Ruin Their Crops on the Ground is a fantastic book about intersectional food justice in United States. I learned so much even though this is a topic that I'm pretty well researched about. The greatest strength of this book is how clearly Freeman is able to demonstrate the connections between policies and their lived impact. She puts together a story that grapples with our relationship to food as both deeply personal but also shaped consciously and subconsciously by the decisions made by those with power (i.e. big food corporations and the US Dept of Ag).

If you have read the Color of Law, this book is structured somewhat similarly with each chapter having a clear theme/policy that is discussed and supported with a huge wealth of facts, stories, and examples to support the author's argument. In Ruin their Crops on the Ground, analysis that is provided is concise and direct. There are some great quotes in this book, but Freeman is more concerned with evidence than waxing poetic about the subject. Despite the depth of research that is reflected in this book, at no point did it feel too dense or like too much of a slog to read. The pacing was great with Freeman pulling in enough diversity in evidence to keep you engaged - at one point she even references an episode of Abbott Elementary to demonstrate the systemic challenges that constrain public school that try to find healthier options for school lunches.

And I highly recommend the audio book, it's a pretty short listen and the narrator, Heni Zoutomou, does beautiful voice work.