Check out these 25 books about food that answer why

For winter reading, Dani Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, a think tank on food, offers another great reading list, this one on food books that answer the question why.

Why bread, which cost a third of household expenditures in Europe 300 years ago, now costs less than 1 percent.

Why many attempts to reform farming and food policy in sub-Saharan Africa haven’t succeeded.

Why New Orleans has long been famous for its amazing food.

Why only a few very large corporations came to dominate agriculture.

To learn the answers to these questions, and other important food questions, take a look the books Nierenberg recommends:

• “A History of Bread: Consumers, Bakers and Public Authorities since the 18th Century” by Peter Scholliers.

• “Chile, Clove, and Cardamom: A Gastronomic Journey Into the Fragrances and Flavors of Desert Cuisines” by Beth Dooley and Gary Paul Nabhan.

• “Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria” by Ozoz Sokoh (Forthcoming March 2025).

• “Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land: A Social Movement Ethnography” by David E. Gilbert (Forthcoming March 2025).

• “Decolonizing African Agriculture: Food Security, Agroecology and the Need for Radical Transformation” by William G. Moseley.

• “Eating and Being: A History of Ideas about Our Food and Ourselves” by Steven Shapin.

• “Food Activism Today: Sustainability, Climate Change, and Social Justice” by Donald M. Nonini and Dorothy C. Holland.

• “Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans” by Theresa McCulla.

• “Julia Child’s Kitchen: The Design, Tools, Stories, and Legacy of an Iconic Space” by Paula J. Johnson.

• “Modern Chinese Foodways” edited by Jia-Chen Fu, Michelle T. King, and Jakob A. Klein.

• “Planning Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems: From Soil to Soil” by Julia Freedgood.

• “Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat” by Chloe Sorvino.

• “Reversing Deforestation: How Market Forces and Local Ownership Are Saving Forests in Latin America” by Brent Sohngen and Douglas Southgate.

• “Seeding Empire: American Philanthrocapital and the Roots of the Green Revolution in Africa” by Aaron Eddens.

• “Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes” by Chantha Nguon with Kim Green.

• “The Crop Cycle: Stories with Deep Roots” by Shane Mitchell.

• “The Nature of Nature: The Metabolic Disorder of Climate Change” by Vandana Shiva.

• “The Proof Is in the Dough: Rural Southern Women, Extension, and Money Making” by Kathryn L. Beasley.

• “Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters” by Jennifer Clapp (Forthcoming February 2025).

• “The Painful Truth about Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know – and Start Again” by Mariana Chilton.

• “The Regenerative Agriculture Solution: A Revolutionary Approach to Building Soil, Creating Climate Resilience, and Supporting Human and Planetary Health” by Ronnie Cummins and André Leu.

• “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World” by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

• “The Youth Climate Uprising: From the School Strike Movement to an Ecophilosophy of Democracy” by David Fopp, Isabelle Axelsson, and Loukina Tille.

• “Waters of the United States: POTUS, SCOTUS, WOTUS, and the Politics of a National Resource” by Royal C. Gardner.

• “What a Farmer Wants You to Know about Food” by Dennis Bulani.

Check out more details on all these books by clicking here.