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Once we could fill our grocery carts with cheap and plentiful food, but not anymore. Cheap food has gone the way of cheap oil. Climate change is already reducing crop yields worldwide. The cost of flying in food from far away and shipping it across the country in refrigerated trucks is rapidly becoming unviable. Cars and cows increasingly devour grain harvests, sending prices skyrocketing. More Americans than ever before require food stamps and food pantries just to get by, and a worldwide food crisis is unfolding, overseas and in our kitchens.

We can keep hunger from stalking our families, but doing so will require a fundamental shift in our approach to field and table. A Nation of Farmers examines the limits and dangers of the globalized food system and shows how returning to the basics is our best hope. The book includes in-depth guidelines for:

• Creating resilient local food systems
• Growing, cooking, and eating sustainably and naturally
• Becoming part of the solution to the food crisis

Hide Author Sharon Astyk tackles all the nuts and bolts of preserving foods, and provides tips on how to bulk buy and preserve food inexpensively. Independence Days is packed with valuable secrets to home food preservation, including canning and dehydrating techniques, root cellaring, season extension, and a host of broader issues. In addition, it focuses on how to enjoy a delicious, high-quality diet at home year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating self-sufficient and vibrant local economies.

In just a few decades, America's approach to food has changed radically from the self-sufficiency of our grandparents to the convenience foods of mega-supermarkets. The recent economic crisis has seen millions of North Americans move from being middle class to poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the trend toward self-sufficiency, whole foods health and eating locally is shifting from being a pricey fringe activity to an essential element of getting by. But how can you eat locally, not just when the farmers markets are bountiful, but all year-round? Who really knows anymore how to eat outside of the supermarket, and who really knows how to eat a balanced diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods?

About the Author: Sharon Astyk is a former academic who is a writer, subsistence farmer, parent, activist and profile blogger (SharonAstyk.com and HenAndHarvest.com). She farms in upstate New York with her family, raises livestock, and grows and preserves vegetables. She is the author of Depletion and Abusndance, and co-author of A Nation of Farmers.