Pacific Coast Berry Finder Book

Beautiful exploration of our relationship to food through looking at different eating practices across cultures. Reading this book really gave me a new perspective on a lot of food practices I take for granted, and has given me lots of ideas about what a healthy diet could look like.

I felt that, at times, the author romanticized indigenous cultures and "traditional" ways of making food. Although she gave a lot of specific examples of food practices from a wide variety of cultures, she also often referred to "traditional" and "indigenous" cultures as if they are unitary groups with a single practice. Also, as my partner remarked when I described the author's complaints about modern food preservation: "Spoken like someone from a culture where food-borne pathogens are no longer widespread." And it sure sounds mystical and magical to grind your own grain... when you don't have to do it every day.

I don't disagree with her point - that we've lost our connection to food and the earth through techniques of mass food production - but it is amazing to think how much time and energy are freed up by mass food production. True, that's what allows us to check Facebook and write GoodReads reviews... but it also fuels education, the arts, invention, scientific discovery, and many other exciting and wonderful things about modern life. It seems like there must be a way to preserve these benefits while still re-connecting to our food and our earth.