Change Comes to Dinner: How Vertical Farmers, Urban Growers, and Other Innovators Are Revolutionizing How America Eats [Paperback]

Katherine Gustafson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 8, 2012

A fascinating exploration of America’s food innovators, that gives us hopeful alternatives to the industrial food system described in works like Michael Pollan’s bestselling Omnivore’s Dilemma

Change Comes to Dinner takes readers into the farms, markets, organizations, businesses and institutions across America that are pushing for a more sustainable food system in America.

 

Gustafson introduces food visionaries like Mark Lilly, who turned a school bus into a locally-sourced grocery store in Richmond, Virginia; Gayla Brockman, who organized a program to double the value of food stamps used at Kansas City, Missouri, farmers’ markets; Myles Lewis and Josh Hottenstein, who started a business growing vegetables in shipping containers using little water and no soil; and Tony Geraci, who claimed unused land to create the Great Kids Farm, where Baltimore City public school students learn how to grow food and help Geraci decide what to order from local farmers for breakfast and lunch at the city schools.

Change Comes to Dinner is a smart and engaging look into America’s food revolution.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Katherine Gustafson is a troubadour for sustainable food, inviting us to jump into her rental car as she maps the inspiring alternative food system emerging across the United States. And here’s a pleasant surprise: we don’t spend any time in the privileged bubbles of Brooklyn or Berkeley; Gustafson’s expansive and hopeful portrait puts the rest of America back in the picture. Change Comes To Dinner shows us the outline of a sane food system: now it’s up to us to fill it in.” --Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine

“In her wildly successful cross-country search for alternatives to our industrialized food system, Katherine Gustafson comes up with a terrific new word: “hoperaking,” the gathering of inspiration (and the opposite of muckraking).    The people whose work she describes here should inspire anyone to get busy and start planting.” --Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at NYU and author of What to Eat

“The rise of the local food movement is the single most encouraging trend in America in the last decade--and Katherine Gustafson is reporting from the cutting edge. A deliciously important book!”  -- Bill McKibben, author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

"It would have been enough if Katie Gustafson had simply captured the inspiration and energy inherent to America's sustainable food revolution. But she does much more than that, writing with a keen eye for detail and wisely recognizing that good food writing isn't really about food: It's about the people behind it." --Ben Hewitt, author of The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food

"Essential, inspiring read for those interested in food production and politics and the complicated, essential roles both play in our social welfare.” -Booklist

“A highly worthwhile read … quality journalism to motivate the most apathetic of us to buy local, organic and seasonal.” –BookKvetch.com

“Gustafson has a knack for tracking down everyday people with big ideas. Ideas that could really change our future. Ideas that are already changing people’s lives ... leaving environmental gain as a potential perk to an already-winning system gives Gustafson’s argument a bulletproof quality. It also frees her to investigate under-examined issues, like dynamics between race, class, and access to healthy food. As for Gustafson’s hoperaking goal, mission accomplished.” –UTNE Reader

“Both inspiring and realistic, Gustafson’s book provides a hopeful assessment of the possibility of big changes in the U.S. food system. Recommended for general readers interested in eating healthy, questioning where their food comes from, or knowing more about the business of farming.” –Library Journal

About the Author

KATHERINE GUSTAFSON is an award-winning writer, journalist and editor whose articles and essays have been published in numerous print and online media. She has written about sustainable food for Yes! Magazine, The Huffington Post, Civil Eats, Change.org, and Tonic. She lives with her husband in the Washington, DC, area.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312577370
• ISBN-13: 978-0312577377
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

KATHERINE GUSTAFSON is an award-winning writer, journalist and editor whose articles and essays have been published in numerous print and online media, including The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post, Slate, and Johns Hopkins Magazine. Her first book, 'Change Comes to Dinner," about good news in sustainable food, was published in 2012 by Macmillan. She lives with her husband and daughter in the Washington, DC, area.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars You Are What You Eat April 15, 2013

By Gloria F. Green

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Very informative, and helpful about the growing food activism topic. Reading it makes the reader aware of what e put on our plate, and how to eat more sustainably.

5.0 out of 5 stars Uplifting change for a change! October 18, 2012

By B. Lorr

Format:Paperback

Fascinating read; very much enjoyed learning about the frontiers of food science and agriculture without feeling like we are all doomed. May Katherine Gustafson become our next Michael Pollan!

5.0 out of 5 stars Educational, inspiring, and well-written all at the same time! August 20, 2012

By Helene

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a disclaimer, I should admit that I bought this book mainly because the author is one of my friends' sister. In the past, I have read books written by acquaintances and been disappointed by the quality of the writing. I still value doing this though for the purely relational aspect of it. Since I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what kinds of food I put in my body, I knew the subject would be interesting to me, at the very least. So my expectations as I opened "Change comes to Dinner" were not very high.

Little did I know I was about to embark on a thrilling, joyful, and very educational journey... Who would have thought a book about this topic could be a page turner? Katherine Gustafson's writing style is delightful. The language sings with poetic tones without trying too hard, her descriptions of places and people she encountered are vivid and full of compassion, and she somehow manages to unpack some fairly complicated concepts with effortless ease. I thoroughly enjoyed every single page and am thinking about buying more copies as gifts for my foodie friends. I have read all of Michael Pollan's books and I dare compare Gustafson's writing to Pollan's, even if this is her first book.

If you care about the state of food in this country, this is a must-read. You will learn so much while being presented with a joyful hope in what could otherwise be seen as a pretty dire system.