Good Eats

by Melissa A. Goldthwaite (editor), Jennifer Cognard-Black (Editor)

A collection of insightful and personal essays on the role of food in our lives

In an age of mass factory farming, processed and pre-packaged meals, and unprecedented food waste, how does one eat ethically?

Featuring a highly diverse ensemble of award-winning writers, chefs, farmers, activists, educators, and journalists, Good Eats invites readers to think about what it means to eat according to our values. These essays are not lectures about what you should eat, nor an advertisement for the latest diet. Instead, the contributors tell the stories of real people―real bellies, real bodies―including the writers themselves, who seek to understand the experiences, families, cultures, histories, and systems that have shaped their eating and their ethics.

From gardening as an alternative to factory farming, to the indigenous cultures surrounding salmon and the corporate cultures surrounding chocolate, the topics featured in this collection expand our understanding of what ethical eating can be. Poets like Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil muse lyrically on the role of sustenance in their lives. Other contributors describe efforts to change how our food is sourced. In her compelling piece, farmer and food sovereignty activist Leah Penniman celebrates both ancestral seeds and wisdom when discussing her Afro-Indigenous farming and forestry practices. Across the country in the high desert, Michael P. Branch details his frustrating-yet-humorous attempts to grow a garden with his young daughters. Professional chef Thérèse Nelson shows how hot sauce represents joy, expression, and magic for many Black people. Each contributor tugs at the imagination with insightful discussions of the role food plays in our lives.

Good Eats will inspire you to find more mindfulness and joy in your diet. These essays turn mundane meals into remarkable symbols of how we live, encouraging each of us to find food that is both sustaining and sustainable.

Contributors include Ross Gay, DeLyssa Begay, Lynn Z. Bloom, Michael P. Branch, Nikky Finney, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Barbara J. King, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Leah Penniman, Adrienne Su, Ira Sukrungruang, Tina Vasquez, Nicole Walker, Thérèse Nelson, Lisa Knopp, Jane Brox, Maureen Stanton, Taté Walker, and many others.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Social Justice

374 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2024

Reviews

[Kaitlyn Hermansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays on food and eating ethically. I enjoyed this- the essays offered a very diverse group of thoughts with interesting social, political, cultural, and religious commentary on food. Some reads were funny, some thoughtful, some raw and gritty. I enjoyed most of the essays in this but could only really read one at a time because of the disjointedness of them. Some real gems in here though. I particularly enjoyed My Children’s First Garden by Michael Branch, My Children Shall Know the Pain They Consume by Lilace Guignard, Doves for Dinner by Lisa Knopp, and Men and Meat by Will Becker.

[Ashley McMullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful, analytical collection of essays on the importance of conscious, mindful food consumption. I appreciate the approach of using writers--not food bloggers, not food writers, not chefs--to build this book to give it a more poetic and narrative quality. Not that chefs or food bloggers and writers can't provide that, but writers just approach the world much differently. And because the list of authors is varied, so are their approaches to food and how they write about it.

This will definitely be a collection I go back to, and I'm looking forward to owning the physical copy to mark up with annotations, highlights, thoughts, and then pass it to other family members to get their opinions on each essay. I wouldn't have thought about some of the arguments in this book the way they're presented, and it's changed my perspective on how I'll think about those ingredients moving forward. Excellently done.

Thank you to NetGalley and NYU Press for giving me advanced reader access in exchange for an honest review. This title publishes today, January 9, 2024!

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping this book would give me ideas for my first-year writing class, which focuses on food writing. Sadly, many of the personal essays did not engage me as much as I had hoped as an instructor - or as a reader interested in food. The only section that holds some promise is the last one, "Our Pasts Are Present," because the writers described concepts and histories that my students could potentially research.

[Danielle McClellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a conversation, a collection of food stories, and a gathering of diverse, thoughtful people reckoning with the question of how to eat sustainably, ethically, and in light of the global challenges that face the world today. Eschewing any one definition of ethical eating, the editors take on four general principles adapted from the framework for biomedical ethics, “including fostering ‘beneficence,’ or protecting and helping others, promoting ‘normaleficence,’ or seeking to do no harm and to limit pain and suffering, respecting ‘autonomy,’ meaning the right to choice and self-determination, and furthering ‘justice,’ which includes fairness, equitable distribution, and recognition of both need and contribution.” The essays that follow sift through these ideas with many voices and directions.

I was particularly drawn to Michael R. Branch’s hilarious and rueful essay “My Children’s First Garden tracks” the descent into madness that gardening can engender as a father attempts to create a simple vegetable garden for his daughters and finds himself in a battle with the surrounding natural world. Underlaying the humor is the sharper commentary on the extent to which we humans go to imprint our will on the land we tend.

In a related piece, “My Children Shall Know the Pain the Consume,” Lilace Mellin Guignard details the decisions that she and her partner have made raising their children as meat eaters and hunters and exposing them to the full array of consequences of their food decisions. And in conversation with this piece, “The Plant,” the essay by Jenny Spinner discusses her own decision to raise vegetarian children. Lisa Knopp then muses in “Doves for Dinner” how her own vegetarianism has not been passed to her son, who together with his partner eats off the land and hunts. She details the steps that have led their family to their decisions.

Other articles take up the dialogue in a number of ways and from a number of positions. I enjoyed Adrianne Su’s essay about the ethics of eating American Chinese-restaurant meals. She is articulate about her appreciation of its importance in her life, with its links to her family rituals and community, even as she recognizes problematic food sourcing and waste. In “Who’s Feeding Bob,” Amy J. Hammer discusses the complications of monitoring her adult brother’s diet due to extreme allergies.

These are just a handful of examples. In general, I found the book to be well organized and a intriguing gateway into further thought and discussion.

My thanks to NYU Press and Net Galley for providing me with an advance reading copy of this book.

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The very first line about this book drew me in and it was a question, "In an age of mass factory farming, processed and pre-packaged meals, and unprecedented food waste, how does one eat ethically?"

What has ethics got to do with food? Is what I asked myself, but for someone whose culture is woven around food and the recent drastic effects of climate change threatening our livelihood, I wanted to read this book, because there is an african saying that 'food brings happiness' and among our people- there is more to do with giving thanks for what had to be given up to nourish you- for example, for the cow that had to lose its life, or the chicken that had to lose its life so you could be treated to meal, or for the vegetables that is before you- and also for the farmers and the earth that toiled for seasons to present a bountiful harvest.

I think for me, reading this book was more a reminder of knowing the journey of food, of what I consume through the stories told by all these authors.

This is a conscious read, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is curious and open to discussing the journey of food, of how we eat, why we eat and what we eat through stories of course.

[Racheal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of essays about eating ethically. It took me a long time to read it because I savored each chapter and took time to consider and think after each one.

The book is organized into sections, with very different perspectives included in each one. I appreciated that many different ways of eating ethically were included in this book, and I felt like I learned a lot about different ways of eating.

This is just the kind of book I love to have on my coffee table, and I would love to put a copy in our cabin to be able return to it again and again.

Overall a great collection that I would recommend to anyone interested in understanding more about what it means to eat ethically!

Thank you to NYU Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication!

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the authors, NYU Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful collection of thoughtful and thought-provoking essays about the food we eat, how we source it, what we think about eating and our bodies, and the cultural significance of food in a changing world. There is a broad diversity among the writers that contributed, and as always with collections some pieces resonated more deeply with me than others. However, this is the rare book where I savored each essay individually - highly recommend for anyone that eats food!

[Taylor | Benter’s Bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️
This collection of essays provides a broad look at ethical eating through the lenses of sustainability, animal rights, memories, and societal pressures and expectations.

It definitely made me think about my own household’s eating practices and at multiple points I found myself brainstorming ways we can do better.

Not every essay was a hit for me personally but the collection as a whole spoke to my soul!

[Sylvia Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book asks all the right questions and gets you thinking about what it means to truly eat ethically. Lots to think about here and the content will stay with me long after I finished reading the final pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for they ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kimberly Tierney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully curated collection of essays covering every possible view point of what can be considered ethical eating. I pride myself on doing my best to consume in an ethical manner, but this collection was a reminder that every person's idea of ethical is different, and all of them are correct.

[Margaret Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for Library Journal.

[Jodi Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a compilation of stories, each designed to make you think about your food and where it really comes from. Well done.

[Maureen Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully varied collection from a diverse array of writers. Food writing at its best.

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed bag, some good some not so good