Real Food Reads

Ken Meter is one of the most experienced food system analysts in the United States. He's promoted local food economies in 143 regions in 41 states, two provinces, and four tribal nations. In Building Community Food Webs, he makes a strong argument for reversing the extractive economy and weaving “food webs” that restore local wealth, health, capacity, and connection.

Meet: the Food Justice League. No, they’re not superheroes. They’re a growing community-based movement based in Gainesville, FL, that’s working to abolish exploitation and prison slavery from the food system. They’ve launched a public campaign to pressure the University of Florida to ditch the exploitative food service company Aramark—and commit to buying more ethical and sustainable food. Learn about the Food Justice League’s strategies and movement-building efforts in the Season Two premiere of Foodtopias.

Like many Caribbean and Central American nations, Belize is a place where healthy, diverse farming systems have been violently replaced with sugar plantations. The legacy of that dispossession is yet another sugar-related violence: diabetes. Cultural anthropologist Amy Moran-Thomas contextualizes diabetes within a long history of racial capitalism in her book "Traveling with Sugar: Chronicles of a Global Epidemic."

Carey Gillam’s 2017 book, Whitewash, exposed the dangers of the world’s most popular weedkiller: Monsanto’s Roundup. Gillam’s new book, The Monsanto Papers, tells the riveting story of the man who became the face of a David-and-Goliath showdown against one of the world’s biggest agribusiness corporations.

Allinee ‘shiny’ Flanary—founder of Come Thru Market, a Black, Indigenous, and People of Color(BIPOC) producer farmer’s market in Portland, OR—joins us for the season finale of Foodtopias to talk about the origins of the market, what it looks like to offer meaningful support, and the role of abolition in food sovereignty. This conversation was a part of The Power of Community-based Food Systems with The Wallace Center.

A veteran journalist and former farmer, Tom Philpott cracks open US agriculture—and where it went horribly wrong. Highlighting scientists documenting the damage and the farmers and activists pushing back, Perilous Bounty is a must-read for eaters and activists alike. This Real Food Reads episode breaks down key food system concepts like no other.

The global peasant leader and food sovereignty activist Elizabeth Mpofu speaks to us about growing up in a farming family in Zimbabwe, practicing climate resilient agriculture, and how rural women are impacted by Covid-19. Mpofu is General Coordinator of the international peasant confederation La Vía Campesina and founder and chairperson of the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF). This conversation was part of the Hunger for Justice series from A Growing Culture. View the full broadcast at: http://www.agrowingculture.org/hfj/

Centuries of colonization have disrupted Indigenous communities’ ability to control their own food systems. But throughout the United States, projects are underway to reclaim and protect the land, water, plants, animals, and food & farming practices that underpin Indigenous self-determination and wellbeing. Native Choctaw scholar Devon Mihesuah joins us for this special Indigenous Peoples Day episode.

Long-time Real Food Media friend and ally Jose Oliva joins us to talk about his co-authored chapter, “Food Workers versus Food Giants.” In this dynamic conversation, we cover the food system’s legacy of slavery, corporate consolidation, unions, and the strategies workers are using to carve out pathways for a more just food system.

Dr. Cindy Ayers, head farmer and CEO of Footprint Farms in Jackson, MS, is carrying on a long legacy of activism and farming. Descended from Civil Rights veterans and sharecroppers, her 68-acre farm is a hub for learning and support, creating real opportunities for young, Black people. We cannot free ourselves until we feed ourselves.

For the debut episode of Foodtopias, we speak with labor organizers Axel Fuentes (Rural Community Workers Alliance) and Christina Spach (Food Chain Workers Alliance) about working conditions in the meat processing industry pre-Covid and during the pandemic, and the worker-led strategies for holding Big Meat accountable.

Our newest podcast series, Foodtopias, showcases the stories and strategies of workers, farmers, healers, ecologists, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), womxn, and community organizers who are growing food & cultivating utopia. The inspiration we need for building a post-pandemic, food sovereign world.

In her new book, Minkoff-Zern argues that farmworkers have the skills and the knowledge to lead the sustainable farming movement, if given the opportunity. The book shares powerful stories of farmworkers who have successfully transitioned to owning and operating their own farms.

Jennifer Gaddis takes us into the world of school lunch—and it’s not pretty: unhealthy food and exploited cafeteria workers abound. But all that can change if we organize together to make fair and healthy school food a reality for all children.

Bryant Terry's stunning collection of recipes is a celebration of vegetables and flavors from the African and Asian diaspora. This episode explores his ethos, work to decolonize veganism, and shed myths about soul food.

Part cookbook, part travelogue, and part investigative journalism, Yasmin Khan’s “Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen” takes us through the joy and the struggle of eating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

What does it mean to cook with soul? Lazarus Lynch tells us as we dive into his cookbook “Son of a Southern Chef: Cook With Soul” and uncover the world he wants to create through his art.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores Native struggles for land, food, water, and sacred sites from colonization to Standing Rock—and what they mean for climate and environmental justice movements—in this important new book.

Joshua Specht takes a hard look at the cattle industry in the US in "Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Shaped America." This isn’t a book about what you should or shouldn’t eat: it's a book about how stories shape our choices and our realities.

Teresa Mares’ new book 'Life on the Other Border: Farmworkers and Food Justice in Vermont' tells the story of food insecurity and fear experienced by the workers who sustain the dairy industry on the Vermont-Canada border—and how they are practicing food sovereignty in their daily lives.