How We Eat
The Brave New World of Food and Drink
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
An “eye-opening” (Kirkus Reviews) and timely exploration of how our food—from where it’s grown to how we buy it—is in the midst of a transformation, showing how this is our chance to do better, for us, for our children, and for our planet, from a global expert on consumer behavior and bestselling author of Why We Buy.
Our food system is undergoing a total transformation that impacts how we produce, get, and consume our food. Market researcher and bestselling author Paco Underhill—hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a Sherlock Holmes for retailers”—reveals where our eating and drinking lives are heading in his “delectable” (Michael Gross, New York Times bestselling author of 740 Park) book, How We Eat.
In this upbeat, hopeful, and witty approach, How We Eat reveals the future of food in surprising ways. Go to the heart of New York City where a popular farmer’s market signifies how the city is getting country-fied, or to cool Brooklyn neighborhoods with rooftop farms. Explore the dreaded supermarket parking lot as the hub of innovation for grocery stores’ futures, where they can grow their own food and host community events. Learn how marijuana farmers, who have been using artificial light to grow a crop for years, have developed a playbook so mainstream merchants like Walmart and farmers across the world can grow food in an uncertain future.
Paco Underhill is the expert behind the most prominent brands, consumer habits, and market trends and the author of multiple highly acclaimed books, including Why We Buy. In How We Eat, he shows how food intersects with every major battle we face today, from political and environmental to economic and racial, and invites you to the market to discover more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Environmental psychologist Underhill (Why We Buy) leans more Malcolm Gladwell than Alice Waters in this patchy survey of American eating habits. He presents factoids galore: Most common search term on Grubhub during the pandemic? Wine, followed by cake. The world's oldest bar? Luain's Inn in Ireland goes back around 1,100 years. Occasionally, though, the writing reads like an advertisement for Underhill's company, Envirosell; the market research firm consults for clients like Walmart, which, in addition to employing "stellar" executives, he writes, sells more than 1.5 billion pounds of bananas annually. Though Underhill interviews experts like nutrition guru Marion Nestle, he sometimes seems out of his depth: when talking to a pair of Instagram food influencers about "yolk porn," he admits he was "clueless" about Instagram stories before the interview. The most appealing passages are his personal anecdotes—such as the story of how he became the owner of a bar in New York City in his 20s, or the time when, as the eight-year-old son of a diplomat stationed behind the Iron Curtain ("the first sign I saw in western Germany: not 'Welcome to Freedom' but 'Drink Coca-Cola' "), he was plied with hamburgers and foosball by the Polish secret service. While pleasantly meandering, this fails to draw any meaningful conclusions about its subject.
