#1536 Your Food Choices Are Not Your Food Choices
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2023
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 1/11/2023
Today, we take a look at the way unscientific guidelines, government subsidies, corporate propaganda, cultural context, capitalism, community stigma, and many actively and loudly wallowing in ignorance have shaped your personal food choices.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: 'Healthy' Food, Nutrition and Access - The Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 10-12-22
The FDA has proposed new standards for food to qualify for its "healthy" seal of approval. Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at NYU talks about the changes, plus food insecurity and access to healthy food.
Chuck Mertz speaks with science writer Spencer Roberts and political economist Jan Dutkiewicz about their New Republic Article, "How the Meat Industry Undermines Effective Climate Policy".
Ch. 3: The Politics of Meat ft. Jan Dutkiewicz - Our Hen House - Air Date 8-28-21
Political economist Jan Dutkiewicz, PhD, joins the podcast for a fascinating conversation about the ethical, political, legal, social, and environmental intersections of meat consumption.
Ch. 4: Which food future will you choose? - Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown - Air Date 11-25-22
As the eminent farmer-poet-activist Wendell Berry tells us, eating is a profound political act.
Lisa Dumas is on a mission to make the world a better place. This week she joins us on the podcast for a conversation about how she’s working toward expanding access to plant-based food options to those in need.
Ch. 7: High-End Veganism and the Rise of Plant-Based Eating - Past Present - Air Date 10-5-21
In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki discuss the history of veganism in light of an eviscerating review of the new plant-based menu at the New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park.
Ch. 8: Animal Agriculture is the New Oil w/ George Monbiot - Downstream - Air Date 6-8-22
In his new book Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet, George Monbiot warns that we’re approaching a tipping point in the fight to protect the planet.
Ch. 9: A (Mostly) Vegan World Plantf*ckers Can Save Us All - UNFTR - Air Date 1-8-22
It’s finally time to unf*ck our food system and talk about veganism. We decided not to pursue this topic from a moral or ethical perspective, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a story about justice.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 10: The Politics of Meat ft. Jan Dutkiewicz Part 2 - Our Hen House - Air Date 8-28-21
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 12: Final comments on our emotional attachment to our perspective on food
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE
Description: A woman with short gray hair and glasses stands in front of the brightly lit meat section at a grocery store. She looks down at a package of meat in her hands.
Credit: "d2590-1" by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Flickr | License: CC by 2.0 | Changes: Cropped
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award winning best of left podcast in which we shall take |
| 0:07.1 | a look at the way unscientific guidelines, government subsidies, corporate propaganda, |
| 0:13.1 | cultural context, capitalism, community stigma, and a bunch of juvenile fools actively and |
| 0:19.3 | loudly wallowing in their ignorance has shaped your personal food choices. |
| 0:25.0 | Cook's today are from the Brian Lerichow, This is Hell, Our Hint House, Jim Hightower's |
| 0:30.9 | radio low down, past present, downstream, and un-effing the Republic, with additional |
| 0:37.3 | members only clips from Our Hint House and This Is Hell. |
| 0:46.9 | I want to stay on the history because what's in your book in this regard is so fascinating. |
| 0:51.8 | So you write in your new book, Slow Cooked, that at one point you worked for the federal |
| 0:56.6 | government and you were the project officer in charge of completing the first ever Surgeon |
| 1:03.5 | General's report on nutrition and health and to write the policy recommendations and oversee |
| 1:10.2 | the report's release. |
| 1:13.8 | You write, I greatly underestimated what a hard time I would have in that office. |
| 1:18.9 | Looking back on that period, I think of it as my two years in federal prison, because |
| 1:24.6 | no matter what the research indicated, the Surgeon General's report would not recommend |
| 1:29.8 | eating less meat as a way to reduce saturated fat, nor would it recommend eating less of |
| 1:35.3 | specific foods that were sources of sugar or salt. |
| 1:38.7 | We were part of the industry-friendly Reagan administration. |
| 1:44.2 | These dealing with food issues had learned to avoid congressional interference by resorting |
| 1:49.3 | to euphemisms. |
| 1:51.4 | So can you give us an example or two of how you had to resort to euphemisms in the nutritional |
| 1:57.1 | advice Americans were getting from their government and if those euphemisms showed up on food |
... |
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