Kitchen Literacy

Kitchen Literacy chronicles profound changes in how we haveshopped, cooked, and thought about food over the last two centuries.While the distance between farm and table grew, we went from knowingthe specific stories of our food's origins to relying instead onadvertisers' claims and government assurances. We were not alwaysso clueless about what we were eating. But now, convenientindustrialized eating has resulted in a host of health andenvironmental problems, including food-borne pathogens and waterpollution. By revealing the history of how we've known -and not known - our foods, Kitchen Literacy promises tomake us think differently about what we eat. This is essential readingfor anyone interested in food.

Ann Vileisis is a writer and historian. She is the author of Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America’s Wetlands (Island Press, 1997), which won prestigious awards from the American Historical Association and the American Society for Environmental History. An avid gardener and cook, she lives on the Oregon coast.