Mixed bag, I really enjoyed some essays that were empathetic, informative, and interesting. But some others were either a drag or not interesting / trying too much to be clever.

This is a beautifully curated collection of essays covering every possible view point of what can be considered ethical eating. I pride myself on doing my best to consume in an ethical manner, but this collection was a reminder that every person's idea of ethical is different, and all of them are correct.

I love cookbooks and this version made you conscious of what you are putting into your body and how to make it more sustainable.

"Good Eats," edited by Melissa A. Goldthwaite and Jennifer Cognard-Black, is a delightful anthology that serves up a diverse array of literary treats. With contributions from various writers, this collection explores the intricate relationship between food and culture, offering readers a rich tapestry of stories, essays, and poems. The editors skillfully curate pieces that celebrate the universal experience of food while delving into the unique narratives that surround it. "Good Eats" is a flavorful journey through the culinary landscape, leaving readers satisfied and inspired by the power of storytelling and gastronomy.

Good Eats brings multifaceted discussions and decisions regarding how we grow, share and view food and its consumption.

Stories include debates around food justice to how we restore and honor the land that feeds us.

There are stories that initiate dialogue about the generational legacies we pass down or start around food consumption with a thought-provoking question regarding what we want to pass down to our children and future generations regarding food and ethics around food.

There will always be dilemmas, dialogue and discussions regarding food production and consumption. These stories provide views that may help you discover where you stand and your path forward.

This is a great collection of essays for anyone who thinks about all the different factors going into what is on our plates. I found this to be the perfect *reset* for me going into the New Year.

Thank you to the authors, NYU Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful collection of thoughtful and thought-provoking essays about the food we eat, how we source it, what we think about eating and our bodies, and the cultural significance of food in a changing world. There is a broad diversity among the writers that contributed, and as always with collections some pieces resonated more deeply with me than others. However, this is the rare book where I savored each essay individually - highly recommend for anyone that eats food!

A thoughtful, analytical collection of essays on the importance of conscious, mindful food consumption. I appreciate the approach of using writers--not food bloggers, not food writers, not chefs--to build this book to give it a more poetic and narrative quality. Not that chefs or food bloggers and writers can't provide that, but writers just approach the world much differently. And because the list of authors is varied, so are their approaches to food and how they write about it.

This will definitely be a collection I go back to, and I'm looking forward to owning the physical copy to mark up with annotations, highlights, thoughts, and then pass it to other family members to get their opinions on each essay. I wouldn't have thought about some of the arguments in this book the way they're presented, and it's changed my perspective on how I'll think about those ingredients moving forward. Excellently done.

Thank you to NetGalley and NYU Press for giving me advanced reader access in exchange for an honest review. This title publishes today, January 9, 2024!

3.5 ⭐️

This collection of essays provides a broad look at ethical eating through the lenses of sustainability, animals rights, memories, and societal pressures and expectations.

It definitely made me think about my own household’s eating practices and at multiple points I found myself brainstorming ways we can do better.

Not every essay was a hit for me personally, but the collection as a whole spoke to my soul!

This book is a compilation of stories, each designed to make you think about your food and where it really comes from. Well done.

I'm not rating this one because it's my fault I requested it and didn't realize it was a download only.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange to my honest review. This is a great essays about food, and that makes me wonder if they would do the work for Palestinian foods as well since we know that Palestine is facing a catastrophe hence the foods need to be celebrated in such a writing.

I am a self-proclaimed Foodie and so this type of book intrigues me. The subject of food culturally has so much significance and ethical eating is something that is not necessarily considered by the majority of the population. This book has some interesting essays on this concept and was definitely eye-opening.

It was way too pretentious to read. I was looking forward to discussions about the ethical implications of eating animals etc but this wasn’t it.

This is a wonderful collection of essays about eating ethically. It took me a long time to read it because I savored each chapter and took time to consider and think after each one.

The book is organized into sections, with very different perspectives included in each one. I appreciated that many different ways of eating ethically were included in this book, and I felt like I learned a lot about different ways of eating.

This is just the kind of book I love to have on my coffee table, and I would love to put a copy in our cabin to be able return to it again and again.

