THE EDIBLE CITY- Toronto’s Food from Farm to Fork
Edited by Christina Palassio and Alana Wilcox
2009 Coach House Books
ISBN 978-1-55245-219-6
Reviewed by Jennifer Fischer
Reviewed by Jennifer Fischer
The Edible City is a collection of 42 stories from passionate Torontonian’s whom are presently active in food related issues and celebrations here in Toronto, Ontario. The book presents itself like a menu, each chapter is illustrated by a menu choice- a five-course meal: Antipasto, Primo, Secondo, Contorno, and Dolce. Each chapter unravels the web of food. Unpacking the social, political and economic discourse of food and the reader’s connection to it within the city landscape and beyond. The approach is multifaceted, it uses distinctive narratives to tell the story of food, in an attempt to allow the reader to recognize: the issues surrounding food politics both in low socio-economic neighbourhoods, but also in five star restaurants; our shared history of how and why Toronto established itself as Hogtown on the most fertile land- in close proximity to an endless supply of fish stock; where Toronto gets its food from, beyond the Toronto Food Terminal- reflective of both the migrant workers of Ontario, to imported food; questions of who and why sews the seed, harvests, sells, distributes, cooks and even serves our food and who is vulnerable and/or celebrated in that process; the impacts of both vegetarianism and eating local butchered meats, furthermore; it asks what are we without access to food?
