Overheard a librarian talking about a banned cookbook and it stuck with me

I was at the main library in Portland last week and heard someone saying they couldn't stock a certain cookbook because it had 'seditious' content in the intro (something about food sovereignty). Has anyone else run into food-related bans that seem more about politics than actual recipes?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_riley5d ago

Three blocks from my place they put a warning sticker on "The Anarchist's Cookbook" but I actually looked it up and Portland banned a cookbook called "Stolen Harvest" because the intro talked about indigenous seed sovereignty. Like come on, it's literally just a lentil soup recipe with some militant chickpea rhetoric sprinkled in. I swear librarians are out here treating cookbooks like they're classified government documents now. Next thing you know they'll ban "Joy of Cooking" because it has instructions for roasting a chicken which is basically arson if you think about it too hard.

shanel135d ago

Ngl they probably put the warning sticker on the wrong book anyway. The Anarchist's Cookbook has actual instructions for making bombs, but they're all outdated and might just blow up your kitchen instead of whatever you were aiming at. Meanwhile some poor grandma can't check out a lentil soup recipe without showing ID and signing a waiver. Next they'll put a "contains dangerous ideas" label on _The Joy of Cooking_ just because it tells you how to use a knife.