S2E69: Mark Bittman on the political economy of junk food

Published: June 22, 2021, 7 a.m.

60% of the calories in our food supply are alleged to be ultra-processed junk. So, when did we lose our way? When did we go from growing food to feed our communities to growing food for profit? And how do we find our way back to a just food system\u2014and society?

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Mark Bittman is a former New York Times columnist and bestselling author of 30-plus books, including the well-known How to Cook Everything series. His new release is called Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Mark joins Ross and Radkhika to explain how the food system shaped our history and vice versa, describing how the Enclosure Movement may have turned food into a profit-making political tool and created the health crisis we\u2019re facing.

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He weighs in on why educating kids about good food is the first step in creating a just food system and advocates for subsidies to support getting good food to more people. Listen in for Mark\u2019s perspective on investing federal dollars in regenerative agriculture and learn how he thinks about making the phrase \u2018land reform\u2019 common in our political discourse.

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Resources

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Mark\u2019s Website

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Subscribe to The Bittman Project Newsletter

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Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman

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How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman

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Jared Diamond

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Land Enclosure

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Books by James C. Scott

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Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

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Supersize Me

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Books by Will Durant

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Books by Marion Nestle

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Renewable Fuel Standard Program

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Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms

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Full Belly Farm

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The Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

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