Edible Empire
Planet Pulse Pacific—your go-to podcast for conversations about people and planet—is proud to host a special series: Edible Empire.
As the climate and global health crises intensify, the need for meaningful change has never been more urgent. This six-episode series brings together leading voices from around the world to explore the concept of food imperialism, uncover the hidden social and environmental costs of what we eat, and examine how we can build a more just and sustainable food system.
Join your hosts, Ben Eitelberg and Emma Strutt, alongside special series co-host Dr Neal Haddaway, as they dive into the complex and often unseen world of food—how it is produced, traded, and consumed across the globe. Kelly Allum edits the series.
Edible Empire
Edible Empire: What is food imperialism?
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This is episode 1 of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire, a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food.
We celebrate flavours, but rarely the people behind them. This podcast uncovers how food—once shaped by empire and now by corporate power—has long been used to control land, labour, and cultures.
This episode explores how global food systems are shaped by historical power structures and capitalist mechanisms that prioritise corporate profit and "cheap food" over the health of ecosystems and human communities.
Where does our food come from? Who works in the fields that produce our fruit and vegetables? Who is making a profit from the food we eat? This episode sets the scene for the series, introducing the concept of food supply chains—the intricate trade routes that keep supermarket shelves stocked with produce all year round. But how did these global networks come to be? Tracing the history of our globalised food systems, we uncover why our food systems look the way they do today. Featuring Professors Harriet Friedmann and Raj Patel.
Professor Harriet Friedmann begins by tracing how global power shifted from a British-led system to one dominated by the US dollar. She explains that this change transformed how the world eats, replacing diverse, sustainable local farming with industrial monocultures like wheat and palm oil. This shift prioritised international profit over local cultures and environmental health.
Building on this history, Professor Raj Patel exposes the deception of "cheap" food. He argues that low prices are only possible by pushing the true costs onto the planet and underpaid workers. According to Patel, the global food system isn't broken; it is designed to make hunger profitable. He concludes with a call for food sovereignty, demanding we return power to the people who actually grow and harvest our food.
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Resources from this episode:
- https://harrietfriedmann.ca
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Harriet-Friedmann
- https://www.sociology.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/harriet-friedmann
- https://rajpatel.org/
- https://www.antsandgrasshopper.org/
- https://rajpatel.org/2009/10/27/stuffed-and-starved/
To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.
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