New at the Library

Reviewed: Choice Oct. 2017 vol. 55 no. 2 (Highly Recommended)
Description: Because beliefs and practices surrounding food often inspire religious and political fervor, as well as function to unite people into insular groups, it is inevitable that “food cults” would emerge. Studying the extreme beliefs and practices of such food cults allows us to see the ways in which food serves as a nexus for religious beliefs, sexuality, death anxiety, preoccupation with the body, asceticism, and hedonism, to name a few. (publ.)
Contents: 1. The Psychology of Food Cults. -- 2. The Allure Of Food Cults: Balancing Pseudoscience And Healthy Skepticism. -- 3. Food Practices In Early Christianity. -- 4. Juicing: Language, Ritual, And Placebo Sociality In A Community Of Extreme Eaters . -- 5. Contemporary Superfood Cults: Nutritionism, Neoliberalism and Gender. -- 6. Gluttons Galore - A Rising Faction in Food Discourses and Dining Experiences. -- 7. Caving In: The Appeal of the Paleo Diet in the Wake of 9/11. -- 8. “Of Bananas And Cave-men”: Unlikely Similarities Between Two Online Food Communities. -- 9. Eschew Your Food: Foodies, Healthism And The Elective Restrictive Diet. -- 10. Breaking Bread: The Clashing Cults of Sourdough and Gluten-Free. -- 11. The Gluten-Free Cult: A World Without Wheat. -- 12. Erasure of Indigenous Food Memories and (Re-)Imaginations. -- 13. “Herb Is For The Healing Of The Nation!” –Marijuana As A Consumable Vegetable Among Ghetto Muslim Youth Of Maamobi In Accra, Ghana. -- 14. What Makes A Good Mother? Mother’s Conceptions Of Good Food.

Description: Tapping into surging interest in the impacts of our food choices on ourselves and the wider world, Paul B. Thompson provides readers with a guided tour of the landscape of food ethics, applying more than thirty years of experience working with farmers, agricultural researchers, and food system activists. Thompson follows the ethics of diet and health from the ancient world to our current obesity crisis and goes on to examine diet and health issues, livestock welfare, world hunger, social injustice in food systems, environmental ethics, Green Revolution technology, and GMOs from a philosophical standpoint. (publ.)

Description: The average American farmer is fifty-eight years old, and the 40 percent of farmland owners who lease their land to others are even older: sixty-six on average. Five times as many farmers are over sixty-five as are under thirty-five. What will happen to this land? Who will own it? What if one child wants to farm but can’t afford to buy out the nonfarming siblings? What if keeping the farm in the family means foregoing the significant profits that could be earned from selling it? These sometimes painful and divisive questions confront many farmers and farmland owners today. How they answer them will shape their families and the land for generations to come. The Farm Legacy Letters project, developed by the member-driven nonprofit Practical Farmers of Iowa, is designed to help farmers and farmland owners think about their farm's future and talk about it with their families. … this book gathers the letters and stories of midwestern families about the land they cherish–how they acquired it, what they treasure most about it, and their hopes for its future. (publ.)

Description: Long-time landscape designer Judy Nauseef shows gardeners in the upper Midwest how to restore habitat and diversity to their piece of the planet by making native plants part of well-designed, thoughtfully planned gardens. Providing specific regional information, and working against the backdrop of habitat and species losses in the tallgrass prairie states, the author brings years of experience to creating landscapes that recall the now-vanished grasslands of the Midwest. Whether you have a city yard, a suburban lot, or a rural acreage, there are ideas here for you, along with examples of well-designed landscapes in which native plants enhance paths, patios, pergolas, and steps. (publ.)

Reviewed: NPR 15 May 2017 (“All Things Considered”) Grocery Stores: “The Best Of America And The Worst Of America”; Choice May 2018 vol. 55 no. 9 (Recommended for community college libraries).
Description: Offers commentary on America’s relationship with its food and investigates the overlooked source of so much of it–the grocery store. In a culture obsessed with food–how it looks, what it tastes like, where it comes from, what is good for us–there are often more questions than answers. Ruhlman proposes that the best practices for consuming wisely could be hiding in plain sight–in the aisles of your local supermarket. (publ.)

