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Recommended Reading - Roots of Change Booklist
The following recommended reading list highlights the diversity of both the ROC Community and the CA food system. The list is organized by the individual who suggested the reading.   

This list is an evolving resource - it will continue to grow...


Via Michael Dimock, ROC Executive Director

Presence - Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society
Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers
Society for Organizational Learning, 2004
An investigation of the development of a new theory about change and learning, Presence explores the living fields that connect us to one another, to life more broadly, and, potentially, to what is "seeking to emerge." Seven capacities underlie our ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities. Developing these capacities accesses a deeper level of learning that is the key to creating change that services the whole - our selves, our organizations and the communities of which we are a part.

Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age
Allison Fine
Jossey-Bass, 2006
Fine outlines strategies for "connected activism" in this lucidly written account about using the Internet to build up networks among activists who can pool information and other resources to help create lasting solutions that address the roots of social problems.

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
Margaret Wheatley
Berrett-Koehler, 1999
Wheatley provides an overview of some dramatic changes in scientific thought, such as chaos theory and quantum physics, and then applies those theories to understanding and creating organizations of all sizes and shapes including business.

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Bill McKibben
Times Books, 2007
McKibben challenges the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, and argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion. Drawing the phrase "deep economy" from the expression "deep ecology," a term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas.

Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
Adam Hochshild
Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005
Hochschild's history of British abolitionism notes that ending slavery would have seemed as unlikely in eighteenth-century England as banning automobiles does today. Despite the "latent feeling" among intellectuals that slavery was barbarous, Caribbean sugar plantations were seen as a necessary part of the economy.

The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California
Richard A. Walker
Walker offers a wide-angle overview of the agro-industrial system of production in California from farm to table. He lays bare the long evolution of each link in the food chain, showing how a persistent emphasis on productivity and growth allowed California to outpace agriculture elsewhere in the United States.

The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future
Riane Eisler
HarperCollins, 1995
Eisler documents the global shift from egalitarian to patriarchal societies, interweaving new archeological evidence and feminist scholarship. In her scenario, as women once venerated were degraded to pawns controlled by men, social cooperation gave way to reliance on violence, hierarchy and authoritarianism.

Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew
Samuel Fromartz
Harcourt Books, 2006
In recent decades, organic food has grown into a multibillion-dollar business. Fromartz's portrait of the adolescent industry reveals that that success has prompted an epic identity crisis. Big corporations like Kraft and General Mills own the bulk of the market, and half of all organic sales come from the largest 2% of farms, alienating those most committed to producing chemical-free fruits and vegetables on small family farms, and selling them locally.

Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture through Social Networks
Keith Douglass Warner
Warner shows that agroecology can be put into action effectively only when networks of farmers, scientists, and other stakeholders learn together. Farmers and scientists and their organizations must work collaboratively to share knowledge-whether  it is derived from farm, laboratory, or marketplace. This sort of partnership, writes Warner, has emerged as the primary strategy for finding alternatives to conventional agrochemical use.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan
Penguin Press, 2006
Pollen writes about how our food is grown and gets to the root of what it is that we are really eating The book is really three books in one: the first section discusses industrial farming; the second describes organic food using examples from both big business and from a small farm; and the third, a testimonial of what it is like to hunt and gather food for oneself. And each section culminates in a meal-a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate soufflé (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, finally, mushrooms and pork, foraged from the wild.

Biological Globalisation - The First Comprensive Book on Bio-invasions
Wouter van der Weijden, Rob Leewis, Pieter Bol
http://www.biologicalglobalisation.nl/
The world is globalising, and nature is no exception. More and more plants, animals and microbes are crossing barriers and settling in new areas.  This book to describe the impacts of such bio-invasions on nature as well as on our economy and public health.


Via Nicole Mason, Former ROC Network Relations Manager

Outstanding in their Fields: California's Women Farmers
UC Davis Small Farm Center, 2006
Profiles seventeen women farmers and ranchers who dramatize the pioneering spirit, creativity and courage that animates much of the kinds of artisanal agriculture where women are leading the way.

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader
Joan Gussow
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006
Gussow takes us on a journey to explore issues of what it means to eat local in a global economy.  

The Unsetting of America: Culture and Agriculture
Wendell Berry
Sierra Club Books, 1977
Berry argues that good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. But today's agribusiness takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families, and as a nation we are thus more estranged from the land, as well as from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.

