A Good Drink

"Insightful tour de force... Farrell's writing is as informative as it is intoxicating" -- Publishers Weekly Shanna Farrell loves a good drink. As a bartender, she not only poured spirits, but learned their stories--who made them and how. Living in San Francisco, surrounded by farm-to-table restaurants and high-end bars, she wondered why the eco-consciousness devoted to food didn't extend to drinks. The short answer is that we don't think of spirits as food. But whether it's rum, brandy, whiskey, or tequila, drinks are distilled from the same crops that end up on our tables. Most are grown with chemicals that cause pesticide resistance and pollute waterways, and distilling itself requires huge volumes of water. Even bars are notorious for generating mountains of trash. The good news is that while the good drink movement is far behind the good food movement, it is emerging.  In A Good Drink, Farrell goes in search of the bars, distillers, and farmers who are driving a transformation to