The Eco-Foods Guide : What's Good for the Earth is Good for You!

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Summary: Great resource for why and how to do good food buying
Review: Barstow's Eco-Foods is a well-thought out book that focuses on: local, organic, seasonal qualities of the food we should eat. The book is easy reading and optimistic, full of pro-active and productive actions we could take. Eco-foods brings in a thorough historical background of important topics. While I consider myself well-read and informed on modern food issues, Cynthia enlightened me on subjects such as genetic drift, genetically modified, terminator technology, labeling, salmon waste, pouring rights, and more. The book flows with a compendium of who's who in the field (like Rachel Carson, Frances Moore Lappe, Thomas Berry, and many more), listing of relevant websites in an easy to see manner, shopping tips, brief vignettes on subjects that are discussed. I will use Eco-Foods as a resource for my good foods purchases.

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Summary: Bringing farmers back to town...
Review: Cynthia Barstow knows about food and cares about the planet we live on. If you don't know what IPM, GMO, CSA, and a ton of other initials and food labels mean, read this book! If you want to eat organic, but don't know why or how you can do it, read this book! If you want to get to know farmers, but don't know the questions to ask, or even how to locate the farmers themselves, Cynthia can point you in the right direction--so read this book! She has exhausted herself in researching countless eco-food issues and has written an important guide for activists, working parents, and students.

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Summary: Keep it in a handy place
Review: The Eco-Foods Guide is an indispensable resource for the consumer who wants to go beyond reading labels and really delve into the truth about where our food comes from. Cynthia Barstow's conversational style is readable and down to earth--she answers the questions that loom in our heads as we make choices at the grocery store. She discusses the issues of buying organic vs. non organic, the benefits of buying locally, and she de-mysifies GMO's and what role they play in our food. Barstow also inlcludes helpful websites for futher purusing. As a mother of a two year old, I am grateful for this accessible guide--keep in a handy place!

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Summary: For anyone concerned with seeking out alternatives
Review: The Eco-Foods Guide: What's Good For The Earth Is Good For You! by sustainable agriculture and consumer advocate Cynthia Barstow is a very practical and "user friendly" consumer's guide to shopping the grocery-store aisles. Individual chapters cogently teach the reader about confusing yet critically important terms on grocery shelf cans, boxes and labels such as shade-grown, IPM-certified, GMO-free, biodynamic, and more, as well as offering sound and invaluable advice for shopping at farmer's markets, buying local produce, being aware of what edibles are being purchased for consumption, and generally regarding food as a sacred part of life itself. The Eco-Foods guide is very highly recommended, indispensable reading for anyone concerned with seeking out alternatives to the overly processed, additive contaminated, preservative laden, and chemically adulterated and synthesized and genetically altered foods that can (and do) significantly contribute to contemporary health problems.

Rating:
Summary: For anyone concerned with seeking out alternatives
Review: The Eco-Foods Guide: What's Good For The Earth Is Good For You! by sustainable agriculture and consumer advocate Cynthia Barstow is a very practical and "user friendly" consumer's guide to shopping the grocery-store aisles. Individual chapters cogently teach the reader about confusing yet critically important terms on grocery shelf cans, boxes and labels such as shade-grown, IPM-certified, GMO-free, biodynamic, and more, as well as offering sound and invaluable advice for shopping at farmer's markets, buying local produce, being aware of what edibles are being purchased for consumption, and generally regarding food as a sacred part of life itself. The Eco-Foods guide is very highly recommended, indispensable reading for anyone concerned with seeking out alternatives to the overly processed, additive contaminated, preservative laden, and chemically adulterated and synthesized and genetically altered foods that can (and do) significantly contribute to contemporary health problems.

Rating:
Summary: The Ethics of Eating
Review: This book is a practical guide to eating healthy foods, and, as the subtitle reads, "What's good for the earth is good for you!" Unfortunately, we are long way from eating healthy foods, and thus a long way from treating Mother Earth with the love and respect she deserves - which makes this book all the more timely and important. Between the covers, you will find a solid discussion of the dangers of modern processed foods (including pesticides, drugs and GMO, etc.) as well as the pitfalls of industrial agriculture (soil degredation, loss of biodiversity, and so on). In fact, you will find just about everything that relates to food in connection with planetary and personal health. Of particular import for cityfolk like me was the discussion of community-supported agriculture (CSA) and other shopping alternatives. The many wonderful links also lend the book value beyond its read-life. All in all, a wonderful addition to the pantry.