In the summer of 2021, Farm Action published a report exposing the fragility and negative impacts of a food system controlled by corporations and reliant on industrial practices. Working with staff from Duke University’s World Food Policy Center, we developed a three-part series examining this report from different perspectives, to be aired on the Leading Voices in Food podcast.
Learn more about each episode below, and click here to read the full Truth About Industrial Agriculture report.
In the first episode, Farm Action’s Dee Laninga talked about how corporations have been able to reshape our food policy landscape by dominating the public narrative. Their story about how our food system should look — consolidated, vertically-integrated, and industrial — has convinced policymakers and the general public that, without them, the world would starve.
We felt someone had to change the narrative and raise awareness of the harm industrial agriculture does to the farmer, rural communities, and eaters. The biggest takeaway from this conversation is that industrial agriculture is a fragile, economically flawed system that has only survived due to myth-based marketing and by passing along its costs to farmers, taxpayers, and consumers.
What needs to happen before we can see system-wide change? The Leading Voices host sat down with Adam Zipkin, Counsel on food policy and agriculture to U.S. Senator Cory Booker, to find out.
Listen in to learn about the work Senator Booker has done in the area of agriculture and food, how findings from this report have influenced his office, and how he hopes other policymakers will put it to use.
Adam also gives us the big picture by discussing the kinds of policies we’ll need to shift away from industrial agriculture, and what that transition might look like.
After learning that 13 factory farms were about to be built near her home, grassroots advocate Monica Brooks mobilized her community and, after a three year fight, put a stop to it. Monica tells her story of victory over the industrial corporations that threatened her community — and how others can do the same.
Monica is joined in her interview by Farm Action’s Sarah Carden, who describes alternative models for livestock production other than concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). If prioritized in our food policies, these alternatives would feed our communities and beyond while supporting those who produce our food.
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