The most recent episode of Maintenance Phase is a journey through a scandal I hadn’t heard of: the severe poisoning of dozens? hundreds? of people who’d eaten Daily Harvest’s leek and lentil crumbles. The episode is worth a listen end to end; Michael expands this one story out into a tour through recent changes in the US food system and its regulatory landscape. But he saves the worst for the end: Daily Harvest filed to move a class action suit to arbitration, because its terms and conditions included a waiver of the right to sue.
Apparently the lawyer representing the plaintiffs has pivoted to a different class action suit on behalf of children (who can’t consent to arbitration) and anyone who received the poison crumbles in a PR pack (who maybe didn’t sign the T&C before receiving them?). But hearing arbitration invoked on the podcast reminded me of this February report from Cory Doctorow on automated mass arbitration, which turns on the fact that each arbitration claim costs a fixed amount to process. Thousands of arbitration claims can set a company back millions; this doesn’t itself do anything for the plaintiffs, but it can give them leverage to extract a settlement.
Technical solutions to legal problems are easy to root for, but of course they’re just signs of a broken system. Whether it’s this or something else, hopefully the Daily Harvest plaintiffs will find their way to partial compensation for the pain and injury they’ve suffered.
The show notes also reminded me that Aubrey and Michael name-checked Marion Nestle’s SAFE FOOD: THE POLITICS OF FOOD SAFETY. I read WHAT TO EAT a while back and enjoyed it; Nestle’s writing is informative and very bullshit-free. Putting this one in the TBR.
Currently listening: THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, by Shirley Jackson, narrated by David Warner.
If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.