The Checkout: Recent Episodes
Errol Schweizer and Evan Driscoll
Hosted and produced by two Organic food and farming lifers, The Checkout brings forward diverse voices and stories from the frontlines of our food system. Now more than ever, our food system is in a constant state of flux, radical change and crisis. From farm, retail and wholesale sector analyses to public policy, labor organizing and community struggles, The Checkout will expand the horizon for consumers and food industry professionals of what is possible and what is necessary to create a just, equitable and resilient food system.
Ora Wise is a Brooklyn-based chef, community organizer, cultural producer, and educator whose current work invests in community controlled and regenerative food systems. For over a decade, Ora focused on media-based education, including co-facilitating the Palestine Education Project's high school program Slingshot Hip Hop: Culture & Resistance from Brooklyn to Palestine, serving as Youth Education Director for a progressive synagogue, and co-leading the Indigenous Youth Media Delegation to Palestine. In recent years, Ora founded The Dream Cafe, an experimental cooperative pop-up restaurant in Detroit as part of the Allied Media Conference and co-produced The Asymmetrical Table, a food sovereignty dinner series in downtown Manhattan centering the cuisine and activism of Palestinian women chefs. She currently co-directs the grassroots food justice collective FIG which operates political education and food distribution programs in partnership with frontline community organizations, farmers, and chefs.
Episode #135 Notes
:30 Why did you start Ayo Foods?
4:00 On the reality of starting a startup food business.
6:45 The day to day of Ayo Foods.
10:00 On ‘The Ethnic Food’ aisle.
14:00 Retailers and supporting diverse entrepreneurs.
17:00 The economics of selling to distributors and retailers.
20:00 Closing thoughts.
Episode #128 Notes
1:00 - What is Warehouse Workers for Justice?
2:45 - What is it like working in warehouses now, especially through COVID?
7:00 - Where does 3PL come into warehouse and supplychain issues?
9:30 - How do campaigns for work organizing get started?
12:00 - What are the campaigns that you’ve helped start?
16:00 - How do you work with warehouse employees to make them better organizers?
21:00 - On motivations for worker organizing.
Episode #127 Notes
1:00 - What is Farm Forward?
2:00 - What is factory farming, and how do you define it?
5:00 - What are zoonatic pandemics?
9:00 - How avian bird flu has affected food prices.
16:00 - On learnings from COVID-19.
19:00 - On transitioning to a better food system, and impacts on the way people access food and eat.
24:00 - On adjusting our diets to reduce meat intake.
29:30 - Farm Forward’s report on chicken labelling and greenwashing.
33:30 - On issues with food certifications.
36:00 - Disease resistance in animals.
Episode #124 Notes
1:00 - How did you get into tracking labor strikes as data?
2:00 - Is there an actual labor uprising in the country right now?
4:00 - What is your methodology for data collection for labor strikes?
6:05 - Key findings from Johnnie’s research.
9:00 - What types of industries have been striking recently?
11:00 - What motivates folks to go on strike generally?
14:00 - On distinctions between Organizing vs. Strikes.
16:00 - What are unions roles in labor strikes?
20:20 - On Strike Maps.
23:30 - On the changes in labor policy over the past 40 years. And NAFTA / deindustrialization.
28:00 - Where are we headed in labor organizing currently?
32:00 - Closing thoughts.
Episode #122 Notes
1:00 - How did you get interested in supply chains?
8:45 - What’s the vision for Point of Origin?
11:00 - Colonization and the food system.
15:10 - Why is food getting so expensive?
18:00 - The war in Ukraine and it’s impact on food and the supply chain.
21:00 - IMF, structural adjustment, and colonization.
28:00 - Examples of what can be done improve and make supply chains more just.
34:50 - What’s next for Point of Origin.
Episode #119 Notes
1:00 - On Alexander Farm in Texas.
3:15 - On the farm’s historical connection to The Pony Express.
9:00 - The family’s connection to cowboys.
17:30 - Tracing the lineage of the farms’ historical roots, and the existential threat to their farm currently.
56:00 - What you can do to help support their farm.
Episode #117 Notes
1:00 - Tim’s background and experience in international agriculture.
2:30 - Defining the Green Revolution and Tim’s recent findings.
5:30 - On donor funded studies and implications.
11:00 - On Ag Tech, philanthropy, and African agriculture.
21:00 - On the war in Ukraine, and potential impact on African agriculture.
32:00 - On GMO discourse.
37:00 - Scientists and Agroecology.
43:00 - Closing thoughts.
Episode #116 Notes
1:00 - What led you to write Healing Grounds?
4:00 - Why focus on Regenerative, rather than Organic?
6:00 - What is the significance of land, land stewardship, and indigenous land ownership in the US?
10:00 - What is beyond the soil of Regenerative Agriculture?
13:15 - On slavery and food.
18:30 - On the Green Revolution and Food Sovereignty.
18:00 - What’s been the response from some of your new food products?
28:00 - On immigrants and agroecology.
36:15 - On the potential for small farm and racial solidarity.
Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice, and The Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming, Lis Carlisle
Episode #115 Notes
1:00 - On Adam’s experience in the food industry.
4:15 - Adam’s background in science and molecular engineering.
6:15 - On creating flavors and formulations for industrial foods.
10:30 - What is the process of developing new flavors and formulations for food companies?
14:00 - Mitigating “off-notes”.
15:30 - How Voyage Foods develops food products without GMO’s.
18:00 - What’s been the response from some of your new food products?
21:00 - On labelling Voyage Foods’ unique products. Also, legal liabilities.
24:45 - Why should more people have a better understanding of food science?
30:00 - Resources for food science
1:00 - How did you end up studying racism and political economy?
3:50 - What is your definition of Neo-Liberalism?
8:30 - On racial capitalism in the food industry.
16:00 - How do you identify Neo-Liberal policies?
18:45 - How is Neo-Liberalism different than Libertarianism?
26:00 - On Black Radical Tradition.
30:00 - On thinkers and scholars on racial capitalism.
40:00 - On contemporary protests and how it ties to Black Radical Tradition in the US.
41:00 - On the concept of Class Suicide.
50:00 - Book Recommendations!
Policing the Crisis, Stuart Hall
Black Marxism, Cedric Robinson
The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon
Theory of Global Capitalism, William Robinson
Episode #113 Max Ajl Notes
:30 How did you come to write A People’s Green New Deal?
7:30 What is the history of the global south’s movements and how the Green New Deal has watered these down?
21:00 On vegan neo-colonialism.
32:00 On the links between global capital and the plant-based industry.
51:00 Can you tell us about the concept of Degrowth?
Episode #112 Kathy Finn, UFCW 770
:30 Happenings of the labor movement in Souther California.
2:15 What’s your role at UFCW, and how do you find yourself in this line of work?
4:30 What is the current status of the current labor negotiations with grocery retailers, and can you describe some of the illegal activities they are engaging in?
8:30 What are the policies and working conditions they have imposed?
11:30 On hazard pay mandates.
14:40 What is the appeal of unionizing through UFCW?
18:35 Closing thoughts.
Episode #111 Pat Mooney Notes
:30 On how small farms nourish 70% of the world’s population.
3:00 On the study “Which Farms Feed the World and Has Farmland Become More Concentrated?”
8:30 On Food Sovereignty and industrial agriculture.
17:30 What do large, corporate food entities stand to gain from changing our narrative around food production?
21:00 Can you tell us about the concept of Degrowth?
Episode Notes
1:00 - What is your area of study and research?
9:20 - On the farming sector in Iowa.
13:30 - On farm subsidies.
17:40 - On the ethanol industry.
23:00 - On producing for feed for factory farming and resulting externalities.
32:00 - The role of policy in changing conventional agricultural practices in Iowa.
38:00 - On farm workers in Iowa.
40:30 - On President Biden’s plan to take on the consolidated meat industry.
44:00 - On reforming the USDA to better serve non-conventional interests.
50:00 - What would a climate friendly, safe food system look like in Iowa?
54:00 - Recommended readings:
Civil Eats
The Counter
Tom Philpot
Robinson-Patman Act: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/price-discrimination-robinson-patman
Episode #107 Notes
1:00 - What is The Workers Defense Project?
2:00 - Why is there a focus on construction workers?
4:00 - How is Workers Defense Project organized? What’s it like working in this trade?
10:00 - How is it different working construction in Texas, as opposed to other parts of the country?
14:00 - What is the Theory of Change for Workers Defense Project?
16:00 - Workers Defense Project’s approach to policy work in Texas.
20:00 - Key campaign victories for Workers Defense Project.
