Diesel, A Bookstore- Kiera Butler discusses and signs "Raise

Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland welcomes Kiera Butler to the store to discuss and sign her new book, Raise: What 4-H Teaches Seven Million Kids and How Its Lessons Could Change Food and Farming Forever, on Thursday, November 13th at 7pm.

When journalist Kiera Butler visits a county fair for the first time, she is captivated by the white-uniformed members of the 4-H club and their perfectly groomed animals. She sets off on a search for a “real” 4-H’er, a hypothetical wholesome youth whom she imagines wearing cowboy boots and living on a ranch. Along the way, she meets five teenage 4-H’ers of varying backgrounds, and gets to know them as they prepare to compete at the next fair. Butler’s on-the-ground account of the teens’ concerns with their goats, pigs, sheep, proms, and SAT scores is interwoven with a fascinating history of the century-old 4-H club as it solicits corporate donations from top agribusiness firms such as DuPont, Monsanto, and Cargill. Her quest takes her from California’s cities and suburbs all the way to Ghana, where she investigates 4-H’s unprecedented push to expand its programs in the developing world, and the corporate partnership that is supporting this expansion.

Kiera Butler, an award-winning writer and senior editor at Mother Jones magazine, has written extensively about the environment. Her work has appeared in Orion, Audubon, and Columbia Journalism Review.