It was my first in-person event since the start of Covid, and I was delighted to be with my mom and my dear friend Davia Nelson of Kitchen Sisters. If you catch me smiling at folks in the audience it might be my husband, my daughter, my brother, my 4th grade English teacher, my kids’ school principal… it truly was a family affair. My mother and I got to talk about the anniversary edition and all the fun we had pulling it together. You can learn more about Diet for a Small Planet at 50 and get yourself a copy at our website here.

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In Animal, Vegetable, Junk, our friend and trusted food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of how the frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most catastrophic moments, from slavery and colonialism to famine and genocide—and to our current moment, wherein Big Food exacerbates climate change, plunders our planet, and sickens its people. Even still, Bittman refuses to concede that the battle is lost, pointing to activists, workers, and governments around the world who are choosing well-being over corporate greed and gluttony, and fighting to free society from Big Food’s grip.

Sweeping, impassioned, and ultimately full of hope, Animal, Vegetable, Junk reveals not only how food has shaped our past, but also how we can transform it to reclaim our future.

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By Tiffani Patton 

Quarantine life got you feeling less than excited? Exhausting your recipe ideas? Binge-watched all of Netflix’s Tiger King in record time and need something to make you feel less weird and more grounded? Bryant Terry to the rescue. Terry’s recently-released Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes will liven up your kitchen and your taste buds with a celebration of vegetables and spices that are sure to brighten your self-isolated days (and impress your friends on Instagram!). Here’s what you can do:

• Tune in to the just-released Real Food Reads episode to hear all about  Bryant’s ethos, inspiration, and work to decolonize veganism and shed myths around soul food. 
• Get the book, and get cooking. 
• Buy some vegetables. Now, perhaps more than ever, small-scale farmers need your support: get a CSA box or, if you’re healthy, visit your local farmer’s market (read this piece in Civil Eats by our friend Brie Mazurek at CUESA for tips on how to safely shop), co-op, or other local food business, while maintaining 6 feet of distance, of course. 
• Buy some seeds and plan your veggie garden. What better time for garden therapy, whether you’re a newbie or seasoned gardener. Don’t forget to support local garden supply stores and organic seed purveyors (we see you True Love Seeds and Kitazawa Seed Company!). 
• Listen to the Vegetable Kingdom playlist by Bryant Terry while chef’ing it up in the kitchen. Each recipe comes with a song, and the whole playlist for the book is now available on Spotify. 
• Enjoy becoming a vegetarian cooking virtuoso while grooving and nourishing your body (and the bodies of those in your household) for stronger immunity! 

And if this sounds like it would be more fun with friends, you can host a virtual dinner party where everyone makes the same dish and eats together over Zoom or another platform.

Can’t get the book because you’re sheltering-in-place? We’ve got two of Bryant’s recipes on our site. “Big Beans, Buns, and Broccoli Rabe” features homemade buns—if you’re really luxuriating in spare time—and, yup, corona beans. And I can’t get enough of Terry’s “Roasted Parsnips with Onion-Mustard sauce,” it is perfectly warming and grounding for these anxious times. Don’t fret if all of the ingredients aren’t available: the recipes are easy to adapt with what you have on hand and still deliver on all of that flavor. 

P.S. 

Got a sweet-tooth craving that must be satisfied? Check out the decadent ‘Bama Mud Pie Mousse from vibrant Son of a Southern Chef, Lazarus Lynch. And listen to our conversation, if you haven’t already. 

Photos used with permission from Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by the Bryant Terry, copyright © 2020. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.”

Photography copyright: Ed Anderson © 2020

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By Tiffani Patton 

One of the most satisfying aspects of being part of the movement for a just and nourishing food system is getting to work on such a wide range of issues:  racial justice, land rights, income inequality, environmental justice, and labor rights, just to name a few. The fight for a just food system must be “intersectional” because food intersects with so many aspects of our identities and our society. And while that may seem overwhelming, it is actually an exciting leverage point. Food is something we all have in common: it is a powerful way to open the door to conversations (and action) around many other issues. 

