Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen

by Anna Lappé, Bryant Terry

In the past few years, organic food has moved out of the patchouli-scented aisles of hippie food co-ops and into three-quarters of conventional grocery stores. Concurrent with this growth has been increased consumer awareness of the social and health-related issues around organic eating, independent farming, and food production.

Combining a straight-to-the-point exposé about organic foods (organic doesn't mean fresh, natural, or independently produced) and the how-to's of creating an affordable, easy-to-use organic kitchen, Grub brings organics home to urban dwellers. It gives the reader compelling arguments for buying organic food, revealing the pesticide industry's influence on government regulation and the extent of its pollution in our waterways and bodies.

With an inviting recipe section, Grub also offers the millions of people who buy organics fresh ideas and easy ways to cook with them. Grub's recipes, twenty-four meals oriented around the seasons, appeal to eighteen- to forty-year-olds who are looking for fun and simple meals. In addition, the book features resource lists (including music playlists to cook by), unusual and illuminating graphics, and every variety of do-it yourself tip sheets, charts, and checklists.

Genres: Food, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Health, Green, Sustainability

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 2006

About the author

Anna Lappé is a widely respected author and educator, known for her work as an expert on food systems and as a sustainable food advocate. The co-author or author of three books and the contributing author to ten others, Anna’s work has been widely translated internationally and featured in The New York Times,Gourmet,Oprah Magazine, among many other outlets. Named one of Time magazine’s “eco” Who’s-Who, Anna is a founding principal of the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund. She is currently the head of the Real Food Media Project, a new initiative to spread the story of the power of sustainable food using creative movies, an online action center, and grassroots events.

Source: Small Planet Institute.

Reviews

[Micah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book was mistitled. There is a lot of great information in here but it's more about how poorly our food industry works than "ideas for an uban organic kitchen." The authors give you good advice on how to gear your choices as a consumer toward a more sustainable way of eating, but don't offer enough advice on how to help change the industry. The food economy is not going to change until we can get Washington to stop subsidizing big business and start supporting small farms. It makes no sense for food to be a globalized market. It is ineffecient and costly. Support your local farmers! Eat food grown as close to you as possible!

[Phaedra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I can't eat all the time, I spend a lot of my free time reading about food. Blogs, cookbooks, Vegetarian Times, Gourmet.... Almost as satisfying is reading about mindful eating, and the politics of food. The danger with these sorts of books is that you are often the choir getting preached to, but sometimes that justification is all you need to keep you striving for right living. :)

I think Grub might be a book that will turn off those who are not already interested in food and social justice as interrelated issues, although all of the arguments in the first section are carefully cross-referenced, and the authors are casual enough to keep the layman's interest. And personally, I find that their effort to coin a term to describe their ideal eating style/habit/fare ("grub") feels contrived.

Nonetheless, the ideas are sound, and the information timely. I haven't made it to the recipes yet, but they are, for me, secondary.

One note: detractors on amazon.com have whined about the exotic ingredients called for in the book, but I assure you that if I can find most of them here in East Tennessee, disavowing knowledge of things like "seitan" is an excuse to dismiss the whole message of the book and nothing more.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't have a chance to dig into the articles on food/sustainability. Aimed at a young trendy audience (what they mean by "urban"?) with a suggested soundtrack to each menu. Tried out a few recipes, because they seemed unusual...but they mostly were in that interesting but wouldn't try it again way. Perhaps just my own failure to learn to love quinoa. Uses ingredients (like seitan and the aforementioned quinoa) that are harder to find recipes for - but on the other hand, that could reinforce the idea that if you are going to be vegetarian you have to eat all sorts of weird foods - rather than just learning to cook all the standard foods beyond meat that you already eat well. Just a thought, since the authors have a very definite agenda of influencing people's dietary choices. (That and despite the "eat local" twist all the recipes that I found interesting contained ingredients definitely not found in Washington - coconut milk, plantains, etc. But admittedly, those were the ones I decided to cook.)

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept, but after reading so much on the subject, its starting to feel like a broken record. Same statistics, case studies, examples...I think its time to become OC over something else.

This book tried REALLY hard to be cool. Playlists, poems and slang accompanied each set of recipes.

Then, in a final stab through the heart, the spine decided to crease on me even though I am very easy on my books and take good care of them. :sigh: looks like I wont be able to return it anymore.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book scares the crap out of me and almost every page has some sort of horrifying fact about the food that I eat -- and that I feed to my baby(!!!)-- that makes me a bit ill. But it's such a giant, all-encompassing issue that it is almost easier not to see it and to just carry on as normal because it is exhausting to focus on the possibly very real fact that every bite I take has been marketed to me as innocuous and safe by agro-business corporate evil-doers who conceal the dangers of their practices to save their bottom line and that these same people are supported wholeheartedly by our profit-happy government. Awareness is important but overwhelming. I did, however, investigate my local CSA and I will definitely sign up, but in the face of all of the horrors this book has to offer up, this drop in the bucket gesture feels almost meaningless.

