The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Could we lose delicious foods forever?

Feb 17, 2022

Dan Saladino, a food journalist and author of "Eating to Extinction," shares captivating tales about rare foods and cultures. He delves into the alarming loss of biodiversity, revealing stories like the last soybean garden and unique 16-foot corn that produces its own fertilizer. Saladino emphasizes the importance of preserving culinary heritage against globalization's tide. Listeners are taken on a journey through the histories of traditional farming practices and the intricate relationships between people and nature, highlighting the urgency to protect diverse flavors before they vanish.

01:06:09

Episode guests

Dan Saladino

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

3min

Food, Culture, and Sustainability

14min

Reviving Rare Lentils and Biodiversity in Agriculture

11min

Exploring the Tragedy of Flavor Extinction

3min

Preserving Culinary Diversity

17min

Tradition and Taste: Georgian Wines and Cultural Ecologies

5min

Honey, Hope, and Heritage

10min

Vox's Benji Jones talks with food journalist and author Dan Saladino, whose new book Eating to Extinction documents rare foods and food cultures from around the world, showing how they are being affected by climate change, globalization, and industrial agricultural practices. Dan shares many incredible stories from his travels and reporting, including the last known garden growing a unique soybean, a 16-foot high corn that produces its own fertilizer, and a complex symbiosis between man, bird, and bee in remote Tanzania.

Host: Benji Jones (@BenjiSJones), Environmental reporter, Vox

Guest: Dan Saladino (@DanSaladinoUK), food journalist & author

References:

Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino (FSG; 2022)
The Food Programme (BBC Radio 4; also on Apple Podcasts)
The Ark of Taste (Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity)
"The Corn of the Future Is Hundreds of Years Old and Makes Its Own Mucus" by Jason Daley (Smithsonian; Aug. 10, 2018)

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This episode was made by:

Producer: Erikk Geannikis
Editor: Amy Drozdowska
Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey
Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall

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