Savoring and Saving the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods

Edited by Gary Paul Nabhan, Chelsea Green Publishing

The book profiles more than ninety heritage foods most at risk, detailing their folk histories, their causes of endangerment, the efforts to recover them, and offering historic recipes with which to savor them once they’ve been recovered. The book’s appendix lists over 1,000 unique livestock, vegetables, fruits, fish and game at risk in North America. To order the book, visit Chelsea Green Publishing.

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Forgotten Fruits Manual & Manifesto - Apples

As part of RAFT's 2010 "Forgotten Fruits" initiative, this brochure details the history, decline, nursery practices and local restoration efforts designed to bring back the most endangered heirloom apples to orchards, backyards, farmer's markets, restaurants, and home kitchens across the country. Compiled and edited by Gary Paul Nabhan; introduction by Ben Watson

Download Forgotten Fruits Manual & Manifesto - Apples (PDF - 32 pages, 2.5MB - Published March 2010)

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Place-based Foods at Risk in the Great Lakes

This booklet includes a working list of rare place-based foods with unique traditions in Great Lakes landscapes, waterways and cultures, as well as essays from Great Lakes residents who are working to protect and revive these foods. We invite you to add, amend or "adopt" (champion) foods on this list---support those communities that remain their stewards and work to bring these foods back to our tables. Send all list additions and edits to .

View and download Place-based Foods at Risk in the Great Lakes

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Place-based Foods at Risk in New England

This list highlights the rare place-based foods that have unique traditions in Greater New England landscapes, seascapes and cultures. The publication notes which foods are threatened, endangered or functionally extinct, and invites New Englanders to help expand and revise the list, and work to bring these foods back to our tables. This is a working list. We invite you to send all list additions and edits to .

Download Place-based Foods at Risk in New England and the Maritime Provinces (PDF 4 pages, 480K)

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Place-based Foods at Risk in California

This booklet includes a working list of the the rare place-based foods of California and essays from Californians who are working to protect and revive these foods and supporte their food communities. What foods now grown or gathered in California's soils and waters are among those most important to West Coast food history, most vital to California's sustainability, and currently be at risk of disappearing from our tables? We encourage you to add, amend or adopt foods on this list and support those communities that remain their stewards. Send all list additions and edits to .

Download Placed-based Foods at Risk in California.(PDF 16 pages, 3MB)

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Renewing Salmon Nation’s Food Traditions

“Salmon Nation’s (Pacific Northwest's) coastal rainforests, muskegs, mudflat clam beds, Palouse prairies, and river canyons look and feel unlike any other in the world. You can sense the distinctiveness of this eco-region wherever you travel within it—from Alaska, the Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, western Montana, Oregon, and northern California. But Salmon Nation also tastes unlike any other place—from its huckleberries and Oregon grapes to its Dungeness crab and alder-smoked salmon…."

To learn about the endangered heritage foods of Salmon Nation and about how to participate in their recovery, purchase this book from our online bookstore or Ecotrust.

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Renewing the Native Food Traditions of Bison Nation

This annotated list highlights certain food traditions of Bison Nation (the Great Plains) that could be restored concomitant with the restoration of free-ranging bison to large tracts of the short-grass plains and tall-grass prairies. The RAFT consortium offers this preliminary list to encourage more collaboration among conservation biologists, restoration ecologists, the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, wild foragers, hunters, chefs, nutrition educators and local food system activists. RAFT hopes that discussion of this inventory among diverse parties will eventually lead to more sustainable harvests of the unique, traditional foods of Bison Nation.

Download Renewing the Native Food Traditions of Bison Nation (PDF 8 pages, 770K)

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Seafood Traditions at Risk in North America

A RAFT List for Biological Recovery and Cultural Revitalization

From potlatches and clambakes, to sea shanties and tales told in ice fishing huts, America’s cultural heritage has been built not merely on its fertile soils and mineral-rich mountains, but on its waters as well. That is where some of America’s finest artisans have practiced their traditions of weaving nets and basket traps, carving totem-style halibut hooks, harpoons, floats and lures, constructing stone traps, decoys and crab pots, or shaping canoes, kayaks, dories and pangas….

Download Seafood Traditions at Risk in North America (PDF, 4 pages, 681k)

Download Guide to Seafood of the Seri Indians (PDF, 2 pages, 400k)

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Heritage Breed Resources

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy offers a number of educational resources for download. Use these materials to learn more about rare breeds of livestock and poultry and to support the conservation of these animals.

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Ark of Taste catalog

The Slow Food USA Ark of Taste catalog profiles over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction---foods that are threatened by industrial standardization, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage. Like the foods on the RAFT Alliance regional food lists, Ark of Taste foods are at-risk and place-based. Additionally, they have (1) deep historical and/or cultural roots and a tradition of use in the locale/region, (2) unique/superior flavor, appearance or texture, and (3) market potential. Nominations to the Ark of Taste are vetted by a committee of Slow Food USA members. Click here to read Ark of Taste food profiles, find producers through the LocalHarvest.org directory and download the Ark of Taste nomination form.

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Audio recordings of Native American Food Producers and Stewards

RAFT partner The Cultural Conservancy (TCC) has documented stories of Native American food producers and food stewards from around the U.S. –individuals who are actively working to maintain, protect, renew and revitalize indigenous foods and food traditions. TCC produced a CD of audio recordings to be used for education and inspiration within Native American communities, to raise awareness about native foods with other food and environmental communities, and to build strategic alliances and initiatives to improve the health and accessibility of native foods to Native American communities. For more information about this CD, contact The Cultural Conservancy.

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