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Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch
The first and definitive history of the use of food in United States law and politics as a weapon of conquest and control, a
Fast Food Nation
for the Black Lives Matter era
In 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.
From frybread to government cheese, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground 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.
Ruin Their Crops on the Ground 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.
In 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.
From frybread to government cheese, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground 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.
Ruin Their Crops on the Ground 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.
257 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 16, 2024
112 people are currently reading
9429 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Freeman
18 books49 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
November 6, 2024
When a book triggers new thoughts and new information that I keep going back to in my post-read days. . .it gets all the stars. This is a non-fiction yell for someone out there to Pay Attention! Something Over Here is Broken and Needs to Be Fixed! Well, I'm listening and pondering, and thinking differently about the topics Andrea Freeman discusses.
Straight from the author's Table of Contents, the chapter titles show how she will walk readers through how ". . .US law and politics have used food as a weapon of conquest and control":
1. Weapons of Health Destruction
2. Survival Pending Revolution
3. Americanization Through Homemaking
4. The Unbearable Whiteness of Milk
5. School Food Failure
6. Racist Food Marketing
7. What’s Law Got to Do with it?
Ruin Their Crops on the Ground traces the history of how food oppression in the United States has shaped cultural norms to make racial health disparities appear natural and impossible to fix through government intervention. The opposite is true. Legal and political acts, not cultural preferences, have baked these disparities into our society. This law and policy, which extends all the way back to Washington’s order to starve Indigenous nations and enslavers’ careful calibration of food portions to fuel labor but not revolt, is unconstitutional. It is not too late to change course.
Andrea Freeman. Ruin Their Crops on the Ground (Kindle Locations 157-161). Kindle Edition.
This book isn't one providing specific answers (although there are hints) - it is the pin poking, question posing conversation starter. It argues for more outrage if that's what it takes to grow understanding, which motivates curiosity, which leads to real change. No one should be ok with George Washington's order to Ruin Their Crops on the Ground .
No.one. A flag has been raised.
*A sincere thank you to Andrea Freeman, Henry Holt & Company, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*
Straight from the author's Table of Contents, the chapter titles show how she will walk readers through how ". . .US law and politics have used food as a weapon of conquest and control":
1. Weapons of Health Destruction
2. Survival Pending Revolution
3. Americanization Through Homemaking
4. The Unbearable Whiteness of Milk
5. School Food Failure
6. Racist Food Marketing
7. What’s Law Got to Do with it?
Ruin Their Crops on the Ground traces the history of how food oppression in the United States has shaped cultural norms to make racial health disparities appear natural and impossible to fix through government intervention. The opposite is true. Legal and political acts, not cultural preferences, have baked these disparities into our society. This law and policy, which extends all the way back to Washington’s order to starve Indigenous nations and enslavers’ careful calibration of food portions to fuel labor but not revolt, is unconstitutional. It is not too late to change course.
Andrea Freeman. Ruin Their Crops on the Ground (Kindle Locations 157-161). Kindle Edition.
This book isn't one providing specific answers (although there are hints) - it is the pin poking, question posing conversation starter. It argues for more outrage if that's what it takes to grow understanding, which motivates curiosity, which leads to real change. No one should be ok with George Washington's order to Ruin Their Crops on the Ground .
No.one. A flag has been raised.
*A sincere thank you to Andrea Freeman, Henry Holt & Company, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*
June 27, 2024
Ruin Their Crops On The Ground by Andrea Freeman in the book the author mostly relies on sentiment, ignorance and preference as opposed to fax in hard data. In the first chapter she uses the whole debacle with round up and farmers getting a grant to say they did this so lesser income families couldn’t afford it which isn’t true at all. The poor farmers got grants from the government they were suffering throughout the depression and those grants really saved a lot of farmers that would have lost their livelihood otherwise. In the chapter about milk and its whiteness she start with the racist joke from The black Web and then then went on to say that the colonizers who wanted milk like they had back in England did that to be racist, despite the fact that the natives in most minorities are lactose intolerant. I also found it funny that she didn’t once mention that it’s called lactose intolerance and just kept saying it was like poison and caused them cramps and discomfort ETC. Just an FYI my dad my husband and one of my daughters are also lactose intolerant and we’re absolutely white. They also had some very sad chapters in the book like the one where she spoke of individual slaves in there horrible treatment by their“owners. Then we got to school lunches and OMG the descriptions of the lunches these poor students got including one as recent as 2022 in Saint cloud Minnesota is just terrible. I always sent my children with lunch but I know some people cannot afford that and it is sad the food they serve these children especially those nine tater tots and a hotdog with no bun and I have no solution for that but do want to say I always admire those who fight for a good cause like racism but one should really have a side goal in facts to back it up in Naches racist statements from the 1800s or even those by Nixon in the 1970s what’s the deal with what’s happening today it is easier to upset people when using sentiment and smoke and mirrors to make them think something is racist when did actually happen eons ago and I’m sure they have racist people roaming the earth today as well as those who dislike fat people the disabled ATC I wish someone would come out with a book that actually has a solution as opposed to just wanting to fire up the peanut gallery. Racism is a real problem so please come with a real argument when writing a book about it. Had I known this was the author who wrote the book Sckim, about breast-feeding, racism and formula companies , that had nothing but falsities in it I would’ve gave it a pass but I thought maybe she’s grown since then and so I thought I would read it and kept thinking about the books I could’ve been reading instead and wondering if everything in the book was as true as it was in skim. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.
July 22, 2024
This past week, the one grocery store located in my hometown announced that it was closing. A large amount of people who live in the area are black or brown, and many people work and shop at this store because it is the only place really accessible via walking or riding a bike. Public transportation is Not Great.
All of this is to say, this book was a very timely read for me and hit very hard.
