Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser

It takes a lot of work to get hamburgers, French fries, and Cokes to the school in Kasigluk, Alaska. The nearest highway is 400 miles away. There are no cows in Kasigluk. Or potatoes, for that matter. The village sits on the banks of the Johnson River, near the Bering Sea. During the summer, wild grasses stretch to the horizon. When the wind blows, the tall grasses make a peaceful rustling sound. About 540 people live in Kasigluk, give or take a few. During the winter, when the river becomes solid ice, they often travel on snowmobiles. And they have to bundle up. The village is so far north that on some days the sun comes out for just three hours and the temperature drops to 50 degrees below zero.

The people who live in Kasigluk are Yupiks, members of an Eskimo tribe that was among the last to encounter the modern world. For generations the lives of the Yupiks revolved around the land and the rivers, the gathering of food and the celebration of family life. Until about fifty years ago, Yupiks obtained almost all of their food by hunting, fishing, and harvesting wild fruits and vegetables. Children were taught at an early age to pick berries, catch small birds, trap rabbits, and collect water from melted snow. Many of the fish caught during the summer months would be dried and saved for the long winter.