Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: kitchen literacy, food sensibility, city eaters, The Covenant of Ignorance, Shredded Wheat, Kitchen Countertrends (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The rise of commercial farming and processed foods has given shoppers a tremendous variety to choose from, but this convenience has also fostered a "covenant of ignorance" among consumers and manufacturers, historian Vileisis (Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America's Wetlands) posits in this meticulous chronicle of the culinary disconnect. Persuasively arguing that manufacturers have prevented shoppers from knowing "unsavory details" about their foods and shielded producers from inquiry and public scrutiny, Vileisis highlights key events in this evolution. The booming populations of major cities, a reliance on servants or others to prepare meals and the ease and speed of rail transport were early contributors, she asserts, with the Industrial Revolution and two World Wars forever changing the way Americans bought and consumed food. Though the chapters covering developments since the 1970s feel rushed, Vileisis's well-researched treatise will give those interested in local and organic foods, food processing and American culinary culture plenty to chew on.
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Review

Vileisis's well-researched treatise will give those interested in local and organic foods, food processing and American culinary culture plenty to chew on.." - Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly )

"Vileisis gathers it all in one place, weaving a clear, easy-to-read tapestry whose meaning is plain by the end of the book: you are what you eat, so think about what you''ve been eating. This important and eye-opening book uncovers the machinery behind the modern food industry." (Library Journal )

"Kitchen Literacy brings home just how essential it is for eaters to cultivate knowledge of their food." (Anna Lena Phillips American Scientist )

"Kitchen Literacy provides a cautionary tale of how we got so far off the eaten path in the first place." (eatingwell.org )

"Vileisis's well-researched treatise will give those interested in local and organic foods, food processing and American culinary culture plenty to chew on." (Publishers Weekly )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (October 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597261440
• ISBN-13: 978-1597261449
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,244 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must-read" for modern-day consumers in the post-family farm era., November 3, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Award-winning historian Ann Vileisis presents Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back lives up to its title as a journey through the history of the simple act of making dinner. From eighteenth-century gardens and historic cookbooks to the rise of calculated advertising campaigns and the modern supermarket. As the distance between the creation of food and the table at which it was eaten grew, modern preparers gradually lost their understanding food's origins in exchange for believing advertiser's claims and government assurances. Today, most foods travel fifteen hundred miles before they are eaten. In this modern era of pesticide-drenched fruits, and meat from feedlots of fifty thousand animals, foodborne pathogens and water pollution loom as threats. A movement toward locally grown or raised food and organic fare offers a counterbalance, but now more than ever we need to know the basics about where food comes from in order to ensure optimal health for ourselves and our environment. A "must-read" for modern-day consumers in the post-family farm era.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good history, weak finish, March 20, 2008

By	H. Laack - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Whether you lived in a small town or rural area in the 17th, 18th, and even 19th centuries here in the US, it was likely that you would have been involved in some way with producing food for your family. People had their own gardens and many people, even in towns and cities, kept a few chickens or other poultry and perhaps even their own cows--remember Mrs. O'Leary in Chicago? When you sat down to eat, you knew exactly where almost every part of the meal had come from.

By the 20th century, however, all that had changed, as more and more food came from cans or boxes, and even fresh produce was shipped from far off states and even countries. People were removed farther and farther from their food, and their food was processed almost beyond being clearly identifiable (just what food group would you put Jello in? Diet soda?).

In Kitchen Literacy, Ann Vileisis has traced the changes that led to our having become a nation of *consumers* rather than *producers*, and her narrative is well-researched and entertaining. The gradual introduction of more and more processing to food is described, along with the generally valid reasons for these changes. Being able to buy a can of corn processed immediately after picking in the Midwest certainly was better than having to choose from three or four-day old tired ears of corn brought from southern New Jersey to midtown Manhattan.

Vileisis also provides a lot of hitherto uncovered explanations for why convenience foods first took off in the middle of the 20th century. Rationing of basic staples during World War II that could be circumvented by buying prepared substitutions, more women remaining in the workforce after the war, and the growing influence of food producers in advertising and home economics classes, all provided an impetus for changing eating habits across the country.

Unfortunately, she does not continue on to discuss the factors that are keeping "factory foods" and fast food restaurants so much a part of most people's diets at the beginning of the 21st century. Vileisis does not address the growing problem of obesity at all, and her penultimate chapter, Kitchen Countertrends, has suggestions likely to be acted on by only a tiny minority of the population. CSAs, organic foods, and farmers markets have all been around for years, but their impact remains small; though she says it is a "small but respectable" number, Vileisis herself notes that only 2.5% of all food sales in the US are organic.

So it is that the book misses the mark in the end. I heartily concur with all the "Countertrends" she mentions and have been gardening, going to farmers markets, and eating many organic foods for years. However, the "covenant of ignorance" that Vileisis deplores will not be overcome by a few more "true believers" consuming less and producing more. Given the kind of research and depth she brought to the early chapters, Vileisis failure to cover the current obesity epidemic and suggest solutions that even people with moderate incomes and limited incomes can realistically adopt is a significant gap for an otherwise fine book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Connecting the dots thru time, January 1, 2008

By	Craig C. Johnson (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In Kitchen Literacy, Ann Vileisis brings a deft touch to defining and connecting the forces that have removed food literacy from the consumer over the past 200 years. She addresses a wide set of influences, including urbanization, industrialization, war, the rise of supermarkets and mega-marts, the mutation of marketing, and the gradual replacement of personal knowledge of food with institutional knowledge from scientist, the govt., or other experts to name just a few. The books message is grounded with a large set of references and provides a clear picture of the rise of what she calls the "covenant of ignorance" that we have entered into.
This is a wonderful read if you, like me, want to understand the path that got us to the food systems we have today.