Every so often I stumble upon a book that lives so deep within upon its reading that it forces all the other intellectual and emotional furniture to be shuffled around it. Dan Barber's "The Third Plate," was such a read. It is stirring my insides and upending old thinking in ways that I find unbelievable even as I find it impossible to resist (though I don't wish to.)

First, it is valuable to say that I don't have much in the way of experience in the content of Dan's book. I've not done previous reading on the history of food production other than the brilliant (and equally disorienting) "The Big Fat Surprise." I'm not naturally conservationist in my thinking, I came from a family of industrial farmers. In short, I had many reasons to be either ambivalent or outright resistant to Dan's thinking. But I Wasn't.

Dan told stories about fish I'd never heard of, obscure farms from the four corners of the world, soil chemistry, the politics of GMOs and winsome reflections of his family farm growing up. I was caught up in his vision by way of his penetrating, humble and self-correcting story-telling. Perhaps this is the only way to truly be caught-up in a vision worth having.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I'm currently on my second pass through it. The first time I did it on audio (totally recommended as Dan reads his own book with passion and warmth) and now I'm doing it on paper with pen and highlighter in hand, farming for my next read and a deeper understanding of what may be the world-shifting offering that Dan offer's on his Third Plate.

Read it. Devour It. Do it again.