A Nation of Farmers was written by Sharon Astyk and Aaron Newton and will be published in the Spring of 2009 by New Society Publishers. It explores the limits and dangers of our globalized and industrialized food system, and argues that the food crisis is a direct result of our current food system. It predicts increasing hunger - the starvation of tens of millions in the poor world and more and more hungry Americans desperately trying to keep fed - unless we radically re-envision our food system. The book provides guidelines to keep us from that dark future, by bringing more and more ordinary people to the table, and helping them take their place in the most basic of human projects - self-provisioning. We argue that not just our need for food, but our hope of a democratic society rests on the transformation of our agriculture and our dinner plates.
This is the point that really compels me:
“We have, in only 60 years, gone from a people who could supply our own needs to being the most dependent people in American history."
Now, let's be clear. I'm not suggesting that everyone drop what they're doing, pick up a pitchfork and become a homesteader. But what concerns me (I suspect this will axe will be getting a lot of grinding) is that not only are we are becoming more and more disconnected from the sources of our food, even the idea of "from scratch" seems so quaint it's precipitously close to joining its brethren "natural" and "homemade" in the march toward commodification.
Beyond locavorism, slow food and urban homesteading, I'm curious to learn what the authors will proffer as practical ways for everyone- and I mean EVERYONE- to take steps toward a real food system transformation. And, of course, to get them to care about it in the first place.
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