Feed the People: A Conversation with Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel Rosenberg

In this eye-opening episode of Our Hen House, Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan speak with Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel Rosenberg about their groundbreaking new book, Feed the People: Why Industrial Food Is Good and How to Make It Even Better. The authors present compelling evidence that our food system myths are preventing real progress, particularly when it comes to animal agriculture, which they demonstrate is impossible to reform at its current scale and still meet environmental or ethical standards.

This episode explores:

• Why “family farms” are largely a myth that masks the reality of modern agriculture

• How industrial food production can be good and necessary on a planet of 8 billion people

• Why small-scale, “high welfare” animal agriculture is not scalable and often worse for the environment

• How the “ultra-processed” label misleads consumers about plant-based alternatives

• What policy solutions like ending agricultural exceptionalism could effectively transform our food system

Preorder “Feed the People” before February 17th at basicbooks.com with discount code “feed20” for 20% off!

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Jan Dutkiewicz is an assistant professor at Pratt Institute. He is a contributing writer at Vox and a contributing editor at The New Republic. Gabriel N. Rosenberg is an associate professor at Duke University and a Senior Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Together, they authored the upcoming book Feed the People: Why Industrial Food Is Good and How to Make It Even Better (Basic Books, publishing February 17th 2026).

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

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