Jonathan Haidt
If Michael Pollan convinced you that we’ve got to do something to repair our relationship to food, land, and water, then read this book. Tanya Denckla Cobb will inspire you to act. She takes you on a journey all over America, up and down the food chain, and shows you dozens of ways that people are taking plants and animals into their own hands, and producing better food, better land, and better relationships. You’ll come to admire the genius, passion, and hard work of dozens of food innovators. More importantly, wherever you live and whatever your lifestyle, Denckla Cobb shows you simple steps for reclaiming your food.
— Jonathan Haidt, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, and author of The Happiness Hypothesis
Marion Nestle
People constantly ask me what kinds of things they can do to get involved in the food movement and where to start. Now I can just hand them Reclaiming Our Food. The projects it describes, from growing-it-yourself to public health, should inspire readers to get busy doing similar projects in their own communities.
— Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, and author of What to Eat
Jonathan Haidt
If Michael Pollan convinced you that we’ve got to do something to repair our relationship to food, land, and water, then read this book. Tanya Denckla Cobb will inspire you to act. She takes you on a journey all over America, up and down the food chain, and shows you dozens of ways that people are taking plants and animals into their own hands, and producing better food, better land, and better relationships. You’ll come to admire the genius, passion, and hard work of dozens of food innovators. More importantly, wherever you live and whatever your lifestyle, Denckla Cobb shows you simple steps for reclaiming your food.
Susan Munkres
"The reason I use Reclaiming Our Food is because it has the same lush, visual appeal as many of the current coffee table books, but unlike so many of those books, it is so much more than a few stories with a bit of text about the ails of our food system. Instead, this book goes far deeper, profiling both prominent and little-known food activists, farmers, and gardeners, and drawing out key lessons from these profiles. Readers are drawn in by the photos and the stories told about farms, gardens and more, but they are challenged to think about the broader meaning of these case studies, as well. I find that students who are unfamiliar with the food movement are amazed to discovery the diversity of people and programs around the country; students who are already on fire about food will be challenged to reflect on the weaknesses and obstacles that are also presented. No knee-jerk rah-rah polemic, this book would help anyone fall in love with the food renaissance.
Mark Winne - author of Food Rebels
Food - growing it, eating it, sharing it - has pretty much been the whole story for the last ten years. Reclaiming Our Food takes that story to yet a higher level with its superb collection of photos and clearly written "how-to" tales of local food heroes and their epic achievements. From cover to cover one feels like you have just opened a tantalizing menu well-provisioned with a dazzling selection of tasty morsels. Join the movement, dig in, and enjoy the feast!
— Mark Winne - author of Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin' Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture
Joel Salatin
If you ever wondered about the depth, breadth, and creativity of the local sustainable integrity food and farming movement, this book dispels all doubt. I've known Tanya for years as a fearless advocate for regenerative food systems, and this is truly a crowning jewel in that agenda that I'm honored to share with her. Insightful, empowering, emotional, Reclaiming our Food is awonderful boost to our collective healing.
— Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, author of You Can Farm and Salad Bar Beef
Charlie Jackson
In the last decade we have seen the budding efforts to transform our food system emerge into a full blown movement. As complicated and multi-faceted as the food system it seeks to change, the movement takes many shapes and differing strategies to “reclaim our food.” With a keen ear and thoughtful insight, Tanya Denckla Cobb not only showcases some of the most promising work, she explores the motivations and theoretical models that are leading the charge to fundamentally and permanently transform the way we grow and eat food.
— Charlie Jackson, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project
Shepherd Ogden
This broad survery of actual people, doing actual work to build a more sustainable agriculture highlights the diversity of approaches that we will need to take back control of the process all the way from seed to table. The many voices of Denckla, her collaborators and subjects are in harmony on the central theme of returning the humanity to an overly industrial food system.
— Shepherd Ogden, Adjunct Lecturer in Sustainable Agriculture, Shepherd University, and Agricultural Development Officer, Jefferson County, WV
Severine Von Tscharner Fleming
Now is the time for bravery. Seize your destiny. Join the fleet of farmers, makers, doers, eaters and connectors who are reclaiming America, one shovelful at a time.
— Severine Von Tscharner Fleming, Greenhorns
Wayne Roberts
This is one-third chicken soup for the soul, one-third chicken poop for the soil, and three thirds great stories of real people doing positive practical and transformative work with food.
— Wayne Roberts, Canadian food policy analyst and writer, former manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council
Frederick Kirschenmann
It is always a delight to read the stories of people engaged in redesigning our food system at the grass roots---farmers, ranchers, gardeners, chefs, educators, community organizers---all demonstrating how we can work together to build a more resilient, healthy, community-based food system. The stories are all here in Tanya Cobb’s book. Together they tell---as Gary Paul Nabhan puts it in his introduction---a “refreshing story about America.” Especially heartening is the way these new food adventures are addressing the problem of making healthy, affordable food available to people in many of our resource-poor communities. If you want to feel good about America again, read this book!
— Frederick Kirschenmann, Author of Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays From a Farmer Philosopher
Mark Winne
Food - growing it, eating it, sharing it - has pretty much been the whole story for the last ten years. Reclaiming Our Food takes that story to yet a higher level with its superb collection of photos and clearly written "how-to" tales of local food heroes and their epic achievements. From cover to cover one feels like you have just opened a tantalizing menu well-provisioned with a dazzling selection of tasty morsels. Join the movement, dig in, and enjoy the feast!
— Mark Winne - author of Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin' Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture
