For Food's Sake

To mark 50 episodes on the podcast, I share my own evolving thoughts on food. I reflect on the state of agriculture and on what sustainability might mean in the food movement today.

My experience over the last half decade engaging with the food movement has been that debates are all too often reduced to soundbites on social media. Complex arguments are reduced to 280 characters on Twitter, angry posts on Facebook, and rants on YouTube. We're talking past each other. That's unhelpful. 

By sharing my thoughts, I hope to encourage more honest, open and nuanced discussions with whoever is listening. 

In this episode, I briefly discuss:

• The failed promises of industrial agriculture
• The winners and losers of our food system
• Food sustainability through different lenses
• Agriculture and humanity's relationship to nature
• The future of farming through Charles C. Mann's Prophets and Wizards
• The land sharing land sparing debate
• Funding: where does all the money flow?
• Agroecology and its critics
• The dilemmas of cell-based and plant-based meat

 

References (in chronological order):

• World Health Organisation (WHO) - Obesity and Overweight Fact Sheet
• Lappé, Francis M., Fowler, Carey and Collins, Joseph (1977) Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity
• White, Allen (2016) - 'Solving the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture: An Interview with Wes Jackson' In These Times Online 
• Jackson, Wes & Berry, Wendell (2011) Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson
• Ritchie, Hannah (2021) 'Cutting down forests: what are the drivers of deforestation?' Our World In Data 
• United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) (2021) 'Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss'
• Mann, Charles C. (2018) The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. Knopf publishing.
• Barretto, Alberto & Berndes, Göran & Sparovek, Gerd & Wirsenius, Stefan. (2013). Agricultural intensification in Brazil and its effects on land-use patterns: An analysis of the 1975–2006 period. Global change biology. 19(6). 10.1111/gcb.12174. 
• Holt-Giménez, Eric & Shattuck, Annie & Altieri, Miguel & Herren, Hans & Gliessman, Steve. (2012) We Already Grow Enough Food for 10 Billion People … and Still Can't End Hunger. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 36. 595-598.
• Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & IPES-Food (2020) Money Flows: What is holding back investment in agroecological research for Africa? Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems
• De Schutter, Olivier & Vermeylen, Margot (2020) The share of agroecology in Belgian official development assistance: an opportunity missed 
• Meier, M. S. et al. (2015) Environmental impacts of organic and conventional agricultural products – are differences captured by life cycle assessment?  Journal of Environmental Management 149, 193–207 
• Van der Werf, H.M.G., Knudsen, M.T. & Cederberg, C. (2020) Towards better representation of organic agriculture in life cycle assessment. Nature Sustainability 3, 419–425 
• Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology (2015) Nyéléni, Mali. Via Campesina website
• IPES-Food (2016) From uniformity to diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversifed agroecological systems. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food systems. 
• Levidow, Les (2016) Agroecological Innovation. International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). 
• Cook, C.D., Hamerschlag, K., and Klein, K. (2016) Farming for the Future: Organic and Agroecological Solutions to Feed the World. Friends of the Earth.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) 1.02 billion hungry.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) The state of food insecurity in the world. Rome, Italy: Economic and Social DevelopmentDepartment Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Reganold, J., Wachter, J. (2016) Organic agriculture in the twenty-first century. Nature Plants 2, 15221 
• Rodale Institute (2020) The Truth about Organic. Kutztown, PA. 
• Galloway McLean, Kirsty & Castillo, Ameyali & Rubis, Jennifer. (2011). Indigenous Peoples, Marginalized Populations and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Traditional Knowledge
• Debal Deb (2009) "Valuing folk crop varieties for agroecology and food security", Independent Science News (26 October 2009). 
• United Nations (2015) United Nations General Assembly, Right to Food, UN Doc. A/70/287
• Philpott, Stacy & Lin, Brenda & Jha, Shalene & Brines, Shannon. (2008). A multi-scale assessment of hurricane impacts based on land-use and topographic features. Agric Ecosyst Environ. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 128. 12-20. 
• Rosset, Peter & Sosa, Braulio & Jaime, Adilén & Avila, Rocio. (2011). The Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement of ANAP in Cuba: Social Process Methodology in the Construction of Sustainable Peasant Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. The Journal of peasant studies. 38. 161-91.
• Poux, X., Aubert, P.-M. (2018). An agroecological Europe in 2050: multifunctional agriculture for healthy eating. Findings from the Ten Years For Agroecology (TYFA) modelling exercise, Iddri-AScA, Study N°09/18, Paris, France 
• Fairlie, Simon (2010) Meat: A Benign Extravagance. Permanent Publications, Hampshire, UK. 
• Carrington, Damian (2019) '$1m a minute: the farming subsidies destroying the world - report' The Guardian. 
• The Food and Land Use Coalition (2019) Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use. The Global Consultation Report of the Food and Land Use Coalition.

