Tierra y Libertad Episode 4: Innovation, philanthropy and racial capitalism in global food governance
In Episode 2 of this podcast, Julie Guthman talked about how market-driven fixes and “techno-solucionist” approaches have fallen short of creating a fair and sustainable food system. In this episode, we turn to how these same ideas lie at the heart of modern philanthropy—initiatives that claim to fight food insecurity in the Global South.
To explore this, I invited Matthew Canfield. Matthew is a cultural anthropologist and socio-legal scholar whose work looks at the laws and governance structures shaping food security. His research sits at the crossroads of human rights, global governance, and environmental politics, and he pays particular attention to how grassroots movements and civil society groups use rights to influence the way food systems are organized.
While Matthew’s research spans a wide range of issues, our conversation today focuses on how the vision of philanthropists like Bill Gates is shaped by racialized assumptions—and how those assumptions reinforce patterns of racial capitalism and agrarian dispossession.
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📝 Show notes:
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Gift by Linsey McGoey
African Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA)