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Rating: 
Summary: Try to remember
Review: Bitter Harvest is a wonderful book. It highlights the importance of natural foods vs. the artificial foods we eat. However, this is a distinction NOT between junk food and vegetables, but agribusiness vegetables and local organic vegetables.
It turns out that, in search of the maximum profit, the massive agribusinesses engage in pratices that make vegetables much less healthy, and, in some cases, toxic.
Since allowing land to fallow and regain its nutrients reduces profits that could be generated from using that land, agribusinesses use the same land over and over again, and pump it full of chemicals to try to restore the nutritional content of the soil. This is not some wild claim, it is simply how agribusiness works according to their own information.
As a result, many vegetables are becoming less healthy and less nutritional. For instance, a USDA report comparing American broccoli between 1975 and 1997 shows that it has decreased in many important nutrients: broccoli in 1997 had 53% less calcium, 20% less iron, 38% less Vit A, 17% less Vit C, 35% less thiamin, 48% less riboflavin, and 29% less Niacin than 1975 broccoli. Additionally, food that is transported loses nutrients over time. Our vegetables travel an average of 1500 miles.
Unfortunately, thanks to NAFTA and GATT, our vegetables can be toxic. Mexico currently does not ban at least 6 pesticides that are banned due to health effects in the USA. Why does this matter to us? We get most of our off-season vegetables from Mexico: 97% of tomatoes, 93% of our cucumbers, 95% of our squash, 99% eggplant, and 85% of our strawberries. We are eating the poisons Mexico allows in its food.
The news is not all bad, and this book is largely a celebration of life, food, and nature. Above all, it stresses the need to find food sources that don't use the damaging practices of agribusinesses and are not far away-local organic farms. According to Consumer Reports Jan 1998 issue, "organic foods consistently had the least toxic pesticide residues." Similarly, it is more nutritional. Organic Corn has 20 times the calcium and magnesium of store corn. There are many more nutrients and vegetables listed.
And so, to question an earlier reviewer, who found it "really hard to figure out why any of it matters"--are you concerned about eating poisons and pesticides? Are you concerned about declining nutrient levels in our vegetables? If you are, then this book matters. In fact, it is difficult to imagine anything mattering more than what we eat and the damage it may cause.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent, Important Book
Review: Bitter Harvest is a wonderful book. It highlights the importance of natural foods vs. the artificial foods we eat. However, this is a distinction NOT between junk food and vegetables, but agribusiness vegetables and local organic vegetables.
It turns out that, in search of the maximum profit, the massive agribusinesses engage in pratices that make vegetables much less healthy, and, in some cases, toxic.
Since allowing land to fallow and regain its nutrients reduces profits that could be generated from using that land, agribusinesses use the same land over and over again, and pump it full of chemicals to try to restore the nutritional content of the soil. This is not some wild claim, it is simply how agribusiness works according to their own information.
As a result, many vegetables are becoming less healthy and less nutritional. For instance, a USDA report comparing American broccoli between 1975 and 1997 shows that it has decreased in many important nutrients: broccoli in 1997 had 53% less calcium, 20% less iron, 38% less Vit A, 17% less Vit C, 35% less thiamin, 48% less riboflavin, and 29% less Niacin than 1975 broccoli. Additionally, food that is transported loses nutrients over time. Our vegetables travel an average of 1500 miles.
Unfortunately, thanks to NAFTA and GATT, our vegetables can be toxic. Mexico currently does not ban at least 6 pesticides that are banned due to health effects in the USA. Why does this matter to us? We get most of our off-season vegetables from Mexico: 97% of tomatoes, 93% of our cucumbers, 95% of our squash, 99% eggplant, and 85% of our strawberries. We are eating the poisons Mexico allows in its food.
The news is not all bad, and this book is largely a celebration of life, food, and nature. Above all, it stresses the need to find food sources that don't use the damaging practices of agribusinesses and are not far away-local organic farms. According to Consumer Reports Jan 1998 issue, "organic foods consistently had the least toxic pesticide residues." Similarly, it is more nutritional. Organic Corn has 20 times the calcium and magnesium of store corn. There are many more nutrients and vegetables listed.
And so, to question an earlier reviewer, who found it "really hard to figure out why any of it matters"--are you concerned about eating poisons and pesticides? Are you concerned about declining nutrient levels in our vegetables? If you are, then this book matters. In fact, it is difficult to imagine anything mattering more than what we eat and the damage it may cause.
Rating:
Summary: Try to remember
Review: Sad thing is, this keeps popping up as an issue, what is happening to our precious supply of fabulous fresh foods, that truly sustain and delight. Even if poor, you can enjoy a fabulous dish of fresh steamed green beans just off the vine.
My grandparents were "poor", no money but they were farmers and enjoyed lots of good things that sustained life, joy, peace and hope. It is truly disgusting to think 80 percent of fresh chicken has samonella and who knows what else and so many do not know how to protect themselves from getting sick on it. Everything in the supermarket case looks pure and perfect, cool and fresh. Oldways preservation in Cambridge has kept up the searching spotlight and many chefs are well informed but work so hard, they have little time to educate the public. Thank you Ann Cooper for your experience and insights!Sally LaRhette
Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes Scary But Necessary Information
Review: Thank you Ann Cooper and Lisa Holmes! If you really believe "you are what you eat", this book may scare you into ACTION! This book was suggested to me by a parent of one of my son's friends, and I am so glad it was. Though sometimes "text bookish", this compilation of information really makes you stop and think about what you eat and what we feed our families. I found the historical information to be very insightful and the suggestions for how to offer healthier choices were terrific. The resources listed in the back of the book were nuts and bolts suggestions that answered the question, "now what do I do?" With recent "Mad Cow Disease" scares, and ever increasing rates of cancer, heart disease, etc. this is a fabulous resource for helping people to think about small ways to make changes in what we put in our bodies every day. READ IT!!
