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

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." American philosopher George Santayana's quote would be a perfect epigraph for Ann Vileisis' careful and fascinating look at the history of food and eating in America. (The quote is part of Santayana's theory about how knowledge is acquired, making it especially relevant to Vileisis' examination of how we've lost the stories we once knew of our food.) Here's how Vileisis opens the first chapter of Kitchen Literacy: "In the center of a wooden table on a pewter platter sat a baked leg of lamb. One earthenware bowl held a heap of steaming, fresh green peas, while another contained sliced cucumbers, likely drizzled with vinegar. The table was plain, but the savory smell of the roast meat made mouths water..." That sensory evocation of a meal prepared by Maine midwife Martha Ballard on August 15, 1790, hooked me right off. Vileisis draws on Ballard's diaries to show her intimate knowledge of her food, a relationship was once common in America. From that meal, Vileisis takes readers on the journey America's food has taken as the country's population shifted from farms to cities (and grew, and grew, and grew), as transportation allowed food to be shipped ever-longer distances, and as technology changed farming and food processing. Along the way, American's relationship with our food grew distant as well. Vileisis' background as a historian and her passion for food, cooking and the environment inform this intensely researched and readable story. I found sobering and surprising facts to chew on (sorry!) along the way, including how common wild foods were on tables from the ordinary to the rich in the 1800s, to the astonishingly early advent of the first canned foods ("initially developed as a way to feed Napoleon's soldiers on their interminable Russian campaigns, canning had come to the United States by the 1820s"), the history of synthetic food additives and the FDA--I had never imagined, for instance, that formaldehyde was once used as a commercial food preservative! Kitchen Literacy shows over and over how losing contact with the stories of our food--what it is, where it comes from, who grew it and how it was grown--is a tragedy not just for each of us personally, but for the planet we share. As Vileisis says in closing, "Today... we have the chance to rediscover some of that knowledge and awareness, and with it, we might just find a better way to live on Earth and, finally, to eat well." Hear, hear! by Susan J. Tweit for Story Circle Book Reviews reviewing books by, for, and about women

Ann Vileisis has compiled a thorough history of Eating in America. Her documentation is invaluable. She reviews the historical facts and summarizes them so that they make sense. How did we get from knowing so much about every item we put in our mouths to knowing -- and wishing to know -- almost nothing? She has assembled sources and resources that are not easliy available elsewhere. I thank this book for directing me to Martha Ballard's diary, of an 18th century midwife, now posted online at [...], and in book form A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 These days, I purchase only those books that I will refer to frequently. I shall use this book constantly in the research I am doing for "How to Raise Poultry," which follows How To Raise Chickens: Everything You Need To Know (How to Raise...).

This is not one of those depressing, pedantic rants that assume all progress is bad that are too typical of literature on the topic of food distribution. Instead, this book is actually a fun read. Facts are presented in an even, civilized tone with perspectives understanding of the losses and gains that are inherent in all change in human endeavor. Further, the language is sensual, even succulent, with a dry twist of irony and humor on every page. While some who have read extensively on this topic might wish for more depth and breadth, that is not the stated purpose of this book. The footnotes, which are extensive and fascinating, provide plenty for those who seek detail and direction to further investigation. As an enjoyable, thoughtful, and polite summary or introduction to the topic of food production and distribution, this work could well prove more influential in educating (or even "converting") the general public about a serious topic than the sour and dour stuff we have come to be wary of.

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.

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.