Ellen Gustafson: "We the Eaters: If We Change Dinner, We Can Change the World"

The implausible truth: Over one billion people in the world are hungry and over one billion are overweight. Far from complete opposites, hunger and obesity are in fact different manifestations of the same problem: It's increasingly difficult to find and eat nutritious food. By examining the global industrial food system using the deceptively simple template of a classic American dinner, We the Eaters not only outlines the root causes for this bizarre and troubling dichotomy, but also provides a blueprint of actionable solutions—solutions that could start with changing out just a single item on your plate.

From your burger to your soda, Gustafson unpacks how even the hyper-local can cause worldwide ripples. For instance: American agricultural policy promoting corn and soybeans in beef farming means we feed more to cows than to hungry people. This is compounded by the environmental cost of factory livestock farming, rising obesity rates, and the false economics of unhealthily high meat consumption. The answer? Eat a hamburger; just make it a smaller, sustainably raised, grass-fed one.

Gustafson—a young entrepreneur, foreign policy expert, and food policy advocate—delivers a wake-up call that will inspire even the most passive reader to take action. We can love our food and our country while being better stewards of our system and our health. We the Eaters is nothing short of a manifesto: If we change dinner, we can change the world.