World Blogging Action Day: Food, Sustainable Food

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October that unites bloggers world-wide in posting about the same issue on the same day to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all. This year Blog Action Day is being held on October 16th to coincide with World Food Day which commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945 and aims to foster a debate and increase awareness about issues related to global agriculture and food practices.

Here at the Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center, we are participating in this important event by highlighting a few of the many titles that the collection boasts on food-related issues and sustainable agriculture practices.
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Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan. Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine. (2009)

Noted sustainable agriculture activist and ethno-botanist at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona Gary Paul Nabhan is the author or editor of 24 books on agricultural practices, bio-diversity and food culture. Published in 2009, Where Our Food Comes From retraces the journeys of famed Soviet botanist Nikolay Vavilov who as the director of the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Leningrad beginning in 1924 amassed the world's largest collection of plant seeds. In this book, Gary Paul Nabhan, a winner of the prestigious MacArthur "genius" Award, weaves together Vavilov’s extraordinary story with his own expeditions to the planet's richest agricultural seed depositories imparting critical insight into the cultures that preserve and maintain humanity's rich agricultural heritage and food stocks. Nabhan shows how global climate change, free trade policies, genetic engineering, and the loss of traditional knowledge are threatening the global food supply. Through discussions with local farmers across five continents, visits to local outdoor markets, and a comparison of his own observations in eleven countries to those recorded in Vavilov’s journals and photos, Nabhan reveals just how much diversity has already been lost while offering a vision on how to better protect our global seed stocks and food supply.

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Dr. Jane Goodall. Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating. (2005)


In Harvest for Hope, world-renown primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall tackles the dietary habits of the world's most successful, if sometimes tragicomic, primate. Surveying human food production and consumption, Dr. Goodall traces the changes such as the development of large-scale food production that seeks to maximize profit for shareholders with scant regard for long-term human health and safety that have occurred in her lifetime. Grounded in the belief that every individual does make a difference, hers is a clarion call for action and individual responsibility to restore long-standing sustainability practices, now seemingly sacrificed at the altar of corporate profitability.

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Dean Cycon. Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee. (2007)


Coffee entrepreneur and fair trade advocate Dean Cycon examines globalization, immigration, women's and indigenous rights, environmental degradation and trade issues all by looking at our humble cup of coffee. As much a travel book to exotic coffee lands as it is a primer on the issue of fair trade, Cycon offers a hands-on account at the implications in the global production and trade of a commodity such as coffee, the world's second largest trade in terms of value and one that dates back hundreds of years. Cycon argues that "our understanding of justice, in trade and society in general, cannot be confined to a formula." Instead, fair trade must be more accurately seen as a process that improves the lives of the hundreds of thousand of small farmers who have been systematically marginalized by the forces of globalization.

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Andrew Kimbrell. The Fatal Harvest Reader. (2002)


Written by world renowned scientists, activists and thinkers, The Fatal Harvest Reader is a collection of over 30 thought-provoking essays on the problems inherent in large-scale industrialized corporate agriculture. Edited by Andrew Kimbrell, one of the country's leading environmental attorneys and the author of several books on the environment and food issues, the essays cover a range of topics from the myths of industrial agriculture and the false promises of biotechnology to the hidden costs, including its deep ecological impact and adverse effects on human health as well as offering a vision for more sustainable agriculture practices in the 21st century. The volume includes an essay, Machine Logic: Industrializing Nature and Agriculture, by Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization that urges agricultural practices that express "a reciprocal relationship with nature." In another essay, Helena Norberg-Hodge argues that localized food systems are a cultural imperative that offer an alternative to boom-bust globalization. Other contributors include Alice Waters, Gary Nabhan, Jim Hightower and David Ehrenfeld.

