Reviews
Endorsements for Appetite for Profit
Marion Nestle, New York University nutrition professor and author of Food Politics and What to Eat, says:
Appetite for Profit is nothing less than a “how-to” manual for anyone who wants to stop food companies from marketing junk foods, especially to children. Michele Simon brilliantly exposes what food companies really mean when they say they market responsibly, and how they use trade, professional and, sometimes, government groups to protect sales and attack critics. I am requiring all of my public health nutrition students to read this book.
Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and Democracy’s Edge, says:
Clear and convincing! Simon rips the mask off the food industry, exposing a dangerous hypocrisy that’s turned food into our biggest health threat.
John Stauber, author of Mad Cow USA, Toxic Sludge is Good for You and Trust Us, We’re Experts, says:
In Appetite for Profit, Michele Simon lays bare the disaster of industrial food, exposing the corporate greed and propaganda controlling our media and politics on critical issues of health and sustainability. Read this very important book.
Reviews of Appetite for Profit
… This impassioned, well-documented book provides a wealth of information for those who want to take on the food industry.
Library Journal – Starred Review
While food is ubiquitously available in our country, nutritious food is difficult to find, and it is becoming increasingly hard to discern the nutritious from the junky. This is exactly what Big Food wants, according to public health attorney Simon. This exposé of Big Food’s unethical behavior and devious marketing strategies is a convincing call to action. Simon, a vegan, does not offer readers advice on changing their diet. Instead, she proffers tips on how to see through corporate rhetoric that does not match with reality and how to protect children from junk-food marketing. Concerned parents will no doubt find this an especially valuable tool. Appendixes provide a glossary to understanding corporate-speak, a guide to industry front-groups, a breakdown of the myths debunked throughout the book, and resources for those who want to effect change. An essential purchase for public health collections, this book is recommended for public and academic libraries as a follow-up to Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and Marion Nestle’s Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. – Mindy Rhiger, St. Paul
Publishers Weekly
Simon, a health policy expert and law professor, skewers the food industry for undermining the health of Americans with “nutrient deficient factory made pseudofoods.” In lawyerly fashion, she explains the ABCs of the business imperative of “Big Food” (Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and McDonald’s, among many others): make short-term profit without regard to the product’s nutritional value or societal effects. Permissible tactics, she says, include false advertising, sham “healthy” food initiatives and co-opting the government, press and academia. Simon also argues that food-industry advocates use front groups to attack critics and spread misinformation about nutritional needs. Simon also chastises her fellow food activists for applauding all “steps in the right direction,” no matter how inadequate; the press for its passive publication of scientifically dubious industry statements; and the government for abandoning effective regulation of the food industry. Her case made, Simon offers a host of suggestions and a manual-like set of directions to parents and other food activists on how to work with legislatures, school boards and the media to create a “just food system” that is “sustainable, affordable, accessible, and convenient.” (Nov.)
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Daily Kos, by Jill Richardson
I wish every American would read Michele’s book… I think the best description of Appetite for Profit is a cross between Food Politics and Toxic Sludge is Good For You. Not surprisingly, the back of Michele’s book features blurbs by Marion Nestle and John Stauber, the authors of Food Politics and Toxic Sludge is Good For You, respectively…. My favorite aspect of Appetite for Profit is the simple ways that Michele states the truth. It almost comes off as funny – except for the fact that it’s not. Initially I wanted to write down a number of great quotes, until I realized that you can probably open the book to any random page and you’ll find at least one great line no matter what.
Michele also advocates focusing on the entire food system as the problem, not obesity. She compares current action against obesity to taking on lung cancer (a symptom of the issue) instead of tobacco (the real issue). As long as obesity remains the issue, Big Food can talk up a storm about personal responsibility and the importance of exercise – and in the meantime, American consumers keep feeding the ridiculous weight loss industry without learning how to eat any healthier than before. The issue is the food system, and obesity is one very obvious symptom that something is very, very wrong.
Interviews
PR Watch (with Judith Siers-Poisson of Center for Media and Democracy)
Alternet (with Matthew Wheeland)
An interview with author Michele Simon, whose latest book covers the ruthless manner in which corporate giants market junk foods to boost their profit margin.
