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In recent decades, many members of the public have come to see processed food as a problem that needs to be solved by eating "real" food and reforming the food system. But for many food industry professionals, the problem is not processed food or the food system itself, but misperceptions and irrational fears caused by the public's lack of scientific understanding. In her highly original book, Charlotte Biltekoff explores the role that science and scientific authority play in food industry responses to consumer concerns about what we eat and how it is made. As Biltekoff documents, industry efforts to correct public misperceptions through science-based education have consistently misunderstood the public's concerns, which she argues are an expression of politics. This has entrenched "food scientism" in public discourse and seeded a form of antipolitics, with broad consequences. Real Food, Real Facts offers lessons that extend well beyond food choice and will appeal to readers interested in how everyday people come to accept or reject scientific authority in matters of personal health and well-being.

About the Author

Charlotte Biltekoff is Professor of American Studies and Food Science and Technology and Darrell Corti Endowed Professor in Food, Wine, and Culture, University of California, Davis. She is author of Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health.

From Our Blog

Q&A with Charlotte Biltekoff, author of "Real Food, Real Facts"

In her highly original book, Charlotte Biltekoff explores the role that science and scientific authority play in food industry responses to consumer concerns about what we eat and how it is made. Real Food, Real Facts offers lessons that extend well beyond food choice and will appeal to readers interested in how everyday people come to accept or reject scientific authority in matters of personal health and well-being.

Reviews

"In this brilliant book, Charlotte Biltekoff deftly examines unexplored dimensions of the food wars, including the deployment of science to defend processed food, as if science is free of social context and cultural values. In effect Biltekoff asks for more nuanced thinking about science as the ultimate arbiter of fundamentally political decisions—a difficult but necessary challenge in a 'post-truth' world."—Julie Guthman, author of The Problem with Solutions

"Real Food, Real Facts clearly highlights the centrality of scientism and deficit thinking in contemporary food policy, showing how this approach is a form of antipolitics that excludes key issues from the realm of legitimate political debate."—Saul Halfon, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Science, Technology, and Society, Virginia Tech

"This deeply researched and important book illuminates how trust in science informs trust in the industrial food system. Biltekoff's analysis is critical reading for scholars, consumers, and food industry professionals alike."—Anna Zeide, author of Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry

"Why do the food industry and the public seem to be speaking different languages about the American industrial food system? Biltekoff provides a clear-eyed explanation of food fights between food industry professionals—who assume that if only the public understood the science they would enthusiastically embrace processed foods—and a public wanting something different, including a more transparent food system and a voice in making it. In lucid, accessible prose, Biltekoff employs the frames of Real Facts and Real Food to understand the twenty-first-century landscape of American food."—Amy Bentley, Professor of Food Studies, New York University

Media

Watch the UCTV panel "You Are What You Eat," featuring author Charlotte Biltekoff