Books: Food, Inc.
I just finished reading Food, Inc.: How Industrial Food is Making us Sicker, Fatter and Poorer — And What You Can Do About it, edited by Karl Weber and compiled as a companion piece to the movie, which I also just watched. I actually watched the movie (by Robert Kenner) first, not realizing that was the correct order of things.
I’ve read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation
, watched King Corn: You Are What You Eat, a documentary by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, and read quite a bit on food, the food industry in the United States and food safety (or lack of it). Food, Inc., gathers much of the information out there and puts it all in one place.
In any case, if you eat, you might be interested in this book and film. The film was done first. The book contains information from people who weren’t in the film. Schlosser says the film and the book are not just about food. They’re also about threats to the First Amendment and the corrupting influence of centralized power.
Contributors include (listed in order they appear in the book)
- Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal from 2001 and the movie in 2006
- Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food
- Robert Kenner, director of this and other documentaries
- Gary Hirshberg, president and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, producer of organic yogurt
- Humane Society of the United States
- Peter Pringle, a British investigative reporter and foreign correspondent
- Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
- Robert Bryce
- Anna Lappé, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund
- Cool Foods Campaign
- Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers; Alexa Delwiche, who worked as a researcher for UFW; and Sheheryar Kaoosji, a research analyst for Change to Win
- Pesticide Action Network North America
- Muhammad Yunus
- FoodFirst Information and Action Network
- Michael Pollan
- American Community Gardening Association
- Joel Salatin
- Sustainable Table
- Marion Nestle
- Sherri White Nelson, Heifer International
- Center for Science in the Public Interest
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Preston Maring
I think the information provided by this book and film is very important, though not half as fun as reading Barbara Kingsolver’s take on food issues in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I’m reading now. In fact, her book was written before Food, Inc., and I wondered, hey, did they read Kingsolver? Because if they didn’t, they should. But sure enough. She was listed in the “to learn more” section at the end of the book.
Posted by Becky @
6:00 am |
Library
I’m still stacking books. The shelves are almost full! Here’s a look back at what it took. I have some “before” pictures, but WordPress won’t let me upload any more photos right now. I guess I wore it out.
Posted by Becky @
9:52 am |
Books: Pinkalicious
March 10, 2010 | Books
We just read Pinkalicious by sisters Victoria Kann & Elizabeth Kann. We enjoyed Goldilicious so much that we wanted to read this one, which was actually published first. Now, we’ll just have to get our hands on Purplicious, and our “licious” life will be complete.
Posted by Becky @
6:00 am |
Books: Listen to the Wind
March 9, 2010 | Books
We just read Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg & Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth (who also did the collages).
It’s the children’s version of Three Cups of Tea, which I read two years ago. It tells the story of building a bridge and a school for the children of Korphe.
The story was very simple, so I had to answer questions about veils on girls and why they wear them and boys don’t. I also explained that girls in that part of the world often aren’t allowed to go to school.
The Pearson Foundation has a nice video of Mortenson and his daughter explaining the Pennies for Peace program, which was set up to educate children and give them a way to help.
He also has a “youth” version of his book and a song, featuring Jeni Fleming and his daughter, Amira.
Speaking of pennies, maybe we should send that fancy Lincoln bicentennial penny and the rest from my son’s money unit at school to Pennies for Peace. Eh?
Posted by Becky @
6:00 am |
Books: Origin
March 8, 2010 | Books
I just finished reading Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber. What a great mystery and thriller! I read her book Crescent (enjoyed it very much), which had a completely different feel to it. Abu-Jaber is a wonderful writer. I love her descriptions.
Posted by Becky @
6:00 am |
Books: Little House on the Prairie Cookbook
March 7, 2010 | Books
Did you know there’s a Little House on the Prairie Cookbook? It’s called The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker and illustrated by Garth Williams. This would be a great addition to our Little House library.
Anne-Marie Nichols wrote about it at her blog, This Mama Cooks! She has lots of great information, recipes and lists of other books and activities to celebrate reading in March.
Posted by Becky @
2:38 pm |
Books: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
March 6, 2010 | Books
So I’m on page 13 of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, thoroughly enjoying myself and the way she writes, thinking, “Hey, I really like this author.” Can anyone tell me why I’ve never read her before? Ah well. At least now I know what I was missing.
Posted by Becky @
8:19 am |
Books: Salt Dancers
March 4, 2010 | Books
I just finished reading Salt Dancers by Ursula Hegi. It’s the story of Julia, who revisits dark family issues when she travels from one coast to the other to return home after more than 20 years away. She wants to understand what went wrong with her family so she can avoid that with the child she’s expecting. It’s haunting and painful, yet it’s also hopeful. And, oh, so familiar.
Posted by Becky @
6:00 am |
Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss
I’ve said before that we love Dr. Seuss in this house. We have plenty Dr. Seuss books on the shelf, but we have several everywhere else — in the dollhouse, beside pillows and under covers, on the coffee table, in the toybox, in the bathroom. My kids enjoyed looking through my old My Book About Me By Me, which I got when I was about their age. They each got one last year for Christmas.
As I look at the titles, I realize we have read every one of them, some of them many, many times (we went through a serious Horton Hears a Who! phase a while back). We love them all. Well, I don’t care much for Fox in Socks. That was a dirty, dirty trick, Dr. Seuss, that would drive any parent to drink. At least the ones who actually try to read it out loud at bedtime. I mean, c’mon.
Through three cheese trees
three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew,
freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made
these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made
these trees’ cheese freeze.
That’s what made these
three free fleas sneeze.
(from Fox in Sox: A Tongue Twister for Super Children by Dr. Seuss)
Seriously? Children. “You have em, I’ll entertain em.” Indeed, Dr. Smart-Aleck.
But really. You gave us The Eye Book, The Foot Book and The Sleep Book. Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop. The Lorax, Sneetches and the Grinch. Most of all, you gave us playful rhythms, language acrobatics and a wonderful carnival ride into the world of your imagination.
If we didn’t have birthdays, you wouldn’t be you.
If you’d never been born, well then what would you do?
If you’d never been born, well then what would you be?
You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree!
You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes.
Or worse than all that . . . Why, you might be a WASN’T!
A Wasn’t has no fun at all. No, he doesn’t.
A Wasn’t just isn’t. He just isn’t present.
But you . . . You ARE YOU! And, now isn’t that pleasant! (from Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss)
We’re so glad you had a birthday and that YOU were YOU. Thank you for that. And from all of us in my home, happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!
Posted by Becky @
12:30 pm |
Books: Home
February 28, 2010 | Books
I just finished reading Home by Marilynne Robinson. It was a closer look at some of the people in Gilead. A bit darker than Gilead (not as dark as Housekeeping, though) but just as insightful. Robinson is an amazing writer.
Posted by Becky @
11:30 am |
