Our Sustainable Table

In this collection of thirteen provocative essays, Wendell Berry discusses the pleasures of eating. Gretel Ehrlich describes her struggle to produce clean, lean beef on her ranch in Wyoming. Frances Moore Lappe sets forth her vision of a system that is environmentally, economically, and culturally sustainable. Wes Jackson condemns the shortsighted bottom line goals of modern agribusiness.

Alice Waters recounts the early days of her famous Bay Area restaurant's painstaking pursuit of a supply chain of reliably good ingredients, and Gary Nabhan discusses food, health, and Native American agriculture. They are joined by Bruce Brown, Edward Behr, Paul Gruchow, Mark Kramer, Anne Mendelson, and Will Weaver.

In this remarkable collection, these essays link a decline in the quality of food with a historical deterioration of the quality of American farm life, while making it clear that "food that tastes good and is good for you is not just a private indulgence but a force for sustaining families and communities."

First published by The Journal of Gastronomy, it is a pleasure to see this seminal, groundbreaking anthology back in print, now with a new introduction by Mary Berry, founding director of the Berry Center.