GOOD EATS

A collection of essays on the topic of eating ethically, practically, and personally.

Editors Cognard-Black and Goldthwaite, both English professors who have written widely about food, begin with the guideline that there is no one specific diet or method for eating ethically. “Any consideration of ethical eating requires ecological thinking and a close attention to relationships, the environment, and diversity,” they write. The editors divide the book into four sections: Nature and Nurture, Appetite and Restraint, What’s Eating Us, and Our Pasts as Present. Each section opens with an overview of the essays included in that section, and the essays range from two to 25 pages, making the book an excellent choice for casual reading. The editors seek to offer “creative and nuanced food stories that link the culinary imagination to practices of everyday eating,” and they are successful in that endeavor. The essays range from light reading—e.g., “My Children’s First Garden,” in which Michael P. Branch shares his struggles with creating a viable garden—to more focused historical topics, including traditional Indigenous knowledge around food and how the colonization of the Americas directly affected the diet of modern Americans. Vegetarianism and veganism receive ample attention alongside examinations of ethical meat eating and how food remains a vital connection point within our cultures and histories. In a piece titled “Between the Shopping Cart and the Chinese Restaurant,” Adrienne Su explores her often complicated relationship between the joy (and necessity) of cooking at home and the enjoyment of communal dining: “The pandemic revealed that restaurant-going of all kinds can be a social good, keeping people employed, enlivening neighborhoods, and sustaining sources of prepared food for those who can’t cook for themselves.” Other contributors include Nikki Finney, Maureen Stanton, and Aimee Nezhukumatathill.

A wonderful starting place to think about how to eat ethically.