We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto

This well-crafted book makes a compelling argument for the slow food movement. It is a well-organized thesis that, chapter by chapter, makes several cogent arguments for paying deliberate attention to what we eat and how we obtain it.

The Standard American Diet (or SAD, as it is called) relies on convenience, uniformity, availability, advertising, cheapness, abundance, and speed. These are the chapter topics, which inexorably build to a rethinking of our food and diet. By contrast, the chapters on slow food are built on beauty, biodiversity, seasonality, stewardship, pleasure in work, simplicity, and interconnectedness. It is a pleasure to read such a well thought out prescription for life changing and world changing.

Alice Waters is a well-known chef who revolutionized eating out with Chez Panisse. She is not only an entrepreneur, she is a philanthropist who brought her philosophy into city schools. She discovered that when children can garden, they will enjoy reaping the benefits of the food selection. The connection between personal care of the garden and ourselves is manifest.