"Ruin Their Crops on the Ground" is a very well researched exploration of many of the ways that BIPOC Americans have been systemically set up to struggle in the USA, specifically in regards to food and nutrition. The amount and variety of examples used to illustrate this point are staggering: from the intentional destruction/theft of natural food resources used by indigenous peoples and starvation/deprivation of black slaves in the past, to the more recent cultural othering of Asian traditional foods and extreme limitations of government assistance programs like SNAP/WIC. These (and many other) policies and acts of cruelty have had real, lasting repercussions that disadvantage or actively harm a huge amount of people living in this country *right this very minute*, even as many try to claim that we live in a time of equality and fairness for all. The truth is we very much don't, and in this book Freeman explains well one aspect of our society that reflects that.
A quick read that's easy to parse, even though the information is not easy to digest (no pun intended). I don't say this often, but this is a book that I really think everyone should read.
All of this is to say, this book was a very timely read for me and hit very hard.
"Ruin Their Crops on the Ground" is a very well researched exploration of many of the ways that BIPOC Americans have been systemically set up to struggle in the USA, specifically in regards to food and nutrition. The amount and variety of examples used to illustrate this point are staggering: from the intentional destruction/theft of natural food resources used by indigenous peoples and starvation/deprivation of black slaves in the past, to the more recent cultural othering of Asian traditional foods and extreme limitations of government assistance programs like SNAP/WIC. These (and many other) policies and acts of cruelty have had real, lasting repercussions that disadvantage or actively harm a huge amount of people living in this country *right this very minute*, even as many try to claim that we live in a time of equality and fairness for all. The truth is we very much don't, and in this book Freeman explains well one aspect of our society that reflects that.
A quick read that's easy to parse, even though the information is not easy to digest (no pun intended). I don't say this often, but this is a book that I really think everyone should read.
September 9, 2024
There were some interesting and informational points about corporate control of food policy and how food and racism intersect. However, the writing, especially in the second half, was weak. The book is essentially just a bundle of separate research essays. But instead of academic research writing quality, it is more similar to first year college student writing level. Entire sentences are repeated almost word for word. Way too many ideas are thrown in and very few were thoroughly unpacked. Neighboring paragraphs are barely related to each other and if there are transitions between them they're very weak. There's potential but I was expecting more from this book.
September 4, 2024
The content of the book is so so important, but I feel like I was a bit disappointed in the execution.
1) particularly at the beginning, the author just has lots of passages that are strings of random quotes with very little of their own writing interspersed.
2) the overall argument of the book isn’t super clear- while related to each other a bit, each chapter felt very disjointed from the next
With more editing I think this book could’ve been excellent
1) particularly at the beginning, the author just has lots of passages that are strings of random quotes with very little of their own writing interspersed.
2) the overall argument of the book isn’t super clear- while related to each other a bit, each chapter felt very disjointed from the next
With more editing I think this book could’ve been excellent
June 16, 2025
“Corporations do not feel compassion. Sickness and loss do not move them.”
This book was a very powerful look at how access to food is weaponized against minorities in order to perpetuate oppression and continue cycles of poverty. Some of my key takeaways include:
- Limiting or eliminating access to food is a tool of oppression
- Corporations have wayyyy more power over what we eat and where we get our food than you think they do
- Milk has been used as a symbol of white supremacy used to indicate racial purity (white people are the weird ones for being able to digest milk)
- Coca-Cola has always been racist (and most food companies are — not a shock)
“Attaching work requirements to government benefits reflects a belief that social assistance is not a right of citizenship but a gift that its recipients must earn.”
FOOD. IS. POLITICAL.
This book was a very powerful look at how access to food is weaponized against minorities in order to perpetuate oppression and continue cycles of poverty. Some of my key takeaways include:
- Limiting or eliminating access to food is a tool of oppression
- Corporations have wayyyy more power over what we eat and where we get our food than you think they do
- Milk has been used as a symbol of white supremacy used to indicate racial purity (white people are the weird ones for being able to digest milk)
- Coca-Cola has always been racist (and most food companies are — not a shock)
“Attaching work requirements to government benefits reflects a belief that social assistance is not a right of citizenship but a gift that its recipients must earn.”
FOOD. IS. POLITICAL.
September 6, 2024
Food politics? In all honesty, I didn’t know that such a concept or topic existed. However, thanks to Andrea Freeman's wonderful, deeply absorbing book about a commodity so common that many of us simply take its existence for granted, I am now not only wiser about food politics, but am aware of such terms as food oppression, food injustice, food inequalities, and food insecurity. Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, From the Trail of Tears to School Lunch is part history and part urgent message.
The title of Freeman’s book is adapted from the words of George Washington when he sought to subjugate Indian nations, in this case the Iroquois. Freeman says, “Food destruction was so central to settlers’ treatment of Indigenous people that in 1779 George Washington ordered that his troops ‘destroy their crops now in the ground’” in a way that prevented them from returning and starting all over again.
But this was not the only time that food had been weaponized to achieve an aim. A chapter titled, “Weapons of Health Destruction” tells the story of “frybread,” a deep-fried concoction of sugar, lard, and government-dispensed flour that became a staple of Indians’ diet, and led directly to obesity, diabetes, and other health issues. In “Survival Pending Revolution,” it is America’s enslaved who are brutally over-worked on starvation rations. And despite the Emancipation Proclamation, the practice of “sharecropping” meant that formerly enslaved people were no better off in terms of food availability. “Black sharecroppers who worked for white landowners largely returned to the restricted diets they ate during enslavement.”
In chapter after chapter of beautiful, terse prose, Ms. Freeman addresses other topics, such as the double-edged sword of School Lunch Programs: free lunch to those who cannot afford it, which comes with the built-in stigma for recipients. Inevitably, food options are highly-processed and unhealthy, and the people responsible for those choices are politicians, lobbyists, and powerful corporations.
