The Booming, Ethically Dubious Business of Food Delivery

This is a blessed age for food in America—for dining out and cooking in; for recipe books, and TV shows, and recipe books that become TV shows; for the celebrity chefs who occupy seats in the cultural pantheon once reserved for artists; and above all, for the American eater, who is fortunate to be chewing and digesting at a time when there are more restaurants than ever in the United States.

But the cover image on the history book about this culinary moment might not be a fancy knife, an eggy brunch plate, or an alarmingly bulbous heirloom tomato. It might be … trash. A kitchen garbage bag, bulging with cardboard and plastic molded into a variety of container shapes, whose rancid odor is