24:00 - What does Workers Defense Project want to achieve in the coming years?
25:00 - How will COVID remain an area of focus regarding worksite safety?
29:00 - Thoughts on PROACT.
31:00 - Closing thoughts.
Episode #106 Notes
:30 Defining ‘Working Class’
3:30 On Jarred’s research methods for Common Sense Solidarity
7:50 High level findings from the report.
15:00 On how gender plays into research findings surrounding politics and identity.
20:00 On how political views change on racial lines.
23:00 On how political views change on economic status.
28:00 On how political views change with geography.
34:30 Economically progressive vs. Socially progressive
41:30 Closing thoughts
1:00 – How did you end up writing about food and farming?
9:15 - On food safety and it’s larger implications in food systems.
17:30 - On-farm food safety issues.
23:00 - On the roots of inequity and colonialism in the food system.
30:00 - On conventional food production and policy intersections.
37:30 - On the development of rural demographics.
48:15 - On Wendell Berry
57:00 - Critiques of the Good Food Movement.
1:05 - On farm viability.
1:13 - Book Recommendations!
The Dictator’s Handbook
Terror Management Theory
1:00 – Can you tell us a bit about what it’s like to farm in India?
4:00 – How is farming different and similar to farming in the US?
6:00 – What in India is farming concentrated?
10:30 – What are the socioeconomic policies being pushed in India government right now, and how does it impact farmers?
12:45 – How are these policies related to the 70’s Green Revolution?
19:00 – How have farmers resisted these laws and policies?
22:00 – What policies need to change in India?
24:00 – What can we do to support?
26:00 – Book Recommendations!
Keep Moving On - The Migration of a Punjabi Sikh Family, Amred Singh
The Paradox of India’s Bread Basket, Malika Core
1:00 – What got you interested in organizing foodworkers in meat processing?
5:00 – What is it like to work in a meat processing plant?
8:00 – How are meat processor workers treated by their employers?
10:30 – How has COVID impacted the lives and work of workers in meat processing plants?
14:30 – What role should OSHA play in regulating working conditions?
16:15 – How have workers responded to poor working conditions during COVID?
20:00 – How has COVID impacted the families and communities of their workers?
22:00 – What should the government do to balance meat processor power?
24:30 – What is your vision for organizing?
29:00 – What does a fair and just food system look like to you?
31:00 – How to support and additional resources.
1:00 – What motivated you to build a compendium of agroecogology?
5:00 – What was discussed at the UN Food Summit you attended?
7:00 – Can agroecology feed the world?
11:00 – Is agroecology scalable?
15:30 – Can agroecology provide meaningful livlihoods?
18:00 – Can agroecology help solve climate change?
24:00 – How can agroecology be molded with the current framework for the globalized food system?
28:30 – What is agroecology, exactly?
31:30 – How do we prevent agroecology from being gentrified and commodified?
37:00 – What are the next steps for furthering agroecology?
39:00 – Closing thoughts.
Episode #97 Notes
1:00 - What motivated you to start Saffron Road?
4:15 - What does halal mean? And what are the standards and certifiers around it?
8:00 - What was the path to market for your company?
11:20 - What were your biggest challenges getting to market in the first few years?
13:15 - How do you handle naysayers in the halal space?
21:00 - On Saffron Road’s certifications and sustainability standards.
24:00 - What lessons have you learned that you’d share with us?
28:00 - How have you managed through COVID?
32:45 - Tell us about your social impact through the purchases you make?
43:00 - Book Recommendations!
Green Deen, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Keith Ellison
Marketing to the New Majority, David Burgos
Halal Branding, Dr. Jonathan Wilson
Episode #95 Notes
:30 How did you get interested in immigration and agriculture?
5:00 What is the premise of Fruits of Labor?
9:30 The political-economic context of farm work in the US.
15:00 What other parts of the food sector do you explore in this film?
23:30 On the experience of women in farm work.
36:30 What can we do to support your work?
Episode #94 Notes
:30 The political-economic context for farm workers in the US, and its exclusion from labor laws.
3:00 How does immigration policy related to farm worker rights?
6:00 Where do a lot of farm workers come from in the US?
8:30 On agriculture in the Skagit Valley in Washington State.
12:30 On recent farm worker labor unrest and organizing in Washington State.
20:00 How have farm workers been treated during COVID?
27:00 How has climate change and extreme heat impacted farm workers?
33:00 How are farm workers organizing around food soverignty?
40:00 Closing thoughts.
Episode #93 Notes
:30 Why did you make “They’re Trying to Kill Us”?
2:00 On growing up in Ferguson, Missouri influence you?
5:00 On food related health outcomes.
7:30 On Racial Capitalism and defining Food Deserts.
13:00 Industrial animal food product and chronic disease in black communities.
17:00 Interconnectivity between large corporate interests.
20:00 Harnessing the power and motivation of Black Lives Matter and other movements around the country.
22:00 What are the benefits of a plant-based diet?
28:00 Goals and hopes for folks who watch this film.
30:45 Closing thoughts.
Episode #92 Notes
:30 Introduction to Agroecology
7:05 Areas of research
9:50 What is Agroecology
12:15 Research strategies
15:40 Agroecology and Regenerative Ag
18:00 Agroecology and GMOs
23:00 Agroecology, Justice and Farmers
29:20 Local food systems
39:50 A Just transition
48:50 Further Reading
Episode #90 Notes
Jessica Choy, Campaign Director of Unite Here
1:00 - What is Unite Here? And why is Unite Here organizing against Hello Fresh?
4:15 - What was it like working in a Hello Fresh facility during COVID-19?
8:45 - What spurred this campaign at Hello Fresh?
10:30 - What are workers hoping to achieve through organizing at Hello Fresh?
12:00 - Where do you see the labor movement going in the US?
14:00 - Why would you encourage someone to organize?
John Youngston, Shipping Department at Hello Fresh
18:45 - Tell us about what you do at Hello Fresh.
19:30 - What’s it been like working at Hello Fresh during COVID-19?
21:00 - What got you interested in forming a union at Hello Fresh?
22:15 - What are the benefits of forming a union?
23:15 - Why is there so much labor unrest in the last few months in the food industry?
25:15 - How has Hello Fresh reacted to the labor organizing efforts?
26:15 - What should we know about how we should improve the food system?
28:00 - How can we support your campaign?
Episode #89 Notes
1:00 - What is your motivation?
2:30 - Why did you start the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA)?
5:00 - What are some of your proudest accomplishments at PBFA?
8:00 - Since you’ve left PBFA, what thoughts and concerns do you have for plant based foods?
11:30 - Why won’t ‘the marketplace’ fix the food system?
15:30 - On plant based food’s company advocacy.
19:00 - On greenwashing and cellular agriculture.
26:30 - On food tech and experiments gone awry.
35:30 - What happened to health as a core value in veganism?
43:00 - Book Recommendations!
Winners Take All, Anand Giridharadas
Billion Dollar Burger, Chase Purdy
A Foodie’s Guide To Capitalism, Eric Holt-Gimenez
Episode #88 Notes
0:45 - Alan’s issues of synthetic biology and GMO.
9:15 - On gene editing, CRISPR, and defining synthetic biology.
22:00 - How these technologies work and how they’re deployed in food production.
27:00 - Who is funding these technologies in food production?
38:00 - The Commons as a response to consolidated agricultural land ownership.
42:00 - On GMO’s in Africa.
Book Recommendation
The Great Transformation, Karl Polanyi
Episode #87 Notes
1:00 - What makes Dr. Bronner’s supply chain so unique?
4:30 - How did the supply chain come about and develop?
14:00 - What are the typical conditions of farmers and supply chain workers?
21:40 - How have workers and owners in the Dr. Bronner’s supply chain benefited from their relationship with y’all?
27:00 - How have customers reacted to your developments in supply chain? And is it replicable?
35:00 - How is Dr. Bronner’s approach creating a more fair and just food system?
40:00 - Book Recommendations!
Honor They Label, Gero Leson
The Carbon Farming Solution, Eric Toensmeier
Entangled Lives: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds, and shape our future, Merlin Sheldrake
Agroecology: Science and Politics, Rosset and Altieri
Episode #85 Notes
0:45 - What are your jobs at Starbucks?
2:00 - What’s it been like working at Starbucks through the pandemic?
5:00 - What inspired the union organizing campaign?
7:30 - What are your demands?
11:00 - How has this union campaign been received by your coworkers?
14:45 - On the vision of these organizing efforts in the short and long term.
20:00 - How to support these efforts.
