Overview

A former senior food policy advisor to President Obama breaks down how changing the way we eat can help fix the climate crisis, from rethinking daily habits to investing in new technology. “Smart, timely, and full of purpose.”—Michelle Obama “A wake‑up call for the future of our planet.”—Chef José Andrés “An impressively compelling manifesto for food system transformation.”—Marion Nestle As a chef in high-end restaurants, and later, in the home of then Senator Barack and Michelle Obama, Sam Kass read a lot about how eating organic and buying local was the key to remaking a food system otherwise built on climate-change-causing petroleum. But when he followed the Obamas into the White House, he realized something: While it’s easy to identify the problems in our spoiled food system, fixing it is not as simple as getting your eggs from the farmers’ market. Now investing in startups trying to solve the environmental and human challenges of climate change in food and agriculture. In The Last Supper, Kass shares everything he’s learned, simplifying it all down to what he calls “The Core Principle”: Maximize nutrient production while minimizing environmental damage. He lays out an accessible, action-based plan to save the environment, and in turn, ourselves, based on four pillars of change: • Culture: shifting the way we think about and approach the environment as individuals is the foundation of broader change • Policy and legislation: the limited but important role of policy and how change is made on a governmental level and what we can do about it • Business: How to change the businesses that provide the food we eat as the only path to change our food system • Technology: a deep dive into the future with the new and innovative technologies researchers are using to save the environment, from CRISPR and Loam Bio to the magic of mycelium and the secret weapon that is regenerative farming Through anecdotes, interviews, and an astounding amount of research, The Last Supper gives us the tools we need to make a difference.

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Reviews

“Part his version of his chef-activist time in the Obama White House and part rousing call to action on climate change, The Last Supper is Sam Kass’s impressively compelling manifesto for food system transformation. Read it and get to work.”—Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health, New York University, and author of What to Eat Now “My dear friend Sam Kass has always understood that food is about more than what we put into our bodies—it’s about our health, our families, and our communities as a whole. I’ve trusted Sam to help design national policy and nourish the people I love the most. Every step of the way, he has brought vision, urgency, and heart to the issues that fundamentally affect the way we live. In The Last Supper, he gives us not just a wake-up call but a real plan to strengthen our families and heal our planet. This book is smart, timely, and full of purpose.”—Michelle Obama “In The Last Supper, Sam Kass serves up a wake‑up call for the future of our planet. Equal parts urgent and hopeful, it’s a must-read playbook for the big bets and bold choices necessary to save our food system.”—Chef José Andrés

Author Information

Sam Kass was senior policy advisor for nutrition policy in the Obama Administration and is currently an investor in several food technology start-ups. One of the Michelle Obama's longest-serving advisors, Sam was the executive director of her Let's Move initiative and helped create the first major vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and was trained by one of Austria's greatest chefs, Christian Domschitz.

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