As readers progress through the narrative, they will likely be unable to suppress a growing sense of emotional urgency regarding food and the feeding of America’s population across all socioeconomic classes. Indeed, by the time I reached the last chapter, “What’s Law Got to Do With It?”, I felt that all the instances of should’s and should not’s throughout the book could justifiably be converted to the imperative must’s and must not’s. This chapter is an excellent blueprint for what must be done, and it makes me wonder if it is in Ms. Freeman’s mind to leverage it to obtain legislative attention and action for her proposals.
One addition I would have liked concerns the numerous statistics presented by Ms. Freeman about various health conditions and diseases across different demographics. She writes out all these statistics and embeds them in the narrative, when simple charts might have been much more effective, even if they were included in, say, an appendix. Nevertheless, I did appreciate the 40-plus pages of notes and bibliographic references (yes, I am one of those people who reads embedded footnotes and bibliographies!). As with most bibliographies, I feel certain the one in Ruin Their Crops on the Ground will afford me additional reading options.
I encourage prospective readers to take a leap of faith with the somewhat intimidating book title, and enjoy the reward that awaits them between the covers!
The title of Freeman’s book is adapted from the words of George Washington when he sought to subjugate Indian nations, in this case the Iroquois. Freeman says, “Food destruction was so central to settlers’ treatment of Indigenous people that in 1779 George Washington ordered that his troops ‘destroy their crops now in the ground’” in a way that prevented them from returning and starting all over again.
But this was not the only time that food had been weaponized to achieve an aim. A chapter titled, “Weapons of Health Destruction” tells the story of “frybread,” a deep-fried concoction of sugar, lard, and government-dispensed flour that became a staple of Indians’ diet, and led directly to obesity, diabetes, and other health issues. In “Survival Pending Revolution,” it is America’s enslaved who are brutally over-worked on starvation rations. And despite the Emancipation Proclamation, the practice of “sharecropping” meant that formerly enslaved people were no better off in terms of food availability. “Black sharecroppers who worked for white landowners largely returned to the restricted diets they ate during enslavement.”
In chapter after chapter of beautiful, terse prose, Ms. Freeman addresses other topics, such as the double-edged sword of School Lunch Programs: free lunch to those who cannot afford it, which comes with the built-in stigma for recipients. Inevitably, food options are highly-processed and unhealthy, and the people responsible for those choices are politicians, lobbyists, and powerful corporations.
As readers progress through the narrative, they will likely be unable to suppress a growing sense of emotional urgency regarding food and the feeding of America’s population across all socioeconomic classes. Indeed, by the time I reached the last chapter, “What’s Law Got to Do With It?”, I felt that all the instances of should’s and should not’s throughout the book could justifiably be converted to the imperative must’s and must not’s. This chapter is an excellent blueprint for what must be done, and it makes me wonder if it is in Ms. Freeman’s mind to leverage it to obtain legislative attention and action for her proposals.
One addition I would have liked concerns the numerous statistics presented by Ms. Freeman about various health conditions and diseases across different demographics. She writes out all these statistics and embeds them in the narrative, when simple charts might have been much more effective, even if they were included in, say, an appendix. Nevertheless, I did appreciate the 40-plus pages of notes and bibliographic references (yes, I am one of those people who reads embedded footnotes and bibliographies!). As with most bibliographies, I feel certain the one in Ruin Their Crops on the Ground will afford me additional reading options.
I encourage prospective readers to take a leap of faith with the somewhat intimidating book title, and enjoy the reward that awaits them between the covers!
October 24, 2024
Disappointing does not begin to cover it.
The vast majority of the interesting research and reporting in this book could be found at your local liberal arts college introduction to sociology class and the rest is a honestly startling mix of unsupported claims, lines and paragraphs repeated word for word, and outright racism.
There is an undercurrent throughout this entire book of modern wellness culture that should be nowhere near a study of American imperialism and how it pertains to food and disenfranchised groups. There is outright fatphobia baked into the very DNA of this book, equating consumption of sugar, fat, or any processed food with “a death sentence called obesity” - which in itself is broadly a colonial notion baked in white supremacy. Fetishization of indigenous people or those who live in countries outside of the United States having "naturally healthier, fresher, better food" runs rampant in this text.
One of the more inexplicable recurrent themes of this book was the author's framing of her perspective as an anti-racist one while then immediately performing the same racist stereotyping noted just lines or paragraphs prior. Providing examples about the US food industry's marketing practices, targeting communities of color with advertising highly processed, sweet, fatty foods and juxtaposing the "aspirational non-white consumer" seen as someone who does not eat said foods, eats organic vegetables, and is intelligent while then outright stating that organic unprocessed foods are superior, at least in her mind. Discarding fact that organic foods generally are nutritionally identical to non-organic foods with no oversight regarding this labeling, reaffirming that consumption of processed foods or god forbid a sugary treat is behavior that is undesirable and not the "white" thing to do.
Baffling choices in engaging in racist and anti-indigenous "blood quantum" writing, calling fry bread "die bread", and noting that indigenous people should be consuming food they have specific religious and cultural rituals and mysticism surrounding is just plain racist. Dismissing the idea that public school's free lunches are not an absolute miracle of modern community organizing and instead are opportunities to poison students, directly comparing free lunch programs to rations provided to enslaved people, is inexcusable. At the end of the book there is a distinct anti-formula rant, once again dismissing a life-saving modern development as simply a way to poison babies and that breastfeeding will ensure your babies don't die of SIDS which not only feels out of place but moreso a personal vendetta than one rooted in facts or more than one study without further context.
