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Making Supper Safe: One Man's Quest to Learn the Truth about Food Safety
Food recalls have become so ubiquitous we hardly even notice them. The massive peanut salmonella
contamination of 2008–2009 alone killed nine and sickened an estimated 22,500 people; only a few
weeks later, contaminated frozen cookie dough sent 35 people to the hospital. These tragic, inexcusable events to which no one is immune are but a symptom of a broader food system malaise.
In Making Supper Safe , Ben Hewitt exposes the vulnerabilities inherent to the US food industry, where the majority of our processing facilities are inspected only once every seven years, and where government agencies lack the necessary resources to act on early warning signs. The most dangerous aspect of our food system isn't just its potential to make us acutely ill, but the ever expanding distance between us and our sources of nourishment. Hewitt introduces a vibrant cast of characters and revolutionaries who are reinventing how we grow,
process, package, distribute, and protect our food, and even how we protect ourselves. He takes readers inside a food contamination trace-back investigation, goes dumpster diving, and talks to lawyers, policy makers, and families who have been affected by contaminated food. Making Supper Safe explains why we should worry, but it is also a quest to understand how we can learn to trust our food again.
contamination of 2008–2009 alone killed nine and sickened an estimated 22,500 people; only a few
weeks later, contaminated frozen cookie dough sent 35 people to the hospital. These tragic, inexcusable events to which no one is immune are but a symptom of a broader food system malaise.
In Making Supper Safe , Ben Hewitt exposes the vulnerabilities inherent to the US food industry, where the majority of our processing facilities are inspected only once every seven years, and where government agencies lack the necessary resources to act on early warning signs. The most dangerous aspect of our food system isn't just its potential to make us acutely ill, but the ever expanding distance between us and our sources of nourishment. Hewitt introduces a vibrant cast of characters and revolutionaries who are reinventing how we grow,
process, package, distribute, and protect our food, and even how we protect ourselves. He takes readers inside a food contamination trace-back investigation, goes dumpster diving, and talks to lawyers, policy makers, and families who have been affected by contaminated food. Making Supper Safe explains why we should worry, but it is also a quest to understand how we can learn to trust our food again.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 7, 2011
4 people are currently reading
236 people want to read
About the author
Ben Hewitt
39 books36 followersBen Hewitt writes and farms in Northern Vermont. His work has appeared in numerous national periodicals, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Gourmet, Discover, Skiing, Eating Well, Powder, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Bicycling, and many others. He lives with his wife and two sons in a self-built home that is powered by a windmill and solar photovoltaic panels. To help offset his renewable energy footprint, Ben drives a really big truck.
His book The Town That Food Saved, published by Rodale, tells the story of a rural, working-class Vermont community that is attempting to blueprint and implement a localized food system. Ben is currently working on a book about food safety, to be published by Rodale in 2011.
His book The Town That Food Saved, published by Rodale, tells the story of a rural, working-class Vermont community that is attempting to blueprint and implement a localized food system. Ben is currently working on a book about food safety, to be published by Rodale in 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 18, 2011
If you are looking for the answer to how we can get our trust in food back, this book will not be much help. The use of sarcasm and snarky remarks got really old in a hurry (Mr. Hewitt must think he is hilarious). If you are looking for dumpster diving tips, this may be the book for you. I kept waiting for some type of big plan or strategy, but this book comes up empty--unless he is suggesting that we all eat out of dumpsters.
People buy food from big corporations because it is cheaper. Big corporations utilize economies of scale and pass the savings along to the consumer. Big corportations don't intentionally make people sick--it is bad for business. This book was frustrating for a variety of reasons, but what stuck out most for me was Mr. Hewitt's inability to comprehend basic economic concepts.
People buy food from big corporations because it is cheaper. Big corporations utilize economies of scale and pass the savings along to the consumer. Big corportations don't intentionally make people sick--it is bad for business. This book was frustrating for a variety of reasons, but what stuck out most for me was Mr. Hewitt's inability to comprehend basic economic concepts.
