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Food Chain Radio Archives
Food Chain Radio "What's Eating What"
with host Michael Olson
Listen Live: Saturdays 9:00am-10:00am PDT or On Demand
Every week Michael Olson brings the most important issues of our lives to the table for an hour of "What's Eating What" radio that will feed your curiosity and make you hunger for more.
How will the price of gas affect the price of food? Is it safe to eat genetically engineered corn? Why do they irradiate meat? Are we running short of water? What will happen if China drives our farmers out of business? How secure is this food chain?
Award winning broadcaster, author, and speaker Michael Olson has appeared on, or hosted, more than 1,000 TV and radio shows, written award-winning books, and has been published and quoted in hundreds of magazines, newspapers and websites. Food Chain Radio is syndicated on radio stations throughout the U. S.
Recent Podcasts
|Show #1138: Opioid Nation - 17-02-2018 (38.88 MB) Listen Now
Guest:Bradley DeHaven, Author How to Prevent, Detect, Treat and Live with the Addict Among Us
Topics include how people become addicted to opioids; the extent to which that addiction governs their lives, the lives of family and friends, and their community; and whether addiction can be prevented or treated.
|Show #1137: The Science of Eating What We Eat - 10-02-2018 (38.21 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Neuroscientist Rachel Herz, PhD, Author of Why You Eat What You Eat
Topics include how and why our senses, mind and environment impact our experience of food; how food alters our physiology, mood and behavior; and what the science of molecular gastronomy might offer for the future of our eating.
|Show #1136: Decolonizing the Food Chain - 08-02-2018 (14.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gail Myers, PhD, Founder of Farms to Grow & Will Scott, Scott Family Farms
Topics include a look at how the food system has become colonized by very large businesses; how those businesses maintain control of the food system; and how the food system might be decolonized to allow small businesses to survive and prosper.
|Show #1135 : - 27-01-2018 (38.2 MB) Listen Now
Guest:Jonathan Kauffman, author of Hippie Food: How Back to the Landers, Longhairs and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat
Topics include a look at the times that transformed children of the greatest generation into rebellious hippies; how that rebellion led hippies to new ways of ways of eating; and how those hippie ways of eating transformed how America eats.
|Show #1134 : - 20-01-2018 (21.33 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Gavin Ehringer, author of Leaving the Wild
Subject:When animals joined us at the campfire those many milleniums ago, they sold their freedom for our care, provisions and protection. That transaction leads us to ask: What did we get by domesticating wild animals?
Topics include the bargain animals made when they joined humans at the campfire; how the relationship of animals and humans evolved through cultural selection; and what future cultural section might provide for humans and their animals.
|Show #1133: Capitalism or Socialism? - 13-01-2018 (5.24 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Eric Holt Gimenez, author of A Foodies Guide to Capitalism, Executive Director of Food First
Topics include a look at how capitalism drives our global food system; why he suggests capitalism is feeding us so much trouble; and what alternatives might exist to power agriculture.
|Show #1132: Where's the Beef... Going? - 19-12-2017 (40.95 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Bryan Mussard, President of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and Bill Bullard, CEO of R-Calf USA
Topics include a look at the competitive position of American beef in a market of open borders; why China is buying Montana beef, when it can buy beef for less elsewhere; and to whom will the good beef go in the future.
|Show #1131: Chewing Our Way to Today - 09-12-2017 (5.22 MB) Listen Now
Topics include a look at the conditions that gave rise to hominid teeth; how those teeth enabled hominids to become humans adapted to the variability of the world; and how that evolution is speeding up into modern times.
|Show #1130: California's Green Gold Rush IV: Consequences - 02-12-2017 (40.16 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Fred Krissman, Research Associate, Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research, Emerald Triangle
|Show #1129: Monsanto's Settling of Science - 28-11-2017 (15.74 MB) Listen Now
Guest:Carey Gillam, Author, White Wash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science
Topics include how Monsanto settled the science on the safety of its weed-killer glyphosate; why some dispute the settling of that science; and whether consumers should believe that the science of glyphosate has been settled.
|Show #1128: California's Green Gold Rush III: Farming Legal Cannabis - 18-11-2017 (24.67 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Jeff Brothers, CEO, Harborside Farms
|Show #1127: California's Green -Gold Rush II; The Money - 11-11-2017 (10.25 MB) Listen Now
Guests Cannabis Financial Consultants John Downs from Arcview and Gavin Kogan from Grupo Flor
Subject:Cannabis is projected to generate so much money for California its treasurer is asking for a fleet of armored cars to pick it up and take it to Sacramento. And so we ask: Where is the money in the legalization of cannabis?
Topics include the financial opportunities presented by the legalization of cannabis in California; obstacles to overcome in order to realize those opportunities; and how the money, once realized, may be managed.
|Show #1126: California's Green-Gold Rush: Part I The Rules - 04-11-2017 (10 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Loretta Moreno, Santa Cruz County Cannabis Licensing, Maximillian Mikalonis, Legislative Advocate, K Street Consulting, and Dave Potter, former Supervisor, Monterey County
|Show #1125: Local Liquor - 29-10-2017 (5.01 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Sean Venus, Owner & Distiller, Venus Spirits
Subject:The liquor industry, like most all industries, is growing in opposite directions: very big and very small. And so we ask: Can local distillers successfully compete in a marketplace dominated by multinational distillers?
Topics include a look at the consolidation of the liquor industry; how industry consolidation creates opportunity for local distillers; and how local distillers compete with the giants of the liquor industry.
|Show #1124: The Big Bucks of Bottle Water - 21-10-2017 (5.01 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Story of Stuff Campaign Manager Miranda Fox
Topics include why the bottle water industry has grown so big, so fast; how industry participants have gained control of the sources of clean water; and why the public is paid so little for the water it pays so much for in plastic bottles.
|Show #1123: Kellogg's Breakfast of Politics - 14-10-2017 (15.05 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Journalist Warner Todd Huston
|Show #1122: Eyewitness Venezuela - 07-10-2017 (15.01 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Francisco Valencia, President, Codevida
Subject:Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves on earth, yet we read of its citizens eating zoo animals and using animal drugs to treat themselves. And so we ask: Why did Venezuela run out of money?
|Show #1121: Deliberate Bureaucratic Terrorism? - 30-09-2017 (15.39 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David McCumber, Editor of the Montana Standard, and Bart Riley, Proprietor of Riley Meats
Topics include how USDA subjected family food businesses to non-existent regulations; how non-existent regulations were used to find fault with, and even terminate, family food businesses; and speculation as to why USDA conducted this campaign of bureaucratic terrorism.
|Show #1120: - 23-09-2017 (24.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Larry Olmsted, Author of Real Food Fake Food
Topics include the difference between real food and fake food; the extent to which food fraud exists in the commercial marketplace; and how to know whether food is real or fake.
|Show #1119: Political Food Activism - 16-09-2017 (15.57 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Julie Guthman, PhD, Co-Author of The New Food Activism,
Topic include why some believe free market forces have been insufficient to provide for a healthy food chain; how political activism has emerged to force needed change; and whether this activism can actually bring social justice to food.
|Show #1118: Organic Hydroponics? - 02-09-2017 (40.08 MB) Listen Now
Subject:It would be much easier, and a lot cleaner, to grow organic food in water. And those clamoring to grow organic food in water lead us to ask: Should foods grown in water be allowed the organic label?
|Show #1117: Break Up The FDA? - 26-08-2017 (15.03 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Renee Dufault, Former FDA Inspector, Author of Unsafe At Any Meal
|Show #1116: Whither the FDA? - 26-08-2017 (15.02 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Renee Dufault, Former FDA Inspector, Author of Unsafe At Any Meal
Topics include how the FDA protects bad things in good food; what impact bad things can have on the human body; and what can be done to protect against bad things in good food.
|Show #1115: Down for the Sperm Count - 12-08-2017 (14.98 MB) Listen Now
Topics include the sperm counts revealed by the Mindlis co-authored study; why men in developed nations lost sperm, while men in developing nations lost none; and the possible consequences of men losing their sperm.
|Show #1114: Buy or Boycott - 05-08-2017 (14.97 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Open Mic
|Show #1112: Getting Down to Cannabusiness - 22-07-2017 (14.84 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Les Isralow, Cannabis Media Producer; Steve Leavy, MedMen Kayvan Khalatbari, Cannabis Entrepreneur & Politician & Steve Goldner, eCannnabis.com
Topics include how cannabis business money works; what pharmaceutical uses are emerging; and how cannabusiness and politics mix.
|Show #1111: US Army Attacks US Farmer - 15-07-2017 (10.26 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Anthony Francois, Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Topics include why Farmer John was fined $2.8 million for plowing his field; what kinds of rules, and rule-makers, govern how farmers may farm; and whether farmers can grow our food under such diligent government oversight.
|Show #1110: Stories from the Farm - 08-07-2017 (15.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Open Mic
Topic include the lessons learned on the farm that help us take care of ourselves and each other.
|Show #1109: Of Pink Slime & Fake News - 01-07-2017 (10.03 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dan Gainor, VP Media Research Center, Attorney James Wagstaffe, Kerr & Wagstaffe
Topics include the defining of textured beef; how the reporting of ABC News helped turn textured beef into pink slime; and how Beef Products Inc. forced ABC News to settle a $1.9 billion slander lawsuit out of court.
|Show #1108: Taking Dominion of the Animals - 24-06-2017 (10.03 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University
Topics include how humans think; how animals think; and how humans can work animals by thinking like animals.
|Show #1108: Taking Dominion of the Animals - 24-06-2017 (10.03 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University
Topics include how humans think; how animals think; and how humans can work animals by thinking like animals.
|Show #1107: Bad Food / Good Attorney - 23-06-2017 (15.02 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bill Marler, Attorney, Marler Clark LLP
|Show #1106: BIOLOGY OR CHEMISTRY - 10-06-2017 (15.36 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Biologist Anne Bikle, author of Dig to Grow and Geologist David Montgomery, author of Growing a Revolution
Topics include how industrialization changed how farmers use soil to grow food; what the consequences are of that change; and speculation as to which is best to eat, foods grown with biology or foods grown with chemistry?
|Show #1105: Food for Moods - 03-06-2017 (15.03 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Frieda Birndbaum, Research Pychologist, Author, Life Begins at 60
Why we, as a people, are becoming so emotionally challenged; ways we try to manage our emotions; and whether food can enable us to manage our moods.
|Show # 1104 : Strawberry Fields Forever - 27-05-2017 (20.4 MB) Listen Now
Guests:University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of Soil Science Carol Shennan and Assistant Specialist, Margherita Zavatta
Topics include why strawberry farming has come to rely on sterile soil and pesticides; what possibilities may be seen with biological soils; and whether strawberries, and other crops, can be mass-produced without pesticides.
|Show #1103: The Fake Meat of Silicon Valley - 20-05-2017 (10.23 MB) Listen Now
Guests: San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writers Tara Duggan and Jonathan Kauffman
Topics include the technology of producing fake meats; the financial opportunities seen in the fake meat industry, and speculation as to whether fake meat will grow into a real meat industry.
|Show #1102: Invasion of the Invasives - 13-05-2017 (14.99 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Heath Packard, Director of Communications, Island Conservation
Topics include what makes a species an invasive species; how invasive species invade and conquer, and by what means invasive species may be eliminated.
|Show #1101: Wolves to the Heal - 06-05-2017 (10.01 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Marc Cooke, President of Wolves of the Rockies
Topics include how Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is spreading throughout the West; why wolves might prove to be the best way to control the spread of CWD; and whether wolves should be freed to eat the weak.
|Show #1100: Food Fights & Culture Wars - 15-04-2017 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Tom Nealon, Author, Food Fights & Culture Wars
Topics include how an antiquarian book bookstore owner became an expert medieval chef; how food trends of the past moved civilizations to war and peace; and what those trends might portend for our future with food.
|Show #1100: Food Fights & Culture Wars - 15-04-2017 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Tom Nealon, Author, Food Fights & Culture Wars
Topics include how an antiquarian book bookstore owner became an expert medieval chef; how food trends of the past moved civilizations to war and peace; and what those trends might portend for our future with food.
|Show #1099: CHEAP FOOD ISN'T - 08-04-2017 (15.04 MB) Listen Now
Subject:In the U.S. food costs 5.5% of disposable income, while food in other nations costs up to 45.6%. And so we ask... Why does the USA have such cheap food?
|Show #1098: Pesticides & the Future of Food - 01-04-2017 (15.03 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Audience Open Microphone
Subject:Many of those who grow our food say we must use pesticides to feed the future. And so we ask... Can we feed the future without using pesticides?
Topics include the number and extent of pesticide stories that populate current news; what that news portends for the ability to use pesticides; and whether we can, or cannot, feed the future without using pesticides.
|Show #1097: Pesticides & The Right to Food - 25-03-2017 (14.54 MB) Listen Now
Guest:International Law Professor and UN Special Rapportour Hilal Elver
Subject:Two recent items of news: A claim that strawberries are the food most contaminated with pesticide residues, and a denial of the claim we must use pesticides to feed the world. Both lead us to ask... Can we feed the world without pesticides?
Topics include the extent to which food has become contaminated with pesticides; the claim we must use those pesticides to feed the world; and speculation as to whether we can feed future populations without pesticides.
|Show #1096: POLLINATORS OR PESTICIDES - 18-03-2017 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Madeleine Carnemark, Pollinator Program and Policy Coordinator at the Center for Food Safety & University of California Student of Envioronmental Studies Olivia Duncan
Subject:Bees pollinate plants that produce about one-third of the food we eat, and yet we use pesticides that are said to kill bees to grow those same plants. And so we wonder... Can we grow food with bees and pesticides?
Topics include the extent to which bees are responsible for the food we eat; speculation as to why their colonies are collapsing throughout the nation, and what measures are being taken to protect the pollinators.
|Show #1095: Raising the Resistance! - 11-03-2017 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guest Professor Andy Dyer, University of South Carolina and author of Chasing the Red Queen:
Subject:Eat or be eaten! All of us living things love to eat, but hate being eaten. And so when something threatens to eat us, we resist. This elemental fact leads us to ask... What is the most effective way to raise the resistance?
Topics include why genetic variation and cultural practices can help or hinder a plants ability to resist threats; why GMO crops are becoming simpler, more uniform and less resistant; and what lessons crops might teach us about the business of eating or being eaten.
|Show #1094: Food as Weapons of Terror - 04-03-2017 (9.89 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Hank Parker, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Georgetown University, Author Containment
Subject:That accidental contaminations of food have periodically caused injury and death throughout the U.S. lead us to ask... Will food be used as a deliberate weapon of terror?
Topics include a look at past efforts to use food as a weapon of terror; the various ways food could be turned into weapons of terror; and what can be done to protect against such weapons.
|Show #1093: - 25-02-2017 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
University of California Molecular Biologist and Professor Emeritus Harry Noller
Topics include a look into the mechanisms of living cells; how the ribosomes within those cells manufacture the essential proteins of life, and whether our knowledge of those ribosomes can help us find viable replacements for the antibiotics that are no longer viable.
|Show #1092: Dammed California: Water enough for agriculture? - 18-02-2017 (15 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Danny Merkley, Director of Water Resources, California Farm Bureau & Bill Wattenburg, PhD, Engineer, Radio Host, Senior Research Scientist Research Foundation, California State University
|Show #1091: Safely Substantially Equivalent! - 11-02-2017 (14.81 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Alison Van Eenennman, Animal Geneticist, University of California, Davis, and McKay Jenkins, Author, Food Fight
Subject:If a GMO food crop is substanially equivalent to a non-GMO food crop, it is deemed safe to eat. But when a crop has been re-engineered to contain a pesticide, and to be drenched in herbicides, we wonder... How can a GMO be substantially equivalent to an non-GMO?
|Show #1090: Of Sanctuary Cities & Lifeboat Ethics - 04-02-2017 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Matt O'Brien, Director of Research, Federation for American Immigration Reform
Subject:Hundreds of millions, give or take, would like to clamber into the sanctuary of lifeboat USA. Given the condition of the waters in which they tread, who can blame them? Still, we wonder... Can we allow everyone into lifeboat USA?
|Show #1089: Lions in the Hood! - 02-02-2017 (14.73 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Justine Smith, Doctoral Student, University of California, Santa Cruz
Topics include the extent to which people, pumas and prey live in close proximity; how all are adjusting to living together; and whether people, as the apex predator, can live in harmony with other predators and their prey.
|Show #1088: Winter is for Conferring! - 21-01-2017 (15.25 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ecological Farming Foundation veterans Sam Earnshaw, Thomas Wittman and Deborah Yashar
Subject:Winter is the time to sort seeds and confer on a new growing season at one of the many farm conferences around the nation. One such conference, EcoFarm, brings together like minded ecofarmers from around the world, and they lead us to ask.... Can ecological farming feed a hungry world?
Topics include what makes ecological farming different from organic and other styles of farming; how the EcoFarm conference works to propagate ecological farming; and whether ecofarmers can grow enough food to feed a hungry world.
|Show #1087: Drain the Swamp? - 14-01-2017 (14.77 MB) Listen Now
Guest: James Bovard, Author & Anti-Czar Czar
Topics include a look at the workings of USDA, an agency with a $19 billion budget that grows nothing and sells nothing; who and what enjoys the largess of the USDA; and whether the USDA needs, as some assert, to be drained.
|Show #1086: To Subsidize Or Not to Subsize - 07-01-2017 (15.72 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Don Scott, Director of Sustainability, National Biodiesel Board
Subject:The federal government has subsidized the biofuel industry with tax credits and price supports. The tax credit expired December 31, and its renewal is pending before the new president and congress. And so we ask... Should government subsidize plant-based fuels?
Topics include how fuels are made from plant and animal products; why the industry that manufacturers those fuels has been subsidized by the government; and whether government should continue to subsidize the biofuels industry.
|Show #1085: Chiropractor to the Stars' Animals - 31-12-2016 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Chiropractor Dr. William Strickland of the Rose City Veterinary Hospital for
Subject:Animals, like people, have physical bodies that occasionally need repair. One way to repair a body is through the alopathy of drugs and surgery; the alternative way is through the chiropractic laying on of hands. This leads us to wonder... Is there a difference between healing animals and people?
Topics include the differences there might be in treating animals and people; what techniques are effective in working with animals in pain; and how working animals, like police dogs, can be effectively treated without drugs or surgery.
|Show #1084: Better with Butter? - 17-12-2016 (14.62 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Elaine Khosrova, Author, Butter: A Rich HIstory
Subject:It is the ultimate saturated fat, and for generations we have been told by noted and respected authorities to avoid eating saturated fats. But some of us simply could not help ourselves, and so we ask... Butter or margarine?
Topics include a look at our history with butter; why the powers-that-be tried to talk us out of our relationship with butter and into one with margarine; and how we are, in spite of the powers-that-be, renewing our relationship with butter.
|Show #1083: A Green-Gold Landrush - 10-12-2016 (14.7 MB) Listen Now
Guest: California agriculture realty specialist Chuck Allen
Topics include how legal cannabis might be grown in the U.S; what kind of farmland would produce the best cannabis products; and how cannabis farmland will be valued, given the legal restrictions that will likely be placed on production.
|Show #1082: Avalanche of Autism - 03-12-2016 (4.78 MB) Listen Now
Guest: : Kent Heckenlively, Author, Inoculated: How Science Lost Its Soul in Autism
Subject:In 1981, one child in 10,000 was autistic. Today, one child in 50 is autistic. Many say vaccines are the cause of austism spectrum disorder. Many others disagree. And so we ask... Do vaccines cause autism?
Topics include the rate of increase of autism spectrum disorder in the U.S.; why so many believe vaccines are a probable cause for this rate of increase; and what, if anything, is being done to slow or stop the rate of increase.
|Show #1081: The Weed-Killer in Cheerios - 19-11-2016 (17.1 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dave Murphy, Found & Executive Director of Food Democracy Now!
Subject:This just in: The weed-killer glyphosate has been found in Cheerios, Wheaties, Trix, Corn Flakes, Kashi, Cheez-Its, Ritz, Triscuits, Oreos, Doritos, Fritos, Goldfish, Whole Foods 365, Back to Nature, and many more... And so we ask.... Is food that contains the weed-killer glyphosate safe to eat?
|Show #1080: - 12-11-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Hiker Jared Perry
Subject:Jared Perry hiked the Pacific Crest Trail that runs between Canada and Mexico, and the Continental Divide Trail that runs between Mexico and Canada. And so we ask.... What does one eat while walking back and forth across America?
|Show #1079: Goin up the country, to Farm! - 05-11-2016 (14.5 MB) Listen Now
Guests Shawn and Beth Dougherty, co-authors of The Independent Farmstead
Topics include making the leap from city to country; what to expect when you land there; and how to survive and prosper by taking such a leap.
|Show #1078: The Sugar Vs Fat War - 29-10-2016 (15.16 MB) Listen Now
Guest: UCSF Professor of Medicine Stanton Glantz
Subject:When three Harvard scientists published a review of studies in the prestigous New England Journal of Medicine casting aspersions on saturated fat, we ate sugar and got fat! And so we ask... Should we believe all they tell us to believe?
|Show #1077: Laws That Bite The Hands That Feed Us - 22-10-2016 (14.61 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Attorney Baylen Linnekin, Author of Biting The Hands That Feed Us
Subject:When something does not go right, we establish a law, rule or regulation to make it go right. After making things go right for a couple hundred years, we now have laws that govern everything, and that leads us to ask... Are the laws we pass to make food safe biting the hands that feed us?
|Show #1076: Growing Up Farm Kids - 08-10-2016 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Lorraine Rominger, Author, The Rangity Tango Kids
Subject:Not too many years ago, most all of us were raised on farms. And from the ethics of that raising up on farms, we built a nation. Then we moved into the city, and that leads us to ask... What did farm kids learn, city kids do not learn?
|Show #1075: Roundup-Ready Vaccines - 01-10-2016 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Research Scientist Anthony Samsel
Subject:They said GMOs would lead to fewer pesticides, but that was not true. Now pesticide residues can be found just about everywhere, and that leads us to ask... Are vaccines that contain weed killer safe?
|Show # 1074: Farming Hope for the Young and Their City - 25-09-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Open Microphone
Subject:Ten million urban teens, give or take, have options that leave them with impossible choices. And so we ask... Can farming save the young and their city?
|Show #1073: Teenagers in Hunger - 17-09-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Elaine Waxman, Senior Fellow, The Urban Institute
Subject:Fourteen million hungry teens, give or take, have options that leave them with impossible choices. And so we ask... Can hungry teens be helped out of danger?
Topics include why so many of our urban youth live with hunger; what options they have to eat; and how those options leave them with impossible choices.
|Show #1072: Drift Happens - 10-09-2016 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Steve Smith, Spokesman, Save Our Crops
Subject:Like a deadly plague in a B movie, clouds of dicamba lifted up from where sprayed to kill crops across ten states. And so we ask... Who is responsible for the dicamba drift?
Topics include how weeds developed resistance to glyphosate (Roundup); how Monsanto re-engineered crops to resist both glyphosate and dicamba; and what happened when Monsanto sold its resistant crops to farmers.
|Show #1071: The Big Business of Bison - 04-09-2016 (15.37 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dave Carter, Executive Director of the U.S. Bison Association
Subject:Raising bison is a big, exciting business. In fact, each can weigh upwards of a ton and run 35 miles per hour! And so we ask... How does one do business with bison?
Topics include a look at the American Bison; how it serves up as a food source; and how one goes about herding animals that weigh a ton and run 35 miles per hour.
|Show #1070: The Hygiene Hypothesis of Resistance - 27-08-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guest:Associate Professor Anne Sperling, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Chicago
Subject:Both share a common genetic heritage, yet 20% of the Hutterite children in North Dakota have asthma, while only 2% of the Amish children in Indiana suffer. And so we ask... Why do so many Hutterite children suffer with asthma, while so many Amish children remain unafflicted?
|Show #1069: Organic Vrs Organic: A Compost Fight - 20-08-2016 (14.59 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Stan Mitchell, Pacific Coast Ag
Subject:USDA issued a rule change allowing composts containing pesticide residues to be used in organic farming. But then a federal judge tossed the rule out! And so we ask... Should composts containing pesticide residues be allowed in organic farming?
Topics include why compost is used in organic farming; why USDA issued a rule allowing the use of composts containing pesticide residues, and why a federal judge overruled it; and what the loss of those composts might mean to organic farming.
|Show #1068: Farming with Rules & Regulations - 13-08-2016 (5.09 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dick Peixote, Lakeside Organic Gardens
Subject:Its an all time record! The Federal government has imposed 600 major new regulations, each of which costs of over $100 million to implement. Fifty more major regulations are said to be on the way. And so we ask... Can farmers farm without breaking the rules and regulations?
Topics include the extent to which government rules and regulations have grown, and are growing; how regulations govern farm labor, water, and food safety; and whether farmers will be able to comply with the regulations, or will leave the country to farm.
|Show #1067: Food as Medicine - 06-08-2016 (14.72 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Catherine Frompovich, Author, Eat to Beat Disease
Topics include what relationship exists, if any, between the foods we eat and the diseases we contract; a look at the foods that can reduce or eliminate pain; and foods that aid in the management of disease.
|Show #1066: Dowsing for Deep Water - 30-07-2016 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Ron Thompson, Thompson Well Location
Topics include a look at the art of dowsing; how the dowsing rod is used to find water deep beneath the surface, whether the water is sweet, and how much it will flow; and how dowsing is used to find the location of other natural resources.
|Show #1065: The Bubbly Buggy Brew - 23-07-2016 (14.72 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Hannah Crum, Author The Big Book of Kombucha, President of International Kombucha Brewers International & host of http://www.KombuchaKamp.com/
Topics include a survey of the biology, chemistry and etymology of kombucha; a consideration of its many health claims; and how one can brew some up in the kitchen.
|Show #1064: US LOSING ITS FOOD TRADE MOJO? - 16-07-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
Subject:Last year, the U.S. sold $25.7 billion more food than it bought. This year, the surplus is expected to decline 62% to only $9.7 billion. This epic collapse in the balance of food trade leads us to ask... Why is the U.S. losing its food trade mojo?
|Show #1063: TOO SWEET TO EAT? - 09-07-2016 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest Dr. Dana Flavin, Foundation for Collaborative Medicine and Research :
Subject:It is in just about every processed food we eat. And so we eat a lot of it. Yet in spite of assurances to the contrary, some say High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is simply too sweet to eat. And so we ask... Is High Fructose Corn Syrup too sweet to eat?
Topics include how corn became sugar; how corn sugar supplanted cane and beet sugar up and down the food chain; and the impact corn sugar has on human health.
|Show #1062 : - 02-07-2016 (14.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Steve Alexander, retired pilot and CBD patient; Michael Backes, co-author of Cannabis Pharmacy; and Matt Horvatt, Slovenia CBD cannabis farmer
Topics include how a Viet Nam vet found relief from a life of severe pain with CBD from a family cannabis farmer in Slovenia; the difference between the CBD and THC cannabinoids of cannabis; and speculation as to what impact CBD might have on medicine.
|Show #1061 THE COOKING APE: - 25-06-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Thor Hanson, Author, The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
Topics include how seed plants evolved to dominate the natural world; the importance of seeds as a source of human food; and whether humans can successfully save enough seeds to guarantee a future.
|Show #1060: GETTING DOWN TO CANNABUSINESS - 21-06-2016 (4.84 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Les Isralow, guest producer, Kayvan Khalatbari of Denver Relief Consulting, Matthew Lee of Jetty Extracts, Jena Perez of Sweet Bricks and Mind Tricks, Pamela Epstein of Green Wise Consulting and Corey Barnette of District Growers
Subject:Though cannabis has been made illegal by local, state, national and international law and treaty, 3,000 people will soon gather to talk about doing its legal business. And that leads us to ask... Is it time to get down to cannabusiness?
Topics include a look at the various legal businesses that are growing out of the still illegal cannabis plant.
|Show #1059: The Glyphosate Within - 11-06-2016 (39.07 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Katherine Paul, Associate Director, Organic Consumers Association
Topics include the glyphosate study conducted by UCSF; whether the amount of glyphosate discovered can affect human health; and how glyphosate is getting into our bodies.
|Show #1058: WAR OF THE FATS - 04-06-2016 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Ernest M. Curtis, M.D., author of The Cholesterol Delusion
Subject:In 1907, candle makers William Proctor and James Gamble turned liquid cottonseed oil into a solid shortening they called Crisco, thus kicking off a zillion-dollar century-long war on saturated fat. And so we ask... Which is best for the body: saturated or unsaturated fat?
|Show #1057: Cannabis Industry's Conundrum - 21-05-2016 (38.95 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Taylor West, National Cannabis Industry Association; Steve DeAngelo, Harborside Health Center; Lamarr Baxter, Alternative Investments & Consulting; Mark Goldfogel, IWorkForCannabis.com
Subject:We banned cannabis forever with an international treaty, but then accepted it as a national medicine and pastime. Now, ready or not, we are building an entire industry on the forbidden plant. And so we ask... Can a legitimate industry thrive on an illegitimate crop?
Topics include the confusing legal status of cannabis; the different directions in which the cannabis industry is growing and developing in spite of its legal status; and whether the industry can find a way to survive and thrive in spite of all that stand in opposition to it.
|Show #1056: The Community's Garden - 14-05-2016 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: UCSC Doctoral Student Monika Egerer & USCS Environmental Studies student Sara Rezaie
|Show #1055: Big Government ≠ Small Farms - 07-05-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Open Microphone for Audience participation
|Show #1054: The War on Weeds - 30-04-2016 (9.73 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Brittany Cole Bush, BCB Shepherdess www.brittanycolebush.com
Subject:When drought ends the war on weeds begins, and if the war is not won weeds will win the nutrients, sunshine, territory and water. And so we ask: Which can best win the war on weeds: animals, chemicals or people?
Topics include a survey of weed abatement strategies; why some municipalities have turned away from chemical strategies; and whether animals can be used to effectively abate weed growth for agriculture and governments.
|Show #1053: TO EAT, OR NOT TO EAT, MEAT - 23-04-2016 (4.89 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Marta Zaraska, author of Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession With Meat
Subject:We began eating meat a couple of million years ago. Today we are told eating meat is bad for us, cruel to animals, and harmful to the environment. And so ask: Should people stop eating meat?
Topics include why we began eating meat a couple million years ago; why we continue to hunt down animals to eat today; and, given all that is now said to be wrong with the practice, whether we should stop eating meat.
|Show #1052 : - 16-04-2016 (14.74 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Joel Salatin, Farmer & Author of The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer
Subject:To build a viable commercial herd, or flock, the farmer believes one must select the best and cull the rest. This commercial imperative leads us to ask: Is cultural selection fair?
|Show #1051: THE ZIKA VECTOR - 09-04-2016 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guest: University of California Assistant Professor of Entomology Omar Akbari
Subject:Though Zika was first discovered in 1947, it was never considered much of a threat, until 2015 when it popped up in Brazil. Now Zika is spreading throughout the world where it is considered to be a threat to the unborn. And so we ask: Should we release GMO mosquitoes to fight Zika?
Topics include why the Zika virus suddenly became an issue of medical concern; the ways in which the virus might be contained via its vector; and whether we should release gmo mosquitoes to fight the virus.
|Show #1050: CONQUERING CROWS - 03-04-2016 (39.09 MB) Listen Now
Guest: University of Washington Professor of Forest Sciences John Marzluff
Topics include why the birds are considered pests by the many, and pets by the few; how the intelligence of these birds allow them to supplant and exclude other birds from the environment; and what can done, if anything, to control them so that other birds might sing.
|Show #1049: IN THE BELLY OF THE BEE - 26-03-2016 (14.74 MB) Listen Now
Guest: University of California Natural Science Graduate Student Hamutahl Cohen
Subject:They are the canaries in the mine of our environment, and they are dying off to the extent the federal government is considering listing them as an endangered species. And so we ask: What is killing the bees?
Topics include the various theories as to why populations of bees are collapsing, what role the microbiome within the bee might have in the collapse, and whether the problems that plague the bee might plague humans as well. (View at tinyurl.com/beeguts)
|Show #1048: OUTBREAK AT CHIPOTLE 2 - 19-03-2016 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Michael Palmer, Food Safety Consultant, GAP Solutions
Subject:That no definitive answer has yet to been given as to how so many Chipotle restaurants were contaminated, across such a broad geographical area, by so many different pathogens, in such a short period of time, leads us to again ask: What caused the food poisoning outbreak at Chipotle?
Topics include a look at the kitchens of fast foods; the vulnerabilities contained in the common burrito; and how consumers can best protect themselves when eating fast foods.
|Show #1047: OUTBREAK AT CHIPOTLE - 16-03-2016 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Michael Palmer, Food Safety Consultant, GAP Solutions & Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Hospitality Industry Journalist, Dallas Morning News
|Show #1046: - 05-03-2016 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Elliot Campbell, Professor of Environmental Engineering at UC Merced
Subject:Ninety percent of Americans could be fed entirely by food grown within 100 miles of their city, so claims a study published at UC Merced. This leads us to ask: How can local food feed 90% of the population?
|Show #1045: TRAGEDY OF THE AQUIFERS - 27-02-2016 (14.53 MB) Listen Now
Subject:El Nino brought rains to the parched West, but not enough rain to replenish aquifers sucked dry by years of severe drought. The fight for what water remains leads us to ask: Who should own the water in an aquifer?
|Show #1044: Learning How To Eat - 20-02-2016 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bee Wilson, Author, First Bite
Subject:Much effort has been devoted to getting children to eat the right food, but in spite of all the effort, much of the right food still ends up in the trash. This leads us to ask: Should children eat what adults serve, or should adults serve what children eat?
|Show #1043: Hunting Them to Save Them - 06-02-2016 (15.73 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Fleur Dawes, Communications Director for In Defense of Animals, and Jared Wiklund, Public Relations Specialist for Pheasants and Quail Forever
Subject:Could it be true? Could it be that, to save wild animals, birds and fish, we must hunt and fish for them? This thought leads us to ask: Where would wildlife thrive without people to hunt and fish for them?
