Saru Jayaraman. Forked: A New Standard for American Dining. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. $24.95. pp. 235. Hardback. ISBN 97099380473.

• Date: 01 June 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.225
• Published date: 01 June 2017
• Author: Kimberly Elizabeth Johnson

Book Review

Saru Jayaraman. Forked: A New Standard for American Dining. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2016. $24.95. pp. 235. Hardback. ISBN 97099380473.

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is a top Millennium Development

Goal of the U.N. and a priority in public health. Yet global health policy

infrequently tackles the origins of poverty. In Forked: A New Standard for American

Dining, Saru Jayaraman argues for heavy scrutiny of the restaurant industry as

poverty creators. With global implications for the worst transnational corpora-

tions, Forked illuminates pathways to poverty for many U.S. citizens through

exploitative restaurant labor standards. The purpose of her book is to ignite

public action for change. However, the book is also a viable toolkit for health

advocates to address socioeconomic contexts eroding public health.

The author builds on earlier work in Behind the Kitchen Door by calling out the

restaurant industry for exploitative labor practices as one of the lowest paying

service industries globally. As Director of the Food Labor Research Center at the

University of California, Berkeley, and Co-Founder of the Restaurant Opportu-

nities Center (ROC United), Jayaraman earned national attention for her food

labor activism. In Forked, she outlines a grassroots approach to intractable issues

of the working poor generated by abusive labor standards in restaurants. Her

work critiques what exists, but also illuminates a positive vision of a fairer and

healthier community. Using a social movement framework, her book mobilizes

advocates and consumers: she raises awareness of the worst labor standards that

contribute to poverty, and carves out a course for everyday action as a foundation

to policy transformation.

The text is organized in chapters by seven categories of food businesses

typical in the United States, such as diners and family restaurants, with an

analysis of labor standards of each. Chapters highlight a brief historical context of

the type of business. Using multiple resources, the author reviews statistics on

key labor standards: wages, paid sick days, and mobility. The ROC developed a

rating system of the standards reported in the text and the ROC’s Diner Guide to

Ethical Eating app to help consumers support better labor practices. The book

then reviews both “high road” and “low road” case studies with rich qualitative

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2017

275

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.225

#2017 Policy Studies Organization