Description: More than 42 million people living in the United States came here from other countries. Since its beginnings, America has been a haven for people seeking refuge from political or economic troubles, or simply those in search of adventure and prosperity in a land where opportunity is promised to all. Along with their hopes and dreams, they brought valuable gifts: recipes from their homelands that transformed the way America eats. What would the Southwest be without its piquant green chili pepper sauces and stews, New York City without its iconic Jewish delis, Dearborn without its Arab eateries, or Louisiana without the Creole and Cajun flavors of its signature gumbos and jambalayas? Imagine an America without pizza or pad Thai, hummus or hot dogs, sushi or strudel–for most people, it wouldn't taste much like America at all. (publ.)

Reviewed: NPR 25 Sept. 2017 “Ingredients: An Eye-Opening Look At The Additives In Our Food”
Description: Focusing on 75 of the most common food additives and 25 ordinary food products that contain them, photographer Dwight Eschliman and science writer Steve Ettlinger demystify the contents of processed food. Together they reveal what each additive looks like, where it comes from, and how and why it is used. Essential for everyone who is concerned about the wholesomeness of their diet or merely curious about “polysorbate 60” or “tertiary butylhydroquinone” Ingredients is a visually and scientifically stunning journey from ketchup to Cool Whip. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 15 Sept. 2017 (new books)
Description: Examines the way claims about the origins and meanings of traditional foods get made around the world, from Italy and France to Costa Rica and Thailand. It also highlights the implications of different systems for both producers and consumers. Labeling regimes have moved beyond intellectual property to embrace community-based protections, intangible cultural heritage, cultural landscapes, and indigenous knowledge. Reflecting a rich array of juridical, regulatory, and activist perspectives, these approaches seek to level the playing field on which food producers and consumers interact. (publ.)

Description: Would you like to taste Paddington Bear’s marmalade? Or a clam chowder from Moby Dick? Drawing from her popular food blog, The Little Library Café, Kate Young has created more than 100 recipes inspired by beloved works of fiction–classics and contemporary bestsellers alike, including stories for all ages. The appealing cookbook offers delectable dishes to serve for breakfast, family dinners, holiday meals, midnight feasts, and parties and celebrations. You’ll learn how to prepare the afternoon tea served at Manderley and decadent tarts the Queen of Hearts would love–all while reading food-related excerpts from your favorite books. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 18 Aug. 2017 (new books)
Description: New and exciting forms of food activism are emerging as supporters of sustainable agriculture increasingly recognize the need for a broader, more strategic and more politicized food politics that engages with questions of social, racial, and economic justice. This book highlights examples of campaigns to restrict industrial agriculture’s use of pesticides and other harmful technologies, struggles to improve the pay and conditions of workers throughout the food system, and alternative projects that seek to de-emphasize notions of individualism and private ownership. Grounded in over a decade of scholarly critique of food activism, this volume seeks to answer the question of “what next,” inspiring scholars, students, and activists toward collective, cooperative, and oppositional struggles for change. (publ.)

Reviewed: Choice Oct. 2017 vol. 55 no. 2 (Highly Recommended; Top 75 Titles Recommended for community college libraries)
Description: Even those who find time for a family meal are cut off from the people who grew, harvested, distributed, marketed, and sold the foods on their table. Few ever break bread with anyone outside their own socio-economic group. So why does Michael Carolan say that that no one eats alone? Because all of us are affected by the other people in our vast foodscape. We can no longer afford to ignore these human connections as we struggle with dire problems like hunger, obesity, toxic pesticides, antibiotic resistance, depressed rural economies, and low-wage labor. Carolan argues that building community is the key to healthy, equitable, and sustainable food. (publ.)

Description: This book deals with an important and timely issue: the political and economic forces that have shaped agricultural policies in the Unit-ed States during the past eighty years. It explores the complex interactions of class, market, and state as they have affected the formulation and application of agricultural policy decisions since the New Deal, showing how divisions and coalitions within Southern, Corn Belt, and Wheat Belt agriculture were central to the ebb and flow of price supports and production controls. In addition, the book highlights the roles played by the world economy, the civil rights movement, and existing national policy to provide an invaluable analysis of past and recent trends in supply management policy. (publ.)

Description: A profound shift is occurring among women working in agriculture—they are increasingly seeing themselves as farmers, not only as the wives or daughters of farmers. The authors draw on more than a decade of research to document and analyze the reasons for the transformation. As their sense of identity changes, many female farmers are challenging the sexism they face in their chosen profession. In this book, farm women in the northeastern United States describe how they got into farming and became successful entrepreneurs despite the barriers they encountered in agricultural institutions, farming communities, and even their own families. Their strategies for obtaining land and labor and developing successful businesses offer models for other aspiring farmers. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 23 Mar. 2018 p. 3; PW 9 Apr. 2018 p. 69.
Description: Cows are as varied as people. They can be highly intelligent or slow to understand, vain, considerate, proud, shy or inventive. Although much of a cow’s day is spent eating, they always find time for extra-curricular activities such as babysitting, playing hide and seek, blackberry-picking or fighting a tree. This is an affectionate record of a hitherto secret world. (publ.)
Note: Originally published in 2003: Preston: Farming Books & Videos, 2003.

Reviewed: PW 14 Aug. 2017 p. 36 (forth. 10/2017); PW 2 Oct. 2017 p. 131.
Description: Sherman shares his approach to creating boldly seasoned foods that are vibrant, healthful, at once elegant and easy. Sherman dispels outdated notions of Native American fare--no fry bread or Indian tacos here--and no European staples such as wheat flour, dairy products, sugar, and domestic pork and beef. The Sioux Chef's healthful plates embrace venison and rabbit, river and lake trout, duck and quail, wild turkey, blue-berries, sage, sumac, timpsula or wild turnip, plums, purslane, and abundant wildflowers. … a rich education and a delectable introduction to modern indigenous cuisine of the Dakota and Minnesota territories, with a vision and approach to food that travels well beyond those borders. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 15 Jan. 2018 p. 50
Description: Prior to 1600, sugar was a costly luxury, the domain of the rich. But with the rise of the sugar colonies in the New World over the following century, sugar became cheap, ubiquitous and an everyday necessity. Less than fifty years ago, few people suggested that sugar posed a global health problem. And yet today, sugar is regularly denounced as a dangerous addiction, on a par with tobacco. While sugar consumption remains higher than ever—in some countries as high as 100lbs per head per year—some advertisements even proudly proclaim that their product contains no sugar. How did sugar grow from prize to pariah? Historian James Walvin looks at the history of our collective sweet tooth, beginning with the sugar grown by enslaved people who had been uprooted and shipped vast distances to undertake the grueling labor on plantations. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 16 June 2017 (new books)
Description: How did the modern poultry industry emerge from a region of cotton farms? What business model can explain why aspiring farmers ended up as powerless, as processed, and as exploited as their chickens? The Takeover deftly examines the agricultural and social history of Up-country Georgia and reveals the matrix of contract growing, government subsidy, and rural impoverishment that enriched agribusiness integrators and freed these firms from financial and environmental risk. (Sarah T. Phillips, author)

Reviewed: PW 26 June 2017 p. 107; NYT/BR 26 Nov. 2017 p. 21; NPR ("Weekend Edition" 10/8/2017)
Description: Is there still a place for the farm in today’s America? The family farm lies at the heart of our national identity, yet its future is in peril. Rick Hammond grew up on a small ranch, and for forty years he has raised cattle and crops on his wife’s fifth-generation homestead in York County, Nebraska, in hopes of passing it on to their four children. But as the handoff nears, their small family farm—and their entire way of life—are under siege. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 14 Aug. 2017 p. 64; Choice Jun 2018 vol. 55 no. 10 (recommended for community college libraries).
Description: Journalist Carey Gillam uncovers one of the most controversial stories in the history of food and agriculture, exposing new evidence of corporate influence. Gillam introduces readers to farm families devastated by cancers which they believe are caused by the chemical, and to scientists whose reputations have been smeared for publishing research that contradicted business interests. Readers learn about the arm-twisting of regulators who signed off on the chemical, echoing company assurances of safety even as they permitted higher residues of the pesticide in food and skipped compliance tests. And, in startling detail, Gillam reveals secret industry communications that pull back the curtain on corporate efforts to manipulate public perception. (publ.)