Episode #84 Notes
1:00 - An overview of RWDSU and background.
2:30 - On the political economy of farm work in the United States, and the lack of laws to protect farm workers.
6:20 - On The Fair Labor for Farm Workers Act.
8:00 - What is the upside of farm workers having a union contract?
11:00 - What is the future of farm work in New York? Do you see resistance from farm and land owners as farm workers organize?
12:30 - How can folks support this work?
17:50 - Overview of the Amazon labor organizing campaign.
32:00 - Closing thoughts.
Episode #83 Notes
1:00 - How did you get interested in writing about cultivated meats?
4:50 - On finding sources for Joe’s journalism on cultivated meats.
10:05 - How cultivated meats are made.
13:30 - Scaling and sterility in cultivated meat production
22:00 - Cultivated meats implications and animal rights
30:00 - The feed source for cultivated meat.
34:00 - The waste products and byproducts of cultivated meat.
39:00 - The economics and risks associated with cultivated meat companies.
42:10 - On the energy needs of cultivated meat
45:15 - How might the food system be truly repaired?
51:00 - Closing thoughts
Episode #82 Notes
Kevin Bradshaw Local 252G Memphis, Tennesse BCTGM
0:30 - What is your role at Kellogg’s?
01:10 - Why are you on strike? And what has Kellogg’s done to instigate the strike?
2:30 - How has COVID exasperated some of the issues with working conditions?
4:00 - What are you standing for?
5:00 - How can folks support you?
8:00 - Dan Osborne, President Local 50G Omaha, Nebraska BCTGM
9:00 - What instigated the wave of strikes we’re seeing at Kellogg’s facilities?
10:00 - What has it been like with COVID in Kellogg’s facilities?
12:30 - What is at stake for this strike?
14:30 - Is Kellogg’s threatening to move production facilities to other countries?
17:30 - How can folks support BCTGM?
20:00 - Closing thoughts.
Episode #80 Notes
0:30 - How did you start at Amazon, and what led to your dismissal?
3:00 - How did your unionizing efforts lead to the work you do now?
4:15 - What is your critique of Amazon and how they treat employees?
5:30 - What is the Amazon Labor Union, it’s goals, and how it came about?
6:45 - On organizing and recruitment tactics.
9:30 - How has Amazon responded to your organizing tactics?
12:00 - What do we need to build a logistics system that’s fair, just, and equitable?
13:30 - What are the benefits of employees having and contributing to a union?
16:00 - Closing thoughts.
Episode #80 Notes
1:00 - Reckoning and Regenerative Agriculture article overview
6:05 - Regenerative Organic Certification and other ways in which we define regenerative.
21:45 - On racial justice and equity in regenerative agriculture.
30:00 - What should we do to help shift the meaning of regenerative agriculture.
34:00 - Further readings:
Liz Carslile
Farm (and Other F Words), Sarah Mock
Julie Guthman
Dispossession, Pete Daniel
Episode #78 Notes
1:15 - Inspiration for their new book, Enflamed.
2:40 - On Deep Medicine and why this book needed to happen.
8:30 - What is inflammation, exactly?
14:00 - On defining colonialism historically and presently.
19:00 - On the cultural and larger systems issues with the healthcare system.
26:30 - The limitations of addressing inflammation with the current state of the food system.
35:00 - On abolition, colonialism, and health.
40:00 - Decolonizing medicine.
55:00 - Interview Takeaways.
Episode #77 Notes
1:00 - On The Global Alliance for The Future of Food
3:00 - Case studies of work GAFF.
8:00 - Defining True Cost Accounting and why it matters.
12:00 - Why is this different than GAP accounting? And how are externalities accounted for in True Cost Accounting?
16:00 - How is True Cost Accounting embedded in regulatory frameworks?
21:00 - How would true cost accounting be applied to more conventional businesses? And how would it impact them?
27:30 - How does True Cost Accounting affect prices?
34:30 - How is GAFF getting involved in the UN Food Systems Conference?
37:00 - How do you pitch True Cost Accounting as a new norm?
40:00 - How does True Cost Accounting relate to climate change?
43:00 - What we can do to support True Cost Accounting.
Episode #76 Notes
0:30 - What does the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa do?
2:00 - What is Food Sovereignty?
3:15 - The influence of powerful and influential benefactors of the green revolution in Africa.
8:15 - What was the Green Revolution? What did it want to do, and what have the outcomes been?
15:45 - How are food sovereignty organization pushing back on the Green Revolution narrative?
20:00 - Closing thoughts.
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Episode #72 Notes
1:00 - How did Brandworkers come about?
2:00 - How is Brandworkers structured?
4:00 - What are some of the issues affecting food system workers in NY?
6:30 - What is labor organizing like in facilities?
9:00 - What sectors and businesses are you working in currently?
13:30 - What are some major victories you’ve had?
17:00 - On collective bargaining and unionizing.
24:30 - How has COVID impacted campaign strategies?
29:30 - How have priorities changed with a new administration in the White House?
31:00 - What do you hope to accomplish in the next few years?
34:00 - What does a fair and just food system look like to you?
Episode #71 Notes
Interview #1 with Lisa Gregory and Carl Miller of BCTGM
1:15 - Food industry experience
2:00 - Working on the Nabisco bakery production line.
4:00 - Lisa’s role at BCTGM Union.
5:00 - What has it been like working in food manufacturing during COVID?
9:00 - How many union members fell ill during COVID?
11:30 - On organizing efforts at their food manufacturing facility.
17:00 - The effects of working under onerous management.
18:00 - On PRO-ACT and how it would help unionizing efforts.
22:00 - What has inspired the current wave of strikes at Nabisco?
28:00 - What’s at stake with these union organizing efforts, and how you can help.
Mike Burlingham, Portland Local 364 of BCTGM
33:30 - On Mike’s work experience at Nabisco.
35:30 - What does it mean to be a baker? What’s the job like?
37:00 - What is it like working in the facility during COVID?
42:00 - How have business decisions made affected jobs and livelihoods of the workers?
47:00 - What has inspired the current wave of Nabisco strikes?
55:00 - How you can support the organizing efforts.
Errol Schweizer is the Host of The Checkout and has over 25 years of food industry experience, including retail operations and purchasing, CPG, farmers markets, community organizing, and more.
Episode #69 Notes
0:45 - How did you get started in the food business and Miyoko’s Creamery?
4:00 - What were gaps in the market for dairy-free cheeses?
7:00 - How did you develop these dairy-free cheeses?
11:00 - What was consumer’s initial reaction to the products?
17:00 - On inequities in the funding and financing landscape.
21:00 - On what’s working and what’s not in the plant-based food industry.
25:00 - What is your vision for the food system?
30:00 - On a just transition for workers and food businesses in a plant-based food system.
35:00 - Lessons learned in the food industry.
39:00 - Book Recommendations!
The Homemade Vegan Pantry, Miyoko Shinner
The Vegan Meat Cookbook, Miyoko Shinner
Artisan Vegan Cheese, Miyoko Shinner
Afro Veganism, Bryant Terry
Episode #68 Notes
0:45 - From impact investor to Cool Beans CEO.
4:15 - How did you re-discover the frozen food aisle?
8:00 - Why did Cool Beans decide to focus on plant-based foods?
15:00 - The Four Waves of plant based foods.
18:00 - On competing in the plant-based foods sector.
22:00 - On the ethics of plant-based foods.
25:00 - On converting conventional grain production to grass-based products.
34:00 - Book Recommendations!
The Water Will Come, Jeff Goodell
This Is The Way The World Ends, Jeff Nesbit
Episode #67 Notes
0:45 - Tell us about your role at Tisch Center for Food, Education, and Policy.
2:15 - On Tisch Center’s research and advocacy work.
3:30 - On food insecurity in New York.
9:50 - How has COVID impacted food insecurity and your positions on policies impacting this?
18:45 - Policy goals around universal lunch programs.
28:30 - On the Food Ed Coalition.
35:00 - Policy positions regarding nutrition for school lunches.
40:30 - Food, well being, and food education.
Episode #66 Notes
1:00 - On unionizing efforts at No Evil Foods.
7:30 - Motivation around the initial unionization drive.
17:00 - How did the other employees respond to unionization?
21:45 - On the mechanics of union-avoidance industry.
23:00 - On PRO-ACT.
28:00 - What was the work dynamic? What did it feel like to work at the facility?
29:30 - What happened after the unionization effort failed?
42:00 - What happened when you left the company?
56:00 - How you can support. Takeaways and lessons learned.
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Episode #64 Notes
0:30 - What is the mission and vision of Brooklyn Packers?
