Food justice & public health

Unlike wildfire smoke or oil spills, pollution from hog farms is not something you can easily capture in a photograph. This issue is the subject of Wastelands, a nonfiction environmental legal thriller by Corban Addison, an attorney and novelist. The 400-page book reports on a series of court cases filed against Smithfield Foods by neighbors of its industrial hog operations.

I grew up knowing my Dad’s best friend was a fisherman. For years I’d hear my father reminisce about the days when he and Kirk built fly rods together and lured eels, bass, and lingcod along the California coast. I also knew that these adventure-book tales eventually became a career-reality for Kirk. After years of bumming around Point Reyes and Half Moon Bay, Kirk founded his company, called Sea Forager, where he ethically catches, guts, and delivers fish to San Francisco residents. He has more than 2,000 customers, leads ocean exploration and sustainability tours on the side, and is the author of two books. And, as I was reminded by Kirk, he holds the record for the largest monkeyface eel ever caught in California.

An urban grower, plant-based chef, youth educator, musician, and activist, Dj Cavem has a lot to teach about planting the seeds of lifestyle change. He's dedicated to changing hip hop culture for the better, one beet at a time.

Frontline meatpackers work in such close proximity that meat processing plants continue to be hot spots for Covid-19. These already perilous workplaces have become easily among the most dangerous in the country.

The origins of COVID-19 are, at present, still unclear. However, there is a growing consensus that the global demand for animal products is one of the largest risk factors for pandemics like it.

What the Health, a documentary that has been both criticized and praised by critics for its stand against the meat industry, reveals a number of alarming truths about our poor understanding of health and nutrition.