Finding a Middle Way to Sustainable Food Systems

he premise of Susan Futrell’s Good Apples: Behind Every Bite is that by understanding the environmental, social, and economic issues affecting apples growers in America, the reader can better appreciate and support sustainable food systems. Futrell’s storytelling is grounded in her years of experience working in sustainable food distribution, which includes 25 years in sales and marketing for a cooperatively owned natural food distributor called Blooming Prairie Warehouse in the Midwest, and her current work with Red Tomato, a small nonprofit food hub based in Massachusetts, where she helped develop the Eco Apple® program. From the beginning, Futrell resists the pressure to simplify and dichotomize complexities. Chapter 1, At the Intersection of Apples and Local, establishes this tone with her contextual consideration of how the term local is defined. Chapter 2, Immigrant Apples, reviews the history of apples in America. In it she discusses key historical figures and the emergence of seedling nurseries, apple varieties, growers’ associations, and land-grant institutions. In Chapter 3, The People Who Grow the Apples We Eat, Futrell introduces a diverse cast of apple growers from across the United States: from organic to conventional, from Connecticut to Washington state, and from first-generation to long-established farming families. The stories shared by these small and midsized growers are used throughout the book, along with the work of T