The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio CD)

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio CD)

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan writes about how our food is grown -- what it is, in fact, that we are eating. The book is really three in one: The first section discusses industrial farming; the second, organic food, both as big business and on a relatively small farm; and the third, what it is like to hunt and gather food for oneself. And each section culminates in a meal -- a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; and grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate soufflé (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, finally, mushrooms and pork, foraged from the wild. The first section is a wake-up call for anyone who has ever been hungry. In the United States, Pollan makes clear, we're mostly fed by two things: corn and oil. We may not sit down to bowls of yummy petroleum, but almost everything we eat has used enormous amounts of fossil fuels to get to our tables. Oil products are part of the fertilizers that feed plants, the pesticides that keep insects away from them, the fuels used by the trains and trucks that transport them across the country, and the packaging in which they're wrapped. We're addicted to oil, and we really like to eat.

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The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD)
Starred Review. Egan tells an extraordinary tale in this visceral account of how America's great, grassy plains turned to dust, and how the ferocious plains winds stirred up an endless series of "black blizzards" that were like a biblical plague: "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains" in what became known as the Dust Bowl. But the plague was man-made, as Egan shows: the plains weren't suited to farming, and plowing up the grass to plant wheat, along with a confluence of economic disaster—the Depression—and natural disaster—eight years of drought—resulted in an ecological and human catastrophe that Egan details with stunning specificity. He grounds his tale in portraits of the people who settled the plains: hardy Americans and immigrants desperate for a piece of land to call their own and lured by the lies of promoters who said the ground was arable. Egan's interviews with survivors produce tales of courage and suffering: Hazel Lucas, for instance, dared to give birth in the midst of the blight only to see her baby die of "dust pneumonia" when her lungs clogged with the airborne dirt
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Realms, Regions and Concepts, 13th Edition (Hardcover)

Realms, Regions and Concepts, 13th Edition (Hardcover)
Now substantially revised and updated, the Thirteenth Edition of de Blij and Muller's Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts continues to deliver the authors' authoritative content, outstanding cartography, currency, and comprehensive coverage, in a technology-rich package. The text reflects major developments in the world as well as in the discipline, ranging from the collapse of Russia's Post-Soviet transformation to the impact of globalization and from the rise of Asia's Pacific Rim to the war in Iraq.
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Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions (Hardcover)

Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions (Hardcover).
In this current, thought-provoking environmental science textbook, G. Tyler Miller and new coauthor Scott Spoolman bring the concept of sustainability to the forefront. Students are engaged and motivated with vivid case studies and hands-on quantitative exercises. As the authors showcase four scientific principles of sustainability, they immerse students in the many practical steps they, as individuals, can take toward more sustainable lifestyles. The book’s new concept-centered format transforms complex environmental topics and issues into key concepts that students will understand and remember.
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