Americans love shrimp. And one of the exciting developments of the past 20 years or so is that shrimp has gotten really affordable. It used to be a luxury food in the form of shrimp cocktails served at a steakhouse or a fancy wedding. Something for special occasions, slightly out of reach.

Today, shrimp is the number one most popular seafood in America, and as the price point has come way down, it’s become a staple, not just of affordable restaurant chains offering all you can eat, but also in our homes. Every supermarket offers giant frozen bags of it, with the heads and shells already removed if you want, sometimes uncooked, sometimes already boiled or breaded and fried. And it’s sometimes as little as $6 per pound. In today’s episode we talk to experts to find out how and when shrimp became so cheap. And why.

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Single-use food packaging is one of our thorniest problems. We need a safe and convenient way to get food home from the store, and we need easy ways to eat and drink on the go. How can we do that in a way that does not create so much waste? How can we do it in a way that does not put our bodies at risk from the harmful chemicals and additives used in so much of that packaging?

In this episode we look at food packaging, with a focus on plastic, since there’s so much of it, and it’s the one with the most problems. We dig deep into plastic production and its connection to climate change. We talk to experts about how food packaging is problematic not just for the environment, but also for our health. Is there a solution? Is there a future that could exist that was not dominated — and polluted — by plastic?

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In the past decade, demand for eggs has grown, but the kind of eggs we are looking for has changed during that time, too. Consumers are eager to know if the chickens had enough space to move around. Were they cage-free? Free-range? Pasture-raised? Organic? In response to those questions about where those eggs come from and how those hens lived out their lives, egg cartons and the labels and claims on them are working overtime to tell us a story. On today’s episode we look at the many labels on your carton of eggs and dig into what they mean and what they definitely don’t mean.

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There was a time when bacon was a “sometimes” food, occasionally paired with eggs at breakfast or in a summer sandwich with the season’s freshest tomatoes. But then, suddenly, bacon was everywhere, from fast food burgers to ice cream to scented candles. And while the peak might have passed, bacon has settled comfortably onto menus and into our home kitchens for much more than breakfast. 

In this episode we look at where bacon mania came from, and dig a little deeper into this beloved food and the industry behind it. We look at the realities of industrial pork production and how the world’s obsession with pork — bacon on everything! — contributes to the environmental degradation and hollowing out of rural communities in pork producing powerhouse states like Iowa, Missouri and North Carolina.

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For the longest time milk meant cow’s milk — usually whole but maybe skim or 1% depending on how old you are. But today, walk into some independent chains and if you don’t specify what kind of milk you want in your latte, you’ll get oat milk. You know, the stuff that mama oats feed their baby oats.  Or, at a Starbucks, or a neighborhood cafe, you might ask for a coffee with milk and have the barista say “what kind of milk?” And depending where you are, that list of possible answers could include almond, oat, pistachio, macadamia, soy…the list goes on and on. 

In today’s episode we explore the foodprints of the various options you have to make your coffee a little creamier. What are the production issues with each? What do you gain or lose by choosing one over the other? We talk to experts about dairy farming, almond farming, oat production and more— as well as coffee professionals who are shaping the landscape change in real time— all to help you get to the bottom of your coffee cup.

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We’re back, this fall, with all new episodes to help you understand how your food gets to your plate, and see the full impact of the food system on animals, planet and people. We’ll continue to uncover problems with the industrial food system, and offer examples of more sustainable practices, as well as practical advice for how you can help create a better world, through the food that you buy and the system changes you push for.

Have you been wondering why people are drinking oat milk instead of cow’s milk?
Or curious how you’re supposed to choose which eggs to buy when there are so many to choose from?
Or frustrated by the amount of plastic packaging your food comes in?
Or wondering what labels to look for to know which food is best for the environment?

From practical conversations with farmers and chefs to discussions with policy experts on the barriers to a just and sustainable food system, What You're Eating covers everything from the why to the how.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along every other week for new episodes, and more answers to the questions you have about what you’re eating.

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For our episode, The Big Problem of Food Waste  we interviewed Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino who co-founded mak-‘amham, an East Bay organization and restaurant focused on reviving and strengthening traditional Indigenous Ohlone foods and sharing them back with their communities, as well as educating the public about Ohlone culture through cuisine. The restaurant was originally housed in the courtyard of Berkeley’s University Press bookstore that shuttered a few months into the Coronavirus  pandemic. Now, two years later, Café Ohlone will be reopening on the UC Berkeley campus.

We were only able to share a small portion of our interview with Vincent and Louis for our food waste episode, but the full interview was so interesting and they were so engaging that we decided to run it in its entirety now, for our final episode of season one.

Cafe Ohlone will open in June, 2022 at UC Berkeley's Hearst Museum. "A portal of light and shadows, singing trees, a dry creek running along redwoods, a shellmound rising in a fragrant garden of abundance...  learn more about what Vincent and Louis are calling 'A love song to Ohlone culture'  at their website makamham.com

What You’re Eating is produced by me, Jerusha Klemperer,  Nathan Dalton and FoodPrint.org, which is a project of the GRACE Communications Foundation. Special thanks to Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino.  You can find us at www.FoodPrint.org where we have this podcast as well as articles, reports, a Food Label Guide and more. 

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Thanks so much for joining us for season one and if you like the podcast, please leave us a review on Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Depending on who you are, your connection to salmon may be spiritual, cultural or just a matter of taste. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you might be familiar with and appreciate wild salmon, but for the rest of us, our love of salmon avocado rolls reflects a love of farmed salmon. Because yes, most of what you’re eating is farmed, whether you realize it or not.

Today on What You’re Eating, we look at America's favorite fin fish, salmon, and dig a little deeper into where it comes from, what’s farmed, what’s wild, and why some people want you to care about that distinction at all. We get into the details of fish farming — of salmon, and other fish, too — and how it replicates some of the problems we see in land-based factory farms for animals like chicken and pigs. We also ask the experts where we can buy wild salmon, any labels to seek out, how to make it more affordable, and how best to cook it.

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Annie’s, a subsidiary of General Mills, announced in 2020 that it was “going beyond organic” and “leading the packaged food industry toward regenerative agriculture” with pictures on the box of the farmers who had produced the ingredients with “regenerative” methods.

In this episode, we bring together two of our frequent guests on this podcast, Dr. Urvashi Rangan, and Patty Lovera, to help explain regenerative agriculture, its connection to climate, and why a boxed Mac and Cheese brand is committing itself to a set of agricultural practices, and wanting to tell its customers all about it. We also get into whether or not we can trust “green” commitments from big food companies and explore what we can look for, as consumers, to know whether a company’s claims can be backed up.

Have you ever seen the word “natural” on a pack of hot dogs and wondered what it means? You’re not the only one. The words “natural” or “all natural” on food packaging have been vexing customers and regulators for years.

In this episode we look at those words, claims, seals and certifications that show up on your food packaging. What do they tell us and is what they tell us real? Who are those labels for: companies or consumers? In particular we were curious about the labels that seem to say a lot — like “natural” — but don’t actually have much rigor. We talk to a few experts, check out some food labels ourselves and try to sniff out the good labels from the bad.

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And if you've been enjoying this show we hope you'll leave us a review on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.