~Part of the Roots of Resilience in An Age of Crisis series co-presented with Real Food Media~

Seed savers Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm and Second Generation Seeds in Yolo County, California, and Jessika Greendeer of Dream of Wild Health in Twin Cities, Minnesota, will talk about the “why” behind their seed-saving practices. Together with Host Tiffani Patton, Jessika and Kristyn will explore the role of seed-saving in preserving and connecting to culture and why we need seed diversity to withstand the climate crisis.

(Photo: Tiffani Patton)

Kristyn Leach grows Asian crops in California’s Central Valley. Her focus is on preserving and adapting Korean plants, agronomic wisdom, and culture. She partners with the Namu Restaurant Group, providing their restaurants with produce and working with their chefs and cooks on breeding projects. She founded a seed line within Kitazawa Seed Company, the oldest purveyor of Asian vegetable seeds in the United States, called Second Generation Seeds. Second Generation is a collaborative project that hopes to connect or reconnect communities of the Asian diaspora with the crops that have sustained them.

Jessika Greendeer is a Ho-Chunk Nation tribal member from Baraboo, Wisconsin, and a member of the Deer Clan. She is currently the seed keeper and farm manager at Dream of Wild Health. Jessika has worked as the Agricultural Division Manager for her nation and had previously served as a garden mentor within her nation’s organic community gardens. She is a U.S. Army combat veteran and completed a Veteran-to-Farmer training program at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania.

Host Tiffani Patton is a lifelong “foodie” turned activist, writing and researching food system change for more than seven years. A gifted writer and storyteller, she leads several areas of educational programming, communications strategy, engagement, and internal operations at Real Food Media. She co-produces and co-hosts the Real Food Reads and Foodtopias podcasts with Tanya Kerssen. Tiffani brings years of active engagement in food policy discussions, event organizing, storytelling for change, facilitating important discussions around food system transformation, and the connection of art, music, and culture to food in the Bay Area and beyond.

Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

New School Conversations

2021:05.21 - Kristyn Leach, Jessika Greendeer & Tiffani Patton - Seed-Saving

Ken Meter is one of the most experienced food system analysts in the United States. He's promoted local food economies in 143 regions in 41 states, two provinces, and four tribal nations. In Building Community Food Webs, he makes a strong argument for reversing the extractive economy and weaving “food webs” that restore local wealth, health, capacity, and connection.

Building Community Food Webs: Ken Meter | Ep. 49

The Covid pandemic, mass uprisings against injustice around the world, raging forest fires... Our bodies, societies, and planet are inflamed, argue Raj Patel and Dr. Rupa Marya. Their epic and timely new book "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice" will forever change the way you think—not only about food—but about the ruptures in the web of life that have wrought so much damage on our health and relationships. 

Rupa is a physician and professor of medicine dedicated to healing the wounds of colonialism through food medicine, story, and learning; and Raj is the best-selling author "Stuffed and Starved," "The Value of Nothing," and co-author of "A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things."

For more on this episode, visit: https://realfoodmedia.org/portfolio/inflamed/ 
Join the Real Food Reads book club: https://realfoodmedia.org/programs/real-food-reads/

Inflamed: Dr. Rupa Marya and Raj Patel | Ep. 52

Insects are the often-times invisible workforce that take on planetary care. According to Dave Goulson, author of Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse, “they pollinate, break down waste and provide food for us and countless other species. If they vanished tomorrow, the apocalypse would begin the next day.” Today, insect populations are in rapid decline, with estimates of population loss ranging from 40-75%  across regions. The main drivers? Habitat loss and widespread use of dangerous chemicals—both of which are linked with industrial agriculture. In this special Real Food Reads episode commemorating the 60th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Anna Lappé speaks with Dave Goulson about agrichemicals, biodiversity, and how we, together, can avert the insect apocalypse. 



SHOW NOTES

3:52 The importance of insects and the ecosystem services they provide

6:00 An example of insects at work in Australia 

9:20 Unknown number of insect species, but we do know that insect populations are on the decline

11:10 Industrialized agriculture is one of the main drivers of the astounding insect decline we have today

13:05 How synthetic fertilizers impact the insect population

17:42 Neonicotinoids (or neonics), the parallel to DDT, and their dangerous lethal and sublethal impacts on insecticides. 

24:01 If these chemicals are so dangerous, why hasn’t more action been taken?
Where is the world still noisy? 

29:15 Where in the world is it still “noisy” and busy with insect biodiversity?

32:30 What we can each do in our own ways to “avert the insect apocalypse”

Silent Earth: Dave Goulson | Ep. 58

When we speak of biodiversity loss, the climate crisis, and food injustice, we have to go to the root: colonialism. From the perspective and "voice" of the nutmeg, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh does just that. Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and is now based in Brooklyn. He’s the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. His most recent book, The Nutmeg’s Curse, opens with the Dutch Empire’s brutal war in the Banda Islands—a small archipelago that’s part of what is now Indonesia—to establish a monopoly on the nutmeg trade. From there, he takes us halfway around the world and back again, weaving together stories of colonial violence, human resilience, and non-human agency. 

