Most Americans think of peanuts in terms of peanut butter or as a snack at baseball games. The history of peanuts in America, of course, is more complicated than that, and it…
Tag: Books
A Forager’s Guide to Sweet, Wild Finds
Growing up, Rachel Lambert began foraging wild blackberries off the bushes that grew near her home in Cornwall, on England’s southwestern tip. She kept picking them through her teen years, until one…
How the Hunt for Wild Ginseng Changed America
There was a time, not too long ago, when ginseng studded the forest floor. From Alabama up to the foothills of New York and further west, pointed leaves with jagged edges and…
The Accidental Farmers
When Sandra Baer and Lynn Cassells met in 2012 while working as rangers for the UK’s National Trust, they felt an instant connection, as if there were larger forces at work pushing…
10 Books About Food & Farming to Read Before Winter Ends
Spring is coming. It might not always feel like it, but take a look outside. The days are getting longer and the temperatures are beginning to level off. We just have to…
It’s the End of Food as We Know It—But It Doesn’t Have to Be
It’s not hyperbole to say that there are a few crops that have altered the course of human history. The Cavendish banana. The navel orange. Genetically modified soybeans. They’ve all helped humanity…
What Agriculture Can Learn From Indigenous Science
The past year has seen record-breaking heat waves, towns swallowed by floods and droughts that have drained water reservoirs dry. But amid voices in mainstream science warning of rising global temperatures that…
Order Up: What’s Next For Restaurants?
The restaurant industry has faced problems for decades. Wage theft and tip skimming are common complaints for front- and back-of-house staff. Aspiring kitchen staff will often have to work for free, in…
10 Books About Food and Farming to Read This Fall
Diet for a Small Planet (Revised and Updated) Fifty years ago, Diet for a Small Planet helped spark a food revolution. In the book—the first one to note the environmental impacts of…
An FDA Insider’s Eye-Opening Account of the Most Powerful Regulatory Agency
How much do you really know about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? Not enough, Richard Williams would bet. An economist by training, Williams served as the Director of Social Science at…