Have a Beer and Save the Planet

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Product Description

Fermenting Revolution delivers an empowering message about how individuals can change the world through the simple act of having a beer. Chris O’Brien presents the case for beer as both the cause of and solution to all of the world’s problems. Beer has contributed to the best qualities of civilization, but it is also helping to destroy them.

The global beer industry relies heavily on fossil-fuels and chemical agriculture, rapidly destroying nature and contributing to climate change.

Corporate beer is centralized and hierarchical, which is good for a few elites, but displaces local brewing traditions and exacerbates the growing wealth gap.

But the craft brewing renaissance relies on cooperation, emphasizes local production, protects and celebrates nature, and nurtures the growth of strong and equitable communities.

Fermenting Revolution traces the path of brewing from a women-led, home-based craft to corporate industry, and describes how modern craft breweries and home-brewers are forging stronger communities. O’Brien explains how corporate mega-breweries are also taking steps to pioneer industrial ecology, and profiles the most inspiring and radical breweries, brewers, and beer drinkers that are making the world a better place to live.

In the last two decades, Americans have returned to to beer as a way of life rather than as a commodity. Casting off its industrial chains, beer is again communal, convivial, democratic, healthful, and natural. The contemporary American brewing scene champions ecologically sustainable production and is helping to create thriving community places. After reading Fermenting Revolution, mere beer drinkers will become "beer activists," ready to fight corporate rule by simply meeting their neighbors for a pint at the local brewpub-saving the world one beer at a time.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #578076 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"...if you've ever needed a good justification for your taste, get out and buy this book! Remember it's a really good read - especially over a pint or two of the real stuff, I do assure you - and if you're drinking the real ale, don't forget, you're helping to save the world too!" -- Peter Kiddle, News & Views (Magazine of the South Devon Branch of CAMRA), Spring 2007.

About the Author
Chris O'Brien is Director of the Responsible Purchasing Network at The Center for a New American Dream, having previously directed Co-op America's Business Network and the Fair Trade Federation. Also part owner of an organic and fair trade brewing supplies company, he is publisher of Beeractivist.com, the online brewsletter about how to drink beer and save

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Customer Reviews

Grab a pint and grab this book.
Part history, part manifesto, and a lot of fun. This book is one of the most informative yet enjoyable non-fiction that I have read in a while. O'Brien provides lots of good facts and figures about good ol' beer that you can use to surprise and impress friends and family. This is also a practical guide to living more sustainably by enjoying a pint or two from your local brewpub. Moreover, the book is well written and easy to read.

An actionable history of beer in society; Drink for Thought.
Mr. O'Brien has brought together vital information for those who are seeking to think about as well as better appreciate this noble beverage.

Goes well beyond the works of Michael Jackson or the single facet beer history books books in my collection.

A call to action with ramifications on your view of business ethics, community and trade.

"The Beer Jockey" of Kansas City- Jim Quinn

A fine survey of corporate and non-corporate powers and divisions makes for involving reading.
Humor, history, and business savvy blends with a beer activist history so it's hard to peg this title for any one section - it's featured here because its strength is a coverage of the sustainability movement's values and business interactions, which documents beer marketing, the evolution and growing strength of microbreweries, and their interactions with local communities. A fine survey of corporate and non-corporate powers and divisions makes for involving reading.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch