The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

Journalist Lorr (Hell-Bent) investigates the production, distribution, sales, and marketing of retail food products in this wide-ranging and acerbic exposé. Lorr documents the multiyear process of experimentation, pitch meetings, and negotiations behind new food products, and describes commercial fishing and shrimp farming practices in Thailand, where “NGOs estimate 17 to 60 percent of Thai shrimp includes slave labor... in its supply chain.” On a trip with a long-haul trucker, he discovers that the woman’s net pay for the previous year was $17,000 (out of $200,000 gross) after the cost of gas, supplies, and insurance were deducted. And working the fish counter at Whole Foods, Lorr learns what it’s like to have no job security or set hours. In a brisk yet comprehensive analysis of the history of the American grocery store, Lorr spotlights the advent of packaged food and the reinvention of the traditional model by Trader Joe’s owner Joe Coulombe, among other milestones. Lorr’s stylistic quirks, including extensive footnotes, overlong sentences, and oddly heightened language (he describes one stage in the processing of chickens as “a moment when industry mimics the god”) will be off-putting for some readers, but the depth of his research astonishes. Socially conscious readers will want to take note. Agent: Michael Harriot, Folio Literary. (Sept.)