Eating on a Mountain at the End of the World
Out June 2, 2026
from UNC Press
What can you eat to feel like you aren’t part of the problem?
When Zackary Vernon moved to the Appalachian town of Boone, North Carolina, he had a goal: to make more ethical food choices. Soon he was working on an organic farm; volunteering at a pay-what-you-can restaurant; and interviewing a range of people, from fishermen and farmers to biologists and even reality television star Eustace Conway. He found that when he stepped outside the industrial food system, he often ended up in the company of folks on the fringe—people who rejected not only industrial farming methods but also many modern beliefs and conventions that have proven harmful to our food system.
Disillusioned by extremist positions on the left and right, such as anarchist fantasies and myopic conservative worldviews, Vernon, like many of us, struggled to be an ethical eater without fully sacrificing pleasure and joy. While there are no easy answers, he invites readers to consider their own responsibilities to both the places they live and the far-off places their lifestyles affect. With dry wit and personal stories, Vernon offers ways for us to fail better as we consider how to eat more ethically in the future.
“Where Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma approached ethical eating as a research project with the journalist safely outside the system, Vernon is inside it — living in the town, working the soil, eating the food, and admitting when the gap between his principles and his pleasure becomes too wide to bridge gracefully.
This is a book for anyone who has stood in a grocery shop trying to do the right thing and found that the right thing was not labelled, not affordable, and not entirely clear.”
— Fisher & Farmer
“With humor and clear-eyed prose, Vernon encourages us to learn how to 'fail better' at being ethical eaters and environmental stewards.”
— Erica Abrams Locklear, author of Appalachia on the Table
“Zackary Vernon tackles the ethics of growing and consuming food from a deeply personal and engaging perspective. From the outset, it’s clear that here is an author who can both grow a tomato and butcher a chicken.”
— Diane Flynt, author of Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived
Purchase Eating on a Mountain at the End of the World wherever books are sold!
News
Eating on a Mountain at the End of the World featured on UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences “Bookmark This.”
“Bookmark This” is a feature that highlights new books by College of Arts and Sciences faculty and alumni, published each month. The featured book for April is Eating on a Mountain at the End of the World: How I Found Love, Humor and Beauty in My Quest for Ethical Food (University of North Carolina Press, June 2026) by Zackary Vernon. Vernon received his Ph.D. in English from Carolina in 2014 and today is an associate professor in the English department at Appalachian State University.