Toxic Free NC - Get Involved

A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr. The story of Woburn, Massachusetts, the high incidence of childhood cancer associated with industrial pollution and the lawsuit against the responsible company.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, the book tells the story of how the Kingsolver family was changed by one year of deliberately eating food produced in the place where they live.

Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana's Chemical Corridor by Steve Lerner. This story chronicles how the people of Diamond, an African-American subdivision sandwiched between a Shell chemical plant and a Motiva oil refinery in Norco, Louisiana, lobbied Shell to pay for their relocation after decades of exposure to toxic emissions.

Having Faith by Sandra Steingraber. A biologist’s poetic journey through her own pregnancy, and exploration of the environmental contaminants that affect fetal and childhood development.

Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide to Farm Friendly Food by Joel Salatin. The author is a successful grass-fed livestock farmer in Central Virginia who sells only within his foodshed. Salatin wrote this book because he believes that the “yearning in the human soul to smell a flower, pet a pig and enjoy food with a face is stronger now than anytime in history.”

Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber. Subtitled “an ecologist looks at cancer and the environment,” this is the story of the author’s own struggle with (and survival of) cancer.

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. A great introduction to the web of nature, written by a city person who learns through observation.

Noah’s Garden by Sara Bonnett Stein. A simple plan for anyone with a backyard to plant with a new perspective on restoring local ecology.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us — industrial food, organic food, and food we forage ourselves - from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating.

Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers. In this groundbreaking “scientific detective story,” the authors introduced the general public to the concept of endocrine disruptors – industrial chemicals that interfere with our hormone systems and affect human and wildlife health and development.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. A carefully crafted ecological treatise, the novel is also a love story told with Kingsolver's keen observations and earthy, poetic wit.

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams. The author’s story of dealing with her mother’s experience with breast cancer after nuclear testing by the U.S. government.

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. First published in 1949, this nature classic awakened many Americans to a new environmental ethic.

Silent Snow by Marla Cone. A journalist’s exploration of toxics in the Arctic, their effects on human and animal health and the lessons we can learn from the polar region.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. The seminal book on the role of pesticides in harming the health of animals and the environment. Published in 1962, many consider this book the spark that started the U.S. environmental movement.

When Smoke Ran Like Water by Devra Davis. An epidemiologist’s historical account of some of the world’s most toxic smog events, including the Donora Fog (1948) that blanketed a town in Pennsylvania for a week, leaving many people sick and some dead.

A Civil Action: The story of Woburn, Massachusetts, the high incidence of childhood cancer associated with industrial pollution and the lawsuit against the responsible company (starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall).

Blue Vinyl: A “toxic comedy” of the harmful effects of PVC plastics and one woman’s struggle to get her parents to use healthier alternatives as siding for their house.

Erin Brockovich: The true story of a single mom who convinced a major law firm to stop Pacific Gas & Electric Company from poisoning southern California residents with toxic chemicals (starring Julia Roberts).

The Future of Food: Examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat, as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore’s landmark film on global climate change and what we can do about it.

Kilowatt Ours: Filmmaker Jeff Barrie takes viewers on a journey from the coal mines of West Virginia to the solar panel fields of Florida, as he discovers solutions to America's energy related problems.

Trade Secrets: A Bill Moyers report on the harmful effects of industrial pollutants, how the chemical industry has scuttled the public’s right to know, and what we can do about it.