Topics include the extent to which populations of wild animals must be managed; how the management of wild animals is funded; and what would happen to wild animals, birds and fish if their populations are not managed.
|Show #1042: Bee Gone! - 30-01-2016 (38.8 MB) Listen Now
Subject:The bees responsible for one-third of the food we eat are disappearing. Also disappearing is the scientific research into why bees are disappearing, and that leads us to ask: Why is USDA discouraging its scientific research into the disappearance of bees?
|Show #1041: To Label Or Not To Label GMOs - 16-01-2016 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Kelly Damewood, Policy Director, California Certified Organic Farmers and Hank Campbell, President,American Council on Science and Health
Topic include why science has failed to sell genetically modified foods to the consuming public; why the Campbell's Soup Company broke ranks with industry trade groups to advocate for a federal GMO labeling standard; and why should consumer want a GMO label when the "organic" label already guarantees GMO-free.
|Show #1040: The Nutrition Blame Game - 09-01-2016 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Laura MacCleery, Regulatory Affairs Director at Center for Science in the Public Interest
Subject:Fats are bad! No, fats are good! Carbohydrates are good! No, carbohydrates are bad! We have been given a lot of advise as to how we should eat, and yet we keep eating ourselves into big trouble. This leads us to ask... Who is responsible for talking us into an obesity epidemic?
Topics include why there seems to be so many conflicting opinions about what is good to eat; how the confusion of opinions has somehow talked us into a monumental obesity epidemic; and where we can look to find objective food and nutrition science.
|Show #1039: Not COOL! - 19-12-2015 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
Topics include why the U.S. Congress enacted Country of Origin Labeling; why the World Trade Association authorized sanctions against the U.S. for COOL; and which organization should countrol what U.S. citizens may know about their food.
|Show #1038: Mangoes! From Haiti? - 12-12-2015 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Matt Rogers of Whole Foods, John Musser of Tropic Trade and Hannah Freeman of Fair Trade USA
Subject:Though hundreds of millions of dollars have been sent to help Haiti, the money did not seem to help. Then someone planted mangoes. And so we ask: Have you tasted a Francique mango from Haiti?
|Show #1037: How The Gringos Stole Tequila - 05-12-2015 (14.58 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Chantal Martineau, author of How The Gringos Stole Tequila
Topics include the Mexican tradition of making tequila and mezcal; how the making of tequila and mezcal was industrialized; and the resurgent market for traditional small batch tequilas and mezcals.
|Show #1036: The GMO Deniers - 21-11-2015 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Sheldon Krimsky, Professor Tufts University, Author, An Illusory Consensus Behind GMO Health Assessment
Subject:Some scientists say foods that have been modified to contain genes from other species are safe to eat. Other scientists say GMO foods are not safe to eat. These competing contentions lead us to ask: Are foods that contain genetically modified organisms safe to eat?
Topics include how scientists evaluate the safety of GMO foods; what the scientific studies say about the safety of GMO foods; and what happens to the minority of scientists who disagree with the majority.
|Show #1035: Time Enough For Food - 14-11-2015 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Natalie Winch, Author, Ditching The Drive-Thru
Subject:Now that it takes two and a half incomes to maintain a household, few have time enough to eat at home. But maybe there is a way to find the time, and so we ask: Where can we find time enough to eat at home?
Topics include the time constraints that force many to eat fast at quick serve restaurants; the consequences of family dining on the run; and how it might be possible to regain the ability to eat home cooking at home.
|Show #1034: PROF WILLAIM ALBRECHT: FOOD HERETIC - 07-11-2015 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Veterinarian and Naturopaph Dr. Joel Wallach
Topics include how the Green Revolution changed 10,000 years of agricutlure; why some, led by Dr. William Albrecht, found the new way of growing food to be the wrong way; and whether we, and all life on earth, can survive without living soils.
|Show #1033: SHUTTING DOWN THE INTERNET - 31-10-2015 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Open Microphone
|Show #1032 : THE LIFE WITHIN - 03-11-2015 (14.83 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David Montgomery & Anne Bikle
Topic include the 100 trillion microorganisms that live within each of our bodies; what those organisms do within our body; and whether we are what we eat, or we are what they eat?
|Show #1031: ONE STRAW REVOLUTIONARY - 03-10-2015 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Larry Korn, Author, One-Straw Revolutionary: The Philosophy and Work of Masanobu Fukuoka
Subject:The times demand ever more from us, only to return ever less to us. One farmer suggested we consider a single straw of grain, and from it learn to grow nothing and harvest everything. And so we ask: Do you think it possible to grow more by growing less?
|Show #1030: THE GOAT MILK WARS - 26-09-2015 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gingi Freeman & Kristeina Wolfert, Urban Farmers for Food Freedom
Topics include why the need for organic goat milk instead of baby formula; the miniature goat solution to feeding babies; and whether cities should allow their residents the freedom to raise food animals.
|Show #1029: MAIL ORDER MEALS - 19-09-2015 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Michael Joseph, Founder and CEO of Green Chef
Subject:Most everyone goes for the occasional convenience of ordering a pizza to be delivered hot-and-ready-to-eat at the front door. So why not order up real meals? This thought leads us to ask: Will you buy meals by mail?
Topics include how the internet is expanding access to food; why it was believed a business could succeed by delivering restaurant-like meals directly to the front door; and whether direct mail meals can be made convenient enough to make the sale.
|Show #1028: FOOD FOR FUN! - 13-09-2015 (14.25 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Ken Whiting, Whiting's Foods
Subject:That we know so much about eating the right kinds of food, forget everything we know about the right foods, and go guilt free for the fun foods we find at festivals and amusement parks leads us to ask: Do you count the calories in festival foods?
Topics include how a little custard stand at the Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California led to six-decades-old family business selling festival foods; which festival foods sell best; and how best to sell festival foods to people intent on having fun.
|Show #1027 : Taking Dominion Over The Creeping Things - 29-08-2015 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Rebecca Thistlethwaite, co-author of The New Livestock Farmer
Subject:The good book tells us to take dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the livestock and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. But it does not tell us how, and so we ask: Is it possible to raise animals to eat in ways that satisfy the ethics of all?
Topics include our taking of dominion over the animals we eat; how this dominion-taking has become an issue of consirable contention; and whether it is possible to raise animals to eat in ways that satisfy the ethics of all.
|Show # 1026 : - 23-08-2015 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Maisie Ganzler, VP Bon Appetite Management Co; Randy Krotz, CEO U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, and Rodger Wasson, Wasson Idea Farming
Subject:A century ago, Upton Sinclair opened the door to the meat packing facilities of Chicago with his novel The Jungle, and consumers did not like what they saw. It's been producers vrs. consumers ever since over the right to know. This leads us to ask, Who should control what may be known about food?
Topics include why many consumers want to know how food is produced; why many producers are reluctant to allow consumers accesss to the knowledge; and whether information transparency can be achieved along the food chain.
|Show # 1025 : Sex In The Flower Bed - 15-08-2015 (37.34 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dr. Lincoln and Lee Taiz, co-authors of Flora Unveiled: The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants
Subject:Birds do it. Bees do it. Even the flowers and the trees do it. But given how smart we think we are, why did it take us 14,000 years to realize plants actually do it. That we now know plants do it, we wonder, Do plants enjoy sex?
Topic include a history of our perceptions of plant sex; how, after 14,000 years of consideration, science discovered it takes two plants to tango; and the cultural backlash that followed the scientific discovery of plant sex.
|Show #1024 : Rating Whole Foods Ratings - 08-08-2015 (14.57 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark Lipson, Molino Creek Farm; Matt Rogers, Whole Foods Market; Steve Sprinkel, Farmer and Cook
Subject:Whole Foods Market wants to rate its food good, better or best, so long as its farmers pay for their ratings. This leads us to ask: How should Whole Foods Responsibly Grown ratings be rated?
Topic include why Whole Foods instituted an entirely new food rating system; what impact these ratings will have on farmers, and how much the ratings will cost consumers at the check-out stand.
|Show #1023: Psychotropic Drugs for Children - 01-08-2015 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Columbia University Research Psychiatrist Dr. Mark Olfson
Subject:They say a culture may be judged by how it treats its children. If such is true, we ask: How should we judge a culture that feeds its poor and dispossessed children psychotropic drugs?
Topics include why so many psychotropic drugs are prescribed to so many children; how the drugs impact their behavior; and the effect their drug use will have on our culture.
|Show # 1022 :THE INVADERS - 26-07-2015 (14.8 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Anthropology Professor Pat Shipman, Author, The Invaders
Subject:50,000 years ago it was us against them, and they are the home team. The winners would eat and the losers would fade into fossils. This food fight for the ages leads us to ask: How did we humans beat the Neanderthal to food and the future?
Topic include a comparison between Homo sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis; what happened when humans invaded the Neanderthal turf 50,000 years ago; and how humans beat Neanderthal to food and the future.
|Show #1021:Renters Vrs Owners - 19-07-2015 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Annuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute and Dean Kuipers, Orion Magazine
Subject:Knowing every country needs more farmland to feed the future, financial speculators are buying up farmland. And so farmers who once owned farmland now must rent. This leads us to ask, Can farmers who rent sustain farmland for the future?
Topic include why financial speculators see big money in the future of farmland; how speculation turns farmers from owners into renters; and whether renters can sustain farmland for the future?
|#1020: Feds vrs States on GMO Labeling - 11-07-2015 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Open Microphone
|Show #1019: Farm's Labor's Lost - 27-06-2015 (14.57 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Bob Martin, General Manager of Rio Farms and Butch Lindley, Partner of J&L Farms,
|Show #1018: Food Safety Modernization Act - 20-06-2015 (14.7 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Pete Kennedy, President, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund
|Show #1017: Learning Life's Lessons - 13-06-2015 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Kiera Butler, Author, Raise: What 4-H Teaches 7 Million Kids
Topics include a brief look at the history of 4-H; the lessons 4-H teaches 7 million children and young adults; and how the lessons taught by 4-H could change food and farming forever.
|Show #1016: Our Organic Tug-of-War - 06-06-2015 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Mark Kastel
|Show #1015: Africa & America - 30-05-2015 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Godfrey Kasozi, Center for Environment Technology and Rural Development, Uganda & Peggy Pollard, U.S. Uganda Sister Cities
Topics include the kinds of farming developed nations can effectively teach developing nations; the skills and technologies developing nations might teach developed nations; and how best to teach each other how to grow.
|Show # 1014: AFFORDABLE FOOD ACT? - 23-05-2015 (17.13 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Pamela Fugitt-Hetrick, Health Insurance Expert & Host of The Money Moves Radio Show
Topics include the economic changes to business wrought by the Affordable Care Act; for whom is the Act proving affordable; and how the Act might affect the price of food when fully implemented.
|Show #1013:Gold In Garbage - 16-05-2015 (14.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Wes Bolden, Cool Planet Inc & Ivy Young, Santa Cruz Compost
|Show #1012: Who to Believe? - 09-05-2015 (14.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Caroline Cox, Center for Environmental Health; Rebecca Riley, Natural Resources Defense Council (NOTE: Monsanto and National Corn Growers Association refused to participate.)
|Show #1011: From Apricots to Apple Inc - 02-05-2015 (14.72 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Robin Chapman, author of California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley
Topics include the incredible fecundity of the Santa Clara Valley; what happened to the fecundity when the Santa Clara Valley became Silicon Valley; and where our food will be grown when we pave all our best farmland into cities.
|Show #1010: The Story of Toystory - 25-04-2015 (14.49 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Keith Helkes, Chief Operating Officer, Genex Cooperative, Inc
Topics include the story of Toystory, the bull that sired 500,000 calves; why farm animals are selected and how they are reproduced; and how the selection process has transformed the modern herd.
|Show #1009: A Question for Taste - 19-04-2015 (14.5 MB) Listen Now
Guest: John McQuaid, author of Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat
Topics include how taste has served us through history; the means food scientists have developed to satisfy taste; and whether taste can tell good food from bad.
|Show #1008 Pests or Pesticides: - 28-03-2015 (14.62 MB) Listen Now
Guest Andy Dyer, author of Chasing the Red Queen:
Topics include the evolution of modern pesticides; the extent to which agriculture has come to rely on these pesticides; and how pests have reacted to the pesticides designed to kill them.
|Show #1007 : - 21-03-2015 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Chuck Allen of Keller Williams and Randy Dickhut, Vice President of Real Estate Operations with Farmers National Company
Topics include a look at the various factors that give farmland its value; how inflationary and deflationary economies affect the value of farmland; and the different ways to invest in farmland.
|Show #1006: Healing by Horse - 14-03-2015 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jean Kvamme and Stacy James-Ryan of the Lichen Oaks Adaptive Riding Center
Topics include the horse as physical, cognitive, emotional and spiritual therapist; the kinds of human afflictions a horse therapist might address; and how the horse therapist might heal the human patient.
|Show #1005: FEEDING THE LIFE WITHIN - 07-03-2015 (14.61 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Katherine Reid, PhD, mother, biochemist and Executive Director of Un Blind My Mind
|Show #1004: Antidote to Autism? - 28-02-2015 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Katherine Reid PhD, mother, biochemist and Executive Director of Un Blind My Mind
|Show #1003: TO LABEL OR NOT LABEL - 21-02-2015 (14.77 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Diana Reeves, Founder, GMO Free USA & Not Available, Grocery Manufacturers Association
|Show #1002: BONE TEA FOR THEE AND ME - 14-02-2015 (15.01 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Sally Fallon Morell and Kaayla Daniel, President and Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and co-authors of Nourishing Broth
Topics include the different kinds of farm and ranch work assigned to dogs; popular breeds of work dogs; and how work dogs are trained and maintained.
|Show #1001 DOG - THE PERFECT EMPLOYEE: - 07-02-2015 (17.03 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Cattle Rancher & Dog Trainer Jerry Davis
Subject:They always show up for work on time, love their job, never ask for a raise or a day off, and love to please. And so we ask... Which dog would you employ to move the herd?
Topics include the different kinds of farm and ranch work assigned to dogs; popular breeds of work dogs; and how work dogs are trained and maintained.
|Show #1000: FARMING FOR THE CITY - 31-01-2015 (14.7 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Michael Olson, Author, MetroFarm & Host Food Chain Radio
Topics include the fundamental strategy for successful metropolitan farming; which crops are most appropriate, and most profitable; and a look a successful metropolitan farms.
|Show #999: FARMING THE BIG DRY - 25-01-2015 (14.81 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Activist, Author and University of Arizona Professor Gary Paul Nabhan
|Show #998: FARMER BOT FOOD - 17-01-2015 (14.58 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Attorney Roger Royce, Host, Silicon Valley AgTech Incubator and Conference
Topics include the effect technology has on the fundamental equation of agriculture; emerging technologies that may transform agriculture; and whether humans will grow food in 2050.
|Show #997: BAN THE BEEF - 10-01-2015 (14.85 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Author, Rancher, Vegetarian Nicolette Hahn Niman Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production
Topics include why government wants us to eat less beef; what government wants us to eat more of; and whether beef can be produced in a way friendly to the environment, or simply banned from our diets.
|Show #996: INDUSTRIAL OR ORGANIC - 03-01-2015 (14.77 MB) Listen Now
Guest: UC Berkeley Conservation Biologist Lauren Ponisio
Topics include the fundamental differences between industrial and organic agricultures; what studies reveal about the respective productivty of each agriculture; and speculation as to which agriculture might best feed our future.
|Show #995: EATING OUT - 31-12-2014 (21.72 MB) Listen Now
Guest:Tom Bruce, Consultant, Central Coast Food & Beverrage
Topics include the trends of eating out and eating in; the ingredients required to cook up a successful food service business; and ways to construct a food service business so diner and server both win the dollars.
|Show #994: LIQUID STAFF OF LIFE - 13-12-2014 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Amelia Slayton Loftus, Author, Sustainable Homebrewing
Topics include a consideration of beer as the liquid staff of life; the fragmentation of the commercial beer marketplace; and how beer can best be brewed at home.
|Show #993: GREEN VRS GREEN ON GOLDEN RICE - 06-12-2014 (14.61 MB) Listen Now
Topics include whether genetically-modified golden rice is a cure for blindness for millions of malnourished people, and therefore good rice, or whether it is a biotech industry Trojan Horse designed to foist GMOs unto the farmlands of unwilling nations, and therefore bad rice.
|Show #992: THE PACIFIC PROTEIN WAR - 22-11-2014 (16.06 MB) Listen Now
Guests Joe Hamby, COO of the Tri Marine Group, and Adam Baske, of Sea Strong, LLC
|Show #991: Our Beginning Farmers - 15-11-2014 (14.85 MB) Listen Now
Topics include a quick look at the rapidly aging demographic of U.S. farmers; who among the young will take it upon themselves to feed the nation; and where beginning farmers will get the resources they need to succeed.
|Show #990: Government Safe Food - 08-11-2014 (14.86 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance Executive Director Judith McGeary
|Show #989: Brown, Then Green - 02-11-2014 (15.12 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Rancher Gabe Brown, Bismark,North Dakota
|Show #988: FEEDING OUR FUTURE'S BILLIONS - 25-10-2014 (14.94 MB) Listen Now
Guests John Kempf, Advancing Eco Agriculture, and Mischa Popoff Heartland Institute
Topics include the divergent courses of ecological and industrial agricultures; whether government should encourage the development of one form of agriculture at the expense of the other; and which agriculture is likely to win the competition to feed our future.
|Show #987: EATIN WORDS - 18-10-2014 (14.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Dan Jurasky, Author of The Language of Food
Topics include how ke-tsup became ketchup; why a bird native to Mexico was named after a Muslim country in the Meditteranean; and how words are used to sell menu items.
|Show #986: Billionaire Bill's Replica Burgers - 13-10-2014 (14.75 MB) Listen Now
Guest: David Peterson, Owner of Corralitos Market and Sausage Company
Topics include why, to many, animal protein has become environmentally and politically incorrect; the forthcoming competition between animal protein and replica protein; and what consumers can do to shape the outcome of this competition for their food dollars.
|Show #985: THE RED DELICIOUS PARADOX - 27-09-2014 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: The Professor of Agriculture, Tom Burford, Author of Apples of North America
|Show #984: A BILLION POUNDS OF POISON - 20-09-2014 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Andre Leu, President of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, and author of The Myths of Safe Pesticides
Topics include why agriculture uses pesticides to produce food; the extent to which agriculture has come to rely on pesticides; and whether those pesticides are safe.
|Show #983: Farms! In San Francisco? - 14-09-2014 (14.45 MB) Listen Now
Guests: San Francisco Supervisor David Chiu and Recreation and Parks General Manager Phil Ginsburg
Topics include why San Francisco elected to encourage urban agriculture; what steps the city is taking to encourage urban farms and farmers; and what changes the city hopes to affect on its landscape and its residents.
|Show #982: OUR BILLION DOLLAR GARBAGE CAN - 06-09-2014 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Kyle Olson, of Education Action Group, and Chef Jamie Smith, of Food Smith
|Show #981: $304,480 PER CHILD - 30-08-2014 (14.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Lauren Greutman, Author of "How to Coupon Effectively"
Topics include a look at the ever escalating cost of food; how to plan meals to a budget; and ways to get the most food value for the fewest food dollars.
|Show #980: FARMING CALIFORNIA'S DROUGHT - 23-08-2014 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Michael Marsh, Executive Director of Western United Dairyman
|Show #979: OUR RURAL HUNGRY - 16-08-2014 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: John Crabtree from the Center for Rural Affairs
Topics include why rural economies no longer support rural people; whether sufficient incentive exists for rural people to feed their own hunger; and why so many in rural America are so hungry.
|Show #978: THE 10,000 MILE DIET - 09-08-2014 (14.68 MB) Listen Now
Topics include a look at the trends of local and distant foods; the apparent conflict between proponents of local and distant foods, and whether local or distant food is economically most efficient.
|Show #977: Rural Romance - 02-08-2014 (14.89 MB) Listen Now
Topics include why city people move to the country; the obstacles to social intercourse they find in the country; and what they do to make their rural romances work.
|Show #976: PROHIBITION! - 26-07-2014 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bryce Bauer, author of Gentlemen Bootleggers
|Show #975: FARMING IN THE SKY - 19-07-2014 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Maggie Cheney, Director of Farms and Education, Farm-in-the-Sky Project, EcoStation NY & Steven Peck, Founder and President, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Toronto, CA
Topics include the unused space available on city rooftops; the technologies required to farm that valuable space; and whether farming the rooftops of big cities can be economically viable.
|Show #974: MARTHA'S PITCHFORK REBELLION - 12-07-2014 (14.45 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Virginia farmer Martha Boneta and Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund President Pete Kennedy
|Show #973: Hope in Heritage - 05-07-2014 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Farmer and Organic Pioneer Amigo Bob Cantisano
Subject:Given our recently won ability to re-engineer life, the future looks like an apple that will not spoil. Some, however, see hope in the past and so are planting a mother orchard of heritage apple trees. Should we hold on to seeds of the past?
|Show #972: GMO SCIENCE VRS SCIENCE - 28-06-2014 (14.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: UC Davis Animal Science Professor Allison Van Eenennaam and U of Georgia Plant Science Professor Wayne Parrott
Topics include a look at the scientific method of animal feeding studies; how some studies prove GM foods are safe to eat, while others prove GM foods cause severe stomach inflammation and cancerous tumors; and how one should decide whose science to believe.
|Show #971: TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSIP - 14-06-2014 (14.1 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Devon G. Pena, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, Ethnic and Environmental Studies, University of Washington, and Founder and President of the Acequia Institute
|Show #970: THE FORK IN THE ROAD - 07-06-2014 (14.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Kristin Carlson, Anna Ringelman, Seniors in Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz
|Show #969: ARMING USDA - 31-05-2014 (14.89 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ray Parga from Del Valle Gunsmithing
|Show #968: WASTES NOT, WANT NOT - 24-05-2014 (14.59 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Caroline Snyder, Professor Emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology and Founder of Citizens for Sludge-Free Land, and Mayor Patty Martin, Co-Founder of Safe Food and Fertilizer
Topics include how we treat the toxic in our toxic household and industrial wastes; we do with our treated wastes; and whether foods produced from lands containing treated wastes are safe to eat.
|Show #967: CHINA RED ORGANICS - 17-05-2014 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Patty Lovera, Ass Director, Food & Water Watch
|Show #966: BECOMING CHEF - 10-05-2014 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Chef Enzo Fargione, Author Visual Eats
Topics include the ingredients a chef must bring to the restaurant table; how these ingredients must be combined to cook up a successful restaurant; and what are the odds of a good cook becoming a successful chef?
|Show #965: SPICES OF LIFE - 03-05-2014 (14.59 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gary Paul Nabhan, PhD, author, Cumin, Camels, and Caravans
Topics include a look at the early history of spices, including frankincense and myrrh; how spices provided people living in very harsh lands with an economic food chain; and how those spices, along with other precious commodities, led to the globalization of world trade.
|Show #964: FOOD IGNORANCE COVENANT - 26-04-2014 (14.61 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ann Vileisis, Author, Kitchen Literacy
Topics include why we city dwellers agreed to become ignorant about the foods we eat; what consequences we face by maintaining this ignorance; and whether we should, or should not, learn the story of our food.
|Show #963: PEOPLE VRS PATHOGENS - 19-04-2014 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gautum Dantas, PhD, Principal Investigator, The Dantas Lab, Washington University
Topics include why agriculture employs antibiotics in the production of animal protein; what happens when those antibiotics pass into the environment; and what populations of bacteria in the environment do with the antibiotics fed them.
|Show #962: SUPERWEEDS & SUPER GENES - 12-04-2014 (14.48 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Steve Smith, Spokesman, Save Our Crops Coalition
Topics include how some plant and insect pests are becoming resistant to genetically-engineered crops; the impact these super pests are having on farmers ability to grow food; and which will likely win the fight: people or pests?
|Show #961: - 22-03-2014 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dr. Daphne Miller, author of The Jungle Effect and Farmacology
|Show #960: DECERTIFYING THE UFW - 15-03-2014 (14.57 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Silvia Lopez, Farm Worker, Gerawan Farms
Topics include why farm workers want to dercertify the UFW Union of Caesar Chavez; why government is refusing to count the farmworkers vote; and whether government should count the vote.
|Show #959: MAN OR BEAST? - 08-03-2014 (14.54 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good And Evil
Topics include a look at the nature of animals in the wild; how the nature of animals in the wild differs from that of people in civilization; and what, if anything, man can learn from animals about the nature of good and evil.
|Show #958: TO CATCH THE THIEVES - 01-03-2014 (14.71 MB) Listen Now
Topics include the inherent vulnerabililty of farms and farmers; how some take advantage of this vulnerabililty to steal the property of others; and whether the stealing can be stopped.
|Show #957: KNEADING SOME DOUGH - 23-02-2014 (14.67 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Mark Stambler of Pagnol Boulanger
Topics include why Stambler began baking bread in his backyard oven; how his avocation became a vocation targeted by the food safety police; and how his fight won the right for Californians to sell homemade foods.
|Show #956: THE STOMACH STUDY - 16-02-2014 (14.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Howard Vlieger, Independent Crop and Livestock Nutrition Consultant
Topics include why he commissioned a study when so many studies already exist; how the study was designed to be scientifcally valid; and what the study revealed about the long term consumption of GMOs on the stomachs of pigs.
|Show #955: GMO FREE CHEERIOS - 01-01-1970 (0 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gregory Conko, Executive Director, Competitive Enterprise Institute
|Show #955: GMO FREE CHEERIOS - 23-02-2014 (14.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gregory Conko, Exec Dir, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Topics include the extent to which the food industry is fighting the forced labeling of foods containing GMOs; why General Mills introduced Cheerios labeled as containing no GMOs; and what consumers should, and should not know, about the contents of the foods they buy.
|Show #954: FEEDING THE 60 MILLION - 01-02-2014 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Rachel Sheffield, Policy Analyst, DeVos Center for Religtion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation
Subject:60 million people now rely on a government $150 trillion in debt (give or take) for food. This leads us to ask… Who will feed the 60 million should government go belly up?
Topics include the extent to which citizens of the United States have come to rely on government for food; what happens to the family unit when government becomes its principal bread winner; and who will feed the population of hungry should government fail to do so.
|Show #953: SOWING CANNABIS NORMALICA - 25-01-2014 (14.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Erik Altieri, Communications Director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Subject:A recreation in two states, a medicine in 20 states, and declared less-dangerous-than-booze by the former Choom Ganger now President, it appears as though Cannabis is on its way to normal. And so we ask… What will we reap when we sow Cannabis normalica?
Topics include barriers that remain to the legalization of cannabis; products of the cannabis plant that might emerge as agricultural commodities; and what society may reap when it sows Cannabis normalica.
|Show #952: OF AUTISM, ANIMAL WELFARE & DR. TEMPLE GRANDIN - 18-01-2014 (39.1 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University
Subject:We've all seen the brutal videos taken at our nation's confined animal feeding operations and processing facilities. Those videos lead us to ask… How should we treat the animals we are to eat?
Topics include how animal behavior made be decoded; how understanding animal behavior can help improve how animals are handled; and how we can treat the animals we are to eat for the betterment of all.
|Show #951: EATING DISORDERLY - 11-01-2014 (14.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dr. Elizabeth Esalen from the Lotus Collaborative Recovery Center
Subject:Some of us eat to live. Others live to eat. The rest of us have lost control of eating. Their eating disorders lead us to ask… Can one bring an eating disorder back into order?
Topics include the extent to which people suffer from eating disorders; how these disorders are treated; and whether one can bring an eating disorder back into order.
|Show #950: SOIL, FOOD, FAITH - 04-01-2014 (14.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Fred Bahnson, Director of the Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative, and author of Soil and Sacrament
Subject:Some believe our yearning for real food is inextricably bound up in our spiritual desire to be fed. This thought leads us to ask… Can soil and food feed one's faith?
Topics include why religious literature often features the metaphors of farms and gardens; how the growth of soil inspires the growth of faith; and how soil, food, and faith help build community.
|Show #949:OUR OCEAN TRASH HEAPS - 21-12-2013 (14.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests Charles Moore, Founder of The Algalita Marine Institute
Subject:Out there in the Pacific Ocean, where the fish we will eat swim, there is a floating island of decomposing plastic trash the size of North America. This patch leads us to ask… Is it possible to throw plastic away?
Topics include the extent to which decomposing trash now inhabits our ocean environments; how this decomposing trash is finding its way back into our food chain; and what, if anything, can be done to reduce the damage.
|Show #948: CROP DUSTER: FLYING IT ON - 14-12-2013 (14.47 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bert Atwood, Author, My Father Was A Crop Duster
Subject:Few have given farmers more control over their environment than the crop duster. Those magnificent men, and women, in their flying machines lead us to ask… Are crop dusters essential to modern agriculture?
Topics include a brief history of crop dusting; the evolution of the Atwood Crop Dusting Company in the Salad Bowl of the World, and a look at science and art of flying it on.
|Show #947: SLAYING NATURAL FOODS - 07-12-2013 (14.61 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Stephen Gardner, Director of Litigation, Center for Science in the Public Interest
Subject:It is a food selling for $40 billion a year, but there is really nothing to it but a suggestion that really doesn't mean anything. And so we ask… Should any food be labeled "Natural?"
Topics include what is "natural" food; why consumers spend an estimated $40 billion a year on foods labeled natural; and why some are trying to litigate natural off all food labels.
|Show #946: LIVING WITH ABANDON - 30-11-2013 (4.34 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Karen Karbo, Author, Julia Childs Rules
Subject:At six foot three inches, she was taller than most men, not particularly pretty, and had a voice like a cartoon character. And yet, by whispering "Who's going to know?" into our collective ears, Julia Childs changed how American eats… And so we ask… Can we learn to cook, eat, and live with abandon?
Topics include an introduction to the person of Julia Childs; how the discovery of cooking changed Childs' life; and how Childs changed how America eats.
|Show #945: MAO'S GREAT LEAP - 23-11-2013 (19.06 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Hong Kong University Professor Frank Dikotter, author of Mao's Great Famine
Subject:When Chairman Mao ordered China to take a great leap forward toward pure communism, 45 to 60 million Chinese were worked, beaten and starved to death. Mao's great leap leads us to ask… Did government starve 45 million to death by accident of policy, or by act of willful intent?
Topics include how Mao's government took control of the nation's food; how that government managed to withhold food from the people who grew the food; and whether starving 45 million people to death was an accident of policy or an act of willful intent.
|Show #945A: MAO'S GREAT LEAP : - 25-11-2013 (14.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Hong Kong University Professor Frank Dikotter, author of Mao's Great Famine NOTE: Previous Post contains errant sound file.
Subject: When Chairman Mao ordered China to take a great leap forward toward pure communism, 45 to 60 million Chinese were worked, beaten and starved to death. Mao's great leap leads us to ask… Did government starve 45 million to death by accident of policy, or by act of willful intent?
Topics include how Mao's government took control of the nation's food; how that government managed to withhold food from the people who grew the food; and whether starving 45 million people to death was an accident of policy or an act of willful intent.
|Show #944: STALIN'S GREAT HOLODOMOR - 16-11-2013 (14.61 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Professor Walter Zaryckyj, Center for U.S. - Ukrainian Relations
Subject:Government exists to serve the people. However, during the time of Joseph Stalin's Holodomor, government served the people death. That time leads us to ask… Why did Stalin's government starve millions to death?
Topics include how Stalin's government took control of the Ukraine's food; how that government managed to withhold the food from the people who grew the food; and whether the starving to death of millions was an accident of policy or willful intent.
|Show #942: THE NEW GOVERNMENT RULE - 02-11-2013 (14.58 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jo Ann Baumgartner, Wild Farm Alliance; Sarah Hackney, National Sustainable Agriculture Alliance, and Ken Kimes, New Natives Organic Sprouts
Subject:In 2010, Congress granted the federal government total control over the nation's food. The Obama administration hired former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor to rule over this new dominion. This leads us to ask… For whom will government make food safe?
Topics include why a Monsanto executive was selected to rule over food safety; how his new rule will attempt to make food safe; and what kind of farm will be allowed to grow government-safe food.
|Show #943: LOSING ONE BILLION YEARS - 09-11-2013 (14.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David H. Freedman, author, "How Junk Food Can End Obesity"
Subject:The journal Obesity suggests Americans alive today can expect to collectively sacrifice one billion years of life to obesity. This leads us to ask… Can junk food be re-engineered to health food?
Topics include why "junk" food causes us to gain too much weight; how "health" food fails to adequately address our weight gain; and whether junk food can be re-engineered to make us healthy.
|Show #941: THE MISSING ESSENTIAL - 26-10-2013 (14.8 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Joar Opheim, Founder & CEO, Nordic Naturals
Subject:He caught fish in the frigid waters of the North Sea, then turned them into a healthy business in California. This fish oil entrepreneur leads us to ask… What is essential to me about Omega-3?
Topics include why the Omega-3 fatty acids went missing from industrial foods; how the fish oil business grew to supplement our diets with this essential nutrient; and whether the fish oil industry can be sustained given the world's need for essential fats.
|Show #940: PESTERING THE PESTS - 19-10-2013 (14.9 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Thomas Wittman, Gophers Limited
Subject:We build up our farms, gardens and homes to suit our needs, then they sneak in and steal. Their unrelenting assault leads us to ask… How can we control pests?
Topics include the pests that most often pester people; how the activity of pests varies by the season; and non-toxic ways in which people can pester their pests.
|Show #939: EAT LOCAL, FIRST! - 12-10-2013 (14.6 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Various Participants of Eat Local First Festival
Subject:Think Local First, a business membership organizaton of Santa Cruz County, California, is conducting an Eat Local First Festival to celebrate local farmers, processors, restaurateurs, and foodies. This effort leads us to ask… Why eat local, first?
Topics include why Think Local First is hosting an Eat Local First Festival; what significance participants attach to the act of eating local, first; and to what extent can communities grow to feed themselves.
|Show #938: FEEDING THE POOR - 29-09-2013 (15.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis, co-authors of The Stop
Subject:There are over a thousand foodbanks in North America serving billions of pounds of food through thousands of agencies to millions of people. This leads us to ask… Can the poor be nourished out of poverty?
Topics include a look at the brief history of food banks in North America; how some food banks grow from distributors of excess food to builders of community; and whether the poor can be nourished out of poverty.
|Show #937: THE RIGHTS TO FOOD - 21-09-2013 (8.53 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Cynthia Mathiesen, Driscoll's Berries, and Thomas AmRhein, Naturipe Berry Growers
Subject:Consider a patented berry: You can touch it, smell it, and eat it, but you may not own it because it contains the intellectual property of someone else. This leads us to ask… Should one be allowed to own the legal rights to a food?
Topics include how food becomes an intellectual property; how the rights to the intellectual property are maintained; and whether private parties should be allowed to own the rights to public foods.
|Show #936: EAT DRINK VOTE - 14-09-2013 (8.5 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Nutrionist Marion Nestle, PhD
Subject:Given the number of diets we engage in, and the number of times we engage in them, its plain to see we need someone to lead the way. And so we ask… For whom should we vote?
Topics include why we are confused about what we should eat; how different interests vie to control what we think we should eat; and for whom should we vote to lead our way of thinking about food.
|Show #935: HAVING A FAMILY COW - 07-09-2013 (8.47 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Joann Grohman, author of Keeping A Family Cow
Subject:They turn the grass upon which we would starve into the food upon which we can thrive. And so we ask… Do you think cows be green?
Topics include a look at the historical relationship between cows and people; the foods a family cow can provide; and how to raise a family cow in the confined environments of metropolitan areas.
|Show #934: BUGGING OUT - 31-08-2013 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guest: David George Gordon, author of the Eat-A-Bug book
Subject:An estimated 80 of the world's population is entomophager, which is to say, bug eating. This leads us to ask… Why don't you and I eat bugs?
Topics include a look at the world's bug-eaters and nonbug-eaters; a comparison of the nutrional qualities of bugs and tradional foods; and the ways in which people capture, prepare and eat bugs.
|Show #933: FARMING FOOD SOVEREIGNTY - 24-08-2013 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Beverly Bell and Tory Field, authors of Harvesting Justice
Subject:People everywhere want a food supply that is fair, just, and sovereign, but most often end up with a food supply controlled by big government and big business. This leads us to ask… Can we farm our way to food sovereignty?
Topics include why the production and distribution of food tends to become consolidated in the hands of a few, instead of the many; why many are resisting the domination of centralized food systems; and how people might farm their way to food sovereignty.
|Show #932: PLAYING CHICKEN W ORGANIC EGGS - 17-08-2013 (8.91 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Christian & Stephanie Alexandre of Eco-Dairy Farm and Cornucopia cofounder and farm policy analyst Mark Kastel
Subject:Government wishes to make eggs safe by preventing chickens from ranging free outdoors. This leads us to ask… For whom will government make organic eggs safe?
Topics include why government is establishing new rules to prevent chickens from ranging free outdoors; how preventing chickens from ranging free might make eggs safe; and for whom will government make eggs safe.
|Show #931: GLUTEN-FREE WE - 10-08-2013 (8.52 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Diane Javelli, Dietician, University of Washington Medical Center
Subject:Raise your hand if you think you are gluten intolerant. Now, raise your hand if you know you are gluten intolerant. The difference between thinking and knowing leads us to ask… To be, or not to be, gluten-free?
Topics include gluten and its place in our diet; why so many have become so intolerant of gluten in such a short period of time; and whether we should all be, or should not be, gluten-free.
|Show #930: FEEDING THE BEARS - 03-08-2013 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Lynn Rogers, PhD, of the Wildlife Research Institute
Subject:Mr. Rogers has been feeding bears since 1967 to research their behavior. Government says feeding bears changes their behavior and Mr. Rogers must stop. This conflict leads us to ask… Should Mr. Rogers stop feeding the bears?
Topics include why bears are being fed in the wild; what happens to bears in the wild when they are fed; and whether bears in the wild should be fed.
|Show #929: GUEST WORKER PROGRAM - 28-07-2013 (8.44 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Stephen Murdoch, Vice President Public Relations, Enterprise Canada
Subject:Slave labor was cheap, but then it became very expensive. Illegal immigrant labor is cheap, but it, too, is becoming very expensive. The cost of cheap labor leads us to ask… Should we have a guest worker program?
Topics include how cheap labor becomes very expensive labor; how Canada's guest worker program provides farms with workers and workers with employment; and whether the United States should establish a guest worker program.
|Show #928: THE EROSION OF CIVILIZATION - 20-07-2013 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Geomorphologist Professor David Montgomery, author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations
Subject:Farmland equal to the size of India and China combined has been abandoned since WWII due to the loss of soil. This leads us to ask… Why is civilization losing its soil?
Topics include why civilizations lose soil; what happens to civilizations when they lose soil; and what civilizations can do to save soil.
|Show #927: THE VANISHING OF OUR BEES - 13-07-2013 (8.49 MB) Listen Now
Harvard Environmental Health Professor Chensheng Lu and Beekeeper David Hackenburg
Subject:Imagine waking up to find that every single person in Chicago has simply vanished, leaving their breakfast on the kitchen table! Such is the case with our bees, which leads us to ask… Who, or what, is causing our bees to vanish?
Topics include the impact colony collapse disorder has on the human food chain; the possible cause(s) of colony collapse disorder; and what might be done to save our bees, and our food chain.
|Show #926: ASPERTAME IN MILK - 29-06-2013 (8.75 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Peggy Armstrong, International Dairy Foods Association & Sally Fallon Morell, Weston A. Price Foundation
Subject:The dairy industry wants to sweeten milk with aspartame but does not want to label it on the front of the carton, and so has petitioned FDA for relief from this requirement. This leads us to ask… Should dairy be upfront in labeling aspartame in milk?
Topics include why the dairy industry wants to add artificial– non-nutritive– sweetners to milk; why the industry petitioned FDA for relief from labeling laws; and whether industry should be upfront in their labeling of additives.
|Show #925: OUT OF POVERTY INTO AFRICA - 22-06-2013 (8.54 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Larry Jacobs & John Graham, Del Cabo Cooperative
Subject:By getting 400 small organic farmers in Baja to cooperate, the Del Cabo Cooperative raised their annual incomes from $3,000 to $20,000, and is now at work in Africa. This work leads us to ask… Can organic prosper in Africa?
Topics include how the Del Cabo Cooperative got 400 farmers in Baja to cooperate; how their cooperation allowed for the development of a thriving industry where little existed; and whether this economic food chain can be made to prosper in Africa as well.
|Show #924: MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT - 16-06-2013 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: North Dakota farmer and State Senator Terry Wanzek
Subject:We voted for a government that would protect us, but voted in a government that gave us the Monsanto Protection Act. And so we ask… What's to eat in the Monsanto Protection Act?
Topics include what biotech agriculture hoped to accomplish with a Farmer Assurance Provision; why that Provision became the Monsanto Protection Act; and what benefit consumers derive from the Act.
|Show #923: ORGANIC, TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST? - 08-06-2013 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mischa Popoff, author of Is It Organic
Subject:The food industry is growing like a weed by selling foods labeled "organic." The tremendous growth rate of the organic foods industry leads us to ask… Are all foods labeled "organic" organic?
Topics include why the organic food industry is growing so large, so fast; how the organic food industry manages the veracity of its organic label; and whether organic foods should be tested to determine if they are, indeed, organic.
|Show #922: GOING TO GROUND - 01-06-2013 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Judith Schwartz, Author of Cows Save The Planet
Subject:We paved it over and swept it away as if it were, well, dirty. Then we woke to the fact that soil is where life begins, and where life ends. And so we ask… Can livestock be managed to restore soil?
Topics include the relationship between soil health and environmental health; how industrial processes have provided the means to diminish the need for soil in the production of food; and the ways in which we might bring life back to our soil, and to ourselves.
|Show #921: COCAINE, CAFFEINE & COCA-COLA - 28-05-2013 (8.53 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark Pendergrast, Author of For God, Country, & Coca Cola
Subject:It sprang to life selling patent medicines in post Civil War Atlanta, then grew into the quintessential American corporation selling soft drinks to the world. And so we ask… What is the secret in Coca-Cola's secret formula?
Topics include a look at the secret ingredients of the original Coca-Cola; how the Coca-Cola company grew to become one of the world's most successful companies; and what the future might look like for the soft drink industry.
|Show #920: EXOGENOUS SEMIOTIC ENTROPY: - 18-05-2013 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Stephanie Seneff, Senior Research Scientist at MIT's Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Subject:Farmers use 200 million pounds of the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) every year to grow food without weeds. This leads us to ask… Is glyphosate safe to eat?
Topics include how genetically-engineered food crops have encouraged the increased use of glyphosate; why the manufacturers of glyphosate say its safe to eat; and how a metastudy of available research reveals that glyphosate is a "textbook example of exogenous semiotic entropy," which is to say, the pathway to modern diseases.
|Show #919: AG GAG LAWS - 11-05-2013 (8.59 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Emily Meredith of Animal Agriculture Alliance, Paul Shapiro of The Humane Society
Subject:If you want to eat the sausage, you might not want to know from what, and how, that sausage was made. This leads us to ask… Should ag gag the press?
Topics include how the press portrays industrial food systems; why agriculture is fighting back against this portrayal with "ag gag" laws; and whether consumers should be allowed to know how farmers grow food.
|Show #918: SEAWEED AS SUPERFOOD - 04-05-2013 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Scott Kennedy, FarmaSea
Subject:Some claim people who eat seaweed are "the healthiest and longest living people in the history of mankind." This claim leads us to ask… Is seaweed good to eat?
Topics include a look at the history of kelp as food; why so many nutritional claims are made about kelp; and whether kelp is, in fact, a good food for the human body.
|Show #917: FOOD OR MONEY? - 27-04-2013 (8.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Kathy Kozer National Family Farm Coalition, Eric Munoz Oxfam America, and Mary Kay Thatcher American Farm Bureau
Subject:The U.S. government wants to change the way it aids the world's hungry: Instead of sending its food, it wants to send its money. This leads us to ask… Should we send the hungry food or money?
Topics include how the U.S. now feeds the world's hungry by sending crops from its farmers; why some believe the U.S. should instead send money from its taxpayers; and whether its best to aid the hungry by sending them food or money. (Tags: food aid, hunger aid, agriculture, farming, Farm Bill, food aid, foreign aid, humanitarian aid, Oxfam America, National Family Farm Coalition, American Maritime Congress, American Farm Bureau Federation)
|Show #916: BOYCOTT KELLOGG'S? - 20-04-2013 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Diana Reeves, Founder, GMO Free USA
Subject:"K-e-double-l–oh–double-good Kellog's best to you" is apparentely not good enough for some, as they are boycotting this iconic corporation. Their honk-n-waves lead us to ask… Why boycott Kellogg's for selling GMO cereals?
Topics include the extent to which GMO grains are used in the nation's breakfast cereals; how some do not want to consume GMO breakfast cereals; and why the cereals of Kellogg's are being targeted for a nation-wide boycott.
|Show #915: SHOULD WE BE ALLOWED TO GROW MEDICAL MARIJUANA? - 13-04-2013 (7.46 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dave DeWitt, author of Growing Medical Marijuana
Subject:When it was legal, a pound cost pennies; when it was illegal, a pound cost thousands of dollars. Now that it is kinda-sorta legal, we simply must ask… Should we be allowed to grow medical marijuana?
Topics include how an illegal plant became a legal medicine; how one may grow the illegal plant legally; and whether we should be allowed to grow our own medicine?
|Show #914: IT TAKES A GARDEN! - 06-04-2013 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Eric Toensmeier, author of Paradise Lot
Subject:The boys turned a barren lot in the run-down neighborhood of a rust-belt city into a Garden of Eatin with wives and children, and thus lead us to ask… What else can one grow in a garden?
Topics include how two young men quit chasing to start gardening; how they turned a 1/10 acre vacant lot into a paradise of food and family; and what their work might give to residents of cities.
|Show #913: - 23-03-2013 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Judith McGeary, Executive Director of Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
Subject:Former Monsanto exective Michael Taylor is now the nation's Food Safety Czar. His 1,200 pages of new food safety rules lead us to ask… What is safe food?
Topics include why government issued 1,200 pages of new food safety rules; what impact the new rules will have on America's farms; and what kind of farms, if any, will be able to grow government-safe food.
|Show #912: GARDEN IN THE MIND - 16-03-2013 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Paul Lee, Author, There is a Garden in the Mind
Subject:He asked the University of California, Santa Cruz for a small scrap of land to teach gardening, and then proceeded to turn the earth on agriculture. That garden leads us to ask… Why organic?
Topics include a brief history of Alan Chadwick and his garden; how that garden helped give birth to organic farming and gardening; and what impact orgnanic might have on our future.
|Show #911: UBIQUITOUS SOY & PRECOCIOUS PUBERTY - 02-03-2013 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Nancy Chapman, Executive Director of the Soyfoods Association of North America, and Pharmacist Ben Fuchs, Host of the Bright Side radio show
Subject:Its in the hamburger patty. Its in the hamburger bun. Its in the milkshake. In fact, soy is in many, if not most, of the processed foods we eat. The ubiquity of this bean leads us to ask… Could ubiquitous soy cause precocious puberty?
Topics include the extent to which soy has become a major dietary ingredient; what impact eating so much soy– or any one food– might have on the development of the human body; and whether always eating soy could force children into early sexual maturity.
|Show #910: THE POWER & PROTOCOLS TO POLICE - 23-02-2013 (8.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: David Runsten, Policy Director for Community Alliance of Family Farmers
Subject:The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, under former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor, now has the power and the protocols to police food safety. This leads us to ask… Can local farmers survive the FDA's food safety police?
Topics include why Congress gave the FDA the power and protocols to police food safety; what effect these protocols will have on the nation's farmers; and whether local agriculture can survive rules designed to police industrial agriculture.
|Show #909: FORGETTING THE PAST - 16-02-2013 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests:David Buchanan, Author, Taste, Memory
Subject:Santayana was thinking of people when he remarked, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." But could not the same be said of plants? This thought leads us to ask… What will happen to people if plants forget their past?
Topics include how plants earn the intelligence to grow and development in response to specific environments; why that specific intelligence is being threatened with elimination; and what can be done to help our plants remember their past.
|Show #908: A FEDERAL FARM FIASCO - 09-02-2013 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Food & Agriculture Consultant Burleigh Leonard
Subject:It began as an effort to help farmers farm in hard times, but grew into an effort to help just about everyone do everything for everybody all the time. This leads us to ask…. Should the U.S. eliminate its Farm Bill?
Topics include a brief history of the federal government's efforts to help farmers farm in the Depression; how that effort grew into a $300 billion a year effort to help everyone all the time; and whether the federal government should simply eliminate its Farm Bill and let farmers farm.
|Show #907: Nano Nano NanoFood - 02-02-2013 (8.58 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Journalist Heather Millar
Subject:A million nanoparticles could be contained on the period at the end of this sentence, which explains why some foods are now made with zillions of them. But wait… Are nanofoods safe to eat?
Topics include a look at the electronmicroscope-sized nanoparticle; why nanoparticles are being used to manufacture foods; and the ethics of making and selling foods with particles so small no barrier can prevent them from entering and altering.
|Show #906: THE LONE WOLF OF CALIFORNIA - 26-01-2013 (4.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Karen Kovacs, Program Specialist, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Subject:After being collared and released into the wilds of northeast Oregon, wolf OR-7 took off on the run for northern California. His 3,000 mile run leads us to ask… What is the lone-wolf of California dreamin?
Topics include why wolves were re-introduced into the American West; how the conflict between those who want wolves to run free and those who do not is mediated; and what OR-7 might be dreaming about in his 3,000 mile lone-wolf run through northern California.
|Show #805: FOOD AS MONEY - 20-01-2013 (6.95 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Kara Newman, Author, The Secret Financial Life of Food
Subject:When government prints money by the trillions, with nothing real to back that money, it diminishes its money's ability to buy real goods and services. Thus more money buys less food. This leads us to ask… Who should determine the value of food?
Topics include a brief history of food exchanges; the natural and man-made forces that affect the value of food in those exchanges; and a discussion about who should determine the value of food.
|Show #804: BUSTING OUT BIG - 12-01-2013 (8.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Stacey Mitchell, Institute for Local Self Reliance
Subject:Five banks now hold 56% of all the money. One grocer now sells 25% of all the food. One website now sells 33% of everything sold online. And so we ask… Can we shop our way back to a strong local economy?
Topics include how a few businesses grow to dominate commerce; what their ever increasing dominance portends for local economies; and what local economies might do to survive the competition of giants.
|Show #803: THE ELITE MEAT - 05-01-2013 (9.21 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Custom Butcher Rian Rinn & EcoFarm Board Member Thomas Wittman
Subject:A few decades ago, we lived with the animals we ate; today, the animals we live with are pets, and the animals we eat live in giant factories thousands of miles away. This leads us to ask… Can we bring our food animals home?
Topics include an overview of the meat trade; why some are looking to reestablish the trade in local meats; and how local animals are killed and processed for sale.
|Show #802: HAND IN HAND W ENVIROS & RANCHERS - 22-12-2012 (8.53 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis of the Sierra Foothill Conservancy and Logan Page of Sierra Lands Beef
Subject:As the Hatfields and McCoys of the American West, environmentalists and ranchers seldom trod the same side of the street, so when we find them working the same piece of ground we simply must ask… Can environmentalists and ranchers work together?
Topics include the long-standing animosity between environmentalists and ranchers; what happens to land when ranching is prohibited; and how environmentalists and ranchers might work together to make money and preserve the native landscape.
|Show #801: FARMS VRS RESTAURANTS - 16-12-2012 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Renewable Fuels Association & National Council of Chain Restaurants
Subject:We can grow corn for food, and we can grow corn for fuel; but when we grow corn for food and fuel, both will cost more. This leads us to ask… Which is most important: food or fuel?
Topics include government's Renewable Food Program; the impact this Program has on the cost of food; and, given the recent discoveries of oil and gas in the U.S., whether we should continue growing corn for fuel.
|Show #800: THE REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BIG QUESTION - 08-12-2012 (0 MB) Listen Now
Guests: OPEN MICROPHONE
Subject:55.25 million people can no longer adequately feed themselves, and so rely on a government $16.3 trillion in debt, with $86.8 trillion of unfunded liabilities, in an economy that buys $500 billion a year more than it sells. These numbers lead us to ask… Who will feed the 55.25 million if government goes belly-up?
Topics include why the question is being asked; whether social institutions that traditionally fed the hungry can still feed the hungry; and who will feed the 55.25 million if government goes belly-up.
|Show #799: CAN'T THEY JUST GET ALONG? - 01-12-2012 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Liana Hoodes of the National Organic Coalition & Laura Batcha of the Organic Trade Association
Subject:USDA commissioned a study group, called AC21, to determine how genetically-modified crops could best co-exist with organic crops. This Rodney King effort leads us to ask… Can GMOs just get along with organics?
Topics include the fundamental positions held by GMO and organic agricultures; what AC21 says each side must do to co-exist; and whether it is possible for GMO and organic agricultures to just get along.
|Show #798: CITIES GONE WILD - 17-11-2012 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: James Sterba, Author, Nature Wars
Subject:Having discovered easy-living, wild animals have moved into town where they now pit neighbor against neighbor and lead us to ask… Should cities encourage or discourage wildlife?
Topics include why so many wild animals now live in cities; why cities are so welcoming to wild animals; and how the management, or lack thereof, of city wildlife is now sparking nature wars throughout our neighborhoods.
|Show #797: FOOD FOR THOUGHT - 10-11-2012 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Nutritionist Pam Killeen, Author of Addition: The Hidden Epidemic
Subject:Addiction, autism, dementia… Oh me!… Fatigue, sleep disorders, ADHD… Oh my! All the mental disorders that now drive the world crazy lead us to ask…. Can we eat our way to mental health?
Topics include reasons why so many people now suffer from so many mental disorders; the role food plays in the development of the brain and mind; and how what we eat might improve how we can think.
|Show #796: WHAT'S NOT FOR SCHOOL LUNCH? - 03-11-2012 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Chef Jamie Smith & Nutritionist Jill Troderman
Subject:Government's No Hungry Kids Act is forcing schools to feed children healthy lunches, which children throw into the garbage. This leads us to ask… Who can feed children healthy food?
Topics include why the No Hungry Kids Act is changing the school lunch; how children react to government's healthy lunches; and who can best feed children– government or parents?
|Show #795: RIGHT TO KNOW FEEDING FRENZY - 27-10-2012 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Attorney Joseph E. Sandler
Subject:They are spending over $40 million to convince Californians to deny themselves the right to know about genetically-modified organisms in their food. This leads one to ask… Why should consumers not know about GMOs in their food?
Topics include why some products would be legally exempt from labeling; how much legal labels would add to the costs of foods; and whether everyone will be able to sue food companies over their labeling.
|Show #794: WHO SAYS GMOS ARE SAFE? - 20-10-2012 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dr. Michael Hansen, Senior Staff Scientist for the Consumer's Union
Subject:We have re-engineered corn plants to kill insect pests, and now have millions of acres of insect-killing corn plants growing in America's heartland. That corn now kills insects leads us to ask… Who says genetically-modified foods are safe for people to eat?
Topics include why, and how, food crops are re-engineered with genes from different species; how the safety of re-engineered foods is tested; and who is responsible for saying re-engineered foods are safe for people to eat.
|Show #793: ADDICTED TO ADRENALINE - 13-10-2012 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Peter M. McCarthy, author of Adrenaline Nation,
Subject:Topics include the stack of stressors we accumulate to produce adrenaline; how continual infusions of adrenaline affect health; and ways in which stress can be managed to maintain health. Can we manage our addiction to adrenaline?
Topics include the stack of stressors we accumulate to produce adrenaline; how continual infusions of adrenaline affect health; and ways in which stress can be managed to maintain health.
|Show #792: OUR RACIST, SEXIST USDA - 06-10-2012 (8.61 MB) Listen Now
Guests: USDA and its Owners
Subject:For the fourth time in 15 years, USDA has confessed to practicing institutional racism and sexism. This serial discrimination, for which taxpayers must pay $5 Billion and more, leads us to ask… Should the racist, sexist USDA be eliminated?
Topics include how USDA finds itself guilty of serial racism and sexism; why U.S. taxpayers must pay $5 Billion and more in reparations for the deeds of the miscreant bureaucracy; and whether an institution that practices racism and sexism should be maintained or eliminated.
|Show #791: Growing Permanence on Shifting Sands - 29-09-2012 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bioneer / Permaculturalist Trathen Heckman
Subject:Sixteen trillion dollars of debt! Flash mobs of rioters! A clash of civilizations! The shifting sands of our Modern Times lead us to ask… Can we grow permanence in a world of change?
Topics include the elements necessary for growing a permanent culture; how those elements might be combined to develop a garden of plenty; and how that garden might be sustained in a world of ferocious change.
|Show #790: YES OR NO ON THE RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT GMOS - 15-09-2012 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Kent Bradford, PhD, Director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center
Subject:Monsanto, Dupont, Bayer, Nestle, Pepsi, Coca Cola, General Mills, Del Monte Foods, and others are putting up about $28 million to put down California's Proposition 37 "Right to Know About GMO" initiative, which leads us to ask… Why not know about GMOs?
Topics include how foods are re-engineered by grafting genes from one species to those of another; how this technology is re-engineering the business of agriculture; and why the businesses of agriculture do not want to allow the consumers of their food products to know about the re-engineered genes in those foods.
|Show #789: ANIMAL RIGHTS & WRONGS - 08-09-2012 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Matt Rice of Mercy For Animals, and Kay Johnson Smith, of Animal Agriculture Alliance
Subject:When the video was released showing the downer cows being slaughtered inhumanely, the federal government closed the California abattoir. This leads us to ask… Can animals in agriculture be treated humanely?
Topics include the rights given animals in agriculture; who gives those rights to the animals; and whether the animals can be treated humanely enough to satisfy the people who advocate for them.
|Show #788: FARM'S LABOR'S LOST, II - 01-09-2012 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Berry Farmer Tom Am Rhein, Past President, Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau
Subject:Twenty to Thirty million are now unemployed, and yet farmers can't find enough people to work on their farms. This leads us to again ask… Where are the farmworkers?
Topics include a look at the nature of farm labor; why that labor has been, and is, the province of marginalized people; and whether farm labor can be professionalized into a desirable career.
|Show #787: FARM'S LABOR'S LOST - 25-08-2012 (8.56 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ann Lopez, Ph. D. Director, Center for Farmworker Families
Subject:Approximately 22% are now unemployed, and yet farmers can't find enough people to work on their farms. This leads us to ask… Where are the farmworkers?
Topics include a look at the nature of farm labor; why that labor has been, and is, the province of marginalized people; and whether farm labor can be professionalized into a desirable career.
|Show #786:EATING THE BIG APPLE - 11-08-2012 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Robin Shulman, Author, Eat the City
Subject:New York City is made of asphalt, concrete, and steel, and thus not a place one would expect to find farmers. But people do farm the city, and they lead us to ask… What can be farmed in the City?
Topics include a look back to when most of the foods eaten in New York City were produced within its five boroughs; how immigrants, innovators, and traditionalists continue to raise food in the city; and how foods farmed in the city can help build community in the city.
|Show #785: A BARN RAISING - 04-08-2012 (8.57 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jacqueline Dougan Jackson, author of The Round Barn: A Biography of an American Farm
Subject:First, there was the land. Then people came to the land and established a farm. At the center of their farm they built a barn, which leads us to ask… What did you learn in the barn?
Topics include a look back at the farm of pre-industrial agriculture; why the barn was the center that farm; and stories about life and living in the barns of our youth.
|Show #784: GREEN WITHOUT BROWN? - 28-07-2012 (9.29 MB) Listen Now
Guest: John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri
Subject:If nutrients are not in our soil, they will not be in our crops. If nutrients are not in our crops, they will not be in our body. This leads us to ask… Can we be green without being brown?
Topics include the legacy of soil scientist William Albrecht; what happens to animals and people when they consume foods from deficient soils; and what impact deficient soils might have on the sustainability of civilization.
|Show #783: BUSINESSES OF CANNABIS - 23-07-2012 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: John Roulac, President, Nutiva Superfoods
Subject:Though the cannabis plant– aka hemp, marijuana– has been illegal since 1937, it is now the foundation upon which many legal businesses are built. This leads us to ask… How can an illegal plant be so legal?
Topics include the many historical uses of cannabis; how the uses of cannabis changed with Prohibition; and how, in spite of Prohibition, many of the traditional uses of cannabis are returning as legal businesses.
|Show #782: SPYING ON WAL-MART - 14-07-2012 (9.27 MB) Listen Now
Guests Tracie McMillan, Author, The American Way of Eating
Subject:Wal-Mart now sells to the citizens of the United States more than one-fifth of their food, which is more than the combined sales of its three largest competitors. This leads us to ask… How did one store get so big?
Topics include a brief look at the evolution of America's supermarket; how Wal-Mart became the nation's super supermarket; and how Wal-Mart makes so much money selling such cheap food.
|Show #781: DIVINING BY DOWSING - 07-07-2012 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dowsers Steve Herbert and Sue Trumpfheller
Subject:With a simple forked willow, the dowser called flowing water at 365 feet, which was exactly where the well-driller eventually found it. That call leads us to ask… What else might be divined by dowsing?
Topics include a look at dowsing for water; how dowsing is used to find answers to many questions from other fields of endeavor; and how dowsers answer their scientific skeptics.
|Show #781: Divining by Dowsing - 14-03-2013 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Dowsers Steven Herbert and Sue Trumpfheller
Subject:With a simple forked stick, the dowser called 30 gallons per minute of flowing water at 365 feet, which was about exactly where the well-driller found it. That call leads us to once again ask… What else might be divined by dowsing?
Topics include a brief history of dowsing; the extent to which dowsing is used to find water flowing deep underground; and what other answers might be devined by dowsing.
|Show #780: MYSTERY OF THE DIRTY FISH IN CLEAN WATER - 03-07-2012 (8.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Jay Davis, PhD, Senior Scientist, SF Estuary Institute
Subject:Though they swim in the pristine waters off California's north coast, they are contaminated with man-made pollutants like Methylmercury. This leads us to ask… Who is poisoning the fish?
Topics include how fish swimming in pristine waters are contaminated with man-made pollutants; what these fish tell us about our environment; and speculation as to who is poisoning the fish in the pristine waters off California's north coast.
|Show #779: YELLOW DRAGON DISEASE - 23-06-2012 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Aaron Dillon of Four Winds Nursery
Subject:Seems like everything comes from Asia these days-– some good, others bad. One of the bad is Huanglongbing, or Yellow Dragon Disease. This plant killer leads us to ask… Can we save the citrus?
Topics include a look at the Asian citrus psyllid and the deadly vascular disease it carries; the threat this disease poses to farms and gardens; and how one state, California, is fighting this threat.
|Show #778: BIODYNAMIC LOVE APPLES - 16-06-2012 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Cynthia Sandberg, Love Apple Farms
Subject:She was a corporate attorney, but chucked it all to become the love in Love Apple Farms, where she now grows for David Kinch's world-famous Manresa Restaurant. Her biodynamic incantations lead us to ask… What in soil makes the difference?
Topics include why a farm and a restaurant combined their efforts to become one enterprise; why the entrepreneurs believed the farm's biodynamic soil would result in the best restaurant cuisine; and what in biodynamic soil makes the difference.
|Show #777:Frozen Fresh - 09-06-2012 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark Kurlansky, Author, Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man
Subject:We have always preserved foods by freezing them, but when we learned how to freeze foods quickly, we quickly moved into the city. This leads us to ask… How did foods become so convenient?
Topics include a brief history of food preservation technologies; how "Yankee Ingenuity" lead to the industrialization of frozen foods; and how that industrialization allowed for the development of cities.
|Show #776: FOODIE FANATICS - 26-05-2012 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Daniel Duane, Author, How to Cook Like a Man
Subject:We all must eat to live, and so think little of the daily task of cooking up a meal. But then something happens and eating to live becomes living to eat. This leads us to ask… How can one become a foodie without going belly-up?
Topics include the wisdom of cookbooks; how famous foodies like Alice Waters and Thomas Keller have turned so many others into foodies; and how one may become a foodie without going belly-up.
|Show #775: AMISH ALLERGY ANAMOLY - 19-05-2012 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Allergist / Immunologist Dr. Mark Hobreich
Subject:From Reuters: "Holbreich, an allergist in Indianapolis, has been treating Amish communities in Indiana for two decades, but he noticed that very few Amish actually had allergies." This anomaly leads us to ask… Why do so few Amish have so few allergies?
Topics include the incidence of allergies within the Amish community; speculation as to why Amish farm children have so few allergies; and what the general population might learn from the Amish about allergies.
|Show #774: AGENT ORANGE CORN - 12-05-2012 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Attorney Jean Sieler and Food Processor Steve Smith from Save Our Crops
Subject:So much Monsanto herbicide was applied to so many Monsanto GE crops that weeds became resistant. Dow Chemical's solution to the resistance is "Agent Orange Corn," which leads us to ask… Is agriculture outsmarting itself?
Topics include how Monsanto's Roundup-Ready cropping system became a victim of its own success; how Dow Chemical is seeking approval for an Agent Orange-resistant corn; and what may happen to rural America if farmers begin covering their croplands with Agent Orange to contend with the superweeds.
|Show #773: GOD'S GREEN GAS - 06-05-2012 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Geologist Leighton Steward, author Fire, Ice and Paradise
Subject:It is the match made in heaven: Plants breathe carbon dioxide and emit oxygen; people breathe oxygen and emit carbon dioxide. Some now say this relationship has gone astray, and so we ask… Why did God's green gas become an official pollutant?
Topics include the role carbon dioxide plays in sustaining life on earth; why some believe people emit too much carbon dioxide while others believe people emit too little; and the role politics has played in making carbon dioxide an official pollutant.
|Show #772: AMERICA'S FAMILY-LESS FARMS - 28-04-2012 (8.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Kristi Boswell, American Farm Bureau Federation
Subject:The federal government is applying child labor laws to the family farm, thus making it illegal for children of farm families to do many of the chores required by their family's farm. This leads us to ask… Can the family farm survive without the family?
Topics include why the administration ordered the Labor Department to apply child labor laws to family farms; what impact these laws will have on the ability of children to work on the farm; and whether the family farm can survive without the family.
|Show #771: POLITICS OF CALORIES - 21-04-2012 (8.64 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Marion Nestle, Professor of Food Studies at New York University
Subject:Calories are the fuel for the body's fire. When more calories are consumed than can be burned, the body stores the excess as fat. This leads us to ask… Do the politics of calories make us fat?
Topics include how we have become overwhelmed by the availability of food calories; what role politics plays in making those calories so available; and whether politics can used to help us reduce our consumption of calories.
|Show #770: TO BUY A FAT HOG - 14-04-2012 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Walter Jeffries of Vermont's Sugar Mountain Farm
Subject:Farm animals have been taken off the farm and confined in industrial facilities controlled by a few large corporations. Given this control of the nation's food chain, we ask… Will we be allowed to eat the neighbor's food?
Topics include how animal agriculture became concentrated in the hands of a few; why those few are threatened by the family farm; and whether we will be allowed to eat Sugar Mountain Farm's pasture fed, free-roaming, farm-processed foods.
|Show #769: CAPITALISM OR SOCIALISM? - 07-04-2012 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guest: University of California Professor Julie Guthman, author of Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism
Subject:We have come to a fork in the road to our future. One road will take us toward capitalism; the other toward socialism. We must decide which road to take, and so pause to ask… Which can best feed us: capitalism or socialism?
Topics include the politics of obesity; whether those politics may be redirected for a leaner population; and which can best feed us in the future: capitalism or socialism?
|Show #768: FREE GOVERNMENT LUNCH II - 31-03-2012 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: City Schools Food Director Jamie Smith
Subject:When government confiscates preschoolers' lunches, bans private food vendors from school grounds, and funds 5 meals per day at local elementary schools, we simply must ask… Should parents be allowed to feed their children?
Topics include the childhood nutrition crisis that is not being allowed to go to waste; government activity to control what children eat; and what impact this government control might have on the American family.
|Show #767: FREE GOVERNMENT LUNCH - 24-03-2012 (8.45 MB) Listen Now
Guests: City Schools Food Director Jamie Smith
Subject:When government confiscates preschoolers' lunches, bans private food vendors from school grounds, and funds 5 meals per day at local elementary schools, we simply must ask… Should parents be allowed to feed their children?
Topics include the childhood nutrition crisis that is not being allowed to go to waste; government activity to control what children eat; and what impact this government control might have on the American family.
|Show #766: GREEN PLANTS & BLUE BABIES - 17-03-2012 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Science Professor Marc Los Huertos from California State University Monterey Bay
Subject:Water runs downhill. This is a problem for environmentalists and farmers. Environmentalists say water running off farms contaminates the environment and may turn babies blue; farmers say it's impossible to prevent water from running off their farms. And so we ask… Can we grow crops and have a clean environment?
