Category Archives: Conversations

It’s never, ever just #food: Food history helps us see the world as it is – a conversation with Dr Polly Russell

Posted on 13 June 2018 by

It may look like a quaint Victorian book on ice cream but behind it lies a tale of slavery and colonialism, that has shaped the tastes and food systems of today. This is one of the points to emerge in … Continue reading →

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Radical change needed in #farm and #food policies to tackle world’s #obesity crisis – in conversation with Prof Philip James

Posted on 15 May 2018 by

In this conversation, one of the world’s leading experts on obesity, Professor Philip James, discusses the origins and nature of the obesity crisis that has developed. He sees its roots in policies originating in the second world war and agricultural … Continue reading →

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#Inequality and why it matters – an interview with Richard Wilkinson, co-author of ‘The Spirit Level- Why #Equality is Better for Everyone’

Posted on 24 May 2017 by

Earlier this year the authors of a widely read book that examined why equality is better for everyone gave a lecture locally. I had a chance to interview one of the authors, Prof Richard Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology … Continue reading →

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#Chicken, the charismatic #supermarket, cultural economy of #power and #quinoa – in conversation with Jane Dixon

Posted on 5 March 2017 by

What connects chicken and quinoa? That’s what I wanted to ask Prof Jane Dixon when I met her last month in London near the end of her time as Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at the Centre for Food Policy, City, University … Continue reading →

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From #diet for a small planet, to myths about world #hunger to living democracy and hope – a conversation with Frances Moore Lappé

Posted on 16 August 2016 by

It was quite fitting that Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) invited Frances Moore Lappé to give a keynote speech at its 2nd birthday party in mid-July. Frances has had a huge impact with her work spanning … Continue reading →

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From India’s green to greed to evergreen revolution – M S Swaminathen discusses a lifetime’s work

Posted on 22 April 2016 by

In 2009, I met M S Swaminathan during a visit to India. A plant genetistist, who was at Cambridge at the same time as Watson and Crick, he is often known as the father of India’s green revolution. A towering … Continue reading →

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Addressing #hunger, #debt, #trade and #finance – a lifetime’s work for Susan George

Posted on 14 April 2016 by

Susan George has been an indefatigable campaigner for a fairer world all her life. Her first book ‘How the Other Half Dies – the real reasons for world hunger’ published in the mid 1970s was hugely influential on a whole … Continue reading →

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