Book description
An elegant demolition of the supermarket miracle, this book charts the
impact that supermarkets have had on every aspect of our lives and culture.
Did you know…
• Almost 50% of supermarket fruit and vegetables contain pesticide residues?
• UK supermarkets make 40p on every £1 spent on bananas while
plantations workers are paid just 1p?
• Supermarkets instill a climate of fear amongst their suppliers?
• Every time a supermarket opens the local community loses on average
276 jobs?
In the 1970s, British supermarkets had only 10% of the UK's grocery
spend. Now they swallow up 80%, influencing how we shop, what we eat,
how we spend our leisure time, how much rubbish we generate, even the
very look of our physical environment.
Award-winning food writer Joanna Blythman investigates the enormous
impact that these big box retailers are having on our lives. She meets
the farmers who are selling food to supermarkets for less than they need
to survive and the wholesalers who have been eliminated from the supply
chain; she travels to suburban retail parks to meet the teenagers and
part-timers who stack our shelves and reveals the hoops third world
suppliers must jump through to earn supermarket contracts.
This thought-provoking, witty and sometimes chilling voyage of
discovery is sure to make you think twice before you enthusiastically
reach for that supermarket trolley again.
Contains new material on the 'Tesocisation' of Britain. She probably
knows more than anyone else about where our food comes from.' Nigel Slater
'Joanna Blythman has bravely and compellingly exposed the corrosive
effect of supermarkets on our farming and our food culture. And she has
rightly identified you, the consumer, as the only person who can do
anything about it. Don't read it and weep. Read it and change the way
you shop.'
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
'Shocking and powerful' The Guardian
'She'll fire you up with a righteous fervour that may last beyond your
return to the mainland.' The Times
'Blythman has provided a compelling wake-up call' Financial Times
Joanna Blythman is Britain's leading investigative food journalist and
an influential commentator on the British food chain. She has won five
Glenfiddich awards for her writing, including a Glenfiddich Special
Award for her first book, 'The Food We Eat', a Caroline Walker Media
Award for 'Improving the Nation's Health by Means of Good Food', and a
Guild of Food Writers Award for 'The Food We Eat'. In 2004, she won the
prestigious Derek Cooper Award, one of BBC Radio 4's Food and Farming
Awards. In 2007, Good Housekeeping Magazine gave her its award for
Outstanding Contribution to Food Award 2007. She has also written three
other groundbreaking books, 'How to Avoid GM Food', 'The Food Our
Children Eat' and'Bad Food Britain'. She writes and broadcasts
frequently on food issues.
