The Cornucopia Institute's Poll Lists Scores of Favorite Food-Related Reads

CORNUCOPIA, WI -- Despite the controversial November 6 defeat of California's Proposition 37 that would have required labeling for genetically engineered food, many food-conscious consumers across the nation continue their interest in self-education on food and farming issues, reports The Cornucopia Institute.

A question posted on Cornucopia’s Facebook page asked visitors what books they'd recently read and would recommend on food-related topics. "The response was overwhelming," said Mark A. Kastel, Codirector of The Cornucopia Institute, adding, "our members and supporters intimately understand the challenges our nation is facing when it comes to food, and its relationship to health and the environment, and they are educating themselves on how to take action on these serious issues."

The most popular book came from Virginia farmer and lecturer, Joel Salatin: Folks, This Ain't Normal. Several other Salatin books made the list as well: Holy Cows and Hog Heaven and You Can Farm. Salatin, an outspoken advocate for grass-based livestock production and farming was featured in the 2008 Oscar-nominated documentary Food Inc., as was University of California, Berkeley professor Michael Pollan, who also made the top 10 list with his 2006 best-selling book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by journalist Barry Estabrook received several mentions as well. "I'll never look at a tomato the same way again," said Cornucopia Facebook fan, Autumn T.

Novelists Barbara Kingsolver and Jonathan Safran Foer also made the list with their forays into food. Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle received numerous mentions, as did Foer's Eating Animals, which explores his emotional and contemplative journey into vegetarianism.

Consumers are also showing a serious interest in DIY (do-it-yourself) food preparation and preservation with several mentions of Sandor Katz's The Art of Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon, who is the founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a leading advocate for "nutrient-dense" food including raw milk from cows that graze on fresh pasture.

Activist Vandana Shiva's book Stolen Harvest also made the list as a book "everyone should read," according to Facebook fan Kimberly S. who added, "and then loan it to everyone you know to read, then plant a garden!"

"Our community members are not just passionate about food issues, they come to that position from a highly-educated perspective," said Kastel. "If corporations and regulating agencies aren't willing to step up and protect our food system, it's clear that the people are ready to do it themselves."

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Cornucopia Institute Supporters Top Ten Books (Ranked by number of mentions)
1. Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin
2. Turn Here, Sweet Corn by Atina Diffley
3. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
4. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
5. Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook
6. The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz
7. Plenty (Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet) by Alisa Smith, J.B. Mackinnon
8. Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe by Maria Rodale
9. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
10. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

The complete list (ranked in order of their mention in Cornucopia's Facebook poll) 1. Turn Here Sweet Corn by Atina Diffley 2. The $64 Tomato by William Alexander 3. The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball 4. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan 5. The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais 6. The Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler 7. Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook 8. The Secret Life of Food by Clare Crespo 9. This Life Is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman 10. Plenty (Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet) by Alisa Smith, J.B. Mackinnon 11. Urban Homesteading-Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living by Rachel Kaplan with K. Ruby Blume 12. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig 13. The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O'Brien and Rachel Kranz 14. Stolen Harvest by Vandana Shiva 15. Wheat Belly by William Davis 16. Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz 17. Righteous Porkchop by Nicolette Hahn Niman 18. Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin 19. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer 20. The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz 21. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver 22. Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis 23. Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz and Sally Fallon 24. The Viking in The Wheat Field by Susan Dworkin 25. The Phytozyme Cure: Treat or Reverse More Than 30 Serious Health Conditions with Powerful Plant Nutrients by Michelle Cook 26. An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler 27. Eat & Run by Steve Friedman Scott Jurek 28. Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers' Movement by Paula Manalo 29. Eat the City: A Tale of the Fishers, Foragers, Butchers, Farmers, Poultry Minders, Sugar Refiners, Cane Cutters, Beekeepers, Winemakers, and Brewers Who Built New York by Robin Shulman 30. Bread Bones and Butter, Jeffrey Hamelman 31. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig 32. Turn Here Sweet Corn 33. Obligate Carnivore 34. Eat and Run 35. Bidoche, Fabrice Nicolino 36. BET THE FARM by Frederick Kaufman 37. GUT AND PSYCHOLOGY SYNDROME by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. 38. Farm City by Novella Carpenter 39. A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg 40. The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way by Michael Phillips 41. Greenhorns 42. The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why by Jonny Bowden 43. Folks, This Ain't Normal, Joel Salatin 44. Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese by Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough and Marcus Nilsson 45. Aquaponic Gardening by Sylvia Bernstein 46. Life Rules by Elllen LaConte 47. Folks this Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin 48. Holy Cows and Hog Heaven by Joel Salatin 49. The Art of Fermentation By Sandor Katz 50. Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale 51. Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine 52. The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen and Charles Wilson 53. The Joy of Foraging: Gary Lincoff's Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying a World of Wild Food by Gary Lincoff 54. Flour Power: A Guide To Modern Home Grain Milling by Marleeta Basey 55. Fateful Harvest by Duff Wilson 56. Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food by Catherine Shanahan and Luke Shanahan 57. Save Our Soil by Christopher Bird 58. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Barbara Kingsolver. 59. Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin 60. The Ecology of Eden by Evan Eisenberg 61. Gaia's Garden - Toby Hemenway 62. The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe 63. Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front 64. by Joel Salatin 65. The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming (New York Review Books Classics) by Masanobu Fukuoka, Larry Korn, Wendell Berry and Frances Moore Lappe 66. Beautiful Corn: America's Original Grain from Seed to Plate by Anthony Boutard 67. The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz 68. Sowing Seeds in the Desert by Masanobu Fukoka 69. The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure by Joseph Jenkins 70. The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather 71. Gathering by Diane Ott Whealy 72. The Heirloom Gardener by Jere and Emiliee Gettle 73. Nutrition by Rudolf Hauschka, Marjorie Spock and Mary T. Richards 74. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon 75. The Good Life byHelen and Scott Nearing 76. Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale 77. Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon 78. 100-mile diet 79. Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way by Wesley Green 80. Beating the Food Giants by Paul A. Stitt 81. Eating Animals by Jonathon Safran Foer 82. Unjunk Your Junk Food-Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks by Andrea Donsky 83. Sugar Blues by William F. Duffy 84. Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection by Jessica Prentice 85. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson 86. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pillan 87. Turn Here Sweet Corn by Atina Diffley 88. Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin 89. Salt: A world History by Mark Kurlansky 90. Nourishing Traditions 91. Pacific Feast by Jennifer Hahn 92. The Makers Diet. Dr Jordan Ruben 93. Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook 94. Teaming with Microbes, Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis 95. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer 96. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler 97. The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve-Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency by Anna Hess

December 19, 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mark A. Kastel: 608-625-2052

The Cornucopia Institute is engaged in research and educational activities supporting the ecological principles and economic wisdom underlying sustainable and organic agriculture. Through research and investigations on agricultural and food issues, The Cornucopia Institute provides needed information to family farmers, consumers, stakeholders involved in the good food movement, and the media.

http://www.cornucopia.org/2012/12/a-yummy-gift-idea-foodies-pick-most-appetizing-books/