“The Splendid Table,” American Public Media • Aug. 18, 2013
Sometimes all the food slogans we live with are totally overwhelming: To be healthy you need to eat five a day. Eat local. Eat organic. Vote with your fork. And of course, good, healthy food is the right of every American.
In These Times • June 26, 2013
“Is Michael Pollan a sexist pig?” asks Emily Matchar in her new book, Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity, published in May by Simon & Schuster. Matchar wants to know why many young, middle-class women are returning to the home after their feminist forebears rushed to leave it—and whether the revival of domestic arts like home cooking and canning is also reviving some of the sexism that kept women moored to these tasks. “It’s easy to forget in the face of today’s foodie culture,” Matchar writes, “that cooking is not fun when it’s mandatory.”
Dissent • May 22, 2013
In Dissent’s Spring 2012 Food issue, Marion Nestle pointed out that changing the food system is as radical an objective as those pursued by the civil rights, women’s rights, and environmentalist movements.
The Miscellany News • April 9, 2013
For my Intro to Sociology class, I read The American Way of Eating by Tracie McMillan over spring break. I was expecting another book that detailed the complicated food industry by spewing out random facts and numbers. Instead, I was surprised to see how McMillan managed to describe the process in an overall linear and clear manner, due to her immersion as a worker in the world of food production.
Hooked on Madelines • March 29, 2013
The focus is on one woman trying to initiate a conversation about how food goes from field to grocery to (restaurant) table. She focused on big companies which have large impacts on Americans as a whole. Personally, I found it frightening to consider how food traditionally makes its way to my dinner table. People who work the fields aren’t given fair wages or medical support for the very physical work.
A lovely nod this weekend from the New Yorker’s Daniel Fromson, via his recommended readings: Theft is also a major theme in “As Common As Dirt,” from last September’s American Prospect, a narrative that is worth revisiting in light of its nomination for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award on Monday. Tracie McMillan, author of … Read more
Shanghai Daily • March 20, 2013
To report on food sourcing and access in the US, author Tracie McMillan went undercover, picking garlic in the fields in California and working at a Walmart in Michigan and an Applebee’s in New York. She published a book about what she learned from these experiences called “The American Way of Eating.” Knowledge@Wharton recently spoke with McMillan about what she experienced.
Take Part • March 15, 2013
Tracie McMillan remembers the day well. She was working in the fresh produce section of a Walmart near Detroit. Part of her job was to rotate foods to keep the produce fresh. But it was a challenge. Her 20-year-old manager, who had transferred to produce from the electronics department, had no training in managing fruits and vegetables. And one of the store’s produce coolers had a leak, throwing humidity levels off and causing food to rot easily.
Laura Carroll • March 14, 2013
One word for author Tracie McMillan is “gutsy.” She wanted to uncover truths about how our modern food system works, and what did she do? For about a year she became a food system undercover agent, and looked for answers on-the-ground.
Knowledge@Wharton • March 6, 2013
To report on food sourcing and access in the United States, author Tracie McMillan went undercover, picking garlic in the fields in California and working at a Walmart in Michigan and an Applebee’s in New York. She published a book about what she learned from these experiences called The American Way of Eating.
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