Foodies to the Rescue

This book describes how people who are passionate about food are stemming environmental degradation, decreasing air and water pollution, and reducing global warming while at the same time helping to feed the world’s hungry.

Foodies to the Rescue explores the multifaceted interactions between the environment and the American food system. The food movement was born in the 1970s, a decade after the emergence of the environmental movement. While environmentalists focused on issues such as industrial pollution, pesticides, and saving endangered species from extinction, "foodies" focused on spotting the newest culinary trends, discovering obscure foreign cuisines, sourcing the best ingredients, and scoring reservations at the hottest restaurants. Over time, foodies turned their attention to matters connected with health, nutrition, and feeding the hungry and malnourished.



In the 1990s, both the food and environmental movements began to focus on overlapping issues, such as organic farming, locally produced food, industrial farming, pollution of fresh water, and destruction of rainforests and habitats due to food production. Foodies to the Rescue focuses on these areas of concern common between foodies and environmentalists and shows how this unexpected cooperation has begun to improve the quality of America's food supply, mitigate environmental degradation, decrease food waste, and help feed food-insecure people in the United States and around the world.


• Examines the relationships among and between the environmental movements (including ecology, “green” politics, and conservationists) and the food movements (including vegetarian, vegan, animal rights, locavore, organic farming, food sovereignty, and food insecurity)

• Focuses on the last fifty years and is written with millennials in mind, as they will either suffer or enjoy the long-term environmental consequences of food decisions made today

• Spotlights projects and programs underway around the country with the objective of helping the environment by changing the food system

• Reflects the expertise of the author, who has written 29 books, including two major reference books on food issues