Food Series: Rogue Food—An Interview with John Moody

8 Comments

1. fantastic interview, thank you pete, john and catherine.

   i lived in southern brazil a long time ago and ran across a study on the effect the entrance of agribusiness corporation parmalat (italian) had on the local brazilian milk producers in the 1990s. it’s almost exactly what john described about kentucky slaughterhouses.

   i think this is a link to a synopsis of a study on this.
   https://www.odi.org/publications/4355-milk-production-workers-union-movement-brazil

   first, public health laws (no doubt by lobbying of agribusiness) were passed which had a capital barrier to entry (a farmer needed refrigerated facilities or a refrigerated truck – a huge investment which locked out all but the wealthy farmers; the reason was to make sure the milk was safe for the public). then the milk price was brought down using large producers’ economies of scale to put the remaining medium farmers and stragglers out of business. then finally the milk price went up beyond what it was before the entry of parmalat, so that people were actually paying more for milk than they were before any of this industrial consolidation happened (as econ 101 tells us about monopoly pricing).

   it’s amazing that this IS the playbook – lobby for legislation under guise of public health, assure that the legislation establishes centralized control / capital barriers to entry, and then establish a monopoly position in an industry. you see this happening in many arenas – another example i can think of is the EU-wide prohibition on street food sales nearby public transportation. goodbye regional food, hello mcdonald’s!

   1. Yes, it is a global model

2. I assiduously avoid foods with glucose/fructose/dextrose/inverted/corn syrup, and for the most part I try to stay away from food with E’s in them, but after having watched the documentary ‘Cheap Food – The Food Industry Uncovered’:
   https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/091150-000-A/cheap-food/
   I went through my larder and threw out any foods (or more properly put ‘food products’) with any E’s in them. They are like a plague. They’re everywhere. Believe me, it’s not easy trying to find something to eat without any poison in it. No wonder everyone is so sick.

3. Excellent podcast and reflects my values of purchasing local meat and produce. It is tragic I agree the health issues and obesity I see everyday and getting worse. Metabolic syndrome then you add the pharmaceuticals and now the injectable vaccines. Food is a primary issue with me having worked for a sustainable food program and a background sudying holistic range management in the West and permaculture and biodyamic design in Colorado. I live in an alternate universe concerning food issues. Unless people are really connected outside the urban areas and the local farms and concerned about thier health if falls on deaf ears. As the local restaurants have closed because of COVID the fast food chains have multiplied and the drive up convenience.

   I grew up in rural Iowa in a small farming community where my family homesteaded in the late 1800’s. My memories are of my grandmothers farm and the huge gardens and fresh meat because there was a local processing plant now gone. It is now a food desert and the once thriving agriculture economy is gone and the small farms replaced with massive sections of corn. Also the same issue the increase in obesity. The move to more centralized control means and I agree totally the need for an alternative food system. Now I am interested in attending the conference in Tennessee this summer. I am also a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and other food organizations.

4. I am getting ready to buy real meat outside Costco, and locate local farmers. The Costco fried $5 chicken, if you let it stay for a day, it turns blue. What are they adding to it? Also, the reports that ADM InnovaFeed to build world’s biggest insect protein plant in Illinois and BG becoming a farmer sounds threatening. It’s a red flag. They are going to cut us from human food. My Twitter feed suddenly shows Businessweek ads for $4K Japanese melons and other beyond reach organic foods. They are priming us for the concept of nutritious/clean food being not a norm, but food eaten once a year. The IG account is advertising on my feed sells the organic meat, but I’m not ready for $24 for a chicken, just yet.

5. This is very interesting to me as I see what I think is a need in my area to provide web development services to farmers so they can easily connect in a “direct-to-consumer” way with those of us who want to purchase local food. As of this writing a lot of my local farmers just have a facebook page. Now will they see my offering as something significant? That’s another question, but I am going to give it a go.

   1. Great idea. Just ordered from a group doing it here in Friesland. Awesome.

   2. This is a resource for local meat by each state, Eat Wild. http://eatwild.com. If you live in the Southwest there is the Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance http://grassfedlivestock.org/about-swgla/. Azure Standard out of Oregon delivers once a month and various locations. The also sell frozen meat https://www.azurestandard.com. In the past I have purchased bison from Wild Idea located in South Dakota https://wildideabuffalo.com and Tall Grass Bison http://tallgrassbison.com. There is an issue with Bison ninety eight percent is finished in feed lots and one large producer is Ted Turner. The owner of Tall Grass Bison worked as a wildlife biologist in Yellowstone for over twenty years and an expert in raising Bison naturally and a respect for family groups. Unfortunately most producers treat them more like cows. One summer I researched the bison industry and the majority are raised for mass production. After eating local grassfed and finished meat you can never go back. One issue that needs clarification. A product may state grass fed but that should also mean finished.

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