Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health

Univ. of California Press, 2002 (hardcover)

Last year in this space (March 2001, we told you to read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation because it would be big. Well, it's still on the best seller

Unfortunately, Nestle isn't the elegant writer Schlosser is. Despite her best efforts, she still comes across like an egghead (she chairs New York University's Nutrition & Food Studies Department). Facts, endless endnote citations and statistical references that may impress academics bog down her prose for more general readers. Anecdotes, colorful tums of phrase and colloquial references simply seem beyond her.

Still, the book is an interesting, highly informative read, if only for the comprehensive discussion of how food politics works in this country. The problem: Nestle, like many activists, assumes that food companies exist to promote the agenda of...well, activists. Turns out they're really interested in turning a profit. Go figure.