March 14, 2018
Straightforward and clear in researching complex food industry issues. Engaging writing style.
January 11, 2020
Might have been 3 stars with a different narrator. Good book, but some of the best narration I've heard on Audible so far.
May 10, 2012
This small book was just packed with information about our failing industrialized food system. Hewitt discusses everything from all the recent foodborne illness outbreaks and how these super-bugs were created, factory farming, the rising use of antibiotics in animal feed, Monsanto and GMO seeds, the problems with monoculture farming, and the inadequate "power" of the USDA and FDA in our food system. After reading it you're almost afraid to eat anything that you don't know for sure where it came from and really it would be better to be raising it yourself! I'm definitely thankful for all the local farmer's markets in my area where I can get locally raised, organic meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit. Hewitt does an excellent job of covering nearly every aspect of this complex and complicated issue. The facts he brings to light are startling and every person should be concerned about our extremely frail food system.
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"Most tragically, over the next 52 weeks, 5,194 of us will die from a foodborne condition. That means more Americans die every year from eating contaminated food than have been killed in Iraq since the outset of the war." (p.12)
"If there is a lesson to be drawn from collective failure to make our food 'safer,' perhaps it is this: Despite our impressive, ever-improving technologies and increasing vigilance, maybe we are focusing on the wrong things. Perhaps foodborne illness isn't the disease; maybe it's a symptom of a larger, more systematic malaise. And unil we begin to address that malaise, we won't know what truly safe food really is." (p.31)
"In 2006 the European Union banned the feeding of antibiotics and related drugs to livestock for the purpose of promoting growth. But in the United States, the practice remains commonplace, and meat producers have done their level best to discredit the connection between stuffing their livestock with 27 million pounds of antibiotics annually and the drug-resistant bacteria that now claim, by some estimates, over 100,000 American lives each year." (p. 117)
"It requires only the most cursory examination to reveal that our food and the ways in which it is produced, processed, distributed, and sold have changed more in the past 30 years than in the preceding 200." (p. 130-1)
"...on June 7, 1995...the US Patent and Trademark Office received a patent application from Monsanto...for a seed technology known officially as genetic use restriction technology (GURT) and unofficially as 'suicide seed.' When applied, GURT is the plant equivalent of neutering: the plant will grow, but it will never produce offspring. Its seeds will be sterile. Why does this matter? Because suicide seeds eliminates the ability of farmers to save their own seed from year to year. Indeed, it makes them utterly dependent on the seed manufacturer, year in, year out." (p. 148-9)
"...according to Monsanto...'There is no need for, or value in testing the safety of GM (Genetically Modified) foods in humans. So long as the introduced protein is determined safe, food from GM crops determined to be substantially equivalent is not expected to pose any health risks,'...[Yet] A study published in late-2009 edition of the International Journal of Biological Sciences showed a correlation between organ damage in rats...and Monsanto's genetically modified corn. Ironically, the data supporting these findings were drawn from a study sponsored by Monsanto in 2005. The study was kept confidential until Greenpeace obtained a court order for its publication and funded the first statistical analysis of the data." (p. 151)
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"Most tragically, over the next 52 weeks, 5,194 of us will die from a foodborne condition. That means more Americans die every year from eating contaminated food than have been killed in Iraq since the outset of the war." (p.12)
"If there is a lesson to be drawn from collective failure to make our food 'safer,' perhaps it is this: Despite our impressive, ever-improving technologies and increasing vigilance, maybe we are focusing on the wrong things. Perhaps foodborne illness isn't the disease; maybe it's a symptom of a larger, more systematic malaise. And unil we begin to address that malaise, we won't know what truly safe food really is." (p.31)
"In 2006 the European Union banned the feeding of antibiotics and related drugs to livestock for the purpose of promoting growth. But in the United States, the practice remains commonplace, and meat producers have done their level best to discredit the connection between stuffing their livestock with 27 million pounds of antibiotics annually and the drug-resistant bacteria that now claim, by some estimates, over 100,000 American lives each year." (p. 117)