2:15 - What is Brooklyn Supported Agriculture?
3:15 - On selecting farm and food suppliers.
5:00 - How is a worker-owned cooperative different than a typical corporate business? And what are the pros and cons?
8:45 - How do you competitive as a cooperative?
10:00 - Impacts of COVID-19 on the business.
14:00 - How is your cooperative financed?
17:45 - History of cooperatives in Brooklyn.
21:20 - How does Brooklyn Packers contribute to food sovereignty?
23:00 - Book recommendations!
Collective Courage, Jessica Gordon Nembhard
The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois
Episode #63 Notes
0:35 - First off, how did you become a Rocket Scientist?
3:45 - How did your science background influence your interest in BBQ?
7:15 - How and why is the BBQ is such a strong cultural tradition in the black community?
9:30 - On BBQ in Virginia and the birth of BBQ.
15:00 - On Southern Food and how it’s essentially black and indigenous in origin.
18:00 - Authentic BBQ and the techniques used.
20:30 - On the diasporic spread of BBQ techniques.
28:00 - What is the difference between a Chef, a Cook, and a Pitmaster?
33:00 - How does mainstream media white-wash BBQ culture?
45:30 - On the displacement of black communities and how this ties to BBQ.
49:15 - Why is BBQ a quintessential American food?
1:00:00 - Book recommendations!
Black Hand in the Pit - Howard Conyers (to be released)
The Half Has Never Been Told - Edward Baptist
The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas Stanley and William Danko
For Freedom’s Sake - Chana Lee
Dispossessions - Pete Daniel
The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
The Devil You Know - Charles Blow
The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss
Episode #62 Notes
0:35 - First off, how did you become a Rocket Scientist?
3:45 - How did your science background influence your interest in BBQ?
7:15 - How and why is the BBQ is such a strong cultural tradition in the black community?
9:30 - On BBQ in Virginia and the birth of BBQ.
15:00 - On Southern Food and how it’s essentially black and indigenous in origin.
18:00 - Authentic BBQ and the techniques used.
20:30 - On the diasporic spread of BBQ techniques.
28:00 - What is the difference between a Chef, a Cook, and a Pitmaster?
33:00 - How does mainstream media white-wash BBQ culture?
45:30 - On the displacement of black communities and how this ties to BBQ.
49:15 - Why is BBQ a quintessential American food?
1:00:00 - Book recommendations!
Black Hand in the Pit - Howard Conyers (to be released)
The Half Has Never Been Told - Edward Baptist
The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas Stanley and William Danko
For Freedom’s Sake - Chana Lee
Dispossessions - Pete Daniel
The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
The Devil You Know - Charles Blow
The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss
Episode #60 Notes
1:00 - What were some of the issues and conditions that resulted in this strike?
7:00 - On sexual harassment and racial bias in the workplace.
14:15 - On protecting employees from customer harassment.
19:00 - Pay disparities
25:00 - What were the immediate demands when you went on strike?
31:00 - How did the strike spread from the production centers to the retail stores?
33:15 - Negotiating with Juiceland management.
41:00 - What’s the current status of the strike?
47:00 - What can listeners do to support your efforts?
Episode #58 Notes
1:00 - Esther West, open mic on Latinx coop growth in the US.
Books and Resources
LatinX Coop Power in the US, UW Center for Coops
Collective Courage, Jessica Gordon Nembhard
Democracy at Work Institute
Sustainable Economies Law Center
Episode #57 Notes
1:00 - How did you get interested in food systems research?
6:15 - What were the conditions of homesteaders and settlers in the frontier in the 19th century?
10:15 - On the myth of the idyllic small family farm.
18:30 - How 4H social engineered of the rural frontier.
28:30 - On how 4H deepened racial divides and inequities.
35:00 - On 4H and the history of eugenics.
44:15 - How to overcome the myth of the ‘independent farmer’ and iconism.
49:00 - How to create a just, fair, resilient food system.
53:30 - Book recommendations!
Capitalism and the Web of Life - Jason Moore
Porkopolis - Alex Blanchette
Episode #56 Notes
0:30- How did Worker’s Justice Project come about?
1:45 - What needs does WJP meet for the community?
3:00 - How are decisions made in your organization?
5:30 - What’s it’s been like to be an essential worker during COVID-19? Construction, home healthcare, etc.
9:15 - What are some of the campaigns WJP has worked on?
17:30 - HEROES Act and the Fund for Excluded Workers projects.
22:00 - What are the strategic program areas of WJP?
25:00 - US immigration policies effects on people’s lives and livelihoods.
29:00 - What changes are required in the food system to make things better for essential workers?
32:30 - What is the future of WJP and your members?
34:15 - How to support WJP and closing thoughts.
Episode #55 Notes
1:00 - How did you get interested in food journalism?
3:30 - On writing style.
4:45 - Recipe development and food journalism.
6:30 - On the future of the veggie burger.
11:30 - On vegan cheese and category reinvention.
17:30 - Silicon Valley’s approach to alternative meat development.
21:00 - Is there such a thing as sustainable beef?
26:00 - On American meat consumption and rational goals.
28:20 - On the intersection of gender, race, meat, and COVID.
31:30 - Food activists in Puerto Rico.
38:10 - What’s wrong with resilience?
46:00 - Book recommendations!
Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency - Andreas Malm
How To Blowup a Pipeline - Andreas Malm
The Gentrification of the Mind - Sarah Schulman
Let The Record Show - Sarah Schulman
Conflict Is Not Abuse - Sarah Schulman
Episode #54 Notes
1:00 - How did The Common Market get started?
3:00 - Common Market business model.
3:50 - Working with foundations.
5:00 - Common Market stakeholders.
8:00 - On working with farmers and suppliers.
11:30 - On expanding CM to Georgia and Texas.
19:00 - On Houston hip hop
20:45 - COVID’s impact on CM’s operating model.
30:00 - On sourcing locally in Texas, which is highly seasonal.
35:00 - On a fair and just food system.
36:30 - Book recommendations!
Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis
Parable of The Sower, Octavia Butler
Episode #52 Notes
1:00 - What are GMOs?
5:25 - On the prevalence of GMOs.
11:00 - Gene editing vs. gene silencing.
14:30 - Private sector, financing, and GMOs.
19:00 - What’s the motivation to bring new GMOs to market?
24:30 - Labelling for GMOs.
29:00 - On The Non GMO Project.
35:30 - How do folks become Non GMO certified? How easy or difficult is it?
38:45 - Certified Organic & Non GMO; differences and similarities.
45:00 - Social justice and equity in and around the Non GMO Project.
58:20 - Book Recommendations!
Monocultures of The Mind, Vandana Shiva
GMO Myths and Truths, John Fagan
To Speak for The Trees, Diana Beresford-Kroeger
The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddartha Mukherjee
Episode #51 Notes
1:00 - What does food sovereignty mean?
1:30 - What are the goals and vision for the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty?
3:20 - How are decisions made in the coalition?
4:25 - What inspired the formation of the coalition?
5:30 - What have farmers in countries like India, Philippines, Cambodia been experiencing recently?
9:00 - What role do large institutional, international relief organizations play in supporting the global south?
10:45 - On international and philanthropic relief organizations and unintended impacts in the southern hemisphere.
16:00 - What is the UN Food Systems Summit, and why is it being boycotted by some organizations?
27:00 - What is your coalitions alternative to our current food system trajectory?
31:00 - Closing thoughts.
People’s Coalition of Food Sovereignty Publications
Episode #50 Notes
1:00 - On food sector labor organizing.
5:15 - On fast food management.
7:00 - What instigated the formation of EWOC?
13:30 - What’s the day-to-day during COVID?
17:00 - On COVID’s effect on the lives of fast food workers.
19:00 - On food service low-rates of unionization.
31:00 - What’s the next 6 months looks like for the union and organizing at Taco Bell?
35:00 - Are Taco Bell employees communicating about organizing at other locations?
45:00 - On fast food as skilled vs. unskilled labor.
51:00 - If you were running the restaurant, how would you run it?
58:20 - From expendable to dignified.
1:30:00 - Book Recommendations!
Reverend Barber
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
There Is Power In A Union, Phillip Dray
Iron Council, China Mieville
Episode #48 Notes
0:30 - What do you mean by a “commons” and where does it orginiate?
2:30 - On The Tragedy of The Commons, and why it’s BS.
6:00 - What are some commons in our everyday lives that we might take for granted?
9:00 - How is a food commons different than our current food system?
15:50 - How do market relations interface with the commons?