Topics include a look at the chemicals farmers use to grow their crops; how those chemicals runoff the farm into the environment; and whether water runoff rules just approved will allow farmers to grow crops.
|Show #765: FARMERS THAT KILLED SOCIALISM - 11-03-2012 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Professor Kate Xiao Zhou, author, How The Farmers Changed China
Subject:In the blink of an historical eye, China went from being the world's capital of totalitarian socialism to being the world's capital of free-booting capitalism. This leads us to ask… How did China's farmers kill its socialism?
Topics include a look at China's Farmers of Forty Centuries; how those farmers were forced into slavery by the totalitarian socialism of Mao's communist regime; and how the inherent corruption of that regime allowed farmers to win back their freedom.
|Show #764: EATING NORTH AFRICA - 06-03-2012 (9.02 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Historian Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
Subject:While the north side of the Mediterranean basin is green and fertile, the south side is brown and barren. This leads us to ask… What ate the life out of North Africa?
Topics include a look back at a verdant North Africa; the impact culture and religion had on that verdancy; and speculation as to whether culture and religion could ever undo what culture and religion have done to North Africa.
|Show #763: BILLIONS OF BUGS - 25-02-2012 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Plant Pathologist Steve Savage
Subject:The foods we eat, if not sterilized to death, contain billions and trillions and maybe even zillions of foreign microorganisms. That we consume the genes of all those bugs without harm leads some to ask… Why fear genetically modified foods?
Topics include a look at the billions of organisms that we routinely eat with our living foods; what difference there may be between "natural" genes and "foreign" genes; and whether foods that have been re-engineered to contain foreign genes should be labeled as such.
|Show #762: BIG OR SMALL? - 18-02-2012 (8.61 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Farmer John Jeavons, Author of How to Grow More Vegetables
Subject:For decades economists told farmers to "Get big or get out!" Others– the heretics of agriculture– told farmers to "Grow small and stand tall!" This divergence of opinion leads us to ask… Which will feed the world: big or small?
Topics include a look at "Get big or get out" and "Grow small and stand tall" agricultures; how Big agriculture requires 30,000 square feet to feed one person, while Small agriculture requires only 4,000 square feet; and how Small farmers can grow so much food in so little space.
|Show #761: FOLKS, THIS AIN'T NORMAL - 11-02-2012 (8.59 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Joel Salatin, farmer / philosopher / author of Folks, This Ain't Normal
Subject:They now hold farmers at gunpoint for selling fresh, whole milk and demand we to eat corn genetically modified to contain a bacterial insect disease. What was the norm is now a crime; what was a crime against nature is now the norm. This leads us to ask… What is normal food?
Topics include a look at the new normal for food; what happened to make the old normal a crime, and the old crimes against nature a new norm; and how some are farming their way to a happier and healthier norm.
|Show #760: MONSANTO'S GOV MAN - 04-02-2012 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Citizen Activist Frederick Ravid
Subject:In 2009, President Barack Obama selected Monsanto executive Michael Taylor to be the nation's first food safety czar. In 2012, citizen Fredrick Ravid collected 60,000 signatures on a petition to force Taylor's removal. All those signatures lead us to ask… Should Monsanto be in charge of America's food safety?
Topics include why the President selected Monsanto's Michael Taylor to be the nation's first food safety czar; what the Food and Drug administration has been doing to make food safe; and why, over the course of one weekend in January, 60,000 people signed a petition demanding Michael Taylor's removal.
|Show #759: POPPING PILLS FOR PEACE - 28-01-2012 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Health Journalist Martha Rosenberg
Subject:Depressed, anxious, and can't sleep, oh my! Though modern times are making us thoroughly distraught, a prescription for happy pills will help us find peace. This leads us to ask… What price do we pay for popping all those pills?
Topics include what happened when government allowed pharmaceutical companies to market directly to consumers; the kinds of drugs we seek to treat mental afflictions; and a discussion of the real price we must pay for these drugs.
|Show #758: A REAL EXTRA VIRGIN - 21-01-2012 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity
Subject:Some are virgin. Others are extra virgin. The rest are not very virgin at all. It's difficult to tell which is which when shopping the sublime and scandalous world of olive oil, and so we ask… How can we find a real extra virgin?
Topics include why olive oil became the oil of choice; the extent to which counterfeit olive oils have come to dominate the culinary marketplace; and how one might find a real extra virgin olive oil.
|Show #757: TO KNOW OR NOT TO KNOW - 14-01-2012 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Pamm Larry of LableGMOs.org, and Thomas Wittman of the Genetic Engineering Blog
Subject:Like the Dutch boy with a finger in the dike, grandmother Pamm Larry is trying to stop the flood of genetically modified organisms washing over the land by forcing the labeling of GMO foods. This leads us to ask… Should we know, or not know, about the modified genes in food?
Topics include the extent to which modified genes inhabit our foods; whether these modified genes are safe to eat; and whether we should be allowed to know if our foods contain modified genes.
|Show #756: THROUGH MF GLOBAL'S LOOKING GLASS - 07-01-2012 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Farmer / Newspaper Reporter Bryant Osborn
Subject:Thousands of U.S. farmers lost over 1.2 billion dollars when MF Global's off-balance-sheet leveraged repo-to-maturity play on foreign sovereign debt collapsed into bankruptcy. And so we ask… What will we eat when there is no money left to grow food?
Topics include why MF Global went bankrupt; what could have happened to the farmers' $1.2 billion; and what impact disappearing dollars could have on the nation's ability to feed itself.
|Show #755: A REVERSE ROBIN HOOD? - 18-12-2011 (9.88 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Iowa State University Economics Professor Bruce Babcock and Farm Bill Hackathon Hostess Beth Hoffman
Subject:The federal government will soon craft a new Farm Bill that will give billions of dollars to the largest, most profitable farms in the nation. This leads us to ask… What will we get for our billions of Farm Bill bucks?
Topics include why the government crafts a new Farm Bill every five years; how Farm Bills are used to govern the nation's agriculture; and whether Farm Bills have become Reverse Robin Hoods, in which government takes from poor tax payers and gives to wealthy farmers.
|Show #754: TOO SAFE FOR FAMILIES - 10-12-2011 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Mark Costello and Oklahoma Farmer Matt Muller
Subject:In the name of safety, the federal government is establishing rules that will prohibit teens from working on family farms. This leads us to ask… Is government making the family farm too safe for families?
Topics include the rules government is establishing to make life safe for teens; how the rules are likely to affect the family farm and ranch; and how the rules are likely to affect the teens who are not allowed to work.
|Show #753: THE REAL GOOD LIFE - 04-12-2011 (8.82 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ferenc Mate, Author, A Real Life
Subject:We took the wrong turn on the road to the good life, and now find that, as a people, we are anxious, broke, and overweight. This leads us to ask… Can what we eat help us find the happiness we seek?
Topics include how, as a people, we turned away from what brought real happiness; the consequences of this turning away on our selves, families, communities, and nations; and how what we eat might help us find the happiness we seek.
|Show #752: CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT FOOD - 20-11-2011 (9.93 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Sally Fallon Morell, Co-Founder, Weston A. Price Foundation
Subject:When the prison replaced meat with the nation's most popular health food ingredient, prisoner Eric Harris sued. This leads us to ask… Is soy a cruel and unusual punishment food?
Topics include why soy has become the nation's most popular food ingredient; whether soy is a viable food; and why the Weston A. Price Foundation is backing a prisoner's contention that being fed soy is a cruel and unusual punishment.
|Show #751: CHILDREN, WITH CHORES - 12-11-2011 (8.52 MB) Listen Now
Guests: K Ranch Creamery in Corsegold, California, and Nancy Vail from the Pie Ranch in Pescadero, California
Subject:When the nation was young we raised children on farms and gave them chores to do. Now we raise children in cities and give them allowances to spend. This leads us to ask… What do children with chores learn in their growing up?
Topics include the kinds of chores given farm children by their family; how giving children farm chores is justified with the spirit of child labor laws; and what children with farm chores learn that children with allowances can't learn.
|Show #750:MEDICAL MARIJUANA MAYHEM - 05-11-2011 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Matthew Cohen, Medocino County Medical Marijuana Farmer and Allen St. Pierre, Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML),
Subject:When Matthew Cohen's crop of medical marijuana became the object of a great tug of war between Mendocino County and the United States of America, many paused to ask… Which government should be in control: local or federal?
Topics include how the "medicalization" of cannabis has led to its implicit legalization in some states and counties; why the federal government is enforcing its authority over those states and counties; and whether anyone will ever be able to make cannabis a normal crop, again.
|Show #749: PRACTICAL GAS - 29-10-2011 (8.52 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Retired University of California crop scientist Art Greathead
Subject:Methyl Bromide, a poison gas banned by international treaty, helped the strawberry industry grow from 2,000 acres to 26,000 acres. This leads us to ask… Can we have industry without toxicity?
Topics include why pre-gas strawberry farmers were forced to be itinerants; how methyl bromide changed the nature of the industry and stimulated its growth; and whether the strawberry industry-– or any industry– can survive without toxicity.
|Show #748: MALI'S GOAT & THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY - 23-10-2011 (8.19 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mali McGee from the Milk Mama Goat Farm
Subject:Across the nation armed government SWAT teams arrest private citizens for buying and selling fresh whole foods from each other. This leads us to ask… Will feeding ourselves be the crime of the century?
Topics include how private citizens are organizing to feed each other; why government is raiding these private food systems with armed SWAT teams; and how Mali's milch goats inspired one county to recognize the right of people to grow and eat their own food.
|Show #746: FROM THEIR FARM TO OUR FORK - 08-10-2011 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Andrew Monbouquette and Dan Susman, producers of the movie "Growing Cities"
Subject:The headline read, "Long Road from Farm to Fork Worsens Outbreaks," and the story told of how distance exacerbated the recent canteloupe contamination that killed some and sickened many. And so we ask… Can we shorten the distance between farm and fork?
Topics include why our food now travels so far from where it is grown to where we eat it; how some have begun to grow commercial food crops in or near the city; and what adventures one might have when searching America for metropolitan farms.
|Show #746: FUNDING FAT - 15-10-2011 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Michael Russo, Policy Analyst for U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Subject:In the last 15 years, the U.S. government used $17 billion of taxpayer money to subsidize production of corn starch, corn syrup and soy oil. This leads us to ask… Why are we funding fat?
Topics include why government subsidizes farm crops; why corn and soy are subsidized while broccoli and spinach are not; and whether government subsidies are related to our pandemic of obesity.
|Show #745: SAYING - 01-10-2011 (8.89 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Andrew Kimbrell from the Center for Food Safety and Megan Westgate from the Non-GMO Project
Subject:They say 80 percent of our processed foods now contain genetically modified organisms, which our government claims to be safe. This leads one to ask… Why say "No!" to GMOs?
Topics include how many GMO crops are failing their designed purpose; what failed GMO crops might do if they do not do what they are supposed to do; and why, and how, many are saying "No!" to GMOs when our government is saying "Yes!"
|Show #744: FROM THE MANY A FEW - 25-09-2011 (8.25 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Apple Farmer Geri Prevedelli
Subject:Where once we had hundreds of apple varieties from which to select and taste, we now have Red and Golden Delicious. This leads one to ask… Is variety no longer the spice of life?
Topics include why so few apple varieties were selected for the mass marketplace; a taste of some heritage varieties that are being kept alive by small farmers and orchardists; and whether variety is, as the saying suggests, truly important to the human experience.
|Show #743: WASTE NOT, WANT NOT - 18-09-2011 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Michael Keller, CEO of Scandanavian Biogas US
Subject:It is one thing to save and recycle-– to waste not; it is another thing to make profitable use of what we do recycle– to want not. This leads us to ask… Can we profitably turn waste into energy?
Topics include the state of waste to energy conversion technologies; the commercial application of these technologies; and what impact the technologies might have on a community's energy budget.
|Show #742: TOTAL CONTROL - 10-09-2011 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Attorney Jonathan W. Emord
Subject:The FDA is reclassifying herbs, vitamins, and dietary supplements as "synthetic food preservatives," which means many of them may be pulled off the market and the rest subjected to extreme regulation. This leads us to ask… Has the FDA sold itself to the international pharmaceutical industry?
Topics include how Codex Alimentarius demands the U.S. treat its food supplements as toxins; why the U.S. government is acceding to the demands of Codex; and what this compliance will mean to those who use dietary supplements like vitamins and minerals.
|Show #741: TRY THIS COUNTRY - 08-09-2011 (8.38 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author / Restaurant Critic Danyelle Freeman
Subject:Virginia Woolf said it, and we believe it to be true, "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." That being the case we ask… Which country will you eat for dinner tonight?
Topics include why big city people, like those who inhabit NYC, dine out so frequently; whether restaurant critics should or should not make their presence known to the restaurants they critique; and which dishes are best to order when dining at ethnic restaurants.
|Show #740: REAL LIFE SUPERFOOD - 27-08-2011 (8.44 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ken Kimes, New Native Nursery
Subject:Sprouted seeds, or "sprouts" as they are commonly called, are truly the freshest of foods because they are, well, still living. Sprouts are also the frequent subjects of food contaminations, and thus lead us to ask… Is living food safe?
Topics include why, ounce for ounce, sprouts provide more nutrients than any other natural food; why sprouts are frequently the subject of food contaminations, and whether living foods can be safe to eat.
|Show #739: THE MONSANTO BUG - 20-08-2011 (8.53 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Professor Emeritus Dr. Don Huber, Purdue University
Subject:With its roundup herbicide and roundup-ready genes, the Monsanto Corporation has made growing crops a lot easier. Some, however, say Monsanto's technology has spawned a new pathogen that causes abortion rates of 20% to 45% in the animals that feed upon the crops. If true, we ask… What will the Monsanto Bug do to us?
Topics include how we know the Monsanto Bug exists when Monsanto says it does not; what impact, if any, this pathogen has on the food chain of plants, animals and people; and why so few in authority want to consider these questions.
|Show #738: THE GREAT TRANSITION - 18-08-2011 (19.07 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Anthropologist Amanda Mummert
Subject:10,000 years ago, when we turned from feeding ourselves with nature to feeding ourselves with agriculture, we grew shorter and weaker. This leads us to ask… What did nature feed us that agriculture did not?
Topics include a comparison of wild foods and cultured foods; why, when we made the transition from hunting and gathering to farming, we grew shorter and weaker; and what lessons we might learn from observations of that great transition.
|Show #737: DODGING DEATH BY FOOD - 30-07-2011 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Sandra Beasley, author of Don't Kill the Birthday Girl
Subject:12 million Americans are allergic to food, and 6 million of them are children who cannot yet fend for themselves. Allergic reactions to food range from dermatitis to death. This leads us to ask… How should we protect children with food allergies?
Topics include why some are allergic to foods; how they manage to dodge the foods they are allergic to; and how we should protect children with food allergies.
|Show #736: MEAT FOR THE ELITE? - 26-07-2011 (8.36 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark and Elizabeth Shelley of Tassajara Natural Meats
Subject:Before WWII, cattle were fed out on grasses like hay. Today, they are fed out on grains like corn and soy, antibiotics, and other nutritional supplements. Some are turning back to grass-fed, which leads us to ask… Is grass-fed meat for the elite?
Topics include the reasons why some are turning away from feedlot foods; the taste and nutritional differences between grass and grain fed; and whether the costs of grass fed will confine it to the category of meat for the elite.
|Show #735: PRIVATE GAIN ON PUBLIC PROPERTY - 16-07-2011 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author / Cowboy Bob Kinford
Subject:The federal government has direct ownership of 650 million acres of the USA. Some of these public acres may be exploited by private businesses, like ranchers. This leads us to ask… Is government planning to sell rights to our land to China?
TTopics include the extent of federal ownership of land in the West; why many in the private sector believe government is trying to force them off public lands; and the possibility that government might sell rights to public lands to China.
|Show #734: FUNNY MONEY VRS FARMER MONEY - 09-07-2011 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ellen Brown, Author, The Web of Debt
Subject:There is no "fed" in the Federal Reserve System. There are only private banks which loan the public funny money that the public must pay back, with interest, using real money. This web of debt leads us to ask… What can the farmers of North Dakota teach us about money?
Topics include why the farmers of North Dakota started the nation's only state-owned bank; how this bank creates the money it lends to North Dakota; and why North Dakota and the Bank of North Dakota are in the black, while almost all other states and most other banks are in the red.
|Show #733: WATER WAR - 02-07-2011 (8.86 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Environmentalist Jennifer Cleary of Clean Water Action & Farm Dick Peixoto of Lakeside Organic Gardens
Subject:Water makes up about 90 percent of growing plants, and thus is the lifeblood of our food chain. However, the pending implementation of new water quality rules in California leads us to ask… Can agriculture survive clean water?
Topics include why the Central Coast of California is instituting tough new water quality rules; the impact those rules may have on our ability to grow crops; and whether agriculture can survive clean water.
|Show #732: BEE LISTENING - 26-06-2011 (8.35 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Lynne Bottazo, Amen Honey Bee Products
Subject:They say bees provide for thirty percent of the food we eat. They also say more than thirty percent of our bee colonies are collapsing. This thirty percent business leads us to ask… Could what is happening to bees happen to us?
Topics include a look at the different ways in which bees are kept (Lynne's way vrs the industrial way); thoughts on why over one-third of the nation's bee colonies are collapsing; and what lessons people might learn from the buzzing of their bees.
|Show #731: People, Pests & Poisons - 18-06-2011 (8.57 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Stella McMillin from California Department of Fish and Game, Maggie Sergio from WildCare, and Thomas Wittman from Gophers Limited
Subject:We fear dirty rats, and so endeavor to kill them with poison. Our poison, however, also kills creatures that prey on rats, which means there are ever more rats to poison, which leads us to ask… Can we control pests without poison?
Topics include a look at the new poisons being used to control rodents; how those poisons are killing America's wildlife; and methods for controlling pests without poisons.
|Show #730: E VERIFIED FOOD - 11-06-2011 (8.81 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies
Subject:The Supreme Court has upheld Arizona's law penalizing businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Georgia has passed a similar law, and other states are lining up to do the same. This leads us to ask… Who will grow our food if not illegal immigrants?
Topics include why American agriculture has come to rely on illegal immigrant labor; what impact the Supreme Court's decision to allow states to manage illegal immigrant labor will have on agriculture; and who will grow our food if not illegal immigrants?
|Show #729: THROUGH THE ROOF - 04-06-2011 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Harwood Schaffer, Research Professor at University of Tennessee
Subject:In 1990, a loaf of bread cost $.70; today, the loaf costs over $3.00. Incomes, however, have not been growing at the same rate, and thus the true cost of food is going "through the roof." This leads us to ask… Who will feed us when money will not?
Topics include why the cost of food is increasing at such a rapid pace; how the money of hundreds of millions of people can no longer buy enough food; and what, if anything, can be done to insure a sufficient supply of food for the world's hungry.
|Show #728: FOOD WITH ITS FARMERS FACE ON IT - 28-05-2011 (8.61 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Catherine Barr, Manager of the Monterey Bay Area Certified Farmers Markets
Subject:The farther we go from the source of our food the less control we have over what's in our food. It follows that to get the most control we must obtain our food directly from its source. This leads us to ask… What does it take to develop a certified farmers market?
Topics include the demographic, legal, and market conditions required to establish a farmers market; the right kind of farmers to recruit and how to manage them; and how to maintain a market in a highly competitive marketplace.
|Show #727: THE WHITE WAVE - 23-05-2011 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David Gumpert, Author, The Raw Milk Revolution
Subject:Amish farmer Dan Allgyer has been arrested by the Food and Drug Administration for selling fresh whole milk across state lines. The FDA's police action leads us to ask… Why is government afraid of fresh, whole milk?
Topics include how fresh, whole milk became an illicit substance; why some consumers prefer fresh, whole milk over that produced at conventional dairies; and who, or what, is threatened when farmers sell milk from cows to consumers.
|Show #726: GREENING THE GREEN REVOLUTION - 14-05-2011 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: John Reganold, Regents Professor at Washington State University, and Bryce Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms (tent.)
Subject:Norman Borlaug's Green Revolution made possible an explosion of the world's population. But some say there is simply not enough green in the Green Revolution, and so the whole system must be redesigned. This leads one to ask… Can we green the Green Revolution?
Topics include how the Green Revolution increased the productivity of agriculture; why some believe that Green Revolution agriculture must be redesigned to address environmental concerns; and whether we can green up the Green Revolution and still maintain its productivity.
|Show #725: WHITHER ORGANIC? - 07-05-2011 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Barny Bricmont, Founder of California Certified Organic Farmers and Mischa Popoff, author of Is It Organic
Subject:Some say up to 80% of the organic food in the United States is now imported from Brazil, China, Mexico and others. This leads us to ask… How organic is organic?
Topics include why the term organic was adopted by alternative agriculture and then sanctioned by government; what happened to organic when it became a government-owned appellation; and what the future may hold for the organic industry.
|Show #724: STARTING ANEW! - 30-04-2011 (8.58 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Master Propagator Gerd Schneider, Gerd Schneider Nurseries
Subject:"Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved." George Washington's thought leads us to ask… Which seed should we start?
Topics include why we select which plants to grow; how the plants we select may be started; and how we can propagate the favorable plants we grow.
|Show #723: LOCAL FOOD REBELLION - 09-04-2011 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Sedgwick, Maine residents Bob St. Peter of Saving Seeds Farm and Mia Strong of the Local Stock Food Cooperative
Subject:In the name of food safety, the federal government has taken total control of what we may feed each other. Sedgewick, Maine, has rebelled and passed the nation's first "Food Sovereignty" law. This rebellion leads us to ask… Who should control what we eat?
Topics include why Sedgewick is in rebellion against the federal government; how Sedgewick's Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinance will stand up to the fed's Food Safety Modernization Act; and what impact Sedgwick's rebellion will have on other communities throughout the nation.
|Show #722: FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BUSCH - 02-04-2011 (8.82 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Julie MacIntosh, author of Dethroning the King,
Subject:During the peak of a brutal afternoon commute, when smog oppressively cloaked the sun, I had been passing alone through a singularly dreary tract of suburb, and at length found myself, as the commute wore on, within view of a melancholy Budweiser beer plant, which lead me to wonder… Why did the Busch family sell its Budweiser?
Topics include a look at the history of Budweiser beer and the Busch family; how Budweiser became the "King of Beers;" and why the Busch family lost its fight to maintain control of their iconic American beer to a foreign corporation.
|Show #721: A PROPERTY IMPROPRIETY? - 28-03-2011 (8.74 MB) Listen Now
Guests: K. Ruby Blume, Director of the Institute of Urban Homesteading, and Patrick Reilly, Intellectual Property Attorney
Subject:City folk have been "urban homesteading" since the early 1980s. But then the Dervaes family trademarked the term, and now no one else may play. This leads us to ask… Should one be able to trademark an activity?
Topics include a look into the activity of urban homesteading; how this activity came to be the intellectual property of a family in Pasadena; and whether this ownership is, or is not, a property impropriety.
|Show #720: OUT OF THE FRYING PAN - 19-03-2011 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Kurt Timmermeister, author of Growing a Farmer
Subject:We have decided to quit our jobs in the city to start a farm. Now we must ask… How does one start a farm, and make it pay?
Topics include why city people become captivated by the idea of starting a farm; how to buy a tractor and keep raccoons away from the chickens; and how to make a small farm pay enough to keep it going.
|Show #719: BREAD, BEER & CHANGE II - 12-03-2011 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Thomas Sinclair, PhD, and Carol James Sinclair, authors of Bread, Beer & the Seeds of Change,
Subject:Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. As Santayana suggests, there is much in the history of food from which we can learn, and that history leads us to ask… Can we escape the fate of past civilizations?
Topics include why the agricultures of ancient civilizations failed; how modern agriculture differs from ancient agriculture; and whether modern agriculture can save us from the fate of ancient civilizations.
|Show #718: BEER, BREAD & CHANGE - 07-03-2011 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Thomas Sinclair, PhD, and Carol James Sinclair, authors of Bread, Beer & the Seeds of Change
Subject:Santayana tells us, Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. There is much in the history of food from which we can learn, and that history leads us to ask… What can beer, bread and change tell us about our future?
Topics include why humans made the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture; a look at the ancient agricultures of the Sumarians, Egyptians, Chinese, Bantus and Mayans; and what beer, bread and change can tell us about our future.
|Show #717 : Along Comes Mary - 26-02-2011 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Research biologist Mary Winfree, PhD
Subject:To save the endangered Delta smelt, Judge Oliver Wanger turned off the water to California's San Joaquin Valley, thus putting tens of thousands out of work and turning hundreds of thousands of acres into dust. But then along comes Mary, who says… To save the smelt, and California, turn the water back on!
Topics include the Delta Smelt's status as an endangered species; why baby smelt were being trapped by a pump in a man-made lake 50 miles from the Delta; and how the Delta smelt, and California's San Joaquin Valley, might be saved by turning the pumps back on.
|Show #716: FROM GOLDEN STATE TO RED INK STATE - 19-02-2011 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Pete Graff from Cal Coastal and Morris Garcia from Western Ag Financial
Subject:Once the Golden State, California is now an estimated $500 billion in debt, and thus has become the Red Ink State. This transformation leads us to ask… What happened to all the money?
Topics include how California's financial infrastructure was built to support agriculture; how that infrastructure has been eroded; and whether next year's farmers will be able to get money to grow crops.
|Show #715: THAT AIN'T HAY! - 13-02-2011 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark Kastel, Co-Founder, The Cornucopia Institute
Subject:The Obama administration has approved the release of Monsanto's genetically-engineered alfalfa. They say farmers will be able to grow more crops, and that ain't hay! But GE Alfalfa leads us to ask… Can organic meat and dairy foods survive Monsanto's GE alfalfa?
Topics include the safety of GE foods; the impact GE alfalfa will have on the nation's alfalfa crop; and whether organic meat and dairy will survive the release of GE alfalfa.
|Show #714: AMERICA'S FIRST CROP - 13-02-2011 (8.61 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bill Drake, author, Tobacco Culture
Subject:Tobacco was America's first cash crop, and in fact, was the object of trade long before there was an America. Then tobacco became the scourge of millions, which leads us to ask… What do tobacco companies put in cigarettes?
Topics include a look at tobacco use in pre-Columbian America; how tobacco became the object of world trade; and what modern industry puts in cigarettes to make them so… needed.
|Show #713: JFK'S BIG CHALLENGE - 02-02-2011 (6.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gary Slaats, Sector Recruitment Specialist for the U.S. Peace Corps, and Peace Corps veterans Teague Weybright and Thomas Whitman
Subject:When President John F. Kennedy issued the challenge: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," many asked… Can one find peace in the Peace Corps?
Topics include how U.S. citizens serve their nation by serving in the Peace Corps; stories of Peace Corps service from the far corners of our round world; and what kind of person makes the best Peace Corps volunteer.
|Show #712: SAYING NO TO BIG BRO - 23-01-2011 (9.37 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Jessica Bernier, Spokesperson for the Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty
Subject:Farmers and consumers in the tiny, landlocked state of Vermont have initiated a petition drive to reject the Federal government's Food Safety Modernization Act. This leads us to ask… What could be wrong with government safe food?
Topics include a taste of Vermont's local foods; why the Coalition believes Vermont's local foods are threatened by the government's Food Safety Modernization Act; and whether the food loving people of tiny Vermont will be able to stand down the federal government's new army of food safety regulators.
|Show #711: EATING WHILE AGING - 15-01-2011 (8.92 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Brad J. King, author of Beer Belly Blues
Subject:When young we eat and grow tall, but when middle-aged we eat and grow out. This leads many, if not most, middle-aged people to ask… What can we do about the beer belly blues?
Topics include the body chemistry changes of aging and the physical manifestations of those changes; how physical changes are exacerbated by food and drink; and what we can eat and drink, as aging adults, to maintain a youthful figure and vigor.
|Show #710: EMBASSY OF FOOD - 08-01-2011 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Summer Whitford, author of Join us at the Embassy
Subject:If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then the way to the world's affection must be through its stomach. This thought leads us to ask… Which foods would you serve as Ambassador to the World?
Topics include how ambassadors use food to present their countries in foreign capitals; what a country's traditional foods can say about that country; and a tour of some of the best embassy meals the world has to offer.
|Show #709: What does sustainable mean and how much power can it have? - 18-12-2010 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Linda Brown of Scientific Certification Services and Bob Young of the American Farm Bureau Federation
Subject:Words have meaning and names have power. "Sustainable" is a word that is trying to become a name, which leads us to ask… What does sustainable mean and how much power can it have?
Topics include what an official meaning of "sustainable" might be; how much power would be given those deemed "sustainable;" and why some proponents of establishing the Sustainable Standard have quit the effort.
|Show #708: TESTING TESTOR'S FOOD SAFETY - 11-12-2010 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Montana Senator Jon Tester and Western Growers Association Vice President Cathy Enright
Subject:Some say S510, The Food Safety Modernization Act, is so onerous it will destroy our nation's small farms, and so are trying to amend the Act to protect small farms. Others say "A microbe is a microbe," and all should abide by the law, regardless of size. And so we ask… For whom will S510 make food safe?
Topics include how S510 purports to make food safe; whether it is fair to include or exclude farmers and processors from this Act by virtue of their size; and what impact The Food Safety Modernization Act will have on our food chain.
|Show #707: FOOD FOR SKIN - 04-12-2010 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Compounding Pharmacist Ben Fuchs
Subject:Government is now restricting what we may eat, but is leaving us free to glop 10,500 chemicals on to make our skin look good. This leads us to ask… Which is best for healthy skin: cosmetics or food?
Topics include the chemicals used in popular cosmetics; what impact those chemicals might have on our body chemistry; and how to eat for healthy skin.
|Show #706: FOUNDING FOODIES - 20-11-2010 (8.74 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dave DeWitt, author of Founding Foodies
Subject:When the going gets tough, the tough get going… to the kitchen for food. Then along comes the holiday season and our escapism becomes an obsession that leads us to ask… How did we become a nation of foodies?
Topics include a look a Colonial era menus; the impact founders Franklin, Jefferson and Washington had on the young nation's food chain; and how the founders began a foodie tradition that shaped the nation's character.
|Show #705: BIOMASS COWBOYS - 13-11-2010 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Biomass Energy Consultant Michael Keller
Subject:California has elected to reduce its carbon emissions by up to 30% beginning in 2012. This decision has sparked a stampede to figure out how, which leads us to ask…. Can we farm our way to clean air and energy independence?
Topics include products that can be derived from living crops; the state of biomass to energy conversion technology; and whether it is possible to combine farmers, technicians, and investors to generate a steady, reliable flow of clean energy.
|Show #704: SLAVES TO FOOD - 06-11-2010 (8.74 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Andrew Rimas, co-author of Empires of Food
Subject:History tells us when the harvest is good, civilization expands, but when the harvest is poor, civilization contracts. This lesson leads us to ask… What does the harvest portend for our civilization?
Topics include a look at what happened to some of history's great civilizations; how the food chain governed the expansion and contraction of those civilizations; and what the harvest portends for our civilization.
|Show #703: THE GREEN MACHINES - 30-10-2010 (8.88 MB) Listen Now
Guests: California Proposition 19 proponent Anita Mangels and opponent Renata Brillinger
Subject:When times were good, California voted to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide to fight global warming. But unemployment is now at 22% and the state is reconsidering its vote, which leads us to ask… Can we end global warming and work the farm?
Topics include why California voted to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide in 2006; what impact the state's Global Warming Act will have on its agriculture; and whether California can reduce its emissions of Carbon Dioxide and maintain a profitable agriculture.
|Show #702: UP IN SMOKE - 23-10-2010 (8.38 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Cannabis legalization proponent James Rigdon, and opponent Roger Salazar for a conversation about California's Proposition 19,the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010
Subject:California's illicit cannabis crop is worth $14 billion and the state's politicians can get their hands on that money by making the crop legal with Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. This proposition leads us to ask… What happens to the money when cannabis becomes legal?
Topics include why cannabis was made illegal in 1937; what the consequences of that prohibition have been; and what will happen to the cannabis industry should the crop be made legal.
|Show #701: BITE OF THE BEDBUG - 16-10-2010 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Entomologist Dr. Susan Jones, Ohio State University
Subject:Sometimes the big eat the small; other times the small eat the big. This time small bedbugs are eating big cities, and they are coming to our city soon. The freckle-sized monsters lead us to ask… Can we prevent bedbugs from biting?
Topics include a historical overview of mankind's relationship bedbugs; why bedbugs have invaded our big cities; and what we can do to "Don't let the bedbugs bite!"
|Show #700: FROM FOOD TO FREEDOM - 09-10-2010 (19.52 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Michael Olson, Author, MetroFarm, Host, Food Chain Radio
Subject:Every once in awhile, like when you get to be 700, you should celebrate by doing something special. And so… The secret to economic viability is simple: Become a producer in a nation of consumers! And what could all those consumers want more than fresh, whole food? This chain of thought leads us to ask… Can we eat our way to economic security and personal freedom?
Topics include the emerging conflict between industrial and local foods; government's participation in this conflict; and how, despite government, we can simply eat our way to economic security and personal freedom.
|Show #699: GODS THAT DAMN FOOD III, THE KILL - 18-09-2010 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Judith McGeary from Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, Dr. Shiv Chopra from Health Canada, Senator Richard Durbin declined to participate
Subject:"You never let a serious crisis go to waste." Rahm Emanuel And so, to protect us from contaminated foods that come from thousands of miles away, government is passing truckloads of food safety legislation like S510. But this effort leads us to ask… Will food safety legislation kill local food?
Topics include a look at what foods are in crisis; who is telling government how to make food safe; and what impact S510 and related food safety legislation will have on our access to food.
|Show #698: GODS THAT DAMN FOOD PART II: THE ATTACK - 11-09-2010 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Brigette Ruthman of Joshua's Farm in Massachusetts, and Aajonus Vonderplanitz of the Rawsome Food Coop in Los Angeles
Subject:"You never let a serious crisis go to waste." Rahm Emanuel Two giant farms sold us a half-billion rotten eggs, and so agents of the government, with guns drawn and warrants in hand, are breaking down the doors of the little people who sell fresh, whole foods to their neighbors. But… Why is government attacking little people with no problems instead of big people with lots of problems?
