It’s been quite a while since my last Ag Book Club discussion. If you are a new reader to this blog, I got the idea a year ago to finally get organized and read the literature discussing or criticizing the U.S. food and agriculture industry in some way. We discussed the movie Food Inc., and the books Omnivore’s Dilemma, Eating Animals, and A Rat Is A Pig Is A Dog Is A Boy via Google Wave. However, this spring Google announced that it would no longer be developing Google Wave. Since the platform had some technological hiccups including the wait time for invitees to receive invitations, I will be doing things a little different this time around. I am going to try to have the book discussions via Skype. If you are on Skype already, my username is Cari.Rincker.
So what is on my bookshelf?
On my way to Nebraska yesterday, I couldn’t help but take out the book Skinny Bitch for my plane reading. I have thought about reading it for a while- but to be frank, any title that contains profanity tends to turn me off. And for those of you who know me- as a strong Midwestern farm girl who spent summers bailing hay and playing basketball, the title is far away from my reality as you can get. And the last thing I will ever do is give up my morning coffee (as the book suggests). However, I have several personal friends of mine in New York City who after reading this book decided to become a vegetarian. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin are talented writers and I think this book is worth a read for the agriculture community to understand why so many people are persuaded to become vegetarians/vegans. I picked up the book up last week while my IT guy was helping me install programs on my new iMac. The language in this book grabs a hold of you and it is a fairly quick read. I’m not a human nutritionist or a doctor but I disagree with the authors on a several things. Should prove to be an interesting discussion book.
Next up for the planned reading is The Food Wars by Walden Bello, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, Animals & Ethics by Angus Taylor, and Mad Sheep by Linda Faillace. I haven’t set dates yet for any of these discussions but go ahead and order the books for those of you who are interested. I hope to have the discussion on Skinny Bitch in November. Perhaps before the Thanksgiving feast… where I am always thankful that I am not a vegetarian.
So what is on your bookshelf? Anything that I should add to my “wish list” on Amazon?
Despite differences in ideologies, anyone is welcome to join the book discussion. The way I look at it, differences in viewpoints help foster insightful discussions. We all have something to learn from one another.
As I noted in yesterday’s blog, I’m in Omaha, Nebraska at the American Agriculture Law Association Conference. Please follow my tweets from @CariRincker and or @RinckerLaw during the day with the #AALA hashtag. What’s a hashtag? First, read my guide to Twitter. Next, put “#AALA” in the search box on Twitter.com. For the fun of it, also search for #agchat and #foodchat. Then follow along the real-time conversation discussing food and agriculture all day long!