What You're Eating

In this episode, we look at three controversial foods — veal, foie gras and octopus — and the campaigns launched by animal rights activists to stop their production and consumption. These foods and the animals they come from have a lot to teach us about the ethics of animal agriculture — and possibly about ourselves.

Vanilla and Chocolate — the two most beloved flavors in the world — have been linked since the beginning. But both have complicated stories: long and hidden supply chains, an extraction of wealth from communities in the Global South, and all of the environmental and social problems that come from a system that leaves smallholder farmers in poverty. How can we reconcile our love of these essential flavors with their often problematic production? Can we hold large companies accountable? And is it possible to produce vanilla and chocolate in a different and better way?

In this episode, we speak to writer and comedian Jamie Loftus, author of Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, about her cross-country road trip in search of the all-American hot dog.

Why does the oyster — amorphous, slimy, hidden in a shell that’s craggier and stranger than that of a scallop or a clam — capture so many food-lovers’ hearts? What exactly is an oyster? Why are most of the oysters we eat farmed? And why, unlike other farmed seafood, are they considered such a benefit to their environment? In this episode, we head to the farm — the oyster farm — and talk to various experts to understand more about this beloved and very sustainable bivalve.

We can see the causes and effects of biodiversity loss all around us. Only one variety of banana or pineapple for sale in every grocery store. Or the miles and miles or corn and soy you pass as you drive the roads of Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. Or the windshield effect: that there are far fewer dead insects on our windshields as we drive those country roads. We are right now in what’s being called “a biodiversity crisis,” in terms of the number of species we are losing and the increasing pace at which that loss is happening. The primary driver of species loss is our global agriculture system — in other words, the way we grow our food. And as we lose those varieties and breeds of animals and plants, we don’t just lose their genetics, we lose their unique tastes and flavors, too.

For the conscious consumer, buying local products is a way to shorten that distance between us and what we eat or drink, and maybe even learn more about how it was produced by talking to the people who made it. But what about something like coffee, which doesn’t grow anywhere near those of us living in the continental United States? Do you know where your coffee comes from? And if you do know what country it comes from, maybe from the bag or canister you bought your beans in, do you know how it was grown? Or who grew it? Or how it transforms from a berry on a branch to the brown roasted “beans” you grind for your cup of Joe?

In this episode we speak with writer Alicia Kennedy about her new book, "No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating."

In this episode we head to Maine to learn more about the "forever chemicals" PFAS and how they have ended up in well water, on farms, in food, and ultimately in people’s bodies.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Marcia Chatelain, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” and Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University about the relationship between fast food and the Black community in the United States.

As grocery prices soar, it’s worth asking where those profits go and who they benefit. In today’s episode we look at two models of consumer cooperatives, options for buying your food that rely on a less extractive model, where profit stays in the community: co-op grocers and community supported agriculture.