So far the book is fascinating (though terrifying), much in the same vein as Fast Food Nation, though focusing on agriculture specifically. And the really cool thing about it is that it includes tons of really tasty looking recipes that I am excited about trying.

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So now I've finished the book and I feel that it was a huge build-up that got me completely excited about organic food and incensed about the state of agriculture in our country-- the hypocrisy! the greed!
And they built my enthusiasm up to an incredible peak with this passage:

"What if you knew that the investments that you made now-- in the form of the apple you buy, that farmer you support, that policy you advocate for-- would build strong community? What if you knew these choices would have ramifications a generation from now? Would you waver while your hand hovered over that organic apple? Would your feet hesitate on a Saturday morning as you set out to your local farmers' market? In the ballot booth, would your arm linger over the lever for a candidate who endorses agriculture policies that support small, family farms and organic production?
And what if you knew, could really feel in your bones, how our actions here in the U.S. have global ripples? What if you could really feel the impact of putting your dollars into the hands of local producers as opposed to contributing to the advertising budgets of mulitnational food companies that now spread from the foothills of the Himalayas to the islands of Indonesia? What if you could really sense that every time you brought fair-trade food you helped farmers somewhere in the world feed their own families? Or that every time you bought organic produce you were helping us to get off the pesticide treadmill and shift away from addiction to toxic chemicals?"

What if? Are you excited? Are you on board? I am! What if? How can I make this my reality?

Then this rather less-than-minor let-down:

"Instead of being disheartened by what we cannot know, we can be liberated by this unknowing."

Not to be incredibly vulgar-- but way to give my newly aroused activist spirit some serious blueballs. Liberated by unknowing.... yeah. Now I'm ready to run out and make a difference. Woo-hoo.

In conclusion, the book is really interesting and they have done a lot of research on all of the overwhelming systemic problems in American agro-business but the picture of this tremendous problem, that they paint so well, appears completely insurmountable, and in the end even they don't have any answers or real optimism to offer. Just keep the faith kiddos. Let that "unknowing" set you free.....

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the very start of the book the authors give their definition of “Grub”:
Grub is organic and sustainably raised whole and locally grown foods;
Grub is produced with fairness from seed to table;
Grub is good for our bodies, our communities, and our environment.
*Grub should be universal…and it’s delicious.

The book is divided into five parts. The first part focuses on the illusions of our currently upheld agribusiness system, which is leading us down a dead end: the illusion of safe and clean, the illusion of efficiency, the illusion of cheap, the illusion of fairness, and the illusion of progress. The authors dismantle the agribusiness industry and its deceptive power over society. The second part of the book looks at the solution: sustainable agriculture, organics and health. The third part shows you how to create a Grub kitchen and how to take the kitchen out of the home and into the community. The fourth part of the book takes a turn for fun, fellowship and food. The menus are divided into seasons and follow ethnic and cultural themes. Also, each collection of recipes has an accompanied soundtrack. The themes encourage young people to come together, enjoy healthy food, reconnect to each other and most importantly have fun. The last part of the book is probably the most important: resources; with 45 pages on where to find additional information, this part is indispensable.

To sum up the book, I should reveal the inscription Bryant wrote on the inside cover when I got him to sign a copy at a talk he gave as a keynote speaker at the South Carolina Library Association annual meeting. "May Grub inspire you to grow, cook & celebrate."

[Sara Jaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great intro for any city-dweller looking to make their eating habits more sustainable. It's definitely written with an eye towards folks in their twenties and thirties - the "young" and "hip" as the back cover describes, but it's definitely not overwhelmingly scene-y like some alternative cookbooks can be. The explanations of what's wrong with industrial agriculture are reader-friendly: brief but well-illustrated. However, if you want any kind of depth of understanding on these very very complicated issues, you'll have to go elsewhere; also, Lappe name-drops her parents a kind of obnoxious number of times. I must confess I haven't actually tried any of the recipes, partly because they are way fancier than what I would usually make (but then again, I tend to be almost religiously one-pot, and these are designed as seasonal party menus). I did wish the book had had a little more practical/concrete advice about transitioning to more earth-friendly eating habits - like tips for preserving foods, and cutting costs. Overall, however, I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for some fun recipes and the basics about why local and organic = yummy.

