SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – On Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 6 p.m., Springfield Town Library welcomes author Cathy Stanton for her presentation on her book “Food Margins: Lessons from an Unlikely Grocer.”
An anthropologist walks into a grocery store…” No, that’s not the start of a joke, it’s the true story of how Cathy Stanton came to be involved in the effort to save a small-town food co-op in central Massachusetts, and what she discovered there about why it’s so hard – yet so important – to make real changes in how and where we get our food.
Stanton’s new book “Food Margins: Lessons from an Unlikely Grocer” tells this local and personal story as part of the longer history of the modern food system and present-day struggles for equity and sustainability. Her presentation will share her learning, and invite discussion about audience members’ own experiences and questions about all the ways that grocery shopping connects us to the world around us.
A romance novelist turned anthropologist turned avocational grocer, Cathy Stanton teaches anthropology and environmental studies at Tufts University in Boston. She lives in rural north-central Massachusetts, the setting for “Food Margins,” published by the University of Massachusetts Press in spring 2024. Stanton has previously written widely about historic sites and industrial history, and has been a consultant for the National Park Service and several museums and historic sites, particularly focusing on food and farm history.
This event is free and open to the public. To sign up for a reminder, visit our website, www.springfieldtownlibrary.org/calendar.