30:15 - What is preferable about a food commons?
35:00 - What happens to the private market in a food commons system?
42:30 - How do social movements and activism interface with food commons?
48:00 - Book recommendations!
Routledge Handbook of Food as a Commons, Jose Luis Vivero-Pol
Free, Fair, and Alive, David Bollier and Silke Helfrich
Re-Enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, Silvia Federici
Mutual Aid, Peter Kropotkin
Governing The Commons, Elinor Ostrum
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Episode #46 Notes
0:30 - What is Labor Studies, and what are your key focus areas?
7:20 - What are the benefits of unionizing for workers?
14:45 - Why has there been a decline in recent decades in private sector union jobs?
27:40 - How are non-unionized jobs effected by the lack of unions when it comes to benefits, wages, working conditions, etc.
40:30 - Gig workers, rapid hiring, and lack of unions.
43:30 - On the union-avoidance industry.
1:12 - Recommended readings!
State of the Union, Nelson Lichtenstein
Dying at Work, Jeff Pheifer
The Fissured Workplace, David Well
Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber
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Episode #43 Notes
1:00 - How did you get into plant-based ice cream?
3:00 - Why make it a business?
6:00 - Why are more customers moving toward plant-based dairy?
9:00 - What makes what Nadamoo is doing different than other plant-based food companies?
12:10 - What are your parameters around ingredient sourcing?
15:00 - How do you decide on the flavors and recipes for Nadamoo?
18:00 - On opening Nadamoo’s first scoop-shop.
21:00 - What’s the Nadamoo culture like?
25:00 - Biggest challenges of growing the Nadamoo company.
28:00 - What are Nadamoo’s retail and wholesale relationships like?
30:30 - How was Nadamoo financed?
39:00 - Book Recommendations!
Light Years, James Salter
The War of Art: Break Through The Blocks and Win Your Inner Battles, Steven Pressfield
High Hanging Fruit, Mark Rampolla
Episode #42 Notes
Part 1: John Grant
1:00 - How many workers does your union represent and in what industries?
6:00 - Municipal hazard pay mandates and retail reaction.
15:30 - On labor activism on the ground.
18:00 - On well being of workers during COVID and the role of trade unions and their continuation of organizing.
24:00 - Outside of a union, what can other folks in the food sector do to support workers?
28:45 - Why are trade unions so important for workers in the retail sector?
30:45 - Closing thoughts.
Part 2: Maria Hernandez
32:45 - Tell us about your career in the grocery industry and the types of jobs you’ve had.
36:45 - What store do you work at and what’s your experience with the recent store closure?
39:40 - How wide spread have store closures been?
42:30 - How has retail changed in your 25 years of retail experience?
45:40 - How have store closures been communicated to retail staff?
46:30 - How has your union been involved with these closures?
50:45 - What kind of support is the community showing to retail staff?
52:00 - What would you ask listeners to do to support your cause?
58:30 - Closing thoughts.
Episode #41 Notes
1:00 - Tell us about your background in the natural products industry?
2:30 - What’s been the most challenging - and rewarding - part of working the natural products industry?
4:30 - What are some of the products you’ve brought to market?
6:00 - How have consumer preferences evolved in the last couple decades?
7:45 - What attracts customers to certifications and high-attribute standards, like Organic and Regenerative Organic?
9:45 - How does someone go about breaking into Consumer Packaged Goods?
11:30 - What got you into confections and baked goods products?
13:30 - What are your ingredient sources standards, and how do they set you apart?
17:00 - What role can ethical CPG companies in evolving and repairing the food system?
18:15 - What does the food industry need to do to address racial inequities, climate change, and food apartheid?
23:00 - What do you look for when you’re investing in a food company?
26:00 - What are some red flags that companies are not a good fit?
29:00 - Case study on discrimination, anti-semitics, and hiring.
33:30 - Suggested readings?
Grant, Ron Chernow
Ramping Your Brand, James F. Richardson
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Ron Chernow
Mediocre, Ijeoma Oluo
Episode #39 Notes
1:00 - Why did you become a doctor?
3:15 - What were your main areas of study and what degrees did you earn?
6:30 - How did your experience in public health impact your views on medicine and social change?
6:45 - What are the challenges in the food system that you are trying to address?
8:40 - How did you realize economic austerity measures were impacting public health?
12:00 - How does food and environmental justice issues intersect with health?
14:00 - What did you realize was underlying all the national public health crises?
17:00 - Why can’t our current health system address these health crises?
20:10 - What do you see elsewhere that our current healthcare system is lacking?
23:50 - What do we mean by Medicare For All, and how would it function?
26:30 - How would we pay for Medicare For All?
30:45 - How would patient care improve under some of these changes? Also, what’s the difference between Medicare For All and Universal Healthcare?
33:40 - What were your most popular policy platforms when you ran for governor?
35:30 - Suggested Readings?
Healing Politics: A Doctors Journey Into The Heart of Our Political Epidemic, Dr. Abdul Al-Sayed
An American Sickness, Elizabeth Rosenthal
America’s Bitter Pill, Steven Brill
Pharma, Gerald Posner
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Episode #37 Notes
1:35- How has Amazon changed the logistics game, especially during COVID?
4:40 - What are the working conditions really like in Amazon fulfillment centers?
8:00 - Who is working on the ground at Amazon?
11:45 - How do race and gender overlay labor issues at Amazon?
15:15 - Surveillance of Amazon workers and implications.
20:15 - What happens to communities when Amazon comes to town?
24:45 - Amazon in Seattle and New York.
29:30 - How Amazon fails it’s workers during COVID-19.
34:45 - How have workers and communities been organizing against Amazon?
40:15 - More on organizing efforts at Amazon.
46:00 - How to resist Amazon.
49:00 - Suggested readings!
The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy, Jake Alimohmed-Wilson and Ellen Reese
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff
Hammer and Hoe, Robin D. G. Kelly
Building Power from Below, Carolina Bank Munoz
Ours to Master Ours to Own, Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini
Episode #36 Notes
1:00- How did you get involved in trade unions?
5:00 - Tell us about AFL-CIO
7:00 - What does “solidarity forever” mean to you?
8:00 - Why are there so few private sector unions in Texas? And of the ones that are active, what are they doing?
10:40 - COVID and impacts on essential workers and their families.
15:30 - What policies should be prioritized to protect workers in the supply chain?
19:30 - How is AFL-CIO preparing for the next set of crises?
21:30 - What are the greatest union job opportunities in food?
23:00 - On Right to Work laws and worker strikes.
24:30 - What is the Fair Shot for Texas Workers campaign?
26:30 - Where would you like to see AFL-CIO in 5 years?
28:00 - Closing thoughts on being in the labor movement.
Episode #35 Notes
0:45 - What inspired the formation of Migrant Justice?
1:30 - Tell us about the migrant labor issues in Vermont, specifically on dairy farms?
6:15 - What are the goals and mission of Migrant Justice?
10:30 - On the Milk With Dignity campaign.
13:30 - Ben and Jerry’s involvement with Milk With Dignity.
17:20 - Who is the campaign currently pursuing, and why?
20:00 - COVID’s impact on organizing work.
23:45 - What are the most compelling achievements of Migrant Justice?
26:45 - On COVID’s spread on dairies.
30:00 - Worker-driven labor rights outcomes and efficacy.
31:45 - On shared ownership models.
33:15 - Suggested readings!
Life on the Other Border, Teresa M. Mares
We Are All Fast Food Workers Now, Annelise Orleck
Episode #34 Notes
1:00 - How did you get involved in the good food movement?
7:00 - On Agronomy.
9:15 - How did you decide to focus on poultry?
14:45 - What is ‘Tree Range’ poultry?
22:00 - How do you define regenerative agriculture?
24:30 - What are the goals of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance?
30:00 - Regenerative Agricultural and cultural appropriation.
37:20 - Regenerative Agriculture and Food Sovereignty.
40:00 - Book Recommendations!
Sacred Instructions, Sherri Mitchell
In The Shadow of Green Man, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin
Episode #33 Notes
1:00 - How did you become a community organizer?
3:00 - What necessitates organizing in The Bronx?
6:45 - Defining food apartheid.
10:50 - How did you get started in the community garden movement?
16:45 - What inspired you and others to organize Black Urban Growers (BUGS)
24:15 - Rise and Root Farm and worker ownership.
31:15 - What role has food played in the black freedom struggle?
38:15 - Black Farmers Fund
45:00 - Who are some of the people from the Black Freedom struggle who inspired your work?
51:00 - How do you define food sovereignty?
