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furaleii's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
I read this book for an anthropology of food class in my senior year of college, and I loved it. It took us the entire semester, as we would read a couple of chapters (each chapter = an ingredient) before each lecture. Because of the class, my feelings on the book are definitely mixed with the lectures, but I think the meaning is all the same.
Every item in here is just a small number of examples of food items we need to start saving. The book brought the reader all throughout the world, in places well-known to extremely unknown, explaining scenery, culture, and food that is slowly disappearing. Culture as a whole is a very important part of this book, how every different little part of the world has different native foods adapted to them, and food stems not only from the food grown locally in a region but also the people growing the food: hence, this book argues that food is culture. But with the industrial system making every part of the world grow the same type of wheat, have the same type of cows, and sell the same types of fruits (the list can go on, go to any grocery store), that food disappears. And with that food disappearing, a large part of what each nations culture is based off of also disappears. Industrialism, the Green Revolution (which may have started with good intentions, but is failing miserably), and colonialism throughout the world is forcing foods to go extinct and stories, culture, and traditions along with it.
Not only was the information extremely important, but the writing was beautiful. Despite me knowing I would dislike at least a few of the food items in this book, Saladino describes each of them and the scenery surrounding them in a way that makes me crave them like I'm watching a Studio Ghibli cooking scene. He made the interviews and the non-fiction storytelling enjoying to read-- something that is RARE for me to find, hence why reading non-fiction is so rare for me. There were so many random quips throughout the book that from both Saladino and the people he was interviewing that were SO influential to my thinking and have forever changed the way I think about food, our entire grocery and food controlled system, and culture as a whole. There were also a lot of stories about really cute animals-- even in the "Meat" ingredient section of the book, the interviews showed so much love and care for the animals shown that I wrote "Aww!" in multiple places.
That's another small thing-- I anotated the HELL out of this book. I love to write in books that I physically own, but sometimes there are just never things that I think are important enough to underline or give me a specific enough thought to write out. This book, however, has SO many underlines and annotations, and I love it. really not that important review wise I don't think, but it satisfies my brain and that's good enough for me.
Every item in here is just a small number of examples of food items we need to start saving. The book brought the reader all throughout the world, in places well-known to extremely unknown, explaining scenery, culture, and food that is slowly disappearing. Culture as a whole is a very important part of this book, how every different little part of the world has different native foods adapted to them, and food stems not only from the food grown locally in a region but also the people growing the food: hence, this book argues that food is culture. But with the industrial system making every part of the world grow the same type of wheat, have the same type of cows, and sell the same types of fruits (the list can go on, go to any grocery store), that food disappears. And with that food disappearing, a large part of what each nations culture is based off of also disappears. Industrialism, the Green Revolution (which may have started with good intentions, but is failing miserably), and colonialism throughout the world is forcing foods to go extinct and stories, culture, and traditions along with it.
Not only was the information extremely important, but the writing was beautiful. Despite me knowing I would dislike at least a few of the food items in this book, Saladino describes each of them and the scenery surrounding them in a way that makes me crave them like I'm watching a Studio Ghibli cooking scene. He made the interviews and the non-fiction storytelling enjoying to read-- something that is RARE for me to find, hence why reading non-fiction is so rare for me. There were so many random quips throughout the book that from both Saladino and the people he was interviewing that were SO influential to my thinking and have forever changed the way I think about food, our entire grocery and food controlled system, and culture as a whole. There were also a lot of stories about really cute animals-- even in the "Meat" ingredient section of the book, the interviews showed so much love and care for the animals shown that I wrote "Aww!" in multiple places.
That's another small thing-- I anotated the HELL out of this book. I love to write in books that I physically own, but sometimes there are just never things that I think are important enough to underline or give me a specific enough thought to write out. This book, however, has SO many underlines and annotations, and I love it. really not that important review wise I don't think, but it satisfies my brain and that's good enough for me.
rebelkiss's review against another edition
4.0
I received a copy of this audiobook from NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.
This was a fascinating book that I think more people should read. I kept trying to see how each food that was going extinct could affect me. I don’t eat many of the foods/drinks that were talked about but I know that one extinction can be a chain reaction.
Learning about the history of some of the endangered goods was eye opening. I will buy a copy of this book so I can reference it later on.
This was a fascinating book that I think more people should read. I kept trying to see how each food that was going extinct could affect me. I don’t eat many of the foods/drinks that were talked about but I know that one extinction can be a chain reaction.
Learning about the history of some of the endangered goods was eye opening. I will buy a copy of this book so I can reference it later on.
mogreig's review against another edition
5.0
Essential reading for anyone interested on how important our food is not only to us but also to the planet and our futures. This is one book that will remain on my bookshelf for re reading over and over.
bpesto's review against another edition
5.0
Astounding work by Dan Saladino. I was worried before reading that the content would be too information heavy for me, but I found the book to be a perfect combination of fact, story-telling, and wisdom. I appreciate how Saladino uplifts the work of individuals all around the world, who are resisting the homogeneity of the global food system.
hannet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5