Our Food System is a Battlefield for Justice with Eve Turow-Paul, Author, Food Culture Expert, and Founder of Food for Climate League
The Most Important Thing
Food culture is a conduit to finding and cultivating well-being (physically and emotionally), especially during these anxiety-provoking days.
About Eve Turow-Paul
Eve Turow-Paul is an author and globally-recognized thought leader who focuses on the intersection of food culture, the Digital Age, and well-being. By blending qualitative and quantitative methods, Turow-Paul explores the ‘why’ behind today’s biggest food and lifestyle trends. Turow-Paul utilizes her decade of empirical research to advise Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and independent entrepreneurs on how to connect with and better serve people in the Digital Age, particularly Millennials and Generation Z.
Eve Turow-Paul is the author of Hungry: Avocado Toast, Instagram Influencers, and Our Search for Connection and Meaning (BenBella, 2020) and A Taste of Generation Yum: How the Millennial Generation’s Love of Organic Fare, Microbrews, and Celebrity Chefs Will Make or Break the Future of Food (Pronoun, 2015). She is a Forbes contributor as well. Her writing on food trends and human behavior has appeared in a number of publications including The Chicago Tribune, Plate, The Village Voice, on The Atlantic, Refinery29, Huffington Post and more. Eve was prominently featured in the documentary film WASTED! The Story of Food Waste, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. Eve is the Founder and Executive Director of the Food for Climate League, a non-profit research collaborative re-thinking the food and climate narrative to democratize sustainable eating and help companies, organizations, and governments empower all eaters to tackle the climate crisis bite-by-bite.
Episode Overview:
In this episode, Eve and I cover a lot of ground. I express my gratitude for and awe of working mothers who do so much and have even more on their shoulders during this pandemic. We then evaluate how COVID19 has highlighted socio-economic differences and tie it back to Eve’s work on food culture. Access to nutritious food is such a clear representation of the bifurcation of our society as is the way we engage on social media. It may seem like we cover varied topics here, but it is all connected: diet, food supply, climate, capitalism, social media & the attention economy, and mental health. The more of these episodes I host, the more I realize that.
My Favorite Quotes:
“You have the marketing budgets in these food systems that have been allocated to pushing these addictive food products to people of color”
“Addressing climate change is something that anyone who is marching in the streets for racial justice should care about.”
“A lot of these sustainability initiatives are so targeted to the “three W’s” – white, western, and wealthy individuals.”
“The largest population of vegans in the United States is from the African American community. 3% of the US is vegan and 8% of African Americans”
“We have to understand that money is the core motivator here – business has more power to create change than regulation or deregulation… not that those aren’t important, but we’ll be waiting a long time if we rely on those two as a lever.”
“Diet tribes are people who are craving community, they want to find others who have a similar belief system, and social media has allowed people to create those communities.”
“Research around the microbiome is JUST beginning and what scientists are finding is that the gut microbiome has way more to do with our health and wellbeing than calories.”
“It’s critical that we’re using our bodies, that we’re stimulating our senses, that we’re creating something tangible.”
“Is there anything more meaningful than feeding others and cultivating new life?!”
“Posting a meal is not a substitute for eating with friends; just as posting a black box is not a substitute for getting in the streets and marching.”
“we don’t need to rely on institutions to make important changes, we can make
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 – Raising children and working during COVID Pandemic
5:00 – The bifurcation of the food industry by race and economic standing
10:00 – COVID19 comorbidities resulting from economically-influenced dietary constraints
15:00 – Our food system’s relationship to climate change
20:00 – Our food system as related to social media
24:00 – Social Media, Diet Tribes, and Nutrition Consciousness
29:00 – Vegans vs. Paleos like Jews and Rastafarians
35:00 – Diets, social media, anxiety, and loneliness
41:00 – The problems with social media
47:00 – The benefits of social media
52:00 – Our bodies craving for nature and sensory input
58:00 – COVID, fear, social media, & performative activisim in the US
Episode Links:
Eve’s Info
Eve’s Writing
Hungry: Avocado Toast, Instagram Influencers, and Our Search for Connection and Meaning
Other Resources & References
Understanding Food Insecurity in America
African Americans and Veganism
Vivek Murthy: Loneliness is a Public Health Crisis
Goodhart’s Law: What you measure becomes the result
The Power of Touch, Especially for Men, The New York Times Andrew Reiner
Marc’s Info:
Marc Weinstein, host of the Look Up! Podcast is a public speaker for corporations, universities, and conferences. Click here to view past talks and to book Marc