53:00 - Justice for Black Farmers Act.
59:00 - Reading Recommendations!
The Color of Wealth: Black Banks and The Radical Wealth Gap, Mehrsa Baradaran
Farming While Black, Leah Penniman
Freedom Farmers, Dr. Monica M. White
Growing Out Loud, K. Rashid Nuri
Episode #33 Notes
1:00 - How did you get interested in gardening?
2:00 - What kind of skills have you picked up since you started gardening?
5:00 - How do you define regeneration?
7:15 - What is the language of regeneration?
12:40 - Why is representation and equity important for regenerative agriculture and climate change?
21:00 - Oversimplifications regarding climate change.
26:00 - Does regenerative agriculture have the potential to change the conversation around climate change and agriculture?
30:00 - How do we replicate systems of oppression in regenerative agriculture?
35:00 - What is needed in food systems to ensure justice and equity?
44:00 - Book recommendations?
Roots, Alex Haley
Remaking Eden, Lee Silver
Episode #31 Notes
Background on Prop 22 in California.
1:00 - Prop 22 in California - tell us about it.
5:45 - The disinformation campaign around Prop 22
8:45 - Fair Labor Standards Act as it relates to Prop 22.
11:30 - The Gig Economy, Prop 22, and the implications for the workforce outside of California that we should be thinking about.
14:30 - Healthcare provision in Prop 22.
18:00 - What kind of organizing are you seeing amongst gig economy workers to reverse Prop 22?
22:30 - Anti-trust as a tool to manage gig companies.
27:00 - Amazon. On market dominance, how they do it, and how that’s problematic.
29:30 - How has Amazon kept people across political parties more or less placated?
33:30 - The vertical and horizontal integration of Amazon, and how that gives it an unfair advantage.
38:30 - Amazon and labor issues.
42:00 - Automation in retail and distribution. What types of technology are we seeing?
52:45 - How will other big retailers react to the technology and automation distributions from Amazon?
56:00 - The darker side of Amazon’s operational innovations.
1:00 - Book recommendations!
Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino
The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business, Christopher Leonard
Food and Power, Claire Kelloway
Episode #30 Notes
0:30 - What is being done to stop the Line 3 Pipeline and others - and why?
6:00 - On the destruction of indigenous culture and nature.
10:30 - On transitioning to a better future.
11:45 - Fossil fuel addiction intersecting with economic and environmental justice.
15:00 -How to develop strategies on resisting pipelines.
18:00 - The concept and notion of the sacred.
21:00 - The sacred as it relates to food systems.
25:30 - How are Native Americans reclaiming food sovereignty?
28:30 - Book recommendations?
To Be A Water Protector: The Rise of Wiindigoo Slayers, Winona LaDuke
The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich
2021 will be the year that we re-center working people in the food system. History shows that organized efforts and legally-binding contracts result in safer workplaces and better livelihoods for all supply chain workers, particularly women and people of color.
Sources for all information are available upon request. Major sources:
https://www.wholeworker.org/press/december-mass-email
https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-worker-demands-hazard-pay-covid-benefits-mass-email-2020-12
https://www.grocerydive.com/news/disruptor-of-year-amazon-2020/588867/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202020-12-11%20Grocery%20Dive%20%5Bissue:31376%5D&utm_term=Grocery%20Dive
https://cdn.ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ILSR_PopEdforIndependentBusinessOwner.pdf
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-competition-shopify-wayfair-allbirds-antitrust-11608235127
https://cdn.ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Amazon-Vs-The-People.pdf
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp3yn/amazon-leaked-reports-expose-spying-warehouse-workers-labor-union-environmental-groups-social-movements
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-12-17/amazon-amzn-job-pay-rate-leaves-some-warehouse-employees-homeless
https://www.al.com/news/2020/11/bessemer-amazon-warehouse-workers-take-official-step-toward-unionizing.html?fbclid=IwAR29VyHeVHKPmysB73fk2gJa3N6x_u-n494m61lL-x86ck8vqc-i0flGKXc
https://labornotes.org/2020/12/bamazon-union-anticipating-battle-bessemer-alabama
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/business/stop-shop-strike.html
https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/industry-partners/ufcw-reiterates-call-mask-mandates-hazard-pay-reinstatement
https://www.grocerydive.com/news/shoprite-reaches-covid-19-hazard-pay-deal-with-ufcw/589799/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202020-11-30%20Grocery%20Dive%20%5Bissue:31119%5D&utm_term=Grocery%20Dive
https://www.supermarketnews.com/issues-trends/ufcw-shoprite-reach-deal-covid-19-hazard-pay
https://www.ufcw.org/press-releases/ufcw-announces-covid-19-hazard-pay-deal-for-stater-bros-grocery-workers-in-california-as-surge-in-virus-cases-endangers-frontline-workers-nationwide/
https://www.supermarketnews.com/issues-trends/sen-bernie-sanders-ufcw-locals-urge-kroger-restart-hazard-pay
https://www.epi.org/publication/how-todays-unions-help-working-people-giving-workers-the-power-to-improve-their-jobs-and-unrig-the-economy
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Episode #27 Notes
1:00 - What’s your academic area of focus and what led you to it?
3:30 - Tell us about your work at Mondragon.
9:15 - On the New York City system of cooperatives.
13:15 - How are transitions to business cooperatives financed?
14:45 - Public finance and modern monetary theory.
29:00 - The difference between market based capitalism vs. modern monetary theory.
41:45 - On free trade and recent trade agreements.
49:45 - Food sovereignty and modern monetary theory.
52:10 - Modern monetary theory, socialist economics and the differences with Marxism.
1:05:45 - Modern monetary theory in practice in the real world.
1:08:00 - Modern monetary theory and food insecurity in the US.
1:10:00 - How can we expand worker ownership under MMT? Coops and ESOPs.
1:14:00 - Suggested readings?
The Deficit Myth, Stephanie Kelton
The Case for a Job Guarantee, Pavlina Tcherneva
Declarations of Dependence, Scott Ferguson
Winning The Green New Deal, Guido Girgenti and Varshini Prakash
A Planet to Win, Thea Riofrancos and Kate Aronoff
Major sources include:
https://thefern.org/2020/12/documents-show-scope-of-covid-19-in-north-carolina-meat-industry/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/11/one-in-six-could-go-hungry-2020-as-covid-19-persists
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/business/hunger-coronavirus-economy/?itid=hp-top-table-low
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/10/pandemic-shoplifting-hunger/
https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/
https://www.cepr.net/the-24-an-hour-minimum-wage/
https://www.epi.org/press/wage-inequality-gender-racial-pay-gap/
https://www.marketplace.org/2020/12/08/new-rand-study-quantifies-cost-of-rising-us-inequality/
https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
https://www.brookings.edu/essay/windfall-profits-and-deadly-risks/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/18/food-stamps-medicaid-mcdonalds-walmart-bernie-sanders/
Please let us know what you think of this episode’s information, format and areas of focus!
Episode #25 Notes
1:00 - Immokalee, FL: Why is there so much food production in this region?
8:45 - How are retail and food chains responsible for the property and abuses in their supply chains and how does your work helping to change this?
14:45 - Fair Food Program - what it is and how it works.
28:00 - Food Buyers and holding power in the food system.
30:40 - How has COVID affected farm workers in Immokalee?
50:30 - How do we help support and protect farm workers outside of Immokkalee?
58:15 - COVID, labor, and meat processing issues.
1:00:15 - What is the future of food systems in the eyes of CIW?
1:14:00 - Book and music recommendations?
I Am Not a Tractor, Susan L. Marquis
Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook
Factories in the Field, Carey McWilliams
Food Chains, Sanjay Rawal
Nobodies, John Bowe
Episode #24 Notes
1:00 - How did you get into the retail business?
4:30 - What are your customers shopping for?
7:15 - What do you sell that sets you apart from other retailers?
8:00 - Do you cooperate with other immigrant owned businesses?
10:15 - How does the cooperative work?
15:30 - How has your business changed with COVID?
18:15 - How does your assortment continue to change and evolve through COVID?
21:00 - Retailers, Bernie Sanders, and Social Justice.
24:30 - On defunding the Austin Police Department.
27:15 - On APD and diverting their budget.
31:15 - What does APD do with their budget currently?
36:30 - On wielding social media for activism.
39:45 - How has Austin responded to defunding the police?
45:00 - How have other small businesses responded to the Black Lives Matter movement?
52:00 - On juggling retailing and activism.
