BENJAMIN LORR is the author of Hell-Bent, a critically acclaimed exploration of the Bikram Yoga community that first detailed patterns of abuse and sexual misconduct by guru Bikram Choudhury. Lorr is a graduate of Montgomery County public schools and Columbia University. He lives in New York City.
"An intense, immersive, humorous, and sometimes shocking portrait
of the modern American supermarket."
—NPR Shots
"The Secret Life of Groceries reveals the unsustainable reality of
American shopping...no reader of this ambitious book will enter a
store the same."
—San Francisco Chronicle
“The Secret Life of Groceries is a deeply curious and evenhanded
report on our national appetites."
—The New York Times
“The Secret Life of Groceries takes us on a tour through the lives
that the food system touches so that we have clear eyes about the
human and environmental cost of our demands. If we can stomach
it."
—The Washington Post
“Is "literary muck-raking" a genre? It is now. This
book is at once a satisfying, enjoyable meal and a glass of cold
water to the face. The modern shopper wants groceries that
are ethical, sustainable, humane, affordable, fresh, and
convenient. But as Lorr discovers, the costs of our demands
are recouped from the bottom of the food chain: debt-ruined
truckers, foreign slave labor, and Whole Foods workers in our own
communities -- the people whose lives Lorr shared (and sometimes
lived) for weeks or months. Does it sound grim? It's
not! The Secret Life of Groceries is a
terrific read. The stories flow, and the hard truths are
seasoned with wit and hope. Bottle this man and get him into
every home!”
—Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human
Cadavers
“A titanic achievement of reportage, insight, humor, and
humanity,The Secret Life of Groceries will forever change the way
you think about the American food system. Lorr journeys deep into
our troubled supply chain with propulsive force and insight and
brings us back the goods.”
—Adam Chandler, author of Drive-Thru Dreams: : A Journey
Through the Heart of America's Fast-Food Kingdom
“Lorr’s frank tone and detailed descriptions carry the reader
through the splendor and horrors of your neighborhood
retailer.”
—Smithsonian Magazine, “In The Secret Life of Groceries, Benjamin
Lorr demonstrates through lively and meticulous reporting how much
the enthronement of the American consumer has cost workers, from
truckers who live on $100 a week to slave laborers who fish the
waters off Southeast Asia. With compassion and humor, Lorr
introduces us to very real people who constitute that abstraction
we call the “supply chain” and challenges us, in a thoughtful and
nuanced way, to consider the high price we pay for supermarket
bargains.”
—Timothy Noah, author of The Great Divergence: America's Growing
Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It
"This fascinating, deep dive into the American supermarket changed
how I thought about grocery stores. Both entertaining and enraging,
Benjamin Lorr offers a compassionate indictment of the way we feed
ourselves."
—Tracie McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating: Undercover
at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table
"With prodigious research and vivid writing, Benjamin Lorr follows
our food through a bizarre culture of enslaved fishermen, inventive
entrepreneurs, underpaid truckers, exploited store workers, and
chains so corrupt that bribes are routinely labeled 'fees.' Don’t
read this book if you want to remain complacent about your
groceries. If you want to be informed, as you should, this book is
a must."
—David K. Shipler, former New York Times correspondent and Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of seven books, including The Working
Poor: Invisible in America
"A brain-bending look at how and why these massive stores filled
with every type of food are even possible... Check out The Secret
Life of Groceries!"
—NPR Planet Money
"If you have ever wondered who made that bottle of spicy condiment;
who brought it to you; who is behind the wheel of the truck you
just overtook that delivered it; who stacked it on the shelf; and
how you came to choose it, read this book, because you will learn
all those things. If you didn’t think it was possible for a book
about groceries to have richness, insight, humor, humanity, and
charm all at once, read The Secret Life of Groceries. You’ll never
look at a sauce bottle with indifference again."
—Rose George, author of Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside
Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back,
Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate
"I loved this book... How many times have I been in a supermarket?
I thought I understood it. But The Secret Life of Groceries taught
me that I didn’t know much at all about the way food turns into
groceries. Benjamin Lorr has given us a perfect book - deeply
reported, brimming with interesting characters, and written with
great style. Read!"
—Caitlin Flanagan, author of To Hell With All That: Loving and
Loathing Our Inner Housewife
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