Sophie Egan “How to Be a Conscious Eater: Making Food Choices That Are Good for You, Others, and the Planet” in Conversation With Jason French
Monday, March 30, 7:30pm, Powell’s City of Books (1005 W. Burnside St., Portland)
A lively, surprising, and necessary guide to navigating our food choices—is a certain food OK for your health? OK for the environment? How do I know if the people who grow or create it are fairly treated?—by an expert in public health from the Culinary Institute of America.
A radically practical guide to making food choices that are are good for you, others, and the planet.
Is organic really worth it? Are eggs ok to eat? If so, which ones are best for you, and for the chicken—Cage-Free, Free-Range, Pasture-Raised? What about farmed salmon, soy milk, sugar, gluten, fermented foods, coconut oil, almonds? Thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or somewhere in between?
Using three criteria—Is it good for me? Is it good for others? Is it good for the planet?—Sophie Egan helps us navigate the bewildering world of food so that we can all become conscious eaters. To eat consciously is not about diets, fads, or hard-and-fast rules. It’s about having straightforward, accurate information to make smart, thoughtful choices amid the chaos of conflicting news and marketing hype. An expert on food’s impact on human and environmental health, Egan organizes the book into four categories—stuff that comes from the ground, stuff that comes from animals, stuff that comes from factories, and stuff that’s made in restaurant kitchens. This practical guide offers bottom-line answers to your most top-of-mind questions about what to eat.
Sophie Egan is the Director of Health and Sustainability Leadership for the Strategic Initiatives Group at The Culinary Institute of America, as well as the Editorial Director. She contributes regularly to The New York Times’ Well blog and has written for The Wall Street Journal, TIME, The Washington Post, Mic, Bon Appétit, WIRED, and The Kitchn. Egan is the author of Devoured: How What We Eat Defines Who We Are. She holds a master of public health from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on health and social behavior. She lives in San Francisco, CA.
Jason French is the head chef and owner at Ned Ludd, an American Craft Kitchen and Elder Hall, a Gathering Space in Portland, Oregon. Inspired by classic traditions of farm driven craft cookery, French’s menus perfectly embody his culinary philosophy of seasonally delicious fare. French and his team believe that great food ultimately requires more passion for and attention to the harmony created when one genuinely considers its provenance, preparation and presentation.