Topics include a look at government enforcement actions against the purveyors of fresh, whole foods; why government is attacking small producers with little or no food safety problems, while ignoring giant producers with huge food safety problems; and what government hopes to accomplish by attacking the little people.
|Show #697: GODS THAT DAMN FOOD I: THE CRISIS - 04-09-2010 (8.52 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Sally Fallon Morell, Weston A. Price Foundation, and Pete Kennedy, Farm to Consumer Legal Defence Fund (CDC pending)
Subject:"You never let a serious crisis go to waste." Rahm Emanuel The United States has a serious food safety crisis, and so its agents, with guns drawn and warrants in hand, are breaking down the doors of the little people who sell food to their neighbors. But wait… Which is in crisis: local food or industrial food?
Topics include how fresh whole milk has become the battleground of food safety; why government has become so frightened of fresh whole milk; and why government is telling us, "You have no absolute right to consume any particular food."
|Show #696: FOOD WITHOUT ELECTRICITY - 29-08-2010 (8.21 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jennifer Megyesi, Author, Root Cellar
Subject:Now this will likely come as a surprise to many, but its true! Before we had refrigerators, we had food! On behalf of all the surprised, we ask... … How did we preserve food without electricity?
Topics include a look into our grandmothers' root cellars; preservation techniques for meat, dairy and vegetables; and ways city people can cultivate a closer relationship with the foods we eat.
|Show #695: DOCTOR OF ASHES - 21-08-2010 (9.21 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Joel Wallach, author, Immortality
Subject:Those who live in some undeveloped nations are ten times more likely to live over 100 years than those who live in developed nations. Their diet of ashes leads us to ask… Why do they lead long, healthy lives while we do not?
Topics include the relationship of soil to health; what happens to our health when our relationship to the soil is severed; and why some live long, healthy lives by eating ashes.
|Show #694: ANOTHER AUTISM ANOMALY - 14-08-2010 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Mayer Eisenstein of Homefirst Health Services
Subject:The rate of autism among the general population, according to the CDC, is one in 166. The rate of autism among the population of Chicago's Homefirst Health Services is zero. And so we ask… Why do we have autism and they don't?
Topics include the disparity between the rate of autism in the general population and that of Homefirst patients (30,000+); speculation as to why this disparity exists; and why no money has been dedicated to researching the reason for this autism anomaly.
|Show #693: THE ORGANIC POLICE - 07-08-2010 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Sharon Grossi, Valley End Farm; NOTE: Government has refused to participate in this conversation.
Subject:When it comes to organic, they say, "Everybody's got to play by the rules, whether they sell $1 or $10 million of product." Their declaration leads us to ask… Why is the government going after the little gal?
Topics include why small farms and their customers gave the word "organic" to the government; what happened to "organic" when it became a property of the government; and why the government is now going after the little gal instead of the big guys.
|Show #692: THE LAST WILD FOOD - 31-07-2010 (8.88 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish
Subject:I went fishing with fellow foodie Thomas in the beautiful waters of the Monterey Bay. We caught two healthy lingcod, which became the object of some magnificent meals. But those meals lead us to ask… Will our grandchildren taste wild fish?
Topics include why we have selected four fish from the thousands that swim the sea; how we are working to domesticate these four fish; and whether wild populations of these fish can survive for our grandchildren to enjoy.
|Show #691: BRIDGES OF FOOD - 24-07-2010 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Burt & Lois Muhly, and a representative of the Bainbridge-Ometepe Sister Island Association
Subject:While purchasing a cup of coffee from the booth at my local farmers market, I noticed that the proprietors, a husband and wife team of smiling seniors, were also selling world peace. And so I ask… How fair is fair trade?
Topics include how suitcases of coffee beans were used to bridge an island in the Pacific Northwest with an island in Central America; how those coffee beans were used to move surplus prosperity from one island to the other; and whether food can bring peace when politics fails.
|Show #690: ON THE RUN! - 18-07-2010 (8.61 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Carolyn Sime, wolf program director for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Subject:Wolf number 690 lost her pack to disease and was forced to flee the protected confines of Yellowstone Park for the wilds of private property. Her flight leads us to ask… Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?
Topics include the reintroduction of wolves into the American West; what happens when the needs of wolves conflict with the needs of people; and whether wolves can be managed outside of the protected confines of Yellowstone Park.
|Show #689: ANTIDOTE FOR HARD TIMES - 10-07-2010 (9.31 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Charles Gourlis, author of The Seen But Unheard Garden, and Trent McNair from the Aptos Community Garden
Subject:When the going gets tough, the tough get growing. And what better way to grow than with friends and neighbors in a community garden. But all those community gardens sprouting up lead us to ask… Who puts the community in community gardens?
Topics include what role the community plays in a community garden; how society is structured in community gardens; and what plants might say about their community gardeners.
|Show #688: LOST FOODS - 03-07-2010 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Andrew Beahrs, author of Twain's Feast
Subject:Now that food is produced in giant factories far, far away, it tastes like food produced in giant factories far, far away. But we remember what food tasted like when it was wild and free, and so we ask… Which wild foods do you miss most?
Topics include a look back at some of our favorite wild foods; what we lost when we lost those wild foods; and what we might gain by reintroducing a little wildness into our industrialized food chain.
|Show #687: PINK GOLD OF VEGAS - 26-06-2010 (8.59 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Bob Combs, Farmer, RC Farms, Las Vegas
Subject:This little pig went to market. This little pig stayed home. This little pig went to Las Vegas for a taste of filet mignon. Those pink porkers of Vegas lead us to ask… What should we do with our leftovers?
Topics include why organic wastes have traditionally been valued as a resource; why we city folk have devalued organic wastes into garbage; and how R.C. Farms turns leftovers from Vegas casinos into pink gold.
|Show #686: IMMIGRATION REFORM II - 19-06-2010 (8.94 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Craig Regelbrugge, Co-Chair, Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform
Subject:They sneak across the border by the millions to work in our fields, thus you and I can eat cheap food. But our reliance on cheap labor leads us to ask… Can we eat with illegal immigrants?
Topics include the extent to which agriculture has come to rely on immigrant labor; why this labor tends to be illegal immigrant labor; and whether we can feed ourselves without a never-ending stream of illegal immigrant labor to work in our fields.
|Show #685: BUGS THAT BUG US - 05-06-2010 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Hugh Raffles, Author, Insectopedia
Subject:There are mega trillions of them, and they are everywhere– in our hair, on our food, in our mattress. But after we smash one with enough force to knock over a baby elephant, we ask… Can insects be sentient?
Topics include a brief look at the kingdom of insects; accounts from a round-the-world quest to chronicle the story of humans and their insects; and a discussion as to whether insects can be sentient.
|Show #684: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL - 29-05-2010 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Michigan farmer Paul Keiser and Washington State farmer Bruce Dunlop
Subject:"All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." If what Napolean suggests in Orwell's Animal Farm is true, we wonder… Which animal would you take with you to the New World?
Topics include a brief look at popular food animals; an exploration of why some animals are more proficient food producers than others; and which farm animal well be the first among equals when it comes to helping us survive.
|Show #683: THE RIGHT TO EAT FOOD - 22-05-2010 (8.75 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Scott Tips, President of the National Health Federation,
Subject:As living beings, nature gives us the right to eat food. But as citizens, government legislates what foods we have the right to eat. Given all the food laws now being passed, we must ask… What foods will government give us the right to eat?
Topics include how government is acting to restrict our right to eat vitamins, minerals and local foods; why legislation is being passed to harmonize our food laws with the food laws of others; and what foods the government will give us the right to eat.
|Show #682: THE HANDS OF CHILDREN - 15-05-2010 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Zama Coursen-Neff from Human Rights Watch and Ronald Gaskill from the American Farm Bureau Federation
Subject:Some say they are too young to work and must be protected with federal legislation until they grow up; others suggest if they are deprived of that work they may never grow up. And so we ask… Should children be allowed to work on farms?
Topics include what work children may or may not do on the farm; why some see current rules as too weak and in need of fresh legislation, while others do not; and whether children 12 to 17 should be allowed to work on farms.
|Show #681: IMMIGRATION REFORM - 08-05-2010 (8.86 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Deborah Notkin, Past President of American Immigration Lawyers Association
Subject:They sneak across the border to work in our fields. After tasting our Great American way, they're here to stay, by the millions. So we ask… Should immigration be reformed?
Topic include...
|Show #680:ALL WE CAN EAT SHRIMP - 01-05-2010 (8.81 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Taras Grescoe, Author, Bottomfeeder
Subject:The bite is on… We heard it on the radio: "All you can eat shrimp. Come and get em!" And so, mouths watering in anticipation, we stampede across the floor and out the door for… But wait… How can they afford to feed us all-we-can-eat shrimp?
Topics include the special relationship of seafood to the human mind; how we humans are eating our way down the fish food chain; and whether will we will develop a sustainable fishery, or eat the seas to death.
|Show #679: GOVERNMENT GUARANTEED SAFE FOOD - 24-04-2010 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guests: TBA from Cornucopia Institute
Subject:Government-guaranteed safe food is coming, so get ready for brightly-packaged cake manufactured from GE soybeans, fortified with Chinese-made vitamins, flavored with nano grey goo of choice, and of course, colored green for sensitivity. But we ask… Who is government going to make safe: Them or Us?
Topics include why the government finds it necessary to take control of the nation's food chain; how government control protects producers of industrial foods; and how government control threatens producers of local foods.
|Show #678: WOMEN OF THE DIRT - 17-04-2010 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Women of the Dirt Jenny Sabo and LaVonne Stucky from Montana's Gallatin Valley
Subject:We look up to those who inhabit the top floors of skyscrapers for their ability to collect Other Peoples Money and hoard it for themselves. But now we must turn away from them and ask… What can we learn from the Women of the Dirt?
Topics include what it takes to wake a farm from its long winter's sleep; how physical work can earn riches money can't buy; and how children can develop character by growing and eating real food.
|Show #677: HOW ORGANIC IS ORGANIC? - 10-04-2010 (8.86 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Farmer Fred Kirschenmann of Kirschenmann Family Farms
Subject:The giants of industrial agriculture saw the light and became organic. To determine how organic they became, the government audited its National Organic Program. This audit leads us to ask… How organic is organic?
Topics include what happened when the government became the sponsor of organic agriculture; how the government's organic rules came to allow for industrial technologies; and what the government's audit portends for the future of organic food.
|Show #676: RIDING THE RUNAWAY DEBT TRAIN - 03-04-2010 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Tony Livoti from the Monterey Bay International Trade Association, and Lynn Reaser from the National Association of Business Economics
Subject:We are riding a runaway train of debt, and this train is accelerating faster and faster along tracks that will end down the line, somewhere. This wild ride leads us to ask… Can we rescue ourselves by selling more than we buy?
Topics include how a nation of producers became a nation of consumers; how much foreign trade contributes to the national debt; and whether we can rescue our grandchildren from pecuniary slavery by once again selling more than we buy.
|Show #675: BIG VRS SMALL - 27-03-2010 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Nettie Wiebe from Via Campesina
Subject:Agriculture, like most industries, appears to be growing in two directions: very big and very small. This observation leads us to ask… Which will survive to feed us: big farms or small farms?
Topics include why medium-size farms are disappearing; the role small agriculture plays in the world's food chain; and whether big agriculture and small agriculture will co-exist, or fight each other to until one or the other disappears.
|Show #674: BLACK FARMER REPARATIONS - 13-03-2010 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Carl Horowitz, National Legal and Policy Center
Subject:The Federal Government has admitted to discriminating against black farmers and taxpayers must now pay $1,250,000,000 to make good. These reparations lead us to ask… Can a lender discriminate without discriminating?
Topics include why government confessed to discrimination in its lending to black farmers; who will get the $1.25 Billion dollars; and what future impact these reparations might have for taxpayers.
|Show #673: PERCY VRS MONSANTO - 06-03-2010 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Farmer Percy Schmeiser
Subject:Twice he took on the icy summit of Mt. Everest, and then he went after the biggest mountain of all, the Monsanto Corporation. And so we ask… Did Percy steal Monsanto's seeds, or did Monsanto's seeds steal Percy's farm?
Topics include how Percy woke to find Monsanto's GE canola growing in his roadside ditch; how Monsanto took Percy to court for stealing canola and won, and how Percy fought back and won; and why the fight between Percy and Monsanto goes on, and on, and on.
|Show #672: FOLLOW THE MONEY - 27-02-2010 (8.86 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Erin FitzPatrick, Vice President of Rabobank
Subject:To be a successful banker, one must learn how to see into the future. And so we ask one of the world's largest lenders to agriculture … Will farmers earn enough to grow our food?
Topics include how bankers evaluate the consequences of their lending; what impact the current economy is having on consumer demand and producer supply; and whether the economy of the next few years will allow farmers to earn enough to grow our food.
|Show #671: SAVING THE SEEDS - 20-02-2010 (8.61 MB) Listen Now
Guests: John Torgrimson, Editor, Seed Savers Exchange
Subject:Where there were many seed companies, there are now but few. Their consolidation of the gene pool leads us to ask… Why save the many when a few might do?
Topics include how heritage seeds differ from hybridized and engineered seeds; why some believe it is important to save the genetics embodied in heirloom seeds; and how heirloom seeds can be saved and exchanged.
|Show #670: CANNABIS CHAOS - 13-02-2010 (19.41 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Stanford Franklin from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
Subject:It was a weed that became fashionable, and so was made illegal, and then medicinal, and is now, though still illegal, the nation's most lucrative cash crop. This leads us to ask… Should we end the prohibition of cannabis?
Topics include why cannabis was made illegal in 1937; how the illegal weed became a medicinal herb; and whether the prohibition of cannabis should be ended.
|Show #669: FOOD SAFETY TOTALITARIANS - 06-02-2010 (8.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Citizen Journalist Nicole Johnson
Subject:He said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste!" and so they are using tainted hamburger, peanut butter and spinach to take total control of the nation's food chain. Their legislation leads us to ask… What will the Food Safety Totalitarians allow us to eat?
Topics include how food scares are being used to gain total control of the nation's food chain; who will tell the government which foods to produce and how to produce them safely; and which safe foods the government will allow us to eat.
|Show #668: DRUGS IN THE DRINK - 30-01-2010 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Alan Roberson from the American Water Works Association and George Mannina, Esq. with Nossaman Law
Subject:We are a nation of drug users-. We take them in the morning to wake up, at midday to stay awake, and at night to sleep. Our use leads us to ask… What happens to the drugs when we are finished with them?
Topics include how pharmaceuticals get into our drinking water; what impact those drugs might have on our bodies; and what can be done to mitigate the impact.
|Show #667: THE RIGHT TO RAW - 23-01-2010 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guest: David Gumpert, author of the Raw Milk Revolution
Subject:In 2006, government launched an campaign to eliminate raw milk. In 2010, raw almonds have been banned from the shelves of grocery stores. Today we ask… Should we have the right to eat raw food?
Topics include why some prefer raw foods over processed and packaged foods; why government insists that raw foods be totally controlled, if not eliminated; and whether we should have the right to raw foods.
|Show #666: LIONS IN THE HOOD - 16-01-2010 (8.53 MB) Listen Now
Guest: University of California Wildlife Ecologist Chris Wilmers
Subject:There are lions in the neighborhood. My daughter saw one across the street in the playground of the elementary school. Their presence leads us to ask… Can the wild and the tame just get along?
Topics include why reclusive mountain lions, and other wildlife, are becoming less reclusive; how lions can live within the fringes of metropolitan areas; and whether the wildest of the wild can get along with the tamest of the tame.
|Show #665: - 09-01-2010 (8.74 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dietician-Author Elizabeth Somer
Subject:We try to eat our way to happiness, only to become fat and sad. The length of our waistlines, and our sleepless nights, leads us to ask… Can we eat our way to happiness?
Topics include the relationship between food, mood and weight; why we crave foods that make us fat and sad; and how we can eat foods that make us lean and happy.
|Show #664: WILL THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SURViVE? - 19-12-2009 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Environmental Attorney Andy Hitchings (Natural Resources Defense Council, San Francisco Baykeeper and Earthjustice have been invited to participate as well)
Subject:They turned off the water to the San Joaquin Valley, putting hundreds of thousands of acres and tens of thousands of people out of work. Now they are challenging Sacramento Valley water contracts dating back to the 1880s. Their work on behalf of endangered species leads us to ask… Will the State of California survive?
Topics include how the Endangered Species Act is used to take water away from California's agriculture; what impact the loss of water might have on the industry of agriculture; and speculation about how the State of California might survive without its agriculture.
|Show #663: GENTICALLY-ENGINEERED ORGANICS - 12-12-2009 (8.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Pamela Ronald, Director, UC Davis Plant Genetics and Raoul Adamchak, Instructor of Organic Agriculture, UC Davis Studen Farm
Subject:They are married with children: She is the chair of the UC Davis Plant Genetics Lab and he teaches at the UC Davis Organic Farm. Their suggestion of a future filled with genetically-engineered organic foods leads us to ask… Should we allow genetic engineering into organic agriculture?
Topics include why genetic engineering and organic agriculture have been legally separated by the Federal government; what opportunities allowing the technologies to commingle would provide; and given the traditional antipathies involved, how such an allowance could be made.
|Show #662: AN AMISH AUTISM ANOMALY - 05-12-2009 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Investigative Journalist Dan Omsted
Subject:Consider: Whereas the rate of autism in the general population is 1 child in 166, the rate among the Amish is 1 in 15,000. This anomaly leads us to ask… Why do we have 90 times more autism than the Amish?
Topics include a profile of autism; how the incidence of autism appears to be growing among the general population; and why so few Amish are afflicted.
|Show #661: WHERE IS CUBA LIBRE? - 21-11-2009 (8.75 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bill Messina, Professor of Ag Economics at the University of Florida
Subject:When the Cuban government allowed for free farmers markets, citizens got food and farmers earned money. Now Cuba is shutting the markets down, which leads us to ask… Where is Cuba Libre?
Topics include how Cuban agriculture is supposed to work; why free markets were allowed in that controlled economy; and why Cuba is now moving to close the free markets down again.
|Show #660: GALLO BE THY NAME - 14-11-2009 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author Jerome Tuccille
Subject:The family enterprise began, like many others, in the black market and, when sufficient cash accrued, grew into respectability. This history leads us to ask… What's in that jug of Gallo?
Topics include why immigrants like Al Capone and Joe Gallo turned to crime for work; how prohibition provided the Gallo family with a springboard to respectability; and how the Gallos grew their family business into a world-class empire.
|Show #659: THE SEED GIANTS - 07-11-2009 (8.56 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Steve Hixson from Steve's Seed Conditioning in Claremont, Illinois
Subject:Four seed companies now control 75% of the seed marketplace, and two of them– Monsanto and DuPont– are at slugging each other out in court for more. The concentration of seeds in the hands of these giants leads us to ask… Do the seed giants strengthen or weaken our food chain?
Topics include how four companies came to control so much of the nation's seeds; how those giant companies control the competition for seed dollars; and why the USDA is holding public hearings on this consolidation.
|Show #658: THE POLITICS OF SCARCITY - 31-10-2009 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Professor Mauricio Borrero, author of Hungry Moscow
Subject:The Man of Steel's plan: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. To enforce this plan on a population of recalcitrant city people, Joseph Stalin used the ultimate weapon– food. And so we ask… Could the politics of scarcity be used again?
Topics include a brief history of Russian agriculture; why food shortages developed in the early years of the USSR; and how those food shortages were used to starve the population into submission.
|Show #657: FARMS OR FISH? - 24-10-2009 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Sarah Clark Woolf, Westlands Water District & a TBA from the environmental community.
Subject:The fight is on for California's water, with the salmon fishery extinct, 600,000 acres of prime farmland abandoned, tens of thousands out of work, and food banks distributing food from China. And so we ask… Farms or Fish?
Topics include a recent history of California's water fight; how a Federal judge turned the spigot off for farms and on for fish; and whether there can ever be enough water for farms and fish.
|Show #656: SQUEEZED FRESH - 17-10-2009 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Alissa Hamilton, PhD, Author of Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice
Subject:It's pure, and natural, and squeezed fresh. And so we buy the orange juice and drink it to break our fast and start our day. Still, we wonder… What do they mean by "squeezed fresh?"
Topics include a history of how orange juice became a staple of the American breakfast; the technologies that make it possible to get juice from oranges off the tree in Brazil and onto a table in Peoria; and how juice a year old can be sold to us as squeezed fresh.
|Show #655: PLANT PILLOW TALK - 10-10-2009 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Bruce McClure, PhD, University of Missouri's Interdisciplinary Plant Unit
Subject:Two decades after the Prince of Wales was scorned for suggesting plants can respond to human speech, science is proving plants can actually talk. And so we ask… If plants can talk, can they also flirt?
Topics include why plants must comply with the same rules of procreation as people; how plants communicate their availability with each other; and whether, in all their socializing, plants can become sentient.
|Show #654: The Food Pirates - 03-10-2009 (8.83 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author / Journalist Dr. Devinder Sharma
Subject:Though seven out of every ten Indians depend on income from farms, they are selling off their farmland to the world's corporations. This leads us to ask… What will happen to the poor when they can no longer farm?
Topics include why some of the world's biggest corporations are buying up some of the world's best farmlands; how government and industry work hand-in-hand to drive farmers out of farming; what this concentration of land-holding means for the world's poor.
|Show #653: A LEAFY GREEN DISAGREEMENT - 27-09-2009 (8.88 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Patty Lavore from Food and Water Watch, and a representative from the Western Growers Association
Subject:Some say a national Leafy Green Marketing Agreement would protect against harmful micro buggies like E. coli 0157; but others say the agreement could destroy America's small farms. And so we ask… Would a national Leafy Green Marketing Agreement strengthen or weaken our food chain?
Topics include the provisions of a national Leafy Green Marketing Agreement; what impact these provisions would have on industrial and family-farm agriculture; and whether the agreement would strengthen or weaken the nation's food chain.
|Show #652:AMAZON ESSENCE - 24-09-2009 (8.6 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Grandmother Maria Alice, Amazon Curendera
Subject:2,500 years ago, Hippocrates said, "Let your food be your medicine." There is still one place where food is the only medicine, and it leads us to ask... Can flowers from the Amazon cure what ails us?
Topic include what is in wild plants that is not in cultivated plants; the difference between using plants as medicine and drugs as medicine; and what lessons we who live in the civilized world can learn from those who live in a primitive world.
|Show #651: PAVLOV'S GOAT - 12-09-2009 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dr. Fred Provenza, University of Utah, Department of Wildland Resources
Subject:When his goats ate the woodrat houses, instead of blackbrush shrubs, and became high-performace goats, Fred asked… Can the nutrient wisdom of animals help us manage the environment?
Topics include whether animals know what nutrients their bodies need; how this nutrient wisdom enables them to adapt to the environment; and how this behavior can be used to help better manage natural resources.
|Show #650: MARK ON THE BEAST V - 05-09-2009 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jay Platt, Region Director of R-CALF USA and Sharon Zecchinelli, author of First They Came for the Cows
Subject:Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you! And so we pause to ask…. Who is behind the National Animal Identification System?
Topics include who wants the government to register and track every farm animal in the US; how the National Animal Registration System would operate; and who wins and who loses under this system.
|Show #649: BORROWED MONEY - 29-08-2009 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Pete Graff, PhD, Farmer / Ag Lending Specialist
Subject:The government appears to be changing its agriculture lending policy so that only farmers who do not need money get money. This new policy leads us to ask… If farmers can't get money, will we get food?
Topics include how commercial growers use borrowed money to grow their crops; how, in the past, government has guaranteed their loans; and what impact a change in this policy might have for the production of crops and the availability of food.
|Show #648: THE PERFECT FRUIT - 22-08-2009 (8.59 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Chip Brantley, author of The Perfect Fruit
Subject:Mother nature never does get it just right, and so we keep fiddling with her work until we can grow the perfect fruit—one that could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. This leads us to ask… What two fruits would you combine to make the perfect fruit?
Topics include the work of the legendary fruit developer Floyd Zaiger; how Zaiger crossed the plum and apricot to create the sweet-tasting pluot; and how the pluot found its way into the commercial marketplace.
|Show #647: THE RENEGADE LUNCH LADY - 15-08-2009 (8.99 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author, Chef and Renegade Lunch Lady Ann Cooper
Subject:Fish sticks, tater tots, and sloppy joes… If we are what we eat, then what have school lunches allowed us to become? And looking to our future… Can schools serve good food in hard times?
Topics include the economic and political ingredients of the typical school lunch; how some schools are bringing fresh, local foods into the cafeteria; and why some believe the school lunch to be the social justice issue of our time.
|Show #646: THE 99 CENT GOURMET - 08-08-2009 (8.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mike Rounds author / chef
Subject:Michael Olson's 3rd Law of the Food Chain: Cheap food Isn't! In fact, cheap food can cost more and take longer to prepare. This leads us to ask… Can we feed a family of four good food for less than $10?
Topics include what goes into the cost of food and how to control those costs; why cooking at home is faster and less expensive than eating out; how to get the most for our money when shopping for food.
|Show #645: THE OTHER COSTS OF CHEAP LABOR - 01-08-2009 (8.86 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ted Hilton from the California Taxpayer Protection Act 2010 initiative, and a spokesperson from the United Farmworker Union (tent)
Subject:An estimated 50% of the farm workers in the U.S. are without documentation. One way for them to gain some legitimacy is to have an American-born child. This strategy leads us to ask… Who should pay the other costs of undocumented farmworkers?
Topics include a look at the other costs of undocumented farm labor; who is forced to pay those costs; and how immigration reform might reshape the future of the nation's food chain.
|Show #644: CAP AND TRADE AND FOOD - 25-07-2009 (9.41 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Rick Krause from the American Farm Bureau Federation and a spokesperson from the National Farmers Union
Subject:Take a big deep breath and hold it. Now, the Incorrect among us will exhale too much CO2. Their exhalations will therefore be capped and they forced to trade with the Correct among us for the right to exhale more. This heavy breathing leads us to ask… Who will win, and who will lose, with Cap and Trade?
Topics include a look at the restrictions Cap and Trade will place on agriculture and industry; who will decide who may emit and who may not; and who will win and who will lose as a consequence of the new rules.
|Show #643: GOVERNMENT SAFE FOOD - 18-07-2009 (8.86 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Peter Kennedy from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Tami Wahl from the American Association of Health Freedom, Representative Henry Waxman D-CA (Tentative)
Subject:The Federal government intends to make all food safe with HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. This legislation leads us to ask… For whom does the government want to make food safe?
Topics include a look at the new rules and regulations 2749 will place on family-scale agriculture; what impact those rules will have on the nation's food chain; and whether only industrial-scaled producers of processed foods will be able to survive 2749.
|Show #642: HOW SWEET IS IT? - 11-07-2009 (8.82 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Dr. Betty Martini, founder of Mission Possible International, and a representative from the International Sweetener Association
Subject:The marauding bears had their choice between the regular and diet sodas left behind in the refrigerator. They left the diet sodas untouched. Those bears lead us to ask… Should we eat and drink artificial sweeteners?
Topics include a look at why artificial sweeteners came to sweeten our food chain; what impact those sweeteners have on the human body; and why the bears would not drink the diet sodas.
|Show #641: FEEDING THE HUNGRY... BEARS - 04-07-2009 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Bearman Kevin Sanders of Yellowstone Outdoor Adventures
Subject:Unkempt and bedraggled, they shuffle in from the woods where they spend the night with a pleading look of hunger in their eyes that says, "Feed me, feed me!" And so we ask… Should we feed the hungry… bears?
Topics include a look at what happens when wild bears are fed by people; the results of Yellowstone Park's "Don't feed the bears!" campaign; and whether civilized people should feed wild bears.
|Show #640: NOT BY BREAD ALONE - 27-06-2009 (8.94 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Professor Melissa Caldwell, author of Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia
Subject:The equation was simple: From each according to his abililty, to each according to his need. But there was not enough ability, or too much need, and the USSR collapsed into ruin, which leads us to ask… Who feeds the hungry when the government falls?
Topics include a look at how the hungry were fed in the socialist USSR; what happened to the hungry when that government failed; and who fed the hungry when there was no government help.
|Show #639: FOR WHICH FOODS FROM A YOUNGER LAND DO YOU HUNGER? - 20-06-2009 (8.83 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark Kurlansky, Author, The Foo of a Younger Land
Subject:During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration hired writers to document what America was eating. From these accounts it is evident that what we were eating is not what we are eating, which leads us to ask… For which foods from a younger land do you hunger?
Topics include a look at "America Eats," the WPA project to document America's local foods; what Modern Times did to those local foods; and which foods we miss most from those younger times.
|Show #638: CHEAP FOOD FROM CHINA - 13-06-2009 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Open Microphone
Subject:There are three frightening ironies within the three simple sentences of this Chico Enterprise-Record letter to the editor: "Today when I paid for my child's lunch at school, I asked about the food that was being served. The lunch lady explained that all the canned food is from China because it is really cheap. She showed me the cans and verified the truth." Can you identify three ironies in this letter to the editor?
Topics include why Chico, California must feed its school children cheap food from China; the true costs of buying that cheap food; and the consequences of forcing food production off shore.
|Show #637 : NANO FOOD - 06-06-2009 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Shane Journeay, Ph.D, CEO of Nanotechnology Toxicology Consulting and Training
Subject:To feed our future, we will need to produce more food with less natural resources. Some point to the technology of the nano and say, "Salvation is on the way!" And so we ask… Can nanotechnology feed our future?
Topics include a brief survey of nanotechnology; how this technology will be used in the production and processing of food; and whether the nano will enable us to feed our future.
|Show #636: Killing Them Softly II - 26-05-2009 (8.58 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Thomas Wittman, President of Gophers Limited
Subject:This from a concerned listener: "No… Don't spray! Just do not spray! No more chemicals. No pesticides. No bad stuff on my food, our community, our health." Okay. But wait! What about the pests? Can pests be managed humanely?
Topics include whether pests should, or should not, be managed; favorite techniques for managing animals pests; and whether pests can be managed "humanely."
|Show #635: CHILD FARM LABOR - 09-05-2009 (8.75 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David Strauss, Executive Director, Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs
Subject:They say, "For decades, U.S. children, some as young as 10 years old, have been working in the fields with grave consequences for their health, education, and personal development." They lead us to ask… Should children work on farms?
Topics include a look at who does the work on the nation's farms; why their children are not afforded the same protection as others under the Fair Labor Standards Act; and whether children should be allowed to work on farms
|Show #634: THE TWINKIES OFFENSE - 25-04-2009 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Steve Ettlinger, author of Twinkie, Deconstructed
Subject:They became famous as a defense strategy in the San Francisco murder trial of Dan White. Fifteen billion golden cakes later we pause to ask… What's in a Twinkie?
Topics include why we eat 500 million Twinkies every year; what ingredients go into the making of Twinkies; and why Twinkies, like many industrial foods, no longer have terroir.
|Show #633: DO IT YOURSELF LIFE - 18-04-2009 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: MacKenzie Cowell, Founder of DIYBio, and computer scientist Meredith Patterson
Subject:Scientists in laboratories can take apart two living things and recombine them into a new living thing. Individuals in basements and garages now say, "Me too!" This leads us to ask… Should life be free for the making?
Topics include a brief overview of how life may be re-engineered; why this technology should taken out of the laboratory and used by "hackers;" and what might come if life is free for the making.
|Show #632: PASSING FARMING'S BAD GAS - 11-04-2009 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Gerald Nelson, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute
Subject:Farming, they say, accounts for too much greenhouse gas and should be reformed. This leads us to ask… Can agriculture clean up its bad gas?
Topics include how much food production contributes to global warming; what can be done to reduce agriculture's green house gasses; and who should pay for farmers' greenhouse gasses?
|Show #631: LAWYERING UP FOR FOOD SAFETY - 04-04-2009 (8.57 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Food Poisoning Lawyer Bill Marler, Marler Clark
Subject:Campylobacter, E. coli, hepatitis A, listeria, norovirus, salmonella, and shigella are some of the food borne pathogens that lead us to ask… Can the law protect us from bad food?
Topics include why good food goes bad; recent food poisoning incidents and what caused them; and what the law can and cannot do to protect us from poisoned foods.
|Show #630: PLAYING CHICKEN - 28-03-2009 (8.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Chicken Farmer Jennifer Megyesi, Author of The Joy of Keeping Chickens
Subject:Before radio, television or the internet, there were chickens, which came in hundreds of colors, shapes, and sizes, and were kept in flocks at family farms and city homes. This history leads us to ask… Can we bring chickens home from the factory?
Topics include a brief history of the domestic chicken; why the chicken ended up in a factory instead of a back yard coop; and what obstacles must be overcome to raise chickens for fun or profit.
|Show #628: RIGHTEOUS ANIMALS - 21-03-2009 (8.67 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Rancher Bill Niman and Rancher, Lawyer, Author Nicolette Hahn Niman
Subject:They moved the animal farm into a factory so we could have cheap food. But Michael Olson's Third Law of the Food Chain says Cheap food isn't! And so we wonder… Is there a viable alternative to the factory farm?
Topics include how Bill Niman built a $65 million dollar business on the principal of righteous animal husbandry; how Nicolette Hahn Niman waged war with factory farms as an attorney with Bobby Kennedy's Waterkeeper Alliance; and whether there is an economically viable alternative to industrial animal husbandry.
|Show #628: FEDERALIZING OUR FARMS - 14-03-2009 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Pete Kennedy, Acting President of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Subject:They tell us it is for our own good, that they are simply trying to help, that we should trust them to do what we cannot do for ourselves. They lead us to ask… Will House Bill 875 federalize all farms and ranches in the USA?
Topics include how HB 875 would place every farm and ranch under the direct supervision of a new federal Food Safety Administration (FSA); how the FSA would have the power to access and inspect every farm in the United States, as well as the customer list of each of those farms; and whether the federalization of the entire food chain would make for a safer food supply.
|Show #627: FARMLANDS OF LINCOLN - 07-03-2009 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guest: History Professor Kurt W. Peterson from North Park University
Subject:Abraham Lincoln spent his first 21 years on the dirt-poor farmlands of the young nation's frontier. His upbringing leads us to ask: How did the farm shape the character?
