The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table

In the tradition of Barbara Ehrenreichs Nickel and Dimed, an ambitious and accessible work of undercover journalism that fully investigates our food system to explain what keeps Americans from eating welland what we can do about it.

Getting Americans to eat well is one of todays hottest social issues; its at the forefront of Michelle Obamas agenda and widely covered in the mediafrom childhood obesity to store brands trying to make their food healthier. Yet most Americans still eat poorly, and award-winning journalist Tracie McMillan wanted to know why.So, in 2009 McMillan went to work undercover in our nations food system alongside Americas working poor, living and eating off her wages, to examine how we eat.

McMillan worked on industrial farms in California, in a Walmart produce section outside Detroit, andat an Applebees kitchen in New York City. Her vivid narrative brings readers along to grueling work places, introduces them to her coworkers, and takes them home to her kitchen, to see what kind of food she (and her coworkers) can afford to buy and prepare. With striking precision, McMillan also weaves in the story of how we got here, digging deep into labor, economics, politics, and social science to reveal new and surprising truths about how Americas food is grown, sold, and preparedand what it would take to change the system.

Fascinating and timely, this groundbreaking work examines why eating well in Americadespite the expansion of farmers markets and eat local movementsis limited to the privileged minority.