Deb Baker – Interim Reference Librarian

Were you inspired to shrink your environmental footprint after listening to Anne Stephenson of Clean Air Cool Planet at chapel yesterday? Do you want to know what a locavore is, how to calculate food miles, or why global hunger persists? Ohrstrom library’s Concord Reads/SPS Community Partner display, “Inspirations for Sustainable Living,” can help you sort through the facts, read compelling arguments from many points of view, and learn about the environmental, ethical, and health impact of what you eat.

If you’re interested in the connections between American culture and farming, read Wendell Berry’s essays in The Unsettling of America or The Gift of Good Land. For an ethical perspective, try Jane Goodall’s A Harvest for Hope: a Guide to Mindful Eating. Concerned about the politics, economics, or science of food production? Read Peter Singer’s The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, Gary Paul Nabhan’s Coming Home to Eat: the Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods, or Dan Imhoff’s Food Fight: the Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill. A selection of recent articles from The New York Times, New Yorker, Yale Daily News, Grist.org and Environmental Science and Technology provide additional perspectives.

If you want to know where your food comes from and how to eat well in all senses of the word, enjoy Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Ann Vileisis’s Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back, or Brain Halweil’s Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket. Looking for an informative film to enjoy with your organic snacks? Watch American Farm, which explores the struggle of small farmers, told through the story of the director’s own family.

This is just a sampling of the library’s extensive resources on sustainability. Whether your interests are aesthetic, ethical, political, nutritional, or environmental, we have something for you.

HELPFUL FOR: Religion and Ethics, Leadership for Social Justice, American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy, Topics in Global Events

FUN FOR: locavores, activists, tree huggers, journalists, future organic farmers, future policy makers, Eco Actioners, people who love to eat, debaters, devil’s advocates

Check back tomorrow on Ohrstrom Blog for Part II of this post.

Related posts:

1. Sustainability at SPS: Inspirations for Sustainable Living Part II
2. Sustainability at SPS: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
3. New Reference Book: Global Perspectives on the United States

Encyclopedia of American Journalism edited by Stephen L. Vaughn, Routledge, 2008.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: Ref. 070.03 V46

This unique reference explores how the media has shaped American perceptions throughout our nation’s history, contributing to our national culture, impacting the way Americans stay informed, even influencing how citizens will react to information. Articles cover themes such as “Feminist Journalism,” or “Religion and the Press,” prominent news organizations, individuals, time periods, and events; entries on ethics and legal issues examine the press’s limits. Helpful research tools include a thematic list of articles and suggested reading for each entry.

HELPFUL FOR: Humanities IV, American Domestic Policy, The Cold War World, American Foreign Policy, Vietnam Voices: Multiple Views of the American Experience

FUN FOR: journalists, future pundits, news hounds, history buffs

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