Women of the Harvest: Inspiring Stories of Women Farmers
Holly Bollinger
Voyagur Press, 2007
Women have always farmed, when death or war left them to fend for themselves, but today they might choose to farm, and, in a time when farming is a shrinking occupation, their choices have expanded. In twelve illustrated profiles, the book introduces readers to women who work the land, raising livestock and crops, and, in doing so, uphold and transform a tradition as old as agriculture itself.


Via Daniel Kramer, ROC Director of Development

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan
Penguin Press, 2006
Pollen writes about how our food is grown and gets to the root of what it is that we are really eating. The book is really three books in one: the first section discusses industrial farming; the second describes organic food using examples from both big business and from a small farm; and the third, a testimonial of what it is like to hunt and gather food for oneself. And each section culminates in a meal-a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate soufflé (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, finally, mushrooms and pork, foraged from the wild.

Animal Vegetable Miracle
Barbara Kingsolver
HarperCollins, 2007
Kingsolver has written most of the book, describing the year in which her family resolved to eat only food they had grown themselves, or that had grown within a hundred miles of their home, a farm in Virginia. The book's informative sidebars are by her husband, Steven L. Hopp, a biologist. Her daughter, Camille (in college, studying biology), has also contributed engaging short essays for each month, accompanied by clear, uncomplicated recipes.

Slow Food Nation: Why our Food Should be Good, Clean, and Fair
Carlo Petrini
Rizzoli New York, 2007
Petrini's manifesto makes switching from grabbing dinner from a drive-thru to seeking out environmentally friendly foods.

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Bill McKibben
Times Books, 2007
McKibben challenges the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, and argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion. Drawing the phrase "deep economy" from the expression "deep ecology," a term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas.

The Ecology of Commerce
Paul Hawken
HarperCollins, 1993
Hawken investigates how millions of people live and work in a complex business environment while causing "as little suffering as possible to all and everything around us?" He argues that "we need a design for business that will ensure that the industrial world as it is presently constituted ceases and is replaced with human-centered enterprises that are sustainable producers."

Natural Capitalism
Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins
Little, Brown and Co., 1999
In Natural Capitalism, three top strategists show how leading-edge companies are practicing "a new type of industrialism" that is more efficient and profitable while saving the environment and creating jobs.

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
Yvon Chouinard
Penguin Books, 2005
Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia Inc., presents his philosophy for a "new style of responsible business" along with a chronicle of his personal and company history.

Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar & Co.
Gary Erickson and Lois Lorentzen
Jossey-Bass, 2004
Erickson writes about how good and doing business should go hand in hand. The book tells the inspiring story of a scrappy company's battle to stay privately owned and to better its people, the community, and the planet in the process

It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West
Richard White
University of Oklahoma Press, 1991
Drawing upon ethnic, environmental, urban, labor, and women's history as well as traditional sources, White gives fresh perspective to the West.

Ecoagriculture: Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity
Jeffrey A. Mcneely and Sara J. Scherr
Island Press, 2003
Two of the world's leading experts on conservation and development examine the idea that agricultural landscapes can be designed more creatively to take the needs of human populations into account while also protecting, or even enhancing, biodiversity.

Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches
Daniel Imhoff
Watershed Media, 2005
A new vision for a more environmentally beneficial and sustainable agriculture is emerging. It combines implementation of landscape-level restoration efforts, natural systems farming research, and the community spirit of farmers' markets and local watershed stakeholders groups.  Presenting an inspiring and unique look at this new conservation-based agriculture, Farming with the Wild offers vivid profiles of more than forty farms, ranches, and organizations in the U.S.


Via Joseph McIntyre, Consultant, Process Facilitation

 One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Dee Hock
Berret-Koelher, 2005
This book describes an important call for new kinds of organizations that respond to needs of a rapidly changing world.

Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together
William Isaacs
DoubleDay, 1999
A guidebook for how to shift from talking at one another to entering into dialogue-the process of finding meaning through mutual exploration. The ability to dialogue is critical to the success of collaborative efforts.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, and Rick Ross
DoubleDay, 1994
Think loopy! This is a wonderful introduction to thinking about how dynamic systems work. You'll get a chance to understand how positive and negative feedback loops interact to drive most of the problems we face.

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future
Margaret J Wheatley
Berret-Koehler, 2002
This small book opens the door for all of us to begin having the conversations that matter. It is simple and powerful.


Via Jon Ramer, Former Consultant, Social Networking

Fields That Dream - A Journey to the Roots of Our Food  
Jenny Kurzweil
Fulcrum Publishing, 2005
This book is devoted to exploring the lives and experiences of small-scale sustainable farmers. It describes the current state of American agriculture while cultivating a deep appreciation for the work and lives of the farmers who are growing minority of the American economy. This book is a celebration of community and shows how small-scale farmers work to bridge the ever-widening gap between rural and urban areas.