SHOW NOTES: 
2:32 | Why European navigators sailed off in search of spices in the 17th century
4:00 | Dutch colonialism and the 1621 Banda Massacre
9:46 | Nutmeg production as the earliest instance of industrial agriculture and racial capitalism (and why it matters) 
11:19 | Racialized workforces in agriculture around the world
14:20 | The pleasures of gardening, including growing your own spices
15:15 | How spices came to be devalued (and associated with “onanism”!)
17:40 | On the mysteries of the vanilla plant
20:40 | Environmentalism’s dark history (and present) of ethnic cleansing
22:20 | The role of militarism in transforming food systems and contributing to the climate crisis
23:30 | The Pentagon and other military institutions as the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, and yet they are excluded from climate negotiations
25:42 | Amitav’s call for a “vitalist politics”

DIG DEEPER:
Follow Amitav Ghosh on Twitter: @GhoshAmitav 
Visit his blog: http://amitavghosh.com/blog/ 
Buy the book: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo125517349.html 
​​For more on this episode, expanded show notes, and full transcript, visit: https://realfoodmedia.org/portfolio/the-nutmegs-curse/ 
Join the Real Food Reads book club: https://realfoodmedia.org/programs/real-food-reads/ 
Become a Patreon supporter for early access to our episodes and premium content with the authors here https://www.patreon.com/realfoodmedia

The Nutmeg's Curse: Amitav Ghosh Ep. 59

Welcome to the Los Angeles Food Policy Council's podcast, where we discuss the important food-related issues facing Los Angeles and examine how the staff of LAFPC is working to solve those issues.

LAFPC Podcast

Episode One: Improving Local Corner Stores While Being Mindful of Gentrification

Alicia Kennedy's No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, delves into the subcultures and politics that have defined vegan and vegetarian cuisine in the United States—from tempeh production to vegan punk cafes. In this episode, Alicia talks to Anna Lappé about the feminist origins of her own veganism, how she eats in Puerto Rico, and how the cultural signifiers of meat and plant-based eating have shifted over time. 

SHOW NOTES: 
3:18 | Alicia’s love of okra
​​4:28 | What Alicia hopes people will take away from her book about veganism and vegetarian politics
6:00 | Meat eating in the US culture wars
7:06 | The abundance of meat tied to United States as US as an “exceptional nation”; political tolerance for injustices like child labor in the meat industry; meat eating linked to ideas like masculine virility 
8:40 | Link between vegetarianism and the feminist movement 
10:10 | Lagusta’s Luscious’ vegan “Furious Vulva” chocolate
11:55 | Alicia on corporate fake meat alternatives, and coming back to the original veggie burger
14:59 | The PR dollars behind pushing fake meat as a “solution” 
15:57 | The dangerous focus on, and obsession with, protein
18:07 | The misconception of that veganism is mostly white and middle class; the radical, BIPOC lineages of veganism and the contributions of Bryant Terry and others.
22:32 | Re-politicizing veganism and vegetarianism
23:17 | Making the food and climate connection; what difference do individual food choices make?
24:42 | Parallels between consuming food and clothes; “fast fashion” 
27:00 | Individual choices as “tiny bricks thrown against the window of tyranny”
27:24 | How much the meat industry pours into public relations
29:50 | Anna and Alicia talk about Aubrey Plaza’s “wood milking” bit for the Dairy Council

DIG DEEPER:
Preorder the book (out 8/15/23), http://www.beacon.org/No-Meat-Required-P1938.aspx 
From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy on Substack, https://www.aliciakennedy.news/ 
“How the US Dictates what Puerto Rico Eats” by Israel Meléndez Ayala and Alicia Kennedy, The New York Times (from 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/opinion/puerto-rico-jones-act.html 
​​For episode transcript and more, visit: https://realfoodmedia.org/portfolio/no-meat-required-the-cultural-history-and-culinary-future-of-plant-based-eating/ 
Join the Real Food Reads book club: https://realfoodmedia.org/programs/real-food-reads/

EPISODE CREDITS:
Host: Anna Lappé
Co-producers: Tanya Kerssen and Tiffani Patton
Editor: Claire Reynolds

No Meat Required: Alicia Kennedy | Ep. 60

The rich story, and steep cost, of how California’s arid Central Valley became an agricultural powerhouse and what that means for farmers, rural communities, and our food supply as we face the climate crisis.

The Dreamt Land: Mark Arax | Ep. 35

Bryant Terry's stunning collection of recipes is a celebration of vegetables and flavors from the African and Asian diaspora. This episode explores his ethos, work to decolonize veganism, and shed myths about soul food.

Vegetable Kingdom: Bryant Terry | Ep. 41

A veteran journalist and former farmer, Tom Philpott cracks open US agriculture—and where it went horribly wrong. Highlighting scientists documenting the damage and the farmers and activists pushing back, Perilous Bounty is a must-read for eaters and activists alike. This Real Food Reads episode breaks down key food system concepts like no other.

Perilous Bounty: Tom Philpott | Ep. 46

Episode 1 of the Agenda 23 Podcast 
by Mackenzie Feldman & John Ikerd

Music by Josh Woodward - https://www.joshwoodward.com/
Tracks Used: Coffee and East Side Bar

Produced by - Navgeet King Zed
https://www.nkzed.com/

Agenda 23

Episode 1: Tom Vilsack for the USDA. Where do we go from here?

At Real Food Media, we believe each one of us has a story to tell, and that sharing our stories strengthens our communities and our movements. Our two podcast series bring you stories from the food movement through a powerful combination of “book smarts” and “street smarts” (or is it soil savvy?). Real Food Reads, our long-standing book club and podcast, interviews the authors of today’s most important books at the intersection of food, politics, and culture. And our newest podcast series, Foodtopias, showcases the stories of workers, farmers, healers, ecologists, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), womxn, and community organizers who are growing food & cultivating utopia. Together, Real Food Media podcasts offer you the inspiration you need to build your own food activist toolkit. For more resources, visit: www.realfoodmedia.org.

The Nutmeg's Curse: Amitav Ghosh Ep. 59

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