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June 14, 2017

Strawberries: Julie Guthman (Ep 27.)

The Secret Ingredient

By: Rebecca McInroy

“Strawberries is kind of the quintessence of industrial agriculture in California. It’s the fifth highest value crop in the state. It also got the most heavy pesticide regime, by far, of any other crop in the state. And it kind of captures so much of the dynamics of what’s going on in California.“-Julie Guthman

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with Dr. Julie Guthman about strawberry production, what’s happening with chemicals and fumigants in the strawberry fields today, and where she sees hope in the food movement.

May 10, 2017

Seed Saving: Janet Maro (Ep. 26)

The Secret Ingredient

By: Rebecca McInroy

“Life begins with the seed germinating…we depend on seed and most of the seed is the seed we will produce, have it, save and use in the next planting season. That’s what most of the farmers in Tanzania still do… It was inherited for generations and generations.” –Janet Maro

The seed exchange system that Maro speaks about is currently under threat in Tanzania. Assistance organizations in that country that are seeking to help small farms also supported regulations that banned seed-sharing – a generations-old practice among small-scale farmers. Tanzania passed legislation that made it illegal to share seeds as a condition for receiving development assistance through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (NAFSN). You can read more about the legislation in this article.

In this episode of The Secret Ingredient, we wanted to find out more about this new law, so Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy called up Janet Maro, head of Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT).

Since this show was recorded in December of last year, Maro said that SAT had a seed stakeholders platform, in which farmers met with Tanzanian officials to discuss the ramifications of the law. Although the small-scale farmers gained more clarity about the overall effects of seed-sharing, she says, they still want exemption from penalties as a result of seed-sharing.

April 10, 2017

Nutritionism: Aya Kimura (Ep. 25)

The Secret Ingredient

By: Rebecca McInroy

James Baldwin said, “the purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” When considering this sentiment in relationship to “nutritionism” one might look at Aya Kimura‘s book, Hidden Hunger: Gender and the Politics of Smarter Foods, as a work of “art” as she explores the questions that remain after the “experts” answer problems of micronutrient deficiencies with the science of fortification and biofortification.

In the latest edition of The Secret Ingredient, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with Kimura about food and culture, market forces, and what is lost when the “western savior comes in to rescue the global south.”

March 28, 2017

V&B Extra: Food and Trump’s Border Wall

The Secret Ingredient

By: Jack Anderson

The Lorano Long Conference brought many great thinkers and activists to the campus of The University of Texas in February to talk about, “New Perspectives on the Contemporary Food System in Latin America.” The Secret Ingredient Podcast’s Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy took that opportunity to talk with Dr. Alexis Racelis from the department of Agroecology and Urban Ecology, Natural Resources Management at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and Farmer Lois Kim about how the proposed expansion of the border wall under Trump may affect communities and food production along the border.

March 27, 2017

Nutrition: Joan Gussow (Ep. 24)

The Secret Ingredient

By: Rebecca McInroy

“Once in a while, I thin I’ve had an original thought, then I look and read around and realize Joan said it first.” -Michael Pollan

We take for granted now that part of being healthy is eating a variety of whole foods, but not so long ago talking about food was taboo in the field of nutrition.

In this episode of The Secret Ingredient Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk to Dr. Joan Gussow. Gussow is the author of many books including The Feeding Web, The Nutrition Debate and Growing, Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Vegetables. The New York Times has called her, “The matriarch of the eat-locally-think-globally food movement.“

January 10, 2017

Tips: Saru Jayaraman (Ep. 23)

The Secret Ingredient

By: Rebecca McInroy

“Building unity across divide is possible. Building something even better than we had before, out of terrible tragedy, is possible. A movement for change is never more ripe than when we are, in some cases, at our lowest moment. Because it’s the moment in which we are going to demand absolute transformation, and I have every faith and hope that we will do that now.”-Saru Jayaraman

 

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with Saru Jayaraman. She is the Co-founder and Co-director of The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at The University of California, Berkeley.

 

 

December 21, 2016

Op-Ed Teaching Public Policy In A Trump Administration: James K. Galbraith

The Secret Ingredient

By: Rebecca McInroy

From The New Deal until the present moment the architecture of The United States formed around some basic principles of public policy; principles that will no longer apply under a Trump administration. With all the questions that are on the table when it comes to this transition, Dr. James K. Galbraith asks: “Is the study of public policy still useful? And can it serve as the basis of a rewarding and productive life?”

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Dr. James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and a professorship of government at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He holds degrees from Harvard University and Yale University. He studied as a Marshall scholar at King’s College, Cambridge in 1974-1975 and then served in several positions on the staff of the U.S. Congress. He directed the LBJ School’s Ph.D. program in public policy from 1995 to 1997. He directs the University of Texas Inequality Project, an informal research group based at the LBJ School. Galbraith’s most recent book is “Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis” (Oxford University Press, 2012). Previous books include “The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too” (Free Press, 2008), “Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay (Free Press, 1998) and “Balancing Acts: Technology, Finance and the American Future” (Basic Books, 1989). “Inequality and Industrial Change: A Global View” (Cambridge University Press, 2001) is co-edited with Maureen Berner. He has co-authored two textbooks, “The Economic Problem” with Robert L. Heilbroner and “Macroeconomics” with William Darity Jr. He is a managing editor of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

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