New Books in Food

Michelle K. Berry, "Cow Talk: Work, Ecology, and Range Cattle Ranchers in the Postwar Mountain West" (U Oklahoma Press, 2023)

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did ranching become an identity? University of Arizona historian Michelle Berry explains in Cow Talk: Work, Ecology, and Western Ranchers in the...

Diane Flynt, "Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived: The Surprising Story of Apples in the South" (UNC Press, 2023)

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For anyone who's ever picked an apple fresh from the tree or enjoyed a glass of cider, writer and orchardist Diane Flynt offers a new history of the a...

Daniel Jaffee, "Unbottled: The Fight Against Plastic Water and for Water Justice" (U California Press, 2023)

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In just four decades, bottled water has transformed from a luxury niche item into a ubiquitous consumer product, representing a $300 billion market do...

Robert F. Moss, "The Lost Southern Chefs: A History of Commercial Dining in the Nineteenth-Century South" (U Georgia Press, 2022)

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In recent years, food writers and historians have begun to retell the story of southern food. Heirloom ingredients and traditional recipes have been r...

A Better Way to Buy Books

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has alre...

Ines Prodöhl, "Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900–1950" (Routledge, 2023)

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ines Prodöhl’s Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900-1950 (Routledge, 2023) is a history of how, why, and where the soy...

Jeanne K. Firth, "Feeding New Orleans: Celebrity Chefs and Reimagining Food Justice" (UNC Press, 2023)

09 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many high-profile chefs in New Orleans pledged to help their city rebound from the flooding. Several formed their own...

Ulbe Bosma, "The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment Over 2,000 Years" (Harvard UP, 2023)

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For most of history, humans did without refined sugar. After all, it serves no necessary purpose in our diets, and extracting it from plants takes har...

Diane Purkiss, "English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables (William Collins, 2022)

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A rich and indulgent history, English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables (William Collins, 2022) by Dr. Diane Pur...

Bobby J. Smith II, "Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement" (UNC Press, 2023)

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bobby J. Smith II's book Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (UNC Press, 2023 )unearths a food story burie...

Linda Skeens, "Linda Skeens' Blue Ribbon Kitchen: Recipes & Tips from America's Favorite County Fair Champion" (83 Press, 2023)

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Appalachian grandmother Linda Skeens became an internet sensation in the summer of 2022 after taking home dozens of blue ribbons in canning, baking, a...

Richard C. Hoffmann, "The Catch: An Environmental History of Medieval European Fisheries" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Catch: An Environmental History of Medieval European Fisheries (Cambridge UP, 2023) provides a comprehensive examination of European engagement w...

Erica Abrams Locklear, "Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People" (U Georgia Press, 2023)

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When her mother passed along a cookbook made and assembled by her grandmother, Erica Abrams Locklear thought she knew what to expect. But rather than ...

Rebecca Sharpless, "Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the American South" (UNC Press, 2022)

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While a luscious layer cake may exemplify the towering glory of southern baking, like everything about the American South, baking is far more complica...

US History in 15 Foods: A Conversation with Anna Zeide

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Zeide, Associate Professor of History at Virginia Tech, talks about her book, US History in 15 Foods (Bloomsbury, 2023), with Peoples & Things ...

Ben Nadler, "The Jewish Deli: An Illustrated Guide to the Chosen Food" (Chronicle Books, 2023)

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Beloved culinary and cultural institutions, Jewish delis are wonderlands of amazing flavors and great food—bright, buttery, briny, sweet, fatty, sal...

Jon Michaud, "Last Call at Coogan's: The Life and Death of a Neighborhood Bar" (St. Martin's Press, 2023)

16 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The uniquely inspiring story of a beloved neighborhood bar that united the communities it served. Coogan’s Bar and Restaurant opened in New York Cit...

Victoria Lee, "The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

16 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Victoria Lee’s The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan (U Chicago Press, 2021) is an in-depth exploration...

Meg Bernhard, "Wine" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

15 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Meg Bernhard about her new book Wine (Bloomsbury, 2023). Agricultural product and cultural commodity, drink of ritual and drink of...

The Future of Food: A Discussion with Kimberly Wilson

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We all know that as a nation our mental health is in crisis. But what most don't know is that a critical ingredient in this debate, and a crucial part...

Linda J. Seligmann, "Quinoa: Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands" (U Illinois Press, 2022)

08 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Quinoa's new status as a superfood has altered the economic fortunes of Quechua farmers in the Andean highlands. Linda J. Seligmann journeys to the Hu...

Sarah L. Hall, "Sown in the Stars: Planting by the Signs" (UP of Kentucky, 2023)

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to p...