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Darrin Nordahl. Public Produce, The New Urban Agriculture. (2009)


Author and urban design guru, Darrin Nordahl is at the forefront of the new urban agriculture movement. In Public Produce, Nordahl makes the case for local government involvement in shaping food policy. In what he calls “municipal agriculture,” Nordahl notes how elected officials, municipal planners, local policymakers, and public space designers are turning to the abundance of land under public control such parks, plazas, parking lots as well as the grounds around government offices and public buildings to grow food. He argues that innovative urban food concepts can vitality to city spaces as well as improve our health and environment. This timely book highlights some of the many public initiatives around the country that are helping to reshape the urban landscape while improving the American palate.

Some New Books

A brief look at some of the new additions to the collection:

Donald Kennedy, ed. & the editors of Science magazine. Science Magazine's State of the Planet 2008-2009. (2008)

Collecting articles dedicated to energy, climate, and sustainability.

Gary Paul Nabhan. Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine. (2009)

Examining the links between climate change, free trade, genetic engineering, loss of traditional knowledge, and threats to our food supply.

Martha Honey. Ecotourism and Sustainable Development. (2008)

A comprehensive overview of ecotourism around the world today.

Richard L. Knight & Courtney White. Conservation for a New Generation. (2009)

A study of alternative, community-based approaches to land conservation.

Subject Guide: Gardening

"What shall I learn of beans or beans of me? I cherish them. I hoe them, early and late I have an eye to them; and this is my day's work. It is a fine broad leaf to look on. My auxiliaries are the dews and rains which water this dry soil, and what fertility is in the soil itself, which for the most part is lean and effete. My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks. The last have nibbled for me a quarter of an acre clean. But what right had I to oust johnswort and the rest, and break up their ancient herb garden? Soon, however, the remaining beans will be too tough for them, and go forward to meet new foes."

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Here are a variety of books this month to provide you with information and inspiration for your Spring gardening pursuits.

Harry Wiland, Dale Bell, and Joseph D'Agnese. Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring Our Great Cities. (2006)

Learn how to use your garden and your horticultural skills to make your city more livable. This book profiles the individuals and groups in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles who are working to encourage the development of green spaces there. From roof gardens to urban farms, citizen activism and leadership are restoring communities through the creation of sustainable urban ecosystems.

Christopher Brickell, ed. & John Eisley, horticultural consultant. The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. (1989)

Are you looking for a large shrub that has pink flowers in summer? Do you need a tree that won't grow too large for a particular corner of your garden? This book can help. Created by a team of forty horticultural experts, photographers, and consultants, it is a clear and comprehensive guide to over 8,000 plants that can be cultivated in a diverse range of climates. Articles also include advice on cultivation, propagation, pruning, landscaping, and cautions about pests and diseases.

Kathleen Norris Benzel, ed. Sunset Western Gardening Book. (2001)

A no-nonsense garden guide to gardening in the Western U.S., it includes climate zone maps, over 8,000 plant listings, 30 plant selection guides, and hundreds of how-to tips and techniques.

Roger B. Yepsen, Jr., ed. Organic Plant Protection: A Comprehensive Reference on Controlling Insects and Diseases in the Garden, Orchard and Yard without Using Chemicals. (1976)

From the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming magazine, this is a guide to tending your patch of earth without "protective jackets of poison." The first part of the book explains step-by-step approaches to strategies for creating and maintaining the delicate balance of nature in your garden, while the second part is a quick reference to more than a thousand bugs and diseases that could be effecting your vegetables, fruits, berries, and trees.

Ellen Sandbeck. Slug Bread and Beheaded Thistles: Amusing and Useful Techniques for Nontoxic Housekeeping and Gardening. (2000)

Ellen Sandbeck shows that using all-natural alternatives to toxic chemicals in your home and garden is not only healthier but also more fun. Learn how to explode cockroaches with baking soda and sugar, how to deflate a cow, why caffeine is effective against mosquito larvae, and what happens when you wound sorghum.

