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Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It [Paperback]

Jill Richardson
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Book Description

July 1, 2009

“Jill Richardson is a fresh voice in the movement to create a healthier and sustainable food system. This book will be part of the burgeoning food social movement, as it provides a guide to the most important issues and how to work on them.”—Marion Nestle

“Jill’s work at Daily Kos represents the best of the people-powered movement. It’s a pleasure to see her work reach a new plateau and come to the attention of a wider audience.”—Markos Moulitsas

America’s food system is dominated by agribusiness and corporate farms, whose destructive practices pollute the environment, are cruel to animals, and offer us unhealthy food choices. Despite this dire situation, most people have little idea how to eat differently, or healthier.

In Recipe for America, food activist Jill Richardson shows how sustainable agriculture—where local farms raise food that is healthy for consumers and animals and does not damage the environment—offers the only solution to America’s food crisis. In addition to highlighting the harmful conditions at factory farms, this timely and necessary book details the rising grassroots food movement, which is creating an agricultural system that allows people to eat sustainably, locally, and seasonally.

A call to action for those who are concerned about what they eat and the health of the planet, Recipe for America shows how sustainable eating nourishes our bodies, our economy, and our environment, and how it is the best hope for the future of food in America.

Jill Richardson blogs about food issues at Daily Kos and at her own blog, La Vida Locavore (http://www.lavidalocavore.org). She is also a member of the advisory board of the Organic Consumers Association.


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Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It + The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions (P.S.)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The evils of industrial agriculture are rehashed in this impassioned but sketchy exposé. Food activist and blogger Richardson ticks off a familiar menu of food-system dysfunctions: overreliance on pesticides and fertilizer, exploited farmers and workers, horribly abused livestock, obese children who are fed subsidized junk food in school. (She personalizes her critique with reportage from a stint working at Whole Foods and recollections of a period in her life when a lack of access to fresh produce led her to gain weight on a diet of ice cream and beer.) She contrasts these ills with a vision of sustainable agriculture long on bucolic impressionism—the baby lambs head-butted their mothers enthusiastically and wagged their tails—and short on systematic analysis. The author's rabid advocacy of locavorism is especially myopic; she brushes past the costliness and impracticality—When buying eggs I ask the farmer how many chickens they own and if these chickens are on pasture—and ignores critics who argue that locavorism is an energy-inefficient fad. Only the choir will be convinced by Richardson's shallow take on these complex issues. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Ig Publishing (July 1, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0981504035
  • ISBN-13: 978-0981504032
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jill Richardson became interested in food initially as a way to stay healthy. At the same time, she was working in health care and she saw many patients who were sick with chronic diet-related illnesses. It occurred to Jill that preventing diet-related illness makes far more sense than sickening ourselves with food and then trying to cure them at great cost (in money and quality of life).

Jill's first book, Recipe for America, shows her plan to reform our food system. Jill is the founder of the sustainable food and agriculture blog La Vida Locavore and she serves on the policy advisory board of the Organic Consumers Association.

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Inspires more debate August 18, 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book gives us a brief overview of the food system and all it's inter-related problems with broad issues of health, environment, economy and politics. Each chapter is infused with good statistical information and first hand accounts by the author to explore and de-mystify some of the complex issues- labeling, GMOs , etc. The book ends abruptly with a short conclusion and appendix on encourageing web sites that advocate for sustainable food production in various ways. Though the information is well organized I find the political internet activisim for broad based policy isn't enough to handle the conclusion of such a book that offers a 'recipe' for a compendium of problems. What I want to know is more about the role of activisim- how people change and shape policy, what works well and hasn't. Get to the heart of the problem. Publicity. If we are going to write letters to congress we do so because someone has motivated and informed us of the urgent need to do so. Unfortunately, not all of us are exploring food issues on the internet. How do we get the word out most effectively?
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Voice FOR the Wilderness July 23, 2009
Format:Paperback
Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It

Jill Richardson's new book is a must-read for anyone who puts food into their mouth. She daringly takes on Agribiz and all it entails (genetic modification, CAFOs, ecological damage and ridiculously inefficient petroleum-based fertilizers) and counters their claims with evidence that high-yield, sustainable organic methods are not only possible, but absolutely essential if we are to solve the problems of hunger and malnutrition worldwide. You won't look at your plate the same way after reading Recipe For America -- and your food is going to taste a whole lot better afterward too.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars What a recipe! August 10, 2009
Format:Paperback
This is an outstanding book. It will do three things: Inform, enrage, empower. Unless you are a super-expert, I'm betting you will learn some things from this book. It will make you angry, but it will also empower you to take action on a variety of levels.

We can have a food system that is healthier, *much* better for the planet, and that produces food that is tastier. It needn't even be that expensive. It just takes some fundamental changes that Jill Richardson outlines in this book.

There are many good books on the disastrous state of our food system. This book has some features the others lack; for one thing, it's short. That's a good thing. You can always read more, and you can get hints of what else to read from this book. But it packs a lot into its 200 pages or so.

It's also well-written and not too technical. This isn't a book of minutiae or scientific detail (although it doesn't ignore science by any means!) it's a book for people who want to learn what's wrong and what they can do to fix it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars When Food and Politics Collide
Jill Richardson offers a fresh take on what happens when food and politics collide. She writes passionately about agribusiness, factory farms, the meat industry, and sustainable... Read more
Published on September 8, 2009 by Asad A. Jaleel
5.0 out of 5 stars Problems and solutions concerning our food system
Very informative. This book is a great overview of the problems with our food system and the solutions to those problems.
Published on August 19, 2009 by Honor R. Schauland
5.0 out of 5 stars A one-stop shop for addressing many of the problems with the American...
Jill Richardson is a young, new author, but her work in Recipe for America comes across as an experienced, well-read and savvy author. Read more
Published on August 7, 2009 by I. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars Recipe For Better Food and Better Health for Our Future
Jill Richardson's new book shares her personal journey of discovery and her path to explore solutions. Read more
Published on August 5, 2009 by Sherilin R. Heise
5.0 out of 5 stars If you eat, read this!
In an easy and enjoyable style Jill succinctly explains the problems that exist in our food system today and offers steps to address each problem. Read more
Published on August 4, 2009 by Robert R. Perry
5.0 out of 5 stars Review from an interested American food consumer
Jill Richardson's new book, Recipe for America, is a must read for any American who eats.

She skillfully explains the issues with modern industrialized farming in a way... Read more
Published on August 2, 2009 by J. D. Savage
5.0 out of 5 stars Review From OB Rag Community Blog
[...]

Once upon a time in America we were all promised a future where there would be "better living through chemistry". Well here we are. It's the future. Read more
Published on July 30, 2009 by Douglas Porter
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