56:30 - Suggested readings:
All About Love, bell hooks
The Will to Change, bell hooks
Interpretative Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel
Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charolette Perkins Gilman
Episode #22 Notes
1:00 - Chicago Food Policy Action Council - how did you get interested in food policy and reforms?
3:45 - How did the Chicago Food Policy Action Council come about?
5:45 - What is the vision and mission?
6:45 - What are the challenges in the food system that you are trying to address?
10:30 - Who are the main stakeholders around goal setting, accountability, and impact?
12:30 - How has your organization responded to COVID?
15:45 - Tell us about your involvement with the Good Food Purchasing Program?
18:15 - How has CFPAC addressed land access, urban farming, food business licensing, etc.?
22:30 - Urban Stewards Action Network (USAN).
25:00 - Are there other cities that are doing the type of work you are?
26:00 - What is the potential impact of GFPP on Chicago and the surrounding area?
29:00 - Suggested readings?
For The Wild Podcast, Ayana Young
Farming While Black, Leah Penniman
Freedom Farmers, Monica White
Who Really Feeds The World, Vandana Shiva
Lo—tek. Design by Radical Indigenism, Julia Watson
Episode #22 Notes
1:00 - How did you get interested in Organic farming?
4:00 - What’s the mission of Farmshare Austin?
5:45 - What are the main program areas around farmer training?
7:15 - How do you teach, and what do your graduates go on to do?
11:00 - What can you grow in Central Texas, and what are the challenges?
13:15 - Tell us about your work in food access?
21:00 - What has been the response to this work?
23:00 - How are your programs funded?
26:45 - What is your vision for the regional food systems in Central Texas?
31:00 - How is Farmshare’s work replicable in other areas?
34:00 - Suggested readings?
One Straw Revolution, Masanobu Fukuoka
**Note: SNAP and Double Dollars account for 25% of total sales, rather than 20% as stated in this interview.
Episode #21 Notes
1:00 - The Secret Life of Groceries and Perilous Bounty
1:30 - What motivated you to write The Secret Life of Groceries?
4:00 - The low down on Trader Joe’s
9:45 - A day in the life at The Food Show
16:15 - Truckers and Co-Packers.
23:00 - Food supply chains in Southeast Asia.
27:00 - The affects of pricing and the “race to the bottom”
37:00 - Global trade treaties, labor standards, and policy blind-spots.
41:30 - Suggested readings?
Perilous Bounty, Tom Philpott
This Old Man All in Pieces, Roger Angell
Episode #20 Notes
0:45 - What is the mission and vision of Black Church Food Security Network?
2:45 - How and where do you operate?
4:30 - How should we think about the role of the Black church being connected to the Black freedom struggle?
6:00 - How is food connected to the Black freedom struggle?
8:30 - What have you seen regarding food insecurity first hand, pre and during COVID?
10:30 - Who are the main stakeholders and beneficiaries of your work?
14:45 - Does your organization help with logistics and distribution? How does it operate?
22:30 - On dispossession and discrimination of Black farmers have faced since emancipation?
28:00 - On Faith, Food and Freedom campaign.
30:30 - What’s been the response to your work, generally?
34:00 - What does food sovereignty and land sovereignty mean to you?
37:00 - How does your work move us towards a more fair and just food system?
42:00 - Suggested readings?
Black Reconstruction, W.E.B. DuBois
Black Theology and Black Power, James H. Cone
God of the Oppressed, James H. Cone
Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody, James H. Cone
Collective Courage, Jessica Gordon Nembhard
Ella Baker and The Black Freedom Movement, Barbara Ransby
Thomas Sankara Speaks, Thomas Sankara
Episode #19 Notes
1:00 - What inspired you to start Soul Fire Farm?
2:15 - Tell us about your farming practices, the origins of these practices, and how they’ve been appropriated?
5:15 - How might you critique the Organic farming standard especially around BIPOC farmers around the US?
6:20 - How is Soul Fire Farm enabling food access in your community, and how is it rooted in food sovereignty?
8:30 - What can we do with food policy in ending racism in the food system, particularly around farm owners and workers?
11:30 - How would reparations play into anti-racist food policy, and how could people support this?
14:30 - Entrepreneurial ally programs, and working in the direction of reparations.
15:30 - How can federal policy enable healthy food access?
18:30 - New federal bill on land justice for black farmers.
21:00 - Organizational dynamics: how does listening come into your organizing work?
24:00 - What are some internal organizational strategies for a more just and inclusive work environment?
25:45 - Whaat are some steps funders can take to dismantle racism in their own practices?
29:00 - Individuals and the steps they can take to move the food system in a positive direction.
30:45 - On high functioning boards.
32:45 - Any suggested readings?
Farming While Black, Leah Pennimaan
Broken Earth Trilogy, NK Jemisin
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms Trilogy, NK Jemisin
Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu
Dare to Lead Podcast, Brene Brown
Freedom Farmers, Monica M. White
Black Food Geographies, Ashante M. Reese
Episode #18 Notes
1:00 - What motivated you to become a chef?
2:00 - How has white settler colonialism impacted the food ways of the indigenous people in the US?
3:45 - On weaponizing foods.
5:40 - What has the impact of “the standard American diet” on native people in the US?
10:30 - How did you end up working with Sean Sherman?
14:45 - What are some of the traditional, pre-contact foods you use in your cooking?
16:30 - Recipes!
18:45 - Tell us about your experience serving food at Standing Rock, and how did this experience effect you?
22:30 - How do you define food sovereignty?
24:00 - What are some of the biggest threats or challenges that need to be overcome in your work?
25:20 - What can listeners do to help bring back native food ways?
26:30 - How will your work - and the larger indigenous rights and food movement - impact things like agricultural policy and land reform?
30:00 - What’s your vision for the food system?
34:00 - What books would you like to recommend?
Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden - Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, Gilbert L. Wilson
Episode #17 Notes
1:00 - What motivated you to become a social justice organizer?
3:15 - What were some of the biggest challenges in organizing with undocumented immigrants?
6:15 - Why should we see undocumented workers as truly essential to our economy and the health of our communities?
9:45 - What are some of the biggest victories and letdowns in your organizing work?
12:45 - Is there cooperation with Texas AFL and mainstream unions?
15:20 - What obstacles or challenges have you faced as a powerful woman of color in politics and organizing?
18:30 - In the wake of BLM protests, what’s your assessment of the progress made so far and what are some threats?
21:30 - What motivated you to run for senate?
24:30 - What role did BIPOC organizers play in the most recent elections?
27:00 - What kind of changes do we need to see in Texas for the political climate to really shift?
31:00 - Do you see parallels with significant demographic and cultural shifts, like California and Arizona?
34:30 - How does food come into you organizing work?
37:45 - Cristina and the vegan diet.
41:00 - Cristina on gardening in Texas.
44:00 - What are some books that you’d recommend?
Big Wonderful Thing, Stephen Harrigan
Episode #15 Notes
0:45 - What kind of jobs have you had as an essential worker?
1:45 - When did you start at Amazon, and what kind of work did you do?
2:30 - How did Amazon initially react to COVID and what motivated you to speak out and organize your fellow workers?
4:15 - What was Amazon’s reaction to you speaking out?
5:15 - What kind of action did you start taking?
8:00 - What was the response from your co-workers and the immediate community with regards to your organizing and advocacy?
9:15 - How did Amazon benefit from a lack of regulatory oversight?
11:00 - What is the Congress of Essential Workers and how was it founded?
12:30 - What is the mission, vision, and demands of the Congress of Essential Workers?
14:15 - What are some of the current campaigns and immediate goals of your organization?
15:45 - Are you still in touch with your coworkers?
17:15 - How can our listeners support your work?
18:30 - What do you think should be done about Amazon?
19:45 - What does a just and fair food system or economy look like to you?
22:30 - What are you reading right now?
The Cost of Free Shipping, Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen Reese
On The Clock, Emily Guendelsberger
Episode #14 Notes
1:00 - Can you tell us about your background in journalism, particularly as it relates to ag and food?
2:30- Tell us about your work on outbreaks in large meat packing plants during COVID?
7:15 - Tyson and their role in the the current COVID outbreaks at meat packing plants.
9:45 - How have workers responded to these outbreaks at large meat processors?
12:00 - What could and should Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) be doing to protect workers at meat processing facilities?
14:30 - What other specific recommendations stakeholders should be doing to protect meat plant workers?
17:45 - As of mid-October 2020, 45,000 meat plant workers illnesses and 269 deaths related to COVID.
18:30 - Have you seen better behavior from corporate owners in other food supply sectors with regards to best practices around COVID?
21:00 - On asking ourselves: Is this COVID outbreak in the food supply chain acceptable? And what’s your role in it?
