Review: New Bible for ‘Eater-based Conservation’
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Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods, from Gary Nabhan, was recently reviewed by Rhonda Bodfield for azstarnet.com, a regional Arizona publication. In it Bodfield says, “Renewing America’s Food Traditions is the new bible for what’s known as ‘eater-based conservation.’”
From the review:
It may seem counterintuitive to eat species hovering on the cusp of extinction. And frankly, no one wants you to put a polar bear in the Crock Pot.But now that more mainstream consumers have resolved the paper versus plastic issue with canvas bags, embraced organics and focused on “buying local” to reduce carbon footprints, this is the next wave in food-ethics consciousness:
The concept of rescuing traditional foods from obscurity by creating a market for them.
[…]
When Nabhan did a recent interview on National Public Radio about his book, some pragmatists suggested there are good reasons these crops or animal breeds have been trumped by more commercially viable ones.
They’re persnickety — either they aren’t as shippable or durable or uniform, it was suggested. Maybe they take longer to get to breeding age. Maybe they lay fewer or smaller eggs.
Nabhan disagrees. The black Spanish turkeys he grows, for example, are more Keira Knightley than the overstuffed Pamela Anderson models that dominate commercial ventures. But what they lose in breast, they make up for in richly flavored back meat and drumsticks.
Yup. Keira Knightly turkeys. You heard it here first. Delicious. Read the whole review here.
