Kitchen Literacy by Ann Vileisis is the story of how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back. It chronicles profound changes in how Americans have shopped, cooked, and thought about food from the eighteenth-century through today.  Our changing awareness of food and nature itself has left us dependant on advertisers and government claims without knowing enough about food’s origins. Today the industrial food system means that most food travels 1,500 mi from farm to plate. Industrial production of food has become so convenient and has resulted in a host of environmental and human health problems. In response, a movement towards eating local and organic food has gained ground. By revealing the history of how we’ve known and not known our foods, Kitchen Literacy has led us to think differently about what we eat and where it comes from.