At Real Food Media, we’ve had the pleasure of speaking and working with some brilliant people who are using their platform to drop knowledge, build community, and spark change. This Black History Month, we are showcasing a few of our favorite Real Food Reads authors who are working at the intersection of food, health, sustainability, and Black identity. These authors, farmers, cooks, and activists dig into the history of Black people’s relationship with food and with the land—and inspire the creation of new ways of being in the world that value Black culture, bodies, and communities.

What’s on your Black History Month reading list?

“To farm while Black is an act of defiance against white supremacy and a means to honor the agricultural ingenuity of our ancestors.” 

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman 

Farming While Black is an empowering reclamation of agricultural history: no-till farming, crop-rotation, terrace farming—all started by Africans, yet rarely advertised as such. Equal parts practical guide (applicable to a windowsill planter or a farm), decolonized history book, and love letter to the land: the lessons from Farming While Black are a powerful tool in reconnecting with history, healing ancestral trauma, and finding liberation through, and on, the land. 

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Leah Penniman.

“Black farmers acted, not only to improve their own and their communities’ circumstances, but to advance a broader political and activist agenda to challenge racially oppressive rural social structures.”

Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica M. White 

Dr. Monica White’s award-winning research shows how Black people in America used food as a strategy to build power at the intersection of issues from the mid-Atlantic crossing to present-day urban farms in Detroit. The perfect academic cousin to Farming While Black, Freedom Farmers also unveils some little known African-American agricultural history, like that CSAs, cooperatives, and the start of “farm-to-table” dinners were all started and popularized by African-American farmers.

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Monica White. 

“How do we as Black queer people celebrate ourselves and love ourselves? I am working to create spaces where we can champion that message and where we can see ourselves in other people—not be weaponized or demonized for who we are.”

Son of a Southern Chef: Cook With Soul  by Lazarus Lynch 

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone as fearless as Lazarus Lynch. His passion for cooking came from his father, the Southern Chef, and every dish in his cookbook merges familial legacy with his own creative spark. The pages are filled with some of the most eye-catching and funkiest (in a good way!) food photography you’re ever likely to see, and affirmations are generously sprinkled throughout: Lazarus brings his whole self into his work. 

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Lazarus Lynch. 

“For me, recipe creation is a praxis where I honor and bring to life the teachings, traditional knowledge, and hospitality of my blood and spiritual ancestors by making food.” 

Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry

Long-time Real Food Media friend Bryant Terry is a triple threat: chef, activist, and author. (And did we forget to mention James Beard Leadership Awardee?) His latest book confirms his status as vegan-food royalty. This beautiful book is organized by ingredient and each recipe is accompanied by a song so you can get your groove on. Like the other authors in our Black History Month reading list, Bryant Terry uses food as a tool to decenter whiteness. One of his aims is to challenge the myth of “ethnic” cooking that exoticizes non-white food traditions. For vegans and omnivores alike, these recipes (and this ethos) are sure to inspire you. 

Podcast coming soon!

“Democracy is about people having a voice, having a say in society.” 

Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil by M. Jahi Chappell 

Since 1993, the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has significantly decreased rates of infant mortality, malnutrition, diabetes-related hospitalizations. That’s because people were given a voice in shaping how their local food system works in one of the world’s first-ever Food Policy Councils. Diet-related diseases aren’t unique to Brazil—in the US, these diseases disproportionately impact Black (and Latinx and Indigenous) people. And, communities of color are coming together to take a stand and reclaim their health, from taking on Big Soda to organizing for healthier corner stores to farming the land. Beginning to End Hunger is an inspiring example of what can happen when marginalized communities take control of their local food systems. 

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with M. Jahi Chappel. 

The Big Letdown: How Medicine, Big Business, and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding by Kimberly Seals Allers 

In The Big Letdown, Kimberly Seals Allers shows how corporate interests influence  hospitals’ (and physicians’) support for breastfeeding—and actually undermine women’s decision to breastfeed. Part exposé of the infant-formula industry, part rallying-cry for breastfeeding mothers, The Big Letdown exposes corporate spin and the racialized structural barriers that prevent mothers and infants from making healthy choices.   

