“There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read—unless it be reading while you eat.” – Edith Nesbit
Corporations spend hundreds of millions each year trying to shape the narrative about food. The myths they perpetuate influence policies and colonize our diets. So when we expose corporate spin, we reclaim our food—and our stories.
This year’s Real Food Reads books and authors will dig down below superficial industry spin to understand corporate power and learn from the community-based movements that are decolonizing diets, sowing seeds of resilience, and reclaiming the land for marginalized food producers.
Real Food Media storytellers, food system experts, and activists Tiffani Patton and Tanya Kerssen couldn’t be more excited to be taking over Real Food Reads this year from the fabulous Anna Lappé. They’ve been busy curating this year’s book club selections and talking to authors about their work for the podcast. Read more about Tiffani and Tanya below.
A lifelong “foodie,” Tiffani Patton has been writing and researching food system change for over five years. Particularly activated by the nexus of race and food, Tiffani is an advocate for just food systems and can be found talking to anyone who will listen about these topics. She supports several areas of educational programming, communications strategy, engagement, and internal operations at Real Food Media. A gifted writer and storyteller, she draws on these skills as content curator and managing editor for our Real Food Scoop newsletter and the Real Food Reads bookclub. She holds an MBA and an MPA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School. She is based in Oakland, CA.
Tanya Kerssen has been doing activist research for over a decade. She has worked on a range of campaigns in support of anti-militarism, freedom for political prisoners, and anti-dam construction–but at the heart of all her work is a commitment to peasants’ rights and community control over land and resources. She is the author of Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food, and Democracy in Northern Honduras (Food First Books 2013) as well as numerous articles in the popular and academic press. She recently co-authored a chapter in the book The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action (UC Press 2017) looking at the intersections of land, race, gender, and economic justice movements in the United States. She has also developed curricula focused on community-based food systems for several college courses and has designed and led dozens of educational, solidarity, and human rights delegations focused on food and agriculture on five continents. She holds an MA in Latin American Studies from UC Berkeley. Tanya is based in Minneapolis, MN.
