{"product_id":"ruin-their-crops-on-the-ground-the-politics-of-food-in-the-united-states-from-the-trail-of-tears-to-school-lunch","title":"Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize in History\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the James Beard Media Award in Food Issues and Advocacy \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first and definitive history of the use of food in United States law and politics as a weapon of conquest and control, a \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eFast Food Nation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e for the Black Lives Matter era\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1779, to subjugate Indigenous nations, George Washington ordered his troops to \"ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.\" Destroying harvests is just one way that the United States has used food as a political tool. Trying to prevent enslaved people from rising up, enslavers restricted their consumption, providing only enough to fuel labor. Since the Great Depression, school lunches have served as dumping grounds for unwanted agricultural surpluses. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom frybread to government cheese, \u003ci\u003eRuin Their Crops on the Ground\u003c\/i\u003e draws on over fifteen years of research to argue that U.S. food law and policy have created and maintained racial and social inequality. In an epic, sweeping account, Andrea Freeman, who pioneered the term \"food oppression,\" moves from colonization to slavery to the Americanization of immigrant food culture, to the commodities supplied to Native reservations, to milk as a symbol of white supremacy. She traces the long-standing alliance between the government and food industries that have produced gaping racial health disparities, and she shows how these practices continue to this day, through the marketing of unhealthy goods that target marginalized communities, causing diabetes, high blood pressure, and premature death. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eRuin Their Crops on the Ground\u003c\/i\u003e is a groundbreaking addition to the history and politics of food. It will permanently upend the notion that we freely and equally choose what we put on our plates.","brand":"Metropolitan Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51987743342823,"sku":"9781250871039","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0449\/4075\/5096\/files\/imageloader_d2d562fb-43e7-4144-854a-078b0a72a8b0.jpg?v=1776395300","url":"https:\/\/arvidabookco.com\/products\/ruin-their-crops-on-the-ground-the-politics-of-food-in-the-united-states-from-the-trail-of-tears-to-school-lunch","provider":"Arvida Book Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}