Overall a great collection that I would recommend to anyone interested in understanding more about what it means to eat ethically!

Thank you to NYU Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication!

This book asks all the right questions and gets you thinking about what it means to truly eat ethically. Lots to think about here and the content will stay with me long after I finished reading the final pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for they ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a conversation, a collection of food stories, and a gathering of diverse, thoughtful people reckoning with the question of how to eat sustainably, ethically, and in light of the global challenges that face the world today. Eschewing any one definition of ethical eating, the editors take on four general principles adapted from the framework for biomedical ethics, “including fostering ‘beneficence,’ or protecting and helping others, promoting ‘normaleficence,’ or seeking to do no harm and to limit pain and suffering, respecting ‘autonomy,’ meaning the right to choice and self-determination, and furthering ‘justice,’ which includes fairness, equitable distribution, and recognition of both need and contribution.” The essays that follow sift through these ideas with many voices and directions.

I was particularly drawn to Michael R. Branch’s hilarious and rueful essay “My Children’s First Garden tracks” the descent into madness that gardening can engender as a father attempts to create a simple vegetable garden for his daughters and finds himself in a battle with the surrounding natural world. Underlaying the humor is the sharper commentary on the extent to which we humans go to imprint our will on the land we tend.

In a related piece, “My Children Shall Know the Pain the Consume,” Lilace Mellin Guignard details the decisions that she and her partner have made raising their children as meat eaters and hunters and exposing them to the full array of consequences of their food decisions. And in conversation with this piece, “The Plant,” the essay by Jenny Spinner discusses her own decision to raise vegetarian children. Lisa Knopp then muses in “Doves for Dinner” how her own vegetarianism has not been passed to her son, who together with his partner eats off the land and hunts. She details the steps that have led their family to their decisions.

Other articles take up the dialogue in a number of ways and from a number of positions. I enjoyed Adrianne Su’s essay about the ethics of eating American Chinese-restaurant meals. She is articulate about her appreciation of its importance in her life, with its links to her family rituals and community, even as she recognizes problematic food sourcing and waste. In “Who’s Feeding Bob,” Amy J. Hammer discusses the complications of monitoring her adult brother’s diet due to extreme allergies.

These are just a handful of examples. In general, I found the book to be well organized and a intriguing gateway into further thought and discussion.

My thanks to NYU Press and Net Galley for providing me with an advance reading copy of this book.

In their captivating book, Good Eats: 32 Writers on Eating Ethically, Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa A. Goldthwaite embark on a remarkable exploration of the profound significance of food. As editors, they skillfully convey that food transcends mere sustenance and plays a pivotal role in human survival. From personal anecdotes to broader societal implications, the authors illuminate the multifaceted nature of food, delving into its personal, social, political, historical, and cultural dimensions. Throughout the pages of this enlightening work, readers can expect a wealth of knowledge on food philosophy and its crucial role in fostering food justice within communities. Each chapter presents a unique and compelling narrative, with contributors sharing their utmost dedication to sustainable and healthy eating practices. These stories reflect deep-seated passions and desires of each writer, rooted in personal experiences and underscoring the evolution of their appreciation for wholesome eating habits over time. Good Eats captivates readers with its memorable culinary adventures, leaving a lasting impression. It is an invaluable resource for those seeking to offer diverse perspectives and principles to food consumption ethically.

The very first line about this book drew me in and it was a question, "In an age of mass factory farming, processed and pre-packaged meals, and unprecedented food waste, how does one eat ethically?"

What has ethics got to do with food? Is what I asked myself, but for someone whose culture is woven around food and the recent drastic effects of climate change threatening our livelihood, I wanted to read this book, because there is an african saying that 'food brings happiness' and among our people- there is more to do with giving thanks for what had to be given up to nourish you- for example, for the cow that had to lose its life, or the chicken that had to lose its life so you could be treated to meal, or for the vegetables that is before you- and also for the farmers and the earth that toiled for seasons to present a bountiful harvest.

I think for me, reading this book was more a reminder of knowing the journey of food, of what I consume through the stories told by all these authors.

This is a conscious read, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is curious and open to discussing the journey of food, of how we eat, why we eat and what we eat through stories of course.