You may think you know but until you embrace the stories of the people who actually produce the food, you don't really know. Kelsey does a great job of sharing the stories of who produces our food, not just where. And that may be the most important thing of all.
Where Am I Eating? | Kelsey Timmerman
I have read Where am I Wearing many times and used it in classes, given it as gifts,and praised it to my friends to the point they have asked if I am being paid for selling the book. Where am I Eating is just as good as the previous book. Timmerman does an excellent job of showing how we are all connected.
He does an equally good job of showing how the people who feed us and the people who make our clothes are being exploited and mistreated while they lack options to do much else. At the same time, we are buying these products that are damaging and many of us lack options. The book also stimulates discussion on the ethics of food, a discussion that is long overdue. Much of what he writes is not new but he puts the information in one book and makes it accessible. Read this book before you buy apple juice again. Another extraordinary book by an extraordinary author!
This is a book that begged to be written. We readers easily recognize them as part of our global family and we are the better for knowing them and their stories. Author Kelsey Timmerman is intelligent, courageous, endlessly curious, compassionate, and exudes the essence of camaraderie. He is a remarkable storyteller who invites his readers along on his journey of discovery.
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And what a journey it is! Don't miss this one! I look at my food differently now. Every trip to the grocery store makes me rethink my food choices. One person found this helpful. Usually difficult to find a required text from a professor interesting, but this was not the case. Reading on Kindle made for easy usage of links.
This book is so much more than finding out where our food comes from. Picking up fruit grown in another country now has a whole new meaning. I am now a more thoughtful consumer. Every American, perhaps every human being, should read this book. It amazes me how little most of us care about where our food comes from.
This book will certainly change how I see food and eat in the future. See all 35 reviews. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Where Am I Giving: Campbell Biology 11th Edition. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Get to Know Us.
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Kelsey Timmerman travels the world in a sort of journalistic adventure of finding out truths about things we eat. The book looks into the charitable benefits of Starbucks for Colombian coffee farmers, the lobster industry in Central America, bananas in Costa Rica, chocolate in Africa, apple juice from China Look for Oddly I chose this to read mostly at the dinner table during meals Nov 04, Susanne Meyer-Fitzsimmons rated it really liked it.
A bit depressing at times, but I guess that's the whole idea. We must realize how our food choices impact, not only the environment, but also the farmers involved in growing our foods. Ultimately a wake-up call to become fair-trade and sustainably aware. Kelsey Timmerman's books are making a big splash in college freshman seminars. By asking the simple questions, "Where Am I Wearing?
Then he investigates, traveling with a one weapon, a frisbee. He visits factories, farms, families and homes of workers. His approach to investigative is non-threatening and unbiased. He integrates stories from his o Kelsey Timmerman's books are making a big splash in college freshman seminars. He integrates stories from his own life to make points about the realities he discovers. He hooks the reader with his easy style and proceeds to make profound points about where our stuff comes from.
In this particular book, Where Am I Eating: An Adventure Through the Global Food Economy," Timmermans explores the sources of our coffee, bananas, cocoa, lobster, and apple juice. The apple juice saga is the most interesting, so I thought. He hangs with Indian River apple producers and apple juice makers in Luddington, Michigan where is vacations with his family. Then he hops over to Xian, China to check out the world's top apple juice concentrate production area. That is the source of concentrate for the Indiana River's off-brands.
Like apples in a box, the author stacks layers and layers of inquiry that stimulate thought and discussion.
With Farmer Feng, he studies apple growing Chinese apple growing techniques. He interviews the farmer about the history as well as the future of his farm. He even visits Farmer Feng's daughter and son-in-law in the big city to see how the farmer's offspring have benefited from his business. He tries to visit the factory that sells concentrate to big chains, including McDonald's, Coke and Minute Maid.
In the end, he draws parallels among his own father in Iowa, the apple farmer of China, and banana harvesters, coffee laborers and growers, and cocoa workers in West Africa.
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This guy Kelsey Timmerman can tell a good story and inspire discussion as well as action. He teaches people to question.
Where Am I Eating an Adventure Through the Global Food Economy
Aug 10, Karen rated it really liked it Shelves: Timmerman illustrates the global nature of the US food industry by traveling to a variety of counties to see where are food comes from and who produces and harvests our food. Chocolate from the Ivory Coast. Bananas from Costa Rica. These three chapters highlight the poor living and working conditions behind these US staples.
Timmerman is a witness to child laborers and forced laborers in essence, slavery. This chapter illustrates how diving is dan Timmerman illustrates the global nature of the US food industry by traveling to a variety of counties to see where are food comes from and who produces and harvests our food. This chapter illustrates how diving is dangerous and the rate of disability high--with no medical benefits provided. Buying from food companies who mistreat their workers makes me complicate. Now if I order lobster, I will visualize young men in wheelchairs or grave markers for very young people who died so that I can have a luxurious meal.
