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You Eat What You Are

For more information about Freakonomics Radio, visit the program website.

In this episode, Stephen Dubner talks about our massive food network with economist Tyler Cowen, who argues that agribusiness and commercialization are not nearly the villains that your foodie friends might have you think. We also hear from food philosopher Michael Pollan, who weighs in on a number of our problems and urges, along with chef Alice Waters, a renewed appreciation for the American farmer. In the second half of this program, we explore whether eating local can solve most of our food problems. We check in on Santa Barbara County, CA, one of the top agriculture-producing counties in the U.S., which imports nearly all of the produce it eats, and we run the numbers on how many carbon emissions are actually created by shipping food around the country (or the world). Finally, we ask whether there is a moral upside to eating food grown far away, and we offer some unconventional advice for people trying to do less damage to the earth every time they eat.

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