The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved

Inside America’s Underground Food Movements

Categories: Food & Drink
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

From James Beard Award winner and New York Times–bestselling author of The Art of Fermentation

An instant classic for a new generation of monkey-wrenching food activists.

Food in America is cheap and abundant, yet the vast majority of it is diminished in terms of flavor and nutrition, anonymous and mysterious after being shipped thousands of miles and passing through inscrutable supply chains, and controlled by multinational corporations. In our system of globalized food commodities, convenience replaces quality and a connection to the source of our food. Most of us know almost nothing about how our food is grown or produced, where it comes from, and what health value it really has. It is food as pure corporate commodity. We all deserve much better than that.

In The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, author Sandor Ellix Katz (Sandor Katz’s Fermentation JourneysThe Art of Fermentation, and Wild Fermentation) profiles grassroots activists who are taking on Big Food, creating meaningful alternatives, and challenging the way many Americans think about food. From community-supported local farmers, community gardeners, and seed saving activists, to underground distribution networks of contraband foods and food resources rescued from the waste stream, this book shows how ordinary people can resist the dominant system, revive community-based food production, and take direct responsibility for their own health and nutrition.

Reviews and Praise

  • "A perfect introduction for the eager eater aiming to blend a dose of conscientiousness into his or her daily soup and bread, this book is thorough, instructional, and encouraging. It's a friendly manifesto of one man's commitment to keeping his mind where his mouth is. In his informal narrative Katz manages to convey a vast amount of complex information in an accessible way. By sharing his personal journey (including his own share of contradictions and hypocrisies) Katz allows readers to identify with him as a food lover trying his best to grapple with the responsibility of conscientious eating, while delighting in its pleasures."--Slow Food Snail


More Reviews and Praise


  • Library Journal-
    This is the story of the consumer revolution against globally industrialized agriculture and corporate domination of food production, processing, and distribution systems. Katz (Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods) asserts that there are alternatives to the dead, unhealthy, homogenized food commodities this system provides. He visited farmers' markets, food cooperatives, and communities in search of local initiatives that restore traditional food production and distribution methods and revive local economies. Katz found a broad movement of people and organizations involved in preserving native varieties, practicing humane and sustainable treatment of land and animals, supporting local producers and marketers, and using food to improve health. Of particular note is the rapidly growing 'slow food' movement, which rejects standardized fare and focuses instead on cuisine that has served ethnic and cultural preferences in the past. Each chapter cites references for further reading and organizations involved in keeping the programs active. This work is sure to enlighten readers and motivate many to join the revolution. Recommended.


  • "If you wish to reclaim a connection to the food you eat, consider Sandor Katz' (author of Wild Fermentation) newest book. The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved champions various causes against our modern food supply. From seed-saving as a political act to the role of food in healing, it's an invaluable handbook. A passionate crusader, Katz is also funny, quirky and eminently likable. Each chapter contains one of his low-tech recipes and ends with multiple resources pages including supportive books, films and organizations."--Mail Tribune

  • "Sandor Ellix Katz's book The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved introduces us to people who moving the field closer to the table. The people we meet in this book are reclaiming their right to not only eat healthy, wholesome food but are asserting their right to grow and produce what they eat for themselves and offer for sale. If your friends and family refer to you as a "foodie" then when you read Katz's book you will meet people who are journeying along a similar path. From road kill gourmets to bread club members, the people you encounter while reading Katz's book have rejected the mass industrial food complex that dominates North American food choices. Katz introduces us to people who know there are choices and who are willing to act upon that knowledge. Taking charge of your food supply, even in a small way, is a liberating and healthy act."--Permaculture Kitchen

  • "This work is sure to enlighten readers and motivate many to join the revolution. Recommended."--Library Journal

  • "What's for dinner? Zesty politics, delicious democracy, and satisfying grassroots action. Devour this book."--Jim Hightower, radio commentator and author

  • "The politics and ethics of food production and consumption touch all of our lives, and there are too few books on the subject. The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved is packed with good information and ideas. I already buy my milk fresh from the farm next door, but after reading this, I'm ready to be a card-carrying member of the raw milk underground. Read it before you go shopping again!"--Eric Robbins, Apple Valley Books, Winthrop, Maine

  • "Don't miss this remarkable manifesto."--Sally Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of Nourishing Traditions

  • "Sandor Katz has given us a refreshing, wholesome, wise book on something that affects all our lives. It points us not only to eating in a new way, but thinking in a new way. I hope it will be widely read."--Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

  • "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved is a deeply nutritious book."--Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets

  • "Most importantly, in teaching us about these movements, Katz inspires us to take it a step further, whatever our food persuasions may be. You may end up setting up an underground food market, where people can sell bread that they bake in their own ovens and milk that isn't tampered with by government regulations. You'll gather dandelion leaves, chickweed, mushrooms, prickly pear or whatever else grows in your own backyard. You'll school yourself in herbal healing, live in raw food decadence, get involved in a grassroots land-rights movement or finally take more than five minutes to savor a meal with friends."--Sopaipilla, Earth First!



About The Author


About Sandor Ellix Katz

Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, his explorations in fermentation developed out of his overlapping interests in cooking, nutrition, and gardening. He is the author of four previous books: Wild Fermentation, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, The Art of Fermentation—which won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2013—and Fermentation as Metaphor. The hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world have helped catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. The New York Times calls Sandor “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” For more information, check out his website: www.wildfermentation.com.

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Books By Sandor Ellix Katz

Pages:400 pages
Size: 6 x 9 inch
Publisher:Chelsea Green Publishing
US Pub. Date: November 15, 2006
Paperback: 9781933392110

Available In/Retail Price

Paperback, 400 pages, $24.95USD, £15.99GBP