Peter Bernhardt. The Rose's Kiss: A Natural History of Flowers. (1999)

Get to know the inner workings of your flowering plants, as well as the many hidden interactions they have with their surroundings and the other living organisms upon which they depend for survival. An accessible introduction to botanical science and the daily lives of these biological factories, this book also looks at the cultural roles of flowers in history, folklore, and mythology.

Karan Davis Cutler, ed. Starting from Seed: The Natural Gardener's Guide to Propagating Plants. (1998)

Growing seeds is one way to help the survival of threatened plants and protect biodiversity. From the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's 21st-Century Gardening Series, this is an illustrated guide to collecting, storing, and growing seeds. Filled with advice on hundreds of different vegetables, ornamental plants, and wildflowers, it will help you create a garden that is both beautiful and ecologically sensible.

Douglas Kent. A New Era of Gardening: A Book on Gardening for Oxygen and a Healthier Atmospher. (2001)

A controversial look at composting that asks: is your garden contributing to global warming? It might be if you are using too much energy to sustain it and composting too much greenwaste. The goal of the author is to help gardeners create sustainable landscapes that ultimately produce more oxygen than they do carbon dioxide, largely by burying biomass.

Susan J. Tweit. The Rocky Mountain Garden Survival Guide. (2004)

From ecologist Susan J. Tweit, this book tackles the challenges of gardening in the difficult conditions of the Rocky Mountains. Filled with tips that could be useful in a variety of places, its essays also illustrates an approach to gardening informed by ecology. The philosophy behind the book is that understanding the physical environment in which your garden is located and the relationships among the organisms there enables you to work with the landscape and its living population instead of trying to fight against it.

Thomas Leo Ogren. Safe Sex in the Garden and other Propositions for an Allergy-Free World. (2003)

Author Thomas Leo Ogren finds "prime examples of out of whack, sexually manipulated, highly allergenic landscapes everywhere I turn." What is the connection between plant sex and allergies? Since female trees produce fruit which is often considered "messy", landscapers plant predominantly male trees, which means lots of excess pollen, which means highly allergenic residential and commercial landscapes. Ogren argues that what you plant in your own yard can make a difference in making communities healthier places.

Deni Brown. The Herb Society of America's Encyclopedia of Herbs and their Uses. (1995)

Written for gardeners, herbalists, and cooks, this encyclopedia covers over 1000 herbs grown worldwide for their culinary, aromatic, medicinal, and economic uses, as well as for their decorative qualities in the garden. It includes identification photographs and detailed botanical descriptions, as well as complete garden designs and planting plans for your own herb gardens, both formal and informal.

Subject Guide: Food

And now this month's library collection subject guide about food:

"Man does not live by what he eats, but by what he digests." - Alexandre Dumas

With the fall harvests and the upcoming holidays, it is that time of year when people find themselves thinking about food perhaps more than usual. As the books in this list demonstrate, the food choices people make have profound consequences for their health and the health of the environment. They suggest that many of society's challenges today could benefit from a better understanding of our food habits - how we select food, grow it, distribute it, eat it, as well as how we assign meaning to it. People do seem to be becoming more conscious of where their food comes from, and it is a consciousness that can require them to make some difficult decisions. These works present some views on those decisions while showing that it is still possible, and perhaps even vital, to enjoy our food and to celebrate with food while consuming it responsibly.


Michael Pollan. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Pollan undertakes a personal journey to explore what he calls "our national eating disorder" and to discover why Americans consume what we do in the twenty-first century. He traces the stories of three food chains - industrial farming, organic farming both large and small, and personal hunting and gathering - from their sources through to a final meal. Along the way, he shows how our eating choices have profound political, economic, and moral implications. We are shaped by what we eat, but what we choose to eat also shapes the world and will determine the health of the environment that sustains us and all life on earth.


Ann Vileisis. Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get it Back. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008.

