Good Eats: 32 Writers on Eating Ethically

A collection of insightful and personal essays on the role of food in our lives

In an age of mass factory farming, processed and pre-packaged meals, and unprecedented food waste, how does one eat ethically?

Featuring a highly diverse ensemble of award-winning writers, chefs, farmers, activists, educators, and journalists, Good Eats invites readers to think about what it means to eat according to our values. These essays are not lectures about what you should eat, nor an advertisement for the latest diet. Instead, the contributors tell the stories of real people-real bellies, real bodies-including the writers themselves, who seek to understand the experiences, families, cultures, histories, and systems that have shaped their eating and their ethics.

From gardening as an alternative to factory farming, to the indigenous cultures surrounding salmon and the corporate cultures surrounding chocolate, the topics featured in this collection expand our understanding of what ethical eating can be. Poets like Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil muse lyrically on the role of sustenance in their lives. Other contributors describe efforts to change how our food is sourced. In her compelling piece, farmer and food sovereignty activist Leah Penniman celebrates both ancestral seeds and wisdom when discussing her Afro-Indigenous farming and forestry practices. Across the country in the high desert, Michael P. Branch details his frustrating-yet-humorous attempts to grow a garden with his young daughters. Professional chef Thérèse Nelson shows how hot sauce represents joy, expression, and magic for many Black people. Each contributor tugs at the imagination with insightful discussions of the role food plays in our lives.

Good Eats will inspire you to find more mindfulness and joy in your diet. These essays turn mundane meals into remarkable symbols of how we live, encouraging each of us to find food that is both sustaining and sustainable.

Contributors include Ross Gay, DeLyssa Begay, Lynn Z. Bloom, Michael P. Branch, Nikky Finney, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Barbara J. King, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Leah Penniman, Adrienne Su, Ira Sukrungruang, Tina Vasquez, Nicole Walker, Thérèse Nelson, Lisa Knopp, Jane Brox, Maureen Stanton, Taté Walker, and many others.