened by the movement towards local control of our food supply would fail to grasp or deny Jill's message about sustainability.
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Food Curmudgeon, April 6, 2009 (view all comments by Food Curmudgeon)
I'm looking forward to Jill's book, because her diaries regarding sustainable local food production on Daily Kos have been well written and informative.

I'm sure that we can look forward to pre-publication attacks from the agribusiness and agrichemical industries, which is all the more reason why anyone who cares about what they eat should read her book!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780981504032
Subtitle:
Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It
Author:
Richardson, Jill
Publisher:
Ig Publishing
Subject:
American
Subject:
Nutrition
Subject:
Sustainable living
Subject:
Agriculture - Sustainable Agriculture
Subject:
Food supply -- United States.
Subject:
Sustainable agriculture -- United States.
Publication Date:
July 2009
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
224
Dimensions:
8.10x5.40x.50 in. .50 lbs.

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