So, I’ve been reviewing books semiregularly for the Tribune for a few months now, and it’s nice to be back in a deadline-making, word-count-hitting groove. Thus far I’ve stuck mostly to the food beat, but with this latest I got to branch out into ecology — and I liked it.

JB Mackinnon is a former Adbusters editor and author, with his partner Alisa Smith, of the 2007 bestseller Plenty, one of the first books to popularize the then-fringey idea of local eating. (Canadian title: “The 100-Mile Diet.”) I wrote about that book for the Reader when it came out, and have loosely followed their work ever since, and after I chanced upon a great essay by Mackinnon in Orion (“Appetite of Abundance,” sadly not online) I was inspired to seek out his latest, The Once and Future World.

Here’s the review — which can be found in prettier PDF format if you are a subscriber to the Trib’s Printer’s Row digital supplement.