Today on Repast, Michael, Diana, and Professors Amy Cohen and Susan Schneider look at the new Trump administration and food policy, discussing background policies, underlying trends, and state initiatives. The four discuss the complex political and cultural dynamics in food policy, agricultural policy and the USDA, nutrition initiatives and the FDA, and trade policy and international food law. They talk about the role of misinformation, big tech, the need for strong leadership, left-right alliances, and the transactional nature of the administration, among other things.   This podcast was ..read more

In this episode, recorded in late December 2024, Michael and Diana talk with Dr. Darin Detweiler, a prominent food safety academic, advisor, advocate, and author. Dr. Detwiler has significantly influenced food safety policies through roles with the USDA, FDA, and others. He is a Professor at Northeastern University, an adjunct professor of food law at Michigan State University, and Founder and CEO of Detwiler Consulting Group. His career, spanning over 30 years, is highlighted in the Emmy Award-winning 2023 Netflix documentary "Poisoned: The Dirty Truth about Your Food."    In additi ..read more

In this episode, Michael and Diana talk with Nicola Twilley, the author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (Penguin Press, June 2024), and co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast, which looks at food through the lens of history and science. They discuss supply chains, how refrigerated beef changed America, and the trade-offs of refrigeration, among other things.    Nicola Twilley is an author and podcast host, and you can find more information on her here.    Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center f ..read more

This month on Repast Michael and Diana talk with Amanda Howell, managing attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. They discuss a recent petition by the ALDF to the FDA urging the FDA require the disclosure of animal-derived ingredients on package labels, along with other work the ALDF is doing right now.    Amanda Howell is a managing attorney at ALDF.   Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.   Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.   You can ..read more

In this episode, Michael and Diana talk with Catherine Sweetser, Deputy Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and the Director of the Human Rights Litigation Clinic at UCLA Law. Here, Professor Sweetser discusses her work against slavery and human trafficking in the global food supply chain, particularly in the context of chocolate production, the U.S. Supreme Court case Nestle USA Inc. v. Doe (2021), and how lawyers, advocates, and students can make a difference in this area. Catherine Sweetser is Deputy Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and the Director of the H ..read more

This month, Repast welcomes Southwestern Law School Professor Andrea Freeman to discuss her book, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch, published by Macmillan Publishers in July 2024.  This book describes and analyzes how food is used by the U.S. as a tool of colonization and oppression and discusses some avenues to alter this trajectory.   Here, Diana, Michael, and Professor Freeman discuss her theory of food oppression, government programs to supply food to people, the role of milk in food oppression and ..read more

This month, Repast welcomes Sarah Lohman, culinary historian, author, and speaker, about her new book, Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods.  In this book, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, a Food & Wine Best Book of 2023, and an Eater Best Food Book, Fall 2023, Lohman explores the history and present of certain ingredients from the Ark of Taste, a list put together by Slow Food of important regional foods.  She is also the author of Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine, which explores the cultural history behind eight particularly American flav ..read more

In this episode of Repast, Michael and Diana were delighted to talk with Xaq Frohlich, Professor of History at Auburn University and author of From Label to Table: Regulating Food in the Information Age, recently published by the University of California Press. From Label to Table is a fascinating dive into the historical development of the food label from a multi-faceted perspective. Michael, Diana, and Xaq discuss the historical development of the label, the use of information in regulation, the intersection of power and food, and more.   You can find Xaq Frohlich’s bio here. https://cl ..read more

Today on Repast, Michael and Diana talk with Wudan Yan, an award-winning narrative journalist covering science and society, about an article she published in July of this year about lead-tainted turmeric.  In this article, Wudan looked at the Bangladesh supply chain for turmeric to discuss turmeric adulteration, the battle against this adulteration, and confronting food fraud more broadly.  Michael, Diana, and Wudan discuss the article, Wudan’s process, and the complex problem of food fraud here. Wudan’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, High Country News, The New York ..read more

This month, Repast welcomes Adrian Miller.  Known as the Soul Food Scholar, Adrian Miller is a culinary historian, James Beard award-winning food writer, former White House staffer, and a certified BBQ judge.  He is also a recovering lawyer.  Adrian, Diana, and Amber Ward, a 2L at Columbia Law School and the Resnick Center’s summer research assistant, discuss the history of Black cuisine, how the legacy of slavery and segregation has influenced the development of Black cuisine in America, the erasure of Black cuisine from the cultural narrative of American cuisine, and more. &nb ..read more