This chapter points out that American apple growers are having trouble making a profit, yet China is selling a lot of apples. I don't know if I will buy apple juice again unless the origins are more transparent. China has a bad reputation for contaminated foods and polluted environment. The US uses dehydrated apple concentrate in the mix with apples from the US and other countries.
What pesticides may we be ingesting? In his concluding chapters, Timmerman asks Big Picture questions and provides resources. For example, he explains the meaning behind emerging food labels that aim to explain the economic, environmental and political processes behind the foods. He encourages people to buy organic and fair trade foods and to do more to shop locally. We might have to cut back on some of our luxuries in other areas of our life, but we will do more to bring better working and living conditions to others. Mar 01, Beverly rated it liked it Shelves: This is the book that our library has chosen for our One Book One Community this year.
I wasn't thrilled with this pick and wasn't sure I even wanted to read it but overall, although it's somewhat upsetting to read, I'm glad I read it. The book just makes you much more aware of where some of your food comes from and the conditions under which some people labor to get that food to our tables.
Luckily, with one exception, I am not a consumer of these products for the most part. The author did so This is the book that our library has chosen for our One Book One Community this year. The author did some intense research on farming conditions for growers of coffee, bananas, apples and cocoa beans and for the divers that harvest lobsters.
The information presented brings to light the substandard living conditions that most of these farmers live under with the exception of some of the apple growers and the dangerous situations that can occur--especially with the lobster divers. The difference between what the produce farmers get paid as opposed to what big business makes when supplying our groceries is embarrassing. This is certainly an eye opening read. I am now really looking forward to hearing Mr. Timmerman speak in October.
Aug 01, Michael Brockley rated it it was amazing. Both books are excellent windows into the nature of work and the plight of workers in the Third World as well as revelations regarding Timmerman's evolving social conscience. But these descriptors do poor justice to this self-styled touron's accounts of his travels. Timmerman gets to know the food workers and farmers who inhabit his adventures; he encounters slaves, attempts, unsuccessfully, to undertake the arduous demands required of banana laborers and tracks down the source of America's apple juice.
Timmerman's secret is that he pairs his expanding social conscience with humor and humility. And these are the stories of globalization as told first-hand from the trenches where the food laborers labor. This book was well written. It challenged me to think outside of my comfort zone, to see the world around me with more curiosity. It helped me see that we are being curious in all the wrong areas. We need to ask more about where our food comes from and how those people are treated rather than how much money with it cost me. Sometimes the cost is well worth the product and the impact it makes.
I had to read this book for a class. I thought it would be boring, because I usually read fiction books, This book was well written. I thought it would be boring, because I usually read fiction books, but I found that learning about the hardships of people around the world is a real eyeopener and the pages just flew by. I challenge all of those who read this review to slow down and take your time reading this book, go to the websites he mentions and fully immerse yourself, it will be so much better that way.
Oct 31, Jean Pace rated it really liked it. I enjoyed this book and found it fairly engaging. That said, I've read a LOT of books along this same vein and I'm not sure this one had anything to draw me in like crazy. Our food system is corrupt and messy, and we're way too far removed from it. I already knew that, and it's true that I learned about some specific ways our food system is corrupt and messy, but the story is still essentially the same as so many other books of this sort.
And of course there's no easy fix Truthfully, a 3. And of course there's no easy fix for all of this corrupt messiness, so besides the usual answers of buying locally and knowing where your food comes from and just taking care in general in regards to food, you finish a book like this feeling a little frustrated and powerless. Still enjoyed it and found it a worthwhile read.
You may think you know where your food comes from You may think you know but until you embrace the stories of the people who actually produce the food, you don't really know. Kelsey does a great job of sharing the stories of who produces our food, not just where.
And that may be the most important thing of all. Aug 19, Rose rated it really liked it. Read this book for an Anthropology class about food. It was informative and I learned a lot about where the food I eat comes from but it was also enjoyable to read. My professor actually arranged a video call with Timmerman so our class could talk with him about his experiences and writing the book! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about where food comes from and how it's produced, it's a great read!
Aug 10, Holly rated it really liked it. Really interesting journey s into where our food is sourced from in today's global food economy. Unsettling finds about how our "food chain" works It's big business on one end, very personal often tragic on the other. Jul 05, Wendy rated it really liked it.
In Kelsey's second book he explores the Geography of food. He reveals a dangerous and purposely veiled food commodity chain where those at the bottom are likely to be in poverty, could possibly be in slavery or perhaps are risking their lives to acquire our most-desired delicacies like Lobster. This should make us all think about the effects of our choices as consumers on people around the world whose survival depends on a job in agriculture.
Jun 22, Georgia rated it really liked it. It was a much more informal look at the global food economy than I thought it would be. The author chose just a few items to inform us about where some foods come from and the human toll that their production involves. May 22, Ruth Johnston rated it it was amazing.
This is a very thought-provoking and sometimes disturbing book. I rated it 5 because I enjoy Kelsey Timmerman's writing style, which balances conversational prose with relevant research. I appreciate his sense of adventure to have the courage to travel thousands of miles to meet the people who grow his food.