Tracie McMillan on ‘The American Way of Eating’

Banner_Epicurious

By Sara Bonisteel

Epicurious • Feb. 28, 2012

Our sister site Bon Appétit interviews author Tracie McMillan this week on her new book The American Way of Eating.

McMillan, a New York-based journalist from rural Michigan, used her undercover experiences at Walmart, Applebees, and as a produce picker to chronicle the poverty in America through the prism of food.

“It’s depressing stuff, writing about problems with food. But still, people respond to food in a way that people don’t respond to writing about poverty,” McMillan tells Bon Appétit. “Food is this universal experience we’ve all had. Everyone’s been hungry, even if it’s a very safe hunger where you just haven’t had time to eat yet, so people can identify with the idea that being hungry would really suck. By comparison, people who aren’t poor don’t really experience the problems of not being able to pay bills, and just absolutely not being able to scrape by.”

Read her take on how to help all Americans eat better in the full Tracie McMillan interview here.

Follow Tracie

Follow Tracie on Facebook
Follow Tracie on X (Twitter)
Follow Tracie on Instagram
Get Tracie's Newsletter