Jan Dutkiewicz
@jandutkiewicz.bsky.social
Asst Prof of PoliSci at the Pratt Institute
Contributing Editor at The New Republic
Contributing Writer at Vox
Feed the People! (w/ Gabriel Rosenberg) 02/17/2026 from Basic Books
A book on the political economy of meat in the works
www.jandutkiewicz.com
Contributing Editor at The New Republic
Contributing Writer at Vox
Feed the People! (w/ Gabriel Rosenberg) 02/17/2026 from Basic Books
A book on the political economy of meat in the works
www.jandutkiewicz.com
But even then there's a range of choices. I'm not disagreeing with you on context - I am convinced by the argument that individual choice is constrained - but I am simply pushing back against the idea that we individual choice is to be seen as completely inefficacious and therefore dismissed.
February 11, 2026 at 2:05 PM
But even then there's a range of choices. I'm not disagreeing with you on context - I am convinced by the argument that individual choice is constrained - but I am simply pushing back against the idea that we individual choice is to be seen as completely inefficacious and therefore dismissed.
This is particularly apparent with alt protein where outright bans (cell ag) and language bans (plant-based) are a clear attempt by incumbents to sway regulation to prevent fair competition. I wrote about the US meat industry's push to restrict language way back in 2019.
www.wsj.com/articles/the...
www.wsj.com/articles/the...
The Modern Meaning of Meat
Ranchers and their political allies want to brand plant-based foods like the Impossible Burger as inferior imitations, but consumers shouldn’t have their choices limited.
www.wsj.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:03 PM
This is particularly apparent with alt protein where outright bans (cell ag) and language bans (plant-based) are a clear attempt by incumbents to sway regulation to prevent fair competition. I wrote about the US meat industry's push to restrict language way back in 2019.
www.wsj.com/articles/the...
www.wsj.com/articles/the...
but more people should be given the tools to be able to and the urging to do so. if public health folks are saying "it doesn't matter, you have no agency, throw in the towel until policy changes," that a) doesn't help and b) pushes people who want change into the hands of the grifters.
February 11, 2026 at 1:59 PM
but more people should be given the tools to be able to and the urging to do so. if public health folks are saying "it doesn't matter, you have no agency, throw in the towel until policy changes," that a) doesn't help and b) pushes people who want change into the hands of the grifters.
A lot of food politics makes more sense if you understand it as an ongoing set of battles between incumbent and emergent interest groups trying to shape the market to their advantage.
The meaning of words is to be decided not by their use, usefulness, or history, but by their commercial benefit to the most powerful lobby groups. I have a recipe for almond milk in a cookbook from 1226. It has been used as a term in English for hundreds of years.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Oatly banned from using word ‘milk’ to market plant-based products in UK
Supreme court makes ruling after Swedish firm’s long-running battle with trade association Dairy UK
www.theguardian.com
February 11, 2026 at 1:58 PM
A lot of food politics makes more sense if you understand it as an ongoing set of battles between incumbent and emergent interest groups trying to shape the market to their advantage.
not everyone has bad dietary health outcomes. for average HEI in US adults to be 59/100, some people do better than others. and some of that is down to better choices - resisting the food environment's push toward the bad stuff.
February 11, 2026 at 1:54 PM
not everyone has bad dietary health outcomes. for average HEI in US adults to be 59/100, some people do better than others. and some of that is down to better choices - resisting the food environment's push toward the bad stuff.
oh yeah this is a huge a huge problem - steering individual agency in the wrong directions. we tackle this in the book.
February 11, 2026 at 1:48 PM
oh yeah this is a huge a huge problem - steering individual agency in the wrong directions. we tackle this in the book.
Vastly different individual health outcomes point to differences *for individuals* in making better choices. That's a simple empirical fact. I'm all for interventions to change the food environment, but I think we're seeing an unhelpful overcorrection in how we frame these issues.
February 11, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Vastly different individual health outcomes point to differences *for individuals* in making better choices. That's a simple empirical fact. I'm all for interventions to change the food environment, but I think we're seeing an unhelpful overcorrection in how we frame these issues.
