Two Oakland farmers and activists were part of the draw at a sold-out book launch Thursday evening at the new “Revival Bar + Kitchen” in Berkeley.

The recent publication of “Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat” by food and farm activist Temra Costa, was the cause célèbre - although the menu and Revival’s signature cocktails, a “Farmer Jane” drink made with cherry-infused whisky sold out in the first hour - were hits as well.

Costa’s book profiles women in the food movement, but it’s not just about women farmers, she said.

“It’s about educators, chefs,” she said. “It’s about activists, and it’s about moms that are changing the way we eat and farm all over the country.”

The book features 30 women from across the country who are engaged in the sustainable food and farming movement, although many of them have a California connection, said Costa.

At the event, five female Bay Area farm and food activists featured in the book took opportunities to speak about their work.

The two Oakland residents featured in Farmer Jane, Willow Rosenthal and Novella Carpenter, are both urban farmers.

Oakland has been a launching pad for the urban farming movement, said Carpenter. This is in part due to city laws that allow more flexibility in what farmers can do on their property, such as keep animals.

“We’ve gotten a lot of our training for how to raise these crops and raise these animals in Oakland,” Carpenter said. “In a lot of ways, Willow’s City Slicker Farms and then my farm, Ghosttown Farm, has been like a laboratory of experimenting [for urban farming].”

Rosenthal, of City Slicker Farms, took time to highlight the differences between a town like Berkeley, where residents have many more healthful eating options, and neighborhoods like West Oakland, whose residents may not have the financial means or opportunity to purchase healthful food.

City Slicker Farms, which started 10 years ago, now grows produce on five lots in Oakland and sells it at affordable prices to West Oakland residents, said Rosenthal.

“If you’ve only got a few dollars to spend, McDonald’s is a really good choice for calories to feed your family,” said Rosenthal.

“So we have been selling produce at sliding scale prices – no one turned away for lack of funds, for 10 years now.”

Costa received high praise from Rosenthal for her book’s telling of the story of City Slicker Farms.

“Our organization has been covered in the media quite a lot in the past years, and you actually got it 100 percent right,” Rosenthal said.

Costa credited her former employer, the Community Alliance for Family Farms, and the Buy Fresh Buy Local network for helping her make the connections she drew upon to find women to profile.

Costa plans to use the book as a tool for change on the Web. She features a new female food and farm activist every two weeks on her Farmer Jane blog and said she hopes the site will live on as a resource for people interested in women, food and farming.

One of the ways Costa hopes to do this involves transforming part of the website into a fundraising arena where businesswomen in the food and farm community can post needs and receive microloans for items such as small tractors or kitchen equipment, she said.

Costa’s goal with this book, as with her activist work, is to change the way the American food system works because it has such a large impact on the food system around the globe.

“If we can’t change the food system in the U.S. how is it going to change out there?” she asked.

For more information, visit the Farmer Jane website.