The rich story, and steep cost, of how California’s arid Central Valley became an agricultural powerhouse and what that means for farmers, rural communities, and our food supply as we face the climate crisis.

The Dreamt Land: Mark Arax | Ep. 35

At Real Food Media, we believe each one of us has a story to tell, and that sharing our stories strengthens our communities and our movements. Our two podcast series bring you stories from the food movement through a powerful combination of “book smarts” and “street smarts” (or is it soil savvy?). Real Food Reads, our long-standing book club and podcast, interviews the authors of today’s most important books at the intersection of food, politics, and culture. And our newest podcast series, Foodtopias, showcases the stories of workers, farmers, healers, ecologists, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), womxn, and community organizers who are growing food & cultivating utopia. Together, Real Food Media podcasts offer you the inspiration you need to build your own food activist toolkit. For more resources, visit: www.realfoodmedia.org.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Alicia Kennedy's No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, delves into the subcultures and politics that have defined vegan and vegetarian cuisine in the United States—from tempeh production to vegan punk cafes. In this episode, Alicia talks to Anna Lappé about the feminist origins of her own veganism, how she eats in Puerto Rico, and how the cultural signifiers of meat and plant-based eating have shifted over time. 

SHOW NOTES: 
3:18 | Alicia’s love of okra
​​4:28 | What Alicia hopes people will take away from her book about veganism and vegetarian politics
6:00 | Meat eating in the US culture wars
7:06 | The abundance of meat tied to United States as US as an “exceptional nation”; political tolerance for injustices like child labor in the meat industry; meat eating linked to ideas like masculine virility 
8:40 | Link between vegetarianism and the feminist movement 
10:10 | Lagusta’s Luscious’ vegan “Furious Vulva” chocolate
11:55 | Alicia on corporate fake meat alternatives, and coming back to the original veggie burger
14:59 | The PR dollars behind pushing fake meat as a “solution” 
15:57 | The dangerous focus on, and obsession with, protein
18:07 | The misconception of that veganism is mostly white and middle class; the radical, BIPOC lineages of veganism and the contributions of Bryant Terry and others.
22:32 | Re-politicizing veganism and vegetarianism
23:17 | Making the food and climate connection; what difference do individual food choices make?
24:42 | Parallels between consuming food and clothes; “fast fashion” 
27:00 | Individual choices as “tiny bricks thrown against the window of tyranny”
27:24 | How much the meat industry pours into public relations
29:50 | Anna and Alicia talk about Aubrey Plaza’s “wood milking” bit for the Dairy Council

DIG DEEPER:
Preorder the book (out 8/15/23), http://www.beacon.org/No-Meat-Required-P1938.aspx 
From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy on Substack, https://www.aliciakennedy.news/ 
“How the US Dictates what Puerto Rico Eats” by Israel Meléndez Ayala and Alicia Kennedy, The New York Times (from 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/opinion/puerto-rico-jones-act.html 
​​For episode transcript and more, visit: https://realfoodmedia.org/portfolio/no-meat-required-the-cultural-history-and-culinary-future-of-plant-based-eating/ 
Join the Real Food Reads book club: https://realfoodmedia.org/programs/real-food-reads/

EPISODE CREDITS:
Host: Anna Lappé
Co-producers: Tanya Kerssen and Tiffani Patton
Editor: Claire Reynolds

No Meat Required: Alicia Kennedy | Ep. 60

Can you believe five years have gone by since the last Farm Bill? It feels like a lifetime ago — SO much has changed politically. Bone up on your Farm Bill history and get ready to organize for a transformative Food & Farm Bill in 2023. This 2019 Real Food Reads interview with Dan Imhoff, farm policy expert and author of “The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide,” is a great place to start. 

Follow Real Food Media wherever you get your podcasts. 

DIG DEEPER:
Get the book - The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide, https://islandpress.org/books/farm-bill 

HEAL Food Alliance’s Farm Bill 101, https://healfoodalliance.org/ 

“This Farm Bill Really Matters. We Explain Why.” by Lisa Held, Civil Eats, March 20, 2023 https://civileats.com/2023/03/20/farm-bill-explainer-2023-bill-snap-nutrition-climate-smart-farming-commodities-insurance-congress/ 

“HEAL Food Alliance Shows Up Big in DC for a Transformative Farm Bill” by Eloni Porcher, March 24, 2023 https://healfoodalliance.org/heal-food-alliance-shows-up-big-dc-for-a-transformative-farm-bill/

The Farm Bill Redux: Dan Imhoff | Re-release of Ep. 30

Insects are the often-times invisible workforce that take on planetary care. According to Dave Goulson, author of Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse, “they pollinate, break down waste and provide food for us and countless other species. If they vanished tomorrow, the apocalypse would begin the next day.” Today, insect populations are in rapid decline, with estimates of population loss ranging from 40-75%  across regions. The main drivers? Habitat loss and widespread use of dangerous chemicals—both of which are linked with industrial agriculture. In this special Real Food Reads episode commemorating the 60th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Anna Lappé speaks with Dave Goulson about agrichemicals, biodiversity, and how we, together, can avert the insect apocalypse. 