There is a notable absence of any analysis regarding food in the US prison system or outcomes prior to modern government assistance programming. There are also several just outright lies included to support the skewed thesis of this book. Undisclosed advertising on social media has been banned by the FTC for nearly 5 full years with company policies predating this legal ruling. There has been fast food marketing integration in video games and other child-focused media since the late 90's (who else remembers taking their Neopet to McDonald's once a day?) Most surprising was the author's throwaway line that there are US states without a minimum wage (there are states without state minimum wage but federal minimum wage exists regardless.)
There was a good book in here but poor editing, poor writing, and white saviorism left me disappointed and learning not much more than the average college freshman. Maybe there will be a book that takes these concepts and executes them well, without the unpacked bias, but that is not this book.
The vast majority of the interesting research and reporting in this book could be found at your local liberal arts college introduction to sociology class and the rest is a honestly startling mix of unsupported claims, lines and paragraphs repeated word for word, and outright racism.
There is an undercurrent throughout this entire book of modern wellness culture that should be nowhere near a study of American imperialism and how it pertains to food and disenfranchised groups. There is outright fatphobia baked into the very DNA of this book, equating consumption of sugar, fat, or any processed food with “a death sentence called obesity” - which in itself is broadly a colonial notion baked in white supremacy. Fetishization of indigenous people or those who live in countries outside of the United States having "naturally healthier, fresher, better food" runs rampant in this text.
One of the more inexplicable recurrent themes of this book was the author's framing of her perspective as an anti-racist one while then immediately performing the same racist stereotyping noted just lines or paragraphs prior. Providing examples about the US food industry's marketing practices, targeting communities of color with advertising highly processed, sweet, fatty foods and juxtaposing the "aspirational non-white consumer" seen as someone who does not eat said foods, eats organic vegetables, and is intelligent while then outright stating that organic unprocessed foods are superior, at least in her mind. Discarding fact that organic foods generally are nutritionally identical to non-organic foods with no oversight regarding this labeling, reaffirming that consumption of processed foods or god forbid a sugary treat is behavior that is undesirable and not the "white" thing to do.
Baffling choices in engaging in racist and anti-indigenous "blood quantum" writing, calling fry bread "die bread", and noting that indigenous people should be consuming food they have specific religious and cultural rituals and mysticism surrounding is just plain racist. Dismissing the idea that public school's free lunches are not an absolute miracle of modern community organizing and instead are opportunities to poison students, directly comparing free lunch programs to rations provided to enslaved people, is inexcusable. At the end of the book there is a distinct anti-formula rant, once again dismissing a life-saving modern development as simply a way to poison babies and that breastfeeding will ensure your babies don't die of SIDS which not only feels out of place but moreso a personal vendetta than one rooted in facts or more than one study without further context.
There is a notable absence of any analysis regarding food in the US prison system or outcomes prior to modern government assistance programming. There are also several just outright lies included to support the skewed thesis of this book. Undisclosed advertising on social media has been banned by the FTC for nearly 5 full years with company policies predating this legal ruling. There has been fast food marketing integration in video games and other child-focused media since the late 90's (who else remembers taking their Neopet to McDonald's once a day?) Most surprising was the author's throwaway line that there are US states without a minimum wage (there are states without state minimum wage but federal minimum wage exists regardless.)
There was a good book in here but poor editing, poor writing, and white saviorism left me disappointed and learning not much more than the average college freshman. Maybe there will be a book that takes these concepts and executes them well, without the unpacked bias, but that is not this book.
September 8, 2024
As we’re currently living in a time where more and more healthy options are becoming inaccessible and we are constantly being fed products that are dangerous for our bodies, Ruin Their Crops to the Ground felt especially relevant. I particularly enjoyed the chapter regarding milk and dairy products, which went into great detail about how these products are marketed to us even though they’re not good for us—especially for Black and brown people. The book, while reference and resource heavy, is done in a way that constantly introduces something new to the conversation rather than reiterating the same points over and over.
I know this is a book that many people will feel seen in. It’s not just one about devastation and oppression but about corporate greed. After reading, the first thing that struck me was how powerful food is, and how being able to control people's access to it, their consumption of it, and even its branding is a power within itself. It also made me reflect on how easy it is to convince people they have choices. We live in a country, specifically the USA in my case, that gives us the illusion of access to healthy options and non-toxic products when, in truth, we just have more options that deter our growth, our stimulation, and our health.
I love how expressive and clear this book is. It’s not only an examination of what goes into our bodies but also how our government and systems work against us to ensure that those who do not fit within their purview of whiteness and/or wealth are offered less. This is a book I think anyone could benefit from reading. We’re all feeling the pressures of rising grocery store costs, seeing news of price gouging, food deserts, and companies changing the scales in their favor. So many things are making it harder and harder for working-class citizens to survive and provide for their loved ones. Definitely add this to your TBR and be prepared to take in a lot of valuable information.
I know this is a book that many people will feel seen in. It’s not just one about devastation and oppression but about corporate greed. After reading, the first thing that struck me was how powerful food is, and how being able to control people's access to it, their consumption of it, and even its branding is a power within itself. It also made me reflect on how easy it is to convince people they have choices. We live in a country, specifically the USA in my case, that gives us the illusion of access to healthy options and non-toxic products when, in truth, we just have more options that deter our growth, our stimulation, and our health.
I love how expressive and clear this book is. It’s not only an examination of what goes into our bodies but also how our government and systems work against us to ensure that those who do not fit within their purview of whiteness and/or wealth are offered less. This is a book I think anyone could benefit from reading. We’re all feeling the pressures of rising grocery store costs, seeing news of price gouging, food deserts, and companies changing the scales in their favor. So many things are making it harder and harder for working-class citizens to survive and provide for their loved ones. Definitely add this to your TBR and be prepared to take in a lot of valuable information.
