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A review by noahbw
Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman
4.0
I initially assumed that this would be sociology and/or history -- it's really not. The book could be more aptly named.
Instead, Ruhlman, a food writer, set out to write the book on grocery stores he wanted to read -- and he loves grocery stores. He begins by telling us why he loves them so much: his father. I also love grocery stores. I also love them, and cooking, because of my dad, and he loves them because of his dad. Our generational shifts (my grandfather, dad, me) in thinking about food line up with those in Ruhlman's family.
The book as a whole is chock full, but also very accessible. Ruhlman takes a personal approach, choosing to get to know the mid-size family-owned grocery store chain he grew up with -- their stores, their employees, the brothers who run the company. He uses this as his point of entry for exploring the evolution of the supermarket, including many recent developments and national trends, as well as for considering a variety of health-related concerns regarding our food. In both of these areas, but particularly the latter, he is able to rely heavily on the work that others have done in revealing our food systems and shifting our cultural conversations about food, and I really appreciated how conversational he was rather than trying to present this kind of information as if it were new.
The critique (besides the confusingly broad title) is not a full enough acknowledgement, or understanding, of income and class -- and I say this as someone who fully recognizes Ruhlman's world. He certainly has moments where he points to the role of income disparity in determining food options and therefore health outcomes, but these tend to be moments, and then he returns to the point he was otherwise making. In general, the point he was otherwise making is that we need to eat "real" food that we cook, and though he would acknowledge various factors making this harder for some than others (food deserts, processed food is cheap, etc) he did not actually spend any time considering what this looks like for anyone except the upper/middle class.
Instead, Ruhlman, a food writer, set out to write the book on grocery stores he wanted to read -- and he loves grocery stores. He begins by telling us why he loves them so much: his father. I also love grocery stores. I also love them, and cooking, because of my dad, and he loves them because of his dad. Our generational shifts (my grandfather, dad, me) in thinking about food line up with those in Ruhlman's family.
The book as a whole is chock full, but also very accessible. Ruhlman takes a personal approach, choosing to get to know the mid-size family-owned grocery store chain he grew up with -- their stores, their employees, the brothers who run the company. He uses this as his point of entry for exploring the evolution of the supermarket, including many recent developments and national trends, as well as for considering a variety of health-related concerns regarding our food. In both of these areas, but particularly the latter, he is able to rely heavily on the work that others have done in revealing our food systems and shifting our cultural conversations about food, and I really appreciated how conversational he was rather than trying to present this kind of information as if it were new.
The critique (besides the confusingly broad title) is not a full enough acknowledgement, or understanding, of income and class -- and I say this as someone who fully recognizes Ruhlman's world. He certainly has moments where he points to the role of income disparity in determining food options and therefore health outcomes, but these tend to be moments, and then he returns to the point he was otherwise making. In general, the point he was otherwise making is that we need to eat "real" food that we cook, and though he would acknowledge various factors making this harder for some than others (food deserts, processed food is cheap, etc) he did not actually spend any time considering what this looks like for anyone except the upper/middle class.