22:00 - Chicken price fixing.
25:45 - What can food systems advocates and workers do to demand justice for those injured by corporate mismanagement?
28:30 - What are your practical ideas around changing the food system towards a more just and resilient future?
31:30 - On alternative food systems and breaking up big food.
33:00 - What do you recommend folks read?
The Meat Racket, Christopher Leonard
The Chain, Ted Genoways
Episode #13 Notes
1:00 - How did you come to study your unique mix of Geography and Healing Arts? Specifically around food an equity?
4:00- What does ‘embodied healing’ mean to you? How is your work specifically addressing traumas in the food system?
9:10 - How do corner stores figure into your research?
12:45 - How does racial surveillance in corner stores impact the health and well being of clack people, especially black youth?
15:45 - Emotional Slow Violence - can you define this for us?
18:00 - What are some of the shortcomings of focussing on healthy food availability without looking at this issue in a more multi-faceted manner?
22:30 - How do retail grocery locations play into gentrification?
26:45 - How are grocery stores not the solution to food insecurity and food apartheid?
32:30 - What can white folks with resources, influence, and power can do to address some of the issues we’ve discussed so far?
40:00 - Gardens. How are home gardens appealing and community-building in the black community?
43:15 - The role of holistic healing arts in gardening and food.
46:15 - Where does food sovereignty come into play?
50:00 - How do critical pedagogues play into food system work?
54:45 - What are some of the most influential books on you and your work?
Freedom Farmers, Dr. Monica White
Black Rice, Judith Carney
Weighing In, Julie Guthman
Afro-Vegan, Bryant Terry
Papers by Naya Jones
{Intervention} Corner Stores, Surveillance, and All Black Afterlives
{Article} Dying to Eat? Black Food Geographies of Slow Violence and Resilience
{Virtual Exhibit} Dying to Eat? GIF Exhibit
{Article} A Review of Latino/Latinx Participants in Mindfulness-Based Intervention Research - With E. Cotter
Episode #12 Notes
1:00 - How did you get into farming?
5:00 - How did you acquire land?
10:00 - How did you get involved with food access, nonprofits, and municipal boards?
14:30 - How do you describe the food system in and around Austin, TX?
19:00 - There is an emergence of non-white, non-hetero-normative farmers getting into farming. How do you see this changing the food system? Why do you think this is happening now?
24:00 - What’s fun and easy to grow in Central Texas? How do you decide what to grow?
35:00 - What’s on your bookshelf right now?
44:00 - How does agricultural subsidies affect food pricing and, in effect, food sovereignty?
45:00 - Lorig’s book on agriculture.
Episode #10 Notes
1:00 - What is Bierwax?
6:30 - Vinyl bars in Tokyo: how do they operate?
9:30 - On spinning records whilst serving drinks.
12:15 - How did you get into craft brews with your background as an educator?
16:30 - How did you finance starting up your bar?
19:15 - What’s it like being a person of color in the bar and craft brew world?
20:45 - Is there a group or association supporting non-white folks in the craft brew space?
28:30 - What are your employment policies, especially during COVID?
35:40 - How has Bierwax been recieved by the beer and the hip hop community?
44:20 - What’s next for Bierwax?
46:45 - Who is your favorite member of the Wu-Tang Clan?
50:40 - If you were stranded on an island, what keg would you have with you?
56:45 - What’s on your bookshelf?
Star Wars, Alphabet Squadron - Alexander Freed
Star Wars, Darth Plagueis
Black Reconstruction in America 1860 - 1880, W.E.B Du Bois
The Monster at our Door, Mike Davis
Episode #9 Notes
0:45 - Tell us about food procurement.
4:15 - How did your experience at United Farm Workers help formulate and start your work in the Good Food Purchasing Program?
10:30 - What role did unions and community organizations play in starting the Good Food Purchasing Program?
20:30 - Could you describe the main pillars of purchasing standards under the Good Food Purchasing Program?
25:15 - How is procurement typically handled by large, public institutions? What is the norm here?
28:00 - What are examples of institutions that have embraced Good Food Purchasing practices, and what have the impacts been?
32:30 - How about school foods? What impact has the Good Food Purchasing Program had here?
35:00 - Have you received pushback from institutions food procurement policies with regards to increased prices and standards?
38:30 - How do you measure the impacts of the Good Food Purchasing Program?
44:30 - How does community activism and civic engagement play into GFPP activity on the ground?
49:00 - How has COVID-19 impacted the work of GFPP and of the institutions who participate?
55:00 - What GFPP implementation can look like a statewide or regional scale.
59:00 - How do you see GFPP standard evolving?
1:01 - Errol on Whole Foods and procurement. And was there any feedback from the private sector on GFPP standards?
1:08 - What’s on your bookshelf?
On Fire, Naomi Klein
Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel
Episode #8 Notes
1:00 - How did you get interested in farming and what do you grow?
4:15 - What got you interested in politics?
7:00 - What makes Vermont politics unique, and what’s applicable to other states?
9:30 - Jobs. How do your policy ideas will ensure good paying jobs and living standards for Vermonters?
15:30 - Ag policy. What’s your policy on environmental sustainability and how has climate change impacted food production in your state?
21:45 - GMO’s. You’ve done a lot of work on GMO labelling. How does this fit into your policy platform, considering your state has such a large agricultural sector?
29:45 - Vermont is a largely white state. What would you do to protect migrant farm workers or domestic workers. How do you work to reduce racial bias and eliminate hate crimes?
34:45 - Healthcare. What’s the most sensible and cost effective healthcare policy and how would it be paid for?
37:30 - What does a resilient food system mean to you? And how are you working towards that?
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
Perilous Bounty, Tom Philpott
The Monster at Our Door, Mike Davis
Ecology of Fear: Las Angelas and the Imagination of Disaster, Mike Davis
Episode #6 Notes
1:00 - How did you get into farming?
4:00 - How has being a veteran influenced you as a farmer?
8:30 - What role did Farmshare Austin play in your development as a farmer?
10:30 - On Battle Ground to Breaking Ground program.
12:15 - What went well with your training through Farmshare Austin and what could be improved?
15:00 - As a Black woman who has deep roots in East Austin, what is the relationship between your family history and the land?
20:00 - How has the Black community in East Austin been treated when it comes to land ownership and food production opportunities?
22:15 - On gentrification in East Austin.
24:00 - What happened to the freedman’s communities and historic Black communities in Austin?
28:00 - The history of McKinney and Mueller in Austin.
29:00 - George Washington Carver - why is he one of the most influential agrarians ever?
34:30 - Black people have pioneered many of the sustainable practices we see today - why has this generally been overlooked by the local and Organic food movement?
37:30 - Why aren’t there more Black farmers here now in Central Texas?
44:00 - How does food apartheid influence your work for what you do?
47:30 - What can be done to help support Black farmers? What’s needed?
49:30 - What’d your favorite food to grow?
53:30 - What motivates you to continue doing this work?
56:45 - What’s on your bookshelf right now?
The Black Titan, Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Our Kind of People, Lawrence Otis Graham
Mycorrhizal Planet, Michael Phillips
The Bible
Rebuilding the Foodshed, Philip Ackerman Leist
Episode #4 Notes
0:30 - Why is the Foodchain Workers Alliance relevant today?
8:00 - Why haven’t unions traditionally focused on food service workers in the past? And how are the current worker-centered efforts really moving the needle in social movement organizing right now?
13:00 - Tell us about the HEAL Alliance.
19:30 - Let’s talk about the meat industry. Tell us about your campaign around this?
25:30 - Why is it important for BIPOC folks to take part in food system organizing?
27:45 - What is your vision for a fair and just food system?
29:00 - How do you balance out the fact that people were forced to work the land here vs. the fact that land was cleared out by violence and disease?
30:30 - What’s on your bookshelf?
Fight Back
Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins
Star Wars - Aftermath Trilogy, Life Debt, Chuck Wendig
Episode #3 Notes
1:00 - What is land reform?
8:00 - What was the intention of land reform in Guatemala? What was the goal?
11:30 - When thinking about your work in the US, in the context of your family history, how do you define food sovereignty?
21:00 - How does food sovereignty and land reform fit into the present moment?
29:00 - How do you balance out the fact that people were forced to work the land here vs. the fact that land was cleared out by violence and disease?
38:45 - Let’s talk about Chicago. Tell me about your early organizing history and how the Food Chain Workers Alliance came about?
49:00 - How does the poor treatment of food chain workers affect their personal health and lives?
Book Recommendations coming in Part 2!