Real Food Media
by Real Food Media
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.
Episodes
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Anuka De Silva (Part 2)
"In 2021 is the first time in the country we had a huge women protest, like a sit-in protest. We occupied 55 days the presidential house. We demanded law reforms. And we did it! That's how I believe women can change the society." Anuka Vimukthi De Silva is a member of the Movement for Land and...
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Anuka De Silva (Part 1)
"I'm always thinking about the natural seeds and the natural plants also because in Sri Lanka, we lost like a lot of varieties of our of native seeds... We’re trying to make an agroecology school in my land—that's my main goal." Anuka Vimukthi De Silva is a member of the Movement for Land and...
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Catherine Banda
“Multinationals are rampant in my country. They lure farmers to take climate resistant seeds by offering them loans [for] seeds, which are not Indigenous, by offering them TVs, radios, and solar panels... At the end, they lose their lands to the multinationals." Catherine Banda is a member of...
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Amaru Faustino Torrez (español)
“La Vía Campesina is a network of social movements with a very horizontal structure. You could say we're a movement of movements." —Amaru Faustino Torrez Ruiz is a member of Climate Justice Collective and a youth delegate to La Vía Campesina from Nicaragua. The peasant youth who are fighting to...
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Sarasvati Shrestha
"Women and queer people have always existed and have been doing a lot of work that hasn't been visible. I think we have to change our relationship to production. That's the main thing. And women and queer people carry the knowledge around how this can be done." Sarasvati Shrestha is a youth...
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Yasmeen El-Hasen
"The Palestinian relationship with the land is not abstract… It's reciprocal. It's not about what we get from the land. It's about what we give to the land. We have a responsibility to care for the land and for each other." Yasmeen El-Hasen is a member of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees...
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Nettie Wiebe
"Everything to do with food is in women's hands most of the time. So it seemed to me, and to many others, that if we were going to build a movement which was actually transformative, it would have to include women at the center of it." Nettie Wiebe is a farmer in Saskatchewan, Canada, a long-time...
-
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity: Hendrick Mgcini Ndhlovu
“We see many youths being dragged into mining because mining is a priority in my country... So many people are shunning farming because there's money there. My dream is that those youth come back to the rural side because that's where the means of surviving are." Hendrick Mgcini Ndhlovu is a…
more -
No Meat Required: Alicia Kennedy | Ep. 60
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...
-
The Farm Bill Redux: Dan Imhoff | Re-release of Ep. 30
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...
-
Silent Earth: Dave Goulson | Ep. 58
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...
-
The Nutmeg's Curse: Amitav Ghosh Ep. 59
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...
-
Fresh Banana Leaves Dr. Jessica Hernandez Ep. 57
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...
-
Endangered Maize: Helen Anne Curry | Ep. 56
There is a broad consensus around the “endangerment” of crop diversity—among scientists, advocates, policymakers, and corporations, actors who tend to disagree on a number of other issues. But Helen Anne Curry says: not so fast. Where does this endangerment narrative come from? Whose interests…
more -
Healing Grounds: Liz Carlisle & Aidee Guzman | Ep. 55
Colonialism is at the root of the problems we see in our food system, and, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently stated, it is also at the root of the climate crisis. By cultivating diversity within the soil and amongst farmers, we can work towards a liberated future. “Healing...
-
Taste Makers: Mayukh Sen | Ep. 54
Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by James Beard award-winning author Mayukh Sen gives us an intimate look into the lives of seven women who’ve changed the way we think about food in the US, while sharing some unique insights into how food media shapes our...
-
Diet for a Small Planet: Frances Moore Lappé | Ep. 53
Frances Moore Lappé's groundbreaking book in 1971 exposed the true cause of hunger while also changing the way many people eat, for the better. 50 years later, she released a new edition with an updated introduction that speaks to her ethos, what has changed in the last 50 years, and what's next.
-
Inflamed: Dr. Rupa Marya and Raj Patel | Ep. 52
The Covid pandemic, mass uprisings against injustice around the world, raging forest fires... Our bodies, societies, and planet are inflamed, argue Raj Patel and Dr. Rupa Marya. Their epic and timely new book "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice" will forever change the way you...
-
Animal, Vegetable, Junk: Mark Bittman | Ep. 51
The story of humankind is usually told as one of technological innovation and economic influence—of arrowheads and atomic bombs, settlers and stock markets. But behind it all, there is an even more fundamental driver: food. In this episode, Anna Lappé and Mark Bittman dive into how food has…
more -
Black Food Matters: Dr. Ashanté M. Reese | Ep. 50
“Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice” centers the Black experience within the US food system: what is missing and what is possible. Edited by Dr. Ashanté M. Reese and Hanna Garth, this anthology features voices and experience from around the nation.
