Books

[TCLynx]

Chris had some recommendations that I hope he will come over here and make them again!

Anyway, a couple books I've read lately that I liked;

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle      by Barbara Kingslover
So many great quotes and a really powerful commentary on our current food system in the USA as well as most of this countries education and relationship with their food.  Huge entertainment value along with plenty of educational valve as well.

Farm City  The Education of an Urban Farmer        by Novella Carpenter
Now I'm not exactly an Urban Farmer (more sub urban) but I still found this book to be great fun.  (Perhaps her life would have been easier with Aquaponics but I don't think the book would have had nearly the entertainment value without the other livestock.)  This book almost makes me wish I was living in a city like that just to make use of the dumpsters to feed the animals.

[Kate Mink]

I recommend Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "The Botany of Desire." He's a bit of a city guy for me, but he does great research and writes clearly and movingly about food.

Omnivore's Dilemma is based around meals, from fast food to completely self-raised and hunted. Each meal, each food, brings in facts and philosophical musings. Botany of Desire has 4 case histories of plants - potatoes, apples, marijuana, and tulips - that have experienced intense selection by and coevolution with people. The potato case study is what finally made clear to me the negative side of GMO and why it's so different from selective breeding.

[Chris Smith]

Michael Pollan has written many books on food. I am currently reading The Omnivores Dilemma. I plan to read another Pollan book, In Defense of Food.

Most of my reading these days is done on the computer in the form of research. I do not get too many pages read at night before falling asleep. I tend to watch more documentaries than read books so here are some of my recommendations in that department:
Food Inc.
The Future of Food
King Corn
Food Matters

A couple of good non food related documentaries to see are:
Fuel
A Crude Awakening
Blue Gold

[TCLynx]

I highly recommend

The Humanure Handbook By Joseph Jenkins

This book of course is the guide to composing Human Manure but it can be of great value even to those who don't want to compost their own manure but just want to compost. I originally read the book for free online but I have since purchased several copies of the 3rd edition to share with others.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

I've been reading "The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century" by Dr. Dickson Despommier.  An excellent, fascinating vision for the future of urban farming that includes aquaponics, although it is largely focused on hydroponics.  Also currently reading / listening to (I'm one of those ADD readers who has 3 - 4 books going at a time) "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman and "The End of Food" by Paul Roberts.  Both very alarming, but extremely well researched and written.  Both promise to talk about actual solutions to the problems at the end so I'm holding out for that!

 

I also highly recommend "Small Scale Aquaculture" for this group. Just got it a couple of weeks ago and it's full of practical advice for aquaponics folks