Ruin Their Crops on the Ground

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History 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 1779to subjugate Indigenous nationsGeorge Washington ordered his troops to ΓÇ£ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.ΓÇ¥ Destroying harvests is just one way that the United States has used food as a political tool. Trying to prevent enslaved people from rising upenslavers restricted their consumptionproviding only enough to fuel labor. Since the Great Depressionschool lunches have served as dumping grounds for unwanted agricultural surpluses. From frybread to government cheeseRuin 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 epicsweeping accountAndrea Freemanwho pioneered the term ΓÇ£food oppressionΓÇ¥ moves from colonization to slavery to the Americanization of immigrant food cultureto the commodities supplied to Native reservationsto 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 disparitiesand she shows how these practices continue to this daythrough the marketing of unhealthy goods that target marginalized communitiescausing diabeteshigh blood pressureand 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.