Curated from hundreds of Mark Winne's articles, blog posts, and speeches, this book documents 20 years of progress against the rampages of the industrial food system.Beginning in the 1960s, the United States slowly awakened to an entirely new way of thinking about its most life-sustaining ingredient-food. Understanding the link between health and diet drove millions to a greater consciousness about their eating. Learning that the American food system had been captu...

Look at any list of America’s top foodie cities and you probably won’t find Boise, Idaho or Sitka, Alaska. Yet they are the new face of the food movement. Healthy, sustainable fare is changing communities across this country, revitalizing towns that have been ravaged by disappearing industries and decades of inequity.What sparked this revolution? To find out, Mark Winne traveled to seven cities not usually considered revolutionary. He broke bread with brew masters and city council ...

This powerful call to arms offers a realistic vision for getting locally produced, healthy food onto everyone’s table, “[blending] a passion for sustainable living with compassion for the poor” (Dr. Jane Goodall)In Closing the Food Gap, food activist and journalist Mark Winne poses questions too often overlooked in our current conversations around food: What about those people who are not financially able to make conscientious choices about where and how t...

The United States-one of the world's wealthiest and resource-richest nations-has multiple food-related problems: declining food quality due to industrialization of its production, obesity across all age groups, and a surprisingly large number of households suffering from food insecurity. These issues threaten to shorten the lives of many and significantly reduce the quality of life for millions of others. This book explores the root causes of food-related problems in the 20th and 21st cent...

In an age of uncertainty about how climate change may affect the global food supply, industrial agribusiness promises to keep the world fed. Through the use of factory “farms,” genetic engineering, and the widespread application of chemicals, they put their trust in technology and ask consumers to put our trust in them. However, a look behind the curtain reveals practices that put our soil, water, and health at risk. What are the alternatives? And can they too feed the world?The ra...

**Through a mixture of words and drawings, two award-winning journalists tell the stories of Americans surviving in the parts of the country most ravaged by capitalism, and the ways they manage to find hope“As moving a portrait of poverty and as compelling a call to action as Michael Harrington’s The Other America.” —The Boston GlobeA New York Times Bestseller • A Washington Post Best Book of the Year**In this blend of rigorous jo...

"Mary Pipher takes on our planet's greatest problems with the skills of a truly gifted therapist. She knows why we avoid and deny the truth and she knows how we can heal ourselves and our communities even as we try to heal the earth. This book is a deep and true gift."—Bill McKibben, author of EaarthIn Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher offered a paradigm-shattering look at the lives of adolescent women. Now Pipher is back with another ground-breaking ...

The Dust Bowl was the largest ecological disaster in United States history, coinciding with the nation’s worst economic crisis, the Great Depression of the 1930s. Massive dust storms, combined with nearly a decade of drought, wreaked havoc on parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Arkansas. The storms were a relentless threat to the environment and the health and welfare of those in their path. The effects of the dust storms were far-reaching, impacting not j...

Enjoy the softer side of Uncle John! Filled with hundreds of pages of extraordinary, uplifting, and motivational stories, this is the ultimate ‘feel good’ book.Down in the dumps? Maybe you need a little inspiration, courtesy of Uncle John. Your friends at the Bathroom Readers’ Institute have been working hard to assemble the most uplifting collection of humor interest stories to date. Read about extraordinary moments in ordinary lives and be awed by affecting tales...

In the tradition of Mark Kurlansky's Cod and Salt, this endlessly revealing book reminds us that the fiber we think of as ordinary is the world's most powerful cash crop, and that it has shaped the destiny of nations. Ranging from its domestication 5,500 years ago to its influence in creating Calvin Klein's empire and the Gap, Stephen Yafa's Cotton gives us an intimate look at the plant that fooled Columbus into thinking he'd reached India...

A Vintage Shorts SelectionFrom the founder of modern radical activism in America, Saul Alinsky, whose the bestselling classic Rules for Radicals has reinvigorated the political left in America. “Organizational genius” Alinsky lays out the thirteen rules that all have-nots must follow to wage a successful campaign against the haves. Wielding tremendous influence to this day, and used as a bible by leading organizers since it was first published almost fifty years ago, these...

Company town: The very phrase sounds un-American. Yet company towns are the essence of America. Hershey bars, Corning glassware, Kohler bathroom fixtures, Maytag washers, Spam -- each is the signature product of a company town in which one business, for better or worse, exercises a grip over the population. In The Company Town, Hardy Green, who has covered American business for over a decade, offers a compelling analysis of the emergence of these communities and their role in shap...