It is no coincidence that the worst food is also the most “convenient”. Today, most of the world lives on a diet of processed food-products the consumption of which abuses the health and dignity of workers, violates the sentient rights of animals, and undermines the health of themselves and their environment.
In We the Eaters, Ellen Gustafson, co-founder of Food Tank reveals how dietary shifts backed up by grassroots political pressure can and must lead to transformative change in our food system. Advocating not only for dietary but also structural change, her book highlights the injustice of corporations reap billions in profits from cheap, highly processed foods while refusing to provide their workers a living wage.
Gustafsonreminds her readers to consider the most common ingredient of the western diet: suffering. “Almost every step of the industrial meat supply chain” she writes, “degrades someone or something: the cows, the land, the farmers and industry workers, the consumers, and the communities.”
Like Raj Patel in Stuffed and Starved, Marion Nestle in Food Politics, or Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, Gustafson offers an authentic piece of food journalism that thoughtfully critiques the political, economic, and social impact of our current industrial food system. Her book commends us to discard our commercial fantasies about food and replace them with a more holistic and sustainable understanding of our diet.
