By Kate Hebel
From my first day of classes at Friedman, I’ve met professors and students who persistently engage my desire to learn. Even within our common field of nutrition science and policy, everyone comes from a wide variety of backgrounds and maintains diverse interests. In honor of Spring Break, a perfect opportunity to catch up on some reading, I’ve compiled a list of books that may inspire you to continue your learning outside the classroom. Now, I’m not claiming to have read all of these books; in fact, my colleagues, professors, and classmates have recommended many of them to me. And while it’s not an exhaustive list of the must-read literature out there, I hope there’s at least something for everyone. One thing is for sure – my personal reading list just got a bit longer!
Agriculture/Sustainability
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food by Berry Wendell
Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All by Oran Hesterman
Food Matters by Mark Bittman
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair by Carlo Petrini
The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen and Charles Wilson
The Town That Food Saved by Ben Hewitt
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry
Food Industry/Business
Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Food Politics
Food Politics, Revised and Expanded Edition by Marion Nestle
Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know by Robert Paarlberg
Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America’s Obesity Crisis & What We Can Do About It by Kelly D. Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen
Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics by Marion Nestle
Hunger/Food and Water Security
American Wasteland by Jonathan Bloom
Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity by Lester Brown
Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Running Out of Water by Peter Rogers and Susan Leal
The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-first Century by Alex Prud’homme
Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart
Miscellaneous
Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More than We Think by Brian Wansink
One Man’s Meat by EB White
The End of Overeating by David Kessler
Thinner This Year: A Younger Next Year Book by Chris Crowley and Jennifer Sacheck
What the World Eats by Faith D’Aluisio and Peter Menzel
Thank you to everyone who helped me to compile this list.
Did I miss one of your favorite titles? Feel free to share more titles in the comments section!
Kate Hebel is a second-year Nutrition Communications student and a Registered Dietitian. In her free time she enjoys reading and looks forward to knocking a few of these classics off her personal reading list this month.
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