Dive into summer with these 20 books that will change how you see the plate–and the planet. Sarah Allaback and Monique F. Parsons’ Green Gold and Robert Hellyer’s Green with Milk and Sugar highlight the rich and surprising histories of staple foods including avocados and green tea. For gardeners, Jamie Walton’s Nettles and Petals and Christian Douglas’ The Food Forward Garden offer lush guides to creating functional and beautiful green spaces. To bring dishes and life lessons from around the world straight to your table, pick up Michael Shaikh’s The Last Sweet Bite, Kelsey Timmerman’s Regenerating Earth, or Rawia Bishara’s Tanoreen.
Whether you want to learn from top humanitarian leaders, discover bold new culinary voices, or rethink the sustainability of global food and agriculture systems, Food Tank’s summer 2025 reading list delivers fresh, powerful insights for every reader.
1. Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine by Jessica B. Harris
In Braided Heritage, culinary historian Dr. Jessica B. Harris details how Indigenous, European, and African cuisines came together to form the food landscape of America. Harris’ book uses traditional and modern recipes, in-depth historical research, and storytelling to connect readers with the real people and history of the United States. Harris highlights the crucial contributions of region, migration, and innovation to America’s distinctive and delectable food traditions.
2. Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs by José Andrés with Richard Wolffe
Chef and founder of World Central Kitchen José Andrés has spent decades cooking for people around the world, from Michelin-starred kitchens to areas hit by natural disasters and war. In Change the Recipe, Andrés reflects on the lessons he’s learned about building community, ensuring human dignity, and improving the world through food.
3. Every Purchase Matters: How Fair Trade Farmers, Companies, and Consumers Are Changing the World by Paul Rice
Every Purchase Matters proves that individuals and businesses have more power than they think to protect the environment, advocate for farmers’ rights, and call for sustainable supply chains. Author Paul Rice shines light on the grassroots leaders, business visionaries, success stories, and teachable moments shaping the future of people- and planet-forward business.
4. Gleanings from the Field by Dan Trudeau, William Moseley, and Paul Schadewald
This collection of essays prepares readers to understand food security issues as challenges without simple solutions. Building on recent events–including the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and the effects of the climate crisis–Gleaning from the Field shows the importance of looking at food security crises holistically in order to create effective and impactful solutions.
5. Green Gold: The Avocado’s Remarkable Journey from Humble Superfood to Toast of a Nation by Sarah Allaback and Monique F. Parsons
In Green Gold, Sarah Allaback and Monique F. Parsons piece together the timeline and cultural impact of the avocado industry. Together, the authors examine the history, botanical science, and marketing of the avocado over the past century, considering what inspired avocado pioneers to push through world wars, revolutions, droughts, and disease to make the Latin American fruit a supermarket staple.
6. Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America’s Tea Cups by Robert Hellyer
Written by a professor of Japanese history, Green with Milk and Sugar explores how shifting Japanese-American relations in the 18th and 19th centuries influenced tea traditions in both countries. Robert Hellyer examines the social factors, economic trends, and racial biases that contributed to green tea’s rise and fall in the 20th century American diet, revealing the complex international forces shaping food history.
7. Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth from Farm to Fable by Will Potter (Forthcoming July 2025)
Investigative journalist Will Potter details the shocking links between animal agriculture, factory farmed meat, and the rise of far-right militias. Little Red Barns reveals how the livestock industry is fueling climate collapse, exposing how fascism develops to protect industrial agriculture’s profits and existing power structures.
8. Nettles and Petals: Grow Food, Eat Weeds, Save Seeds by Jamie Walton
For experienced and beginning gardeners alike, Nettles and Petals is an informative and engaging guide to maintaining a biodiverse garden. Focusing on sustainability and soil health, Walton explains the value of planting weeds and flowers alongside traditional produce. This guide comes with practical advice on saving seeds and preserving produce to prepare readers for simple and effective circular gardening.9.
9. Regenerating Earth: Farmers Working with Nature to Feed Our Future by Kelsey Timmerman
After seeing how modern industrial agriculture was harming the environment near his home in rural Indiana, Kelsey Timmerman set out on a five-year journey to understand the regenerative agriculture movement. Timmerman recounts his travels across the U.S., Patagonia, the Amazon, Kenya, Brazil, and more, highlighting indigenous farmers’ millennia-old regenerative agriculture practices–and how these methods could help turn agriculture from a climate crisis to a cure.