November 17, 2024
Required reading in this era of questioning food systems for often misguided reasons (maybe instead of questioning pasteurized milk we should question the way the dairy industry has forced its way into the lives of people whose bodies cannot process it, etc.). Really really comprehensive overview of racism’s role in food industries in the U.S. from colonization until now.
July 23, 2024
In our modern society, there are so many tools of coercive control, typically fear, but there are other, sneakier methods used to maintain our stratified society. In Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States…. Andrea Freeman, professor at Southwestern Law School, surveys the way access or disruption of access to food has been utilized to control non white populations.
The title is drawn from a quote of George Washington, who commanded his soldiers to do this when in conflict with indigenous Americans. From these initial clashes of culture, Freeman moves through major eras of American history arguing that U.S. food law and policy have created and maintained racial and social inequality. Chapters focus on removal of Indigenous peoples from land in favor of settler colonialism, slavery of African Americans, “education” of immigrants, milk, the costs of the free school lunches and the racist system of food marketing.
It is a book that exposes the dark side of the modern American food systems explaining many origins and their racist or coercive assumptions and exposing yet another industry largely focused on profit above all else. The chapter on milk is especially telling, as our ability to digest milk outside of childhood is very closely tied to our genetic ancestry.
Recommended to readers of contemporary America, food equity and access or History.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
The title is drawn from a quote of George Washington, who commanded his soldiers to do this when in conflict with indigenous Americans. From these initial clashes of culture, Freeman moves through major eras of American history arguing that U.S. food law and policy have created and maintained racial and social inequality. Chapters focus on removal of Indigenous peoples from land in favor of settler colonialism, slavery of African Americans, “education” of immigrants, milk, the costs of the free school lunches and the racist system of food marketing.
It is a book that exposes the dark side of the modern American food systems explaining many origins and their racist or coercive assumptions and exposing yet another industry largely focused on profit above all else. The chapter on milk is especially telling, as our ability to digest milk outside of childhood is very closely tied to our genetic ancestry.
Recommended to readers of contemporary America, food equity and access or History.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
June 22, 2024
This connects a lot of stuff you didn’t even think about to US food policy. Trail of Tears, the formula shortage, the strategic cheese reserve. It’ll really annoy you. And the dairy industry doesn’t come off looking good at all.
January 9, 2024
In the most respectful way, reading this book felt like when a friend sits down in front of you and is like "are you ready to hear some BULLSHIT?" and you're all ohhhh let's go and then they proceed to incisively detail exactly how and why some situation is complete and total wretched nonsense such that if situations would able to feel emotions the whole shebang would be left a shriveled up humiliated mess by the end of it. And it is GREAT.
Absolute fury at each of these injustices undergirds every chapter of this book ending in a positively delicious excoriation of the US government and the Supreme Court in particular. If you're picking up this book you probably already know that the whole US food system is on some fucked up shit (example: student lunch debt...exists), but Andrea Freeman makes it clear that girl, you don't even know. I learned a hell of a lot, I got super mad, I spent some time brooding about how everyone in the whole government needs to be strapped down and made to read this and acknowledge what they've done and fix ittttt. Because yikes, man.
This book is sourced to hell and back btw, so if you pick it up thinking it's very, very long, that is a trick - the book ended for me at 59% and the remaining whole 2/5ths of it was footnotes. The length is actually perfect. Fantastic work all around.
My thanks to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for the ARC.
Absolute fury at each of these injustices undergirds every chapter of this book ending in a positively delicious excoriation of the US government and the Supreme Court in particular. If you're picking up this book you probably already know that the whole US food system is on some fucked up shit (example: student lunch debt...exists), but Andrea Freeman makes it clear that girl, you don't even know. I learned a hell of a lot, I got super mad, I spent some time brooding about how everyone in the whole government needs to be strapped down and made to read this and acknowledge what they've done and fix ittttt. Because yikes, man.
This book is sourced to hell and back btw, so if you pick it up thinking it's very, very long, that is a trick - the book ended for me at 59% and the remaining whole 2/5ths of it was footnotes. The length is actually perfect. Fantastic work all around.
My thanks to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for the ARC.
June 3, 2024
I enjoyed each individual chapter of this book a lot, but it did feel like the overall thesis/theme that was pitched at the beginning was lost a bit as the book progressed.
I do not want to remotely discount the research and thought that went into this, but it almost read as if the author was writing this thesis and started to run out of time. Maybe of the later points are supported by random tweets and generalizations (that I didn't necessarily disagree with) felt less supported.
STILL I really did find this so interesting. Definitely the first of many food justice books I'd love to dive into.
I do not want to remotely discount the research and thought that went into this, but it almost read as if the author was writing this thesis and started to run out of time. Maybe of the later points are supported by random tweets and generalizations (that I didn't necessarily disagree with) felt less supported.
STILL I really did find this so interesting. Definitely the first of many food justice books I'd love to dive into.
July 21, 2024
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this book. On the one hand it’s an excellent, searing indictment of food politics in the US, and how government and big business uses food to both deliberately and indirectly perpetuate racial inequalities. My disappointment mainly stems from the lack of historical content - from the title I expected more of an historical overview, but that’s mostly done in the first two chapters. I think there’s so much to be said historically about food in history, that I was greatly disappointed in the relatively sparse treatment it got in this book, in comparison to the 20th/21st century assessments.
January 15, 2024
This was a really informative and insightful read. I had pieces of a lot of the information presented here -- how important food was to projects of "Americanization" that targeted immigrant families, the horrible food economics of chattel slavery, etc. But the great thing about this book is it pulls all these together and the author doesn't flinch about drawing a straight line to how these policies and decisions still impact people today.
I received a ARC of this copy via NetGalley.
I received a ARC of this copy via NetGalley.
