Based on ten years of surveying farming communities around the world, top New York chef Dan Barber’s THE THIRD PLATE offers a radical new way of thinking about food that will heal the land and taste incredible.
The ‘first plate’ was a classic meal centred on a large cut of meat with few vegetables. On the ‘second plate’, championed by the farm-to-table movement, meat is free-range and vegetables are locally sourced. It’s better-tasting, and better for the planet, but the second plate’s architecture is identical to that of the first. It, too, disrupts ecological balances, causing soil depletion and nutrient loss – it just isn’t a sustainable way to farm or eat.The ‘third plate’ offers a solution: an integrated system of vegetable, cereal and livestock production that is fully supported – in fact, dictated – by what we choose to cook for dinner. THE THIRD PLATE is where good farming and good food intersect.