1)The Omnivore’s Dilemma
This book is a long and fairly involved answer to this seemingly simple question,” Michael pollan writes, before setting up the many questions Americans have been diving deeper into in the decade since (2006)—from how industrial corn has shaped our diets to the ethics of eating animals.
2)Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food
And long before Michael Pollan there was Wendell Berry, a poet, novelist, and farmer whose critical essays on agriculture sounded alarms about a food system in trouble decades ago. Berry’s ideas go even deeper into philosophy and the practical applications of farming (okay, you can skip the pages on “farm sanitation”) as he tackles ideas like the problems with factory farmed cattle and how corporate agriculture has made small, sustainable farms—and therefore many rural communities—disappear. The book’s also got some awesome excerpts from his fiction that illuminate how eating is an integral part of family, culture, and community.
3)Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
If you’ve ever read an article about how corporations influence what and how we eat, you’ve probably read a quote from Marion Nestle. Nestle is an NYU professor and prolific writer and commentator and this old-school book just gets more and more relevant. It’s dense, but it’s got to be, since she’s explaining topics like how companies convince Americans to eat more and more unhealthy food and how the industry influences government dietary advice and food policies.
4)The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor
Journalist Mark Schatzker picks up on that thread and takes it a step further, showing not only how the industry manipulates consumers via marketing and policy, but how companies actually engineer flavors to influence taste and behavior.
5)The Cooking Gene
In this super compelling narrative, culinary historian Michael Twitty goes on a personal journey to investigate his ancestors and the food that shaped their lives.
6)Big Hunger
Food banks and food pantries are an incredibly important resource in terms of helping hungry get the food they need. But Andy Fisher argues that while they were set up to help families in crisis, there is now a vast segment that depend on them, long-term, for food. And while attention is constantly on supporting these organizations, not enough is paid to addressing the root causes of food insecurity, like low wages, structural inequalities, and health-care co.
7)The Mind-Gut Connection
This one is less about food policy and more about how friggin’ crazy cool our bodies are. Emeran Mayer, MD, walks you through all of the latest research on the connection between the microbes in your gut and what’s going on in your brain. What you eat, he shows, is closely tied to your mental health…and vice versa. Gut feelings? Yeah, those are totally legit, too.
Take care.