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I think that the food system is still pivotal in terms of our entire political economic system.

And I say that recognizing that we can't change the food system without changing the system

of capitalism. It's going to impossible to change one without changing the other. So it's

interlinked, but the food system has tremendous leverage in the types of

social and economic transformations which we need in this country and in the world.

So the main problem is overproduction. Capitalism overproduces to begin with, but food production

especially tends towards overproduction. So I think we need to go back to the lessons from

the original New Deal and update them to include provisions around labor, around race,

reparations, and around the environment. You're listening to Upstream. Upstream. Upstream.

Upstream. An interview and documentary series that invites you to unlearn everything you

thought you knew about economics. I'm Dela Duncan. And I'm Robert Raymond. In this conversation,

we spoke with Eric Holt Jimenez, author of the book of Foodie's Guide to Capitalism,

Understanding the political economy of what we eat. Why does hunger exist?

What are the causes of food insecurity? Why do those working in the food system?

From the farmers who tell the soil to the server who places your meal on the table,

receive largely unlivable wages? Eric's answer to these questions is simple. Capitalism.

Together we trace a line from the enclosures of the early 17th century to the present,

looking at how food was commodified and how the market capitalist economic system has done a great

job of overproducing food and a poor one of distributing it equitably. Portions of this interview

...