It’s Time to Get Reading! 20 Books on Food Tank Spring List

Danielle Nierenberg

Danielle Nierenberg 

Over the last few months, Food Tank has had amazing conversations about the food system in three U.S. states. And next week alone, we’ll be in New York City for the launch of the amazing Periodic Table of Food Initiative and to celebrate Stop Food Waste Day and in Boston to highlight food is medicine.

I’m always exhilarated by having these transformative conversations about the future of food—and another upside of Food Tank’s packed schedule is that I have plenty of time on planes and trains to read new books about the food system!

The books on Food Tank’s reading list this season all find really engaging ways to highlight how we can make more informed decisions in our kitchens, grocery stores, and gardens, so we can be part of building more sustainable production and consumption patterns. 

And these books are fascinating. Author Honor May Eldridge uses avocados as a path to explore food sovereignty and farmers whose local crops become international sensations. Maisie Ganzler walks us through what it takes to make food corporations more sustainable from the inside. Tracey Harris and Terry Gibbs show how “compassionate eating” is a step toward food justice. 

Plus, several cookbooks in our list focus on different aspects of Indigenous foodways, from reimagined seasonal fare in “Chimi Nu'am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen” to recipes from the Loretta Barrett Oden’s notable Corn Dance Café.

Here are 20 titles on Food Tank’s spring book list:

• Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

• Chimi Nu'am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen by Sara Calvosa Olson

• Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others by Amy Thielen

• Corn Dance: Inspired First American Cuisine by Loretta Barrett Oden

• Cultivated Meat to Secure Our Future: Hope for Animals, Food Security, and the Environment by Michel Vandenbosch and Philip Lymbery

• Cured: Cooking with Ferments, Pickles, Preserves & More by Steve McHugh with Paula Forbes

• Edible: 70 Sustainable Plants That Are Changing How We Eat by Kevin Hobbs and Artur Cisar-Erlach and illustrated by Katie Kulla 

• Food in a Just World: Compassionate Eating in a Time of Climate Change by Tracey Harris and Terry Gibbs

• Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century: Transnational Social Movements and Agrarian Change by Marc Edelman

• Our Little Farm: Adventures in Sustainable Living by Miriam Wohlleben and Peter Wohlleben and translated by Jane Billinghurst

• Practicing Food Studies edited by Amy Bentley, Fabio Parasecoli and Krishnendu Ray

• Principles of Sustainable Aquaculture: Promoting Social, Economic and Environmental Resilience by Stuart Bunting

• Remarkable Cities and the Security and Sovereignty of Food and Nutrition: 41 Ways to Regenerate the Local Food System by Jonathan Rosenbloom

• Slow Drinks: A Field Guide to Foraging and Fermenting Seasonal Sodas, Botanical Cocktails, Homemade Wines, and More by Danny Childs

• Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South by Kate Medley

• The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes) edited by Nadia L. Hohn and illustrated by Roza Nozari

• The Avocado Debate by Honor May Eldridge

• The Globalization of Wheat: A Critical History of the Green Revolution by Marci Baranski

• The Practical Permaculture Project by Sophie McKay

• You Can't Market Manure at Lunchtime: And Other Lessons from the Food Industry for Creating a More Sustainable Company by Maisie Ganzler

You can find details about each of these books by CLICKING HERE.

How have you been connecting with the food system this season? Personally, in addition to reading books, I’m glad to have had time to tend to my garden—which always helps me feel grounded. Email me at danielle@foodtank.com to share the books, movies, podcasts, or in-the-soil practices that have been helping you feel engaged in food!

(Danielle Nierenberg is the President of Food Tank and can be reached at danielle@foodtank.com)