Episode 7: Tom Philpott On A Food System In Crisis… and How To Fix It.

Podcast

Oct 2

“The struggle for decent living conditions in farm country is also a struggle for a food system that can feed everyone for generations.”

Tom Philpott is an Austin native, a columnist for Mother Jones and is the author of Perilous Bounty, a hard-hitting analysis on the industrial food system and it’s fragility, from California’s Central Valley, to Iowa’s Corn Belt. Tom got his start as a financial journalist and was smitten with the food movement during the campaign to save NYC’s Community Gardens over twenty years ago. Tom has also worked on a small farm and has published hundreds of articles on the food system, all with an eye towards social justice and a healthier, more resilient food supply.

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Episode #7 Notes

1:00 - How did you get interested in food and agriculture?

5:45 - Say what? Tom and Errol both organized to save NYC community gardens back in the day.

7:00 - Tom, you’ve actually managed a farm - tell us about that?

12:00 - How did you end up working at Mother Jones?

16:30 - What inspired you to start writing Perilous Bounty?

19:30 - Climate change. What is the severity of the risk to agricultural communities in California and the West Coast, specifically?

26:15 - The agricultural workers and communities in the Central Valley - how are they fighting to save their communities in the face of climate change?

30:30 - How much fruit, veg, and dairy as a percent of national supply is produced in California’s Central Valley?

32:30 - Midwest agriculture - what’s being produced in these world class soils, where does that product go, and how does this tie to soil loss and pesticide/fertilizer use?

38:00 - Overproduction of food, and how this is related to lower farm income and greater concentration of agribusiness. Tell us about that.

41:15 - Monsanto or The Resnick Empire: Who’s more evil? And, how has each company impacted ag policy to their betterment?

47:30 - Contrasting these companies, why hasn’t sustainable, regenerative farming taken-off?

51:30 - What do we need to fix in our food system to avoid collapse? What practices and policies should be implemented?

56:15 - What’s on your bookshelf?

Late Victorian Holocaust, Mike Davis

The Death of Ramon Gonzalez, Angus Wright

Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser

Food Politics, Marion Nestle

Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel

The Value of Nothing, Raj Patel

The Price of Peace, Zachary Carter