Eat Less Water

(Paperback)

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Description

Experts predict two-thirds of people living on this planet in 2030 will experience water scarcity, a situation expected to result in the deaths of millions and an unprecedented rise in military conflicts. Can we as individuals hope to have any effect on the global scale of water misuse

Yes, we can make a significant difference--with our food choices--learned author and activist Florencia Ramirez as she traveled across the nation to interview farmers and food producers. Tracing Ramirez's tour of American water sustainable farms--from rice paddies in Cajun Louisiana to a Hawaiian coffee farm to a Boston chocolate factory and beyond--Eat Less Water tells the story of water served on our plates: an eye-opening account of the under-appreciated environmental threat of water scarcity, a useful cookbook with water-sustainable recipes accompanying each chapter, and a fascinating personal narrative that will teach the reader how they, too, can eat less water.

Reviews

"Exceptional, unique, impressively informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking, Eat Less Water is an extraordinary and life-changing read that is very highly recommended, especially for community and academic library Contemporary Environmental Issues collections, as well as the personal reading lists of anyone concerned with the conservation of water in a changing global climate.Julie Summers, Midwest Book Review

Eat Less Water is as clever as its title. Its a thoughtful book complete with recipes that are as good for your taste buds as they are for the planet. Read it and learn. Read it and eat. Read it as a reminder that our worlds most precious resource is in jeopardyand yet we can do something about it. Read it to find out how.Thomas M. Kostigen, New York Times bestselling author of The Green Book

Eat Less Water is an informative, loving tribute to the source from which all life springs. Through explorations of foods ranging from pasta to wine, Florencia Ramirez reveals how cultivation and consumption impact global water usage, sharing insights on how we, the eaters, can support a less-resource intensive practices in food and agriculture that is not only sustainable but delicious.Simran Sethi, author of Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love

"A fascinating cornucopia of methods to reduce water use through organic propagation and preparation.

In exploring efforts toward reducing global consumption of the Earths most precious commodity, writer, blogger, and public policy researcher Ramirez has developed a bountiful, delectable road map of farming innovation and conservationist food preparation. The Earth is two-thirds water, mostly saline, and by 2030, its estimated that half the world will experience freshwater scarcity. Preservation is a key conservation concern, writes the author, who regularly attends Earth Day events and promotes water-saving items like shower timers. After focusing on water-waste prevention in bathrooms, Ramirez, recognizing that seven out of every ten gallons of water is used for food production, redirected her efforts to the kitchen, where much more could be saved. In a text bolstered by documentation and suffused with a true creative passion for resource preservation, the author presents a series of chapters on the interaction and integration of water with a variety of foods, liquids, production processes, and on-the-edge farming. Ramirez fully immerses herself in her subject with eye-opening field trips to resourceful water-sustainable croplands across America. Among them, a California dry biodynamic wheat farm thriving through the advent of cover cropping, a trailblazing rice farm, an aquaponic ranch in the Texas Plain, a green egg farming operation, and a Hawaiian organic shade-grown coffee plantation. Concerned conservationists, environmental and agricultural activists, and everyday farmers and consumers alike will be enticed by Ramirezs passionately delivered and convincing combination of charming narrative, strategic resource preservation techniques, and pages of recipes ideas from crustless cheesecake to spinach quiche and chicken tortilla soup. Be part of a change that will make a difference in creeks, rivers, groundwater, and oceans across the planet, she encourages. Start tonight at your kitchen table.

Impeccable writing and practical, relevant, planet-friendly alternatives to reducing water consumption in cooking and agricultural production." --Starred Kirkus Review

Author Bio

Florencia Ramirez is a trained researcher at the University of Chicago's School of Public Policy. She won the sixth Gift of Freedom Creative Nonfiction Award from the A Room of Her Own Foundation (AROHO). Her articles appear in Edible Communities Magazine, the San Jose Mercury News, among others, and her popular blog. She lives in Oxnard, California, an agricultural town on the Pacific coast that smells of celery, strawberries and fertilizers with her husband and three young children. www.florenciaramirez.com