Ben Hewitt

From the title, it sounds like a celebration of the new locavore culture, right? Well, kind of. It’s more of a balanced consideration of the changes happening in a community based in a historical agricultural context. There is an exciting new agripreneurial in Hardwick, VT, but Ben Hewitt spends some time appreciating the sturdy, older food culture that makes the new possible. It’s a fascinating look at how personality and drive can create dynamic change.

"Occasionally, I am visited by a sense of nostalgia, not for an earlier era or for some past event but for the future nostalgia I know I will feel for now."

As I've gotten older I've found that this sense of nostalgia visits me often.

I enjoy memoirs like this about reconnecting with the land and living the way people did for centuries before the industrial revolution. One thing that strikes me about so many of these types of books and the authors that write them is their connectedness to the show more earth but also their detachment from the earth as God's creation. The missing link here is an understanding of our place in the world with respect to the created order. The author here is so grounded yet so aloof as a result of not linking his place in God’s creation. What a marvelous tale this could be with a recognition that the earth is not just a random arrangement of cosmic dust but a created world in which humans are part. show less

I like the manifesto, and I think that this could have been a really stellar essay.

If you're into philosophical contemplations of why money doesn't matter, go ahead and pick this book up. I'm glad he finally figured out that community and relationships are important. I don't think he makes a convincing enough argument, well, about anything -- and I'm definitely a reader that would fall into the category of deeply suspicious of monetary systems. Perhaps this book would be profound if I show more disagreed with him on more things. Instead I found it to be an irritating flood.

It's an interesting premise, but the structure of the narrative just makes me want to bang my head into a wall. Meandering fits of story interspersed with blatant assumptions that he keeps making about his thrify friend Eric's life. Guess what? On further consideration, all of the blatant assumptions turn out to be wrong. And I can work with that as a reader, if it wasn't so darn repetitive -- First he thought this thing! which turned out to be wrong. Then he thought that thing! which turned out to be wrong. Then this thing happens, which leads him to think this other judgemental thing which, wait for it.... turns out to be wrong. *sigh* So not my thing. show less

I confess I had never heard of Hardwick, Vermont before picking up Ben Hewitt's book The Town That Food Saved. The anecdotal nonfiction work tells about the history of the town built upon the industry of granite that suffered a severe economic downturn and looked to a local stimulus of food and agricultural business to provide jobs while promoting healthy food, organic farming and sustainability.

It's hard to describe the width and depth of food related businesses that this book covers, but I show more found the whole work remarkably fascinating. From exploring the simple but profound work of banking seeds to the impact of hormone use in the world of dairy farming, this work is one that will make anyone think twice about the everyday food we buy, prepare and eat.

It is the people of Hardwick, as well as their strides towards a system of local food production, that make Hewitt's book an engaging and entertaining read. The various interviews of farmers, businesspeople, restaurateurs, and politicians - many classified by Hewitt's invented portmanteau "agripreneurs" meaning agricultural entrepreneurs - lend a charming readability to the narrative. Hewitt presents the problems and conflicts openly and admits that there are not concrete solutions to the dilemmas Hardwick (and many towns like it) faced yet the positive economic and environmental strides being made are heralded. Overall, this is an interesting book for anyone whose curiosity is piqued by the origins of the meals on their plate and wants a deeper look at the ingenuity of Hardwick's people and the impact they could have on the food culture of an entire nation. show less