Avocado Anxiety: And Other Stories about Where Your Food Comes From

by Louise Gray

Overview

The food stories behind your favourite fruits and vegetables.

Have you ever wondered who picked your Fairtrade banana? Or where all the wonky carrots go? How far do you think your green beans travelled to get to your plate? Above all, how do we stop worrying about our food choices and start making decisions that make a difference?

In an effort to make sense of the complex food system we are all part of, Louise Gray decides to track the stories of our five-a-day, from farm to fruit bowl, and discover the impact that growing fruits and vegetables has on the planet. Through visits to farms, interviews with scientists and trying to grow her own, she digs up the dirt behind organic potatoes, greenhouse tomatoes and a glut of courgettes.

In each chapter, Louise answers a question about a familiar item in our shopping basket. Is plant protein as good as meat? Is foraged food more nutritious? Could bees be the answer to using fewer chemicals? Are digital apps the key to reducing food waste? Is gardening good for mental health? And is the symbol of clean eating, the avocado, fuelling the climate crisis?

As pressure grows via social media to post pictures of food that ticks all the boxes in terms of health and the environment, these food stories from the author of the award-winning The Ethical Carnivore are also a personal story of motherhood and the realisation that nothing is ever perfect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472969620
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	04/30/2024
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Louise Gray is an environmentalist and freelance writer based in Scotland. Louise specialises in writing about food, farming and climate change, and her articles have featured in numerous publications, including The Sunday Times, the Guardian and The Spectator.


Her first book, The Ethical Carnivore, won best Food Book and Best Investigative Work at the Guild of Food Writers Awards and was shortlisted for the Fortnum and Mason Food Book of the Year. She has also worked as Environment Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, where she covered the UN climate change talks, GM foods and the badger cull.

@loubgray / louisebgray.com

Table of Contents

Prologue - Roots
Chapter 1 - Old Beans
Why plant protein will save the planet
Chapter 2 - Bananageddon
Why you should eat Fairtrade bananas
Chapter 3 - The Valuable Esculent
Why we should look after the soil
Chapter 4 - Miciri
Why food miles are not that bad
Chapter 5 - Humblebees
Why bees are important on farms
Chapter 6 - Nightingale Farm
Why birds are important on farms
Chapter 7 - The Taste of Summer
Why seasons are not that important
Chapter 8 - The Space Zucchini
Why gardening is good for mental health
Chapter 9 - Magic Berries
Why foraging is magic
Chapter 10 - The Orchard
Why diversity matters
Chapter 11 - Perfectly Imperfect
Why we have to cut food waste
Chapter 12 - Avocado Anxiety
Why simply being anxious won't solve the problem
Epilogue - Roots

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating book full of surprising facts that will force you to reconsider everything you thought you knew about fruit and vegetables.” —Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment

“Packed with insight, impeccably researched, and skilfully narrated, this is a book attuned to the contradictions and possibilities of the contemporary diet, ripe with appreciation for the visceral importance of plants.” —Rob Percival, Head of the Soil Association and author of The Meat Paradox

From the Publisher

2022-12-23
An exploration of the backgrounds of our favorite fruits and vegetables and examination of ways to minimize the carbon impact of what we eat.

Gray is a journalist based in Scotland who specializes in food and environmental issues, and she is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Her acclaimed 2016 book, The Ethical Carnivore, recounted her year of eating meat and fish that she had killed herself. In her latest, she writes about her journey across Britain visiting farms and suppliers to track down the origins of the produce in her local supermarket—and to assess the environmental effects. “The fact is that eating most things nowadays makes us anxious,” she notes. “Never before have we had so much food to eat, watched so many cookery programs or read so many cookery books. Yet, for many people, food is not a source of joy but a source of worry.” Thankfully, the author finds plenty of positive stories, including farmers who are changing their growing practices for soil restoration, the resurgence in foraging for wild foods, and experimentation with new varieties. Gray also engagingly investigates the history of potatoes, bananas, tomatoes and, of course, avocados. She acknowledges the difficulty in working out the environmental footprint of foods, especially the carbon costs of transport, and she is wary of the emphasis that some environmental activists put on buying only locally grown food, which can hurt struggling producers in developing countries. It all makes for a complex equation requiring tolerance and trade-offs. Gray advises that readers stay informed, make the best decisions you can, keep an open mind, and don’t attack other people for their choices. She concludes each chapter with an illustrative, unusual recipe; the honey roast tomatoes on toast sounds particularly tasty.

With comprehensive research and intelligent, fair-minded writing, this is an informative, optimistic read.

Kirkus Reviews