Food Justice Rock Star w/ Anna Lappé

The state of our nation’s food industry is in complete disarray. From pesticide use to over-farming to ads for sugar-laden drinks and snacks targeting our children, we need to completely overhaul the system. Anna Lappé is here to talk about food sustainability, health, and justice.

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About Anna Lappé

Anna is a best-selling author and advocate for food justice and sustainability who is working to implement systemic changes to improve our food chain. While she’s making a lot of positive impacts and helping people realize the role they play in the food system, many don’t believe they can afford to eat healthy food. Anna knows that the real issue isn’t the cost of food: it’s the policies around housing, healthcare, and food, including the cost of living and what constitutes an actual living wage.

Anna explains how the food industry has ended up in its current state of crisis. Sadly, it’s had a lot of influence from chemical companies and other industries seeking to keep the nation in the state that it’s in. She shares what we can do, as consumers, to help change the industry.

Unfortunately, our current society isn’t truly built to allow us total control over our food choices. Unlike the European Union, America hasn’t banned many toxic chemicals, artificial flavorings, and antibiotics that seriously impact the quality of the food. We also don’t have easy access to fresh food markets like many European countries do.

The biggest question Anna gets asked is where you’re supposed to find the time to create healthy meals for your family when you work full-time, have a commute, and frankly can’t afford a lot of the healthier choices. Anna has a lot of empathy for parents in this situation and encourages batch cooking and freezing of easy meals you can make when you’re short on time.

Anna also explains what impact pesticide use is having on our nation’s biodiversity. We are in a state of crisis: from the very real climate threat to the insect population being just half of what it once was. 

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Anna shares who her most unlikely partners are - farmers making complete organic changes to the way they farm. She also tells us how we can start to improve our and our family’s diets starting today.

Do you eat organic food? How can you be a more conscious consumer? What ways can you start building your family’s healthy eating habits?

In This Episode:

  • Why the cost of food isn’t the main issue; we need to look at the policies around housing, healthcare, and food

  • How the food industry and nutrition has gotten into the state it’s currently in

  • What you can do as a consumer to help change the food industry

  • What impact our built and economic environments have on our food choices

  • Where you can find the time to make healthy meals for your family

  • What impact pesticide use is having on our nation’s biodiversity

  • Where you can start to improve your diet

Quotes:

“The real crisis in our food system isn’t a crisis in our food system, it’s a crisis in our democracy.” (4:14)

“None of us, as individuals, should feel any sense of failure if we’re unable to make the meals we dream of having with our families.” (35:00)

“The level at which we use pesticides in this country is creating a crisis for public health as well as for biodiversity, which I would argue is at the basis of public health.” (45:46)

Monica Phillips