More spring break ideas: books!

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.