You are what you eat, but do you know what is in the food you’re eating – or how it’s grown?

Chicken, corn, potatoes, a slice of bread, and a glass of milk. Where does a meal like this come from? Who and what is involved in getting it to your table? Most Canadians don’t know – and will be shocked to find out that, while we were snacking, farming has been transformed. Today, once-independent farmers work on contract for huge food corporations, growing genetically modified food in soil saturated with chemicals. Farming is big business and has become a matter of world trade regulations that favour global corporations. Laidlaw, in investigating the state of modern farming, uncovers many shocking practices, from pesticide use so severe it causes massive fish kills in PEI rivers to the transformation of small prairie abattoirs into vast, industrial slaughterhouses dependent on minimum-wage immigrant workers. Secret Ingredients brings a whole new dimension to the age-old question of what to have for dinner tonight.

From the Hardcover edition.