Coming Home to Eat - The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods  
Gary Paul Nabhan
WW Norton, 2002
The book is about a year of eating locally.

Our Valley. Our Choice. - Building a Livable Future for the San Joaquin
Valley
Produced by the Great Valley Center of Modesto, 2006
The book supports the creation of the San Joaquin Valley blueprint to plan
land-use and transportation systems for the Valley.

The Wealth of Networks - How Social Production Transforms Markets and
Freedom
Yochai Benkler
Yale University Press, 2006
The Wealth of Networks is a comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy.  Benkler describes how patterns of information,
knowledge, and cultural production are changing-and shows that the way
information and knowledge are made available can either limit or ameliorate the
ways people can create and express themselves. Benkler describes the range of
legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much
to be gained-or lost-by  the decisions we make today.


Via Ali Edwards, Former Consultant, Webmaster

California: The Great Exception
Carey Williams
University of CA Press, 1949
In 1949, lawyer, historian, and journalist Carey McWilliams stepped back to assess the state of California at the end of its first one hundred years-its history, population, politics, agriculture, and social concerns. He examines the reasons for the prodigious growth and productivity that have characterized California since the Gold Rush.

The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems with Ecosystems
Nina Bradley (ed), Dana Jackson (ed)
Island Press, 2002
The contributors bring together insights and practices from the fields of conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration to link agriculture and biodiversity, farming and nature.  This book  celebrates a unique alternative to conventional agriculture.

The Unsetting of America: Culture and Agriculture
Wendell Berry
Sierra Club Books, 1977
Berry argues that good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. But today's agribusiness takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families, and as a nation we are thus more estranged from the land, as well as from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.



Via David Brubaker, ROC Stewardship Council Member, agricultural consultant, and author of the forthcoming book Factory Fresh: The Big Business of Meat.

Meat: A Natural Symbol
Nick Fiddes
Routeledge, 1992
A study of the sociocultural aspects of meat-eating in Western-primarily British and American- cultures, Fiddes argues that meat symbolizes the human (and fundamentally patriarchal) desire for control over the natural world.  He concludes that because meat represents supremacy over nature, attitudes about meat have begun to change, along with a shift in social values, away from industrialism and its reliance on a model of human supremacy, toward more ecologically sound ways of life.
 
 
Via Edie Jessup, ROC Stewardship Council Member and Project Coordinator of a Food Security Project with Fresno Metro Ministry.
Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement
Jan Poppendieck 
Penguin, 1999
Tens of thousands of programs across the U.S. distribute free food to the hungry, a type of charity, according to the author, that "comes with a price tag." Poppendieck, director of Hunter College's Center for the Study of Family Policy in New York City, calls the food programs a Band-Aid approach to deepening poverty, which counterproductively relieves pressure for more fundamental solutions by enabling government to shed its responsibility for the poor.
 

Via Rich Rominger, ROC Stewardship Council Member and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture from 1993 to 2001, Head of the California Department of Agriculture from 1977 to 1982.


Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill
 Daniel Imhoff
UC Press, 2007
This book is a good argument of why the U. S. should have new food and farm policies.  The House has passed a new Farm Bill, but the Senate has yet to act.  The book describes the intricacies of the Farm Bill, why it effects you, and what you can do to change it.

Deep Economy
Bill McKibben
Times Books, 2007
McKibben challenges the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, and argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion. Drawing the phrase "deep economy" from the expression "deep ecology," a term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas.
 

Via Steve Glissman, ROC Stewardship Council Member and Alfred E. Heller Professor of Agroecology at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Together at the table: Sustainability and Sustenance in the American Agrifood System
Allen, P.
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004
A critical analysis of contemporary alternatives to the conventional food system, with a focus on the sustainable agriculture and community food security movements in the U.S.
 
Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Sustaining Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America
Bacon, C, V.E. Mendez, S.R. Gliessman,  D. Goodman, J. Fox. (eds.) 
MIT Press
A probing look at the impact of commodity chains on rural communities in the global South, and alternative steps that can be taken by consumers and consumer organizations in the global North.

The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
Wendell Berry
Sierra Club Books, 1977
Berry argues that good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. But today's agribusiness takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families, and as a nation we are thus more estranged from the land, as well as from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.

