Compilation of podcasts and videos
On World Food Day 2020, Seed the Commons launched a new webinar series called ‘Rethinking Food and Agriculture in a Time of COVID and Climate Change’. The first in the series is a conversation with Amir and Laila Kassam, editors of Rethinking Food and Agriculture, a groundbreaking new book that reviews, reassesses and re-imagines the current food and agriculture system and the narrow paradigm in which it operates.
Vegan Organic Network: Interview with Dr Laila Kassam on Rethinking Food and Agriculture
Tony Martin interviews Dr Laila Kassam (Animal Think Tank) about her new book Rethinking Food and Agriculture which she co-edited with her father Professor Amir Kassam (University of Reading). The book highlights the urgent need to ‘rethink’ the food and agriculture system and highlights ‘new ways forward’, including alternative paradigms of agriculture, human nutrition and political economy that are more ethical, sustainable and just. Contributors include Robert Chambers, David Jenkins, Tony Juniper, Shireen Kassam, David Montgomery, Vandana Shiva and many others. It’s a wonderful contribution to the science and philosophy supporting the urgent need to transition to a non-violent vegan food system and restore a right relationship with ourselves, other species and nature.
Voices for Nature and Peace Podcast Ep. 63: “Rethinking Food & Agriculture” feat. Laila Kassam
Kollibri terre Sonnenblume interviews Laila Kassam about the book she has co-edited called “Rethinking Food & Agriculture: New Ways Forward,” which features a number of well-known writers and activists including Rupert Sheldrake and Vandana Shiva. The volume contains three articles co-written by Laila, and discussing these was the bulk of our conversation. We talked about the role of animal domestication in the neolithic revolution; the concept of “misothery;” the so-called “green revolution” in 20th Century agriculture; alternative paradigms including conservation agriculture, organic agriculture, agroecology, and regenerative agriculture; how the question of either chemicals or animal inputs is a false choice; and the myth of food scarcity. We spent the last third of the interview talking about solutions: how we can make agriculture sustainable and just, which involves not just farming methods but also systemic economic and social changes.
Climate Healers Moonshot Podcast Ep. 26: Rethinking Food and Agriculture
In this episode, we are joined by Laila Kassam, who co-edited and co-authored the book, “Rethinking Food and Agriculture,” a tour-de-force on the food systems of our past, present and future. We will explore the key historical and philosophical roots of our current food system and why it is the leading cause of the biological annihilation on our planet and how correcting it holds the key to a thriving future on planet earth.
Seed the Commons Webinar: Agriculture and the Soil Solution
On World Soil Day 2020, Seed the Commons hosted a webinar called ‘Agriculture and the Soil Solution’ with Prof. Amir Kassam, Moderator of the UNFAO-hosted Global Platform for Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice, and Helen Atthowe, a vegan organic farmer and researcher who was the recipient of the Steward of Sustainable Agriculture Award at the 32nd Annual EcoFarm Conference.