Malcolm F. Purinton, "Globalization in a Glass: The Rise of Pilsner Beer through Technology, Taste and Empire" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Globalization in a Glass: The Rise of Pilsner Beer through Technology, Taste and Empire (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Dr. Malcolm Purinton charts the spread ...

Josh Milburn, "Food, Justice, and Animals: Feeding the World Respectfully" (Oxford UP, 2023)

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How would we eat if animals had rights? A standard assumption is that our food systems would be plant-based. But maybe we should reject this assumptio...

Amanda L. Van Lanen, "The Washington Apple: Orchards and the Development of Industrial Agriculture" (U Oklahoma Press, 2022)

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the nineteenth century, most American farms had a small orchard or at least a few fruit-bearing trees. People grew their own apple trees or purchas...

Ed Mitchell et al., "Ed Mitchell's Barbeque" (Ecco, 2023)

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ed Mitchell’s journey in the barbeque business began in 1991 with a lunch for his mama, who was grieving the loss of Ed’s father. Ed drove to the ...

Troy Bickham, "Eating the Empire: Food and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain" (Reaktion Books, 2020)

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When students gathered in a London coffeehouse and smoked tobacco; when Yorkshire women sipped sugar-infused tea; or when a Glasgow family ate a bowl ...

Rachel Robison-Greene, "Edibility and in Vitro Meat: Ethical Considerations" (Lexington Books, 2022)

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Consumers and policy makers have unprecedented choices to make in the years to come about how and what we eat. If we continue down our current path of...

Kathryn Cornell Dolan, "Breakfast Cereal: A Global History" (Reaktion Books, 2023)

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Breakfast Cereal: A Global History (Reaktion, 2023) by Dr. Kathryn Dolan presents the long, distinguished and surprising history of breakfast cereal....

Maria Pasquale, "The Eternal City: Recipes and Stories from Rome" (Smith Street Books, 2023)

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roman blogger and author Maria Pasquale introduces us to Rome’s incredible food through the city’s stories and its people. The Eternal City is a m...

Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the latest episode of The MIT Press podcast, Robyn Metcalfe, food historian and food futurist, discusses her new book, Food Routes: Growing Banana...

Brian Kateman, "Meat Me Halfway" (Prometheus Books, 2022)

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We know that eating animals is bad for the planet and bad for our health, and yet we do it anyway. Ask anyone in the plant-based movement and the solu...

The Cooperative Extension System

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Karl Dudman tells us about the Cooperative Extension System. Formed in 1914 as an extension of the Land Grant Universi...

Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas, "Gastrofashion from Haute Cuisine to Haute Couture: Fashion and Food" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For hundreds of years consumers and scholars have acknowledged that food is affected by the same rapid shifts in taste and consumption as clothing. Tr...

Sara Rich, "Mushroom" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

25 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

They are the things we step on without noticing and the largest organisms on Earth. They are symbols of inexplicable growth and excruciating misery. T...

Susan Gravely, "Italy on a Plate: Travels, Memories, Menus" (Vietri Publishing, 2023)

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In her debut memoir and cookbook, Susan Gravely celebrates 40 years as Founder and Creative Director of VIETRI. In Italy on a Plate: Travels, Memorie...

Measure for Measure Episode 5: Scoville

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Taste is a subjective experience. We know this because eggs pickled in human urine, cheese with live maggots living in it, fertilized and mostly-devel...

Measure for Measure Episode 2: Olives

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jews are ritually obligated to eat matzah during Passover. But how much matzah? Well, that depends on your views on the size of an olive.  This episo...

Susan Weingarten, "Haroset: A Taste of Jewish History" (Toby Press, 2019)

26 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While every cultures cuisine tells a story, there are few foods that carry as much history and meaning as do those on the Passover Seder plate. Haros...

Gesine Bullock-Prado, "My Vermont Table: Recipes for All (Six) Seasons" (Countryman Press, 2023)

25 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Vermont—arguably the OG farm-to-table state—is celebrated through 100+ recipes and stories from celebrated pastry chef Gesine Bullock-Prado. When ...

Anna Zeide, "US History in 15 Foods" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From whiskey in the American Revolution to Spam in WWII, food reveals a great deal about the society in which it exists. Selecting 15 foods that repre...

Azzan Yadin-Israel, "Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple (University of Chicago Press, 2023) by Dr. Azzan Yadin-Israel presents a...

Lisa Haushofer, "Wonder Foods: The Science and Commerce of Nutrition" (U California Press, 2022)

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From Gail Borden’s meat biscuit to John Harvey Kellogg’s peptogenic foods for race betterment and Fleishmann’s yeast as both technology of empir...

