"FOOD REBEL" AND AUTHOR MARK WINNE TACKLES INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE'S TOLL ON BODIES, COMMUNITIES AND ENVIRONMENT

When author and food activist Mark Winne wrote "Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty" in 2008, he struck a chord with tens of thousands of readers all over the globe as he argued that food - its quality, distribution and availability - was directly tied to social justice.

In his new book, "Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners and Smart-Cooking Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture" (Beacon Press, US $24.95) Winne asks readers to take a stand and play a direct role in food democracy by becoming informed and empowered eaters, buyers and food producers. 

With the advent of industrialism and its widespread application to our food supply – including factory farms, genetic engineering, and agricultural chemicals – the struggle between human freedom and authority has reached a critical juncture. In spite of the rapid growth of an alternative food system – local and sustainable food production, farmers’ markets, the public’s rising food consciousness – we become more dependent everyday on industrial agriculture whose representatives insist that it is the only way to feed a hungry world.

"Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas" takes on the universal struggle between human freedom and authority in its relationship to food. While drawing from great thinkers like Emerson and Dostoevsky to frame his arguments, Winne moves quickly from philosophy to action with numerous stories about individual "doers.” From urban gardening heroes in Cleveland and feisty farmers in New England to lower income mothers in Texas, Winne shows how people are reclaiming their connection to their food, health, land, and government.

An insightful, provocative read, "Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin’ Mamas" challenges us to go beyond eating local food to become part of a larger solution that demands a system that sustains not just our bodies but our communities and our souls.

# # # # #

Review copies of "Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners and Smart-Cooking Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture" are available to media as are JPG images of the author and the jacket cover.  Interviews with Mark Winne can be scheduled through Betsy Model, The Zephyr Group, at bmodel@groupzephyr.com or at (505) 466-2770.