Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
People in the US spend more than 10% of their disposable income on food each year. About a trillion dollars of this spending goes toward purchasing food to eat at home, much of it spent at grocery stores and supermarkets. Yet, very few people understand or know about how food makes it to this last step of the food supply chain and ends up on the shelves of their local store. In “The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket,” author Benjamin Lorr traces the history and evolution of the modern-day supermarket, exposes the grocery supply chain, and reveals the often exploited and underpaid labor that goes into making sure shelves are stocked. Lorr paints a vivid picture of how agricultural and meat processing workers, fisherman, truck drivers, and grocery store workers, among others, often endure poverty and sometimes worse as they work to feed our country.
Benjamin Lorr is the author of The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket, an investigation into the human lives and workers at the heart of the American grocery store. Benjamin is also author of Hell-Bent, a critically acclaimed exploration of the Bikram Yoga community that first detailed patterns of abuse and sexual misconduct by guru Bikram Choudhury. Lorr is a graduate of Montgomery County public schools and Columbia University. He lives in New York City
Moderator
Corby Kummer
Executive Director, Food and Society Program, The Aspen Institute
Corby Kummer is executive director of the Food and Society program at the Aspen Institute, a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science, and a senior editor of The Atlantic. In recent years, the Food and Society program launched new initiatives that include the Food Leaders Fellowship, Conversations on Food Justice, Safety First: Protecting Workers and Diners, Food is Medicine Research Action Plan, and Open Access: Equitable Equity for Food Businesses.
Kummer is the author of The Joy of Coffee and The Pleasures of Slow Food, the first book in English on the Slow Food movement. He has been the restaurant critic for New York, Boston, and Atlanta magazines and a food and food policy columnist for The New Republic. A weekly commentator on food and food policy on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio, Kummer has received six James Beard Journalism Awards.
Opportunity in America, an event series hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program, considers the changing landscape of economic opportunity in the US and implications for individuals, families, and communities across the country.
About the Economic Opportunities Program
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
