If you know anything about me and GirlieGirlArmy.com, you know we are hardcore Farm Sanctuary supporters and lovers, I even spent a few years working at the organization as their Celebrity Liaison. The founder of Farm Sanctuary, Gene Baur, is a walking angel. No really. He’s got a heart of gold, the mind of a scholar, and the face of an old school movie star. I am proud to call him a friend and mentor. His newest book LIVING THE FARM SANCTUARY LIFE: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Mindfully, Living Longer and Feeling Better Every Day is a call to consciousness, kindness, and delicious eating. It’s an exquisite must have for every bookshelf. Perhaps I’m biased because my recipe for Maitake Mushroom & Artichoke Heart Gluten-Free Lasagna With Vegan Lemon Ricotta is gorgeously featured in the book, but Jon Stewart had Gene on The Daily Show this week and he is absolutely mad for the book too, so if we are biased, we are clearly in good company!
Here’s the segment in case you missed it:
“This extraordinary book offers warm, intelligent advice on how to live thoughtfully in this world. It inspires and reminds us all to align our actions with our values.” —Moby
Why should you read this book?
Picture this: You step out of your daily life and are standing in a beautiful pasture with rolling hills, dewy green grass, and a sparkling lake. Cheerful farm animals wander in and out, and you hear a symphony of happy moos, clucks, and squawks. From sunrise to sunset there is tranquility and peace. Your heart fills with joy and you feel calm. “This is like Old MacDonald’s Farm from my childhood,” you think. But this is a real place, and it’s called Farm Sanctuary, the world’s largest refuge for farm animals. Farm Sanctuary saves animals, but it also allows visitors to return to a simpler, happier time and place where we lived more in harmony with nature and our core values. Gene (Baur) has teamed up with Forks Over Knives author Gene Stone to bring this transformative experience to the masses.
Order this slice of heaven now:
Named “the conscience of the food movement” by TIME magazine, Gene knows that the key to happiness lies in aligning our actions with our beliefs. Living the Farm Sanctuary Life is a definitive guide to living a life in accordance with our values, no matter where you are. Baur lays out the 5 tenets to live kindly, to achieve physical, emotional and spiritual strength and health, to create less harm in the world and to feel more enlivened. You’ll learn how to eat a plant-based diet, engage in a mindful connection with animals and your food, eat plants for your personal health, and for the health of the earth.
The book is packed with tips and tricks for ways to easily live by these guiding principles, including:
- Easy ways to effectively create positive change in this world that anyone can do on a day-to-day basis
- How to create a space where you can eat mindfully and take a conscious approach to food
- How to eat a plant-based diet on a budget and how to prep a plant-based kitchen and pantry
- How to stay stylish while shopping with compassion
Peppered throughout the book are incredibly heartwarming and inspiring stories of animals who have been rescued at Farm Sanctuary. There are some books that you can read and once you’re done with it, you feel like none of the stories have made a significant impact on your life or even given you any new form of knowledge. But for me, before reading this book, I was already interested in the agricultural side of it all. From knowing the basics of an industrial air compressor repair to feeding farm animals, I knew this book was going to be something I would resonate with. These stories highlight how all animals have real emotions – and in the right environment – thrive with the right amount of TLC and companionship. You’ll learn about Sweety, the blind cow who was rescued from a bleak industrial dairy farm and became best friends with Trisha, another rescued blind cow at Farm Sanctuary. Or Tony the Rooster, who likely escaped from a poultry market and formed an inseparable bond with one of his caretakers. He made the successful journey from almost being someone’s dinner to someone’s beloved companion.
To help readers get started, there are 100 extraordinarily delicious and easy recipes included from some of Farm Sanctuary’s biggest fans, including A-list celebrities; chefs like Crossroad’s Tal Ronnen, Candle’s Angel Ramos and Jorge Pineda, and Chloe Coscarelli; and cookbook writers like Roberto Martin, Bryant Terry and Rip Esselstyn.
Living the Farm Sanctuary Life is an inspiring and practical guide on how to live a more meaningful, compassionate and animal-friendly life that will in turn inspire positive change for all those around us.
Gene Baur is the co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, America’s leading farm animal protection organization, a national bestselling author, triathlete, and a pioneer in the field of undercover investigations. Widely recognized as one of the most important social justice activists of the 21st century, he lives in Washington, DC.
Gene Stone is the author of nine bestsellers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Forks Over Knives. He lives in New York.