Feed: a food systems podcast

One-third of the world's rice is grown in China, on less than a fifth of the world's rice-growing area, by farmers whose average age is over 55, in a countryside that is slowly emptying. This episode asks how that's possible, and how much longer it can last.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode101
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Guests
Lena Kaufmann, Social Anthropologist at Université de Fribourg
Li Zhang, Prof in Sociology and Environmental Studies at Amherst Colleage
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.

Today China produces roughly half the world's pork. Getting there required swine genetics from multiple continents, feed from Brazil, and a disease outbreak that wiped out hundreds of millions of animals. This episode asks how they did it, and what that cost - to the household pig, to the smallholder farmer, and to ecosystems thousands of kilometers away.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode100
Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an email or voice memo to [email protected]

Guests
Ron Lane, Agricultural consultant in Beijing
Li Zhang, Prof in Sociology and Environmental Studies at Amherst College
Gustavo Oliveira, Prof in Geography at Clark University
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.

In sixty years China moved from catastrophic famine to feeding 1.4 billion people. This episode asks how that transformation happened - and what it set in motion.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode99
Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an email or voice memo to [email protected]

Guests
Michelle King, Prof in Chinese History at UNC
Zhang Hongzhou, Prof in International Political Economy at RSIS
Fengwei Ina Liu, Director of FOLU China
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.

In sixty years, China has moved from catastrophic famine to now feeding one in six people on the planet. Following three foods - pork, rice, and fish - this series traces a transformation that has emptied the Chinese countryside, reshaped ecosystems from Brazil to the South China Sea, and produced the high-rise hog farm model that is being exported across the world. We examine the competing priorities driving this transformation, the distributed costs and benefits, and what it means for the rest of the world.
"Feeding 1 in 6: China and the future of food" arrives in this feed on 21 May 2026.
More info here

Soy looks different depending on where you sit. For Ryan Britt, who's farming soy, corn, wheat and cattle on over 2,000 hectares in North Central Missouri, it's the crop that reliably pays the bills. In 2025, Ryan found himself squarely in the middle of a global trade story he had very little control over. We talk about what he can control on the farm — cover cropping, no-till, rotations — and why he still advocates for farmers even when he'd rather be on a tractor.
Register for the Bolivia soy webinar here
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode97
Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an email or voice memo to [email protected]
Episode edited and hosted by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.