Episode 2143: Andrea Freeman on Food Genocide and Oppression in the United States

We’ve been on a food & farming run this week. First, we talked with America’s “lunatic farmer,” Joel Salatin, about how regenerative agriculture can regenerate the United States. And we followed that up with the food blogger and writer Nicola Twilley who explained about how refrigeration has transformed not only our food, and our planet, but also ourselves. Our guest today, Andrea Freeman, makes food policy central to the politics of America from its foundations to today. Her provocative new book, Ruin Their Crops On the Ground is intended as a kind of Fast Food Nation for the Black Lives Matter era. From the genocidal Trail of Tears to the anything but “free” school lunches in America today, Freeman argues that food has been always used by American corporate and political interests as a weapon of conquest and control.

Andrea Freeman, a pioneer in the field of food politics, is a professor at Southwestern Law School. A Fulbright scholar and author of Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice, Freeman has published and appeared in the Washington Post, Salon, The Takeaway, Here & Now, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Black Agenda Report, and more. She lives in Los Angeles.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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