Last Day – Write a Guest Post, Win a Book!
Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World, by Daniel Imhoff
CONTEST ENDS TODAY!
How to Win: Agree to write a guest post to appear on Crowded Earth Kitchen! Simply post a comment below, and I’ll be in touch!
I have books for THREE MORE READERS who post a comment below agreeing to submit a guest post! Wellness-minded recipe posts, stories of kitchen related collections, and food related book reviews are welcome. Posts should be between 300 – 600 words, and should include a picture.
~~~Review~~~
It would be easy for a casually concerned consumer to read the title of this book, think of the reusable shopping bags hanging by the door, and feel smug. In 168 pages, many of which include shocking full color photos, Dan Imhoff lays out the clear and compelling case that we have a long, long way to go before we can even begin to consider our global packaging waste problem solved. Appropriately published by Sierra Club Books, this 2005 text remains highly relevant for people who wish to really understand the scope and scale of the damage our current packaging habits are wreaking upon our planet. This book serves as an excellent resource for those who wish to really delve into the complex changes that will be necessary to facilitate environmental healing.
As an educator, it strikes me that this would be a wonderful book for classroom use at the high school and college levels. The author does a brilliant job of back-loading a copious amount of research into hefty appendices and end notes; as a result, the text itself tells an important story without becoming dry, and is as easy to read as it is informative.
In the first section, “The Packaging Landscape,” the reader is guided through an explanation of the sobering scope and scale of waste created by our tacit obsession with packaging (an average of 300 pounds of waste per person per year!). The second section, “The Search for Solutions,” walks us through an engaging set of case studies which range from high tech electronics companies to frozen confections. Promising research and development initiatives are explored, as are foreign legislative policies aimed at mitigating our global packaging waste crisis (not surprisingly, the United States lags woefully behind global leaders in this arena). The third section, “A Future Beyond the Box,” provides the reader with guidelines for distinguishing between bad wraps and better packaging. We are also provided with thirteen very clear, simply explained steps each of us can take to do our part to help solve this often overlooked global crisis.
Paper Or Plastic: Searching For Solutions To An Overpackaged World is as well written as it is important. Each of us needs to read this book.
Crowded Earth Kitchen 
I could do a book review, I just don’t know what book! Do you have any suggestions? I’ve been wanting to read another Pollan book, but I’m sure there are others out there I just haven’t really looked at.
It would probably take me a couple of weeks to read and write it up because I’m going on vacation next week, but if that’s okay, I’ll write a guest post. 🙂
That would be grand! A Pollan book would be fine; I actually have a guest review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (written by a young teen, which I think is great), so I could pair the two for a feature on Michael Pollan. If you let me know what book you’re thinking, I’ll try to get a reader giveaway copy. 🙂
I’ve read In Defense of Food and could clean up that review to make it more relevant to CEK. Others I’d be interested in reading are the Botany of Desire, Food Rules, Second Nature, and Cooked. If you can’t find a reader giveaway copy, I can probably check one of them out from the store I work at.
In Defense of Food would work well; it’s a very relevant book! I can “trade” you for a copy of Paper or Plastic. 🙂
Works for me!
the packaging craze here in korea is out of control. everything you buy comes in its own plastic amniotic sac. thanks for liking my blog piece!
I’d love to collaborate with you on this! I’m learning all kinds of amazing things as I learn to cook traditional Ecuadorian food from women who have been cooking for their families here for generations. I’m currently blogging about my experience as an American woman who has moved to Ecuador on Footprints In Ecuador. I could write about anything you want related to cooking, adjusting to another culture and it’s different tastes, learning how to become a World Citizen…you name it!
Any of these topics would be a great fit for the Crowded Earth Kitchen blog! Stories at the intersection of food and culture are particularly appropriate. Generally speaking, posts with a dose of humor and a photo or two appear in the home page blog roll (usually one post every 48 hours), and posts that are a bit longer and with a more serious slant appear under “Food for thought” for a week or longer. I would be honored to publish your guest post, on whatever topic suits your fancy. 🙂
Sounds like a book I’d enjoy. I currently use reusable bags.
Forgot to say thank you for linking your review on the Foodies Read Challenge!
Absolutely – I was happy to find the Foodies Read Challenge! I post reviews of “foodie books” for Reader Giveaways pretty often, and am happy to link them to your blog. 🙂