[Adrienna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reviewing the TOC (Table of Contents), I can see that this book takes the time to break down the history, and what thrilled me the most was the menus that is broken-down for all 4 seasons, which I will review and see for the current season in menus to try.

There was mainly information on the FDA, pesticides, and food trend, which was a bore for me and skimmed through these pages. Only pages of interest were the recipes which only found three of interest. I already have a recipe of black bean tacos (College Vegetarian) which I love already.

The only recipes of interest is the:
*Black Bean dip
*Coconut Quinoa
*Blackberry Slurrish Drink (maybe)

*I am thinking about making the transitions. I have tried in the past, but at the time, hard to give up chicken, turkey, and fish. But for health reasons, I will have to give it a shot and should be worth it in the long run.

Sadly I really didn't care for this read or research tool.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more useful as reading material than a cookbook - a great place to start if you want a (biased) view of how the food industry works and what we're actually putting in our bodies.

From my blog:
...full of information about the food industry, as well as recommendations (and meals) for things you can do to make your own habits more sustainable. This week we made mofongo with wild mushroom sauce, along with rosemary-chile mashed potatoes, using as many organic products as possible. It was good, but mainly made me long for the farmers' market, where we'll be able to get organic AND locally-grown things every week.

[Reyna Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this one b/c one of the coauthors, Anne Lappe is coming to speak at an event here in Austin next week. I have read several books touting the benefits of organic and sustainable eating/food practices and was ready for more of the same so to speak. The book has been a pleasant surprise. Anne digs into the dirty trail of lobbying and tax dollars that have resulted in governmental promotion and subsidizing genetic engineering and over the top pesticide use without due consideration of the very real health risks they pose (not to mention the damage we are doing to our environment).

[Mimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

by anna lappe, daugther to frances lappe (author of the revolutionary DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET ....annie)

it's alright. some good recipies. actually has some relevant information about food politics, provides interesting fodder for the slow food movement.
but it doesn't really excite me, a little pretentious. i don't know what it is. but i learned some wild stuff about organic food like.... nestle food corp makes more money than the GDP of nigeria and vietnam. yikes.
and in non-organic beef, lamb, chicken items, farmers often use sewer sludge in their feed!! yikes.

oh well. just more reasons why i am glad to be a vegeterian.

[carrietracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first half of this book very interesting. It manages to convey information about the health and safety of food production without seeming like crazy alarmist fearmongers. I wasn't particularly interested in the recipes, and had one major problem, which was that the authors frequently repeat that the soy producers function in a monopoly (which is BAD) and then go on use tofu and other soy products frequently in their recipes. If you want me to buy something you've just spent time telling me is made by an industry I shouldn't support, please also tell me where to find "good" soy products.

[Readersaurus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lent by a friend . . . Looking forward to reading it!

Some interesting tidbits:
You can lower your risk of pesticide exposure by as much as 90% just by choosing organic varieties of the 12 most contaminated fruits & vegetables, which are
apples
cherries
nectarines
grapes
bell peppers
spinach
peaches
pears
red raspberries
strawberries
celery
potatoes

Food and beverage marketing to kids in the USA eats up 10 - 12 billion dollars a year -- Enough to provide health insurance for every uninsured child in the country.

Our entire federal nutrition education budget = 1/5 of the advertising budget for Altoids. (And I love Altoids.)

[cat]

umm, i am a little underwhelmed...i heard about this book so long ago, before i really got into food politics, and i thought the concept of grub parties was so interesting, that i think, by buying this book so much later, i set it up for failure.

you can't fault the facts, but they aren't really knew or interesting to anyone who knows about food politics, and anne lappe's writing isn't great.

however, the recipes, soundtracks and poetry are pretty darn good...i never thought i would ever make vegan muffins i liked, but i totally did!!!!

so maybe it's not a terrible buy...

[Breeann Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The people who read this book will probably be the choir to the authors' preacher, but it is still very interesting.
The first half of the book (the part by Anna Lappe) is a manifesto of sorts for our need as city dwellers to make a point to eat local and organic. The second half by Bryant Terry is a slightly pretentious collection of menus according to season.
However, the things I've cooked out of here have been amazing. And I do like the quirky organization of the menus (e.g. Afrodiaspora).

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought Grub a couple of years ago after reading a Bryant Terry interview in the Oprah magazine.

He is a chef and food activist in Oakland, California.

So far:

I've used the spring salad with herbs recipe and the white wine and thyme brussels sprouts recipe.

I also bought the Bryant Terry book Inspired Vegan and I recommend it as well.

