Bite Back - by Saru Jayaraman & Kathryn de Master (Paperback)

About the Book

"The food system is broken, but there is a revolution underway to fix it. Bite Back presents an urgent call and vision for disrupting corporate power in the food system, a vision shared with countless organizers and advocates worldwide. In this provocative and inspiring new book, editors Saru Jayaraman and Kathryn De Master bring together leading experts and activists who are challenging corporate power by addressing injustices in our food system, from wage inequality to environmental destruction to corporate bullying. Each topical section presents an overview of a problem related to corporate control of the food system and then offers the story of a successful organizing campaign that tackled the problem. This unique solutions-oriented book allows readers to explore the core contemporary challenges embedded in our food system and learn how people and communities can push back against corporate greed to benefit workers and consumers everywhere. It is essential reading for anyone interested in food today"--

Book Synopsis

The food system is broken, but there is a revolution underway to fix it. Bite Back presents an urgent call to action and a vision for disrupting corporate power in the food system, a vision shared with countless organizers and advocates worldwide. In this provocative and inspiring new book, editors Saru Jayaraman and Kathryn De Master bring together leading experts and activists who are challenging corporate power by addressing injustices in our food system, from wage inequality to environmental destruction to corporate bullying.

In paired chapters, authors present a problem arising from corporate control of the food system and then recount how an organizing campaign successfully tackled it. This unique solutions-oriented book allows readers to explore the core contemporary challenges embedded in our food system and learn how we can push back against corporate greed to benefit workers and consumers everywhere.

From the Back Cover

"Don't despair! There is a surprising amount of good news in the struggle for better food systems, and most of it is revealed and analyzed in Bite Back."--Mark Bittman, Editor in Chief of Heated

"This book's pairing of critical analysis with insightful portraits of successful actions sets a new standard for collaborative writing about the problems and possibilities in our food systems. A hallmark collection useful to students, activists, researchers, and indeed, anyone with an interest in understanding how to change things for the better."--M. Jahi Chappell, Executive Director of Food First and author of Beginning to End Hunger

"Taking on corporate power through organizing is one of the most important things we can do today to save our democracy. This book can help you learn how."--Abigail Disney, filmmaker and activist

"Bite Back inspires! Farmers, workers, activists, and community members everywhere are resisting corporate power and winning food justice. Join us!"--Monica White, author of Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement

"There is ample reason for despair when surveying the quality of our diet and the way that people and nature are exploited to produce and deliver our food. We live in an era when the global corporations behind this sordid but largely invisible system have more power than governments. However, there is also cause for hope. Saru Jayaraman and Kathryn De Master show how the antidote is food democracy--the power of people to counter and overturn the worst impulses of monopolies. This is far from aspirational, as they detail example after example of how this rising movement is well underway across the food movement."--Ricardo J. Salvador, Director and Senior Scientist, Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists

Review Quotes

"In this cleverly titled collection,​ ​attorney Saru Jayaraman and rural sociologist Kathryn De Master conclude that corporations control much of our food because of 'their unbridled, unregulated power over our democracy.'"-- "Nature"

"Bite Back is a valuable source that brings together research, activism and strategies for action."

-- "The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener"

"A book for the present moment."-- "Civil Eats"

"Offers a series of roadmaps for activists who are looking to change the status quo."
-- "FoodPrint"

About the Author

Saru Jayaraman is Director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, President of One Fair Wage, cofounder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), and author of Behind the Kitchen Door and Forked: A New Standard for American Dining.

Kathryn De Master is a rural sociologist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, and an affiliated scholar with the UC Berkeley Food Institute.