Review by Meghan Mast
Sugar has delighted palates for centuries. Memories of childhood and cornerstone occasions are decorated with sugar-infused treats. However, the history of sugar is gruesome, including human rights violations and a devastation of eco-systems. Demand for sugar has spawned slavery, changed demographics, dictated economies, caused wars and created devastating poverty.

Elizabeth Abbott became personally invested in the story of sugar after having learned that her ancestors were some of the mistreated Antiguan and Grenadian sugar cane workers. Here is a book she says, “I’ve been writing all my life.”

Writing with intelligence and passion, Abbott delivers a compelling account of the lives of the sugar workers. Sugar began as a treat enjoyed by the elite. From the tongues of royalty, an insatiable craving for sugar spread to the general population of Europe. As the demand for sugar increased, so did the cruelty and greed of sugar producers.

Abbott devotes the majority of the book to documenting the lives of people who worked to produce sugar. These people were plucked from their homes, carried across the Atlantic and then forced into slavery.
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Review by Meghan Mast

By now, almost everyone knows the bad news when it comes to the state of our planet. Global warming is getting worse, and it is our fault. So now what?

Stirred by the spreading sense of discouragement, David Suzuki and Holly Dressel set out to find examples of individuals who are genuinely seeking sustainable and alternative living. Expecting to come up with a thin book, the two were delighted to find they had enough information to write multiple volumes.

After traveling across three continents, Suzuki and Dressel discovered that a growing number of people are arriving at the same conclusion. The natural systems that support our lives are in trouble. So what’s the good news? Change is possible, and countless individuals, organizations and movements are proof of this. Even better, change is not happening in isolated pockets, but is instead in a “vibrant and interwoven movement.”
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Review by Meghan Mast

Somehow in North America, amidst low-fat diets and TV dinners we have forgotten how to eat. Michael Pollan, who also wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” now further enlightens readers in his new book “In Defense of Food,” a refreshing reminder of what real food is.

What is food? This question seems to have an obvious answer until closer investigation of grocery store shelves. Consumer demand for faster, cheaper meals has turned food into food-like substances. Science has involved itself with food in a way that has left most of the food we see in the grocery stores unrecognizable to our great grandparents. Would great-grandma recognize a yogurt tube?

Instead of squeezing chemical-laden dairy into our mouths, Pollan tells his readers to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Who would have thought that eating healthy is so simple? And yet, it is. Side-stepping confusing claims of calcium infused orange and other unnatural food phenomenon, Pollan strips nutrition down to its most basic level. Common sense and tradition.
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Review by Meghan Mast
“We are the air, we are the water, we are the earth, we are the Sun.” David Suzuki uses this simple idea to frame a thoughtful and beautifully written book. The Sacred Balance is a gentle pleading with humanity to re-acknowledge our place in nature. Our existence is undeniably reliant on nature; therefore the survival of the environment is directly linked to our own survival.

Something as simple as the air we breathe owes tribute to trees and plants that provide oxygen. Without air, humanity would perish. Yet we continue to rip down trees. Before the European settlers came to what is now the United States, North America was covered by approximately 3.2 million km squared of forest. Today, only 22,000 km squared remains. By clearing forests we are robbing future generations of air, and consequently of life.
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