#168: Author and law professor Zephyr Teachout walks us through the hardcore push for consolidation in the food, agriculture, and chemical industries that has devastated rural communities and our population's general access to truly good food. She also delivers a hopeful message about policy changes on the horizon that are worth our attention and support as citizens.
Zephyr Teachout is an attorney and law professor at Fordham University. She is the author of Break'em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money and a 2018 candidate for Attorney General in New York State. Once upon a time she was a farmhand at Real Organic Project certified KillDeer Farm in Norwich, Vermont.
To watch a video version of this podcast with access to the full transcript and links relevant to our conversation, please visit:
https://www.realorganicproject.org/zephyr-teachout-todays-antimonopoly-movement-has-legs-episode-one-hundred-sixty-eight
The Real Organic Podcast is hosted by Dave Chapman and Linley Dixon, engineered by Brandon StCyr, and edited and produced by Jenny Prince.
The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement working towards certifying 1,000 farms across the United States this year. Our add-on food label distinguishes soil-grown fruits and vegetables from hydroponically-raised produce, and pasture-raised meat, milk, and eggs from products harvested from animals in horrific confinement (CAFOs - confined animal feeding operations).
To find a Real Organic farm near you, please visit:
https://www.realorganicproject.org/farms
We believe that the organic standards, with their focus on soil health, biodiversity, and animal welfare were written as they should be, but that the current lack of enforcement of those standards is jeopardizing the ability for small farms who adhere to the law to stay in business. The lack of enforcement is also jeopardizing the overall health of the customers who support the organic movement; customers who are not getting what they pay for at market but still paying a premium price. And the lack of enforcement is jeopardizing the very cycles (water, air, nutrients) that Earth relies upon to provide us all with a place to live, by pushing extractive, chemical agriculture to the forefront.
If you like what you hear and are feeling inspired, we would love for you to join our movement by becoming one of our 1,000 Real Friends:
https://www.realorganicproject.org/real-organic-friends/
To read our weekly newsletter (which might just be the most forwarded newsletter on the internet!) and get firsthand news about what's happening with organic food, farming and policy, please subscribe here:
https://www.realorganicproject.org/email/
Jim Riddle: Lobbyists Not Farmers Have Access To USDA
Dru Rivers: An Organic Activist's Manifesto
Mark and Kristin Kimball: Holistic Farming Goes Beyond Food Production
Peter Donovan: RedirectingThe Carbon Conversation Towards The Water Cycle
Zach Cannady: Farming To Strengthen Your Local Food Shed
Dave Mortensen Part 2: Big Ag's False Claims Of Environmental Consciousness
Dave Mortensen Part 1: Today's Drastic Rise Of Biocides
Dick Schwartz: Internal Family Systems + Social Activism
Hans + Barbara Herren: Our World Doesn't Need Pesticides
Steffen Reese: Spreading Organic Across The Globe
Kellee James: Trends And Challenges In The Organic Marketplace
Scott Park: Can Organic No-Till Vegetables Be Grown At Scale
Phil Foster: Organic No Till Experiments On California Veg Farm
Miguel Altieri: Agroecology As Science And Social Movement
Helen Atthowe: No-Till, No-Spray, Ecological Farming
Jake Guest: The Antiwar Movement's Influence On Organic
Alan Lewis: SocioEconomic Fallout Of Farmers Vs Chem Companies
Ben Dobson: Beware The Regeneration Of The Corn And Soy Model
Sarah Wiener: EU's Farm To Fork Aims To Increase Organic Acreage
Michael Pollan: Does The US Need A Third Kind of Agriculture?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Plant People
Regenerative Agriculture Podcast
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Kosmographia
PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast