Here is what CISA staff has been reading. Read a good book on local agriculture lately?  Send us your suggestion.

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Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

Author: Novella Carpenter

Reviewed by: Claire Turner, CISA intern

Reading Novella Carpenter’s memoir Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer gave me a deeper understanding of the distinctions between farm communities in the city and those in the country.

The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food

Author: Amy Cotler

Reviewed by: Margaret Christie, Special Projects Director, in January 2010

Eating locally, says author Amy Cotler, has "pleasure and connection at its core." Her new book, The Locavore Way, is full of both pleasure and connection-recipes, stories from real farms and markets, and snapshots of Cotler's own life ("my marriage vows: I cook, you clean").  Read more...

Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly

Author: James E. McWilliams

Reviewed by: Jennifer Williams, Office Manager, in November 2009

Given the tremendous national interest in local food and farms, it's not surprising that some naysayers are cropping up.  And with a subtitle like "Where Locavoes Get It Wrong," we wanted to see what author James McWilliams has to say.  McWilliams describes himself as a former locavore, but now argues that ‘buy local' advocates "tend to assume that ‘local' is environmentally superior and enhances community relations, as if the local setting were somehow immune from the disruptive aspects of normal market forces."  Worse, he's convinced that no even-handed analysis of the costs and benefits of local production and consumption exist, since "otherwise sober-minded social scientists [have donned] rose-tinted glasses." Read more...

Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It

Author: Jill Richardson

Reviewed by: Tracie Butler-Kurth, Community Membership Coordinator, in September 2009.

Rather than espousing that everyone make immediate or drastic changes in their diet, Jill implores us to examine the food on our plates and consider the ramifications of knowing so little about what we are putting in our mouths. Read More...

Putting Food By

Authors: Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, and Beatrice Vaughan

Reviewed by: Claire Morenon, Program Coordinator, in August 2008

Before leaping into the world of food preservation, it's vital to have enough information to ensure safe and delicious results. Putting Food By is an absolutely invaluable resource for food preservers of all stripes. It contains exhaustive information on exactly what you need to do in order to freeze, can, or dry almost every fruit or vegetable that grows in the northeast. Read More...