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Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food |  | Author: Wendell Berry
Creator: Michael Pollan
Publisher: Counterpoint
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.66
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Seller: a1books
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 5080
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 158243543X
Dewey Decimal Number: 630.973
EAN: 9781582435435
ASIN: 158243543X
Publication Date: August 18, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Only a farmer could delve so deeply into the origins of food, and only a writer of Wendell Berry’s caliber could convey it with such conviction and eloquence. Long before Whole Foods organic produce was available at your local supermarket, Berry was farming with the purity of food in mind. For the last five decades, Berry has embodied mindful eating through his land practices and his writing. In recognition of that influence, Michael Pollan here offers an introduction to this wonderful collection.
Drawn from over thirty years of work, this collection joins bestsellers The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Pollan, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, as essential reading for anyone who cares about what they eat. The essays address such concerns as: How does organic measure up against locally grown? What are the differences between small and large farms, and how does that affect what you put on your dinner table? What can you do to support sustainable agriculture?
A progenitor of the Slow Food movement, Wendell Berry reminds us all to take the time to understand the basics of what we ingest. “Eating is an agriculture act,” he writes. Indeed, we are all players in the food economy.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 Berry Takes the Cake! November 18, 2009
BookWoman/BookMan TV REVIEWS (Nashville, Tn United States)
"Wendell Berry is one of today's most popular essayists and Bringing It to the Table which includes his stories about food and farm life is the perfect book about understanding where our food comes from. The introduction by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma is the icing on the cake."
A fine survey recommended for any library strong in cuisine and food or farming issues November 17, 2009
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
Before organic produce was available at any supermarket author Wendell Berry was farming and writing about food issues - and BRINGING IT TO THE TABLE: ON FARMING AND FOOD offers his insights on mindful eating and farming practices. Literary food essays draw important links between consumption choices and the environment and provide a fine survey recommended for any library strong in cuisine and food or farming issues.
Use their heads a little bit October 10, 2009
Patricia Kramer (Madison, WI USA)
Another book to be treasured from Wendell Berry. The book is composed of essays Berry has written over many years and is in three sections. The first lays out what a real farm should look like and how it should be run thinking in terms of its viability over time. That involves studying and coming to know the actual land the farm is on, animals and crops and ways of farming need to be adapted to that particular piece of land. In other words, farming involves having eyes wide open and thinking. Berry states that those in government would benefit from this model.
"If the people in our state and national governments undertook to evaluate economic enterprises by the standards of long-term economics, they would have to employ their minds in actual thinking. For many of them, this would be a shattering experience, something altogether new, but it would also cause them to learn things and do things that would improve the lives of their constituents."
In the second section, Berry profiles farmers whom he admires - and that is high praise indeed. "A Good Farmer of the Old School" is a wonderful explanation of farming that makes sense.
Lancie Clippinger "is taking his own advice, and his advice comes from his experience and the experience of farmers like him, not from experts who are not farmers. For those reasons, Lancie Clippinger is doing all right. He is farming well and earning a living by it in a time when many farmers are farming poorly and making money for everybody but themselves.
'I don't know what they mean,'he says. 'You'd think some in the bunch would use their heads a LITTLE bit.'"
The third section of the book is titled "The Pleasures of Eating" and consists of excerpts from Berry's fiction centered on cooking and eating and the communal joys of eating real food around a table. Reading this section brings back fond memories of Wendell Berry's fiction I have loved through the years and adds to my motivation to keep on cooking up the vegetable dishes I create from my community supported agriculture share.
Berry's Greatest Hits - Good Works - Long Time Fans Beware September 9, 2009
Anders Martinson (Oregon)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I rated the (first) one-star review helpful, but I'd also rate it unfair. As the list below will show, long-time fans probably have all the works in this volume on their bookshelves. The value in this collection lies in the way that it draws together works on the topic at hand. If you're new to Berry, this is a reasonable place to start. If the points made by the favorable reviews appeal to you, check it out. Not everybody is going to buy every book or CD by a writer/singer, so sometimes a compilation based on a theme is a good choice. With one exception for the list below, I have all of the non-fiction in this book, so I am going to pass
Essay title ---- Appears in
Nature as Measure ---- What Are People For?
Stupidity in Concentration ---- Citizenship Papers
Agricultural Solutions for Agricultural Problems ---- The Gift of Good Land
A Defense of the Family Farm ---- Home Economics
Let the Farm Judge ---- Citizenship Papers
Energy in Agriculture ---- The Gift of Good Land
Conservationist and Agrarian ---- Citizenship Papers
Sanitation and the Small Farm ---- The Gift of Good Land
Renewing Husbandry ---- The Way of Ignorance
Seven Amish Farms ---- The Gift of Good Land
A Good Farmer of the Old School ---- Home Economics
Charlie Fisher ---- The Way of Ignorance
A Talent for Necessity ---- The Gift of Good Land
Elmer Lapp's Place ---- The Gift of Good Land
On the Soil and Health ---- Intro to The University Press of Kentucky 2007 ed of Howard's On the Soil & Health
Agriculture from the Roots Up ---- The Way of Ignorance
The Pleasures of Eating ---- What Are People For?
Excellent introduction to Berry on farming August 28, 2009
Garrett Brown (Arlington, Virginia)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is an excellent introduction to Wendell Berry's thought on farming and food. My main interest in reading Berry stemmed from reading Michael Pollan, who quotes Berry repeatedly in Omnivore's Dilemma. I had known about Berry and his poetry for many years, of course, but this collection seemed to be a good way in, rather than through his novels or poetry. I was initially concerned that the essays might seem dated or be too repetitive of the same points, and so I was delighted to discover that each essay, written between 1971 and 2006, seemed as fresh and relevant to me today as when they were written. Berry's essays on the Amish and a farmer by the name of Lancie Clippinger are absolute gems. All of the pages in this book are infused with a deep appreciation of the natural world and its astonishing interconnectedness. They approach the transcendent but never overreach.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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