Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System

Nancy Matsumoto

Book cover for Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System
Image for variant 9781685892036
Book cover for Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System
Image for variant 9781685892036

Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System

Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System

Nancy Matsumoto

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Description

A James Beard Award winner celebrates the women heroes who are fighting against the Big Food system--and asks the question: How should we eat?

When the Covid-19 pandemic ripped through global food supply chains, it threatened the livelihoods of farmers, created shortages in supermarkets, and revealed a startling truth to consumers: the food system is broken, and large corporations did the breaking. An idea began to take hold-what if we could return to a time when our needs were met by the farmers in our own communities, rather than a commodity, Big Food system that favors profit above all else?

With in-depth, on-the-ground reporting, Nancy Matsumoto introduces readers to the women changemakers who are building local and regional supply chains, from the maverick farmers, millers, and bakers bringing back local grain economies; the brewers, distillers, and winemakers who are regenerating land and ecosystems; indigenous and diasporic seed savers, and many more changemakers.

Reaping What She Sows offers a blueprint for what eating enjoyably, sustainably, and ethically looks like today. Essential for those who are concerned about climate change, their own health, and the lack of choice and transparency in the global food supply chain.

About the Author

Nancy Matsumoto is a Toronto- and New York City-based writer and editor who covers food, agriculture, and the environment. With Michael Tremblay, she is the author of the book Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake: Rice, Water, Earth, which won a James Beard Media Award. Her articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Saveur, Food & Wine, and Civil Eats.

Critical Reviews

2025 Porchlight Business Book Awards Longlist: Current Events & Public Affairs

"Matsumoto's authoritative, eye-opening writing provides readers with important, actionable information for everyone who eats." --Booklist

"Matsumoto situates her work within an intersectional framework, and shares with eaters and food activists everywhere valuable lessons from the women at the forefront of agriculture system change. There's no better time than now for this book... and there is no better person to write about this topic." --Dan Barber, chef and author, The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food

"Women play enormously important roles in food systems and in the food movement, but are often overlooked. Matsumoto brings women out of the shadows and highlights the efforts of a wide diversity of women to create food systems healthier for people and the planet." --Marion Nestle, nutritionist and author, What to Eat

"Behind words like 'organic' and 'regenerative' is a vast network of women who are reimagining agriculture through a rugged mix of ingenuity and sweat equity. Nancy Matsumoto introduces us to these fascinating leaders and the urgent movement they are building for a more just and sustainable food system." --Liz Carlisle, author of Healing Grounds

Publishing Information

Publisher: Melville House Publishing
Pub date: 2025-10-28
Length: 336 pages

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