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Kimberly Seals Allers. 

Listened to all of the episodes and are hungry for more? We’ve got you covered: here are some additional ways you can deepen your learning, connect to the issues, and organize for change. 

Build Healthier Communities  

• Dive into our toolkit, Taking on Big Soda
• Join the Healthy Corner Store Network
• Find out if there’s a food policy council where you live (or look for resources to start your own)

Dig in to Land and Agriculture Issues

• Check out the Reparations Map for Black and Indigenous Farmers, and see how you can give. 
• Donate to the Land Loss Prevention Project
• Get engaged with the Detroit Black Food Security Network, who inspired Dr. Monica White.
• Learn more about the National Black Food & Justice Alliance

Learn More About Reproductive Justice

• Deepen your learning with GroundSwell Fund  
• Explore “Irth”, Birth Without Bias, a social change app founded by Kimberly Seals Allers that filters hospitals and physicians for bias in the care that women receive.
• Find out about BabyZoos, the latest venture from Tunde Wey that seeks to address infant mortality disparity in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

Light Up Your Taste Buds

• Stay connected to Bryant Terry’s work as Chef-in-Residence of the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco, CA (pro tip: these are my favorite events for learning, connecting, and getting my soul stirred). 
• Check out some of Bryant’s other books: Afro-Vegan and Grub: Ideas for an Organic Kitchen (co-authored by our own Anna Lappé). 
• Get to know the Son of a Southern Chef: check out Lazarus’ YouTube Channel and make sure to follow him on social media.

And, of course, subscribe to Real Food Reads, our monthly book club and podcast. 

Header image: Audre Lorde reading at the International Feminist Book Fair in London, 1984. Photo by Dagmar Schultz.

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By Karen B. Moore

Dr. Robin Wall-Kimmerer

“Stunned.” That was the reaction of Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer upon learning her book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, was No. 14 on the New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best Sellers list Jan. 31, 2020.

“The book came out six years ago, so this is not the way that it usually happens,” said Kimmerer, Distinguished Teaching Professor at ESF and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Her publisher, Milkweed Editions is “thrilled” as the book has been a best seller for them for years. “But it’s not like the book has had any mass marketing, that was not the approach,” said the botanist and ecologist.

Braiding Sweetgrass is a collection of essays weaving traditional ecological knowledge with scientific knowledge to examine the relationship people have and can have with the living environment. In talking to booksellers, Kimmerer’s publisher learned the book’s rise in popularity is due to the personal connection people experience after reading it.

Said Kimmerer, “Apparently – and I love this – according to the booksellers, people come in … and buy a copy because they’ve heard about it. Then they’re back in a week or two to buy a stack because they want to give them to people. And that’s how the book is moving.

“That is the point of Braiding Sweetgrass. Let’s imagine a different way to go forward, which is based on these indigenous relationships with the living world. I think there’s a way in which this new spike in readership is because people need some light in a dark time.”

“It’s people connecting to it and saying, ‘Yes, this. This! And I want to share this with others!’ I couldn’t be happier that that’s how it’s happening because it’s connecting with people and I think oftentimes we can feel we are alone in our passion for the living world. I think outside of a place like ESF, people are longing for a deep connection to nature and then they find a book like Braiding Sweetgrass that gives them a vocabulary to express what relationship they’d like to have with the living world and then they want to share it.”

“The thing I love about that … is that’s actually the way the plant, sweetgrass, is disseminated. It isn’t a plant whose seeds blow all over the place and can establish anywhere. Essentially, it has to be transplanted hand to hand and that’s how the book is making its way in the world. too.”

The book is all about reciprocity, Kimmerer explained, and how do people enter into reciprocity with the world, giving back in return for the gifts of the earth. “When a book with a message like that hits the best sellers list I can only be hopeful that means that these ideas have adherents. … There are places in Braiding Sweetgrass where I ask, ‘Aren’t we a better species than this?’ and for the book to be doing so well gives me the answer that ‘Yes, yes we are.'”

