Tom and Oliver Baldwin enjoy local food at one of Kapa'a's restaurants.

"The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care," he writes.

Seven Sustainable Reads

1. Recipe for America:

   Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It
   by Jill Richardson

2. Deeply Rooted:

   Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness
   by Lisa M. Hamilton 

3. Food Matters:

   A Guide to Conscious Eating
   by Mark Bittman

Garden tours and workshops are a great way to learn. Here, Tracy Matfin of La'akea Permaculture-Hawai'i Community in Puna leads a farm tour.

Can the income potential of coffee be sustained when the crop is combined with the environmental benefits of a forest?

A recent study provides some answers for Hawai'i coffee farmers. The coffee plant originated in the forests of Africa, where it evolved as an understory tree.

Monthly Review, July-August 2009, Vol 61, Number 3

This issue of Monthly Review (available free online) has a series of penetrating articles on the global crisis in agriculture and food. If you want to understand the international context for our current food and agro-industry problems, these articles will give you valuable insight into the big picture. Some of the article titles and authors are: