Amy Hay on The Defoliation of America

We spoke with Amy Hay about about her new book The Defoliation of America: Agent Orange Chemicals, Citizens, and Protests. In it, she examines protests over the use of the phenoxy herbicide for agriculture and other purposes by different groups of citizens (scientists, religious groups, Vietnam veterans, and environmental/health activists) in post-1945 America.

Show Notes:

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• We have a YouTube channel! It features more conversations about the meaning of food in our lives, and includes some great recipes to boot. Check it out here and subscribe! The most recent video at the time of recording was made by a former student in Ian's Philosophy of Food class, talking about Arroz con Leche and eating it late at night with his grandmother and listening to stories from her childhood in Mexico.
• Amy Hay is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her research interests focus on 20th-century United States, Women/Gender History, and the histories of American medicine, public health, and the environment.
• Amy's new book is The Defoliation of America: Agent Orange Chemicals, Citizens, and Protests. Check it out!

• Amy shared a recipe for jambalaya which she says is the first recipe she really internalized and made her own. Here's the original, so take a look and modify it to suit you!

  "94121 Jambalaya Serves 4 or more from Roger Ebert’s The Pot and How to Use It: The mystery and romance of the rice cooker (Kansas City, KS: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2010), 84.

  Ingredients:

  ½ onion, chopped

  Olive oil

  3 cups rice

  ½ cup white wine

  3 cups salted water or vegetable broth

  1 – 14 ounce sausage, cut into rounds

  Bok choy

  1 to 2 cups chicken

  Add as desired: Worcestershire sauce, Piment d’Espelette, red pepper flakes, or anything New Orleans-y such as shrimp or bell pepper.

  Method:

  1. Sauté the onion in olive oil in the Pot

  2. Add the rice and mix in unit until coated and moist

  3. Throw in some white wine if your wife isn’t looking

  4. Add the water or stock to the 3-cup line

  5. Brown 1 sausage, chopped into rounds

  6. After 10 minutes add the bok choy, sausage, and the cooked chicken

  7. The cooker should flip off after 15 minutes or so. Toss the ingredients and let sit another 10 to 15 minutes. Serve."

• The intro and outro music is "Whiskey Before Breakfast" which is both a great traditional song and something to study for its medicinal value as part of the popular epidemiology you're doing with your friends. It was performed and shared by The Dan River Ramblers under a Creative Commons license.