Local: The New Face of Food and Farming in America

by Douglas Gayeton

Combining stunning visuals with insights and a lexicon of more than 200 agricultural terms explained by today’s thought leaders, Local showcases and explores one of the most popular environmental rebuilding local food movements. When Douglas Gayeton took his young daughter to see the salmon run—a favorite pastime growing up in Northern California—he was devastated to find that a combination of urban sprawl, land mismanagement, and pollution had decimated the fish population. The discovery set Gayeton on a journey in search of sustainable solutions. He traveled the country, photographing and learning the new language of sustainability from today’s foremost practitioners in food and farming, including Alice Waters, Wes Jackson, Carl Safina, Temple Grandin, Paul Stamets, Patrick Holden, Barton Seaver, Vandana Shiva, Dr. Elaine Ingham, and Joel Salatin, as well as everyday farmers, fishermen, and dairy producers. The New Face of Food and Farming blends their insights with stunning collage-like information artworks and Gayeton’s Lexicon of Sustainability, which defines and de-mystifies hundreds of terms like “food miles,” “locavore,” “organic,” “grassfed” and “antibiotic free.” In doing so, Gayeton helps people understand what they mean for their lives. He also includes “eco tips” and other information on how the sustainable movement affects us all every day. The New Face of Food and Farming in America educates, engages, and inspires people to pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system in America.

Genres: Nature, Food, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2014

Reviews

[Marc Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our current way of producing food isn't healthy for us or our planet. This book shows us a better food system: I also love the photographs and the way the book is written.
I was very happy to have Douglas on my podcast Inside Ideas, where we talked about his books and much more. You find episode 67 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu8-b...

Or check out the links below:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/what-do...
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/inside-...
https://medium.com/inside-ideas/dougl...

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Local: the New Face of Food and Farming in America is almost a coffee table book with all the beautiful photos of local, small farms and farmers. Gayeton is inspired by what he calls his “Road to Damascus” moment when he brought his wife and daughter to the creek he grew up visiting when the salmon were running, but they were no longer running due to a variety of factors. “If people don’t understand the meaning (and implication) of terms like Food Miles, Carbon Footprint, CSA, Organic, Food Security, Food Desert, GMO, Grass-Fed, Direct Trade, or even Pasture-Raised, how can they live more sustainably? To help ‘take back’ the meanings of these important ideas, I set out to document the work of two hundred thought leaders, architects of a new vocabulary reflecting the most promising solutions for creating a vital and sustainable food system in this country.” (p. 10) This is a beautiful and inspiring book about small farmers who are taking back the food system from Big Ag. My only (small) complaint is that the cursive text on some of the photos is hard to read and it’s such interesting information that you don’t want to miss any of it, so I wish the font was easier to read. Overall, a great book about some awesome people making a difference in the food world!

“Consumers’ willingness to align their values with those of the product their buying – even when it’s something as cheap as a dozen eggs – means the industrial food system is a house of cards. It proves that when presented with clear, compelling explanations about what they’re eating, consumers will make purchases that reflect their ever-expanding food literacy. When consumers shop and eat according to their values, the food industry is forced to adapt.” (p. 13)

“Even though GMO seeds are commercially available in the United States, researchers are required to ask permission from these seed companies before conducting tests. If no permission is granted, there’s no legal way to perform a study. Conversely, permission given can be just as easily withdrawn if a seed company becomes disenchanted with the potential outcome of this research.” (p. 95)

“Wycall’s story represents the fundamental challenge now facing ambitious farmers across the United States: how to transition land from Conventional Farming back to its Organic or ‘Pre-Chemical’ state. It took eight years of patient research on Wycall’s part – interspersed with dark periods that left him paralyzed by self-doubt – before his soil came back to life [after 25 years of conventional farming on family land].” (p. 117)

“A healthy farm is a stable, functioning organism, a system with many moving parts – some animal, some vegetable, and some mineral. They are influenced by the rhythms of nature and kept in balance by a farmer who acts as his land’s steward and protector.” (p. 126)

“Feldman recounts an infamous urban legend that turns out to be true: ‘The Case of the Mysterious Red Honey.’ In 2010 local beekeepers opened their hives to discover honey frames stained red. Was it bacteria? A bee toxin? Perhaps bees pollinating an odd flower like sumac? For months beekeepers pondered the mystery before discovering its cause: a maraschino cherry company in neighboring Red Hook. Instead of pollinating, the bees had fixated on a steady diet of corn syrup and Red Dye No. 40. Such are the travails of urban beekeeping.” (p. 140-145)

“Sustainable agriculture has no single figurehead – nor does this defiant, disparate movement have a center – but if it wants an able spokesperson, [Joel] Salatin would be a safe bet. He’s a professional contrarian, a knowledgeable agricultural apostate who not only practices what he preaches but has the rare capacity to explain it to others. While his summers are devoted to farming, his winters are spent literally barnstorming the country – from grange hall to farm to classroom – as he expounds on the joys of grass farming.” (p. 174)

[Mysteryfan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book annoyed me so much, I wanted to throw it across the room. I received an ARC for it, but it had a different subhead. I hope that means they changed some of the problems within. I've never seen a book so sabotaged by its design. Who thought it was a good idea to write in script across or around a photo? Or write in green across light green? Whole sections are inaccessible to people with vision difficulties. And readers don't put down a book to scan a QR code. I battled through enough of the text to realize it was badly organized as well. The goal is laudable, but this book does it a disservice.

[Steven Gower · Rating 4 out of 5]

"By learning what a few words mean you can help reinvent our crappy food system. It's a battle won slowly, product by product, supermarket aisle by supermarket aisle. It starts with 'cage-free' and progresses to 'free-range' and 'pasture-raised.' Each term represents the movement of a philosophical line in the dirt, a deeper commitment to principles, and a greater attempt to achieve transparency both in the farmyard and in the marketplace."