‘Feed the People!’ Review: In Praise of the Supermarket

Eating locally grown meat and vegetables is a nice aspiration, but it’s no way to get a satisfying meal in the winter.

By Daniel Akst. He reviews the book Feed the People! Why Industrial Food Is Good and How to Make It Even Better by Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N. Rosenberg. Excerpts:

"There is no shortage of access to Brussels sprouts; people simply prefer to eat the wrong things. Local is fine, but not if you live in Chicago and want good produce in winter. Oh, and if you’re on a tight budget, Walmart is your best bet for healthy victuals."

"nostalgia for the food culture of our grandparents overlooks the prevalence of rickets, pellagra and food-poisoning in those days, to say nothing of hunger. Nor do the authors believe processed food is inherently evil. They disdain raw milk as dangerous and ask instead that we appreciate the role of pasteurization and fortified bread"

"urban community gardens, those itty-bitty lots where neighbors grow snap peas and the like, don’t amount to a hill of beans. “Qualitatively invaluable, quantitatively valueless,” they write."

"nobody should call our food system “broken”"

"the claim “offers no real vision of a better future and only vague gestures at systemic change.”"

"a vast modern society can only be fed safely and affordably by means of an efficient, industrial-scale food-production apparatus"

"pleasure deserves to be considered"

See this related post: Stop Worrying, and Learn to Love Industrial Food. 

Here is the beginning:

See We Shouldn’t Want to Eat Like Our Great-Great-Grandparents by Dr. Dutkiewicz and Dr. Rosenberg are the authors of the forthcoming book “Feed the People: Why Industrial Food Is Good and How to Make It Even Better.” From The NY Times.