Sustainable Book Buzz

Two recent titles are tops on our reading list for '08. The first is Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto." According to the review on Amazon.com: "Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." These 'edible foodlike substances' are often packaged with labels bearing health claims that are typically false or misleading. Indeed, real food is fast disappearing from the marketplace, to be replaced by "nutrients," and plain old eating by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Michael Pollan's sensible and decidedly counterintuitive advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food."

While some of the reviews comment that the book is too short, for the most part the reviews have been favorable, stating that the book is insightful, extremely well written, and highly relevant. We'll get back to you with our official reviews, but in the meantime it looks like a promising read, and particularly important in the days of highly processed foods, food substitutes, and Madison Avenue marketing.

The second book is Gary Hirshberg's just published "Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World," which is being talked about us a must read for any CEO interested in the profitability/sustainability recipe for success. We are big fans of Hirshberg and have blogged about Stonyfield before. Stoneyfield is the market leader in organic yogurt, and his $300 million a year company was built with almost no advertising. Apparently, Hirsberg was inspired by a 1982 visit to the Kraft Pavilion at Epcot, and decided he wanted to have that kind of scope and reach for his audience. Now, ironically, Stonyfield has exceeded Kraft in volume, but also ironically, Kraft is introducing a new line of organics. I'm glad this isn't the traditional "here's how I became a successful green entrepreneur" approach, but has fresh insights about forcing businesses to behave better. Put that in your yogurt and eat it!