{"title":"Community + Food Systems","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"feeding-the-world-as-if-people-mattered-how-small-farms-produce-value-beyond-yields-by-andrew-flachs","title":"Feeding the World as if People Mattered by Andrew Flachs","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book encourages readers to think past yields and profits to consider everything else that grows from a small farm. By exploring community relationships, biodiversity, and rural diversification, this book shifts the conversation around feeding the world away from a misleading discussion about producing goods at scale and toward an appreciation of the profound social and ecological benefits that farms can offer life on Earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eBackyard gardens flush with cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers where bees buzz and chickens scratch. Beyond, a forest filled with blackberries and jewelweed. Inspired by childhood memories of his grandmother’s overflowing backyard garden, author Andrew Flachs has embarked on a multi-continent, decades-long look at agriculture and its value.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe dominant view of agriculture has focused only on what we produce. It sees value in terms of capital gains or yield efficiency, masking how our global food system produces tremendous amounts of food commodities while failing to feed people, support rural communities, or enhance ecological well-being.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eFeeding the World as if People Mattered\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003easks us to look more deeply and more humanely at what we perceive to be most valuable in our agricultural systems.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis book draws on fifteen years of anthropological research, taking readers to fields in South India, Eastern Europe, and North America, where people are already feeding the future amid global change. From these fields, Flachs shows us how a radical rethinking of the value of small farms and farmers is already happening. Bringing together conversations in agriculture, economics, anthropology, and the environmental humanities, Flachs deftly shows how small farms reproduce social and ecological relationships that are the only sustainable path forward.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFor anyone who is curious about the food on their plate and the people who helped to get it there,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eFeeding the World as if People Mattered\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003ewill offer a new way to find value in the food we grow and the people who grow it.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Chicago Distribution","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45957529305261,"sku":null,"price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0577\/3364\/4461\/files\/19780003482478.jpg?v=1777402205"},{"product_id":"reaping-what-she-sows-how-women-are-rebuilding-our-broken-food-system-by-nancy-matsumoto","title":"Reaping What She Sows by Nancy Matsumoto","description":"\u003cb\u003eA James Beard Award winner celebrates the women heroes who are fighting against the Big Food system—and asks the question: How \u003ci\u003eshould\u003c\/i\u003e we eat?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen the Covid-19 pandemic ripped through global food supply chains, it threatened the livelihoods of farmers, created shortages in supermarkets, and revealed a startling truth to consumers: the food system is broken, and large corporations did the breaking. An idea began to take hold–what if we could return to a time when our needs were met by the farmers in our own communities, rather than a commodity, Big Food system that favors profit above all else?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith in-depth, on the ground reporting, Nancy Matsumoto introduces readers to the women changemakers who are building out local and regional supply chains to combat the destructive effects of Big Food: from the founder of a women-led rice cooperative who is fighting Black land loss, to the Indigenous women who own and operate the first kelp hatchery on the American east coast, and more. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReaping What She Sows\u003c\/i\u003e offers a blueprint for what eating enjoyably, sustainably, and ethically looks like today. Essential for those who are concerned about climate change, their own health, and the lack of choice and transparency in the global food supply chain.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45957611192493,"sku":null,"price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0577\/3364\/4461\/files\/6537843482788.jpg?v=1777405348"},{"product_id":"building-a-new-table-by-brittany-lewis","title":"Building a New Table by Brittany Lewis","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA vital guide to centering community knowledge to generate effective solutions to inequality\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen organizations take on social problems, from school reform to conservation to healthcare disparities, community members are sometimes \"invited to the table\" to share their insights. But if the table has already been set with institutional assumptions about the issue at hand, the solutions that emerge often have little to do with the people and places they are meant to help. When this is the case, inclusion can only go so far: as Dr. Brittany Lewis argues, \u003ci\u003eit's time to build a new table\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on her work as a community researcher and nonprofit consultant, Dr. Lewis developed the Equity in Action (EIA) model as a framework for closing the gaps between communities, researchers, and institutions. By centering the knowledge of the community members who ostensibly benefit from the work of various organizations, EIA makes research questions more relevant and the research process more targeted, getting at the roots of social inequality to find sustainable, impactful solutions. 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We can start by focusing less on lack and more on abundance.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eGather\u003c\/i\u003e, anthropologist Ashanté M. Reese argues for a new vision of food justice that centers the resilience of Black communities and argues that community nourishment deserves as much consideration as individual health. Highlighting four spaces of gathering--gardens, family reunions, repasts, and protests --Reese offers rich, on-the-ground studies of the places and people who make up the food justice movement. From Black church networks and community farms to student protests, these studies illuminate ways we can challenge structures of power and nourish ourselves, body and soul. 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In her refreshing new book, Majora Carter writes about these issues with great insight and clarity, asking us to re-examine our notions of what community development is and how we invest in the futures of our hometowns. This is an exciting conversation worth joining.”\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Lin-Manuel Miranda\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow can we solve the problem of persistent poverty in low-status communities? Majora Carter argues that these areas need a talent-retention strategy, just like the ones companies have. Retaining homegrown talent is a critical part of creating a strong local economy that can resist gentrification. 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