State of the World
Worldwatch Institute
W.W. Norton, 1984-2006
These annuals report from the Worldwatch Institute cover topics from the global environment and its ability to sustain life, as well as recommendations and strategies for change.
 
World Agriculture and the Environment: a commodity-by-commodity guide to impacts and practices
Clay, J. 
Island Press, 2003
An analysis of global agricultural commodity production, its environment impacts, and a discussion of potential solutions.
 
The Principles of Sustainability
Dresner, S.
Earthscan, 2002
A book addressing some of the most challenging issues surrounding the quest for sustainability, including historical development of the concept, contemporary debates and obstacles.

Interactions between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities - Advances in Agroecology
Flora, C. (ed.)
CRC Press, 2001
An innovative social science perspective on agroecosystem design and management, with a focus on alternative ways of working with human communities to increase food system sustainability.

The New Agrarianism: Land, Culture, and the Community of Life
Freyfogle, E.T. (ed.)
Island Press, 2001
A gathering of powerful writings by well-known authors in the field of food and the environment that shows how there is a groundswell of change in the direction of strengthening our roots in the land, while bringing greater health to families, neighborhoods, and communities in rural as well as urban places.

Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems
Gliessman, S.R.  
CRC Press, 2007
The most complete textbook of agroecology, now in its second edition, that establishes an ecological framework for integrating the complex elements and issues needed for attaining sustainability in our world food systems. Focused on teaching agroecological concepts and principles, this book is oriented towards action and change.

Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket
Halweil, B.
A WorldWatch book.
Norton, 2004
A highly engaging account of where our food comes from, why food system change is needed, and what the alternatives are.

Sharing the Harvest: a guide to Community Supported Agriculture
Henderson, E., and R. Van En. 
Chelsea Green Publishing, 1999
An informative guide to the history, development, implementation, and benefits of community supported agriculture.

Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense
Ikerd, J.
Kumarian Press, Inc., 2005
A probing critique of capitalist economics, as well as a proposal for a new economics of sustainability based on social and ethical values whereby communities the world over can benefit and thrive.

Hungry For Profit
F. Magdorf, J.B. Foster, and F.H. Buttel (eds.)
Monthly Review Press, 2000
A complete analysis of the issues and debates surrounding the global commodification of agriculture and the extent to which our environmental, social, and economic problems are intertwined with the structure of global agriculture as it now exists.  The book demystifies the reasons why hunger proliferates in the midst of plenty and points the way we can all work towards sustainable solutions.

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
Menzel, P., and F. D'Aluisio
Material World Books and Ten Speed Press, 2005
A beautiful photographic essay of what families eat from around the world, placed in an important context of cultural diversity and the impacts of the global market place on food and diets.

Radical Agriculture
Merrill, R. (ed.)
Harper & Row Publishers, 1976
A thought-provoking analysis of the problems in agriculture, as well as a presentation of visionary solutions for moving towards a self-sustaining agriculture.  This book was written before most of us were promoting sustainability.

Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management
Norton, B.G.
 University of Chicago Press, 2005
A discussion on the need for interdisciplinary approaches, drawing from philosophical and linguistic analyses, that focuses on cooperation and adoption through social learning.

Agri-Culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature
Pretty, J.
Earthscan, 2002
An urgent call for a new agricultural revolution where people matter, diversity of all types in valued, and sustainability is the goal.

The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture
Pretty, J. (ed.)
Earthscan, 2005
An essential reference collection of the most influential writers in sustainable agriculture.

Sustainability: Life Chances and Livelihoods
Redclift, M. (Ed)
Routledge, 2000
A comprehensive volume calling for an expansion on the approaches to sustainability, with a focus on public policy in both developed and developing countries.

Farming for the Future: An Introduction to Low-External-Input and Sustainable Agriculture
Reijntjes, C., B. Haverkort, and A. Waters-Bayer
McMillan Press Limited, 1992
An interdisciplinary approach to sustainable agriculture for developing countries that combines theory and practice in the search for site-specific, farmer-friendly strategies for raising and maintaining productivity using low-cost local resources.
 
Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture: Participatory Learning and Adaptive Management in Times of Environmental Uncertainty
Röling, N.G. & M.A.E. Wagemakers
 Cambridge University Press, 2000
This book analyzes the implications of adopting sustainable agricultural practices, both at the farm and the landscape scale, with a focus on social aspects.

Living Countrysides
van der Ploeg, J.D., A. Long, and J. Banks (eds.)
Elsevier: Doetinchem, 2002
The state of art of the rural development process in Europe, with sustainability anchored in the multifunctionality of agriculture, landscape and culture.


 
 
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