Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin' Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture

Agribusiness giants don’t want you to know—or care—if the food you eat is genetically modified, factory farmed, or grown with toxic chemicals. But the rapidly growing alternative food movement is resisting these practices and helping people reclaim their connections to their food. A forty-year veteran of this movement, Mark Winne introduces us to innovative “local doers” defying industrial agribusiness and leading the charge to bring nutritious, sustainable, and affordable food to all. All across the country, these leaders are turning urban wastelands into farms, creating local dairy collectives, preserving farmland, bringing food education to children and adults in diabetes-prone neighborhoods, promoting food democracy, and empowering communities. Winne’s hope is that all of these efforts, scaled up and adopted more widely, will ultimately allow the alternative food system to dethrone the industrial—and he challenges us to go beyond eating local to become part of a larger solution, demanding a system that sustains body and soul.