You might also like:

• FFS 000 - Why A Food Podcast?
• FFS 041 - On the Frontlines of Food
• FFS 033 - A Case for Eating Meat

Guilt and shame are deeply present in our relationship with food. How do we harness these emotions for good?

When it comes to eating animals, can guilt and shame positively influence our behaviour or those of corporations to reduce our environmental foodprint?  

We are joined by Dr. Jennifer Jacquet - Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU. Jennifer does interdisciplinary research on globalized environmental problems, including the wildlife trade, fisheries, and climate change. She is the author of the book "Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool" and the co-author of a recent study exploring the climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers. 

We discuss:

• The difference between guilt and shame
• Research about what works and doesn't when shaming our food choices
• The Netflix documentary Seaspiracy: who we shame and how
• The role of private corporations and challenging conventions of responsibility 

Links: 

• Jennifer Jacquet (2015) - "Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool" 
• Lazarus, O., McDermid, S. & Jacquet, J. (2021) The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers. Climatic Change 165, 30
• Seaspiracy (2021) A Netflix Documentary

You may also like:

• FFS 032 - The Last Acceptable Prejudice
• FFS 026 - We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 014 - Blue Is The New Green

From its more humble origins to its modern-day status as a dominant yet destructive wonderbean, the story of soy concerns us all.   Soy is much more than tofu or tempeh. It's a global commodity crop: the driving force of animal agriculture and a hidden fuel of growing importance for our cars.   In this episode, we deep dive with Dr. Christine M. Du Bois into the history of soy and the vital role it continues to play in our lives.   Christine M. Du Bois is a former co-manager of the Johns Hopkins Project on Soy. She is the author of The Story of Soy (2018) and Images of West Indian Immigrants in Mass Media: The Struggle for a Positive Ethnic Reputation (2004) and is the lead editor and coauthor of The World of Soy (2008). She has published poetry at BourgeonOnline.com. She lives in Pennsylvania.   We discuss:

• How we use the modern soybean: ubiquitous yet unseen
• The bean's Manchurian origins
• The rise of the 'Cinderella crop'
• Mass deforestation, billionaire Blairo Maggi and the 'United Republic of Soy'
• The role of China, geopolitics and the future of soy

  Links:

• The Story of Soy (2018)- Christine M. Du Bois
• The World of Soy (2008) - Christine M. Du Bois, Chee-Beng Tan, Sidney Mintz (Eds.)
• Rise of the 'wonder bean': from deforestation to your plate - The Guardian

  You might also like:

• FFS 039 - The Invisible ABCD Giants and the Financialisation of Food
• FFS 027 - A World Without Chocolate
• FFS 013 - How Plants Domesticated Humans

The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has become Europe's problem child.   Vested interests behind one of the Union's oldest policies threaten to derail Europe's ambitious new climate, biodiversity and food strategies.   In this episode, we deep dive into the controversial CAP - over €350 billion of taxpayer money spent on European farming - and discuss if there is still any hope in reforming a policy that continues to baffle and disappoint many of Europe's citizens, farmers, and scientists.   We are joined by conservation biologist Dr. Guy Pe'er from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.   We discuss:

• What the CAP is, including a brief history
• What is happening in the negotiations and why the stakes are so high
• A detailed step-by-step scientific critique of the current proposal
• Debunking common claims made by politicians that the CAP is more ambitious, provides stability and ensures food security
• How the power of lobbying and conflicts of interest shape the CAP
• Different paths forward for policy makers and individuals

  Links:  

• 8 December 2020 - The EU Common Agricultural Policy and Sustainable Farming: A Statement by scientists
• 3 March 2020 - Common Agricultural Policy reform: More than 3600 researchers call for science to be taken into consideration
• November 5 2019 - NYT Investigation "The Money Farmers: How Oligarchs and Populists Milk the E.U. for Millions"

You may also like:

• FFS 044 - The Ground Zero Ingredient
• FFS 041 - On the Front Lines of Food
• FFS 028 - Money Well Spent? EU Farm Subsidies

• •  

What is the future of protein, and of animal agriculture? Can we raise animals sustainably or should we move beyond meat?

To feed a growing world population, we need protein. For many, protein means meat. As our reliance on animal products grows, so does its destructive impact on the natural world. Mass deforestation, biodiversity loss, and significant greenhouse gas emissions of livestock put our dietary habits into the spotlight.

In this panel discussion, I am joined by Nathalie Rolland (Cellulaire Agriculture France & ProVeg), Andrew deCoriolis (Farm Forward) and Patrick Holden (Sustainable Food Trust).

We discuss:

• The current COVID-19 context and its impacts on food systems
• How sustainable are plant-based alternatives to meat?
• What is "Better meat" and where can we find it?
• Cellular agriculture: meat without slaughter?
• What could the future of food look like in 2050?

This episode is a recording of the live webinar "Protein in the 21st Century", organised by The SASI Co., a global sustainability agency.

Links:

• Watch the full replay of the webinar on Facebook
• Watch the full replay of the webinar on The SASI Co. website
• Sustainable Food Trust website
• Farm Forward Website
• DefaultVeg Website
• Agriculture Cellulaire France Website
• ProVeg International Website

You might also like:

• FFS 031 - Farmers Facing Brexit
• FFS 022 - The Bird is the Word
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking beyond the hype with New Harvest

Everything begins with a seed. Seeds are both a story of loss and a story of hope in our food system.

On the one hand, we are rapidly losing seed diversity, and with it, perhaps the single best weapon agriculture has to withstand an increasingly volatile climate. When we lose biodiversity, we lose our ability to be resilient. What (or who) is causing this loss? 

On the other, seeds are central to resistance and hope. From seed saving, sharing and storing to embracing indigenous farming practices and knowledge, seeds are central to food justice and resilience of our food system to a changing climate.  

"Every seed is both a simple pocketful of genes, and a multi-multi-dimensional and complex "packetful" of stories'. - Mark Schapiro

We talk about: 

• What losing seed diversity means, and who is driving it
• How climate change has put industrial agriculture on trial
• Agricultural subsidies and climate equity
• Stories of resistance and seed saving: from Aleppo to Kansas 
• How hopes of genetic engineering are outpaced by climate volatility
• The belated recognition of indigenous practices and knowledge in building a resilient agriculture

Mark Schapiro is an award-winning investigative journalist specializing in the environment. His most recent book, Seeds of Resistance: The Fight to Save Our Food Supply, investigates the search for seeds to respond to climate disruptions, the battle with agri-chemical companies to control them, and the global movement underway to save them.

Previous books include CARBON SHOCK: A Tale of Risk & Calculus on the Frontlines of the Disrupted Global Economy, an investigation into the hidden costs and consequences of climate change; and EXPOSED: the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power, on the public health and economic impacts of the U.S. retreat from toxic chemical protections.  He is also a Lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and conducts trainings in science and environmental journalism in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Links:

• Mark Schapiro on Twitter 
• Mark Schapiro - Seeds of Resistance: The Fight to Save Our Food Supply 

You might also like:

• FFS 016 - The Most Important Room in the World 
• FFS 026 - We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 041 - On the Frontlines of Food

2019 was the year of climate strikes. Animal rights activists, emboldened by a new wave of mass civil disobedience, are determined to end industrial animal agriculture.

