BOOK REVIEW: In Good Taste - What Shapes What We Eat and Why It Matters
By Mallika Basu | Reviewed by Emma Victor-Smith, Future Food Movement
If you work in the food industry - in ESG, procurement, marketing, comms, innovation, or anywhere else - this is a book to keep on your desk. In Good Taste by Mallika Basu is part explainer, part invitation, part challenge. And it does all three with grace and generosity.
Mallika has been part of the Future Food Movement community for years. She sits on our steering group and our Transformation Table. But more than that, she brings a perspective we believe the industry needs more of: calm, constructive clarity about how the system works, how it got that way, and how it might change.
This book doesn’t try to shock or shame. It’s not about guilt or perfection. It’s about awareness, and what happens when people who love food start to ask better questions about it. It’s easy to read, full of insight, and quietly subversive in the best way.
What’s in the book?
Mallika walks us through the hidden architecture of the food system - from who holds power (governments, corporations, retailers, media, scientists, citizens) to the cultural and economic norms that shape what ends up on our plates. It’s a mix of history, science, business and real-world stories that lands with clarity rather than overwhelm.
She names what’s broken - food systems that rely on finite resources, struggle to protect wellbeing and don’t always deliver profit fairly. But she doesn’t point fingers. Instead, she frames complexity as an invitation to do better, together.
It recognises the constraints many are working under, but doesn’t let anyone off the hook. It’s a call to be more intentional, wherever you sit in the system.
Why it matters now
At Future Food Movement, we talk about knowledge as power. That’s what this book gives. It’s a permission slip for people outside traditional sustainability roles to care more, understand more and do more. And it reminds those inside ESG that the job isn’t just carbon metrics - it’s culture change.
Mallika’s final chapter offers practical ways to engage:
– Ask better questions
– Grow something – even a windowsill herb
– Learn to read a label
– Eat less, better meat
– Understand the stories behind what you’re buying
– Communicate simply and with empathy
This is Future Food Movement’s mission in book form: shift hearts, minds and behaviours – with no shame and plenty of agency.
Whether you’re a comms lead in a retailer, a nutritionist in manufacturing, a commercial director trying to balance purpose and profit, or a policy advisor wondering what food citizens actually care about – In Good Taste is for you.
It’s also just a joy to read. Which, in a space that can often be heavy, is refreshing. The stories we tell about food shape our system. This book helps you tell better ones.
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