Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat

by Tanya Denckla Cobb

Winner of Nautilus 2012 Gold Award for Green Living, given to books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living, positive social change, and stimulate the imagination, and offer new possibilities for a better life and better world.Named by BOOKLIST as one of top 10 books on the environment in 2012.Reclaiming Our Food tells the stories of people across America who are finding new ways to grow, process, and distribute food for their own communities. Their successes offer both inspiration and practical advice. Reclaiming Our Food is a practical guide for building a local food system. Where others have made the case for the local food movement, Reclaiming Our Food shows how communities are actually making it happen. This book offers a wealth of information on how to make local food a practical and affordable part of everyone's daily fare.Author Tanya Denckla Cobb offers behind-the-scenes profiles of more than 50 food projects across the United States, with lessons and advice straight from their innovative leaders. Photographic essays of 11 community food projects, by acclaimed photographer Jason Houston, detail the unusual work of these projects, bringing it to life in unforgettable images.The projects described in this book are cropping up everywhere, from urban lots to rural communities and everywhere in between. In Portland, Oregon, an organization called Growing Gardens installs home gardens for low-income families and hosts follow-up workshops for the owners. Lynchburg Grows, in Lynchburg, Virginia, bought an abandoned 6.5-acre urban greenhouse business and turned it into an organic farm that offers jobs to people with disabilities and sells its food through a local farmers' market and a CSA. Sunburst Trout Farm, a small family business in rural North Carolina, is showing that it's possible to raise fish sustainably and sell to a local market. And in Asheville, North Carolina, Growing Minds is finding ways to help bring fresh foods into schools.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Gardening

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2011

About the author

Please note: Works by this author have also been published under the name 'Tanya L.K. Denckla'.

Tanya Denckla Cobb is a writer, professional environmental mediator, and teacher of food system planning at the University of Virginia. She is passionate about bringing people together to discover common ground and create solutions for mutual gain. She is Associate Director of the UVA Institute for Environmental Negotiation where, since 1997, she has worked on a broad range of community, environmental, and agricultural issues.

At home, she enjoys the restorative energy of gardening and cooking from her garden. She lives in Virginia, and is the author of the The Gardener’s A to Z Guide to Growing Organic Food and Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement is Changing What We Eat.

- excerpted from her website

Reviews

[NOLaBookish aka blue-collared mind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful book that shows a multitude of approaches to building food system pieces, especially garden projects. The stories are well written and best of all, they are followed by a description of the organizing techniques each used for their project.
Easy to pick up and read a profile and then put aside and get something done yourself. Highly recommended for food organizers and city activists.

[Pamela Hatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat / by Tanya Denckla Cobb (2011) -- SUMMARY: Inspirational stories of nearly 60 grassroot food programs provide hundred of useful "lessons learned" of communities strengthening their local economy, creating jobs, preserving cultural traditions, educating adults and children, all the while creating and supporting local food production. COMMENTS: A collection of short essays that describe the success individuals and communities have created with local sustainability projects. It includes gardening, small farms, community supported agriculture (CSA), co-ops, farm to school programs, permaculture, and even community supported fisheries (CSF). The stories are inspiring and give much food for thought about local foods, local economy, the sense of community, and a return to our natural resources. Includes lots of references and resources for further research.

[Karen Fasimpaur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book about the grassroots local food movement through the lens of social justice and activism. It profiled many interesting projects with an emphasis on those aimed at underserved populations. The lessons learned by these projects form a solid base of advice for those doing work on local food systems.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

#Food #UrbanFarming #CommunityGardens #LocalFood

“Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat” by Tanya Cobb Denckla (@ReclaimingOurFood) is a textbook for anyone who wants to create social and community change through food. This is so much more than just a book about how to start a community garden, though if that is something you want to do, GO GET THIS BOOK! It’s a must read for anyone that wants to start a community garden or urban farm.

I am not looking to start a community garden or build an urban farm any time soon, but I am interested in how community gardens and the like affect the community. This book is full of examples of the restorative power that gardens and fresh food have on a community. It is amazing how something so small as a raised garden bed can transform the people that eat from it. From preserving cultural growing conditions and traditions, to healing superfund sites with raised beds, this book describes how to succeed. It covers everything from the practical details of starting a community garden, to how to build a permaculture farm. If you have ever wanted to start something green in your community but didn’t know where to start, this is the book for you. And if, like me, you are interested in the phenomenon of feeding communities more locally and sustainably, this book will open your eyes to far more possibilities than you knew were available. Furthermore, there is an excellent resources section in the back of the book to get you started on your project.

I recommend this book to anyone who has any interest at all in local food. Even if you have no desire to start your own urban farm or community garden, you will get tons of useful information and inspiration from this book. It will definitely give you hope for the future.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book. After the first chapter, I wanted to get up and get my hands dirty. The author not only describes various urban food movements across the US, but details how we can help out and start our own sustainable projects. As much as I dislike getting dirty, I'm ready to find a farm or CSA where I can help make an impact.

[B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Angela Gunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I thought it would be but it does give some interesting information about the different movements going on in this country.

[Beth Bloomquest]

It is a very interesting look at alternative means of food production outside of giant agribusiness. Interesting stories of CSAs, urban farms, farmers markets, co-ops, etc. Lots of great ideas.