Millions of ordinary people took to the streets in 2019. They put their bodies on the line, engaging in mass civil disobedience to demand climate action.

In an era where food is produced in factory farms with an immeasurable scale of suffering and destruction, what role should animal rights activists play in the transition towards a just food system?

In this episode, we talk with Jeff Sebo (New York University), Nico Stubler (Direct Action Everywhere) and Kerri Waters (Animal Rebellion) about the history, strategies and actions of animal rights activists. 

We discuss:

• The origins of civil disobedience in the animal rights movement 
• The different types of action and activism
• Strategies and tactics: who to target and why
• The stakes today: animal liberation as domestic terrorism? 60 years in prison? 
• The dangers of rationalising inaction
• The new kids on the block: Extinction Rebellion and Animal Rebellion
• An inclusive approach: how to bring farmers on board 

Jeff Sebo is the Director of the Animal Studies M.A. Program at New York University. He teaches Animal Studies and Environmental Studies and works primarily in moral, social, and political philosophy with an emphasis on bioethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. He is the co-author of Animals, and the Environment: An ethical approach and author of the forthcoming book Why Animals Matter for Climate Change. 

Nico Stubler is an animal rights activist and organiser with the New York chapter of Direct Action Everywhere. He is passionate about animal liberation, decolonialism, racial and gender equity, and the natural world and through his activism is committed to tear down institutionalized oppression and structural inequity and organizing to replace these systems with just and sustainable alternatives. 

Kerri Waters is an animal rights activist and the editorial coordinator, soon to be political strategy coordinator of Animal Rebellion. She is also a freelance translator and English language teacher.

Links:

• Meet the Activists Risking Prison to Film VR in Factory Farms - Wired 
• Extinction Rebellion arrests near 1,300 after Billingsgate protest - The Guardian
• Beware! Rebellion really can transform your life - Medium

You might also like:

• FFS 040 - Factory Farmed Superbugs
• FFS 036 - Chicken Nugget Capitalism
• FFS 015 - From A To Veganism

To transcend infighting in the food movement, finding our common ground is as important as targeting our common enemy.

The food movement is amazingly diverse. From personal health and animal rights to protecting worker's rights and precious ecosystems, our why's for wanting to radically transform our food system widely differ. So do our tactics and our strategies. 

That diversity may just be the food movement's greatest strength, yet it also risks being its biggest weakness. 

Infighting is as invasive as it is destructive. The 'circling fire squad' - where people with common enemies choose to shoot one another instead - is deeply counterproductive.

To transcend infighting, finding our common ground is as important as targeting our common enemy. 

Tom Newmark - co-founder of The Carbon Underground - sees an answer in Regenerative Agriculture - and a focus on soil as our common ground. 

Tom and I discuss:

• What led him to regenerative agriculture and why its focus on outcomes rather than practices is transformative
• How common ground exists between seemingly insurmountable visions in the environmental food movement
• The differences that do matter: the case for remaining vigilant not only against the expansion of factory farms, but also against the new discourses of 'sustainable intensification' and 'Climate-Smart' Agriculture

Links:

• "The Story of Soil Is the Story of All of Us" - Tom Newmark & Annie Leonard
• "A Call to Arms to Fight Factory Farms" - Matteo De Vos
• The Carbon Underground website
• Chico Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems
• Tom Newmark's blog/journal at Finca Luna Nueva
• Greenpeace 1-minute video
• Greenpeace Agricultural vision "Less is More" report

 

You might also like:

• FFS 024 - The Soilution: Saving our soil, saving ourselves
• FFS 025 - Breaking Bread with Paleo
• FFS 037 - The Dirty History of Soil

 

The continued expansion of industrial-scale chemical-intensive agriculture around the world relies on one central powerful myth: only industrial agriculture can feed the world.

