On August 19th, Senator Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nomination. According to Tom Philpott, journalist at Mother Jones and author of Perilous Bounty, Harris brings to the ticket a number of food policy issues that were missing from Joe Biden’s platform.
“She’s got some great food policy chops, and I think that’s something to be hopeful for,” Philpott tells Food Tank.
An early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, Harris has voiced her support for more sustainable food and agriculture policies.
She also argues that incentives can encourage healthier diets and help consumers understand the relationship between their eating habits and the environment.
“I strongly believe that the American consumer is still left without the information you need and deserve to have about what it is that you are putting in your body or surrounding yourself with and the health implications of those things,” Harris said at a September Town Hall event.
She goes to argue that nutrition labels should inform consumers of a food’s impact on both their health and the environment.
On this week’s episode of “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg,” learn more about Harris’ stance on updating the dietary guidelines and her support of farm workers and the United Farm Workers.
Listen as Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute and Philpott discuss the promise and shortfalls of technology in agriculture. And hear from Luis Guardia of the Food Research & Action Center, who talks to Dani about the invisibility of hunger on college campuses and the need to expand food assistance programs.
Guardia tells Food Tank, “We’re going to work really really hard over the next several months to ensure that people who are coming into office are aware of these issues, that we can make meaningful change.”
You can listen to “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” on Apple iTunes. While you’re listening, subscribe, rate, and review the show; it would mean the world to us to have your feedback.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash, Joshua Sukoff
