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3 books that can introduce you to the world of food, sustainability, and nutrition
These are three books that I’ve personally found to be immensely informative–and also very approachable–in my desire to know more about our food culture. From the shifting state of agriculture over the past century to future food logistics that feel straight out of an episode of Black Mirror, these books–I hope–will serve you well in whatever sort of journey you may have to know more about food, sustainability, and (not as much as the other two, but still) nutrition.
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The Unsettling of America — Wendell Berry (1977)
This book was meant to be a criticism of what I have called modern or orthodox agriculture. As I now realize, it is more a review than a criticism. Criticism requires a subject that is ‘finished.’ When agriculture is ‘finished,’ no would-be critic will be available.
Contrary to what Wendell Berry says here, in the preface of his landmark book, The Unsettling of America really is critical of the state of agriculture, culture, and to that end food in the 20th century.
Berry writes at a time when the philosophy of Earl L. Butz (Secretary of Agriculture) was changing (and had already changed) food production into an unscrupulous business, catalyzed by developments in 20th century technology. Buoyed by these…