SHOW NOTES

3:52 The importance of insects and the ecosystem services they provide

6:00 An example of insects at work in Australia 

9:20 Unknown number of insect species, but we do know that insect populations are on the decline

11:10 Industrialized agriculture is one of the main drivers of the astounding insect decline we have today

13:05 How synthetic fertilizers impact the insect population

17:42 Neonicotinoids (or neonics), the parallel to DDT, and their dangerous lethal and sublethal impacts on insecticides. 

24:01 If these chemicals are so dangerous, why hasn’t more action been taken?
Where is the world still noisy? 

29:15 Where in the world is it still “noisy” and busy with insect biodiversity?

32:30 What we can each do in our own ways to “avert the insect apocalypse”

Silent Earth: Dave Goulson | Ep. 58

When we speak of biodiversity loss, the climate crisis, and food injustice, we have to go to the root: colonialism. From the perspective and "voice" of the nutmeg, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh does just that. Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and is now based in Brooklyn. He’s the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. His most recent book, The Nutmeg’s Curse, opens with the Dutch Empire’s brutal war in the Banda Islands—a small archipelago that’s part of what is now Indonesia—to establish a monopoly on the nutmeg trade. From there, he takes us halfway around the world and back again, weaving together stories of colonial violence, human resilience, and non-human agency. 

SHOW NOTES: 
2:32 | Why European navigators sailed off in search of spices in the 17th century
4:00 | Dutch colonialism and the 1621 Banda Massacre
9:46 | Nutmeg production as the earliest instance of industrial agriculture and racial capitalism (and why it matters) 
11:19 | Racialized workforces in agriculture around the world
14:20 | The pleasures of gardening, including growing your own spices
15:15 | How spices came to be devalued (and associated with “onanism”!)
17:40 | On the mysteries of the vanilla plant
20:40 | Environmentalism’s dark history (and present) of ethnic cleansing
22:20 | The role of militarism in transforming food systems and contributing to the climate crisis
23:30 | The Pentagon and other military institutions as the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, and yet they are excluded from climate negotiations
25:42 | Amitav’s call for a “vitalist politics”

DIG DEEPER:
Follow Amitav Ghosh on Twitter: @GhoshAmitav 
Visit his blog: http://amitavghosh.com/blog/ 
Buy the book: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo125517349.html 
​​For more on this episode, expanded show notes, and full transcript, visit: https://realfoodmedia.org/portfolio/the-nutmegs-curse/ 
Join the Real Food Reads book club: https://realfoodmedia.org/programs/real-food-reads/ 
Become a Patreon supporter for early access to our episodes and premium content with the authors here https://www.patreon.com/realfoodmedia

The Nutmeg's Curse: Amitav Ghosh Ep. 59

Indigenous people make up 5 percent of the global population and steward 80 percent of the world's biodiversity, yet they aren’t centered in most discussions or actions for environmental justice. An Indigenous woman and scientist, Dr. Jessica Hernandez talks about the importance of Indigenous science (and scientists) in her new book Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science. In this conversation, Jessica talks about the importance of Indigenous-led stewardship projects, Black-Indigenous solidarity, and shares the moving story of how she came to the book’s title.  

SHOW NOTES:
1:51 | The difference between an interdisciplinary scientist and an Indigenous scientist

3:50  | What is Indigenous science?

5:50 | Indigenous people support 80% of the world’s biodiversity 

10:15 | Conservation as a Western construct and the trouble with the original concept of National Parks 

12:44 | The importance of #LandBack and Indigenous-led stewardship projects 

17:49 | The impact of banana plantations in Central America 

22:30 | The title of the book and the personal impact of war in El Salvador 


DIG DEEPER: 
To learn more about Dr. Jessica Hernandez, visit her site https://www.jessicabhernandez.com/
Follow Jessica on Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctora_nature
Buy the book: https://bookshop.org/books/fresh-banana-leaves-healing-indigenous-landscapes-through-indigenous-science
​​For more on this episode, expanded show notes, and full transcript, visit: https://realfoodmedia.org/portfolio/fresh-banana-leaves/

Join the Real Food Reads book club: https://realfoodmedia.org/programs/real-food-reads/ 
Become a Patreon supporter for early access to our episodes and premium content with the authors here https://www.patreon.com/realfoodmedia

The Dreamt Land: Mark Arax | Ep. 35

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