Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Nabhan and his colleagues honor all of us who grow food with a sense of gratitude for our ancestors from the human, plant and animal worlds."
--David Mas Masumoto, farmer and author of Epitaph for a Peach
Review
"If you're going to buy a single book about American food, buy this one. Discover a remapping of our narrow political boundaries in a new vision of North America's 13 basic 'Food Nations.' Explore as if for the first time ecological territories named Bison, Gumbo, Pinyon Nut, Maple Syrup. Learn how--through recipes, images, mini-histories--to help save and renew these most precious resources. Knowledge is everything. I'm grateful to the authors and publishers of this vital book for making knowing, saving and savoring one and the same action."
--Betty Fussell, author of The Story of Corn and Raising Steaks
About the Author
Writer, professor, and conservationist Gary Paul Nabhan is the director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University. Nabhan's writing is widely anthologized and translated, and has won the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, a Western States Book Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. Deborah Madison is a freelance writer and board member of the Foundation for Bio-Diversity and the Seed Savers Exchange, among others. As a freelance writer she has contributed to Cooking Light, Williams Sonoma's Taste, Vegetarian Times, Gourmet, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Garden Design, Fine Cooking, Organic Style, the LA Times, Orion, and others. Ashley Rood was coauthor of the precursor of this volume, a RAFT book that was featured as one of the hundred top food stories by Saveur magazine in 2005. An environmental advocate and sustainable agriculture activist who works for Environmental Defense in San Francisco, California, Rood is a graduate of the Northern Arizona University, where she coordinated a community-supported agriculture (CSA) project that still feeds some 170 families. Anne Minard is an environmental journalist who has worked or freelanced for several newspapers, magazines, and radio programs in the West. Also a graduate of Northern Arizona University, Minard is the author of books and countless feature articles on science and nature. For the Center for Sustainable Environments, she has spearheaded an agritourism initiative in Arizona that links heritage food promotion to the visitation of great natural and cultural landscapes in that state. Makale Faber Cullen is a cultural anthropologist who directs the RAFT, Ark, and Presidia initiatives of Slow Food USA at its national headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to working with Slow Food, she developed in-school and public programs for City Lore and the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife. Don Bixby, DVM, is the former executive director of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, which was honored with the Slow Food International Biodiversity Award during his tenure of leadership. He currently serves as ALBC's Technical Programs Director and as representative to the RAFT collaborative. Coauthor of several books on the conservation of rare livestock breeds, Bixby has been an advisor to the USDA and to many nonprofit breed associations that are working to conserve America's genetic diversity of livestock. Don is one of the people most responsible for the revival of standard breeds of American heritage turkeys in the U.S. marketplace.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Deborah Madison