The Food Police
A Well-Fed Manifesto About the Politics of Your Plate
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A rollicking indictment of the liberal elite's hypocrisy when it comes to food.
Ban trans-fats? Outlaw Happy Meals? Tax Twinkies? What's next? Affirmative action for cows?
A catastrophe is looming. Farmers are raping the land and torturing animals. Food is riddled with deadly pesticides, hormones and foreign DNA. Corporate farms are wallowing in government subsidies. Meat packers and fast food restaurants are exploiting workers and tainting the food supply. And Paula Deen has diabetes!
Something must be done. So says an emerging elite in this country who think they know exactly what we should grow, cook and eat. They are the food police.
Taking on the commandments and condescension the likes of Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and Mark Bittman, The Food Police casts long overdue skepticism on fascist food snobbery, debunking the myths propagated by the food elite. You'll learn:
- Organic food is not necessarily healthier or tastier (and is certainly more expensive).
- Genetically modified foods haven't sickened a single person but they have made farmers more profitable and they do hold the promise of feeding impoverished Africans.
- Farm policies aren't making us fat.
- Voguish locavorism is not greener or better for the economy.
- Fat taxes won't slim our waists and "fixing" school lunch programs won't make our kids any smarter.
- Why the food police hypocritically believe an iPad is a technological marvel but food technology is an industrial evil
So before Big Brother and Animal Farm merge into a socialist nightmare, read The Food Police and let us as Americans celebrate what is good about our food system and take back our forks and foie gras before it's too late!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taking a strategic cue from other pop-political thinkers and writers, Midwestern academic and food economist Lusk redubs the food elite the "food police" and proceeds to dismantle what he calls their ideological agenda and its resulting public policies. The broader topic becomes a snarky take on the relationship between policy and political liberty, addressing how better-known spokespeople become ideologues and their agendas, ideologies of regulation. Lusk casts his sharpest eye on reform politics and its recent manifestations, scrutinizing connections between behavioral economics and food policy, taking on the multi-headed Hydra that is organics, and looking at genetically modified foods in-depth. While Lusk pretends to argue all sides, his criticisms overwhelmingly target left-leaning politicians and better-known food pundits, obscuring the soundness of his reasoning on topics such as federal subsidies, obesity, locavorism, and free-market farming. In regards to taking nutrition advice from an economist, readers would be wise to heed Lusk's own warning: "don't ask to run your life hey take the one thing that is important to them and assume it should be most important to everyone else, too." In Lusk's case, the important item is personal freedom. This is foodie-ism by way of Edmund Burke, and worth a clear-eyed read.