I cook mostly seafood and vegetables and whole wheat pasta and occasionally chicken and whole grains.

Thus:
I recommend Grub and Inspired Vegan.

Tasty and delicious food:

What's not to like?

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good balance between food politics and amazing recipes. The first half of the book outlines the organic food movement from about the 60s. The second half has menus according to season with an accompanying soundtrack for the meal. i.e. the summer menu has a soul food selection with songs from various afro-punk/soul artists. It's a refreshing change from the usual food network set, offering some diverse options and unexpected tastes. Check it out!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a little scattered but I liked a lot that Anna is from NYC and, thus, 'urban organic' not only can be done but done HERE where I live. I thought her ideas on how to shop local (and why to shop local) were thought-provoking and convincing. I wasn't crazy about the recipes, etc. (I'm a meat eater and they're all veg.) but only the whole it was a fun, informative, okay book that was a fast read. Perfect for me.

[Danie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this book is well laid out and has a lot of important information. She is very much trying to get us to be mindful about eating real food as opposed to the food products that agribusiness presents to us in pretty packaging.

However, the recipes fell very short. (Most recipes included ingredients that are difficult to source locally or fair trade, so you'd end up having to buy from agribusiness.)

[Noël · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was extremely informative on just what it is that we are putting into our bodies. At times I definitely wanted to skip chapters and read about something other than what the "man" was doing to keep us down, haha, but I think this book is good for anyone who wants to gain knowledge on choosing healthier foods. Armed with lots of websites and reference books, I feel more comfortable making my shopping and eating decisions.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally! A book geared towards the organic urbanite! I'm sick of reading so many great books that encourage you to plant a massive garden in your backyard, compost, etc. I don't have that space. There's a lot of good info in the first part (much of which I already knew) and you can tell the authors are QUITE passionate abt their issues. The second major section are the recipes; to be honest, there were none I was DYING to try, but looked interesting.

[Jessi Vowels · Rating 4 out of 5]

i've read these arguments before, but the writing was persuasive enough to make me feel inspired to step up my efforts to eat local and sustainable foods. the recipes gave me a few new things to try. i especially liked the inclusion of diaspora cuisines of the americas, which are often over-looked despite the fact that, being regional north and south) american food, their ingredients are often perfectly suited to a locavore diet.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not quite cool enough for this book, but still enjoyed reading it and got pretty excited to cook out of it. My sister still talks about the seitan stew we made out of it one day, and I'll never be able to eat quinoa again without adding coconut milk. I think some of my friends might be cool enough for this book, so hopefully they'll come over and we can cook food and talk about, er, traveling to developing countries and regatón, man.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed this book as preparation for the 2011 Cuesta Book of the Year program. The authors are not at all neutral in their point of view in promoting local/organic food over anything else. Section 2 was the most interesting for me with charts on who owns what organic product/line and definitions of organic labeling.

Provides menus and recipes which were interesting but seemed like a lot of work.

A good sourcebook.

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good look at what is wrong with the food in America and some fairly simple ways to help change it in our own spheres. Helpful tools and resources throughout and a list of menus, recipes, and even food-related poetry in the back for what the authors call "grub parties." An intimate food gathering with friends linking food with community and good relationships, with people, the earth, and the better appreciated middle men in sustainable and well-intentioned agriculture practices.

[Shino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really gets you thinking about the food that we eat, the food industry, and the people that are supposed to be protecting us. A lot of what this book talks about has been out there for a while now but it is put in a way that is easy to understand and read. Scary stuff but important to understand.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag: I liked all the information at the beginning of the book (which really helped tip me more toward local foods), and I loved the idea of Grub feasts. The recipes, though, left me mostly lukewarm, maybe because there were so many non-local ingredients used so regularly. Definitely a hip take on eating well and eating consciously, but not, perhaps, the best book around.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up. I never got past Anna Lappe's introductory rant against big food business. While her points were valid, they weren't supported very well, and I didn't like her casual style of writing, nor her insistence of credibility because her parents were great people. Too bad... I was excited to check out the recipes, but I couldn't bring myself to get that far.

[Pam]

This is the book that really started my odyssey into organic food and cooking. I discovered it through a PBS show on farm to table cooking. I think it was called Harvest. LOVED IT. If you love flavor and feel passionately about stewardship or want to learn more about keeping an accessible urban kitch. Try this!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half contained possibly the best case for organic food I've ever encountered. The author's meticulously researched (with over 20 pages of reference notes in the back) and reasonable argument is conversational in tone and not preachy at all. The weakness of this book is in the recipe section. Nothing personal, but very few of the selections appealed to me.