"It requires only the most cursory examination to reveal that our food and the ways in which it is produced, processed, distributed, and sold have changed more in the past 30 years than in the preceding 200." (p. 130-1)
"...on June 7, 1995...the US Patent and Trademark Office received a patent application from Monsanto...for a seed technology known officially as genetic use restriction technology (GURT) and unofficially as 'suicide seed.' When applied, GURT is the plant equivalent of neutering: the plant will grow, but it will never produce offspring. Its seeds will be sterile. Why does this matter? Because suicide seeds eliminates the ability of farmers to save their own seed from year to year. Indeed, it makes them utterly dependent on the seed manufacturer, year in, year out." (p. 148-9)
"...according to Monsanto...'There is no need for, or value in testing the safety of GM (Genetically Modified) foods in humans. So long as the introduced protein is determined safe, food from GM crops determined to be substantially equivalent is not expected to pose any health risks,'...[Yet] A study published in late-2009 edition of the International Journal of Biological Sciences showed a correlation between organ damage in rats...and Monsanto's genetically modified corn. Ironically, the data supporting these findings were drawn from a study sponsored by Monsanto in 2005. The study was kept confidential until Greenpeace obtained a court order for its publication and funded the first statistical analysis of the data." (p. 151)
July 23, 2011
**I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway**
Ben Hewitt has crafted a thought-provoking tour through the American food supply in all its manifestations. He questions not only where our food comes from, but how it is grown or sown and harvested and distributed. He combines science and public policy and "common sense" to come up with more questions than answers about the viability and health of our food.
I believe the subtitle to be a misnomer, however, as it purports to explain how we can get our trust in our American food supply back, and Hewitt does not provide answers to the questions he poses. He intimates that closer looks at our food legislation and oversight agencies are required. Most compelling, though, is Hewitt's contention that our food suppliers have become a centralized monopolies, and that these monopolies have been encouraged and fostered by our government. This monopolization has wreaked devastating consequences on a disengaged public. Hewitt charges that the public has become so disconnected with food--its origins, its preparation, its place in our daily lives--that their ignorance is allowing them to fall victim to food-borne illnesses.
Most compelling are the chapters dealing with genetically engineered meats, raw milk and other raw foods, and the various governmental agencies' roles in our food supplies.
Hewitt writes this book, which is very heavy with scientific explanations and jargon, with a tongue-in-cheek tone that I occasionally found condescending, especially the beginning of the book. However, this tone does make the jargon-heavy text more accessible to readers who might not be science junkies. The questions he asks are valid and important, and this text has accomplished its purpose of making the reader think about our food supply. Overall, this text is an interesting read, one that is timely and thought-provoking.
Ben Hewitt has crafted a thought-provoking tour through the American food supply in all its manifestations. He questions not only where our food comes from, but how it is grown or sown and harvested and distributed. He combines science and public policy and "common sense" to come up with more questions than answers about the viability and health of our food.
I believe the subtitle to be a misnomer, however, as it purports to explain how we can get our trust in our American food supply back, and Hewitt does not provide answers to the questions he poses. He intimates that closer looks at our food legislation and oversight agencies are required. Most compelling, though, is Hewitt's contention that our food suppliers have become a centralized monopolies, and that these monopolies have been encouraged and fostered by our government. This monopolization has wreaked devastating consequences on a disengaged public. Hewitt charges that the public has become so disconnected with food--its origins, its preparation, its place in our daily lives--that their ignorance is allowing them to fall victim to food-borne illnesses.
Most compelling are the chapters dealing with genetically engineered meats, raw milk and other raw foods, and the various governmental agencies' roles in our food supplies.
