“Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet — roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet. And a healthy diet is a whole lot simpler than the food industry and many nutritional scientists — what I call the Nutritional Industrial Complex — would have us believe. After spending several years trying to answer the supposedly incredibly complicated question of how we should eat in order to be maximally healthy, I discovered the answer was shockingly simple: eat real food, not too much of it, and more plants than meat. Or, put another way, get off the modern western diet, with its abundance of processed food, refined grains and sugars, and its sore lack of vegetables, whole grains and fruit.”

• #11 Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
• #19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.
• #36 Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
• #47 Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

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“The grassroots food movement is a broad tent encompassing a multitude of initiatives…Some focus on food, some on the environment, and some on community…Their motivations are diverse, from something as simple as wanting to sell fresh tomatoes to local restaurants to a deeply spiritual yearning to heal the land and our relationship with it…No matter the starting point, no matter how richly diverse the motivations or approaches, the stories in this book demonstrate that, over time, successful grassroots food projects ultimately converge around two central points: local food and community” (p.8, and p.9)

“Suddenly the connecting thread became apparent. Across America, the grassroots food movement seems to be arising from a common feeling that we have lost our center. Across our nation, we see spiritual restlessness, children disconnected from nature, people disconnected from each other, a proliferation of foods that fail to nourish either body or spirit, and a lack of community, neighborliness, and relationship. This book tells the story of people who are seeking to find a new center, to create meaning and purpose in their lives, to restore harmony and balance in their relationships with the land, food and each other” (p.9)

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