The Secret Ingredient

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October 10, 2016

School Food: Alexa Delwiche (Ep. 19)

By: Rebecca McInroy

“As the food movement has gotten stronger and stronger, and people have been asking many more questions, not just about, where is my food coming from? But, how is it produced? Who’s being harmed along the way? Food service directors have been asking those same questions.” -Alexa Delwiche

When you think about school food, certain repressed memories might bubble to the surface – boneless BBQ rib patties, mystery loaf, blocks of government cheese, or expired chocolate milk. But today’s food consumers are proving to be a little more savvy than those of us who fell for ketchup as a vegetable back in the day. Students and their parents are asking not only about the quality of the food they’re eating, but also about the choices food purchasers are making when it comes to how this food is produced.

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy speak with Alexa Delwiche about ethics when it comes to food purchasing and the school system. Delwiche is the executive director of the Center for Good Food Purchasing (CGFP). The work she and her team are doing in the Los Angeles public school system serves as a model for ethical food purchasing for the nation.

 

 


Episodes

October 25, 2021

Hope: Frances Moore Lappé

“[Hope] is a key source of energy to enable us to seek solutions together.” -Frances Moore Lappé Hope is different from faith in that we need to act in hope as opposed to just having faith that everything will be okay. But in acting, when it comes to food, we are doing so and operating […]

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July 13, 2021

Guam

“We’re fighting for a worldview. We’re fighting for a different version of what it means to be human on the planet. We’re fighting for a different version of what just relations look like between the human and non-human world.” –Julian Aguon Guam is the secret ingredient for our conversation with indigenous human rights lawyer and […]

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July 15, 2020

Each Others: Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz

“How do we build these understandings from a decolonial, antiracist and antipatriarchal basis? How do we build real solidarity bridges that do not replicate patronising structures of power? How can we learn and build with those who have resisted and re(x)isted, in order to open new imaginaries to heal mother earth, the other, and ourselves?” […]

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May 1, 2020

COVID-19 Series: Rob Wallace

The Secret Ingredient with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott welcome back Rob Wallace an evolutionary biologist for his take on the link between global outbreaks of infectious disease and global agriculture. Rob Wallace is […]

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February 6, 2020

Politics and The Green New Deal: Ben Lilliston

“The climate crisis is an emergency, it is a crisis and so we need to make major, major changes in our agriculture system.” Ben Lilliston is the Director of Climate Change and Rural strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He spoke with The Secret Ingredient team–Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy, […]

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January 21, 2020

The Green New Deal for Agriculture: Jim Goodman and Raj Patel

“We need to change society so everybody can fit in and everyone can afford to live in a decarbonized society.” – Jim Goodman  In this episode of The Secret Ingredient host Raj Patel plays double-duty — he is not just a host, but joins Jim Goodman as a guest. The two discuss what A Green […]

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December 9, 2019

The Green New Deal in Texas: Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez

Explore the future of the Green New Deal and what it means for Texas with Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. Tzintzún is challenging John Cornyn for the 2020 US Senate seat for the State of Texas. She is the Co-founder of the Workers Defense Project and Jolt, and she talked with The Secret Ingredient team–Raj Patel, Tom […]

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November 11, 2019

Social Movement: Naomi Klein

The Secret Ingredient with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel, author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott explore the future of the Green New Deal with  Naomi Klein, author of “On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal.”

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