I recently visited your website and began reading your book. Congratulations on compiling, perhaps, one of the most accurate portrayals of what is really going on out in the great wide world as far as food and agriculture, communities, and economics relate to one another. I think that one of the most important things you pointed out was the equal importance of work at the global and the individual and community level. It is also refreshing to see the well deserved recognition given to so many wonderful people working hard to make their families' lives better in ways that nurture their communities and the planet in practical ways.

I'm about half-way through Hope's Edge - BRAVO!!!!!!! I just finished Fast Food Nation and I'm struck by how uplifting Hope's Edge is, and how depressing Fast Food Nation was. Similar information but to your credit you continue to offer proof of a different way. That has been a cornerstone for me - one that I'm only really coming to understand the value of as I get older and, hopefully, wiser. Thank you again for opening my eyes to the philosophy of spreading the good news instead of just the bad news.

This follow up to the 1970s (and perennial) bestseller Diet For A Small Planet is a must read if you have any interest in understanding why for every human being on the planet the world produces two pounds of grain per day (plus fruits, vegetables, beans etc) -- roughly 3,000 calories in grain alone -- but yet nearly one in six of us still goes hungry and 32,000 children die, every day, from hunger or preventable disease.   

Interesting facts that you can read in this extensive excerpt include:
* Worldwide, we're feeding more than half our grain stocks to livestock, but animals return to us in meat only a tiny fraction of the nutrients we feed them.
* To get just one calorie of food energy from a steak, we burn 54 irreplaceable fossil-fuel calories, so producing one pound of steak--providing less than 1,000 calories--uses up 45,000 fossil fuel calories.
* To produce just one pound of beef takes thousands of gallons of water, as much as the average American uses for all purposes in several months--and this in a world in which two--thirds of all people are expected to face water shortage in less than a generation.

Hope's Edge offers much more than an explanation of the problem - it's bursting with inspiring stories from around the world, and lots of recipes - which undoubtedly will encourage you (and our world) to a healthier, happier lifestyle without any feeling of being 'deprived'.