Jessica Barnes, "Staple Security: Bread and Wheat in Egypt" (Duke UP, 2022)

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Egyptians often say that bread is life; most eat this staple multiple times a day, many relying on the cheap bread subsidized by the government. In S...

John Goodlad, "The Salt Roads: How Fish Made a Culture" (Birlinn, 2022)

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Salt Roads: How Fish Made a Culture (Birlinn, 2022) by John Goodlad is the extraordinary story of how salt fish from Shetland became one of the s...

Arthur Bovino, "Buffalo Everything: A Guide to Eating in Nickel City with 50 Recipes" (Countryman Press, 2018)

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Buffalo isn't just a city full of great wings. There is a great hot dog tradition, from Greek- originated "Texas red hots" to year-round charcoal-gril...

Gendered Labor, Food Security, and Technology in 20th Century Mali

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Laura Ann Twagira, an associate professor of history, head of African Studies, and an affiliate with science in society program and feminist gender se...

Angela Hui, "Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter" (Trapeze, 2022)

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Food journalist Angela Hui grew up in rural Wales, as daughter to the owners of the Lucky Star Chinese takeaway. Angela grew up behind the counter, ...

Corey Lee Wrenn, "Animals in Irish Society: Interspecies Oppression and Vegan Liberation in Britain's First Colony" (SUNY Press, 2021)

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Irish vegan studies are poised for increasing relevance as climate change threatens the legitimacy and longevity of animal agriculture and widespread ...

Silvia Nacamulli, "Jewish Flavours of Italy: A Family Cookbook" (Green Bean Books, 2022)

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jewish Flavours of Italy: A Family Cookbook (Green Bean Books, 2022) is a culinary journey through Italy and a deep dive into family culinary heritag...

Helen Anne Curry, "Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction" (U California Press, 2022)

21 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction (U California Press, 2022), historian Helen Anne Curry investigates more th...

Surviving the State: Struggles for Land and Democracy in Myanmar

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do farmers struggle for land and democracy in Myanmar’s hybrid political system? How might a feminist approach to this question look like and en...

Dalal Abo El Seoud, "Fish, Milk, Tamarind: A Book of Egyptian Arabic Food Expressions" (American U in Cairo Press, 2022)

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Fish, Milk, Tamarind: A Book of Egyptian Arabic Food Expressions (American University in Cairo Press, 2022), Dalal Abo El Seoud presents 100 c...

Consumed: The Myth and Reality of Cannibalism

14 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cannibalism has been used for centuries to define the lowest form of humanity, but the story isn't as straightforward as it may seem. Turns out, there...

Forbidden Fruit: Religious Fervor about Food

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Contemporary diet culture is only the latest manifestation of a long history of religious fervor about food. Guests Isabel Foxen Duke, health coach ...

David Z. Moster, "Etrog: How A Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol" (Palgrave Pivot, 2018)

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every year before the holiday of Sukkot, Jews all around the world purchase an etrog―a lemon-like fruit―to participate in the holiday ritual. In ...

Gil Hovav, "Candies from Heaven" (Green Bean Books, 2023)

08 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Uncle Aron's compliments, which hadn't changed since the days of the Bible, didn't sound so great. One time, he told my mother that she was 'awesome ...

Martha C. Nussbaum, "Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility" (Simon & Schuster, 2022)

31 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A revolutionary new theory and call to action on animal rights, ethics, and law from the renowned philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum.  Animals are in tro...

Hélène Jawhara Piñer, "Jews, Food, and Spain: The Oldest Medieval Spanish Cookbook and the Sephardic Culinary Heritage" (Academic Studies Press, 2022)

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Jews, Food, and Spain: The Oldest Medieval Spanish Cookbook and the Sephardic Culinary Heritage (Academic Studies Press, 2022), Hélène Jawhara ...

Garritt van Dyk, "Commerce, Food, and Identity in Seventeenth-Century England and France" (Amsterdam UP, 2022)

26 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Garritt van Dyk talks about national identity, food, and cooking in this conversation about Commerce, Food, and Identity in Seventeenth-Century Engla...

Naa Oyo A. Kwate, "White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

25 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The long and pernicious relationship between fast food restaurants and the African American community. Today, fast food is disproportionately located ...

Annuska Derks et al. "Fragrant Frontier: Global Spice Entanglements from the Sino-Vietnamese Uplands" (NIAS Press, 2022)

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Where do the spices we find in our kitchen cabinets come from? What can we learn from tracing spices and their commodities and how does their trade im...