Kimmerer’s publisher noted in a time of environmental peril when people’s values are being challenged that may be why six years after publication people need to imagine a different way forward. “That is the point of Braiding Sweetgrass,” Kimmerer said, “Let’s imagine a different way to go forward, which is based on these indigenous relationships with the living world. I think there’s a way in which this new spike in readership is because people need some light in a dark time.”

“There’s a teaching I grew up with and is often said in Native communities that the teachings (about the living world) that we hold and that the dominant society did their best to erase, that it was so important we hold tight to those teachings because there would come a time when the world would need that which they tried to eradicate,” said Kimmerer, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. “One can imagine that those times are now. So, it really is a privilege to share the teachings that were shared with me in what are urgent times.”

“I also know that this is inspiring to my students who are poised to bring this work of indigenous knowledge to the academy and into science. How exciting for them that the work we’re doing together, which can be such an uphill battle, is welcome. I think of this as nothing but good for our students. They can have the confidence that ‘people are going to listen.'”

Article originally published by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Listen to our conversation with Dr. Kimmerer on the Real Food Reads podcast: 

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It’s been a thrilling year for Real Food Reads. In 2019, our featured books challenged and inspired us in ways we hadn’t imagined possible. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Books. Have. Power.

Alyshia Gálvez, Daniel Imhoff, Anna Lappé, and Timothy Wise gave us a big picture understanding of some of the most pressing global crises of our time. Monica White, Mark Shapiro, Joshua Specht, and Dina Gilio-Whitaker exposed often invisible histories that shed light on the solutions we need. Paloma Martínez-Cruz, Mark Arax, and Teresa Mares wove local storytelling with innovative analysis in mind-expanding ways. We could not be prouder of our growing family of Real Food Read authors.

As we look toward the next season of Real Food Reads—and a new decade of food movementing—we feel a strong sense of yearning, not only for analysis, but for connection, healing, and pleasure. So we’re making a subtle shift in 2020 by including more books that light up our taste buds as well as our brain cells.

Not to worry, we’ll still be digging into food policy. But we’ll also be moving out of the streets and halls of power to dinner tables and kitchens around the world; to market stalls and communal spaces where food is prepared, shared, and enjoyed. We’ll be talking with chefs and cookbook authors who play an important role as culture-keepers, storytellers, and visionaries. These dynamos are keeping heritage alive, bringing communities together through the pleasure of eating, and (re-)shaping the food system through the power of our ancestor’s foodways.

We’ve got some truly vibrant cookbooks lined up for you for 2020, whose recipes tell stories of identity, migration, oppression, and survival. First up, get a taste of the new season with Son of a Southern Chef: Cook With Soul, our December 2019 pick (and a great gift idea for the foodie on your list!). Real Food Media friend, changemaker, and cookbook author extraordinaire Bryant Terry gave this ringing endorsement, and we wholeheartedly agree:

Imagine if Prince wrote a cookbook while channeling the spirit of 7,000 West African, Caribbean, and Southern grandmothers with photography by David LaChapelle and art direction by Tyler the Creator. Enter Lazarus Lynch. Son of a Southern Chef is a magical cookbook filled with all the contradictions you’d expect from a culinary (and musical) virtuoso—it’s avant-garde yet grounded in tradition, hood yet haute, mischievous yet earnest in its intent to push the boundaries of how we imagine Black food. This cookbook is dripping with all the swag and creativity that fans have loved since Lynch came on the scene in 2014, and he truly is the Rockstar Chef we’ve all been waiting for.

So join us as we start eating our way through some revolutionary cookbooks—and make sure to check out the rich, three-year archive of Real Food Reads book selections and podcasts.

With hungry minds (and bellies),

Tiffani and Tanya

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The leaves are changing, we’re swapping out summer clothes for layers upon layers, and you can get pumpkin-spiced everything (from dog food to lattes, capitalism’s got you covered, whether you want it or not). Thanksgiving, or Thankstaking, is a painful reminder to many of what was stolen from them. It is also an opportunity for non-Natives to decolonize holiday traditions and stand in solidarity.