 

Timothy A. Wise - author of Eating Tomorrow - joins us to discuss why, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, governments continue to invest in a model of farming that is devouring the natural resources on which future food production depends. By choosing the path of industrial agriculture today, we are, quite literally, "eating our collective tomorrows".

Tim and I discuss:

• Who actually "feeds the world"
• Who (or what) industrial agriculture feeds
• The failing Green Revolution in Africa: feeding corporations, not the hungry
• Alternative local agroecological solutions in Malawi and Mozambique nourishing people and planet
• How agroecology, not hybrid seeds, builds lasting resilience against floods and drought, the 'evil twins of climate change':
• Global trade and market failure: NAFTA devastating biodiversity and Mexican farmer livelihoods
• India's National Food Security Act: the most ambitious anti-hunger program in the world and why the US opposes it

 

Timothy A. Wise directs the Land and Food Rights Program at Small Planet Institute. He is a Research Fellow in the Globalization Program at Tufts University's Global Development and Environment Institute. With a background as an economic journalist and an international development practitioner, Wise's research and writing have covered U.S. farm policies, trade and agricultural development, agricultural biodiversity, food prices and biofuels, and Mexico's maize economy under the threat of genetically modified maize. He is also the former Executive Director of Grassroots International and a writer and editor at Dollars & Sensemagazine, and co-author of Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular Resistance in Mexico,The Promise and the Perils of Agricultural Trade Liberalization: Lessons from Latin America, and A Survey of Sustainable Development: Social and Economic Dimensions.

 

Links:

• Timothy A. Wise (2019) Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food(The New Press)
• Small Planet Institute Website
• NY Book Launch - Eating Tomorrow (Youtube)
• Shiva, Vandana (1993) "Monocultures of the Mind". Trumpeter: 10, 4.
• Anna Lappé & Food MythBusters – Do we really need industrial agriculture to feed the world? (YouTube)

 

You might also like:

• FFS 039 – The Invisible ABCD Giants and the Financialisation of Food
• FFS 036 – Chicken Nugget Capitalism
• FFS 034 – Wizards and Prophets

 

We are on the cusp of a post-antibiotic era. The golden age of miracle drugs may be coming to an end.

To understand why, award-winning author Maryn McKenna joins us on the show to discuss the long intertwined history of antibiotics and industrial animal agriculture. 

We discuss:

• What antibiotic resistance is and why it's 'the greatest slow-brewing health crisis of our time'
• Why bacteria are winning and why Big Pharma are dragging their feet
• The birth of antibiotics and how it enabled industrial livestock production
• Why chicken lies at the centre of the story of antibiotics and industrial meat
• A bizarre footnote in the story of antibiotics called "Acronizing" 
• The fight to ban the use of growth promoting antibiotics
• The legislative battles ahead in fighting preventive use of antibiotics
• Beyond the doom and gloom: different models of antibiotic-free animal agriculture from around the world
• Wider lessons for the food movement from the story of antibiotics

 

Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist who specializes in public health, global health and food policy. She is a columnist for WIRED, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University. Her latest book "BIg Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats" (also published internationally under the title Plucked) received the 2018 Science in Society Award and was named a best book of 2017 by Amazon, Smithsonian, Science News, Wired, Civil Eats and other publications. She writes for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Mother Jones, Newsweek, NPR, Smithsonian,S cientific American, Slate, The Atlantic, Nature, and The Guardian, among other publications.

 

Links:

• Maryn McKenna website, Twitter
• Maryn McKenna – 'Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats'
• TED Talk: Maryn McKenna 'What do we do when antibiotics don't work anymore?'
• Resistance– 2014 Documentary on antibiotic resistance, starring Maryn McKenna
•  

You May also like:

• FFS 036 – Chicken Nugget Capitalism
• FFS 026 – We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 022 – The Bird is the Word