The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements

by Sandor Ellix Katz

Book Overview

From James Beard Award winner and New York Times-bestselling author of The Art of Fermentation

An instant classic for a new generation of monkey-wrenching food activists.

Food in America is cheap and abundant, yet the vast majority of it is diminished in terms of flavor and nutrition, anonymous and mysterious after being shipped thousands of miles and passing through inscrutable supply chains, and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933392118
• ISBN13: 9781933392110
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Charming & Inspiring

Katz has a charming style of writing - frank, yet humble and highly readable. His book "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved" is a well-documented compilation of the issues we face with regard to our food, and an account of those individuals and groups who are making positive steps toward curbing an erosion of culture and nutrition. If you only read one book about food and activism, this should be the one - I wish I could afford to give a copy to everyone I know. Along with "Wild Fermentation" Katz's books are both inspiring non-manifestos, and practical guides to revolutionary living. Katz has quickly become one of my favorite authors and persons.

the best book about food I've read in 20 years, even though I don't agree with all of it

"What is for supper?" is a short question with a long history of many answers. "Why is it for supper?" is more recently and less frequently asked. One long answer is The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, a fresh evaluation of how the other half of America eats, that is, the other half of one-percent. Sandor Ellix Katz, author also of Wild Fermentations, examines our food choices, challenging us as would a moral philosopher, and inspiring us as might a romantic poet. But unlike poetry and philosophy, his texts are thoroughly researched and extensively footnoted. Scholarly without being stuffy, he ponders the social, political, ethical and environmental consequences of the foods we choose to eat, of the foods we choose not to eat, and of even our very acts of choosing. Food for thought about food. Each chapter offers a wholesome essay that can be read independently of the others. Though inexpensive for a book of nearly 400 pages, its binding is especially durable. If separated physically from the whole, the leaves of each chapter stay bound together. This reviewer speaks from experience, having extracted entire chapters in this manner to distribute among friends. Such portability is an appealing feature precisely because the topics are so diverse that few readers could possibly find the entire book relevant to their lives. Chapters such as these: Seed saving as political statement. Seeking and drinking raw cow's milk as acts of civil disobedience. The corporate takeover of natural foods, and the USDA makeover of organic foods. Whole food as healer, and processed food as killer. Medicinal herbs, including marijuana, as not just alternatives to pharmaceuticals, but their very basis. Pure and free water as birthright, now imperiled by pollution and privatization. Gardening as a means of reclaiming Eden. Vegetarianism as an act of compassion in contrast to carnivorous cruelty. Vegetarians will be especially sensitive to and maybe even appreciative of the author's discussion of vegetarianism. Katz, a lapsed vegetarian, weighs the significance of life as a vegetarian among omnivores. The reasons for his own vegetarian apostasy are especially edifying. The chapter "Vegetarian Ethics and Humane Meat" begins almost with a confession: "I love meat. The smell of it cooking can fill me with desire.... At the same time, everything I see, hear, or read about standard commercial factory farming and slaughtering fills me with disgust." Whether filled with desire or with disgust, the author writes with humility and clarity. And charity. He continues: "I hold great respect for the ideals that people seek to put into practice through vegetarianism." Katz acknowledges that vegetarians will brand "humane meat" a contradiction of adjective with noun, yet he nobly and duly presents the gist of vegetarian ethics and effectively distills into a few pages what we'd expect from an entire book. This emerging moral vocabulary is one whose etymologies can be attributed

textbook for the revolution

in a time when spinach could be deadly, and cloned animals might be ground into that next Big Sandwich, there is an underground revolution happening, and it's happening all over the world. folks are making possibly-unnoticed-but-radical choices about food. they choose not to let corporations and government dictate what and how they must eat, because when food choices are taken out of the hands of the people, the people lose. in this textbook for the revolution, Sandor Ellix Katz examines the intricately interwoven web that is our food supply. from water and land rights to bake sales, "free trade," and free food, he shows the damage done when big government (big brother) and big business make our food choices for us. the book uncovers a whole lot of the story that they would prefer we not know, and shows how tied together it all is ~ history, ecology, economy, ethics, civil rights, big vs. small, corporate vs. community, seed laws and plant prohibitions, down to even the most basic right of putting in your mouth something you feel like eating, and maybe sharing it with a friend. the picture seems mighty bleak. but that's where the revolution comes in; people everywhere continue to join around the table ~ the very basis of culture itself ~ not to let the powers-that-be separate them from their food supply. for survival, for nutrition, for connection, for charity, for protest ~ for pleasure (!), folks are keeping food traditions alive, or exploring them for the first time. they're holding onto age-old agricultural practices (like seed saving), and creating new solutions to food waste (like dumpster diving and road-kill salvage!). but Katz doesn't stop there; each section (as well as including extensive resources for further study and connection) extends a personable and encouraging, do-it-yourself helping hand to guide the reader to take steps to becoming a revolutionary herself. because choosing to be aware about food at all has become an act of rebellion. The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved is concentrated, intelligent research as well as compelling, passionate storytelling. it is manifesto, cultural catalyst and cookbook, promising a place for each of us at the revolutionary table. a fan of Katz as soon as i opened Wild Fermentation, i highly recommend this book. if you are interested in food politics at all, or even just love to eat good food, this is a must-read textbook and reference tool for our time.

This guy is a treasure!

This book is magnificent. I love Katz's depth of knowledge, his openness in talking about his own experiences, his exuberance and enthusiasm, and his well-informed outrage at the actions of corporations and governments in disrupting the very basis of our lives. He tells us how they now want to interrupt and insert themselves into the final life cycle domains that they had been excluded from - procreation and food growing. It's appalling and so opposite to what life and sustainability are all about. It's hard to imagine the leaders of these corporations being so short sighted and ultimately so destructive of their own well-being. And I love the recipes in both his books - the joy he infuses into the process, his ability to impart a deeper understanding of it all, and especially how he makes room for casualness and playfulness in working with food. We are fortunate in having Sandor sharing his wisdom with us.

Inspiring Reading

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved follows on the heels of Sandy's Wild Fermentation. True to form, Katz writes in a flowing conversational tone that allows the reader to engage with the text in a comforterable way. The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved follows stories from underground food activists world wide, including farmers and food producers. Did you know that it is illegal to sell raw milk across state lines, and in some states it is illegal to sell it at all? Sandy carefully examines the cultural and political ramifications of such regulations. The tone of the book is solution based; rather than simply ranting about everything that is wrong with our food system, he presents examples of what you can do to create change in the system, or ways to go around the system. As a professional chef, I found this book inspiring to read, and feel that it will motivate me to be a more conscious consumer of food and other products. I highly recommend it to any foodie, activist, or citizen of the U.S.