The Secret Life of Groceries

The Secret Life of Groceries • Benjamin Lorr

⭑ 7.2 Stars

I was hooked from the first page of this book, and while the authors writing style was certainly engaging, it was the content that made this book so interesting. The complexity that is the modern grocery story is remarkable not because of anything that a single store, vendor, or manufacturer has accomplished, but because it’s a miracle that the collective supply chain exists at all.

There’s one story in the book that emphasizes this miracle best - in what can only be described as a simultaneous stroke of luck and tragedy, a single fisherman discovered that by removing a single eyeball from a female shrimp, we could expedite the onset of ovulation, a challenge that had stopped the shrimping industry from mass expansion to that point. This bizarre scientific discovery, however, became the sole driver of what is now a multi-billion dollar industry.

While miraculous, Lorr is also keen to acknowledge the moral dilemma associated with almost everything that we eat, and therefore take for granted. He does so by expertly weaving in personal stories of struggle and triumph that perfectly encapsulate an industry that relies on human exploitation and animal suffering to make ends meet.