Farmer hands take care young sprout plant in the soil.
The food system is about so much more than the food on our plates and in our bowls. Yes, I’m a nerd—and proud of it!—and the books I love reading about the food system, including many new ones out this spring, understand this fact.
As these authors write, food can be so much bigger than what shows up on our tables: We’re not just talking about bananas, we’re talking about imperialism and agricultural destruction. Understanding soda means unpacking corporate influence over food and health, and discussing wheat can bring us into complex conversations about diaspora. Food can highlight conflict but also resilience, as Hawa Hassan writes beautifully in her new book.
And on the other hand, the food system can be minuscule. In his book on carbon, Project Drawdown Founder Paul Hawken explores how intertwined carbon is with not just being alive but with the human experience more broadly. And Jack Lohmann helps us understand how the element phosphorus (and its phosphate form) has shaped our past and possibly our future.
But something else I believe deeply—and probably also say all the time!—is that the food we eat does matter! While we work to understand the broader social forces shaping the food system, we cannot forget to prioritize the ways food can bring us joy, cultural connectedness, and health. That’s why I love when chefs like Nina Compton bridge these worlds, as she does in her forthcoming book “Kwéyòl / Creole: Recipes, Stories, and Tings from a St. Lucian Chef’s Journey,” which I cannot wait to cook from when it comes out.
So here’s a sneak peek at the list of books I’m enjoying this season (These titles are listed in alphabetical order.)
● “Banana Capital: Stories, Science, and Poison at the Equator” by Ben Brisbois
● “Carbon: The Book of Life” by Paul Hawken
● “Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America” by Sonja Trom Eayrs
● “Eat Pacific: The Pacific Island Food Revolution Cookbook” by Robert Oliver
● “Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City” by Yuki Kato (forthcoming May 2025)
● “Gluten Free for Life: Celiac Disease, Medical Recognition, and the Food Industry” by Emily K. Abel
● “How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy” by Julian Baggini
● “How to Feed the World: The History and Future of Food” by Vaclav Smil
● “Kwéyòl / Creole: Recipes, Stories, and Tings from a St. Lucian Chef’s Journey: A Cookbook” by Nina Compton (forthcoming April 2025)
● “México Between Feast and Famine: Food, Corporate Power, and Inequality” by Enrique C. Ochoa (forthcoming April 2025)
● “On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California” by Jaclyn Moyer
● “Regenerative Farming and Sustainable Diets: Human, Animal and Planetary Health” edited by Joyce D’Silva and Carol McKenna
● “Setting a Place for Us: Recipes and Stories of Displacement, Resilience, and Community from Eight Countries Impacted by War” by Hawa Hassan
● “Silvohorticulture: A Grower’s Guide to Integrating Trees into Crops” by Ben Raskin and Andy Dibben
● “Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick” by Murray Carpenter
● “The Apple: A Delicious History” by Sally Coulthard
● “The Fishwife Cookbook: Delightful Tinned Fish Recipes for Every Occasion” by Becca Millstein and Vilda Gonzalez
● “The Kidney and the Cane: Planetary Health and Plantation Labor in Nicaragua” by Alex M. Nading (forthcoming May 2025)
● “The Quinoa Bust: The Making and Unmaking of an Andean Miracle Crop” by Emma McDonell
● “In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan” by James Lin
● “White Light: The Elemental Role of Phosphorus—in Our Cells, in Our Food, and in Our World” by Jack Lohmann
A full list of books to inspire the movement for sustainable food systems, along with descriptions, can also be found on Food Tank by clicking here.
