A review by janthonytucson
Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman

4.0

About halfway through this I thought 'Man, this book is gonna piss off some thinned skinned people" and so I checked Goodread reviews, and sure enough the top reviews are all people who feel offended in someway. Which means Micheal Ruhlman is doing a good job. I think all the people who seem to be offended by Ruhlman's attack against the American sugar based diet is unwarranted should take the time to read The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, it is 500 pages of pure research into how and why we got to where we are today with a highly-processed sugar based diet. That book is not an easy fun read like this book. It is a heavily footnoted, densely researched expose. So go read that, then tell us in your reviews again how the science is not there yet...

The book focuses on one smallish grocery chain based out of Cleveland called Heinen's, and he using their story to tell the broader story of how food gets grown, processed, shipped, and eventually end's up in on the dining room table. It can feel a little bit like an infomercial for Heinen's at ties, but I understand that to make the book concise he focused on just one chain.

Overall, the book is an easy read, informative and I would recommend it to anyone.