Tom Philpott is the food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones and author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It (Bloomsbury 2020). His work has won numerous awards, including a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. Tune in to learn more about:
– His new book, Perilous Bounty, where he dives into two abundant but very different agricultural areas: California’s Central Valley and the Corn Belt state of Iowa;
– Why corn and soybeans do not work for farmers;
– Why farmers love their tractors and the sad truth about the technology treadmill of John Deere;
– What the current pandemic taught the meat plants operators;
– Why the current government should focus on climate change policies;
– How the Midwest could learn to become more self sufficient and rely on a more local and regional food system.
To learn more about Tom’s work, follow his blog on Mother Jones.