December 21, 2024
I was really excited about reading this book but ended up disappointed. The first 3 chapters were great! After that, I feel like the book didn’t have a lot to offer. Instead of having footnotes at the bottom of the page they were in the back of the book. 45 pages of footnotes!! It would have been helpful if they were at the bottom of the page.
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March 29, 2025I just can’t finish it.
This book takes the tone of a recently enlightened undergrad who is furious that not everyone agrees with her or envisions the world the same way that she has just learned to. There’s a lot of great information in Ruin Your Crops on the Ground, and I agree with basically everything the author is saying, but I can’t take it anymore.
DNFing on the milk chapter. The author has made a wild claim about milk and 19th century urban child morality, complained that a milk ad from the 1950s that shows an affluent Black family drinking milk at a time when most Black families weren’t affluent, complained that a series of British milk ads from the 80s depicted all Black people as sports stars and entertainers because they used Black sports stars and entertainers in their ads, and now she’s on a tear about an insane advertising campaign about a rock star named White Gold who I’ve never heard of until this very moment. He’s a 2008 fever dream from the Got Milk? people but googling him isn’t actually interesting. The racial implications are staggering with this White Gold man, but it seems like he got no traction and disappeared quickly.
Other chapters in this book are calmer, but the author still does things like confuse the words “racy” and “racist.” This would be a good book for undergrads and people who are new to food history and racial injustice, but I just can’t take the writing anymore.
This book takes the tone of a recently enlightened undergrad who is furious that not everyone agrees with her or envisions the world the same way that she has just learned to. There’s a lot of great information in Ruin Your Crops on the Ground, and I agree with basically everything the author is saying, but I can’t take it anymore.
DNFing on the milk chapter. The author has made a wild claim about milk and 19th century urban child morality, complained that a milk ad from the 1950s that shows an affluent Black family drinking milk at a time when most Black families weren’t affluent, complained that a series of British milk ads from the 80s depicted all Black people as sports stars and entertainers because they used Black sports stars and entertainers in their ads, and now she’s on a tear about an insane advertising campaign about a rock star named White Gold who I’ve never heard of until this very moment. He’s a 2008 fever dream from the Got Milk? people but googling him isn’t actually interesting. The racial implications are staggering with this White Gold man, but it seems like he got no traction and disappeared quickly.
Other chapters in this book are calmer, but the author still does things like confuse the words “racy” and “racist.” This would be a good book for undergrads and people who are new to food history and racial injustice, but I just can’t take the writing anymore.
August 7, 2024
I wasn’t very far into this book before I read a statistic that floored me: 80% of Blacks and 90% of Asians are lactose intolerant. Think about this. If you’re like me, you were served milk for lunch every day throughout your childhood. Andrea Freeman unpacks this amazing statistic over the next several chapters. Food choices are not based on good nutrition for every child, they are based on lobbying by the food industry. Minority populations have been subject to efforts to “Americanize” their eating and cooking habits since early in the 20th century. This has, without exception, resulted in immigrants and indigenous populations being given advice which increased their fat and sugar intake and decreased their fruits, vegetables and the foods that were part of their heritage.
While I very much appreciated the information in this book, I grew discouraged at the fact that it seems as though corporate influence on our diets visit so deeply entwined in our national policies that it is hard to imagine that it can ever be untangled. Still, it is good, well researched information like this that will allow us to take the first steps forward.
Many thanks to Metropolitan Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
While I very much appreciated the information in this book, I grew discouraged at the fact that it seems as though corporate influence on our diets visit so deeply entwined in our national policies that it is hard to imagine that it can ever be untangled. Still, it is good, well researched information like this that will allow us to take the first steps forward.
Many thanks to Metropolitan Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
June 20, 2025
I wish I had a physical copy of the book to circle and underline and bookmark. A lot of good insights and information. The sources merit a deeper look, too. This analysis and critique of America’s industrial food system and historical/present uses of food as punishment or oppression is riveting. However, the prose is rather bland. I would have much rathered consumed this information as a series of YouTube videos if Freeman was going to be so artless as a writer. And I know ‘anti-racist’ social commentary can make for better literature. Take Michelle Alexander for example.
The most eye-opening stories of struggles I had not heard before were the Mexican government’s fight to pass the Ley Chatarra, the milk lobby and wartime cheese reserve, and the extent of the ongoing failure to address nutrition above corporate interests in Native reservations. I will say though that many spots in the text reminded me that the only thing worse than smug liberalism is smug radical progressivism. I feel this book is written primarily for the crowd who believe that if they talk enough Bell Hooks and Ibram X. Kendi at people then the world will be safe for POC. Many of the policy suggestions Freeman makes are half-baked, or, at the very least, lack pragmatic substance.
The most eye-opening stories of struggles I had not heard before were the Mexican government’s fight to pass the Ley Chatarra, the milk lobby and wartime cheese reserve, and the extent of the ongoing failure to address nutrition above corporate interests in Native reservations. I will say though that many spots in the text reminded me that the only thing worse than smug liberalism is smug radical progressivism. I feel this book is written primarily for the crowd who believe that if they talk enough Bell Hooks and Ibram X. Kendi at people then the world will be safe for POC. Many of the policy suggestions Freeman makes are half-baked, or, at the very least, lack pragmatic substance.
January 23, 2025
Eye-opening read. I think everyone should read this to gain some understanding of the US food system. So much of how and what Americans eat is rooted in outdated and discriminatory government policies. These policies, perhaps once well-intended (or not), now exist to mainly enrich the coffers of food manufacturers and processors. Nutritional health and wellness has not been a priority for a long time.
Chapter 1 about indigenous communities was particularly interesting to me. They were forced to abandon their traditional food practices and instead adopt the diets and habits of their colonizers, the early settlers. This change in diet literally sickened them and set the groundwork for the disproportionate health disparities that plague their communities.