Hewitt writes this book, which is very heavy with scientific explanations and jargon, with a tongue-in-cheek tone that I occasionally found condescending, especially the beginning of the book. However, this tone does make the jargon-heavy text more accessible to readers who might not be science junkies. The questions he asks are valid and important, and this text has accomplished its purpose of making the reader think about our food supply. Overall, this text is an interesting read, one that is timely and thought-provoking.
July 18, 2013
First off: I understand how lucky I am to live in a part of the world and in an age where food is abundant, affordable, and generally safe. That said, this book sucked me in immediately because it addresses the issues of food safety vs. food rights, something I ponder quite a bit. The microbiologist in me understands the idea that we have to be very vigilant regarding pathogens that might be on or in our food - and that while regulation is needed, it isn't working very well. On the other hand, I think people who want things like raw milk should be able to access them. I'm not sure how to address these two issues but I did appreciate how Hewitt points out that there IS a difference between small producers providing said raw milk and the like (and the issues that can arise) and large producers cutting corners and preferring to pay fines as opposed to fix problems in the food supply. There aren't any easy answers.
I also really appreciated how he points out how a few multi-nationals control a huge majority of seeds. This is more frightening to me than pretty much anything because being able to provide for ourselves, however small it may be (even just a tomato in a pot) is a right I don't think we should be handing over so easily. Diversity in food, saving seeds, and planting some of your own food is a vital thing and something we all need to be more concerned about - starting now.
Very recommended.
*Following each sampling, I experienced a period that is most politely described as "heightened intestinal awareness", during which I felt an almost supersensory connection to my digestive tract.* (this perfectly describes me after I've been around someone with the stomach flu :))
I also really appreciated how he points out how a few multi-nationals control a huge majority of seeds. This is more frightening to me than pretty much anything because being able to provide for ourselves, however small it may be (even just a tomato in a pot) is a right I don't think we should be handing over so easily. Diversity in food, saving seeds, and planting some of your own food is a vital thing and something we all need to be more concerned about - starting now.
Very recommended.
*Following each sampling, I experienced a period that is most politely described as "heightened intestinal awareness", during which I felt an almost supersensory connection to my digestive tract.* (this perfectly describes me after I've been around someone with the stomach flu :))
July 29, 2011
I loved Hewitt’s previous book, The Town That Food Saved. Many of the things that I liked about that book – unique voice, a focus on people over statistics – are here, but the subject matter doesn’t lend itself as well to Hewitt’s informal approach. The chapters are both independent entries and part of a very loose narrative – something I don’t mind, except there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to their order. Given the topic’s complexity, as a reader, it would have been nice to have some direction as to the big picture. The book relies more heavily on facts and statistics than The Town That Food Saved, but there’s not even a page at the end directing readers where to go for more information, and it bothered me that I couldn’t go to Hewitt’s source material to read more. Hewitt does a good job of taking a complicated, sometimes upsetting issue and making it a relatively easy – even enjoyable – read, but, as a whole, I didn’t find the book sufficiently unique to stand out from the crowd of documentaries and books about food safety and our industrial, corporate food system. Quasi-recommended.
August 21, 2011
While Hewitt begins his exploration of food safety with tales of a dumpster-diving freegan friend, Making Supper Safe is less about fringe food movements and more about the systemic illness endemic to our nation's food safety regulations and the hegemony of corporate farming. Those people unbothered by the incidents of food poisoning plastered across the media should read this book for its thoughtful examination of the food industries - particularly meat, eggs, dairy, and seeds - and the current regulatory climate. Likewise, those who believe that their organic locavore lifestyles exempt them from such fears should also read this book, as Hewitt examines the issues inherent in the consumption of raw dairy.
While Hewitt makes plain the biases he brings to his keyboard, he also makes plain that eating, like many daily activities, will always hold some risk, and this well-researched and well-considered book goes a long way to helping us restore our faith in food.
While Hewitt makes plain the biases he brings to his keyboard, he also makes plain that eating, like many daily activities, will always hold some risk, and this well-researched and well-considered book goes a long way to helping us restore our faith in food.
