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: #345661 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

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

Excellent beer information!
This book contains a wealth of information most people never knew about beer. This includes the history of beer brewing and the health benefits of moderate consumption of quality micro-brewed beer.

A microcosm in a microbrewery
I think it was William Blake who said that the world is contained in a single grain of sand. O'Brien shows the world in a single (and multiple) glasses of beer.
Someone else said that if we each keep our little corner of interest clean, soon the whole earth will be clean. O'Brien shows how to clean up his little corner.
The writing is sharp, interesting, with more facts than Britannica. It shows how beer had and still has the potential to bring equality, ecology, and pure joy to the world. By focusing on his part of the world-- on his interests-- O'Brien gives us drink for thought about what the rest of us can do. The book is inspiring! --Mykel Board

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