“No matter where you are in North America, you are on indigenous land. And so on this holiday, and any day really, I urge people to explore a deeper connection to what are called “American” foods by understanding true Native-American histories, and begin using what grows naturally around us, and to support Native-American growers. There is no need to make Thanksgiving about a false past. It is so much better when it celebrates the beauty of the present.” – Sean Sherman, founder of The Sioux Chef 

Here are some resources to get you started, from the stories we tell to the foods we eat:

• The Real Thanksgiving Story by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and our November Real Food Reads author Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Bill Moyers)
• The Thanksgiving Tale We Tell Is a Harmful Lie. As a Native American, I’ve Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday by Sean Sherman, author of The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen (Time)
• Decolonizing Thanksgiving: A Toolkit for Combatting Racism in Schools (Medium)
• Don’t Trash Thanksgiving. Decolonize It (Yes! Magazine)
• Eight Ways to Decolonize and Honor Native Peoples on Thanksgiving (Cultural Survival)
• Sean Sherman’s 10 Essential Native American Recipes (New York Times)

Psst…Want more on Indigenous foodways, knowledge, and movements? Make sure to check out these Real Food Reads books!

Header image by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

The post Resources to Decolonize Thanksgiving appeared first on Real Food Media.

As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina GIlio-Whitaker 

The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman 

Decolonize Your Diet: Mexican-American Plant-Based Recipes for Health and Healing by Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Join the Real Food Reads book club for monthly book selections, related news & events, and author interviews on the Real Food Reads podcast. Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, GooglePlay, or Stitcher.  

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Freedom Farmers expands the historical narrative of the black freedom struggle to embrace the work, roles, and contributions of southern black farmers and the organizations they formed. Whereas existing scholarship generally views agriculture as a site of oppression and exploitation of black people, this book reveals agriculture as a site of resistance and provides a historical foundation that adds meaning and context to current conversations around the resurgence of food justice/sovereignty movements in urban spaces like Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, and New Orleans.

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Corporations spend hundreds of millions each year trying to shape the narrative about food. The myths they perpetuate influence policies and colonize our diets. So when we expose corporate spin, we reclaim our food—and our stories.

This year’s Real Food Reads books and authors will dig down below superficial industry spin to understand corporate power and learn from the community-based movements that are decolonizing diets, sowing seeds of resilience, and reclaiming the land for marginalized food producers.

Real Food Media storytellers, food system experts, and activists Tiffani Patton and Tanya Kerssen couldn’t be more excited to be taking over Real Food Reads this year from the fabulous Anna Lappé. They’ve been busy curating this year’s book club selections and talking to authors about their work for the podcast. Read more about Tiffani and Tanya below.

A lifelong “foodie,” Tiffani Patton has been writing and researching food system change for over five years. Particularly activated by the nexus of race and food, Tiffani is an advocate for just food systems and can be found talking to anyone who will listen about these topics. She supports several areas of educational programming, communications strategy, engagement, and internal operations at Real Food Media. A gifted writer and storyteller, she draws on these skills as content curator and managing editor for our Real Food Scoop newsletter and the Real Food Reads bookclub. She holds an MBA and an MPA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School. She is based in Oakland, CA.

Tanya Kerssen has been doing activist research for over a decade. She has worked on a range of campaigns in support of anti-militarism, freedom for political prisoners, and anti-dam construction–but at the heart of all her work is a commitment to peasants’ rights and community control over land and resources. She is the author of Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food, and Democracy in Northern Honduras (Food First Books 2013) as well as numerous articles in the popular and academic press. She recently co-authored a chapter in the book The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action (UC Press 2017) looking at the intersections of land, race, gender, and economic justice movements in the United States. She has also developed curricula focused on community-based food systems for several college courses and has designed and led dozens of educational, solidarity, and human rights delegations focused on food and agriculture on five continents. She holds an MA in Latin American Studies from UC Berkeley. Tanya is based in Minneapolis, MN.

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