GRUB: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen
By Kamilah Duggins

Months ago, I was watching TV and Queen Latifah’s voice boomed through the speakers advertising Pizza Hut’s latest spin on pizza: Cheesy Bites. I took a good look at this addition to the food doodad category (bites, nuggets, poppers, etc.) and got the same feeling I experience when I see commercials for Hot Pockets or Hamburger Helper, chicken nuggets, blue French fries, milk-and-cereal bars, “whole grain” Chips Ahoy, microwaveable unrefrigerated bacon or a sugar cereal that touts its nutritional value—grossed out. "Why can’t people just have a slice of pizza," I wondered. Colored French fries? Come on. And if you don’t have time to eat a bowl of cereal, why can’t you have something else? These food-like things are absurd, and the funny truth is that people will praise these lab creations as ‘advances’ in food technology.

Convenience, habit, advertising and ignorance all contribute to these food choices we make. And isn’t this is the stuff of America, our food culture so to speak? Cute, sweet, addictive, zipped, zapped and wrapped. The ultimate DON’T do it yourself lifestyle. But with all the food-related disease Americans face, why do we still say yes to these things? Weeks later, I was out with my food activist/chef friend Bryant Terry, who was telling me about his new book, GRUB: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (Archer/Penguin). I read it, and it was the answer to my question.

He and co-author Anna Lappe make a masterful tag team combining the best of their talents to produce a book that’s an expose, a cooking class, a course in food politics and a guide on how to be an organic goody two-shoes when it comes to food and the environment. Anna, already a best selling author, sets the tone with the history of the food industry, the sneaky tactics food companies use to influence the masses, and lightens up with stories on how farmers, activists and everyday people are working against the tide.

| next page