Topics include a look at the poor childhood of the nation's 16th President; what impact those tough times had on the development of Lincoln's character; and what impact, if any, Lincoln's character had on the development of the United States.
|Show #626: THE GRANDMOTHER PLANT - 01-03-2009 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Curindera and Grandmother Flordemayo
Subject:Some look to doctors and hospitals for healing and hope; others look to the smiling faces in Washington, DC. But a few still look to the wisdom of grandmothers, and they lead us to ask…. Can we find healing and hope in the Grandmother Plant? (#626)
Topics include a look at the traditional healing practices of curanderismo; why grandmothers are often the curators of this knowledge; and how curanderismo healing is brought into Modern Times via the Grandmother Plant.
|Show #625: GAMING CORN - 21-02-2009 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: reporter Jessica Resnick-Ault from Dow Jones Newswire and David Blume, author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas
Subject:The good news is the price oil has returned to the $35 a barrel range. The bad news is the nation's ethanol industry is going bankrupt and being purchased by oil companies. This leads us to ask… What happened to biofuels?
Topics include the pending bankruptcy of approximately 25% of the nation's ethanol refining industry; how the ethanol industry was played through the trading of commodity futures; and how large sectors of the biofuel industry are now being purchased pennies-on-the-dollar by oil companies.
|Show #624: THE REAL DEAL? - 14-02-2009 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Jason Hill, PhD, from the University of Minnesota's Department of Applied Economics
Subject:To calculate the true cost of a gallon of gasoline, we must add a dollar a gallon for environmental and health costs. This additional dollar per gallon is paid by taxpayers, which leads us to ask… Is there a real alternative to gasoline?
Topics include a comparison of the true costs of gasoline and biofuels; the impact these fuels have on environment and human health; and whether it is possible to grow ourselves into a less expensive energy future.
|Show #623: THE MISSING FOOD IN OUR FOOD - 07-02-2009 (8.42 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Professor Donald R. Davis from the Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas
Subject:A substantial percentage of the minerals, vitamins and protein in our food crops has simply disappeared over the past 50 years. This leads us to ask… What happened to the food in our food?
Topics include how, since the 1940's, we have been aware of the diminishing mineral, vitamin and protein content of our food crops; the reasons why there is less food in our foods; and what the future holds if the nutrients in our food continue to disappear.
|Show #622: WENDELL & WES... ON HOPE! - 01-02-2009 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author, professor, poet and Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry, and author, professor, and founder of the Land Institute in Kansas, Wes Jackson, Ph.D.
Subject:During the Great Depression, wind picked up the nation's cropland and carried it away in great, suffocating clouds of dust. Where there were no crops, there was no hope. Some say a succession of five-year Farm Bills may cause the same kind of destruction, and so we ask… Can a 50-year Farm Bill save our cropland? (#622)
Topics include why cropland blew away during the years of the Great Depression; why a succession of five-year Farm Bills appears to be causing the same kind of devastation; and how a 50-year Farm Bill might save our cropland, and our hope.
|Show #621: LET YOUR MEDICINE BE YOUR FOOD - 27-01-2009 (8.14 MB) Listen Now
Guests: University of California Medical Anthropologist Nancy Chen
Subject:Hippocrates said, "Let your medicine be your food, and let your food be your medicine." But Hippocrates was yesterday. Today we take pharmaceutical medicines, and they lead us to ask…. Why did we separate our food from our medicine?
Topics include a look at cultures in which food is still being used as medicine; the impact government and industry have on the use of food as medicine; and how foods and medicines are coming back together as nutraceuticals and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
|Show #620: A FARM FOR THE WHITEHOUSE - 17-01-2009 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow (tent.) from the White House Farm project
Subject:Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow are on a cross country mission in a topsy turvy bus to convince the new President to establish an organic farm at the White House. Their mission leads us to ask…. What do you want the new President to do for the food chain?
Topics include a look at the history of growing food at the White House; why Simon and Gustowarow have taken it upon themselves to convince the new President to establish an organic farm at the White House; and tales from the road to the White House Farm.
|Show #619: TWO ACRES A MINUTE - 10-01-2009 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ellie Kastanopolous from Equity Trust and Jody Bolluyt from Hudson Valley's Roxbury Farm
Subject:Cities are eating up our prime farmland at the rate of two acres per minute 24-7-365. This loss of farmland leads us to ask… How can we save enough farmland to maintain our food chain?
Topics include whether enough privately-owned farmland can be saved to maintain the nation's food chain; what alternatives exist to private ownership of farmland; and what results to these alternatives yield?
|Show #618: WHAT WILL YOU DO TO SECURE THE FOOD CHAIN? - 27-12-2008 (8.47 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Open Microphone
Subject:Congratulations! You have been appointed Secretary of Agriculture for the United States of America. Your appointment leads us to ask… What policy will you enact to guarantee a safe and secure food chain? (#618)
Topics include a listener's observation about what happens when the food chain breaks, as in her former Soviet Union; which policy you believe will ensure a secure food chain; and host Olson's revolutionary policy to achieve food security.
|Show #617: SWATTING FARMERS - 20-12-2008 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Attorney Scott Bemis, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Subject:The SWAT team held the Stowers family with assault weapons for nine hours while tearing their farmhouse apart looking for evidence. The Stowers' crime? Selling farm-fresh foods to friends and neighbors! This SWATTING of farmers leads us to ask… Should farmers be allowed to sell us their foods, or should we be forced to buy their foods from government-sanctioned corporations? (#617)
Topics include why the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund exists; why governments of all shapes and sizes appear to be taking out farmers who sell farm fresh foods direct to consumers; and whether farmers should, or should not, be allowed to sell us farm fresh foods.
|Show #616: THE DENIALISTS II - 13-12-2008 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Celia Farber, author of Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS
Subject:The cluster of diseases known as AIDS has killed over 25 million people around the world. AIDS is said to be caused by the HIV virus, and thus to prevent AIDS one must manage HIV. Yet an increasing number are denying the efficacy of this claim, which leads us to ask: Which causes AIDS: HIV or poverty?
Topics include why so many HIV positive people can survive on drug "cocktails" without contracting AIDS; what causes AIDS if not the HIV virus; why some believe food and nutrition might be more effective in controlling AIDS than drugs.
|Show #615: THE DENIALISTS - 07-12-2008 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Celia Farber, author of Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS
Subject:HIV / AIDS currently accounts for an estimated 80 percent of all American financial aid to world health and population issues. Yet an increasing number are denying the efficacy of this food chain, which leads us to ask: Should denialists be denied?
Topics include why some deny commonly held assumptions about HIV / AIDS; what happens to those who deny the commonly held assumptions; and whether denialists should be denied their opinions on HIV / AIDS.
|Show #614: LA DOLCE VITA - 02-12-2008 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ian D'Agata, Director, International Wine Academy, and author of The Guide to the Best Wines of Italy
Subject:Sometimes we simply must break away and go to someplace really special, like Italy, and do something special, like discover the best wines of Italy. And so let's break away and discover… Which are the best wines of Italy? (# 614)
Topics include why Italy, which at one time was the epicenter of the world's wine trade, became a second-string player in that trade; how the diversity of Italian varieties, vintners and terroir affects the selection of its wines; and how to taste and evaluate Italian wines.
|Show #613: THE GREAT DEPRESSION - 22-11-2008 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Paul Bonnifield, PhD, author of The Dust Bowl: Dirt, Dust and Depression
Subject:Ask any of those who survived the Great Depression in the 1930s what they ate for dinner and you'll likely get an ear full, if not a belly full. Their stories lead one to ask… Who fed the nation during the Great Depression?
Topics include what happened to farmers when the nation's economy collapsed; how did people feed their families when there was no money; and the difference between the agricultures of then and now.
|Show # 612: THE LAND SNATCHERS - 15-11-2008 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ecologist Virginia Moran
Subject:Foreigners are sneaking in through the wide-open borders of the new world order. Some say the visitors are "invasive" and should be removed; others say there is nothing that can be done about them and we must therefore accept them. This leads us to ask… Should we tolerate non-native plants?
Topics include whether non-native plant species should be called "invasive;" what kinds of impact non-native species can have on native environments; and whether non-native species should be tolerated or eliminated.
|Show #611: A WILDLIFE GENOCIDE - 01-11-2008 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Scott Horsfall, CEO of the California Leafy Green Products Handlers Marketing Agreement and Jo Ann Baumgartner, Director of the Wild Farm Alliance
Subject:In the leafy green fields of the nation's salad bowl, growers are killing off wildlife. One grower was reported to have poisoned his ponds to prevent frogs from hopping around his fields. This leads us to ask… Can wildlife be allowed to exist in agriculture?
Topics include how E. Coli changed agriculture in the nation's salad bowl; why growers of leafy green foods are killing off wildlife; and whether wildlife can be allowed to exist in agriculture.
|Show #610: OUR $10 TRILLION BILL - 25-10-2008 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Vicky Markham, Director of the Center for Environment and Population, and Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute
Subject:We have spent more than we earned and now must borrow $10 trillion from our children to keep from going belly up. To make it easier for children to pay our bill, we could have more children, and allow for more immigration. This leads us to ask… Should we increase population to pay our debt?
Topics include how a growing population can rescue a sick economy; what happens to individuals when a country manages its population; and what can happen to a culture when population is not managed.
|Show #609: THE HOWLING - 18-10-2008 (8.6 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jay Bodner, Natural Resources Director of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and Suzanne Asha Stone from Defenders of Wildlife
Subject:The howling of the wolves is both exhilarating and terrifying: exhilarating if you are a city person in need of the wild; terrifying if you are a country person in need of the civil. This howling leads us to ask… Can wolves co-exist with livestock
Topics include the re-introduction of wolves into the American West; the listing, de-listing, and re-listing of those wolves as endangered species; and whether wolves can co-exist with domestic animals and the people who raise them.
|Show #608: GUERRILLA GARDENERS - 11-10-2008 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mr. Stamen, from LA Guerilla Gardening and Steve Frillman, from New York City Green
Subject:Cities, like forest fires, grow out from an ignition point, consuming land. Unlike burned forests, however, new growth does not willingly spring from inner cities. Enter gardeners who, with or without permission, plant new life in that no man's land. These green guerrillas lead us to ask… Who owns the city's no-man's land? (#608)
Topics include why inner cities become stagnant; what gardens bring to neglected cityscapes; and what right, if any, do individuals have to plant gardens in the neglected property of others.
|Show #607: WAYNE HAGE'S WAR: PRIVATE PROPERTY ON PUBLIC LANDS - 04-10-2008 (8.58 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Wayne Hage's daughter, Rebecca Morrison, and a representative from the Sierra Club
Subject:The federal government owns approximately one-third of the land in the United States. One day, rancher Wayne Hage went to war with the government over his right to graze livestock on that public land. Wayne Hage's war leads us to ask… Should private property be allowed use of public lands?
Topics include why a property dispute between a Nevada rancher and the federal government turned into a 30-year war over property rights; what impact this war has on the private use of public property; and whether private parties should be able to use public property.
|Show #606: WHEN POLITICS TRUMPS SCIENCE - 27-09-2008 (8.52 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Where Our Food Comes From
Subject:Sometimes politics trumps science. It happened during Stalin's "Land Reform" and Mao's "Great Leap Forward." Fortunately, it can't happen here! Nonetheless, we pause to ask… What happens when politics trumps science?
Topics include a profile of Russia's legendary seed collector Nikolai Vavilov; what happened when Vavilov was trumped by Stalin's Agriculture Secretary, Trofim Lysenko; and what you and I might learn from one of history's great starvations.
|Show #605: - 22-09-2008 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Elizabethtown College Professor Don Kraybill and carpenter Emmanuel Schwartz
Subject:While we pull our plows with giant diesel-burning tractors, they pull theirs with teams of grass-eating horses. Speeding by, we look out the window and think, 'How quaint.' But somewhere down the road we pause to ask…. Why the Amish boom midst all our secular gloom?
Topics include a brief look at the culture of the Amish; why the Amish community has doubled its population in the last 16 years; and what lessons, if any, we city people can learn from the Amish.
|Show #604: A MATTER OF INCHES - 13-09-2008 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Paul Shapiro from Yes on California Proposition 2 and Matt Sampson from No on 2
Subject:Some say its best to raise food animals in cages. Others say cages are cruel and should be enlarged. In California, this matter-of-inches debate is coming up for a vote. And so we ask… Should animal cages be enlarged?
Topics include how animal husbandry has evolved into an industry that produces a large amount of food from a small amount of space; why some believe this model ethical, while others think it cruel; and what might happen to the industrial model if a law is passed to enlarge the cages.
|Show #603: GAMMA GOOD FOOD - 06-09-2008 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Center for Science in the Public Interest's Sarah Klein, and Food and Water Watch's Tony Corbo
Subject:The Food and Drug Administration will now allow for the bombardment of of fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce with gamma rays, thus allowing you and I to safely eat greens grown thousands of miles away. Some protest this move by the FDA, and so we ask… What's wrong with irradiation?
Topics include how deadly pathogens enter our food chain via fresh greens to sicken and kill; how radio active gamma radiation will be used to kill the deadly pathogens, thus making infested foods safe to eat; and why some object to irradiation.
|Show #602: DEFIANT GARDENERS - 30-08-2008 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: University of Oregon Professor Kenneth Helphand, Author, Defiant Gardens
Subject:When times get tough, the tough get growing… gardens. From the trenches of World War I, to the Warsaw ghetto and Japanese internment camps of World War II, to the desert sands of Iraq, individuals have turned ruin into garden. And so we ask… What else grows in gardens?
Topics include how some individuals defy war by planting gardens; a look at some of the defiant gardens of World Wars I and II, and of the recent conflicts of the Middle East; and what else grows in gardens besides plants.
|Show #601: BLUEFIN: COCAINE OF THE SEAS - 23-08-2008 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Richard Ellis, Author, Tuna: A Love Affair
Subject:Recently, a Hong Kong restaurateur purchased one fish for $55,700 at a Tokyo fish market. This kind of feeding frenzy led Marine Biologist Barbara Tuck to call bluefin tuna the "cocaine of the seas," and leads us to ask… Can farming save our wild fish?
Topics include a look at one of the most magnificent fish in the sea; how that fish came to be worth tens of thousands of dollars each; and what we the people can do, if anything, to keep from killing the thing we love.
|Show #600: WHO WILL FEED US? - 16-08-2008 (8.6 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Open Microphone / Audience Participation
Subject:Special occasions are cause to pause for reflection. And so, on the occasion of our 600th edition of the Food Chain Radio program, we pause to reflect on… Who will feed us in 25 years?
Topics include how we, as observers of the food chain, think events now shaping news will affect the future of food; what changes we think might come to change the productivity of the food chain; and who will feed us in 25 years.
|Show #599: AN EXTRA EFFORT? - 10-08-2008 (8.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests: University of Minnesota Professor Jeff Gillman, author of The Truth About Organic Gardening
Subject:One study says organic food is better than conventional food. The next study says there is no difference between organic and conventional. These studies lead us to ask… Is organic food worth the extra effort?
Topics include what differences exist, if any, between organic and conventional production technologies; why so many scientific studies on organics point in so many different directions; and whether organic food is, or is not, worth the extra effort.
|Show #598: A WAITER'S RANT - 02-08-2008 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: The Waiter of Waiter Rant
Subject:We all enjoy having someone tend to our every need while dining out with family or friends. But who are those people who reach into our intimacies with a butter dish? And, hey… How much should we tip the waiter?
Topics include outrageous behaviors of restaurant owners, managers, staff, and customers; how to get good service and food when dining out; and how to ensure a saliva-free entrée.
|Show #597: IS SMOKEY HOKEY? - 26-07-2008 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David Carle, author of Introduction to Fire
Subject:"Fire is a natural part of the environment, about as important as rain and sunshine. Fire has always been here and everything good evolved from it." - Dr. Harold Biswell Dr. Biswell leads us to ask… Should we prevent forest fires? (#597)
Topics include a brief discussion about the nature of fire; how fire was used throughout history to manage the environment; and whether we should, or should not, prevent forest fires.
|Show #596: FUTURE OF OUR FOOD - 19-07-2008 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Paul Roberts, author of The End of Food, and Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap
Subject:We now live in a world where everything costs much more today than it did yesterday. This leads us to ask, Who will feed us tomorrow?
Topics include how rapidly inflating prices will affect the food production systems of agriculture; which population segments might suffer food shortages; and what can be done today to ensure a secure food chain for tomorrow.
|Show #595: MIND OR STOMACH? - 13-07-2008 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Fredrick Kaufman, Author, A Short History of the American Stomach
Subject:They say you can tell a lot about a person by the way they eat their food. If such is the case, we must be able to tell a lot about a nation by the history of its stomach. This leads us to ask, Which has exerted the most control over our nation's history: mind or stomach? (#595)
Topics include how the Puritans used hunger to effect social control; the conflict between the mind in our brain and the mind in our stomach; and reasons why we Americans have become so obsessed with our food.
|Show #594: TED'S FOOD SEARCH - 29-06-2008 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: California restaurateur, and National Restaurant Association board member, Ted Burke
Subject:When the U.S. Air Force wanted to determine which of its dining facilities was best, it called on California restaurateur Ted Burke, and made him, for the moment at least, the equivalent of a major general. This leads us to ask… Can an institution serve good food?
Topics include Burke's world-wide search for the best Air Force dining facility; the differences between institution and restaurant dining; and whether an institution can overcome its institutionalism and serve good food.
|Show #593: THE 1.3 BILLION PERSON APPETITE - 22-06-2008 (8.58 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Harwood Schaffer, Research Associate with University of Tennessee's Agriculture Policy Analysis Center
Subject:We have, for the most, lost the ability to make things for ourselves, and so must buy those things from China. Flush with our cash, the people of China can now afford to buy the foods that have made us tall and strong. This leads us to ask… How will China's 1.3 billion-person appetite affect our food chain?
Topics include the emergence of China as a force in the marketplace for the world's natural resources; the impact China will likely have on world food prices; and how debtor nations will be able to compete with creditor nations for the world's food.
|Show #592: FOOD OR FUEL II - 14-06-2008 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David Blume, author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas, and Ohio State Professor of Natural Resources Rattan Lal
Subject:As the world's oil cartels squeeze us for our last dime, we look for relief to an economy fueled by carbohydrates instead of hydrocarbons. But this leads us to ask, "Which is first, food or fuel?"
Topics include a look at whether corn ethanol can save our economy; what alternatives there might be to corn ethanol; and whether we should use food as fuel.
|Show #591: BIG CITY BEES - 04-06-2008 (8.92 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Urban Beekeeper Kirk Anderson
Subject:Bees are so sensitive they appear to die at the first sign of trouble. As such, they have become the canaries in the mine of our environment. But this leads us to ask, "Why are bees thriving in the unnatural environment of Los Angeles?"
Topics include the difference between keeping bees in the city and in the country; how urban bee keepers are creating communities of bee people in cities around the world; and what it takes to become involved in urban bee keeping.
|Show #590: SEASONS OF THE FATS - 24-05-2008 (8.39 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Susan Allport, author of The Queen of Fats,
Subject:Some time ago, omega-3 fatty acids were removed from the Western diet. As these fatty acids are an essential part of our body's chemistry, we now suffer accordingly. And so we ask, "What happened to omega-3's?"
Topics include the relationship of essential fatty acids and the seasons of the sun; why omega-3 fatty acids were removed from the western diet and the consequence of that loss; and what, if anything, can be done to return this essential nutrient to our diet without depleting the oceans of fish.
|Show #589: A FAILING FOUNDATION - 17-05-2008 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ray Cesca, President of the World Agriculture Forum, and Rav Patel, author of Stuffed & Starved
Subject:Agriculture is the foundation upon which we build all our sandcastles. This foundation appears to be failing as the hungry riot for food in 37 developing nations. And so we ask, "Why can't the world's hungry feed themselves?"
Topics include the causes of the world's food shortage and the extent thereof; the impact food shortages have on society; and what, if anything, can be done to feed the hungry.
|Show #588:AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DINNERS - 04-05-2008 (8.82 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Authors Bill and Cheryl Jamison
Subject:Sometimes we simply must get away, and what better way, to get away, then to eat our way around the world?
Topics include how a meal's set and setting affect how we experience that meal; what to watch out for when out around the world; and some memorable meals in exotic locations.
|Show #587: MEXIFORNIA - 26-04-2008 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Victor Davis Hanson
Subject:We feed ourselves with the cheap labor of foreign hands. But this leads us to ask, "How expensive is cheap labor?"
Topics include how immigration is changing the social fabric of California and the United States, how immigrant labor from Latin America is different than immigrant labor from other parts of the world; and what our future might be as we continue to feed ourselves with the cheap labor of foreign hands.
|Show #586: - 19-04-2008 (8.51 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Human Geographer Jennifer Blecha and Animal Breeder Richard Gradwohl
Subject:The price city people pay for animal protein is going through the roof. And so we ask, "Can livestock be raised in the city?"
Topics include the emerging trend of raising animals for food in the city; which animals are most conducive to being raised in a metropolitan environment; and the obstacles municipalities construct to obstruct the raising of animals for food.
|Show #585: END OF CHEAP FOOD - 12-04-2008 (8.35 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Paul Elerick, Internatonal Food Broker
Subject:Money is down. Food is up. Riots are hot! And so we ask, "What happened to cheap food?"
Topics include how the dollar is losing its value along the world's food chain; why the price of the world's food has risen an estimated 83% in three years; and how, as some predict, half the world's population may soon go hungry.
|Show #584: INVASION OF THE INVASIVES - 05-04-2008 (8.6 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David Theodoropoulos, author of Invasion Biology, and Lori Williams, Executive Director of the National Invasive Species Council
Subject:It seems as though invasive species are finding their way everywhere in our new world order of wide-open borders. This leads us to ask, "Should we tolerate or eliminate?"
Topics include whether non-native species should be called "invasive species;" whether non-native species can wreak irrevocable harm on native environments; and whether invasive species should be tolerated or eliminated.
|Show #583: KILLING THEM SOFTLY - 29-03-2008 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Thomas Wittman, President of Gophers Limited and Dr. Myles Bader, author of Club the Bugs and Scare the Critters
Subject:This from a concerned citizen: "No… Don't spray! Just do not spray. No more chemicals. No pesticides. No bad stuff on my food, our community, our health!" Okay. But wait! What about the pests?
Topics include whether pests should, or should not, be managed; how agriculture, horticulture and home gardening has come to parting of the ways on how to manage pests; and whether pests can be managed "humanely."
|Show #582: TO SPRAY OR PRAY? - 22-03-2008 (8.64 MB) Listen Now
Guests: California Department of Food and Agriculure Secretary AG Kawamura and CDFA entomologist Dr. Bob Dowell
Subject:To spray or not to spray: that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the insatiable appetites of outrageous apple moths or, by opposing them with synthetic pheromones, end them.
Topics include why controlling the LBAM has become so problematic for CDFA; how CDFA will attempt to operate within the competing demands of federal and local governments, and national and international markets; and what might happen to the nation's salad bowl should CDFA fail in its attempt to manage the LBAM.
|Show #581: WHICH WAY TO GROW? - 15-03-2008 (8.63 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Judith Redmond from the Community Alliance with Family Farmers and a spokesperson from the Specialty Crops Farm Bill Alliance
Subject:One side says we must eliminate all of the natural elements that can harbor deadly E. coli 0157:H7. The other side says we must encourage those natural elements to grow healthier food. This leads us to ask: "Which way should we grow?"
Topics include why we came to a fork in the road to growing leafy greens in the nation's salad bowl; why the 2007 Farm Bill has become the focal point in determining which way we will grow; and what the decision will mean to the nation's leafy green farmers and consumers.
|Show #580:CAGED FOR LIFE - 08-03-2008 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Anita Mengels from Californians for Sound Farm Animal Agriculture and Paul Shapiro from the Humane Society's Factory Farming Project
Subject:We have learned to raise more animals in less space by confining them in ever-smaller cages. Some now say we are confining animals in cages that are simply too small. This leads us to ask: "How small is too small?"
Topics include the evolution of animal agriculture from farm to factory; the ethics of raising animals in cages; and who, or what, should govern the size of those cages.
|Show #579: FARMS IN THE CITY - 03-03-2008 (8.49 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Milwaukee's Grow Urban and New York City's Make Brooklyn Bloom farm conferences
Subject:Six decades ago, farms began leaving the city for greener pastures. Today they are returning. This leads us to ask: "Can farms and cities prosper together?"
Topics include reasons why farms locate in or near a city; why cities tolerate the growth of crops in their midst; and whether farms and cities can indeed prosper together.
|Show #578: BEYOND THAT KITCHEN DOOR - 23-02-2008 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Retired restaurant inspector Roger Houston and restaurateurs Michael Clark and Chip Kirchner
Subject:Topics include a 38-year history of restaurant inspections; common and uncommon kitchen faults; and how restaurant inspectors decide where to eat when they eat out.
Topic include...
|Show #577: THE BIG DRY - 16-02-2008 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Australian Hypnotherapist Rick Collingwood
Subject:They say that hope springs eternal, but sometimes it doesn't! Consider, for one example, the farmers of Oklahoma, who lost their soil to the wind when rain stopped falling during the 1930s.
Topics include the impact prolonged, record-setting drought is having on farm communities of Australia; what governments can do to ameliorate their situation; and how Collingwood uses hypnotherapy to help farmers manage severe stress.
|Show #576: COOL is Coming! - 09-02-2008 (8.48 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Tom Buis, President, National Farmers Union
Subject:Imagine the surprise when it was revealed that a Taster's Choice selection for best frozen spinach came from China! And so we ask, "Should manufacturers be forced to reveal a food's source?"
Topics include a look at who is responsible for the safety of food; why Congress passed the Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling law in 2002; and how industry has prevented the enactment of COOL for the past six years.
|Show #575: MARK ON THE BEAST IV - 02-02-2008 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: United States Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Bruce Knight
Subject:The National Animal Identifiication System, or NAIS, is a new government program that seeks to register each premises in the United States that harbors farm animals, and then to track the movements of each of those animals from birth to death. This leads us to ask, "What impact will NAIS have on the production of food in the United States?"
Topics include the purpose(s) for which NAIS is being established; how NAIS will operate at national, state, local and individual property levels; and what impact the program will likely have on the production of food in the United States.
|Show #574: COFFEE BREAK - 28-01-2008 (8.82 MB) Listen Now
Guests: author / coffee roaster Dean Cyclon of Orange, MA
Subject:Many of the big issues of the day– globalization, immigration, women's rights, pollution, self-determination– are associated with the production of coffee. And so we pause to ask, "What's in your cup?"
Topics include a brief look at the1500-year history of coffee; how coffee has become the second most traded commodity on earth, and the impact that trade has on the people who grow coffee; and a trek through Ethiopia, Summatra, New Guinea, Peru and other coffee growing regions.
|Show #573: MARK ON THE BEAST III - 19-01-2008 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Vermont farmer Sharon Zecchinelli and Missouri farmer Doreen Hannes
Subject:o stop animal diseases, like avian flu, from sweeping through the nation's 1.4 million farms, the Federal government has established a National Animal Identification System. NAIS asks all farmers and hobbyists who husband animals to voluntarily register their premises with government and keep track of the movements of each of their animals.
Topics include how a voluntary Federal program is becoming a mandatory state program; why small farmers believe NAIS will drive them, and their support industries, out of business; and how NAIS may discourage individuals from raising their own food.
|Show #572: ENERGY FROM LIFE - 12-01-2008 (8.75 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Juan Enriquez, founder of Harvard Business School's Life Science Project, cofounder of Synthetic Genomics and managing director of Excel Medical Ventures
Subject:Every link in the food chain is affected by energy prices, and energy prices are going through the roof. This leads us to ask, "Can we produce cheaper energy?"
Topics include how 86% of our energy comes from hydrocarbons; why we have traditionally relied on chemistry to process that hydrocarbon energy; and how biology might allow us to greatly reduce the costs of hydrocarbon energy.
|Show #571: TABASCO ROAD - 20-12-2007 (9 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Jeffrey Rothfeder, Author, McIlhenney's Gold
Subject:Peppers, salt and vinegar. That is not all there is in that little red bottle of Tabasco Sauce, there's also 140 years of American history and we're going to pour it out!
Topics include the two versions of how Tabasco Sauce was invented; why only the McIlhenney family can make Tabasco Sauce; and how the McIhenney family business kept the McIlhenney family together through 140 years of American history.
|Show #570: A RUN FOR THE HONEY - 20-12-2007 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Douglas Whynott, author, Following the Bloom
Subject:They are the last to freely move livestock across the great American landscape. But since their livestock is not cattle, perhaps we should call them... beeboys and beegirls!
Topics include how one in three bites of food we eat is made available by bees; what kinds of adventures are experienced when commercial bee keepers move their hives back and forth across the country in search of nectar; and how the business of bees works.
|Show #569: WHO'S IN CHARGE? - 15-12-2007 (8.99 MB) Listen Now
Guest:Caroline Smith DeWaal, Director of Food Safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest
Subject:Consider Michael Olson's Irrefutable Law of the Food Chain #2: The farther we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over what's in that food. And so we ask, "Who is in charge of food safety?"
Topics include the distances that are now involved in our daily diets; the impact these distances have on such common food items as meat, vegetables and even pet food; and who, if anyone, is in charge of food safety.
|Show #568: A VINEYARD IN TUSCANY - 09-12-2007 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author Ferenc Mate
Subject:Sometimes we simply must break the pattern– go someplace different and do something different. And so we travel to the Tuscany to establish a vineyard.
Topics include why the Tuscany is attractively "human-scaled;" how starting a vineyard in the Tuscany (and throughout Europe) is different than establishing one in the U.S.; and how one might survive with a small label wine in a world market dominated by big labels.
|Show #567: From Frying Pan into the Fire - 01-12-2007 (8.83 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Sally Fallon, Weston A. Price Foundation
Subject:Essential fatty acids are those that cannot be manufactured by our body, and therefore must be obtained from other sources. But when it comes to eating fats, some say we are now going from frying pan to fire! This leads us to ask, "Where can we find good fats?"
Topics include why we are turning away from trans fats to liquid vegetable oils; what impact liquid vegetable oils will have on our body; and where we should be looking to find good essential fats.
|Show #566: The Garagistes of Jefferson - 29-11-2007 (8.25 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Various Food and Wine producers of the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon Note: Apologies for the sound quality!
Subject:In 1941 residents of Northern California and Southern Oregon voted to secede and form the State of Jefferson. Though the State of Jefferson now exists only in the mind, its Garagistes maintain their spirit of independence through the production of foods and wines.
Topics include a brief history of how the garagistes of France became the garagistes of Jefferson; what these individuals had to go through to establish their food businesses; and why some of their products are now becoming known throughout the world as the "best of the best."
|Show #565: KING CORN - 17-11-2007 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ian Cheney, Co-Producer, King Corn
Subject:While the heart has reasons that reason does not understand, the heartland has corn– 80 million acres of corn. This leads us to ask, "Should we subsidize corn?"
Topics include why our food chain was transformed from one based on grass to one based on grain; what impact that transformation has had on the culture of agriculture; and whether eating all that corn is good for the body.
|Show #564: A REAL RAW DEAL? - 11-11-2007 (8.95 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark McAfee, Founder, Organic Pastures Dairy; California Department of Food and Agriculture declined to appear, saying "We're reluctant to participate in a debate."
Subject:Along the food chain there are good bacteria and bad bacteria. But California AB 1735 suggests only dead bacteria should be allowed in dairy products. This leads us to ask, "Is raw milk toast?"
Topic include... Topics include why some people prefer raw foods to sterilized foods; how AB 1735 may eliminate the production of raw dairy products; and what future, if any, will be left for those who wish to consume raw dairy foods.
|Show #563: 80% RIGHT! - 03-11-2007 (9.01 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Janice Stillman, Editor of The Old Farmer's Almanac
Subject:"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get," said Mark Twain. But when it comes to observing today's climate in order to predict next year's weather, The Old Farmer's Almanac is most always 80% right. This leads us to ask them, "Is the globe really warming?"
Topics include a brief history of why and how the Almanac became a leading predictor of future weather; secrets the Almanac is willing to divulge about its weather predicting technologies; and what next year's weather will be like across the land.
|Show #562: THE LIES OF LABELS - 27-10-2007 (8.81 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mike Adams from the Consumer Wellness Center
Subject:You buy the chicken labeled "100% Natural" because you want the best for your family. But up to 15% of that 100% Natural chicken's weight may be salt water or seaweed! This leads us to ask, "Is there truth in labeling?"
Topics include how labeling laws enacted to protect consumers are often used to mislead them; the different tricks labelers use to hide ingredients; and how to find the lies on labels.
|Show #561: Strawberry-Flavored Prozac - 13-10-2007 (8.89 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Karl Hoffower from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (American Psychiatric Association declined to participate)
Subject:The anti-depressant drug Prozac is now available in a strawberry-flavored liquid to better serve the 8,000,000,000 U.S. school children that now take psychiatric drugs. This leads us to ask, "What are we feeding our children?"
Topics include why U.S. and Canadian children as young as one year are fed psychiatric drugs; what impact those drugs have on behavior; and whether any alternatives exist that could be used to modify problem behavior.
|Show #560: Got (Organic) Milk? - 06-10-2007 (8.9 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Will Fantle from the Cornucopia Institute and Clark Driftmier from Aurora Organic Dairy (tent.)
Subject:The Cornucopia Institute claims that Aurora Organic Dairy sells milk that is not really organic. Aurora, which produces private label organic milk for Wal-Mart, Target, Costco and Safeway, claims that its milk is indeed organic, and that it has the paperwork to prove it. This family feud leads one to ask, "Can big be good?"
Topic include... Topics include why Cornucopia has leveled charges of impropriety against Aurora; how Aurora is fighting these charges; and whether industrialized dairy farms should be allowed to operate with the "organic" designation. Question of the Week: Should industrial-scale dairy farms be allowed to call themselves "organic?"
|Show #559: The $100,000,000 Mouse - 04-10-2007 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jay Lehr, Science Director from the Heartland Institute and Kieran Suckling, Policy Director from the Center for Biological Diversity
Subject:The Preble's jumping meadow mouse has been listed as an endangered species since 1998. Recent genetic tests, however, suggest it may not be a species at all! This leads us to ask, "Should we continue to protect the Preble's mouse?"