I plan to re-read so I can highlight some passages. I appreciate that the book is well-researched, with 45 pages of cited sources at the end for those of us who want to dive in further.
Chapter 1 about indigenous communities was particularly interesting to me. They were forced to abandon their traditional food practices and instead adopt the diets and habits of their colonizers, the early settlers. This change in diet literally sickened them and set the groundwork for the disproportionate health disparities that plague their communities.
I plan to re-read so I can highlight some passages. I appreciate that the book is well-researched, with 45 pages of cited sources at the end for those of us who want to dive in further.
January 9, 2025
This was a super interesting read. I love deep dives into niche subjects, and the history of food insecurity was fascinating. There were so many things that I had never thought of and historical moments that can be connected to food. It's such an integral part of life that many of us barely think about, but to some people the need for food can make other decisions for you.
I remember watching Food Inc. as a kid and being amazed at the idea that a cheeseburger from McDonald's could be cheaper than a pound of fresh peaches. It always stuck with me, and as someone who worked in an organic food store, I can confirm that eating healthy is expensive, and that's so discouraging.
Despite that, I still really enjoyed this book.
I remember watching Food Inc. as a kid and being amazed at the idea that a cheeseburger from McDonald's could be cheaper than a pound of fresh peaches. It always stuck with me, and as someone who worked in an organic food store, I can confirm that eating healthy is expensive, and that's so discouraging.
Despite that, I still really enjoyed this book.
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September 15, 2024I always forget that it was the FBI who took down the Black Panthers' massively popular Free Breakfast for Children program that operated in twenty-three cities. Local cops were empowered to break into churches and piss on stored food, or to conduct mealtime raids on the kids, some of whom hadn't had a warm breakfast since the day they were weaned.
Psychotic, individualist propaganda is so triumphant in the United States that child hunger is somehow not the Archimedean point from which we can all agree to make a move. Feel-good American history!
Psychotic, individualist propaganda is so triumphant in the United States that child hunger is somehow not the Archimedean point from which we can all agree to make a move. Feel-good American history!
May 23, 2025
I was not prepared to really find this book interesting but I did and I am so glad that I read it.
Andrea Freeman packs tons of research all throughout the book to back up her points, and while I knew there were issues with our food politics and agriculture I had no idea where those problems stemmed from and how that effects Americans practically. This was an eye opening books in many ways.
This finished copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Metropolitan Books and Henry Holt for my review copy!
Andrea Freeman packs tons of research all throughout the book to back up her points, and while I knew there were issues with our food politics and agriculture I had no idea where those problems stemmed from and how that effects Americans practically. This was an eye opening books in many ways.
This finished copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Metropolitan Books and Henry Holt for my review copy!
December 31, 2024
Lots of good nuggets in here: school lunches and the milk industry, rules around school lunch fees, the othering and rejection of other cultures foods being nutritious, unintended consequences of American policies, school gardens, etc. would love to see some of the research probably cited but I listened instead of read and also would love a deeper dive still. Lactose intolerance and dairy industry section was hardest hitting IMO
February 13, 2024
5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: nonfiction, medical anthropology, social justice, food studies
Big thanks to Netgalley, Metropolitan Books, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Wow. I cannot sing the praises of this book enough. It goes in-depth into the way food and food policy has been, and continues to be, weaponized as a means of control. I got my BA in anthropology and got very into medical anthropology when doing that, so I knew a little about the stuff Freeman talked about, but she goes into detail and provides a lot of context for these topics and clearly elucidates the historical-to-contemporary connections. I learned a lot of new information from this book and found that it was presented in a very understandable manner. This is definitely one of those books that I think everyone should read.
The book is broken up into seven chapters and an introduction, the first three chapters each focus on an ethnic and cultural group in the US: Native American, Black, and Hispanic. In each of these chapters, Freeman looks at the traditional foods eaten by those groups and the benefits those foods provide nutritionally. She then examines how colonialization altered those foods and forced people in these groups to start eating according to how white people wanted them to, often switching from highly nutritious foods to foods of subpar quality and foods with empty calories (i.e., bison to canned meat, hand-made corn tortillas to white bread, etc.). From there she discusses the impacts, historically and modern-day, of those changes and the actions some people are taking to return to traditional foods.
I already knew some of the stuff covered in these chapters, but it was absolutely horrifying to learn more of the details and I found them to be very informative. It feels weird to say I liked these chapters because so much of the information contained in them is horrifying, but it's something I haven't seen touched on in too much depth in my studies and I want to learn about it. It's these chapters in particular that I feel people should read because they're so informative and provide a lot of historical and contemporary context, and I think it really showcases how things are connected through time.
The next two chapters of the book focus on specific aspects of American food and food policy. Chapter 4 looks at milk and the USDA's ties into the dairy industry. A majority of people in the world are lactose intolerant (including me, lol), though population to population the percentage changes, with Caucasians having some of the highest percentages of lactose persistence into adulthood. Not only did Freeman use this chapter to discuss the inadequacy and capitalistic-driven motivations of the USDA's milk requirements, but she also uses it to dive into the health issues associate with dairy products, as well as the racist rhetoric surrounding milk in the past and present. Chapter 5 looks at school lunches and again targets the USDA's Big Agriculture ties for why school lunches lack nutrition. Freeman also uses this chapter to touch on school lunch debt and the myriad of ways policies surrounding lunch debt serve to humiliate and starve children.
