How We Eat : The Brave New World of Food and Drink.

ISBN:

9781982127121

Title:

Author:

Underhill, Paco.

Personal Author:

Underhill, Paco.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 pages)

Contents:

Intro -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Introduction: My Life in Food -- Chapter One: Getting into Supermarkets -- Chapter Two: The Citified Get Countrified (and Vice Versa) -- Chapter Three: The Supermarket of Virtue -- Chapter Four: Yes, We Have Bananas -- Chapter Five: Coffee Break -- Chapter Six: The Supermarket of Vice -- Chapter Seven: A Basil Grows in Brooklyn -- Chapter Eight: The Supermarket of the Future -- Chapter Nine: Shopping with Marion -- Chapter Ten: Drinking in America -- Chapter Eleven: Brave New Eating -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- About the Author -- Index -- Copyright.

Local Note:

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2022. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

Subject Term:

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view book

Publication Date:

2022

Publication Information:

New York :

Simon & Schuster,

2022.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
641.31	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ON-DEMAND	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

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.

Author Notes

Paco Underhill is an environmental psychologist and founder of a market research and consulting company called Envirosell. His books include Why We Buy : The Science of Shopping, Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping, and What Women Want.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

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. (Jan.)

Booklist Review

The supermarket was intended to ease the consumer's chore of shopping daily for food, turning it into a one-stop event performed no more than weekly. But reaction to the industrialization and uniformity of food set in, and now people want to shop for their meats and vegetables in farmers' markets, where they hope to encounter sustainably produced, locally grown, seasonal, organic foods. Underhill (What Women Want, 2010) turns a critical and scientific eye toward modern food distribution and marketing. Laying bare the clever methods that retailers use to both subtly and overtly provoke impulse shopping, he sees a growing synthesis of highly mechanized supermarkets now partnering with small agricultural providers to meet perceived public demand for less--processed foods the world over. He notes how the COVID pandemic and its disruption of transportation has transformed much of the retail food industry as well as consumers' expectations. He also documents the immense waste of food and identifies some innovations to correct that. Underhill's marketing perspective ably supplements other critics' reproaches of our contemporary food supply.

Library Journal Review

Underhill, an expert in consumer behavior, writes about a central aspect of all humanity: food. He argues that the contemporary food system is broken and analyzes the current trends in all aspects of the industry and extrapolates them to see how humans might be eating in the future. He dedicates each chapter to a different aspect of food-production and seeks to highlight how future endeavors (e.g., the country-fication of cities; exciting changes at the supermarket) may help to create a better food system for everyone involved. Beyond the technological aspects of food-production, he also writes about psychological and sociological changes that are affecting the industry. The future of food might not turn out exactly as Underhill envisions it, but his book is an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the industry that will surprise readers at what might be coming. Underhill doesn't prescribe any concrete solutions, which may leave readers wanting more. Hand to fans of Michael Ruhlman's Grocery. VERDICT Written in an informal, conversational style, this is an enlightening look at a central part of human life.--Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO