Books about food and the planet
The Real Food Companion, Matthew Evans
A chef, faltering farmer and well-known food critic Matthew Evans, in The Real Food Companion, outlines everything you need to know to navigate today’s complex food world. This is the farmer, butcher, fishmonger and the baker by your side. The Real Food Companion shows us how to ethically source, cook and eat healthy food. It is written with gusto and filled to bursting with information to inspire and a huge range of recipes to nurture the soul an your family.
Liberation Ecology: Reframing Six Disempowering Ideas That Keep Us From Aligning With Nature – Even Our Own, Frances Moore Lappé; Small Planet Media, Cambridge, MA; Limited First Edition printed November 2009
On the site http://www.smallplanet.org/books/item/liberation_ecology a healthy discussion is being conducted that will help form the second and more widely distributed edition of the book, to be written over the 2010 northern summer. You can also buy this book there for US$15. It will be interesting to compare it with the next edition toward the end of the year.
I found that I felt the satisfying “kerclunk” of something dropping into place in my perception and understanding when reading virtually all the ideas presented. Of course, for many this is a familiar experience and is the basis for most of our friendships and networks. The exciting difference for me is the two-step that is engendered here. An idea with which I have regarded as generally true is presented, then with a deceptively simple shift – the reframe – is presented in such a way that I want to shout “AHA! That’s it!” To quote the author, “Since we create the world according the ideas we hold, we have to ask ourselves whether the ideas we inherit and absorb through our culture serve us.” (p.115)
For instance, simply from the contents pages I read “Disempowering Idea 2: We’ve hit the limits of a finite earth.” So true, I think, feeling saddened. We’d need three or four… or more… earths to accommodate us at this rate of consumption. Then Empowering Reframe 2 follows. “ Our disruption of nature, not the earth’s limits, is the problem; so the solution is to align with the laws of nature”. I think of the many ways this is being facilitated and experienced and am heartened, strengthened.
“Disempowering Idea 3: We must overcome selfish human nature to save the planet” feeds my despair about what I see and hear through the media daily, let alone self-judgement. The thankfully Empowering Reframe 3 speaks to the realm of human nature and a living democracy, which is further addressed in the remaining Reframes. It says “The challenge isn’t changing our nature but changing society’s rules to bring out the best in our nature”.
The six ideas and discussion about them form the larger part of this book, with three more sections rounding it out. It could be expanded to a huge tome – and so much has been said already by so many other authors that it is unnecessary to repeat it all in this book, many of whom are referenced in the Endnotes.
After the six ideas are fleshed out comes “An Invitation: Thinking Like An Ecosystem“. Such an enticing idea! Here the author explains and illustrates what she means with her own thoughts as well as practical examples of how such thinking works.
The “Extras” section just prior to the final Endnotes (including references to Joanna Macy, Amory Lovins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, International Cooperative Alliance and 321 more!) includes a Humanifesto, a summary of the six ideas, and a “Lexicon for Liberation Ecology” of fifteen contrasting terms and metaphors such as “From economies of waste and destruction to economies of life-enhancing growth.” (p 144) Also here are “Six Questions to Ask of Any Framing Term or Metaphor”. The last: “Is the action self-reinforcing so that it builds energy, my own and others, for ongoing, life-enhancing change?” (p. 146) This could be a question for my every action if I were being obsessive!
It also has a beginning of a list of “connecting with others” websites and a short reading list. Amongst other comments, the websites and books as well as real-life examples are what she is asking her First Edition readers to help supply – the ones listed are mainly US-based. What would you suggest? I have a few suggestions, including Food Connect and TransitionTowns.org. (Transition Towns are mentioned in the text.)
I believe the big idea, the paradigm shift being espoused here, is the most valuable aspect of the book. Its limited length and Frances Moore Lappé’s easy-to-read and engaging style complement the subject matter and make this an eminently readable book. With feedback in the blog, I trust that the general US-centred approach will be tempered in the next edition.
Whether for a US or global readership, she is preaching to the choir and it’d be good to reach the congregation, as one poster to the blog put it. How to do that? Can new media be use to convey digestible bites? For instance, it’d be great to see a series of sassy, good-humoured and catchy Youtube clips made that illustrate each of the six ideas and maybe some of the Lexicon listed in Extras. Any more ideas? Have a read, even if only the blog, and contribute as you can.
And feel free to pass this on to anyone you feel is keen for a different way of seeing and being.
From Joan, Taringa subscriber.