10. Serving the Public: The Good Food Revolution in Schools, Hospitals, and Prisons by Kevin Morgan
Serving the Public looks closely at what governments decide to feed people in schools, hospitals, and prisons. Author Kevin Morgan sees access to healthy food in public institutions as a way to measure a society’s commitment to public health, social equality, and sustainability. And through his book, he highlights the importance of reshaping institutional food programs to ensure food justice.
11. Tanoreen: Palestinian Home Cooking in Diaspora by Rawia Bishara
Drawing inspiration from her childhood in Nazareth, Spanish summers, and adult life in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Chef Rawia Bishara crafts a delectable collection of multicultural recipes. Named after her beloved Palestinian restaurant in New York, Tanoreen combines Middle Eastern staples with the twists developed from years of cultural fusion.
12. The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara B. Franklin
Publisher Judith Jones had a knack for identifying future culinary legends: Julia Child, M. F. K. Fisher, James Beard, Edna Lewis, and more. As their editorial champion, Jones helped shape the 20th century cookbook revolution and the food writing landscape. In The Editor, author Sara B. Franklin draws on intimate interviews and years of research to detail Jones’ life and impact on food culture.
13. The Fish Counter by Marion Nestle
The Fish Counter explores the commercial production, processing, marketing, and safety of seafood in the United States. Marion Nestle unpacks key issues like mercury contamination, government regulations, and what to consider when choosing healthy, sustainable fish. The Fish Counter is an updated excerpt from her What to Eat–a broader revision titled What to Eat Now is coming in November 2025.
14. The Food Forward Garden: A Complete Guide to Designing and Growing Edible Landscapes by Christian Douglas
Landscape designer Christian Douglas offers readers guidance on adding vegetable gardens into their backyard without compromising beauty or practicality. Through gorgeous photos and comprehensive guides, The Food Forward Garden helps growers imagine seasonal landscapes where edible plants thrive alongside greenery.
15. The Last Sweet Bite: Stories and Recipes of Culinary Heritage Lost and Found by Michael Shaikh
Human rights investigator Michael Shaikh examines how civil war, genocide, and occupation affect how and what humans eat. The Last Sweet Bite honors the victims and cultures affected by man-made conflict, demonstrating the power and resilience of diaspora cooking, adapted recipes, and the fight to hold on to one’s food culture.
16. The Nightcrawlers: A Story of Worms, Cows, and Cash in the Underground Bait Industry by Joshua Steckley
Joshua Steckley’s The Nightcrawlers tells the story of the 700 million earthworms shipped from Ontario, Canada, which supply the global live fishing bait market. Steckley’s analysis reveals the worm bait industry’s reliance on immigrant labor and unexpected levels of tax fraud and money laundering. Highlighting the dark side of capitalism, this book focuses on the commodification of these small but important animals.
17. The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves by John Sanbonmatsu
The Omnivore’s Deception calls for an end to animal agriculture, reframing the conversation from a question of sustainability to one of moral purpose. Author John Sanbonmatsu rejects the idea of sustainable, humane meat and considers the future of ethical consumption. This book offers a philosophical guide to the millions of Americans considering the environmental and impacts of eating animal products.
18. We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate by Michael Grunwald (Forthcoming July 2025)
Michael Grunwald explores how modern food and agriculture systems connect to the growing climate crisis. We Are Eating the Earth digs into what it will take to feed the planet without widespread environmental destruction, and confronts the limitations of lauded food and agricultural solutions.
19. What Is Queer Food? How We Served a Revolution by John Birdsall
John Birdsall’s What Is Queer Food? explores the deep connection between queer identity and food culture, demonstrating how the queer community has long shaped culinary traditions. This book follows the development of queer food from the early 1900s through the LGBTQ civil rights movement and into post-Stonewall liberation. Birdsall emphasizes the importance of food and culinary celebration in building queer communities and expressing joy, noting the innovations and recipes that have revolutionized America in the process of strengthening queer identity.
20. What We Eat: A Global History of Food edited by Pierre Singaravélou and Sylvain Venayre, translated by Stephen W. Sawyer (Forthcoming August 2025)
What We Eat uncovers the origins, global journeys, and cultural significance of nearly 90 foods, sharing the unexpected histories behind everyday grocery items and iconic national dishes. This series of essays by historians Pierre Singaravélou, Sylvain Venayre, and Stephen W. Sawyer examines how individual foods shape cultural identity while showing the powerful effects of globalization.
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