Feed the People!

“Are you tired of half-baked platitudes about the problems with our food system and hungry for real solutions? Then this book is for you. Dutkiewicz and Rosenberg refuse simplistic formulations and offer a complex, incisive, and, yes, provocative analysis, coupled with a rousing call to remake powerful industries to serve humane and sustainable ends. This book is sustenance for your mind as it imagines more democratic and delightful ways we can all fill our stomachs.” 

“The wild ride through politics-on-the-plate that Rosenberg and Dutkiewicz offer here invites readers to meet this moment in contemporary American foodie culture with equal parts skepticism and realism. Blending analysis of many 21st-century food fads with agricultural history and politics, their vision of the future of the food system shifts attention away from the romanticized virtues of small family farmers producing local food and toward an embrace of how industrialization can address major problems at scale. The best part is that it tackles conventional wisdom, especially the assumed value of the locavore life, with a rare combination in food lit of wit, humor, and data. Speaking to anxiety about the contemporary American food system in a fresh way, this book brings readers face-to-face with hostile noodles, long nights at the Waffle House, and a chance to reconsider their assumptions about what’s best to eat and why.” 

“Feed the People! is an enjoyable and incisive corrective to some of the most misunderstood facets of the American food system. In an age of rampant misinformation around the foods we eat, this delightful and well-researched book acknowledges the wonderful and challenging complexity of food, and moves us closer to the painstaking and harmful aspects of its production and regulation. A brilliant and important way of understanding that we are most powerful when we are most educated and empathetic.” 

“A powerful and essential riposte to the reactionary nostalgia that blights the public discussion of food.” 

“Dutkiewicz and Rosenberg have a knack for writing against food orthodoxies in a way that is surprising, refreshing, and informative. Polemical but reasoned and based in the idea that everyone deserves access to food pleasures, this exciting book informs about the food systems we have inherited and imagines the food worlds that could be. A rethinking of common ideas about food that is sure to radically upend how we think about what we do eat, what we should eat, and what we could eat, if only we could redistribute access to the everyday hedonism that we all deserve.” 

“Feed the People! takes an entirely fresh approach to our ‘broken’ food system. The two authors are academic experts unafraid to point out the elitist flaws in a number of proposed food system remedies. Their coast-to-coast tour of our nation’s foodscape is egalitarian and humane. They earn our trust by providing useful information in a conversational tone, rather than partisan lectures. Open-minded readers will be rewarded and learn.” 

“Feed the People! cuts through both foodie nostalgia and corporate greenwash to reveal the real politics of what’s on our plates. Dutkiewicz and Rosenberg show that the industrial food system is both a triumph of abundance and a site of profound exploitation—and that the answer isn’t retreating into elitist fantasies of artisanal purity or storybook narratives of a past that never existed. Instead, they demonstrate how we can demand justice, sustainability, and pleasure—for everyone. This is a bold, necessary book that refuses despair and gives us a vision worth fighting for.” 

“Feed the People! overturns foodie clichés while taking the politics of food seriously. Dutkiewicz and Rosenberg show how industrial food has made abundance possible and how its strengths can be harnessed for justice, sustainability, and pleasure. With wit, clarity, and urgency, they argue for ‘democratic hedonism’ as a compelling alternative to both industrial excess and locavore elitism, advocating for policies that enhance worker rights, expand food access, and reduce environmental harm while preserving the pleasures that make eating joyful. Feed the People! is essential reading for anyone who cares about what we eat and why it matters.”