Food Politics

Food Politics PDF Author: Marion Nestle
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520955064
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 537

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Book Description
We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our over-efficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view. Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health. No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this path-breaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.

Food Politics

Food Politics PDF Author: Marion Nestle
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520955064
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 537

Get Book

Book Description
We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our over-efficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view. Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health. No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this path-breaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.

Ethnic American Food Today

Ethnic American Food Today PDF Author: Lucy M. Long
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442227311
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 760

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Book Description
Ethnic American Food Today is the first encyclopedia to illuminate the variety and complexity of ethnic food cultures in this country and to address their place within the larger American culture.

Free for All

Free for All PDF Author: Janet Poppendieck
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520944410
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
How did our children end up eating nachos, pizza, and Tater Tots for lunch? Taking us on an eye-opening journey into the nation's school kitchens, this superbly researched book is the first to provide a comprehensive assessment of school food in the United States. Janet Poppendieck explores the deep politics of food provision from multiple perspectives--history, policy, nutrition, environmental sustainability, taste, and more. How did we get into the absurd situation in which nutritionally regulated meals compete with fast food items and snack foods loaded with sugar, salt, and fat? What is the nutritional profile of the federal meals? How well are they reaching students who need them? Opening a window onto our culture as a whole, Poppendieck reveals the forces--the financial troubles of schools, the commercialization of childhood, the reliance on market models--that are determining how lunch is served. She concludes with a sweeping vision for change: fresh, healthy food for all children as a regular part of their school day.

Three Squares

Three Squares PDF Author: Abigail Carroll
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465025528
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
We are what we eat, as the saying goes, but we are also how we eat, and when, and where. Our eating habits reveal as much about our society as the food on our plates, and our national identity is written in the eating schedules we follow and the customs we observe at the table and on the go. In Three Squares, food historian Abigail Carroll upends the popular understanding of our most cherished mealtime traditions, revealing that our eating habits have never been stable—far from it, in fact. The eating patterns and ideals we’ve inherited are relatively recent inventions, the products of complex social and economic forces, as well as the efforts of ambitious inventors, scientists and health gurus. Whether we’re pouring ourselves a bowl of cereal, grabbing a quick sandwich, or congregating for a family dinner, our mealtime habits are living artifacts of our collective history—and represent only the latest stage in the evolution of the American meal. Our early meals, Carroll explains, were rustic affairs, often eaten hastily, without utensils, and standing up. Only in the nineteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution upset work schedules and drastically reduced the amount of time Americans could spend on the midday meal, did the shape of our modern “three squares” emerge: quick, simple, and cold breakfasts and lunches and larger, sit-down dinners. Since evening was the only part of the day when families could come together, dinner became a ritual—as American as apple pie. But with the rise of processed foods, snacking has become faster, cheaper, and easier than ever, and many fear for the fate of the cherished family meal as a result. The story of how the simple gruel of our forefathers gave way to snack fixes and fast food, Three Squares also explains how Americans’ eating habits may change in the years to come. Only by understanding the history of the American meal can we can help determine its future.

American Tuna

American Tuna PDF Author: Andrew F. Smith
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520261844
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In a lively account of the American tuna industry's fortunes and misfortunes over the past century, a celebrated food writer relates how tuna went from being sold primarily as a fertiliser to becoming the most commonly consumed fish in the US. Tuna is both the subject and the backdrop for other facets of American history.

Paradox of Plenty

Paradox of Plenty PDF Author: Harvey Levenstein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520234406
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This book is intended for those interested in US food habits and diets during the 20th century, American history, American social life and customs.

Food in America [3 Volumes]

Food in America [3 Volumes] PDF Author: Andrew F. Smith
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
ISBN: 1610698584
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This three-volume work examines all facets of the modern U.S. food system, including the nation's most important food and agriculture laws, the political forces that shape modern food policy, and the food production trends that are directly impacting the lives of every American family. Americans are constantly besieged by conflicting messages about food, the environment, and health and nutrition. Are foods with genetically modified ingredients safe? Should we choose locally grown food? Is organic food better than conventional food? Are concentrated animal feed operations destroying the environment? Should food corporations target young children with their advertising and promotional campaigns? This comprehensive three-volume set addresses all of these questions and many more, probing the problems created by the industrial food system, examining conflicting opinions on these complex food controversies, and highlighting the importance of food in our lives and the decisions we make each time we eat. The coverage of each of the many controversial food issues in the set offers perspectives from different sides to encourage readers to examine various viewpoints and make up their own minds. The first volume, Food and the Environment, addresses timely issues such as climate change, food waste, pesticides, and sustainable foods. Volume two, entitled Food and Health and Nutrition, addresses subjects like antibiotics, food labeling, and the effects of salt and sugar on our health. The third volume, Food and the Economy, tackles topics such as food advertising and marketing, food corporations, genetically modified foods, globalization, and megagrocery chains. Each volume contains several dozen primary documents that include firsthand accounts written by promoters and advertisers, journalists, politicians and government officials, and supporters and critics of various views related to food and beverages, representing speeches, advertisements, articles, books, portions of major laws, and government documents, to name a few. These documents provide readers additional resources from which to form informed opinions on food issues. Examines a breadth of contemporary food controversies and offers diverse viewpoints on them, placing these perspectives fairly into a broader historical context Presents a multidisciplinary approach to the subject of food that highlights related issues in transportation, business, diet and nutrition, public health, the environment, and public policy Includes primary documents that illuminate important laws, policies, and perspectives on the environmental, public health, and economic impact of food Provides readers with the latest information about food controversies as well as extensive resources for further study on major food controversies

Revolution at the Table

Revolution at the Table PDF Author: Harvey Levenstein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520342917
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
In this wide-ranging and entertaining study Harvey Levenstein tells of the remarkable transformation in how Americans ate that took place from 1880 to 1930.

Food

Food PDF Author: Paul Freedman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520254763
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
This richly illustrated book applies the discoveries of the new generation of food historians to the pleasures of dining and the culinary accomplishments of diverse civilizations, past and present. Freedman gathers essays by French, German, Belgian, American, and British historians to present a comprehensive, chronological history of taste.

Flavors of Empire

Flavors of Empire PDF Author: Mark Padoongpatt
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520966929
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
With a uniquely balanced combination of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy flavors, Thai food burst onto Los Angeles’s and America’s culinary scene in the 1980s. Flavors of Empire examines the rise of Thai food and the way it shaped the racial and ethnic contours of Thai American identity and community. Full of vivid oral histories and new archival material, this book explores the factors that made foodways central to the Thai American experience. Starting with American Cold War intervention in Thailand, Mark Padoongpatt traces how informal empire allowed U.S. citizens to discover Thai cuisine abroad and introduce it inside the United States. When Thais arrived in Los Angeles, they reinvented and repackaged Thai food in various ways to meet the rising popularity of the cuisine in urban and suburban spaces. Padoongpatt opens up the history and politics of Thai food for the first time, all while demonstrating how race emerges in seemingly mundane and unexpected places.