I found these two chapters to be interesting and informative in a different way than the preceding chapters. Like with the first three, I did already know a lot of what Chapter 4 covered before going into it. Milk, lactose intolerance/persistence, and the USDA were things we discussed in my medical anthro class, but the historical ties and legal efforts to change (or not change) things were new to me. I also didn't know a lot of the negative health side-effects Freeman discussed in the milk chapter and it was definitely eye-opening. Chapter 5 was interesting to me because I rarely ate school lunch as a kid, and then as a late-middle schooler and in high school I did school online so I wasn't exposed to a lot of the stuff Freeman discussed in the chapter. I definitely remember the school lunches though and how they often lacked veggies and seemed always to contain a milk carton. It was super interesting to read the politics behind what goes into school lunches and how laws to change them or keep them the same were often tied into monetary interests.
Chapter 6 talks about racist food marketing and turns somewhat away from food itself and focuses on how branding utilizes some of the things discussed in chapters 1-3 to brand food, advertise to certain groups, or both. It was definitely disgusting to hear about the racist marketing techniques and how long it took companies to actually start doing better. Chapter 7 looks into the laws surrounding food policy, and SNAP in particular, which is an area I don't know too much about. I found the discussion to be very interesting and am definitely interested in seeing how this area of law and policy develops over time, hopefully in a positive way.
Overall I found this book to be very impactful and informative. I've already recommended it to 3 or 4 people and definitely think this is an area of study more people should know about. I'll probably check out Skimmed by this author as well.
Recommended if you like: nonfiction, medical anthropology, social justice, food studies
Big thanks to Netgalley, Metropolitan Books, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Wow. I cannot sing the praises of this book enough. It goes in-depth into the way food and food policy has been, and continues to be, weaponized as a means of control. I got my BA in anthropology and got very into medical anthropology when doing that, so I knew a little about the stuff Freeman talked about, but she goes into detail and provides a lot of context for these topics and clearly elucidates the historical-to-contemporary connections. I learned a lot of new information from this book and found that it was presented in a very understandable manner. This is definitely one of those books that I think everyone should read.
The book is broken up into seven chapters and an introduction, the first three chapters each focus on an ethnic and cultural group in the US: Native American, Black, and Hispanic. In each of these chapters, Freeman looks at the traditional foods eaten by those groups and the benefits those foods provide nutritionally. She then examines how colonialization altered those foods and forced people in these groups to start eating according to how white people wanted them to, often switching from highly nutritious foods to foods of subpar quality and foods with empty calories (i.e., bison to canned meat, hand-made corn tortillas to white bread, etc.). From there she discusses the impacts, historically and modern-day, of those changes and the actions some people are taking to return to traditional foods.
I already knew some of the stuff covered in these chapters, but it was absolutely horrifying to learn more of the details and I found them to be very informative. It feels weird to say I liked these chapters because so much of the information contained in them is horrifying, but it's something I haven't seen touched on in too much depth in my studies and I want to learn about it. It's these chapters in particular that I feel people should read because they're so informative and provide a lot of historical and contemporary context, and I think it really showcases how things are connected through time.
The next two chapters of the book focus on specific aspects of American food and food policy. Chapter 4 looks at milk and the USDA's ties into the dairy industry. A majority of people in the world are lactose intolerant (including me, lol), though population to population the percentage changes, with Caucasians having some of the highest percentages of lactose persistence into adulthood. Not only did Freeman use this chapter to discuss the inadequacy and capitalistic-driven motivations of the USDA's milk requirements, but she also uses it to dive into the health issues associate with dairy products, as well as the racist rhetoric surrounding milk in the past and present. Chapter 5 looks at school lunches and again targets the USDA's Big Agriculture ties for why school lunches lack nutrition. Freeman also uses this chapter to touch on school lunch debt and the myriad of ways policies surrounding lunch debt serve to humiliate and starve children.
I found these two chapters to be interesting and informative in a different way than the preceding chapters. Like with the first three, I did already know a lot of what Chapter 4 covered before going into it. Milk, lactose intolerance/persistence, and the USDA were things we discussed in my medical anthro class, but the historical ties and legal efforts to change (or not change) things were new to me. I also didn't know a lot of the negative health side-effects Freeman discussed in the milk chapter and it was definitely eye-opening. Chapter 5 was interesting to me because I rarely ate school lunch as a kid, and then as a late-middle schooler and in high school I did school online so I wasn't exposed to a lot of the stuff Freeman discussed in the chapter. I definitely remember the school lunches though and how they often lacked veggies and seemed always to contain a milk carton. It was super interesting to read the politics behind what goes into school lunches and how laws to change them or keep them the same were often tied into monetary interests.
Chapter 6 talks about racist food marketing and turns somewhat away from food itself and focuses on how branding utilizes some of the things discussed in chapters 1-3 to brand food, advertise to certain groups, or both. It was definitely disgusting to hear about the racist marketing techniques and how long it took companies to actually start doing better. Chapter 7 looks into the laws surrounding food policy, and SNAP in particular, which is an area I don't know too much about. I found the discussion to be very interesting and am definitely interested in seeing how this area of law and policy develops over time, hopefully in a positive way.
Overall I found this book to be very impactful and informative. I've already recommended it to 3 or 4 people and definitely think this is an area of study more people should know about. I'll probably check out Skimmed by this author as well.
December 27, 2024
An informative and insightful read - with a particularly compelling final chapter, which makes a strong and important case for a more historically grounded (and, ironically, originalist) use of the Reconstruction amendments.
February 6, 2025
gosh dang it, now i have a million more reasons to be mad at white people in the US!!! such an upsetting but enlightening read. who knew food could be such a tool of control in all the worst ways. :(
October 3, 2025
A sweeping analysis of food as a political tool and a tool of racial control. Guess I won't be looking at milk in the same way again. It wouldn't surprise me if today's current economic regime weren't in some small part tied to the idea of food as a weapon to be used against The Other. Really an eye-opening read.
January 29, 2025
Informative, enraging, and well-written
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