Kitchen literacy : how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back / Ann Vileisis.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-307) and index.

Introduction : Missing stories -- ch. 1. A meal by Martha -- Envisioning a foodshed -- Nature in Martha's garden -- Tales of turkeys -- The energy of eating -- Consciousness of cookery -- ch. 2. To market, to market -- The transcription of kitchen know-how -- To market -- Who did the shopping? -- ch. 3. Mystifying the mundane -- Place of origin -- The waning of wild foods -- The abstraction of animals' lives -- ch. 4. Denaturing the senses -- The debut of cans -- The power of labels -- The mimicry of margarine -- Eating by eye -- ch. 5. A new longing for nature -- The civility of cookery -- The grounding nature of growing food -- The unseemliness of stewed songbirds -- The all-natural body -- Allure of the natural.

ch. 6. Rise of the modern food sensibility -- Bolstering brand names and promoting packages -- The home economists' twist -- Not-so-contented cows -- The appeal of the modern -- Nature transcended -- ch. 7. The covenant of ignorance -- New food chains : the rise of supermarket shopping -- 100 million guinea pigs -- The secrets of DDT -- For convenience sake -- Hidden on supermarket shelves -- ch. 8. Kitchen countertrends -- The persistence of the natural -- Burgers and rain forests -- A purposeful palate -- Turning attention back to farms -- Epilogue : Returning stories to the modern kitchen -- Notes -- Illustration credits -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

Ask children where food comes from, and they will probably answer: "the supermarket." Ask most adults, and their replies may not be much different. Where our foods are raised and what happens to them between farm and supermarket shelf have become mysteries. How did we become so disconnected from the sources of our breads, beef, cheeses, cereal, apples, and countless other foods that nourish us every day? The answer is a sensory-rich journey through the history of making dinner, as this book takes us from an eighteenth-century garden to today's sleek supermarket aisles, and eventually to farmer's markets that are now enjoying a resurgence. The author chronicles profound changes in how American cooks have considered their foods over two centuries and delivers a powerful statement: what we don't know could hurt us. As the distance between farm and table grew, we went from knowing particular places and specific stories behind our foods' origins to instead relying on advertisers' claims. The woman who raised, plucked, and cooked her own chicken knew its entire life history while today most of us have no idea whether hormones were fed to our poultry. Industrialized eating is undeniably convenient, but it has also created health and environmental problems, including food-borne pathogens, toxic pesticides, and pollution from factory farms. Though the hidden costs of modern meals can be high, it is shown that greater understanding can lead consumers to healthier and more sustainable choices. Revealing how knowledge of our food has been lost and how it might now be regained, this book will make us think differently about what we eat.

Print version record.

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