Is it harder to make it in the food industry if you’re black?
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 977 Ratings
🗓️ 5 July 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Black Farmer thinks we’re at another #MeToo moment in world history following the death of George Floyd and the protests and discussions about racism it has sparked. For presenter Jaega Wise, it’s the first time in her life she has experienced race being talked about so frankly across society. She talks to three people who have been at the forefront of the conversation: Melissa Thompson who runs the food and recipe project Foulmouths, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones who runs the brand The Black Farmer, and Riaz Phillips - author of Belly Full, a book about Britain’s Caribbean food. All three have spoken out about diversity in the food media, hospitality and the supply chain in the last few weeks and Jaega hears their experiences and opinions on being black in Britain’s food industry.
Presenter: Jaega Wise
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Picture courtesy of Samer Moukarzel
Transcript
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| 0:37.0 | So, Race. |
| 0:41.0 | That's quite, it's quite a big topic, isn't it? I suppose we should probably start with the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed. |
| 0:52.0 | I've never heard such an intense discussion about it. |
| 0:57.0 | I'm Jager Weise and as a brewer and a presenter of the food program. It's making me take a long hard look at my line of work. |
| 1:10.0 | When I travel the country, I meet very few black chefs, black restauranteres, black farmers, black food |
| 1:16.8 | manufacturers or black drinks producers. There are few black celebrity chefs and I can't help but wonder what is going on. |
| 1:25.0 | Are we complicit in a system that disadvantages black people? |
| 1:30.0 | In this program I'm going to be talking to three people who've been speaking out and calling for change |
| 1:36.0 | because I want to know is it harder to make it in the food industry if you're black. |
| 1:45.0 | As far as I'm concerned this is really another me too moment. |
| 1:51.0 | It's an opportunity where people of color |
| 1:54.0 | because at last put their heads above the parapropey and say yes |
| 1:58.4 | this is the sort of stuff we've had to suffer for years. |
... |
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