How did American food habits get to where they are today? There have been significant changes over the past two centuries in how Americans have shopped, cooked, and thought about their food and diet. From actively participating in the growing of food, over time we have come to know less and less about where our foods come from and what went into making them. Where we once trusted our neighbors as a source of food knowledge, we now trust labels on boxes and cans. Ann Vileisis tracks these developments in people's thinking about food as their experience of eating changed, arguing that what we know about food has played a central role in how we perceive ourselves in the broader context of the natural world.

Fritz Allhoff and Dave Monroe, eds. Food & Philosophy: Eat, Think, and be Merry. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

As Epicurus showed us, the discussion of food can also be a window to important philosophical concerns. These essays from philosophers, chefs, food critics, and humorists covers a wide range of issues including aesthetics, the relationship between food and sensuality, the use of genetically modified organisms, eating disorders, fast food, indigenous food ways, and the ethical implications of our food choices. Sometimes scholarly, somtimes humorous, all of the authors share a love of food, and this thoughtful collection holds out hope for the possibility of celebrating food while learning to eat in a way that allows the planet to thrive.

Nelson Foster and Linda S. Cordell, eds. Chilies to Chocolate: Food the Americas Gave the World. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992.

From corn to potatoes to chocolate, a significant amount of the food consumed regularly worldwide today was unknown outside the Americas when the Europeans arrived. This collection examines the biological and cultural history of a number of crops indigenous to the Americas, from their domestication by the native population to their status today. Some of them have gone global, while others, like oca and arracacha have languished in obscurity. Forgotten, perhaps, but not irrelevant as these essays argue for the significance of biodiversity to a healthy food supply.


Colin Spencer. The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1995.

What do Leonardo da Vinci, Hitler, Gandhi, and Percy Shelley have in common? They were all vegetarians, of course, and they are just a small part of this comprehensive social and cultural history that shows that vegetarianism has never been simply a diet without meat. Beginning with such acts as the refusal to partake of a sacrificial ox, vegetarianism has been linked to social dissent and the criticism of dominant norms. Whether it is a choice based on philosophy, conscience, or superstition, it is a choice bound up in a complex web of philosophical, religious, and social values. Vegetarian or meat eater, what people do eat is a symbol of what they believe.


Gary Paul Nabhan. Why Some Like it Hot: Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2004.

Ethnobiologist Gary Paul Nabhan has studied nutritional ecology for the past three decades. In this work, he travels the world to explore the complex interactions between cuisine, culture, and human evolution. He argues that traditional cuisines have evolved to fit the inhabitants of a particular place. Food sensitivities, instead of being a form of genetic malady, are adaptations different ethnic groups evolved in response to different dietary choices over millennia in particular landscapes. The later separation of ethnic populations from their traditional diets has led to epidemic rises in diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and allergies, among other maladies, and roughly 3 to 4 billion people now suffer some form of nutritionally related diseases. This genetic diversity means there are no simple, single dietary solutions, but rather a need to understand our personal food histories and to preserve our cultural and culinary diversity.

Nina L. Etkin. Edible Medicines: An Ethnopharmacology of Food. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2006.

Aztecs applied chile pepper for toothache, sore throat, and asthma. The tonic properties of coffee have been recorded in Islamic pharmacopoeia since the eleventh century. Nina Etkin investigates the role of food in health maintenance across cultures and through time, revealing the pharmacologic potential of foods in the specific cultural contexts in which they are used. Incorporating co-evolution and a biocultural perspective, she shows that food choice has been more closely linked to health than is widely thought, blurring the distinction between food and medicine in the context of real-life circumstances.

John Irving, et al., eds. Terra Madre: 1,600 Food Communities. Bra, Italy: Slow Food Editore, 2006.

Produced for the 2006 Terra Madre cofnerence, this book describes in detail 1,600 food communities in 150 countries - communities embodying a new idea of agriculture based on taste quality, sustainability, and social justice. Working for fertile soil, clean water, and the free circulation of information, these groups seek to protect biodiversity, the dignity of the rural world, and traditional knowledge.