Are you familiar with the new food lingo? There’s organic and slow food, pastured and GMO-free. There are locavores and omnivores, CSA members and foodies. And they’re all part of a global movement that’s reevaluating the relationships between us, our food, and our environment.
If you’re hungry to learn more about the industrial food system and the growing alternatives to it, check out this list of books, movies, and even blogs! Don’t worry, these won‘t bore you—they’re like a home-cooked meal with friends—filled with both smart conversation and lighthearted banter.
1. Film: Super Size Me, Directed by Morgan Spurlock (2004)1
In this documentary, Morgan Spurlock shows what happens to the human body when it consumes only fast food for an entire month. Spurlock bravely (or perhaps foolishly) uses himself as the guinea pig. With boisterous music and Spurlock’s funny anecdotes about his emotional and physical metamorphosis, the movie entertains throughout. While eating a double-quarter pounder, Spurlock reflects, “See, now’s the time of the meal when you start getting the McStomach ache….My arms got the McTwitches going in here from all the sugar that’s going in my body right now. I’m feeling a little McCrazy.”
Spurlock explores American food culture in schools, corporations, and politics through the eyes of both fast food experts and regular folks. He ties in the ramifications of fast food on the environment, declaring: “Over the course of the 30 days, I generated more than 13 bags of garbage. Multiply my daily amount by 46 million, the amount of people they feed each day, and you get enough garbage to fill the Empire State Building—every single day—and that’s only one fast food chain, in one day.” After watching this flick, I bet you’ll reconsider grabbing another McSomething…
2. Book: Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Written by Michael Pollan (2006)2
This is the book that many argue took the foodie movement mainstream. Even if you haven’t read Pollan’s work, you probably recognize his mantra: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”3 Pollan deserves the acclaim. In Omnivore’s Dilemma, he weaves personal experiences (like hunting a feral pig) seamlessly with hard facts (like the mechanics of corn sex) while telling us the story of three food chains—industrial (processed), organic, and traditional gathering.
Pollan’s descriptions are exquisite and his lessons breathtakingly simple. He writes, “[T]he way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds.”4 Forget about the McSomething. Pollan will have you rummaging through your breadbox, pantry, refrigerator, freezer, and even your produce bin, then asking: What is this? And where did it come from?
3. Book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Written by Barbara Kingsolver (2007)5
Has learning about the atrocities of the industrial food system gotten you down? Popular fiction writer Barbara Kingsolver has just the remedy for you—a whimsical memoir about the joys of gardening, cooking, and spending time with family. With Kingsolver, you’ll plant asparagus, can tomatoes, and even butcher a chicken, and you’ll do it all quite happily. Kingsolver writes, “That’s how springtime found us, grinning from ear to ear, hauling out our seedlings.” Kingsolver’s daughter contributes tasty seasonal recipes, and her husband chimes in with reports on the state of the global food system. In this way, the book reveals the best part about eating locally: building a strong sense of community, which is something you just can’t snatch in the check-out line.
4. Book: Moosewood Cookbook, Written by Mollie Katzen (1977)6
This is likely the most popular vegetarian cookbook in the world. In the late 1970s Mollie Katzen’s recipes introduced humus, tofu and other vegetarian staples to the American table. Use this book as an inspiration for dinner ☺ You’ll learn to make delicious zucchini-feta pancakes, maple-walnut pie, split pea soup, and lots more! Katzen believes in flexible cooking and encourages the cook to use her recipes only as a springboard. She writes, “The vegetables in this [gypsy] soup can be varied. Any orange vegetable can be combined with any green. For example, peas or green beans could replace—or—augment the peppers. Carrots, pumpkin, or squash could fill in for sweet potatoes.” Get creative!
When you search for this book online, you’ll quickly realize that there are numerous Moosewood Cookbooks out there. The later versions contain less eggs, dairy, and fat than the first edition. Whichever one you get, make sure it’s authored by Katzen, because her hand lettering and imaginative illustrations are too charming to pass up!
5. Blog: Smitten Kitchen (www.smittenkitchen.com)
Don’t look at this if you’re hungry. Deb’s exquisite photographs will make you salivate—mushroom lasagna, single-crust plum pie, and monkey cake are just some of the highlights! Deb sorts all of her recipes by season and ingredient, so you can think of this site not only as a blog, but also as a virtual cookbook. Deb introduces her recipes as if she were chatting with a good friend over lunch. She writes, “So here’s how this soup began: My mother gushed a couple weeks ago about an eggplant soup from, of all places, a casino in Atlantic City. Eggplant soup! At a casino! Worth talking about! Who knew?”
Deb will inspire you to get cooking. If she can do it in a 42-square-foot New York City kitchen with a tiny stove and even tinier one-year-old baby while taking photos that look real enough to bite into, then you can too!
6. Blog: Civil Eats (www.civileats.com)
Civil Eats isn’t just another news aggregate, but a trove of original reporting and insightful commentary. This is where you’ll learn about the recently proposed soda ban for food stamp recipients in NYC, the newly released data that children are getting 40 percent of their calories from junk food, and the nationwide expansion of school gardens. Civil Eats is a team blog with more than 40 contributors. It promotes critical thought about our food system in an effort to build “economically and socially just communities.” So while that monkey cake and mushroom lasagna bake, set a timer and log on to find out what’s going on outside your kitchen!
