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Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat [Paperback]

Tanya Denckla Cobb (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 21, 2011
A quiet revolution is taking place: People across the United States are turning toward local food. Some are doing it because they want more nutritious, less-processed food; some want to preserve the farmland and rural character of their regions; some fear interruptions to the supply of non-local food; some want to support their local economy; and some want safer food with less threat of contamination. But this revolution comes with challenges.
Reclaiming Our Food tells the stories of people across America who are finding new ways to grow, process, and distribute food for their own communities. Their successes offer both inspiration and practical advice.

The projects described in this book are cropping up everywhere, from urban lots to rural communities and everywhere in between. In Portland, Oregon, an organization called Growing Gardens installs home gardens for low-income families and hosts follow-up workshops for the owners. Lynchburg Grows, in Lynchburg, Virginia, bought an abandoned 6.5-acre urban greenhouse business and turned it into an organic farm that offers jobs to people with disabilities and sells its food through a local farmers' market and a CSA. Sunburst Trout Farm, a small family business in rural North Carolina, is showing that it's possible to raise fish sustainably and sell to a local market. And in Asheville, North Carolina, Growing Minds is finding ways to help bring fresh foods into schools. Author Tanya Denckla Cobb offers behind-the-scenes profiles of more than 50 food projects across the United States, with lessons and advice straight from their founders and staff. Photographic essays of 11 community food projects, by acclaimed photographer Jason Houston, detail the unusual work of these projects, bringing it to life in unforgettable images.

Reclaiming Our Food is a practical guide for building a local food system. Where others have made the case for the local food movement, Reclaiming Our Food shows how communities are actually making it happen. This book offers a wealth of information on how to make local food a practical and affordable part of everyone's daily fare.

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Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World $15.79

Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat + Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World


Editorial Reviews

Review

In the wake of destructive factory farming practices and a gradual disconnect between people and the origins of their food, many are turning to sustainable local farming methods to reconnect with land and food sources, encourage food stability and independence (particularly in poor urban communities), support community growth, and utilize cities. As a result, a number of small non-profits and family farms are revitalizing farming for the next generation. In this meticulously researched, fascinating book, Cobb, an expert on food system planning, interviews these innovators to explore where we are as a nation in terms of food systems, where we’re going, and what kinds of changes can be enacted to get us there, all in an accessible, reader-friendly tone. Cobb (The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food) not only provides theory, but also includes tips for backyard gardening, raising urban livestock, and getting involved in community gardening. After finishing this immersive, inspiring, and educational book, readers will feel empowered to address the food systems in their lives and encourage a more responsible approach to consumption and production.
Publishers Weekly (Reviewed on: 09/12/2011)


"This is one-third chicken soup for the soul, one-third chicken poop for the soil, and three thirds great stories of real people doing positive practical and transformative work with food."  -- Wayne Roberts, Canadian food policy analyst and writer, former manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council

Review

In the last decade we have seen the budding efforts to transform our food system emerge into a full blown movement. As complicated and multi-faceted as the food system it seeks to change, the movement takes many shapes and differing strategies to “reclaim our food.”  With a keen ear and thoughtful insight, Tanya Denckla Cobb not only showcases some of the most promising work, she explores the motivations and theoretical models that are leading the charge to fundamentally and permanently transform the way we grow and eat food. (Charlie Jackson, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project )

Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (October 21, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1603427996
  • ISBN-13: 978-1603427999
  • Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.2 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tanya Denckla Cobb is a writer, professional environmental mediator, and teacher of food system planning at the University of Virginia. She has worked at the grassroots, co-founding a community forestry nonprofit and mediating for community mediation centers. At the state level, she facilitated the birth of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute and the Virginia Food System Council, and served as Executive Director of the Virginia Urban Forest Council.

While working for the federal government in the early 1980's, Tanya specialized in international labor rights and served on U.S. delegations to the U.N. International Labor Organization in Geneva. Since 1997, she has worked at the UVa Institute for Environmental Negotiation where her work involves facilitating and mediating a broad range of community and environmental issues. She is passionate about bringing people together to discover common ground and create solutions for mutual gain.

In 1999, she co-founded and continues to serve as teaching faculty for the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute. She also teaches a seminar for the National Preservation Institute on negotiation and conflict for cultural and natural resource managers. And, in 2004, she pioneered with UVa professor Timothy Beatley a series of graduate-level courses on food system planning.

