An elegant demolition of the supermarket miracle, this book charts the impact that supermarkets have had on every aspect of our lives and culture. Did you know! / Almost 50% of supermarket fruit and vegetables contain pesticide residues? / UK supermarkets make 40p on every GBP1 spent on bananas while plantations workers are paid just 1p? / Supermarkets instill a climate of fear amongst their suppliers? / Every time a supermarket opens the local community loses on average 276 jobs? In the 1970s, British supermarkets had only 10% of the UK's grocery spend. Now they swallow up 80%, influencing how we shop, what we eat, how we spend our leisure time, how much rubbish we generate, even the very look of our physical environment. Award-winning food writer Joanna Blythman investigates the enormous impact that these big box retailers are having on our lives. She meets the farmers who are selling food to supermarkets for less than they need to survive and the wholesalers who have been eliminated from the supply chain; she travels to suburban retail parks to meet the teenagers and part-timers who stack our shelves and reveals the hoops third world suppliers must jump through to earn supermarket contracts. This thought-provoking, witty and sometimes chilling voyage of discovery is sure to make you think twice before you enthusiastically reach for that supermarket trolley again. Contains new material on the 'Tesocisation' of Britain.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
She probably knows more than anyone else about where our food comes from.' Nigel Slater 'Joanna Blythman has bravely and compellingly exposed the corrosive effect of supermarkets on our farming and our food culture. And she has rightly identified you, the consumer, as the only person who can do anything about it. Don't read it and weep. Read it and change the way you shop.' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall 'Shocking and powerful' The Guardian 'She'll fire you up with a righteous fervour that may last beyond your return to the mainland.' The Times 'Blythman has provided a compelling wake-up call' Financial Times
About the Author
Joanna Blythman is Britain's leading investigative food journalist and an influential commentator on the British food chain. She has won five Glenfiddich awards for her writing, including a Glenfiddich Special Award for her first book, 'The Food We Eat', a Caroline Walker Media Award for 'Improving the Nation's Health by Means of Good Food', and a Guild of Food Writers Award for 'The Food We Eat'. In 2004, she won the prestigious Derek Cooper Award, one of BBC Radio 4's Food and Farming Awards. In 2007, Good Housekeeping Magazine gave her its award for Outstanding Contribution to Food Award 2007. She has also written three other groundbreaking books, 'How to Avoid GM Food', 'The Food Our Children Eat' and'Bad Food Britain'. She writes and broadcasts frequently on food issues.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting,
This review is from: Shopped (Paperback)
Note: I am reviewing the original pre-updated edition which doesn't appear to be available on Amazon.
This very interesting book will have you looking at grocery stores, food, and the whole shopping/marketing experience in a whole new light. Even though it is about British stores (among which is the Wal-Mart owned Asda), I'm sure most, if not all, of it is the same. Find out why your grocery store fruits are often bland and why out of thousands of varieties of grapes we only see a few. Hint: they don't sell the tastiest but instead the ones that handle shipping and the time it takes to get from the fields to the market the best. No wonder we don't like our fruits and veggies. It also gives a detailed look at the hoops suppliers have to jump through to satisfy the supermarkets, resulting in a waste in product and a lowering of quality standards. Sickening.
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