Real Food for a Change: Bringing Nature, Joy and Justice to the Table

by Wayne Roberts, Rod MacRae, Lori Stahlbrand

People want answers. They know something is wrong with their food and the system that's producing it. Friends and family are getting sick and food is losing flavour. Every day a new report links food with disease. Giving to the food bank isn't reducing hunger and locally grown food is hard to find.

Real Food for a Change addresses this growing anxiety around food. It's an eater's guide to the galaxy with elegantly simple choices individuals can make in how they eat and how they shop.

Many books deal with the connections between diet and health. This is the only one that makes the connection between personal health, the health of our community, the health of our economy and the health of the planet. It's a visionary guide that will help you make healthy, environmental and ethical decisions about food, and it does it with humour and style.

From the controversy over the bovine growth hormone, already entering Canada through U.S. milk products, to solutions on how to avoid rampant salmonella and finding safe meat; from money saving tips to offset the cost of organic produce to how your choice of cooking utensils can save you time and fuel, Real Food for a Change is a powerhouse of information and solutions. It also includes a selection of recipes to help get you started on this new way of eating.

Genres: Nonfiction

243 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Wayne Roberts is a Canadian food policy analyst and writer, widely respected for his role as the manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council, a citizen body of 30 food activists and experts that is widely recognized for its innovative approach to food security, from 2000-2010.

Since retiring from the TFPC in 2010, Roberts has been on the board of several North American food organizations, including FoodShare, Community Food Security Coalition, Food Secure Canada, Unitarian Service Committee, Sustain Ontario and Centre for Sustainable Food Systems.

As a leading member of the City of Toronto’s Environmental Task Force, he helped develop a number of official plans for the city, including the Environmental Plan and Food Charter, adopted by Toronto City Council in 2000 and 2001 respectively. Many ideas and projects of the TFPC are featured in Roberts’ book The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food (2008).

In 2002, he received the Canadian Environment Award for his contributions to sustainable living. NOW Magazine named Roberts one of Toronto’s leading visionaries of the past 20 years. In 2008, he received the Canadian Eco-Hero Award presented by Planet in Focus. In 2011, he received the University of Toronto Arbor Award for his role in establishing food studies as a field of study at University of Toronto.

Since he started work in this area, the number of food policy councils has jumped from three to over 200, including Bristol, England and Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Roberts calls food councils "the fastest growing trend in local government politics of the past decade"

Reviews

[Anne-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It brought awareness to the impact of our food choices, & how they can be an investment in our futures. Which is worth protecting for ourselves and our children.
Highlighting how exciting it is to go to our local farmers and skip the middle person.
It has given me new ideas and suggestions that I can do on a personal level and sparked excitement in me.

[Rebie · Rating 3 out of 5]

new ideas for me but it was basically Canada setting so there were sections i didn't bother to read ;)