Topics include why the Preble's mouse was listed as an endangered species; what impact that listing has made on the communities of the Rocky Mountains; and whether new genetic tests should be used to delist the Preble's mouse.
|Show #558: Preparation 501 - 22-09-2007 (8.94 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Manresa restaraunt's David Kinch and Love Apple Farm's Cynthia Sandberg
Subject:To become one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, you have to serve some of the best foods in the world. Manresa restaurant obtains its foods via the biodynamic technologies of Love Apple farm. This leads us to ask, "Do biodynamics make dollars and sense?"
Topics include what it takes to win a place as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world; how striving for perfection led David and Cynthia down the garden path into the mystical realm of biodynamics; and how close they can get to perfection and still earn a dollar.
|Show #557: Angels in the Pantry - 15-09-2007 (8.89 MB) Listen Now
Guest: University of California Sociology Professor Melanie Du Puis
Subject:We have become a nation of avid readers and nervous eaters. Many write books that tell us how to eat. We read these books because we want to know what is healthy, safe, sustainable and just. This leads us to ask, "Can we eat our way into becoming a better nation?"
Topics include the difference between what we think we should eat and what we actually eat; how angels led the nation into the politics of food; and why we follow food evangelists through their confusing gospels of contradictory advice.
|Show #556: IN THE BAG - 08-09-2007 (8.85 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Judith Redmond and Kira Pascoe from the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and Scott Horsfall from the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement
Subject:Contaminated spinach has again been recalled from the nation's grocers. Some now say that industry-developed safety guidelines for farmers of the leafy greens will not solve the problem. This leads us to ask, "Will food safety guidelines protect consumers?"
Topics include the two kinds of farms that produce the nation's leafy green produce; why one kind of farmer believes the food safety protocols developed by the other will not protect consumers but will harm farmers; and what alternatives exist, if any, to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement.
|Show #555: - 25-08-2007 (9.09 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Eric Haeberli & Phineas Hoang, founders of We Love Jam, and Poppy Tooker of Slow Food USA
Subject:Once a favorite of just about everyone in America, the Blenheim apricot lost out in the race to industrialize our food chain. But a few years ago, one last tree was found in Silicon Valley, and now the race is on to "Eat it to save it!"
Topics include why the Blenheim apricot lost out to modern varieties of cots; how two Silicon Valley residents discovered one last Blenheim tree and made a business of its cots; and why the Blenheim apricot was boarded on the Slow Food USA "Ark of Taste."
|Show #554: - 18-08-2007 (8.46 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author / Baker Daniel Leader
Subject:Industrialization has given rise to wonder breads in plastic bags, yet some still hunger for the old ways of fresh local breads. This leads one to ask, "What kind of hunger can only be satisfied with local breads?"
Topics include why local bakers continue to survive in marketplaces dominated by industrial bakers; how location and tradition influence the baking of local breads throughout the world; and how local breads can be reintroduced into communities in which none exist.
|Show #553: HUNGER'S FRIENDS - 11-08-2007 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jennifer Parmelee from the United Nation's World Food Programme
Subject:Rising food prices… sky-rocketing transportation costs… escalating populations of the hungry… There is a perfect storm of trouble blowing along the food chain, which leads one to ask: How will we feed the world's hungry?
Topics include why the need for food aid continues to escalate in spite of all that is done to end that need; what impact price increases have on the agencies that feed the hungry; and what, if anything, can be done to end hunger.
|Show #552: Foods of Color - 04-08-2007 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jim Motavalli, editor of E Magazine
Subject:When it comes to food, white could be beautiful, but mostly its not!
Topics include the impact white foods, like sugar and flour, have on our diet; why government policy encourages consumption of white foods; and what foods of color add to our diets.
|Show #551: Buffalo in the House! - 02-08-2007 (8.9 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author Richard Rosen
Subject:Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam. Wait, what's this… a buffalo in the house?
Topics include why buffalo were slaughtered to near extinction; how, in the 1850's, a Texas rancher and wife saved the great herd from extinction; and why the couple's distant relative nursed a buffalo calf to adulthood in her Santa Fe home.
|Show #550: A Billion Here... A Billion There.... - 21-07-2007 (9.03 MB) Listen Now
Guests: John Keeling from the National Potato Council and Larry Mitchell from the American Corn Growers Association
Subject:Each year, the U.S. government spends about $90 billion to ensure that its citizens have cheap food. This leads us to ask, "Who should get the $90 billion?
Topics include why governments subsidize agriculture; why 70% of U.S. subsidies go to 10% of the country's farmers; and which farmers should get the money.
|Show #549: - 14-07-2007 (8.92 MB) Listen Now
Guests:David Friedberg from Weatherbill, Michael Loik from the University of California, Mike McGinnis from Agriculture Online, and Ron Wegner from WTXS
Subject:Droughts here, floods there, global-warming everywhere! And so we pause to ask, "Is weather going wild?" And, if so, "How will we grow food?"
Topics include whether, or not, weather is going wild; what impact global warming would have on agriculture; and what food producers can do to protect against wild weather.
|Show #548: From Pilgrim to Pioneer - 08-07-2007 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Roger Welsch, co-author, Cather's Kitchens
Subject:With grocery stores near everyone's front door, getting fed seems to be an easy thing to do. But those stores were not always there, which leads us to ask, "What can we eat that does not come from a store?"
Topics include examples of pilgrim and pioneer foods; how kitchens worked without gas, electricity or running water; and how food ways led to cultural ways.
|Show #547: FOOD OR FUEL? - 30-06-2007 (8.99 MB) Listen Now
Guests: David Blume, author, Alcohol Can Be A Gas
Subject:Our oil companies have been tossed out of Venezuela, and so we rush to replace hydrocarbons with carbohydrates by planting corn from sea to shining sea. This leads one to ask, "Food or fuel?"
Topics include the extent to which agricultural resources are being diverted from food production to fuel production; what impact that diversion has on the price of food; and whether we can farm for fuel and food.
|Show #546: IS BIGGER BETTER - 24-06-2007 (9.1 MB) Listen Now
Guest: University of California Professor Emeritus Willam Friedland
Subject:When a farmer returned from WWII, he could make a good living-, pay his debts and send his children to college by farming 100 acres of tomatoes. Today, a farmer must grow over 2,500 acres of tomatoes to earn the same good living. This leads one to ask, "Is bigger better?"
Topics include why agriculture pursues economies of scale; what impact those economies have on the people of ag; and what alternatives exist, if any, to size in the production of food.
|Show #545: Samuari, Supermarkets & Sushi - 09-06-2007 (8.76 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Trevor Carson, Author, The Zen of Fish
Subject:It began as a way to preserve old fish, but became a way for millions to eat fresh fish… fast! This leads one to ask, "How did the way of the samurai become the American way to eat sushi-on-the-go?"
Topics include why so many now eat sushi and sashimi; how these foods became American fast foods; and why the preparation of these foods is considered art as well as craft.
|Show #544 : - 02-06-2007 (8.98 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Angela Logomasini from the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Subject:Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was so powerful it helped end the use of DDT. But pointing to the millions who suffer from malaria, some now ask, "Should we end the ban on DDT?"
Topics include the extent to which Silent Spring changed environmental policy; the consequences of these changes on birds, mosquitoes and people; and whether these environmental policies should be reconsidered.
|Show #543: 40,000,000 Farmers Needed - 26-05-2007 (8.51 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Richard Heinberg, author of the Oil Depletion Protocol
Subject:Oil allowed us to move off the farm and into the city, where we now eat food that is trucked in from over a thousand miles away. This leads some to ask, "Who will feed us when we run out of gas?"
Topics include the extent to which we currently rely on oil for our daily bread; what might happen to our supply of food should oil no longer be available; what can be done today to prepare for what might happen tomorrow.
|Show #542: COOL is Hot! - 19-05-2007 (8.7 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Bill Bullard from R-Calf USA and Barry Carpenter from the National Meat Association
Subject:Does it matter from where our food comes? Some say "No!" and go their way; others say "Yes!" and demand to know. This leads one to ask: "Should manufacturers be forced to reveal our food's country of origin?"
Topics include who is responsible for the safety of food; why some believe manufacturers should be forced to reveal the origin of food; and why others believe country of origin labeling to be an unnecessary expense.
|Show #541: Mother's Mercury - 12-05-2007 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Caryn Mandelbaum, GotMercury.org / Stacey Reynolds, mother
Subject:We demand so much Made in China that a new coal-burning power plant must be built every week just to keep us satisfied. Mercury emitted from that burning coal wafts high into the air before falling into our water. This leads one to ask: "Can we survive our demand for Made in China?"
Topics include how mercury is accumulated in the food chain; why babies in utero are most vulnerable to mercury poisoning; and what happens when the human body has ingested too much mercury.
|Show #540: What's in a Name? - 29-04-2007 (8.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ronald Eustice from the Minnesota Beef Council and Wenonah Hauter from Food and Water Watch
Subject:Harmful bacteria from fecal matter has been finding its way into our food chain. Those bacteria might be killed with irradiation, yet many object to the process. The FDA suggests industry be allowed to call irradiation "pasteurization." This leads one to ask, "What's in the name?"
Topics include why some believe irradiation is the best solution to the problem of contaminated foods; why others believe irradiation is a threat to a healthy food chain; and why the government wants to allow irradiation to be called by another name.
|Show #539: GRANDMA'S WAR KITCHEN - 26-04-2007 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author Joanne Lamb Hayes
Subject:We enjoy a plentiful supply of the best food the world has to offer. But there were times when knuckle of pork was a culinary treat. This leads one to ask, "What will we eat if times get tough… again?"
Topics include how food was rationed during WWII; which foods became the most difficult to obtain; and how people coped with the diminished supply.
|Show #538: 39,000 POISONED PETS - 14-04-2007 (8.72 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Veterinarian Jean Hofve
Subject:We have poisoned 39,000 of our pets by feeding them commercial pet food from 100 different companies. This leads one to ask, "What's in the food?"
Topics include why so many pets came to be poisoned by so many pet food companies at one time; how one might protect their pets from such an event; and whether what happened to pet food can happen to people food.
|Show #537: THE JOY OF EATING - 08-04-2007 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Roger Welsch, Anthropologist and Author of "Diggin in and Piggin Out"
Subject:We city folk have learned to eat skinless, boneless breasts from factory-farmed chickens, and think ourselves intelligent for doing so. This leads one to ask, "What happened to the joy of eating?"
Topics include why men love ribs (and whether women should be allowed to marinate them); how bad food can make a good meal, and good food can make a bad meal; and whether sedentary people can truly enjoy eating.
|Show #536: War in the Salad Bowl - 01-04-2007 (8.57 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Open Microphone
Subject:E. Coli 0157:H7 has precipitated a civil war in the nation's salad bowl. On one side are those who say all forms of extraneous life should be removed from farms. On the other side are those who advocate for adding more life. This leads us to ask, "Which side will win the consumer dollar?"
Topic include...
|Show #535: A SPRING OF DYING BEES - 24-03-2007 (8.73 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Professors Eric Mussen from the University of California, Davis, and Jim Amrine from West Virginia University
Subject:We know what happens with the birds and the bees. But it is the Spring of dying bees, and this leads us to ask, "What happens when there are no bees?"
Topics include why bees are dying in such big numbers this Spring; what might happen to the food chain should we lose our bees; and what solutions might there be to halt the die-off.
|Show #534: Human Rice - 10-03-2007 (8.84 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Karen Stillerman, Union of Concerned Scientists and tentative from Ventria Bioscience
Subject:The Department of Agriculture has approved the large-scale planting of rice containing human genes. This leads one to ask: "Can those human genes be kept down on the farm?"
Topics include why some want to infuse rice with human genes; why some oppose the planting of this rice; and whether the potential benefits of this rice outweigh its potential risks.
|Show #533: - 03-03-2007 (8.74 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Historian Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
Subject:The Year of the Pig has returned to China. This year, however, Chinese censors have requested that the pig totem be downplayed so as not to offend Muslims. This leads one to ask: "Why did the pig become a political animal?"
Topics include why Moses led his people out of slavery and away from pork; how pigs made it easier to convert heathens into Christians; and how barbequed pork helped people survive the religious purges of the Dark Ages.
|Show #533: Revisiting the Political Pig - 06-09-2007 (8.74 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Dr. Laina Farhat-Holtzman
Subject:The year of the pig has returned to China. This year, however, arbitors of the politically correct demand that the pig totem be covered so as not offend the Muslim minority. This leads us to ask, "Why did the pig become a political animal?" ( Answer in Forum #533)
Topics include the cultures in which the pig is taboo; the theories as to why the pig became a political animal; and how barbequed pork helped saves lives during the religious inquisitions of the Dark Ages.
|Show #531 : - 17-02-2007 (8.77 MB) Listen Now
Guests: National Farmers Union, Organic Farm Research Foundation and Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance
Subject:Every year, the government hands out $20 billion of our lunch money to those with outstretched hands. This leads us to ask: "Who should get the money?"
Topics include why the U.S. subsidizes its food chain $20 billion a year; who has been given this money; and who now wants in on the action.
|Show #530: BIG GOVERNMENT VRS LITTLE BUGS - 10-02-2007 (8.62 MB) Listen Now
Guests: California State Senator Dean Florez
Subject:There have been 21 outbreaks traced to contaminated leafy-green produce in the past decade. Many suffered; some died. This leads us to ask: "Can government protect us from bad food?"
Topics include a brief history of E.coli 0157:H7 food contaminations; why some believe government must act to provide food security; and how government's efforts to protect us would differ from industry's efforts.
|Show #530: HUMANE ANIMALS? - 24-02-2007 (8.8 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Wayne Pacelle, President of the Humane Society of the United States, and Eric Nelson, Director of R-CALF USA
Subject:The debate over the 2007 Farm Bill will include a well-organized effort to ban the inhumane treatment of animals. This leads us to ask: "Can the animals we raise for food be raised humanely?"
Topics include how the industrialization of agriculture has changed how animals are raised; why some believe industrial animal farms are inhumane; and whether there is a humane way to raise food animals that is economically viable.
|Show #529: WWOOFING AROUND - 04-02-2007 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Leo Goldsmith from WWOOF USA and WWOOFER Rebecca Rukeyser http://www.wwoofusa.org/
Subject:One tragedy of industrial agriculture is that it takes youth off the land and thrusts them into the city, where they find little or no meaningful employment. This leads us to ask, "Where can youth find real work?"
Topics include a history of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), how WWOOF makes it possible for young and old alike to work on farms and ranches around the world; and what kind of adventures WWOOFing brings.
|Show #528: E.COLI 0157:H7 AND FARMERS - 27-01-2007 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Tim Chelling from the Western Growers Association, Dick Nutter, a Farm Bureau consultant and former Ag Commissioner, and Joe Pezzini, VP of Ocean Mist Farms
Subject:In 1982, it appeared on the hamburger patties of fast food. Since then, it has repeatedly contaminated the leaves of leafy greens. This leads us to ask, "Can farmers protect us from E.coli 0157:H7?"
Topics include how agriculture has managed its exposure to E.coli 0157:H7 over the past 25 years; what steps agriculture is taking after the latest contaminations; and to what extent can agriculture protect us from E.coli 0157:H7.
|Show #527: THE POPPY AND THE TEA - 21-01-2007 (9.19 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark "Dr. Tea" Ukra Go to TeaGarden
Subject:Its hard to imagine civilizations coming to blows over two plants, but they did… twice! This leads us to ask, "Will it happen again?"
Topics include the introduction of tea into Europe during the 1600's; why England's consumption of tea caused it to war with China over opium; and whether the Opium Wars hold any lessons for modern times.
|Show #526: A CLEAN GREEN MONEY MACHINE? - 13-01-2007 (8.69 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author John Berlau from the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Subject:We have thrown the pro-business Republicans out of office and replaced them with the pro-environment Democrats. This leads us to ask, "Can we have a clean environment and do business?"
Topics include how environmentalism affects our ability to grow crops and manufacture goods; what relationship exists, if any, between environmentalism and our trade deficit with China; and whether we can have a clean environment while remaining competitive in world markets.
|Show #525: ANOTHER MAGIC OF MUSHROOMS - 07-01-2007 (9 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author / Mycologist Paul Stamets
Subject:600,000 homes are attacked by termites each year, costing U.S. homeowners about $1.5 billion. The answer to date has been ozone-depleting methyl bromide. This leads us to ask, "Can nature provide a better answer?"
Topics include a brief look into the world of mycelium; how Stamets discovered that spores from certain mycelium could allow for the control of ants and termites; and how this discovery might lead to a healthier environment.
|Show # 524: - 18-12-2006 (8.91 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author & Webmistress Patricia Rain www.vanilla.com
Subject:Its name has become synonymous with that which is boring. This leads us to ask, "Can vanilla be exciting?"
Topics include a look at the vanilla farmers of the developing world; how Ms. Rain became the "Vanilla Queen;" and what is really in the vanilla-flavored "natural" foods we eat.
|Show #523: BIG FOOD - 09-12-2006 (8.87 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Alex Avery from the Center for Global Food Issues and Michele Simon from the Center for Informed Food Choices
Subject:Industrial agriculture has been taking the hits lately, with books like Omnivore's Dilemma, Fast Food Nation and Appetite for Profit throwing the punches. This leads us to ask, "Can big food do the right thing?"
Topics include what relationship exists, if any, between large food corporations and obesity / diabetes; whether large corporations are capable of providing good food; and what alternatives exist, if any, to the corporate form of food business.
|Show #522: BILLIONS OF BOTTLES OF BUCKS - 02-12-2006 (9.05 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Water Consultant Arthur von Wiesenberger
Subject:More than 40% of bottled drinking water comes from the taps of municipal water systems. This leads us to ask, "Why do we pay up to 10,000 times more for city water when it is bottled in plastic?"
Topics include what differences exist in drinking water; why we now spend $11 billion a year on water bottled in plastic; and how to become a smart consumer of drinking waters.
|Show #521 : TALKING ANT OF PERU - 26-11-2006 (9.04 MB) Listen Now
Anthropologist / Author Jeremy Narby Ph.D
Subject:While listening to a Shipibo shaman lecture on the efficacy of herbs along the headwaters of the Amazon, an ant bit into my index finger. Looking down from the vine I had been leaning against, the ant said…
Topics include why anthropologists like Narby believe animals and plants have intelligence; how indigenous people access that intelligence; and what lessons we might learn from this intelligence.
|Show #520: Going Up The Country - 18-11-2006 (9.27 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author, Farmer, Former City Dweller Roger Welsch
Subject:Decades ago, we left the farm for the city. Yet today we sing, I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away! This leads us to ask: "What will we find when we move back to the farm?"
Topics include why city people move to the farm; the kind of life they are likely to find on that farm; and the kind of mistakes they often neglect to avoid.
|Show #519: E.coli 0157:H7... The Bug - 11-11-2006 (8.88 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Kansas State University Professor James Marsden and University of California Davis Professor Trevor Suslow
Subject:In 1982, it appeared on the hamburger patties of fast food; today, it is found on the spinach leaves of vegetarians. This leads us to ask, "Can we survive E.coli 0157:H7?"
Topics include a brief history of 0157:H7; why it poses a threat to human life; and what those of us who happen to eat food can do to survive its presence.
|Show #518: Wild Horse Power - 06-11-2006 (9 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Rhonda Massingham, co-author of Among Wild Horses
Subject:They escaped the conquistadors and mated with the liberated of trappers, settlers and farmers. They still roam free in the Pryor Mountains, where they lead us to ask, "Should we leave room for wild horses?"
Topics include a brief history of wild horses; a look at how they live in the wilds of the Pryor Mountains, and how we manage their populations.
|Show # 517: Blood Moon - 29-10-2006 (9.13 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author / Chef Jessica Prentice
Subject:When autumn nights brought cold and darkness, our forebears put away meat for their winter. We now live in a different kind of world, which leads some to ask, "Should we not take the blood out of the blood moon?"
Topics include the tradition of the blood moon; why many now turn to vegetarianism; and whether slaughtering animals has a legitimate place in the modern food chain.
|Show # 516: BOMBING BACTERIA - 25-10-2006 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Charles Smith, Ph.D., Author, The Process of New Drug Discovery ande Development http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=2779&parent_id=&pc
Subject:We developed the first antibiotics in the early 1930's and, with the help of their magic, spread across the earth like mold in a Petri dish. This leads us to ask, "From where do antibiotics come?" And, "Will they come in time?"
Topics include how new antibiotics are discovered; how they are tested on animals and people; and whether the discovery of new antibiotics can keep up with the rapidly evolving "super bacteria" now inhabiting our hospitals.
|Show #515: Farming for Fairies - 14-10-2006 (9.22 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Pyschologist Nicola Amadora
Subject:Psychologist Nicola Amadora believes farmers and gardeners should grow for fairies-. This leads one to ask, "Are fairies real?" And, if so, "Why bother growing for them?"
Topic include... whether fairies are real or imagined; why it might be useful to grow for fairies; and how to farm or garden for them.
|Show #514: WAL-MARTING ORGANICS - 07-10-2006 (9.08 MB) Listen Now
Guests:Sam Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc., and Ronnie Cummins, Founder of the Organic Consumers Association (Wal-Mart declined.)
Subject:Wal-Mart recently announced it will greatly expand its offering of organic foods, and will price organic only slightly higher than conventional. This leads some to ask, "Will Wal-Mart wal-mart organics?"
Topic include... the short history of organic food; the industrialization of the organic industry; and why some warn that Wal-Mart's entry into the organic industry could lead to the demise of organic standards.
|Show # 513: BIG PIG - 30-09-2006 (8.86 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Oklahoma State Senator Paul Muegge and a representative from the National Pork Producers Council
Subject:Smithfield wants to buy Premium Standard Farms. If approved, Smithfield will have 1.1 million pigs, which is nearly one-third of the nation's slaughter capacity. This leads one to ask, "Is bigger better?"
Topics include why 250,000 hog farms have disappeared during the past 16 years; what impact this concentration has on the economy of the heartland; and whether concentration will provide for a more secure food chain.
|Show # 512: Placer Gold - 23-09-2006 (6.48 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Christina Abuelo and Joanne Neft
Subject:A few short years ago, 35% of the county's farmers were 65 years or older, and more than half of the county's farmers reported having no on to take over the farm. Then someone discovered Placer Gold!
Topics include why farms were disappearing from the Sierra foothills; how Abuelo and Neft developed a local food industry in which farmers now bring in up to $4,000 per day; and the technology for developing local food industries in other markets.
|Show #511: Transmissible Madness - 18-09-2006 (8.47 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Susan Fallace, Author, Mad Sheep
Subject:To protect America from transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, USDA ordered Linda and Larry's prized milking sheep slaughtered. This leads us to ask, "What did the Fallace's milk sheep have to do with mad cows?"
Topics include the "madness" diseases (encephalopathy) of the food chain; how one might prevent a herd or flock from contracting these diseases; and why the USDA slaughtered the Fallace family's "safe" sheep.
|Show #510: Food or Fuel? - 12-09-2006 (8.41 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Peter Golbitz, Soyatech LLC; Larry Matlack, American Agriculture Movement, David Blume, Alcohol Can Be A Gas
Subject:As we move from an economy fueled by hydrocarbons to one fueled by carbohydrates we pause to ask: "Which will come first, food or fuel?"
Topics include the extent to which natural resources are being diverted from food to energy production; the impact this diversion is having on the production of food; and which will eventually come to dominate our productive resources– food or energy.
|Show #509: Foraging the Finest - 26-08-2006 (9.23 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Produce Forager Kerry Clasby
Subject:To stay on top in the world of haute cuisine, restaurant chefs must serve food that is the best of the best. This leads us to ask, "Where does one find the best food?"
Topics include what it takes to be the best in the restaurant business; how Clasby's foraging helps the top chefs stay on top; and what impact restaurant chefs have on the ways we grow and process food.
|Show #508: Hemp's High Hurdle - 19-08-2006 (8.65 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Jeanette McDougal, National Alliance for Health & Safety and John Roulac, Founder & CEO of Nutiva Foods
Subject:They say it's a $250,000,000 crop waiting to be planted--but there is one hurdle. It is illegal. This leads one to ask, "Should the United States legalize the cultivation of 'industrial' hemp?"
Topics include what differences exist, if any, between hemp and marijuana; why it is legal to import hemp into the United States, but not legal to farm it; and what impact the legalization of hemp might have on the nation's drug use.
|Show #507: Greenwashed Milk - 12-08-2006 (8.52 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Mark Kastel, Senior Policy Analyst, The Cornocopia Institute
Subject:They say one should be careful of what one asks. Many small-scale farmers asked for an official definition to the word "organic," and got it. Organic farming then grew into a multi-billion dollar-a-year industry, which now leads some to ask, "Should big farms be allowed to call themselves "organic?"
Topics include why The Cornocopia Institute filed a legal action against the nation's leading dairy brand; whether that brand is breaking the letter or the spirit of the "organic" appellation; and whether industrial agriculture should be allowed to call itself "organic" agriculture.
|Show #506: Return of the Strong Arm - 05-08-2006 (8.68 MB) Listen Now
Guests: John Fund, Editorialist at The Wall Street Journal; Philip Martin, Professor of Ag Economics at UC Davis
Subject:There are millions of jobs for the taking, and millions of hands willing to take them. This leads one to ask, "Should we return to the days of the strong arm?"
Topics include why the Bracero ("strong arm") Program was abandoned in 1964; whether an updated Bracero program could bring order to immigration anarchy; and what alternatives are being offered to a Bracero program.
|Show #505: The Fuss Over Factory Farms - 28-07-2006 (8.54 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Paul Shapiro, Director of the Humane Society's Factory Farming Campaign, and Dr. Susan Watkins from the University of Arkansas' Center of Excellence for Poultry Science
Subject:There are 8,570,000 references to factory farming accessible on the internet, and few are favorable. This leads one to ask, "What's all the fuss about factory farming?"
Topics include a look at why animals are grown in "factory farms;" whether factory farms can be "humane;" and what alternatives there might be, if any, to factory farming food.
|Show #504: Stalin Redux? - 21-07-2006 (8.79 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Thomas Pawlick, author of The End of Food, and Cyrill Vatomsky, host of the Embassy of the New World Order radio program
Subject:In 1930, the United States had 6.3 million farms; in 2000, it had only 2.1 million. Some say the 27 million people who lived on those farms were deliberately forced off in a Stalin-like purge. This leads one to ask, "What did happen to all the farmers?"
Topics include why Stalin purged the family-scaled farmers of the Soviet Union; why they were also forced off the land throughout the Americas; and what impact their loss might have on the security of the food chain.
|Show #503: Public Enemy #1 - 14-07-2006 (9.06 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Thomas Wittman, Gophers Limited http://gopherslimited.com/
Subject:They can burrow through an acre in a single day and then go on to destroy up to half the crop on that acre. This leads one to ask, "How can one control gophers?"
Topics include a know-your-enemy profile of the pocket gopher; why controlling gophers without poison has become a necessity; and the best ways to control gophers without poison.
|Show #502: Blithe Farmer - 07-07-2006 (8.71 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Mike Madison, Farmer & Author of Blithe Tomato http://www.heydaybooks.com/public/books/bt.html
Subject:To market... to market... to the farmers' market, for food with its farmers face on it, ambiance that is small-town friendly and people as real as the goods in their hands. And so we ask, "Can these people be real?"
Topics include the why Eric the Dane bought a Swedish tractor; how Javier the Egg Man promotes diversity; and why Margo's marriage license dissolved in the El Nino rains.
|Show #501: Magic Bullets & Super Bugs - 30-06-2006 (8.66 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ronald Goossens, David Hodges and Christopher Smith from Phage International www.phageinternational.com
Subject:Like magic bullets, antibiotics kill harmful bacteria and allow us to multiply like, well, mold in a Petri dish! Our magic bullets, however, do not kill all bacteria some survive as "super bugs." This leads one to ask, "What can stop super bugs?"
Topics include the evolution of super bacteria; the dangers presented by super bacteria, especially in hospitals; and how bacteriophage therapy might be used to fight infection from the super bacteria.
|Show #500: Living the Dream! - 23-06-2006 (8.45 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Nancy Tappan & Vernon Hixson, Trium Winery, Rogue River, Oregon http://www.triumwines.com/
Subject:It's the dream! Turn a wild, scrub-covered hillside into an orderly vineyard, and then crush the grapes thereof into a premium wine. But before you dig we ask, "What lies between the dream and the lips?"
Topics include what it takes to say "Yes!" to a long-term commitment; the different kinds of labor required of the body and the mind; and the experience of tasting that first glass of wine.
|Show #499: Real or Fake? - 16-06-2006 (8.81 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Katherine Eban, Author, Dangerous Doses www.dangerousdoses.com
Subject:It's the law of the land! The more valuable an object, the more likely someone will counterfeit it. This leads one to ask, "What's in those pills?"
Topics include a look why prescription drugs are being counterfeited; the ways in which individuals and corporations make millions by cheating the drug consumer; and what consumers can do to protect themselves.
|Show #498: The Pop of Corn - 09-06-2006 (7.02 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Gary Redenbacher
Subject:It's the snack everybody loves to make, which leads one to ask, "Who put the pop in corn?"
Topics include a brief look at the history of popcorn; how Gary's grandfather, Orville Redenbacher, built the world's largest popcorn brand; and stories of growing up with the Pop of popcorn.
|Show #497: Who's Hungry Now? - 02-06-2006 (8.41 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Ross Frazier, Willy Elliott-McCrea and Lee Mercer from Second Harvest Food Bank www.secondharvest.org/
Subject:They say that, where obesity is becoming the major health issue, more and more are going hungry. This leads us to ask, "Who is hungry now?"
Topics include the demographics of hunger in America; reasons why the incidence of hunger appears to be increasing; and what, if anything, can be done to prevent a hungry future.
|Show #496: From Grass to Gas - 26-05-2006 (8.55 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Nathanael Greene, Natural Resources Defence Council www.nrdc.org & David Blume, Author, "Alcohol Can Be A Gas" www.permaculture.com
Subject:Our daily bread travels an average of 2,000 miles on oil provided by those who simply do not like us. This leads us to ask, "Can we turn our grass into gas?"
Topics include the difference between grain (or corn) ethanol and cellulosic (or biomass) ethanol; what obstacles must be overcome before cellulosic ethanol can become a viable energy source; and how a carbohydrate-based economy would differ from a hydrocarbon-based economy.
|Show #486 : - 05-01-2007 (5.04 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author Mark Kurlansky
Subject:They call it the "Big Apple." But if history is any measure, it should really be called the "Big Oyster."
Topics include why the first Europeans found Manhattan Island to be a veritable "garden of eatin;" how the business of early New York City was built, quite literally, on mountains of oyster shells; and what finally happened to end one of the great culinary orgies of all time.
|Show #484 : Local or Organic? - 26-12-2006 (4.78 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Author / Farmer Michael Abelman and Columnist / Farmer Steve Sprinkel
Subject:Some say we should eat foods that are organic. Others say we should eat foods that are local. This leads us to ask, "Which is most important: organic or local?"
Topics include why it is important to know how food is produced; how organic foods and local foods are no longer the same foods; and which is more important to the security of our food chain—foods grown organically or foods grown locally.
|Show #462: The Man Who Listens to Horses - 12-09-2006 (8.46 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Horse Behaviorist Monty Roberts
Subject:Subject: "Violence is never the answer," claims horse whisperer Monty Roberts. This leads us to ask: How can one break a horse by whispering to it?
Topics include the various techniques for breaking horses; why gentleness works better than violence for modifying behavior; and a consideration of the similarities between children and horses.
|Show #462 Revisted: The Man Who Listens to Horses - 07-05-2007 (8.46 MB) Listen Now
Guests: Monty Roberts
Subject:"Violence is never the answer," claims horse whisperer Monty Roberts. This leads us to ask: How can one break a horse by whispering to it?
Topics include the various techniques for breaking horses; why gentleness works better than violence for modifying behavior; and a consideration of the similarities between children and horses.
|Show #1113: A Scream for Ice Cream - 29-07-2017 (15.04 MB) Listen Now
Guest: Amy Ettinger, Author, Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America
Past Podcasts
|Show # :asdfasdf
Subject: asdfsadfsaf
Topic include...asdfasdfa
|Show #1126: California's Green-Gold Rush: Part I The Law
Guests: Loretta Moreno, Santa Cruz County Cannabis Licensing, David McPhearson, HdL Companies Consultant and Dave Potter, former Supervisor, Monterey County
|Show # 1117: Break Up the FDA?
Guest: Dr. Renee Dufault, Former FDA food inspector and author, Unsafe At Any Meal
|Show #1116: Whither the FDA?
Guest: Dr. Renee Dufault, Author, Unsafe at Any Meal, former FDA Food Investigator, Founder of Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute
Topics include how the FDA protects bad things in good food; what impact bad things can have on the human body; and what can be done to protect against bad things in good food.
|Show #1065: The Bubbly Buggy Brew
Hannah Crum, President of Kombucha Brewers International
Topics include a survey of the biology, chemistry and etymology of kombucha; a consideration of its many health claims; and how one can brew some up in the kitchen.
|Show #1047: OUTBREAK AT CHIPOTLE
Guests: Michael Palmer, Food Safety Consultant, GAP Solutions & Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Food Industry Journalist, Dallas Morning News
|Show #1044: LEARNING HOW TO EAT
Guest: Bee Wilson, Author, First Bite
Subject: Much effort has been devoted to getting children to eat the right food, but in spite of all the effort, much of the right food still ends up in the trash. This leads us to ask: Should children eat what adults serve, or should adults serve what children eat?
|Show #1042: Bee Gone!