Precisely. Not to the exclusion of other interventions, but at the individual level, where it can be exercised, it absolutely does matter. That fact we're even talking about this is bonkers.
February 11, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Precisely. Not to the exclusion of other interventions, but at the individual level, where it can be exercised, it absolutely does matter. That fact we're even talking about this is bonkers.
It is shocking to me that scholars of food systems and public health can dismiss a basic, common-sense piece of advice like "Consumers should make better choices when they can and eat less of the obvious junk" as somehow divorced from reality or unfeasible for most Americans.
February 11, 2026 at 1:24 PM
It is shocking to me that scholars of food systems and public health can dismiss a basic, common-sense piece of advice like "Consumers should make better choices when they can and eat less of the obvious junk" as somehow divorced from reality or unfeasible for most Americans.
Perhaps what is at play is a conflation of the idea that individual action may be inefficacious in addressing systemic problems (bigger debate) and the inefficacy of individual action tout court. But this is not only disempowering but empirically false. People make food choices all the time.
February 11, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Perhaps what is at play is a conflation of the idea that individual action may be inefficacious in addressing systemic problems (bigger debate) and the inefficacy of individual action tout court. But this is not only disempowering but empirically false. People make food choices all the time.
Individual eaters, when they can, do need to make better choices. This is true no matter what other interventions are used to promote health. The academic discourse has massively overcorrected from an overemphasis on individual action to a dismissal of the viability of individual action.
February 11, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Individual eaters, when they can, do need to make better choices. This is true no matter what other interventions are used to promote health. The academic discourse has massively overcorrected from an overemphasis on individual action to a dismissal of the viability of individual action.
I am a massive proponent of using policy to change food choice architecture and nudges to improve dietary outcomes. I believe some things should be banned. But it is simply unfeasible to use policy to remove all potentially unhealthy foods from the food system.
February 11, 2026 at 1:16 PM
I am a massive proponent of using policy to change food choice architecture and nudges to improve dietary outcomes. I believe some things should be banned. But it is simply unfeasible to use policy to remove all potentially unhealthy foods from the food system.
Too long for social media, but I really feel that the discourse of individual disempowerment around diet has gone way too far, esp. around health. While it is true that food environments tend to promote unhealthy eating, most food secure people have individual agency and access to grocery stores.
February 11, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Too long for social media, but I really feel that the discourse of individual disempowerment around diet has gone way too far, esp. around health. While it is true that food environments tend to promote unhealthy eating, most food secure people have individual agency and access to grocery stores.
Reposted by Jan Dutkiewicz
Cows are an invasive species that damage nature. Tribes are showing that less grazing benefits native wildlife like sage grouse.
Yet ranchers dominate public land policy. In the American West, less grazing would mean undoing deeply ingrained “settler-colonial” beliefs
www.hcn.org/issues/58-2/...
Yet ranchers dominate public land policy. In the American West, less grazing would mean undoing deeply ingrained “settler-colonial” beliefs
www.hcn.org/issues/58-2/...
What’s needed to protect sage grouse? Less grazing. - High Country News
Two tribes are showing how saving sage grouse, and other iconic species of the West’s vast sagebrush steppe, will require are assessment of the widespread cattle grazing that has become an emblem of t...
www.hcn.org
February 10, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Cows are an invasive species that damage nature. Tribes are showing that less grazing benefits native wildlife like sage grouse.
Yet ranchers dominate public land policy. In the American West, less grazing would mean undoing deeply ingrained “settler-colonial” beliefs
www.hcn.org/issues/58-2/...
Yet ranchers dominate public land policy. In the American West, less grazing would mean undoing deeply ingrained “settler-colonial” beliefs
www.hcn.org/issues/58-2/...
yeah i also noticed that. just absurd.
February 10, 2026 at 4:09 PM
yeah i also noticed that. just absurd.
and for those keeping score, 450 on the board for the day. gonna biohack my recovery with some spicy sweet chili doritos.
February 10, 2026 at 4:06 PM
and for those keeping score, 450 on the board for the day. gonna biohack my recovery with some spicy sweet chili doritos.
back and feeling less snarky. the non-snarky critique is this 👇\
bsky.app/profile/chef...
bsky.app/profile/chef...
a scoping review is to identify gaps, ie what can/can’t be concluded by evidence. Repeating statements about availability from other studies /=/ summarizing real analyses of composition. If it can’t address that fundamental point-that we have not characterized-then it cannot conclude this.
February 10, 2026 at 4:01 PM
back and feeling less snarky. the non-snarky critique is this 👇\
bsky.app/profile/chef...
bsky.app/profile/chef...
i have offline opinions.
February 10, 2026 at 4:00 PM
i have offline opinions.
anyway, fueled by UPFs and bio-unavailable proteins from my nutrition-minimizing vegan diet, i'm about to go deadlift 8 plates. pray for my undernourished and frail 210-pound body.
February 10, 2026 at 2:23 PM
anyway, fueled by UPFs and bio-unavailable proteins from my nutrition-minimizing vegan diet, i'm about to go deadlift 8 plates. pray for my undernourished and frail 210-pound body.
also, honestly, how is working for GAIN, which promotes livestock farming, not considered a conflict of interest on scholarly work?
February 10, 2026 at 2:21 PM
also, honestly, how is working for GAIN, which promotes livestock farming, not considered a conflict of interest on scholarly work?
from the same doofuses who brought you the nutritional guidelines' misrepresentation of plant-based diets comes a review that shows two things: 1. these people have never heard of enrichment of foods; 2. soy remains the one true undefeated protein god.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Nutritional and health impacts of alternative animal source foods: a scoping review
Despite rapid growth in the availability and consumption of alternative animal source
foods (Alt-ASFs), evidence remains fragmented and uneven across food types, outcomes,
and settings, with few studi...
www.thelancet.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:18 PM
from the same doofuses who brought you the nutritional guidelines' misrepresentation of plant-based diets comes a review that shows two things: 1. these people have never heard of enrichment of foods; 2. soy remains the one true undefeated protein god.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
one look at your profile pic and you're clearly a man who knows apples. respect.
February 10, 2026 at 1:16 AM
one look at your profile pic and you're clearly a man who knows apples. respect.
Food discourses may have shifted with the political and cultural winds, but the science on what a more sustainable and healthy food system looks like hasn't: less meat, more plants, less junk.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How to eat well and within Earth’s limits | Nature
Dietary change, supported by bold policies, is essential for a sustainable planet. Dietary change, supported by bold policies, is essential for a sustainable planet.
www.nature.com
February 9, 2026 at 8:44 PM
Food discourses may have shifted with the political and cultural winds, but the science on what a more sustainable and healthy food system looks like hasn't: less meat, more plants, less junk.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Jan Dutkiewicz
tl;dr - it's the nutrient content, not the processing
For a healthier diet:
- less meat, less sugar, less salt
- more veggies, more legumes
Also makes the under-appreciated point that cooking from scratch requires more labour (typically female & unpaid) that isn't an option for many households.
For a healthier diet:
- less meat, less sugar, less salt
- more veggies, more legumes
Also makes the under-appreciated point that cooking from scratch requires more labour (typically female & unpaid) that isn't an option for many households.
ICYMI @gnrosenberg.bsky.social and I wrote about why you should not want to eat like your great-great-grandparents and why modern, industrially-produced food is "real food."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
Opinion | We Shouldn’t Want to Eat Like Our Great-Great-Grandparents
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:18 PM
tl;dr - it's the nutrient content, not the processing
For a healthier diet:
- less meat, less sugar, less salt
- more veggies, more legumes
Also makes the under-appreciated point that cooking from scratch requires more labour (typically female & unpaid) that isn't an option for many households.
For a healthier diet:
- less meat, less sugar, less salt
- more veggies, more legumes
Also makes the under-appreciated point that cooking from scratch requires more labour (typically female & unpaid) that isn't an option for many households.
ICYMI @gnrosenberg.bsky.social and I wrote about why you should not want to eat like your great-great-grandparents and why modern, industrially-produced food is "real food."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
Opinion | We Shouldn’t Want to Eat Like Our Great-Great-Grandparents
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:57 PM
ICYMI @gnrosenberg.bsky.social and I wrote about why you should not want to eat like your great-great-grandparents and why modern, industrially-produced food is "real food."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...