At home, she enjoys the restorative energy of gardening and cooking from her garden. She lives in Virginia, and is the author of "Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement is Changing What We Eat" (2011) and "The Gardener's A to Z Guide to Growing Organic Food" (2004), which is a completely updated and redesigned version of her two earlier organic gardening books (also sold on Amazon).

Photo credit: Dan Addison, University of Virginia

 

Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Reclaiming Our Food": Stories That Need Telling, October 5, 2011
This review is from: Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat (Paperback)
Tanya Denckla Cobb has a gift for artfully documenting stories that desperately need to be told. Her latest book, "Reclaiming Our Food," is a collection of stories, insights, lessons in a food system gone awry and the inspirational groups and individuals who are developing creative solutions.

Cobb feels that there is something inherently democratic about the food movement. "It's democracy in action," she says, "people vote with their dollars, create control over an important part of their life, and take ownership in their community." Simply put: "Democracy is happening in our food system."

But Cobb's book is far from a rosy-tinted adulation of food projects. Rather, she describes it as "inspirational and practical." Inspirational, from the incredible stories of success and ingenuity. Practical, however, from Cobb's insistence on asking tough questions and distilling her interviews down to true "lessons learned."

In surveying the food system literature prior to writing the book, Cobb was surprised by the lack of a consolidated "lessons learned" text for food projects. In research, interviews, and site visits, Cobb's research team went below the surface, hearing about hardships and advice that food project veterans would give to future generations.

The features in the book have been meticulously documented, and Cobb is quick to reference the contributions of many book supporters, including seven students, U.Va. faculty, including Urban & Environmental Planning professor Tim Beatley, and numerous food experts from around the nation. Though the text is detailed, Cobb's storytelling weaves tales that are readable and illuminating, drawing upon research, as well as first-hand interviews and meetings with food projects from around the country.

"Reclaiming Our Food" is not a book to sit on the shelf, according to Cobb. Readers will want to come back, revisit their favorite stories, and take away ideas to apply in their own lives. As much as it is an inspiring story of hope, the book is meant as a handbook for food system innovators. Ways to get involved, like "crop mobs," are offered as unique ideas that can be applied in almost any community.

If you're depressed by what you've heard about the state of the food system, this book is your dose of optimism. If you're already inspired about food but just don't know where to go next, this book can get you thinking constructively. Practical, inspirational, and usable, "Reclaiming Our Food" is a significant contribution to food system literature. It tells the stories that need telling in a way that will create lasting impact beyond its pages.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Food like I enjoyed as a kid, October 4, 2011
By 
This review is from: Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat (Paperback)
A Woman Without A Man

A outstanding and timely book with great photos.

Farming used to happen only in the country. Things have changed. Every day on the local news in Chicago, a new empty city lot is being turned into a garden. They are benefiting neighbors and food pantries to feed the poor everywhere. Farming is going viral.

I grew up spoiled. My mother tended a large garden. Everything not consumed or shared was canned. We had good nutrition year round. We even had a dozen chickens for fresh eggs.

There are many good reasons for fresh food. For me, it is the taste. Tomatoes that are picked green cannot compare to a juicy bright red one from the garden. Eggs, fresh - no contest. Corn? Fresh picked melts in your mouth.

This book is a must read for new gardeners. I am happy with my three spectacular tomato plants just outside my urban townhouse. With my southern exposure, and little care, I supply all my neighbors too. now, if I could learn to can)

Good luck with your timely and inspiring book, Tanya. You have caught the wave.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Food Movement - and Me! Love this, October 3, 2011
This review is from: Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat (Paperback)
Despite our growing dependence on technology, most people are still motivated to eat freshly picked fruits, vegetables, livestock, milk and other non-processed foods.

Author Tanya Denckla Cobb's book, "Reclaiming Our Food: How the grassroots food movement is changing the way we eat" offers a great resource of information on how to rebuild our local food system in a most practical and affordable way. The grassroots movement provides a helping hand to those who are naturally passionate and committed in finding new way how to grow, process and distribute food that may somehow improve their way of life.

As your reading progress, you'll learn so much from the people and from each of the featured projects. If you are passionate about changing the way you eat and hoping to reclaim your food...this book is for you.
As one who is just now learning to grow my own vegetables, I'm excited to learn from others doing the same.
Great job on this Tanya
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