Today’s guest on Food is a pioneer in food politics, Andrea Freeman, whose new book is Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch, a book that’s named after a moment in the 18th century when George Washington ordered his troops to “ruin the crops now in the ground,” referring to Indigenous people.
Ruin Their Crops on the Ground argues that food is, above all, political, and that modern food policy in the US represents a continuation of racist and elitist policies that began early in the nation’s history. A lot to unpack, for sure, and Andrea spent more than 15 years researching this epic account of the history of food politics—moving 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. Mark and I were so glad to talk with Andrea.
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