Description: Tracing cakes chronologically from the dark, moist gingerbread of New England to the elegant pound cake, the hardscrabble Appalachian stack cake, war cakes, deep-South caramel, Hawaiian Chantilly, and the modern California cakes of orange and olive oil, Byrn shares recipes, stories, and a behind-the-scenes look into what cakes we were baking back in time. (publ.) Memorize your American presidents via their favorite cakes and pies! Fruitcake … Baked Alaska …Huguenot Torte …

Reviewed: Choice Nov 2016 vol. 54 no. 3 (Highly Recommended; Community College Top 75 Best Books)

Reviewed: CHE 14 Oct. 2016 p. B14; Choice Apr 2017 vol. 54 no. 8 (Highly Recommended; Community College Recommended)

Reviewed: Choice May 2017 vol. 54 no. 9 (Highly Recommended; Community College Recommendation)

Reviewed: CHE 21 May 2017 (new books)

Note: Access and full download available online.
URL: http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2014/114B09_4_engl.pdf.
Description: This manual compiles 100 illustrated examples of practical ergonomic improvements that can be achieved at low or no cost. Each checkpoint describes an action, indicates why it is necessary and how to carry it out, and provides further hints and points to remember. The checkpoints focus on ergonomically designed tools and on best techniques for handling materials and arranging workstations, physical environments, welfare facilities, teamwork methods and community cooperation. This valuable training tool is designed for all those concerned with creating a better workplace in agriculture and rural settings: employers, supervisors, workers, inspectors, safety and health personnel, trainers and educators, engineers, ergonomists and designers.

Reviewed: NPR (12 Mar. 2017; “How Lemonade Helped Paris Fend Off Plague”)

Reviewed: Choice Oct 2016 vol. 54 no. 2 (Highly Recommended; Community College Recommended)

Note: Access and full download also available free online at http://www.nap.edu/23395.

Reviewed: CHE 21 May 2017 (new books)

Reviewed: CHE 10 Mar. 2017 (new books)

Contents: Homeless people and vacant land — The excess of capital — Some proposed extinguishers — The amphibian farmer.
Description: Edition of a previously unpublished work from 1932 that had been thought destroyed by Ransom when the Southern Agrarian poet and critic failed to find a publisher. The accomplished poet and scholar John Crowe Ransom made profound contributions to twentieth-century American literature. As a teacher at Vanderbilt University he was also a leading member of the Southern Agrarian movement and a contributor to the movement’s manifesto “I’ll Take My Stand.” Ransom’s Land! is a previously unpublished work that unites Ransom’s poetic sensibilities with an examination of economics at the height of the Great Depression. Politically charged with Ransom’s aesthetic beliefs about literature and his agrarian interpretation of economics, it was long thought to have been burned by its author after he failed to find a publisher.

Reviewed: CHE 28 Apr. 2017 (new books)
Description: Focuses on the marketing and labor strategies of local food farmers in Iowa, a state known for its large-scale industrial agriculture.

Reviewed: NYT/BR 16 Apr. 2017 p. 9

Reviewed: TLS 14 Apr. 2017 p. 36.

Reviewed: CHE 21 May 2017 (new books)

Reviewed: NPR (“Fresh Air” 15 Aug. 2016; “Creamed, Canned And Frozen: How The Great Depression Revamped U.S. Diets”)

Reviewed: Choice Jan 2017 vol. 54 no. 5 (Highly Recommended; Community College Recommendation).

Reviewed: NPR 30 June 2016 “What College Freshmen Are Reading”; 9 July 2017 ("All Things Considered") The Troubled History Of The Supermarket Tomato; & 28 June 2017 ("Fresh Air") How Industrial Farming 'Destroyed' The Tasty Tomato.

Reviewed: CHE 17 Mar. 2017 (new books)

Reviewed: WSJ 27/28 May 2017 p. C18