Episode 1: Raj Patel on Food Sovereignty
Food, access, and power
Raj Patel joins host Errol Schweizer on the inaugural episode of The Checkout. Raj is a distinguished author and academic. He is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairsat the University of Texas, Austin and a Senior Research Associate at the Unit for the Humanities at the university currently known as Rhodes University (UHURU), South Africa. Raj has degrees from the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and Cornell University, has worked for the World Bank and WTO, and protested against them around the world. In 2016 he was recognized with a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award. His first book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. His second, The Value of Nothing, was a New York Times and international best-seller. His latest, co-written with Jason W. Moore, is A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things.
We discuss with Raj what food sovereignty is and why it matters more than ever amidst COVID-19. How do consumers, workers, and communities take control of food in their lives, and what mechanisms are in place to make that happen? What’s the deal with our food system and the free market? And much, much more.
Episode #1 Notes
3:30 - What is Food Sovereignty?
7:00 - What is the difference between Food Sovereignty and Food Justice?
10:00 - Who makes the decisions in our food system with regards to growing, distributing, and selling our foods?
12:30 - Why is there such disparity in food access - particularly the quality of grocery retailers - across different geographies?
16:00 - How has COVID-19 exacerbated the issues around food justice?
19:00 - Raj, please repeat that mind-bogglingly crazy statistic you just cited.
20:30 - Why hasn’t the free market solved all of our food access and food sovereignty issues?
24:00 - How does agricultural subsidies affect food pricing and, in effect, food sovereignty?
30:00 - What role do food systems workers play in achieving food sovereignty?
35:20 - What impact might something like a Green New Deal have on moving us towards food sovereignty?
39:15 - How would food sovereignty impact our cuisine and what ends up on our plates?
47:00 - The role of reparations in food sovereignty
49:40 - Raj, what’s on your bookshelf right now?
Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, Tom Philpott
Various books from Nick Estes, Nick Estes
The Long Drop, Denise Mina
The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead
Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Nightmarch, Alpa Shah
The Burning Forest: India’s War in Bastar, Nandini Sundar
