Food Fight: A DC Food and Farm Policy Talk Show
National Food Day is Saturday, underscoring how the way our food is grown, raised, produced, bought, sold, shared, and consumed has grabbed the national consciousness and become deeply intertwined with our political process.
To that end, Baylen Linnekin and I have started developing Food Fight, a thought-provoking, weekly talk radio show/podcast focused on food and agriculture news and issues. The centerpiece of the show is a rotating stable of Washington, DC-based guests, including reporters and experts, whose appearances on the show allow them space to report and debate those news and issues. Baylen is a George Mason University adjunct law professor, writer, legal scholar, and the founder of Keep Food Legal Foundation. I write about rural politics, agriculture and the environment. More on me here.
Food and agriculture are—quite literally—growing issues. The increasing politicization of food, the public’s growing engagement with food issues, and Washington, DC’s unique status as home both to the three branches of government that determine national food policy and the Fourth-Estate reporters who cover and break news make Food Fight a timely—and past-due—addition to the airwaves of the nation’s capital.
Below are two demo episodes we produced. Our aim is to find a long-term home for Food Fight. So please share and, if you’re so inclined, leave some feedback in the comment section.
Show 1: We dig into all things genetically modified with the Environmental Working Group’s Scott Faber. Then our panel of National Journal’s Jerry Hagstrom, Politico’s Jenny Hopkinson and Bloomberg’s Alan Bjerga join Baylen and Don to talk GMOs, daughters taking over farms from their dads, the battle over healthier school food, lab grown meat, and whether or not the USDA is responsible for the explosive growth of farmers markets.
Show 2: Animal welfare is the topic du jour with the Humane Society of the United States's Paul Shapiro. Then our panel of Politico’s Helena Bottmiller Evich and E and E’s Tiffany Stecker join Baylen and Don to discuss the ethics of meat production, sustainable stadium food, thinner Oreos, and the upsides and downsides of urban foraging.
Thanks for listening. #FoodFight