"Engrossing... hard to put down." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Frostbite is a perfectly executed cold fusion of science, history, and literary verve... as a fellow nonfiction writer, I bow down. This is how it's done." -- Mary Roach, author of Fuzz and Stiff

An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food -- for better and for worse

How often do we open the fridge or peer into the freezer with the expectation that we'll find something fresh and ready to eat? It's an everyday act -- but just a century ago, eating food that had been refrigerated was cause for both fear and excitement. The introduction of artificial refrigeration overturned millennia of dietary history, launching a new chapter in human nutrition. We could now overcome not just rot, but seasonality and geography. Tomatoes in January? Avocados in Shanghai? All possible.

In Frostbite, New Yorker contributor and cohost of the award-winning podcast Gastropod Nicola Twilley takes readers on a tour of the cold chain from farm to fridge, visiting off-the-beaten-path landmarks such as Missouri's subterranean cheese caves, the banana-ripening rooms of New York City, and the vast refrigerated tanks that store the nation's orange juice reserves. Today, nearly three-quarters of everything on the average American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration. It's impossible to make sense of our food system without understanding the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it. Twilley's eye-opening book is the first to reveal the transformative impact refrigeration has had on our health and our guts; our farms, tables, kitchens, and cities; global economics and politics; and even our environment.

In the developed world, we've reaped the benefits of refrigeration for more than a century, but the costs are catching up with us. We've eroded our connection to our food and redefined what "fresh" means. More important, refrigeration is one of the leading contributors to climate change. As the developing world races to build a US-style cold chain, Twilley asks: Can we reduce our dependence on refrigeration? Should we? A deeply researched and reported, original, and entertaining dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, Frostbite makes the case for a recalibration of our relationship with the fridge -- and how our future might depend on it.

• We started tracking this book on May 30, 2024.
• This book was $15.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 4 times in the past 263 days.
• The current price of this book is $15.99 last checked 17 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is $1.99.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on February 9, 2025.
• This book has been $1.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $15.99 last reached on February 10, 2025.
• This book has been $15.99 3 times since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its highest price since we started tracking it.

• Science & Math

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 399 Pages
• File Size: 2,612 KB