linden hills coop book club

When Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, hit bookshelves in 2006, it immediately ascended to the top of the New York Times Best Seller List. Usually, a designation of this sort would prompt me to read the book as soon as possible, but something was different this time. I can’t exactly put a finger on the reason, but for some reason I wasn’t overly anxious to read the book; I think part of me feared the influence of Pollan’s perspective on food ethics as I continued to ponder my own food strategy and eating principles.

For our May book club, we are reading a book so well-known it almost needs no introduction. Still, even a contemporary classic like The Omnivore's Dilemma deserves to be revisited, especially in light of how much impact it has had in the few years since it was published. It's on the book club agenda, in fact, because Linden Hills received so many requests to read and discuss Pollan's seminal work. We will be meeting at the Linden Hills Co-op on Wednesday, May 29th from 6:30 p.m.

As an increasing number of people are questioning the health of our current US food system, as well as those that consume from within it, more and more eaters are paying attention to the foods they eat. Hungry not only for the, “who, where, and how” of their food, consumers are questioning the integrity and effectiveness of the systems weʼve put in place to regulate, control, and protect our food supply as a whole.

After January's great book club meeting, we at SGT are really looking forward to our next bookish get together this month. We will be meeting at the Linden Hills Co-op on Wednesday, March 27th from 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. to discuss Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World, by the radical farmer and writer Joel Salatin. You might recognize Salatin as the chicken farmer with a mobile chicken coop from Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and also from the documentary Food, Inc. Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farm in Virginia, an innovative operation that focuses on sustainability and seasonality. 

Now that the weather is turning cooler and school is back in session, the SGT Book Club is back, with not one but two books. In Minneapolis, the book club will be discussing Marion Nestle’s Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition & Health; in Bemidji, the book club will be discussing David Agus’s The End of Illness.

Meetings are open to all, whether you finish the whole book or just have fresh ideas about our food or health system that you want to discuss. So come on out and join us for a lively discussion!

The Simple, Good and Tasty book club meetings are fast approaching and I expect an interesting and lively discussion this week. Why you ask? It seems that school lunch and what we are feeding our kids was always somewhere in the food discussion this summer and on into Fall. Governor Dayton declared September farm-to-school month and don't forget, the chocolate milk debates that were raging at the beginning of the summer.

This month, the Simple, Good and Tasty book club is tackling Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel. Get ready to dive into the global food system and begin to think in new ways about how it serves or fails to serve humanity. Instead of focusing on individual choices, Raj Patel asks questions about how food is delivered to people, whether it be big box stores in America or third world farmers growing crops for the industrial world. Patel also gives us new insights on why the food system fails to equally to all. Perhaps one of the best qualities of his writing is that what is offered here is not simply a book for the Western world.

It is with sadness that we bid farewell to the Mississippi Market book club. They are bowing out after poor attendance numbers. With everything that must pass we should remember to take something with us. I suggest that we work hard to encourage friends and acquaintances to see the value in reading and community. Book clubs are an opportunity not only to learn, but to turn that learning into thought and action. Let us take this moment to set aside the time to fully support the Linden Hills Coop book club in Minneapolis and the Harmony Coops book club in Bemijdi!

Prepare yourself book club aficionados. July is offering unprecedented opportunities for lots of great reading. Our three book club participants are all reaching out in different directions this month. Join the Linden Hills Coop as they kick off their book club with Hungry Planet, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. Mississippi Market will be reading the book Food Inc. by Karl Weber, and will be showing the film at their end of the month meeting. If you are in the Bemidji area, join Harmony Cooperative as they read Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber, and will watch the documentary film based on the book.