Would you like to learn more about some topics related to sustainable food?
You don’t even know where to start changing your daily menu?
Below you have 9 books for adults and 4 for children that will help you change your eating habits and those of your little ones.
On the occasion of World Book Day, 23 April, we would like to share a few books on sustainable food. To sustainably celebrate Sant Jordi and Santa Jordina, how about giving a book that contributes to changing the food system? It is a good idea, isn’t it?
BOOKS FOR YOUNGSTERS AND ADULTS
1. Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet
Tom Hunt, Kyle Books, 2020.
What is a sustainable diet?
Tom Hunt attempts to answer this question recurring to vegan cuisine and recipes aiming at fighting food waste.
Hunt’s manifest goes by the title “Root to Fruit” and was one of his inspirations for writing this book. The work shows how we can maintain a bio-diverse and regenerator food system and provides abilities and knowledge for buying, eating, and cooking sustainably. In addition, his dishes are always healthy and finger-licking good.
His recipes are simple, nutritious and use affordable ingredients. The central idea in the book is that if we change how we eat on an individual scale, we also take care of the planet.
> Now available at the exhibition shop!
2. Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives
Carolyn Steel, Vintage Books, 2013.
Feeding big cities has a much higher impact on the planet than many other human activities. Despite this, only a part of the public is aware of the process.
In a city like London, some thirty million meals a day must be produced, imported, sold, cooked, eaten and disposed of. And something similar happens in all the cities of the world.
Hungry City is a book dealing with the way cities eat, an unusual, revolutionary study that examines how current food production has damaged the balance of human existence.
It is a wake-up call about the waste and destruction caused by current food systems and a guide to righting the wrongs.
3. Come comida real [Eat Real Food]
Carlos Ríos, Editorial Paidós Ibérica, 2019.
The danger of advertising and marketing in food, “how ultra-processed products kill us”, protective, neutral and supplementary “real food”, or what “ultra-available” products are.
All this and more you can find in the book by Carlos Ríos, a dietitian-nutritionist considered the creator of the Real-fooding movement.
> Available at the exhibition shop!
4. Comer insectos [Eating Insects]
Isaac Petràs, Editorial Planeta, 2019.
Why not dress lettuce with a pinch of worms? What about adding grasshoppers to pumpkin cream? Or scorpions to paella?
According to the author, the craze about edible insects, which feed millions of people worldwide every day, is here to stay, proving that gastronomic barriers are often culturally driven.
Isaac Petràs, one of Spain’s leading experts on edible insects, recounts his travels around the world in search of the perfect grasshopper, delicious ants and, in short, edible insects of all kinds.
This is also a cookbook for including insects in our traditional dishes.
> You can learn more about edible insects in the blog post Es el consumo de insectos una alternativa a la carne roja? [Is eating insects an alternative to red meat?]
5. Cuina! O barbàrie [Cook! Or be a savage!]
Maria Nicolau, Ara Llibres, 2022.
“We are so lazy to cook dinner that, with enough sugar, we would eat a dog’s poo, find it good and defend it from anyone. Don’t be barbarians, cook!” This strong is how Maria Nicolau begins the synopsis of her book.
To cook is to improvise, risk decide, and dare to be free.
Against the extinction of this daring, against the “I-have-no-time” syndrome and the barbarism of a society that eats but does not cook, this book urges us to recover the meaning of the most primordial act of life: feeding ourselves.
> Available at the Menja, Actua, Impacta exhibition shop!!
6. El porc del demà [The Pork of Tomorrow]
Various authors, Pol·len edicions, 2020.
In the “Pork of Tomorrow” contest, we have invited citizens to play the game of hypothetical situations. The farms of the future; how would they be? Will the people swear to tell the truth about black pudding in the trials? How many seats would a party of piglets get?
The idea is to design a competition to bring to the surface, in a dystopian vein, the intensive side of the meat industry.
7. La cocina situada [Situated Kitchen]
Maria Monsonís, Editorial Gustavo Gili, 2021.
Maria Monsonís offers resources and tools for achieving a more honest and coherent, healthier and planet-friendly diet.
In this illustrated dictionary you will find a diversity of concepts ranging from cooking utensils, pants and fish to trash cooking recipes, popular knowledge, poems and culinary traditions. All this creates the perfect backdrop for addressing the food system’s complexities, debates, and contradictions.