-
Building Community Food Webs: Ken Meter | Ep. 49
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...
-
Foodtopias | Ep 5: Abolishing Exploitation & Prison Slavery in College Food
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...
-
Traveling with Sugar: Amy Moran-Thomas | Ep. 48
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...
-
The Monsanto Papers: Carey Gillam | Ep. 47
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...
-
Foodtopias | Ep 4: Making Space for BIPOC Farmers
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...
-
Perilous Bounty: Tom Philpott | Ep. 46
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...
-
Foodtopias | Ep. 3: Peasant Women Feed the World
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...
-
Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Devon Mihesuah | Ep. 45
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...
-
Bite Back: Jose Oliva | Ep. 44
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...
-
Foodtopias | Ep. 2: Black Agrarian Resistance in Jackson
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...
-
Foodtopias | Ep. 1: Laboring in a Pandemic
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…
more -
Foodtopias | Trailer
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…
more -
The New American Farmer: Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern | Ep. 43
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.
-
The Labor of Lunch: Jennifer Gaddis | Ep. 42
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.
-
Vegetable Kingdom: Bryant Terry | Ep. 41
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.
-
Zaitoun: Yasmin Kahn | Ep. 40
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.
-
Son of a Southern Chef: Lazarus Lynch | Ep. 39
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.
-
As Long as Grass Grows: Dina Gilio-Whitaker | Ep. 38
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.
-
Red Meat Republic: Joshua Specht | Ep. 37
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.
-
Life on the Other Border: Teresa M. Mares | Ep. 36
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.
-
The Dreamt Land: Mark Arax | Ep. 35
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.
-
Eating Tomorrow: Timothy A. Wise | Ep. 34
With finite resources, a growing population, and a changing climate, how do we feed the world? With research conducted on three continents, Tim Wise shows how small farmers around the world—those who already grow most of the world’s food—are our best hope for eating tomorrow.
-
Food Fight!: Paloma Martinez-Cruz | Ep. 33
From “culinary brownface” to the “fetishization of the agricultural other,” this collection of hard-hitting essays from Paloma Martinez-Cruz takes a look at mestizaje identity in the United States through the lens of food.
-
Diet for a Hot Planet: Anna Lappé | Ep. 32
Real Food Media founder and former Real Food Reads host Anna Lappé joins us to talk about how our food system drives the climate crisis, how food must be part of the solution, and how this conversation has evolved in the nearly ten years since the publication of her book Diet for a Hot Planet.
-
Seeds of Resistance: Mark Schapiro feat. Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm | Ep. 31
Seeds have stories to tell. In the face of climate change, corporate consolidation, and decreasing biodiversity, their stories are increasingly important for us to hear. Tune into this special conversation with Kristyn Leach, farmer and seed saver, and Mark Schapiro, author of Seeds of Resistance...
-
The Farm Bill: Daniel Imhoff | Ep. 30
At nearly 1,000 pages, the Farm Bill is difficult to understand for policymakers, let alone the rest of us. Dan Imhoff walks us through this vitally important legislation, and what it means for farmers, our health, and the planet.
-
Freedom Farmers: Monica White | Ep. 29
Agriculture has often been seen as a site of oppression in Black history, but it is so much more than that. Dr. Monica White shares a different narrative of Black farmers, and agriculture, in the US—one of resistance, innovation, and collective liberation.
-
Eating NAFTA: Alyshia Gálvez | Ep. 28
Foodies and celebrity chefs celebrate authentic Mexican foods like heirloom corn tortillas traditionally grown and prepared by peasant farmers. But thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in Mexico this cuisine is being replaced by processed food and industrial agriculture.…
more -
Unsavory Truth: Marion Nestle | Ep. 27
Chocolate is good for you? Bacon is best? Pomegranate juice will prolong your life? The expert who literally wrote the book on food politics (Food Politics, 2002) turns her eye to the unsavory story of food industry-backed nutrition research. Recorded live with Tiffani Patton at CUESA's Ferry…
more -
Braiding Sweetgrass: Robin Wall Kimmerer | Ep. 24
Weaving indigenous wisdom and ecological science, Kimmerer explores the nature of nature and its spirit of abundance.
About this show
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.
Hosted by
Real Food Media