EP 535: Mark Bittman on Our Complicated History with Food

James Beard Award-winning food writer and #1 bestselling author Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of how the frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most catastrophic moments, from slavery and genocide to our current moment, wherein Big Food exacerbates climate change, plunders our planet, and sickens its people. Mark reveals how he first got the world to take food issues seriously, how we can rethink our food distribution systems, and take a different approach to feeding the world’s hungry. We discuss America's junk food epidemic, how to tell junk from real food, and how government farm subsidies actually incentive the production of food with minimal to no nutritional value. Plus we get into the impossible burger, lab grown meats, arsenic in the baby food, and Mark's mixed feelings about President Biden’s Secretary of Agriculture.

Order Mark Bittman's book Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal on Amazon, Audible, or wherever books are sold. Subscribe to his newsletter The Bittman Project at bittmanproject.com and keep up with him at www.markbittman.com and on Twitter at @bittman.