Chris Methmann's "Bad Food" Examines How Food Corporations Shape Our Choices

Chris Methmann, director of Foodwatch, opens his new book "Bad Food" with a 2025 political episode: when Markus Söder presented Alois Rainer (CSU) as the new federal nutrition minister, he promised a culinary turning point, contrasting the "green-vegan Özdemir" with the "black butcher" and declaring a return to "Leberkäs instead of tofu fussiness." Rainer, a master butcher from Lower Bavaria, embodied a political promise that the state would finally leave citizens alone to eat as they wish. Methmann does not dismiss the fear of dietary paternalism as unfounded; he argues instead that the public has misidentified the adversary. According to Methmann, the real force shaping what people eat is not government overreach but the food corporations themselves, whose influence over consumer decisions is the book's central subject. The answer he proposes is not resignation but politics. The book is published by Freitag, and further details appear in the current issue.