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A review by robinsbooks
The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan
3.0
I wasn't totally comfortable with giving this four stars, yet three stars didn't seem like enough for this important topic so consider it a 3.5 star book.
Following how our food is processed from harvesting to grocery store/restaurant is something I've always wondered about but this book didn't totally hold my interest in that regard. Part of it may be that I was hoping for a quick read and it really wasn't as there were footnotes galore (in much smaller print than the regular text which made them difficult to read) and they are rather lengthy and dry.
What I did like was reading about her experiences picking in the California produce fields (grapes, garlic, peaches), working in the produce section of Detroit Wal-Mart (just as I suspected, Wal-Mart produce is always old), and as an expediter (who knew there was such a position?) in an Applebee’s in Brooklyn. There were times I felt she was a bit of a prima donna and I thought the abrupt way she left the first two jobs bordeded a bit on the unethical side, but her job reporting was very interesting and something I always enjoy reading.
Read this is you want lots of details and statistics about our food chain and how well (or not well) Americans eat. If you want another book about the American way of eating, try FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser, and for books on how Americans live on minimum wage, NICKEL AND DIMED by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Following how our food is processed from harvesting to grocery store/restaurant is something I've always wondered about but this book didn't totally hold my interest in that regard. Part of it may be that I was hoping for a quick read and it really wasn't as there were footnotes galore (in much smaller print than the regular text which made them difficult to read) and they are rather lengthy and dry.
What I did like was reading about her experiences picking in the California produce fields (grapes, garlic, peaches), working in the produce section of Detroit Wal-Mart (just as I suspected, Wal-Mart produce is always old), and as an expediter (who knew there was such a position?) in an Applebee’s in Brooklyn. There were times I felt she was a bit of a prima donna and I thought the abrupt way she left the first two jobs bordeded a bit on the unethical side, but her job reporting was very interesting and something I always enjoy reading.
Read this is you want lots of details and statistics about our food chain and how well (or not well) Americans eat. If you want another book about the American way of eating, try FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser, and for books on how Americans live on minimum wage, NICKEL AND DIMED by Barbara Ehrenreich.