The ‘Domino Effect’: Global and Regional Climate Change Impacts on Food Supply Chains

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There is a complex relationship between climate change and food systems. Food supply chains – in particular food transportation – result in global...

Ben Pitcher, "Back to the Stone Age: Race and Prehistory in Contemporary Culture" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022)

18 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What does Prehistory mean to us now? In Back to the Stone Age: Race and Prehistory in Contemporary Culture (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022), Ben Pitcher, ...

Michael Weeks, "Cattle Beet Capital: Making Industrial Agriculture in Northern Colorado" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)

17 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1870 several hundred settlers arrived at a patch of land at the confluence of the South Platte and Cache la Poudre Rivers in Colorado Territory. Th...

Rebecca Ingram, "Women's Work: How Culinary Cultures Shaped Modern Spain" (Vanderbilt UP, 2022)

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sandie Holguín (Professor of History and Coeditor of the Journal of Women’s History, University of Oklahoma) speaks with Rebecca Ingram (Associa...

Max Haiven, "Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire" (Pluto Press, 2022)

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Palm oil is a commodity like no other. Found in half of supermarket products, from food to cosmetics to plastics, it has shaped the world in which we ...

Melanie Joy, "The Vegan Matrix: Understanding and Discussing Privilege Among Vegans to Build a More Inclusive and Empowered Movement" (Lantern, 2020)

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A short guidebook to understanding and discussing privilege among vegans and vegan organizations in the wake of #metoo, including how to establish acc...

Olena Braichenko et al., "Ukraine: Food and History" (O. Braichenko, 2020)

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ukraine: Food and History (O. Braichenko, 2020) tells about the past and present of Ukrainian cuisine. It includes recipes of dishes that everyone c...

Darra Goldstein, "The Kingdom of Rye: A Brief History of Russian Food" (U California Press, 2022)

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Kingdom of Rye: A Brief History of Russian Food (U California Press, 2022) unearths the foods and flavors of the Russian land. Preeminent food s...

Erin Alice Cowling, "Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature" (U Toronto Press, 2021)

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In terms of its popularity, as well as its production, chocolate was among the first foods to travel from the New World to Spain. Chocolate: How a Ne...

Psyche A. Williams-Forson, "Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America" (UNC Press, 2022)

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America (UNC Press, 2022), Psyche A. Williams-Forson offers her knowledge and experience to illumina...

Emily J. H. Contois and Zenia Kish, "Food Instagram: Identity, Influence, and Negotiation" (U Illinois Press, 2022)

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Image by image and hashtag by hashtag, Instagram has redefined the ways we relate to food. Emily J. H. Contois and Zenia Kish’s edited book Food In...

Christopher Howard, "Who Cares: The Social Safety Net in America" (Oxford UP, 2022)

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Societies are often judged by how they treat their most vulnerable members: the poor and near poor. In the United States, this responsibility belongs ...

Gurpinder Singh Lalli, "Schools, Space and Culinary Capital" (Routledge, 2022)

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gurpinder Singh Lalli's book Schools, Space and Culinary Capital (Routledge, 2022) introduces the notion of culinary capital to investigate sociali...

Will Guidara, "Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect" (Optimism Press, 2022)

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Will Guidara, author of Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect (Optimism Press, 202...

Sustainable Agriculture in the Global South: A Religious Response to the Global Food Crisis

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Micha Odenheimer is the founder and director of Tevel B’Zedek, an Israeli NGO that aims to create Israeli and Jewish leadership passionately engag...

John Briscoe, "Crush: The Triumph of California Wine" (U Nevada Press, 2018)

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1910, the future of California wine looked dim. Beset by crises ranging from earthquakes to insect infestations, and with momentum moving toward pr...

Alan Warde et al., "The Social Significance of Dining Out: A Study of Continuity and Change" (Manchester UP, 2020)

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dining out used to be considered exceptional. However, the Food Standards Authority reported that in 2014, one meal in six was eaten away from home in...

Warren Klein et al., "Be Fruitful! The Etrog in Jewish Art, Culture, and History" (Mineged, 2022)

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The etrog is a curious fruit. The Bible commands its readers: “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day beautiful tree-fruit (peri etz had...

Emelia Quinn, "Reading Veganism: The Monstrous Vegan, 1818 to Present" (Oxford UP, 2021)

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Reading Veganism: The Monstrous Vegan, 1818 to Present (Oxford UP, 2021) focuses on the iteration of the trope of ‘the monstrous vegan’ across 2...