Rating:
Summary: Important reading
Review: This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the food they put into their bodies. It is definitively NOT a cookbook, nor does it make an attempt as such--the other reader from New York clearly did not read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: My journey toward sustainability.
Review: This book owes its beginning to three unique individuals and experiences that influenced me in the early 1990s-Gary Holleman and a computer; Roger Clapp and a lamb; and my niece Abby and a strawberry. The first of these was a chance meeting at an American Culinary Federation Convention. The computer craze was reaching a fevered pitch, and in an attempt to make sense of the Internet, I attended a seminar where I met Gary Holleman. He single-handedly built my on-ramp to the cyber highway. Gary had varied and passionate interests in current affairs and at the top of his list were food and the way we eat. In fact, Gary was one of the founding members of Chefs Collaborative 2000 and was responsible for helping write the charter by which it is governed. His concern for our food supplies was contagious and he convinced me to attend a CC2000 convention in Puerto Rico. After sitting rapt through several presentations there, I was hooked. I have been a chef my entire adult life and I often say that falling into cooking at eighteen saved my life-but cooking for and feeding people has done more than that, it has actually given meaning to my life. Yet, as with many young chefs I did not really have a firm grasp on the origins of our food supplies. I attended the Culinary Institute of America in the late-1970s, where I was trained by a cadre of primarily European chefs who instilled in us the idea that all great food came from Europe. This sense of "superior" food coming from afar became more firmly ingrained when, after graduation, I took my first job with Holland America Cruise Line. In every port, during the two years I worked on the ship, a celebrated local chef came onboard and showcased the local cuisine. In my mind, "exotic" became synonymous with great chefs. I believed, without accounting for seasonality or a sense of place, that all truly inspired chefs served their guests food from different lands. By the mid-1980s American Regional Cuisine was making a splash, and although many chefs were still looking toward the exotic, some were exploring regional, seasonal foods. In 1990 I became the Executive Chef of The Putney Inn in Putney, Vermont and immediately fell in love with the local products and decided to create menus around them. I continued, however, to rely heavily on specialty items, often imported and often out of season. Enter Gary, CC2000, Puerto Rico, and a new way of thinking. The conference profound effect on me, and for the first time in my culinary career, I began to realize the importance of local regional food supplies and started to understand the meaning of sustainable food choices. Shortly after my trip to Puerto Rico, I was invited to attend the inaugural meeting of what would become the Vermont Fresh Network. The organization was the brainchild of one of my idols, Roger Clapp, Deputy Commissioner for Agricultural Development at the Vermont Department of Agriculture. His goal was to create an organization that would bring chefs and farmers together to promote Vermont's bounty in a project funded by local tax dollars. I was extremely excited to be in attendance at that first meeting. One of the items I was hoping to source was local lamb. I spoke with all of the lamb producers and told them that I was looking for locally produced lamb racks - approximately 100 per week. To my surprise, in retrospect my naiveté is almost embarrassing, they all told me that they could not provide the lamb racks. They asked, "what will we do with the rest of the lamb?" I responded, "that's your problem," and they rightfully responded, "no you're the chef, it's your problem." I was, at once, dumbstruck, and enlightened. I immediately ordered a whole lamb, and when it came in, proceeded to help Frank, my butcher at The Inn, break it down and figure out how to buy and sell the whole lamb, as opposed to the lamb racks. It was an amazing learning experience, not only for myself, but also for the staff, the owner of the Putney Inn, and our guests as well. We learned a great deal, and today, one of our number one sellers at The Inn is our lamb sampler. We buy whole lambs and sell an assortment of cuts on one plate for dinner-a sustainable solution that benefits the restaurant, the farmer, and the consumer. Not too long after my lamb revelation, my young nieces, Abby and Brittany and nephew, Justin came to visit me in Vermont and I decided to take them strawberry picking at Harlow's Farm. When I told them how we were going to spend the day, one of my nieces said, "Aunt Ann, I'm too little to pick the strawberries, how will I reach them?" I was shocked that children, and especially the niece of a chef, did not know how strawberries were grown-their only source of berries had been the grocery store. It struck me then that as a chef it is my responsibility to teach the next generation about our food supplies, sustainability, and seasonality. My own journey toward sustainability and an understanding of how our food is produced has taken many years and has culminated in this book, which I hope will inspire you to understand and be passionate about your food. I hope that at the very least, after reading this, you will pay more attention to how your food tastes, where it comes from, and whether it is produced in a way that is sustainable for generations to come.
Rating:
Summary: Important reading
Review: This book should be read by every parent in America who goes to the grocery store and buys food. We have become a nation of "put it in the basket" buyers. This book cuts to the core of what is wrong with American food. KUDOS for a job well done.
Rating:
Summary: The truth
Review: This book should be read by every parent in America who goes to the grocery store and buys food. We have become a nation of "put it in the basket" buyers. This book cuts to the core of what is wrong with American food. KUDOS for a job well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Muddled and redundant
Review: This isn't a book that can be read from beginning to end, first of all. Mostly because it is poorly organized and never really defines itself: is it a cookbook? Is it a tell-all about the way food is prepared in America? Is it a treatise on pollution's effects on what we eat? It is all of these, and it really hard to figure out why any of it matters. Reads like a more high-brow expose from a tabloid news show. AND, it has all been done before.
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