The book features contributions from biologists, agro-ecologists, journalists, pastoralists, activists and other people interested.
> Take a look at the solutions market of the Menja, Actua, Impacta exhibition.
8. La cuina sostenible [Sustainable Cuisine]
Ada Parellada, Columna edicions, 2019.
The value of effort, ethical and social value, and the value of illusion are the principles that Parellada uses to talk about the food we eat.
It also offers the possibility of reorganising the cooking, making it more efficient and agile.
Moreover, Parellada talks about “living off rental income, culinarily”: she teaches us that the time invested in cooking today can serve you for the rest of the week.
> Available at the Menja, Actua, Impacta exhibition shop!!
9. Tu dieta puede salvar el planeta [Your Diet can Save the Planet]
Aitor Sánchez, Editorial Paidós Ibérica, 2021
In the words of the author himself, this book reflects on how we have reached the current situation of high environmental impact and analyses the factors in the food system that have led us there.
The carbon footprint generated by the thousands of kilometres our food travels, the cost of its production, animal exploitation models, the social cost of unhealthy food and the impacts of the plastic in packaging are some of the issues the author addresses.
Moreover, he offers alternatives to promote a change towards responsible consumption.
> Available at the Menja, Actua, Impacta exhibition shop!!
We also share the talk “Your diet can save the planet” that Aitor Sánchez, the author, gave at Fundesplai’s auditorium.
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
10. Les receptes més extraràtiques [Geronimo Stilton’s Healthy Recipes]
Elisabetta Dami, Editorial Estrella Polar, 2017
Put on your apron and get ready to become a real chef with Geronimo Stilton!
The Major of New Mouse City has charged Geronimo Stilton to write a cookbook with his favourite dishes!
With the help of a wonderful team, he will teach you how to prepare great recipes for pasta and pizza; pulses and vegetables; meat, fish and eggs; a few special cheese recipes and lots of tempting finger-licking desserts!
It includes 34 simple, nutritious and healthy recipes. All can be prepared with everyday products and in a relatively short time.
11. Manduka fina [Fine Grub]
Paula Alós, Editorial Estrella Polar, 2020
Would you dare to do a spaghetti triathlon? Or some good, souped-up pulses? Perhaps you’d rather have a handful of sea meatballs? With these recipes, the “food tricks”, and much more, you will be able to cook first-class dishes and surprise everyone! Fine ggggggrub!
The author is Paula Alós, winner of the fourth edition of the famous ‘Masterchef Junior’ competition and current presenter of Manduka [Grub], a programme about cooking and gastronomy on the Super 3 TV channel.
> Available at the Menja, Actua, Impacta exhibition shop!!
12. Nyam, nyam
Mar Benegas, Combel Editorial, 2015
La cirera is a collection of books for singing, telling stories, watching and playing with the little ones. Each book is special, and all are sweet and playful like cherries, designed for those who have not yet learned to read.
Food is the theme of this title that can be listened to with music, at the end of the story.
13. Superxefs a la cuina [Superchefs in the Kitchen]
Ada Parellada, Now books. Batsicafo, 2016
The renowned chef Ada Parellada, from the Semproniana restaurant in Barcelona, has written several books, including a collection for children with recipes made with seasonal products.
For example, one of these books gathers 50 summer dishes. Ada tells us what you can find inside the book:
“It’s so hot! We’ve come home from a run in the street, and there’s nothing better than a delicious fruit juice to quench our thirst. It’s time to take the juicer and blender out of the cupboard!
And to prepare fresh salads, refreshing soups, and fruit salads. And all kinds of dishes so that the heat doesn’t get the better of us. Summer recipes are some of the easiest and most fun of the year, and besides, in no other season will we have so much time to dedicate to the kitchen!”
> Find more books for cooking with children in the article: “25 llibres de receptes per cuinar amb nens i nenes”.
> You can also find more children’s reads related to healthy and sustainable cooking and eating in our guide “100 contes sobre alimentació sostenible i saludable”.
> Most of the books mentioned in this article are available at the exhibition shop. If one of them has particularly caught your attention, don’t hesitate to come and get it to learn from the most experienced experts in sustainable food!!
> We also invite you to visit the exhibition and learn about the key points of healthy and sustainable eating. Remember: if you take care of yourself, you take care of the planet!