Angela Tedesco, "Finding Turtle Farm: My Twenty-Acre Adventure in Community-Supported Agriculture" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is the tale of one woman's journey of growing a community-supported farm from earth to plate. In 1995 Angela Tedesco bought a twenty-acre farm wi...

Beyond Meat? Dietary Shifts and Meat Contestations in China, India and Vietnam

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What explains the uneven meatification of diets in three of Asia’s core ‘emerging economies’? How and why is meat consumption changing today, an...

Stephen Le, "100 Million Years of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why It Matters Today" (Picador, 2016)

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are few areas of modern life that are burdened by as much information and advice, often contradictory, as our diet and health: eat a lot of meat...

Hannah Kirshner, "Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town" (Penguin, 2022)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A young sake bar owner, Yusuke Shimoki, arrives on the doorstep of Hannah Kirshner’s Brooklyn apartment “with a suitcase full of Ishikawa sake,”...

Kenneth H. Kolb, "Retail Inequality: Reframing the Food Desert Debate" (U California Press, 2021)

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Retail Inequality: Reframing the Food Desert Debate (U California Press, 2021) examines the failure of recent efforts to improve Americans' diets by ...

Philip Lymbery, "Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future" (Bloombury, 2022)

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From the United Kingdom to Italy, from Brazil to the Gambia to the USA, Philip Lymbery, the internationally acclaimed author of Farmageddon, goes beh...

Sanjiv Chopra, "Coffee the Magical Elixir: Facts That Will Astound and Perk You Up" (Bookbaby, 2021)

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Sanjiv Chopra about his book Coffee the Magical Elixir: Facts That Will Astound and Perk You Up (Bookbaby, 2021) 2.25 billion cup...

Carl A. Brasseaux and Donald W. Davis, "Asian-Cajun Fusion: Shrimp from the Bay to the Bayou" (UP of Mississippi, 2022)

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Shrimp is easily America’s favorite seafood, but its very popularity is the wellspring of problems that threaten the shrimp industry’s existence. ...

Allyson P. Brantley, "Brewing a Boycott: How a Grassroots Coalition Fought Coors and Remade American Consumer Activism" (UNC Press, 2021)

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Before the craft beer revolution, Coors was a hot commodity. Impossible to find outside a few states in the West, the beer had a level of "cool" that ...

William Alexander, "Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World" (Grand Central Publishing, 2022)

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The tomato gets no respect. Never has. Stored in the dustbin of history for centuries, accused of being vile and poisonous, appropriated as wartime pr...

Josh Milburn, "Just Fodder: The Ethics of Feeding Animals" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022)

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Animal lovers who feed meat to other animals are faced with a paradox: perhaps fewer animals would be harmed if they stopped feeding the ones they lov...

Mélissa Mialon, "Big Food & Co" (Thierry Souccar Editions, 2021)

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s and 1970s, the exposure of Big Tobacco’s aggressive lobbying and internal efforts to obscure science showcasing the harmful effects of ...

Addressing Hunger, Food Insecurity--Local Solutions to a Global Problem

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We live in a time of food paradox. In a world of historically unprecedented abundance, many don’t have enough to eat. Life-limiting obesity coexists...

Alex Drace-Francis, "The Making of Mămăligă: Transimperial Recipes for a Romanian National Dish" (Central European UP, 2022)

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mămăligă, maize porridge or polenta, is a universally consumed dish in Romania and a prominent national symbol. But its unusual history has rarely ...

Paolo Squatriti, "Weeds and the Carolingians: Empire, Culture, and Nature in Frankish Europe, AD 750-900" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Weeds and the Carolingians: Empire, Culture, and Nature in Frankish Europe, AD 750–900 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Dr. Paolo Squatriti ...

Angela Ki Che Leung et al., "Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia" (U Hawaii Press, 2019)

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The twelve chapters of Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia (U Hawai’i Press, 2020) are divided into three section...

Made of Corn: How Genetically Modified Corn Changed Science, Academia and Indigenous Rights in Mexico (Part 2 of 2)

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is part 2 of a 2-part series from Cited - the predecessor of Darts and Letters. For the final episode of our “Activism & Academia”-themed wee...

Modifying Maize: How Genetically Modified Corn Changed Science, Academia and Indigenous Rights in Mexico (Part 1 of 2)

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is part 1 of a 2-part series from Cited - the predecessor of Darts and Letters. When genetically modified corn was found in the highlands of Mexi...

Tara Nurin, "A Woman's Place Is in the Brewhouse: A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and CEOs" (Chicago Review Press, 2021)

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tara Nurin explores women in all aspects of the brewing industry in A Women's Place is in the Brewhouse (Chicago Review Press, 2021). Women have b...