May 15, 2015
I really like Ben Hewitt's books and I plan to read his newest. I learned a lot from this book and became appropriately afraid of eating lots of foods. I do have some quibbles however.
I don't think he ended up saying how we can get the trust in our food back.
If the reader didn't read Hewitt's bio, they wouldn't know for most of the book that he is a farmer and back to earth guy who lives off the earth, and indeed knows a lot about seeds.
I kept waiting for him to mention Seed Savers as a good organization which helps maintain the unaltered seed lines.
I was glad as I was reading that we eat veggies from our CSA and shop at a food co-op and mainly shop locally.
I wonder what Ben is thinking now with the Bird Flu that is killing all the chickens in the large farms - could be an addendum to his book.
I don't think he ended up saying how we can get the trust in our food back.
If the reader didn't read Hewitt's bio, they wouldn't know for most of the book that he is a farmer and back to earth guy who lives off the earth, and indeed knows a lot about seeds.
I kept waiting for him to mention Seed Savers as a good organization which helps maintain the unaltered seed lines.
I was glad as I was reading that we eat veggies from our CSA and shop at a food co-op and mainly shop locally.
I wonder what Ben is thinking now with the Bird Flu that is killing all the chickens in the large farms - could be an addendum to his book.
September 29, 2011
I liked the authorial voice here very well, but be warned that I am a fan of snark. The infuriating subject matter was made slightly more bearable by Hewitt's irreverence and wit. Not that he didn't take his subject seriously, not at all. The malfeasance of Big Agra and the collaboration of Big Government with regard to food safety are explained herein quite eloquently. The part that's missing is the second half of the title: "and how we can get it back". Aside from growing my own and buying only from farmers I know, that is. As lovely as that sounds, it's still impractical, even in Portland. 3.5 & Recommended.
September 14, 2012
... Packed with anecdotal tales of outbreaks, activists, lawyers, street nutritionists, scientists and farmers, this book is brimming with crucial information. Hewitt writes poetically and his humor helps move the reader through the highbrow and oftentimes disheartening summaries of the numerous scientific reports and articles cited. This book is not only critical reading but it is also smooth and tasty. I declare it to be quite yummy!
Read the entire review here: http://boldbookworm.com/mss51812.html
~ BB
http://boldbookworm.com
Read the entire review here: http://boldbookworm.com/mss51812.html
~ BB
http://boldbookworm.com
July 29, 2012
I expected something academic and polemical, with lots of footnotes, but the book turned out to have a very readable anecdotal style, almost a diary, with lots of the first person singular. The 16 or so chapters dealt with areas in the food chain (covering almost everything except agribusiness damage to the soil) as he researched them, interviewing high-profile people in each area. Full of good stories and plenty of facts interestingly presented.
August 6, 2014
A quick, entertaining read about how we've become alienated from food "production" and the consequences, real and possible.
Admittedly the author has an agenda and some biases, but since they pretty much match my own they're not such a big deal.
If nothing else, you'll get some interesting dumpster-diving tips ;-)
Admittedly the author has an agenda and some biases, but since they pretty much match my own they're not such a big deal.
If nothing else, you'll get some interesting dumpster-diving tips ;-)
November 11, 2011
I really can't gush enough about how much I loved this book. It's extremely well written, with enough tongue and cheek to not make it something to slog through, with a TON of information. Absolutely brilliant.
May 31, 2011
Don Hewlitt investigates the food conglomerates regarding disease and other control of the food industry. His biases become evident as he narrates the book.
June 30, 2011
An in depth investigation of the American food industry. Explores how big business and the government control the food available to us. Free copy for review purposes.
January 2, 2012
Chatty but thought-provoking. Read "The World According to Monsanto for a more serious, academic approach to just one of the issues Hewitt treats in this book.
November 21, 2015
Nice writing. This book presents a well laid out argument against "vertical agriculture", peppered with entertaining and interesting personal anecdotes.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews