Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket: 0 (Worldwatch Environmental Alert) - Softcover

"Now it is up to the rest of us to do something with this amazing gift of a book." -- Mark Ritchie, President of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis "An insightful and timely book indicating just how important food, farms and rural cultures are." -- Jules Pretty, author of Agri-Culture: Reconnecting People, Land, and Nature "A definite 'must read' for farmers, food activists and the general public." -- John Jeavons, author of How to Grow More Vegetables

Everyone everywhere depends increasingly on long-distance food. Since 1961 the tonnage of food shipped between nations has grown fourfold. In the United States, food typically travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to plate-as much as 25 percent farther than in 1980. For some, the long-distance food system offers unparalleled choice. But it often runs roughshod over local cuisines, varieties, and agriculture, while consuming staggering amounts of fuel, generating greenhouse gases, eroding the pleasures of face-to-face interactions, and compromising food security. Fortunately, the long-distance food habit is beginning to weaken under the influence of a young, but surging, local-foods movement. From peanut-butter makers in Zimbabwe to pork producers in Germany and rooftop gardeners in Vancouver, entrepreneurial farmers, start-up food businesses, restaurants, supermarkets, and concerned consumers are propelling a revolution that can help restore rural areas, enrich poor nations, and return fresh, delicious, and wholesome food to cities.