Food for Thought Book Club!

So you live in the city of San Francisco, you love to cook, and best of all you love to eat!  Well here’s hoping you love to read and share your thoughts on all things food as well. With the sustainable movement under way and attention on the likes of Food Inc. and Michael Pollan, we’re hoping you’ll join us in a little Food for Thought. 

Here’s how it works:

1. Vote to determine the book for the month. Most votes wins!

- A list of suggested books and their synopsis provided below

- Additional suggestions are always welcome

2. We’ll meet the last Wednesday* of every month.

- Location: Arelquin Café

- http://tinyurl.com/ye6nzux

- Hayes Valley, beautiful patio, owned by Absinthe, serves alcohol!

- Meeting Time: 6ish-9p

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

Novella Carpenter

An inspiring memoir of a woman who turned a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving mini-farm.  Carpenter is a food writer who found riches where she least expected and challenged herself to a month long plan to eat from her own garden.  

Richteous Porkchop

Nicolette Hahn Niman

Tasked to investigate hog manure pollution for the Kennedy organization, Niman was less than thrilled.  Turns out the inner workings of the “factory farm” industry would lead her to become an environmental lawyer, work on national reform movements, and find true love.  She profiles the innovative and cost-effective methods operations have incorporated to make a profit by ethical, sustainable means.

Stuffed & Starved

Raj Patel

A comprehensive investigation into the global food network to help understand some questions we face in today’s modern world. How can starving people also be obese? Why does everything have soy in it? How do petrochemicals and biofuels control the price of food? How it is possible there are more starving people in the world than ever before while there are also more people overweight?

Closing the Food Gap

Mark Winne

Food activist and journalist Mark Winne addresses the story of how America’s food gap has widened since the 1960’s due to reasons such as domestic poverty and how our efforts including community gardens and farmers markets are helping to narrow the gap. Interesting how the demand for fresh food can be rising in one population as fast as rates of obesity and diabetes are rising in the other.

Deeply Rooted

Lisa M. Hamilton

A century of industrialization has left our food system riddled with problems, yet for solutions we look to nutritionists and government agencies, scientists and chefs. Hamilton asks: Why not look to the people who grow our food?  Her story does just that as she showcases the stories of 3 unconventional farmers and how farmers have been pushed to the margins of agriculture and transformed from leaders to laborers.

The Unhealthy Truth

Robyn O’Brien

Can the hidden toxins in our food be to blame for the increases in allergies, ADHD, cancer, and asthma among our nation’s children? O’Brien, mother of four never gave the question much until the day her youngest daughter faced a violent reaction to eggs.  That’s when she chose to take on the system and a call to action that shows how each of us can do our part and keep our own families safe. 

Recipe for America

Jill Richardson

Food activist Jill Richardson shows how sustainable agriculture offers the only solution to America’s food crisis. In addition to highlighting the harmful conditions at factory farms, Richardson also provides a call to action for those concerned about what they eat the health of the planet, showcasing how sustainable eating nourishes our bodies, our economy, and our environment.

Comments

[MBT Shoes]

It's so nice to have you do all of the research for us. It makes our decision making so much easier!! Thanks.