Ruin Their Crops on the Ground by Andrea Freeman
Read a definitive history of the use of food in United States law and politics as a weapon of conquest and control.
The Sustainability Book Club met on February 6 to discuss Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman. During the meeting, members talked about the most eye-opening aspects of the book, including the various ways food has been used to control specific groups in the USA since colonial times. While the author doesn’t offer a lot of hope for future positive change, the book is a revealing read for anyone interested in the politics of food today, especially nutrition education, commodity crop subsidies and food assistance programs.
From the publisher: From frybread to government cheese, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground draws on over fifteen years of research to argue that U.S. food law and policy have created and maintained racial and social inequality. In an epic, sweeping account, Andrea Freeman, who pioneered the term “food oppression,” moves from colonization to slavery to the Americanization of immigrant food culture, to the commodities supplied to Native reservations, to milk as a symbol of white supremacy. She traces the long-standing alliance between the government and food industries that have produced gaping racial health disparities, and she shows how these practices continue to this day, through the marketing of unhealthy goods that target marginalized communities, causing diabetes, high blood pressure, and premature death.
Pick up a copy of Ruin Their Crops on the Ground to learn more about this topic.
The Sustainability Book Club
Join a small group of avid readers who meet monthly to engage in lively discussions focused on books about sustainability. The club meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month on Zoom. Contact us to join!
March 6: The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
