You have to read this book! Even if you only read what author, Tracie McMillan, writes in the concluding chapter titled, "A New American Way of Eating"... But, then you will be missing out on a well-written, personal, well-researched and engaging book!
One of the first facts that grabbed me (crazy that I turned right to the page--28, regarding farm workers' wages) was, "by the time an apple ends up in the supermarket, the entire cost of growing it accounts for just 16 percent of the price, while the other 84 percent goes to...marketing. This means that if farm wages were increased by 40 percent (to approximately minimum wage), it would only increase the average American family's produce bill by about sixteen dollars a YEAR." This begs MANY questions!
Ms. McMillan worked as a farm laborer in California, at Wal-Mart in Michigan and at Applebee's in New York to get personal experience in how food is grown, sold and served in our country. Her stories are so interesting to me. So real. I can directly relate to her Applebee's experiences, having worked at TGI Fridays at one time.
Why do we have so many "food deserts" (where people only have access to convenience store processed foods or fast food restaurants?) According to Ms. McMillans' experience and research, this is being addressed in some cities with the following: urban gardening (Detroit); requiring stores that accept food stamps to carry a percentage of fresh food; and, doubling the value of food stamps spent on fresh food.
From her own experience and interactions, Ms. McMillan deduces that most people would prefer to eat fresh food and most people appreciate and recognize the difference between fresh food and processed food, no matter their socioeconomic status.
Another thing that struck me (one of many, of course) was suggested in the final chapter: "In the early years of the twentieth century, a pragmatic visionary from Detroit faced a similar landscape. The richest tenth held 40 percent of the money; the other 90 percent scraped by on the rest. So Henry Ford set about designing a way of manufacturing cars that would make them affordable to average workers...even paying his workers a wage that would enable them to afford his cars... In the process, he built an empire that changed American society forever. Ford made it easy for most Americans to buy his products... Anyone serious about changing anything about the American way of eating--whether its the way we grow our food, how we sell it, or how we eat it--will need to figure out how to do the same."
