A few weeks ago, my friend Mark Caro’s marvelous book, The Foie Gras Wars, won the award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year from the GLBA. That’s the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association, mind you, and not a queer lifestyle group. Unless it’s a typo. If it is, Mark will be in for a little surprise when he accepts the award today in Cleveland.
Congrats to Mark. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. The Foie Gras Wars is a very interesting account of the fight about food, the locavore and artisanal food movements, PETA and the animal rights movement, and how people and politicians are reacting to and exploiting the ideas. A reporter with a cunning eye, Mark found a lot of fascinating people to interview and places to visit. He even goes to a small farm in France for a foie gras weekend, where he gets to pick and slaughter his own duck and prepare the whole thing. There’s also coverage of the ridiculous ban that was placed on foie gras by the Chicago City Council — ridiculous only in that it was passed with no thought or debate, then rescinded with no thought or debate. It’s a really great read. Buy it for the foodie you love.