Food Hero Tuesday: Sustainable Food Writing Roundup

Note from the Editor: Every Tuesday, TFT HK will bring you a post or article from/about one of our local or global food heroes. These are people who inspire us, and whose visions align with the values that TFT espouses and promotes. This week, we bring you a list of some of our favorite sustainable food writers (in no particular order) and a few of their most popular works. Happy reading!


Wendell Berry (American author/poet, farmer, cultural and economic critic, Berry has written prolifically about the importance of the smallholder farmer, and the vital roles that family, community, and a rooted existence play in humanity's collective well being)
Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food (2009)
The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry (2003)
Another Turn of the Crank (2011)

Aldo Leopold (Leopold - an ecologist, forester, scientist, environmentalist, and author - was a pioneer of the environmental movement in the US, a champion of wildlife preservation, and advocate of a nature-centric value system (ecocentricism))
A Sand County Almanc: And Sketches Here and There (1949)

Michael Pollan (Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, professor, has written several very influential works on food history, the industrialization of our food systems, and the ways that his readers can make a stand on food politics through individual choice)
The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006)
In Defense of Food (2008)
Food Rules: An Eater's Manifesto (2011)

Alice Waters (Chef, activist, writer and creator of the world-renowned Chez Panisse, Waters explores the beauty of both simple food and the involvement of the world's youth in local, sustainable food production)
The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution (2007)
Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea (2008)

Dr. T. Colin Campbell (Campbell examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition, and surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, to determine the link between nutrition and preventable conditions such as heart disease and cancer)
The China Study (2006)

Andrew Rimes and Evan Fraser (Rimes and Fraser review 12,000 years of human history through the lens of food availability, production and politics)
Empires of  Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (2010)



Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon (Canadian couple Smith and Mackinnon document their year of eating only what is produced within 100 miles of their apartment.)
The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating (2008)

Mark Bittman (Award-winning author and NY Times columnist Bitumen advises his readers how to live and eat with a conscience)
Food Matters (2008)
The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living (2010)


Novella Carpenter (Oakland resident Carpenter documents her own journey into urban farming, and provides her readers with a guide to growing food in the city)
Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmer (2010)
The Essential Urban Farmer (2011)

Helen and Scott Nearing (The Nearings write of their rural life of simple self-sufficiency)
The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living (1990)

Wayne Roberts (Roberts provides an accessible guide to the issues plaguing our world's food systems)
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food (2008)

Raj Patel (Writer, activist and academic Patel seeks out the causes and effects of the global food imbalance)
Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power, and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System (2008)


Barbara Kingsolver (Novelist Kingsolver chronicles her family's year of rural life and dedication to truly local eating)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2008)

Anna Lappe (Lappe explores the ways and extent to which global, industrialized food systems contribute to climate change)
Diet for a Hot Planet (2010)

Gary Paul Nabham (Professor, scholar, scientist, and local food movement pioneer Gary Nabham retraces the steps of a Russian botanist who realized the necessity of creating and preserving seed banks, to maintain the biodiversity and vigor of crop plants)
Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest To End Famine

Joel Salatin (Farmer Joel Salatin explores the joys of sustainable agrarian life, and the danger of the public's removal from the sources of its food)
Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World (2010)

Robin Wheeler (Wheeler provides readers with practical skills, to prepare us for potential shocks to our food supply)
Food Security For The Faint Of Heart: Keeping Your Larder Full In Lean Times (2008)


Marion Nestle (Renowned professor, nutritionist, and sustainable food activist Nestle explores why and how food industry marketing affects our food choices and, consequently, our health)
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (2002)