Sameness in Diversity: Food and Globalization in Modern America

Abstract

Laresh Jayasanker uses the title Sameness in Diversity to capture what he sees as a central paradox in modern American food culture. U.S. residents today have more food options than at any other moment in the nation's history, but, despite the appearance of abundance, food choices are also constrained in ways invisible to the average consumer. Jayasanker's multifaceted exploration of this tension consists of a brief but persuasive 150 pages and is bolstered by more than one hundred pages of notes and bibliography. The first three chapters focus on the fruit and vegetable trade and on the rise of large supermarkets. Jayasanker carefully describes some of the inner workings of a global supply chain that allows consumers to defy seasonality. However, year-round access to produce has come at a cost to biodiversity as farmers produce highly marketable or government subsidized crops at the expense of others. These products are then...