Resetting our Future: Feeding Each Other

All things move towards their end, so “sustainability” is ultimately an impossibility. It’s a relief to read a rare book that stays with the trouble of collapse, of wisely navigating abrupt, fundamental change, and of building radically new sequels to our food systems. This is a guidebook for a new paradigm.–Shaun Chamberlain, activist, educator, and co-author of Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market EconomyAuerbach and Civita have done something quite special. Feeding Each Other begins with a deeply probing explanation of a highly complex and technical subject - the origins and untold impact of the food system on which all of us depend for sustenance. They then offer detailed, practical descriptions of the steps required for transformation to something sustainable and rewarding individually and globally. Anyone interested in a better future must read it; I guarantee you will be inspired.–Alan S. Miller, co-author of Cut Super Climate Pollutants Now!Auerbach and Civita reveal a food system rigged to fail our bodies, our communities and our planet. Driven by extractive profit and dismissive of love, life and human connectivity, this system can’t last. It won’t last, they help us grasp, unless and until we ground our food in a deeper understanding of power, rights and relationships. Reading this great little book will reconnect you to food and communities of the future in ways you didn’t expect and help you understand and ultimately confront the toxic forces of unregulated agricapitalism.–Paul O’Brien, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA Author of Power Switch: How We Can Reverse Extreme InequalityMichelle and Nicole write authoritatively and passionately about our need to become more in tune with nature to transform not just our food systems but our lives. Food “predates money, markets, and media,” they write, as they urge us to create more intimate connections with nature to find wholeness and joy within ourselves and our world. As a naturalist, and a lover of plant-based locally grown food, their message resonates deeply with me.–Melanie Choukas-Bradley, author of Resilience: Connecting with Nature in a Time of Crisis and Finding Solace at Theodore Roosevelt IslandThe global food system is sick, and almost everyone knows it. But this bold, big-hearted book doesn’t stop at diagnosing the problem–though it does that incisively and with style. Ultimately, Feeding Each Other offers something all too rare: It shows how we might heal. Auerbach and Civita’s message hits with the force of a manifesto and the restorative power of an embrace. If a just, more joyous future is possible, it begins with the ideas in this book.–Joe Fassler, food and environmental journalist and author of Light the Dark

Michelle Auerbach MFA, Ph.D. is an activist, writer, educator, and consultant who uses trauma-informed narrative theory to support individuals, organizations, and communities in shaping change.