Eating the landscape review

David Hague 

Professor Santos  

English 102 

22 March 2018 

Eating the Landscape Book Review 

In the book "Eating the Landscape" by Enrique Salmon. Salmon talks about the kinds of farming and how each type of farm contributes in a different way. He also explains how food and culture are connected and why it is so important. He starts off by saying how important food and culture was in his life growing up by stating " Food was an essential ingredient at all our family gatherings. It blended with music, teasing, laughter, stories, and dancing to create a delicious pungent celebration. Once it was decided that a celebration was in order someone would soon ask "what are we going to eat"? (4).  

This is just one of the few things that I found interesting in these American Indian stories about food across the southern United States and Northern Mexico. I investigated a few personal reviews on some fan sites because I couldn’t find any professional reviews on this book. One reviewer states, " Salmon wasn’t a great author because he couldn’t keep the audience interested and he overall didn’t create a great story". I partly agree with him because I was very bored throughout most of this book, however I did find a few things interesting that he talked about his childhood, but other than that I was very bored. He creates vivid pictures in my head which I think is very important for any other to be able to do because if I can't create a story in my head I will lose interest immediately. I Liked one of the topics he discusses which is the health aspect of this. He stated "… Diabetes, Obesity, and heart disease is very low among indigenous populations. I can relate to this because fast food restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's don’t give people the proper nutrients you need to be healthy.  

In conclusion I believe this book was very unenjoyable, however he makes great points through his stories and I believe we should do something about this problem by eating healthier. Salmon I think is a decent other however, he should find a way to keep the reader interested, because there were parts in this book I found very boring and then interesting and then it was just a slippery slope and became boring again. That is my overall opinion on Eating the Landscape.