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Book Lists

Book Lists

Book Lists for Adults

Book Lists for Adults

Hunger & Food Security

November is Hunger & Homelessness Awareness month, consider reading some of these selections to broaden your understanding of the issue of hunger and food insecurity.

Caparrós, Martín, 1957- author.
363.8 CAP
"An up-to-the-minute global investigation of famine and the persistent issues the keep most of the world hungry. By one of Latin America's most famous and formidable journalists comes a book for the ages. In HUNGER, award-winning author Martin Caparros goes in search of why, in the 21st century, most of the world's inhabitants still go hungry daily and To do this he travels to places where food is scarce -- Niger and Northern India, as well as to the cattle grounds of Argentina, the world's biggest beef exporter, and on to the Chicago Food Bank to learn more about the power of food distributors"-- Provided by publisher.

Bourne, Joel K., Jr.
363.8 BOU
In The End of Plenty, an award-winning environmental journalist introduces a new generation of farmers and scientists on the frontlines of the next green revolution. When the demographer Robert Malthus (1766-1834) famously outlined the brutal relationship between food and population, he never imagined the success of modern scientific agriculture. In the mid-twentieth century, an unprecedented agricultural advancement known as the Green Revolution brought hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and improved irrigation that drove the greatest population boom in history but left ecological devastation in its wake. In The End of Plenty, award-winning environmental journalist Joel K. Bourne Jr. puts our race to feed the world in dramatic perspective. With a skyrocketing world population and tightening global grain supplies spurring riots and revolutions, humanity must produce as much food in the next four decades as it has since the beginning of civilization to avoid a Malthusian catastrophe. Yet climate change could render half our farmland useless by century's end. Writing with an agronomist's eye for practical solutions and a journalist's keen sense of character, detail, and the natural world, Bourne takes readers from his family farm to international agricultural hotspots to introduce the new generation of farmers and scientists engaged in the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. He discovers young, corporate cowboys trying to revive Ukraine as Europe's breadbasket, a Canadian aquaculturist channeling ancient Chinese traditions, the visionary behind the world's largest organic sugar-cane plantation, and many other extraordinary individuals struggling to increase food supplies -- quickly and sustainably -- as droughts, floods, and heat waves hammer crops around the globe. Part history, part reportage and advocacy, The End of Plenty is a panoramic account of the future of food, and a clarion call for anyone concerned about our planet and its people. - Publisher.

J 363.8 FOO
"An exploration of climate change and the difficulties people may experience growing food and obtaining fresh water as the average global temperature warms"-- Provided by publisher.

Little, Amanda, 1974- author.
338.19 LIT
"In this fascinating look at the race to secure the global food supply, environmental journalist and professor Amanda Little tells the defining story of the sustainable food revolution as she weaves together stories from the world's most creative and controversial innovators on the front lines of food science, agriculture, and climate change"-- Provided by publisher.

Monbiot, George, 1963- author.
338.1 MON
"Drawing on advances in soil ecology, George Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionizing our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and chemicals; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how to transform not only our food system but our entire relationship to the living world"-- Provided by publisher.

Manning, Richard, 1951-
338.16 MAN

Bello, Walden F.
338.19 BEL

Jarrow, Gail, author.
J 616.393 JAR
One hundred years ago, a mysterious and alarming illness spread across America's South, striking tens of thousands of victims. No one knew what caused it or how to treat it. People were left weak, disfigured, insane, and in some cases, dead. Award winning science and history writer Gail Jarrow tracks this disease, commonly known as pellagra, and highlights how doctors, scientists, and public health officials finally defeated it. Illustrated with 100 archival photographs, includes stories about real life pellagra victims and accounts of scientific investigations.

Elliott, Andrea, author.
362.7756 ELL
"Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolize Brooklyn's gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. As Dasani grows up, moving with her tightknit family from shelter to shelter, her story reaches back to trace the passage of Dasani's ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north. By the time Dasani comes of age in the twenty-first century, New York City's homeless crisis is exploding amid the growing chasm between rich and poor. In the shadows of this new Gilded Age, Dasani must lead her seven siblings through a thicket of problems: hunger, parental addiction, violence, housing instability, pollution, segregated schools, and the constant monitoring of the child-protection system. When, at age thirteen, Dasani enrolls at a boarding school in Pennsylvania, her loyalties are tested like never before. As she learns to "code-switch" between the culture she left behind and the norms of her new town, Dasani starts to feel like a stranger in both places. Ultimately, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving povertymeans abandoning the family you love?"-- Provided by publisher.