A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat

FEATURING ERIC HOLT-GIMÉNEZ – Southern California based food-writer Gustavo Arellano recently profiled a restaurant in Costa Mesa called Taco Maria that charges $72 for a dozen fancy blue corn tamales. But rather than criticize the restaurant Arellano lauded the chef for paying premium dollars for high quality masa that supports Mexican farmers, “in order to challenge our current food system, where exploitation at every step, from the picker to the waiter, is the unfortunate norm.”

These days it’s all the rage to be a foodie and people who identify as such love to show off their obscure and delicious food finds on social media. But how many foodies actually understand the political economy of our food system? And why is it so critical for us to understand our food’s origins while we fetishize the perfect morsel?

For more information visit www.foodfirst.org.

Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director of Food First, editor of Food Movements Unite! Strategies to Transform Our Food Systems; co-author of Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice with Raj Patel and Annie Shattuck; and author of the book Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture. His new book is called A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat.

**This segment was originally broadcast on December 20, 2017.