Food for the Future - by John Brueggemann (Paperback)

About the Book

Through interviews with farmers, chefs, non-profit managers, teachers, consumers, and healthcare providers, the author uncovers the strengths of the alternative agro-food movement and argues that this movement is facilitating more sustainable agriculture, healthier consumption...

Book Synopsis

Food for the Future: Stories from the Alternative Agro-food Movement is about different foods, the stories they contain, and most of all the people in the stories. John Brueggemann interviewed dozens of farmers, chefs, non-profit managers, consumers, teachers, and healthcare providers. He argues that their individual stories point towards larger patterns that have shaped the alternative agro-food movement, and that other factors, including the environmental movement, farms, lifestyle movements, and consumers have all played a crucial role in its rise. The author concludes that the alternative agro-food movement is providing a countervailing force relative to mainstream market culture, and that instead of efficiency, profit, consumption, individualism and short-term thinking, the alternative agro-food movement emphasizes meaning, need, creation, community, and long-term thinking.

Review Quotes

"In a moment when despair is not unreasonable, this book makes it clear that at least it's not mandatory--it's like a seed catalogue of hope, showing example after example of people who put their minds and bodies to doing the right thing."" --Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"In grappling with the moral dimensions of agriculture a social scientist relates inspiring stories from the front lines of the agro-food movement and shows how greed shaped the modern food system." --David R. Montgomery, co-author of What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health

"Sociologist John Brueggemann examines the stories of people actively engaged in today's small-scale food and farming movement toward healthier and more sustainable food systems. Their commitment, passion, and pragmatism is so inspiring that we will all want to join or support this movement in every way we can." --Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, New York University, and author of books about food politics

"John Brueggemann's has authored an insightful study of the "little victories" of the "beautiful" Alternative Agro-Food movement. It is a refreshing alternative to the tendency of critical sociology to focus on the "ugly" and "illogical" aspects of the existing food system. Similarly refreshing is the fact the analysis resists airy generalizations and instead offers conclusions that are based on a series of very concrete analyses of some of the alternatives to that food system." --George Ritzer, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, Author of The McDonaldization of Society

""In this wonderfully rendered account of how ordinary people are working to change our food and agricultural systems -- from production to consumption and everything in between -- John Brueggemann does the invaluable service of giving eaters the conceptual and practical tools they need to play their roles in building healthy lands and communities. Food for the Future is indispensable reading for precisely this moment in time."" --Norman Wirzba, author of Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating - Duke University

"In this wonderfully rendered account of how ordinary people are working to change our food and agricultural systems -- from production to consumption and everything in between -- John Brueggemann does the invaluable service of giving eaters the conceptual and practical tools they need to play their roles in building healthy lands and communities. Food for the Future is indispensable reading for precisely this moment in time."

About the Author

John Brueggemann is professor and chair in the Department of Sociology at Skidmore College.