Subject: The bees responsible for one-third of the food we eat are disappearing. Also disappearing is the scientific research into why bees are disappearing, and that leads us to ask: Why is USDA discouraging its scientific research into the disappearance of bees?
|Show #1041: To Label, Or Not To Label, GMOs
Guests: Kelly Damewood, Policy Director, California Certified Organic Farmers, and Hank Campbell, President, American Council on Science and Health
|Show 1032# :
Guests: David Montgomery and Anne Bikle, Authors, The Hidden Half of Nature
|Show # 1026 : To Know Or Not To Know
Guests: Maisie Ganzler, VP Bon Appetite Management Co; Randy Krotz, CEO U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, and Rodger Wasson, Wasson Idea Farming
Subject: Subect:
|Show #1025 : Sex in the Flower Bed
Guests: Dr. Lincoln Taiz and Lee Taiz, co-authors of Flora Unveiled: The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants
Topics include a history of our perceptions of plant sex; how, after 14,000 years of consideration, science discovered it takes two plants to tango; and the cultural backlash that followed the scientific discovery of plant sex.
|Show #1024 : Rating Whole Foods Ratings
Guests: Mark Lipson, Molino Creek Farm, Matt Rogers, Whole Foods Market, Steve Sprinkel, Farmer and Cook
Topic include why Whole Foods instituted an entirely new food rating system; what impact these ratings will have on farmers, and how much the ratings will cost consumers at the check-out stand.
|Show #1023 : PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS FOR CHILDREN
Guests:Columbia University Research Scientist Dr Mark Olfson
Topic include why psychotropic drugs are prescribed for children; how those drugs impact the behavior of children; and the effects of this drug use on the culture of the nation.
|Show #1022: The Invaders
Guest: Anthropology Professor Pat Shipman, Author of The Invaders
|Show # 1021: Owners Vrs Renters
Guests: Annuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute and Dean Kuipers, Orion Magazine
Topic include...why financial speculators see big money in the future value of farmland; how speculation turns farmers from owners into renters; and whether renters can sustain farmland for the future.
|Show #605: A BOOM IN THE GLOOM
Guests:Elizabethtown College Professor Don Kraybill and carpenter Emmanuel Schwartz
Subject: While we pull our plows with giant diesel-burning tractors, they pull theirs with teams of grass-eating horses. Speeding by, we look out the window and think, 'How quaint.' But somewhere down the road we pause to ask…. Why the Amish boom midst all our secular gloom?
Topics include a brief look at the culture of the Amish; why the Amish community has doubled its population in the last 16 years; and what lessons, if any, we city people can learn from the Amish.
|Show #495: Farmer to Hippy to Farmer
Guests: John Peterson, Farmer, Angelic Organics
Subject: The United States has lost family farms by the tens of thousands, including that belonging to John Peterson. Thus begins the story of how a farmer, who became a hippy, became a farmer on the new American family farm.
Topics include how John Peterson lost the family farm in the credit bust of the 1980's; how peasants in Mexico opened his eyes to a different kind of farming; and how he brought the remnants of his family farm back from ruin to become one of the nation's largest community supported agriculture farms.
|Show #494: Jellyfish Sandwiches and Plankton Soup
Guests: Bruce Knecht, author of Hooked, and Professor Daniel Pauly, Director of the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre
Subject: We have caught most of the fish available for the catching and are now fishing our way down the food chain. This leads us to ask, "What's next… jellyfish sandwiches and plankton soup?"
Topics include how the Patagonian toothfish became the Chilean seabass; why commercial fisherman from Spain now fish under the ice flows of the Antarctic; and what, if anything, can be done to prevent ourselves from fishing out the food chain.
|Show #493: Farming with the Wild
Guests: Dan Imhoff, Author of Farming with the Wild & Jo Ann Baumgartner, Director of the Wild Farm Alliance
Subject: From the beginning, agriculture has taken the wild and free and forced them to march in submission. This leads us to ask, "Why do some believe we should farm with the wild?"
Topics include why agriculture seeks to dominate nature; why some believe farmers and ranchers should provide for the wild and free; and what benefit the wild and free might bring to the business of agriculture.
|Show #492: A Question of Trust
Guest: Author / Publisher Joel Salatin
Subject: Some want all food processed and marketed on producing farms to be exempt from government inspection. This leads one to ask, "Who can we trust to insure the safety of these foods?"
Topics include how food safety rules are used as market management tools; what we should fear when buying food directly from farmers; and which can best insure the safety of farm-direct foods: government or farmers?
|Show #491: WHO'S TO BLAME?
Guests: James Tillotson, Tufts University & Marion Nestle, New York University
Subject: They say two-thirds of us have become overweight or obese. This leads one to ask, "Who is fattening us up… and why?"
Topics include why so many have gained so much; who is responsible for this gain; and what can be done to bring us back to "fighting trim."
|Show #490: NOT MILK?
Guests: Alex Avery, Hudson Institute; Sally Fallon, Weston A. Price Foundation; & Robert Cohen, notmilk.com
Subject: Some say milk does a body good. Others say milk does a body bad. This leads us to ask, "Which is it, good or bad?"
Topics include why opposing views exist as to the efficacy of milk; what evidence can be offered to back those views; and whether milk does, or does not, "do a body good."
|Show #489: GOSPEL OF GRASS, II
Guest: Shannon Hayes, Ph.D, author, Grassfed Gourmet
Subject: The culture of American agriculture, is one of grain. This leads us to ask, "Why do some continue preaching the Gospel of Grass?"
Topics include what happened to farms when agriculture switched from grass to grain; how this change affected the food we eat; and why some continue to preach the efficacy of grass.
|Show #488: STOP SENDING FOOD!
Guest: Gil Odendaal, Medical Ambassadors International
Subject: A core principle of Christianity is to love one's neighbor. This leads us to ask, "Why do some Christian missionaries in Africa say, 'Stop sending food!'"
Topics include a look a village life in rural Africa, why missionary Odendaal is asking people to stop sending Africans food; and the most effective ways to "love one's neighbor."
|Show #487: A $600,000,000,000 QUESTION
Guest: Mark Buskohl, Jim French, Mark Leonard)
Subject: Someone once said, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money!" Over the decades we have given farmers $600,000,000,000. This leads us to ask, "Should we stop giving farmers real money?"
Topics include why a candidate for Secretary of Agriculture would advocate for the reductionif not outright elimination of-- farm subsidies; what happens to U.S. farmers when they accept government subsidies; what happens to farmers in developing nations as a consequence of U.S. farm subsidies.
|Show #486: BIG APPLE ON THE HALF SHELL
Guest: Mark Kurlansky, Author, The Big Oyster
Subject: They may call it "The Big Apple," but in fact, New York, New York should really be called… "The Big Oyster!"
Topics include why the first Europeans found Manhattan Island to be a veritable "garden of eatin;" how the business of early New York City was built, quite literally, on mountains of oyster shells; and what finally happened to end one of the great culinary orgies of all time.
|Show #485: "ADAPT OR DIE!"
Guests: Bryce Knorr, Senior Editor of Farm Futures Magazine, and Martha Works, Professor of Geography at Portland State University
Subject: For the past six decades, US Secretaries of Agriculture have told American farmers to "Get big or get out!" and to "Adapt or die!" And so they did. This leads us to ask, "Where have all the farmers gone?"
Topics include how economies of scale changed the business of farming; why small farms are moving to the city; and where the greatest opportunities for new farmers may be found.
|Show #484: LOCAL VRS ORGANIC
Guests: Farmers / Writers Michael Abelman and Steve Sprinkel
Subject: Some argue we should eat locally-grown food. Others argue we should eat organically-grown food. This leads us to ask, "Which is more critical to the security of our food chain, local or organic?"
Topics include why organic food may no longer be local food; the differences between foods farmed locally and those farmed organically; and which kind of farming is most critical to the security of our food chain.
|Show #483: The Birds!!!
Guests: Ornithologist Kevin McGowan from Cornell University, Editor Steve Peck from the Riverton Ranger, and Mayor John Vincent of Riverton, Wyoming
Subject: Life imitates art! A plague of fearless crows has descended on Riverton, Wyomingand other communities throughout the West to frighten residents and take over their town. And so we ask, "What can stop… the Birds?"
Topics include why crows congregate and move into town; what happens when crows by the tens of thousands descend upon a town of a few thousand people; and what can be done to take back a town from… the Birds!
|Show #482: Watts Seeds!
Guest: Anna Marie Carter, the Seed Lady of Watts, and Ellen Wu, of the Pan Ethnic Health Network
Subject: The inner city has been paved over with concrete and hopelessness. The young, in hooded vestments, slink in the shadows. And so we ask, "What is the value of seeds to the city?"
Topics include why it is difficult to find good food in poor neighborhoods; what happens when good people eat bad food; and what is being done to grow hope in the inner city.
|Show #481: In Vitro Meat
Guest: Jason Matheny, Doctoral Candidate, Agriculture Policies, University of Maryland
Subject: It's a fact! We are turning our farmland into cities. At some point in the future, there will be more mouths to feed then farmland to feed them. This leads us to ask, "What's in the Petri dish?"
Topics include why food scientists are working on cultured meat; the advantages they see in producing these foods; and the ethical considerations of eating manufactured meat.
|Show #480: Not Milk?
Guests: Joaquin Contente, President of the California Farmers Union, and Robert Cohen, author of Milk A-Z
Subject: Got milk? Perhaps not! Food processors find bulk milk difficult to manage, and so have petitioned USDA for the right to use concentrated materials that some consider… not milk!
Topics include why food processors want to replace milk with ultra-concentrated milk products, what impact these products may have on dairy products like cheese and ice cream; and why some dairy farmers are resisting this effort.
|Show #479: Mark on the Beast II
Guests: Dr. Mary Zanoni, Founder of Farm For Life, and small farmers from around the United States
Subject: To protect against disease and terrorism, USDA will register and track domesticated animals, and the properties in which they reside, throughout the United States. This leads us to ask, "What impact will these good intentions have on small farmers, ranchers and hobbyists?"
Topics include why animals and properties must be registered and tracked; how the tracking system has been designed to facilitate industrial-scaled production systems; and what impact this program may, or may not, have on small-scale producers.
|Show #478: Mark on the Beast I
Guests: Dr. John Wiemers, Senior Staff Veterinarian for USDA, and Dr. Mary Zanoni, Founder of Farm For Life
Subject: In one year, the USDA will register and track domesticated animals throughout the United States. This leads us to ask, "Why?" and "How?"
Topics include why these animals must be registered and tracked; how the government will track them; and what impact this program may, or may not, have on animal owners.
|Show #477: Feasting on Fasting
Guests: Alan Goldhamer, D.C, Director, True North
Subject: Saint Jerome said, "When our stomachs are full, it is easy to talk about fasting." For the most, our stomachs are full, and so we ask, "What's in a fast?"
Topics include how fasting affects the body and soul; who should fast and who should not; and how to conduct a proper fast.
|Show #476: First Call for Alcohol
Guest: Ian Lendler, Author, Alcoholica Esoterica
Subject: We ferment and distill the fruits of our fields, then drink ourselves silly. This leads us to ask, "What is in the glass that leads us to drink?
Topics include a look at our history with drink; the different kinds of fermented and distilled drinks; and reasons why we are unable to put the glass down.
|Show #475: Year of Living Dangerously
Guests: Open Microphone
Subject: Avian fluOe broken fuel lines... swarming immigrantsOe. It has been a year of living dangerously on the Food Chain. And so we ask, "Which of 2005's stories will have the greatest impact on our ability to eat food?"
Topics include five of the top stories of 2005, how these stories reflect fundamental changes in our food chain; and which story will have the greatest impact on our ability to eat food.
|Show #474: Clueless but Curious about Kosher
Guests: Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf
Subject: Napolean the Pig said, "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others." And so we wonder why, in the world of kosher foods, the pig is among the least equal of all.
Topics include how the laws of kosher developed among those of the Jewish faith; what is kosher, and what is not; and whether eating kosher can aid one's spiritual development.
|Show #473: Gifting a Cow
Guests: Dr. Terry S. Wollen, Staff Veterinarian, Heifer International
Subject: It is the season of giving. And so we ask, "How can we who have so much make a difference by giving to those who have so little?"
Topics include how Heifer International gives farm animals to individuals throughout the developing world; the ways in which gifted farm animals help poor families establish an economy; and why gifting animals works, where gifting billions of dollars has failed.
|Show #472: A Municipal Royal Flush, Part II
Guests: Dr. Edo McGown and Maureen Reilly
Subject: It's a fact! Cities consume a lot of food and excrete a lot of waste. And so we ask, "Should we spread this waste on top of farmland?"
Topics include the difference between traditional Chinese "night soil" and American "biosolids;" how biosolids (or "sewage sludge") is now being spread upon US farmland; and whether this practice should be contracted or expanded.
|Show #471: A Municipal Royal Flush
Guest: Al Rubin
Subject: It's a fact! Cities consume a lot of food and excrete a lot of waste. And so we ask, "Should we spread this waste on top of farmland?"
Topics include the difference between traditional Chinese "night soil" and American "biosolids;" how biosolids (or "sewage sludge") is now being spread upon US farmland; and whether this practice should be contracted or expanded.
|Show #470: Gospel of Grass
Guest: Alan Nation, Publisher, The Stockman Grass Farmer
Subject: The culture of American agriculture is one of grain. And so we ask, "Why is Alan Nation preaching the gospel of grass?"
Topics include why American agriculture came of age on grain; how grass farming differs from grain farming; and how American agriculture would look, were it based on grass instead of grain.
|Show #469: Big City Birds
Guests: Cornell University's Project Pigeon Watch Leader Karen Purcell and Chapman University Behavioral Ecologist Walter Piper, from Parrot Watch
Subject: Once tame, now wild, parrots and pigeons have moved into the big city. And so we ask, "How do they make their living?"
Topics include why tame parrots and pigeons went wild and moved into the city; whether life on the street is indeed for the birds; and how parrots and pigeons go about earning a living on mean street.
|Show #468: Poison in the Pantry
Guests: University of Miami Professor of Medicine and Cardiology, Dr. Michael Ozner and Attorney Stephen Joseph, Founder and President, Bantransfat.com
Subject: Partially hydrogenated oil extends the shelf-life of food, but shortens the shelf-life of people. And so we ask, "Who put this poison in the pantry?" And, "Why do we keep eating it?"
Topics include the selling of partially-hydrogenated oils as food; how the human body reacts to the trans fats within those oils; and why the oils are still found on the shelves and in our pantries.
|Show #467: From Hydrocarbon to Carbohydrate
Guests: University of California Professor Tad Patzek, Michigan State Professor Bruce Dale, and Corn Country Environmentalist Jeff Webster
Subject: Each year, we taxpayers spend about $1.4 billion dollars to subsidize the production of corn ethanol. And so we pause to ask, "Are we getting our money's worth?"
Topics include a look at ethanol as fuel; the economies of converting corn to ethanol; and whether ethanol derived from corn will prove a viable alternative to hydrocarbon fuels.
|Show #466: Magic of Mushrooms
Guests: Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running
Subject: We know them as food and medicine. But some say there is magic in mushrooms that can help save the world. And so we ask, "How?"
Topics include a look at nature's mycelial internet; how mycelium make it possible for other living things to flourish; and how mycelium can restore balance after floods, fires, oil spills and biological & chemical weapons.
|Show #465: Journey to the East
Guests: Mark Flanagan and Tony Kirkham, co-authors of Plants From the Edge of the World
Subject: In 1987, a great storm swept in from the Atlantic and devastated the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England. To replace the thousands of specimen trees lost, plant hunters traveled to the edge of the world. This leads us to ask, "What did they find there?"
Topics include a brief look at the management of botanical gardens; how plant hunting expeditions are planned and organized; and what adventures Flanagan and Kirkham experienced as they traveled the back woods of China, Japan and Russia.
|Show #464: The Sierra Club's $100,000,000 Abdication
Guests: John Hair from the Carrying Capacity Network and Brenda Walker from Limits to Growth (The Sierra Club has refused to participate in this conversation.)
Subject: The Sierra Club has accepted a $100,000,000 gift on the condition it does not take a position on immigration. This leads us to ask, "Can we manage the environment without managing the population?"
Topics include what impact immigration may have on the environment; why the nation's premiere environmental organization will not address the issue of immigration; and whether we can, or cannot, manage the environment without managing the population.
|Show #463: The Dead Doctor's Dead Diet
Guests: Dr. Stuart Fischer, Former Associate Medical Director of the Atkins Center
Subject: In 1972, Dr. Robert Atkins sparked a revolution in dieting by telling us to "enjoy the fats and avoid the sugars." And so we ask, "What happened to the dead Doctor's dead diet?"
Topics include a brief history of fad diets; how the biggest fad diet of all changed the eating habits of millions; and why that diet was doomed to fail.
|Show #462: The Man Who Listens to Horses
Guests: Horse Behaviorist Monty Roberts
Subject: "Violence is never the answer," claims horse whisperer Monty Roberts. This leads us to ask: How can one break a horse by whispering to it?
Topics include the various techniques for breaking horses; why gentleness works better than violence for modifying behavior; and a consideration of the similarities between children and horses.
|Show #461: The Battle for New Orleans
Guests: Peter Zeihan, Senior Analyst with Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
Subject: Like a neutron bomb dropped from on high, Hurricane Katrina swooped down and blew away the people of New Orleans. This leads us to ask, "Should we rebuild the Big Easy?"
Topics include the historical significance of the city to the nation's agriculture; the role it plays in today's economy; and the issues relating to rebuilding a city that, for all intents and purposes, lies below sea level.
|Show #460: Food or Drug?
Guests: Rima Laibow, Medical Director of Natural Solutions Foundation, and Michele VanOrt Cozzens, founder of HerBaware
Subject: We now spend more than $20 billion a year on herbal supplements. This leads us to ask, "Are we getting our money's worth?"
Topics include the reasons the herbal supplement has grown into a major industry; what dangers this industry does, or does not, pose to the well-being of consumers; and whether herbs should be managed as foods or drugs.
|Show #459: From Kraft Cheese to Craft Cheese
Guests: Chef Michael Clark and Cheesemakers John and Heather Fiscalini
Subject: It's a fact. Millions have been raised on Kraft American cheese. And so we pause to ask, "Why?"
Topics include the position American cheese has held in the American food chain; why others are pointing to cheeses crafted on the farm; and whether American tastes can ever be tempted away from American cheese.
|Show #458: The Tuna War
Guests: Jackie Savitz, director of Oceana's Seafood Contamination Campaign, and a yet to be named representative from the tuna industry
Subject: The toxic contaminant methylmercury has worked its way up the food chain and is now found in our favorite fish. And so we ask, "Should we be allowed to know what risk these fish poise to our well-being?"
Topics include the extent to which methylmercury has contaminated our food chain; which foods contain the greatest concentration of this pollutant; and whether consumers should be allowed to know what risk these food poise to their well-being.
|Show #457: Monsanto's Patented Pig
Guests: Greenpeace Europe researcher Christoph Then, author Jeffrey Smith and a representative from Monsanto (pending)
Subject: A Shakespeare professor once said, "Look here, Olson, all the good stories are about fighting or fornicating!" And so we ask, "Why did Monsanto file a patent application on the reproductive activity of pigs?"
Topics include what private businesses are trying to accomplish by patenting the reproductive activities of farm animals and what impact these patents might have on the security of the food chain.
|Show #456: Banning the Bans (Apologies for this week's sound quality!)
Guests: California State Senator Dean Florez (D. Shafter) and Californians for GE-Free Agriculture Director Renata Brillinger
Subject: Some say we should plant genetically-modified organisms from sea to shining sea. Others say, "Not in my back yard!" and pass laws banning the planting of them. This leads us to ask, "Who should have the authority to decide where GMO may be planted?"
Topics include why some believe the state decide where GMO's may be grown; why others believe communities should have the say; and whether there is, or is not, a reasonable solution to this dilemma.
|Show #455: How Cheap Immigrant Labor?
Guest: Idaho County Commissioner Robert Vasquez
Subject: Robert Vasquez is suing Swift Beef and Harris Moran Seed for costs incurred by the large number of illicit immigrants hired by the companies. This leads us to ask, "How cheap is cheap labor?"
Topics include why business has become so reliant on illicit immigrant labor; what the true costs of this reliance are for local communities; and who should pay the true costs?
|Show #454: Heart of Lightness
Guest: Godfrey Kasozi, Co-Founder of the Centre for Environmental Technology and Rural Development in Kasese, Uganda
Subject: Times are not good in the heart of Africa. AIDS and civil war force children to raise children. And so we ask, "Where does one turn for hope?"
Topics include an overview of African life; what Godfrey Kasozi does to build hope for the future; and what, if anything, developing nations can do to help.
|Show #453: Terrorist in the Milk Barn
Guest: Lawrence Wein, Professor, Stanford University's Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering
Subject: They are out to do us in any way they can. And so we ask, "Can they use milk?"
Topics include an overview of Professor Wein's mathematical modeling of a terrorist attack on the milk supply; what the possible consequences of such an attack might be; and what, if anything, can be done to protect ourselves from such an attack.
|Show #452: Farming for Bird Songs and Profit
Guest: Minnesota dairy farmer Art Thicke / US Fish & Wildlife Biologist Art "Tex" Hawkins
Subject: This year, city people will give country people an extra $24 billion to farm crops. Some farmers do not need this help. And so we ask, "Why?"
Topics include how Thicke survives and prospers without fertilizers or herbicides; why his cows have gone without mastitis for over 25 years; and why so many songbirds sing on his farm.
|Show #451: Hunger Moons
Guest: Jessica Prentice, author, Thirteen Moons: Food and the Hunger for Connection www.wisefoodways.com
Subject: When it comes to satisfying our hunger for food, we city people merely ask, and food is delivered from thousands of miles away. Yet we hunger for moreOe.
Topics include how cultures throughout time developed traditions associated with cycles of the moon; how these traditions-the Hunger Moon, the Moon of Making Fat, the Blood Moon- helped people stay connected to their food chain; and what traditions, if any, we city people can develop to remain connected to our food chain.
|Show #450: The Wolfers of Yellowstone
Guests: Carol and Mark Rickman, Pueblo, Colorado
Subject: Yesterday they threatened our lives and our livelihoods, so we hunted them down and killed them. Today they are the last of the wild, so we travel to Yellowstone and watch them feed their young.
Topics include why wild wolves have been re-introduced into the Yellowstone ecosystem; how wild wolves survive in a tamed world; and what about wolves turns people into "wolfers."
|Show #449: A Great White Obsession
Guests: Susan Casey, Author, The Devil's Teeth
Subject: Earth's most feared predator moves about in complete freedom within the city limits of San Francisco. A thoroughly obsessed Susan Casey visited them and brought the story back to feed our obsession withOe Great White Sharks.
Topics include how Great Whites came to thrive within the city limits of San Francisco; what it is like to visit these Great Whites on their home "turf;" and why civilized people become obsessed with wild predators like the Great White Shark.
|Show #448: Codex Alimentarius
Guests: Rima Laibow, Richard Goldberg, Michael McGuffin
Subject: Here vitamins and minerals are food, but there they are drugs. The World Trade Organization says they must be one or the other. And so we ask, "Will our vitamins and minerals become drugs that must be purchased through doctors and pharmacies?"
Topics include why the two ways of classifying vitamins and minerals must be justified; who will make the decision as to how they are classified; and what will happen to their availability if they are classified as drugs.
|Show #447: Blue Meets Red on a Bike
Guests: Blue State Farmer / Radio Journalist Ingrid Evjen-Elias
Subject: Once there was the United States. Now there are blue states and red states. And so we ask, "What happens when blue meets red on a bike?"
Topics include why a San Francisco Bay area farmer decided to bicycle through Kansas and Nebraska farm country; what she discovered when she met those farmers; and what lessons can be learned when blue meets red on a bike.
|Show #446: Playing God with Life
Guests: Jack Kloppenburg, Professor of Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin
Subject: First there was the seed. Then science gave us the ability to take genes from one species and combine them with a second to create an entirely new species. And so we ask, "Who among is smart enough to play God with life?"
Topics include how the management of seeds allowed for the development of economy; how biotechnology's ability to create new species from old ones has changed agriculture; and a discussion of who among us is smart enough to decide which species to create.
|Show #445: Free Speech Vrs Government Speech
Guests: Montana Rancher Jeanne Charter & Center for Individual Freedom General Council Reed Cox
Subject: Little David fought giant Goliath over the right to speak freely. David lost and now Goliath's speech is government speech and not free at all!
Topics include why agricultural commodity groups form mandatory marketing programs; how the beef industry's check-off system is forcing independent ranchers into becoming "captive suppliers" to giant meat cartels; and why the Supreme Court ruled that industry speech is government speech and therefore not free speech.
|Show #444: The Perfect Crime
Subject: It's the perfect crime. Take prescription drugs worth $500, switch labels, and then sell them for $5,000. Patients taking the drugs eat the evidence. And if the patients die - no evidence, no crime!
Topics include why the USA has become the "go to" country for counterfeit prescription drugs; how some counterfeit drugs are bought and sold up to 30 times before being consumed by unwitting patients; and what can be done to protect against these drugs.
|Show #443: A Red Tide of Red Delicious
Guests: John Martinelli, President, S. Martinelli & Co. & Nancy Foster, President, U.S. Apple Association
Subject: There is a red tide of red delicious apples coming. And so we pause to ask, "Can the American apple industry find high ground in time?"
Topics include the impact Chinese apple juice concentrate has on domestic production; what will happen to domestic production when China ships fresh apples into the U.S. market; and what the U.S. industry can do to survive the competition from the world's low-cost producer.
|Show #442: Farming Bears for Bile
Guests: Kirk Russell, Author, Night Games
Subject: We might think it crazy to kill wild bears merely for the bile in their gall bladders, but one and a half billion Chinese do not think its crazy at all!
Topics include why wild bears in the United States are being killed to satisify an ancient Chinese custom; what will happen to these bears if no one protects them; and how our law enforcement acts to stop the poaching of our wild bears.
|Show #441: Bristol the Bee Buster
Guests: George Bristol, Bee Busters
Subject: You hear them comingOe an industrious hmmmm that grows in intensity. You look up from your paperback novel and see a dark cloud of bees settling on the eaves of your roof. You have been swarmed. Who you going to call?
Topics include how bees are responsible for two out of each three bites of food that we eat; how tiny mites are reaking havoc on the bee population; and what to do when you get swarmed.
|Show #440: The Big One That Got Away!
Guests: Dr. Dennis Takahashi Kelso
Subject: Science is giving us the ability to re-engineer fish so they will grow much bigger, much faster. And so we pause to ask, "What happens when these big ones get away?"
Topics include how the demand for wild salmon has affected its supply; what impact farmed salmon has on wild salmon; and what will happen to wild salmon when genetically engineered ones escape into the wild.
|Show #439: From NAFTA to CAFTA
Guests: Bernard Barnaud & Dr. Pete Graff
Subject: NAFTA opened the North American marketplace to free, unrestricted trade. Now CAFTA wants to extend the free trade zone to include Central America. And so we pause to ask, "Where is all this free trade taking us?"
Topics include how free trade has changed the North American marketplace; what impact CAFTA might have; and how American farmers and consumers will fare in a world without borders.
|Show #438: Liquid Gold
Guest: Author Carol Firenze
Subject: Some have said, "A rose is a rose is a rose." Others have said, "If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all." But if you do want to get passionate, Carol Firenze says, "Consider liquid gold!"
Topics include a look at mankind's history with the olive; why olives and olive oils are proliferating on the shelves of the nation's supermarkets; and the many different uses of olive oils.
|Show #437: Growing More, Harvesting Less
Guest: University of Texas Biochemist Dr. Donald Davis
Subject: Technology has made it possible to grow more crops in less space. Science, however, proves that we are getting fewer nutrients from those foods. And so we pause to ask, "Where have all the nutrients gone?"
Topics include how the nutrient content of five-decades of food were measured and compared; how today's foods have up to 53% fewer nutrients than foods of 50 years past; and what impact, if any, nutrient-light crops might have on the people who eat them.
|Show #436: Rawsome Robyn
Guests: Author - Chef - Nutritionist Robyn Boyd
Subject: Robyn had it all: migraine headaches, hypoglycemia, Epstein Barr, mononucleosis, chronic fatigue, extreme candida and severe anxiety attacks. Then she turned her life over toOe rawsome food!
Topics include how eating good food can help alleviate bad illnesses; what relationship, if any, exists between food and the human spirit; and simple ways to implement a rawsome diet.
|Show #435: Bill McGee and the Flying Me
Guests: Authors William and Sandra McGee
Subject: Times were tough back in 1947 for 22 year-old Montana Cowboy Bill McGee. A recurrence of malaria had forced him out of employment and into a Reno-area VA hospital. When finally healed, he was offered a job wrangling for the Flying Me ranch and things started looking up. Way up!
Topics include how the Flying Me ranch became a haven for beautiful, rich socialites and movie starlets; what day-to-day life was like for guests and hands at the Flying Me; and whether there was authenticity in the Western legend of the Cowboy and the Lady.
|Show #434: Pandemic!
Guests: Author John Barry
Subject: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." If philosopher Santayana was correct, then we better start remembering our past with the influenza virus.
Topics include how a flu virus incubated on a Kansas farm killed between 50 and 100 million people; why that flu killed the strong and virile in greater proportions than the young and old; and, given the outbreaks of Avian flu in Southeast Asia, whether another flu pandemic is possible in our lifetime.
|Show #433: A Billion Here, A Billion There / Part III
Guests: Open Microphone
Subject: A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we're talking real money! We are talking real money when we give farmers 14.6 billion dollars a year to grow crops.
Topics include why taxpayers subsidize farmers; who receives the benefits of this taxpayer largess; and what will happen to the food supply if taxpayers withdraw their support.
|Show #432: A Billion Here, A Billion There / Part II
Guests: John Hansen, Nebraska Farmers Union; Harwood Schaffer, University of Tennessee
Subject: A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we're talking real money. And we are talking real money, when we give farmers an extra $14.6 billion a year to grow crops!
Topics include why taxpayers subsidize agriculture; why many farmers are unhappy with government's current "Freedom to Farm" subsidy program; and what will happen to the food supply if taxpayers withdraw their subsidies.
|Show #431: A Billion Here, A Billion There / Part I
Guest: Mary Kay Thatcher, American Farm Bureau
Subject: For the past 75 years, taxpayers have subsidized farmers to encourage their production of food. But those days appear to be waning!
Topics include why taxpayers subsidize agriculture; whether this subsidy should continue; and what will happen to the food supply if taxpayers withthdraw their subsidies.
|Show #430: Sometimes a Great Notion
Guest: Drs. Deborah & Frank Popper, Rutgers University
Subject: Sometimes we live in the country. Sometimes we live in the town. Sometimes we get a great notionOe to give the heartland back to the buffalo!
Topics include a look at the expanding frontier in America's heartland; why the Poppers believe we should turn that expanding frontier back to the buffalo; and what it would mean to fence the wild buffalo out, instead of in.
|Show #429: The Great White Way
Guest: Sean Van Sommeran, Pelagic Shark Research Foundation
Subject: There are times when you and I are no longer at the top of the food chain, like when we go for a swim in the ocean!
Topics include our long history with the great white shark; how we go about studying its life in the deep and what we have learned from these studies; and whether we can swim in the ocean without fearing its presence.
|Show #428: It's Here... There... Everywhere!
Guest: Charles "Chuck" Walters, Editor, ACRES USA
Subject: Fluoride is here. It's there. It's everywhere. And so we pause to ask, "Should fluoride be anywhere?"
Topics include what happens when the mineral fluoride interacts with the human body; how it became an element of the water supplied to many of the nation's municipalities; and whether, or not, it should be in our water.
|Show #427: The Man Who Springs Hope
Guest: Gerd Schneider, Gerd Schneider Nurseries
Subject: They say hope springs eternal in springtime; but we say you have to plant the seeds!
Topics include which seeds to germinate and which to leave dormant; why some seeds, like some people, must be scoured before they can come to life; and why some plants are reproduced by bringing together parents, while others are brought forth from a single parent.
|Show #426: Appetite for a Change
Guest: Ronnie Cummings, Organic Consumers Union
Subject: It's been a little over two years since the US Department of Agriculture developed an official definition for the word "organic." Now its time to ask, "What's next?"
Topics include the 12-year struggle to develop an official definition for the word "organic;" what happened to the organic marketplace during its first official year in existence; and where those who share this "appetite for a change" are likely to take us next.
|Show #425: Best of Times / Worst of Times
Guests: Strawberry farmer Donald Driscoll
Subject: A look back to the top stories in agriculture for the year 2004.
Topics include workers' compensation, health insurance costs, water rights, farm labor availability, energy costs, minimum wage legislation, pesticide restrictions, food safety, property rights and air quality legislation.
|Show #424: Foraging with the Wildman
Guests: Wildman Steve Brill
Subject: When the rains fall down, the mushrooms spring up. This is great news for the hungryOe unless the hungry happen to eat the wrong mushroom!
Topics include why people go to the wilds for mushrooms when they can always find perfectly safe ones at the grocery store; where to find the best wild foods; and how to know which wild foods are safe and which will send you to the hospital.
|Show #423: Breakfast of Champions
Guests: Sports Nutritionist Frank Addleman
Subject: They run faster, jump higher and hit harder. They are the best of the best. And so we pause to ask, "How did they become so good?"
Topics include how the greats like Barry Bonds become so great; the dangers their nutritional supplements pose; and how thinking straight may prove to be the real key to achieving optimum physical performance.
|Show #422: Where Food is Still the Medicine
Guests: Pharmacist / Shamana Connie Grauds
Subject: Hippocrates once said, "Let your medicine be your food, and let your food be your medicine." Well, there is one place on earth where food is still the medicine!
Topics include why Ms. Grauds made the transition from pharmacist to shamana; the essential difference between medicines of the West and those of the Amazon jungle; and what lessons can be extracted from the foods that are still the medicines.
|Show #421: Holy Cows & Hog Heaven
Guests: Farmer / Author Joel Salatin
Subject: Here in the land of the most free, you can buy cigarettes anywhere, but you can't buy a T-bone steak from a neighbor anywhere.
Topics include the survival of direct trade in a mass market; how laws designed to protect mass trade restrict direct trade; and what consumers can do to overcome the obstacles placed between them and the farmers who grow their food.
|Show #420: The Politics of the Correct
Guests: MIT Professor Loren Graham
Subject: He was the most politically correct of scientists in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, and used his correctness to condemn one of history's great geneticists to death by starvation and to send Soviet agriculture into disarray.
Topics include the conflict over gene theory as personified by Lysenko and Alexander Vavilov; why Lysenko's theory was adopted as the correct one by the Soviet state; and the devastation this political correctness caused on Soviet agriculture.
|Show #419: From Hydrocarbons to Carbohydrates
Guests: Dartmouth Professors Lee Lynd and Charles Wyman
Subject: With ever more people drawing from an ever-diminishing supply, it is becoming obvious that the end of oil is not going to be a pleasant experienceOe unless, we learn how to replace hydrocarbons with carbohydrates!
Topics include the difference between hydrocarbon and carbohydrate fuels; the hurdles that must be overcome to make ethanol competitive with gasoline; and whether it will be possible, in the near future, to rely on farmers for a fuel that is cheap, clean and renewable.
|Show #418: The Peregrine Redemption
Guests: Glenn Stewart, Program Director, University of California's Predatory Bird Research Group
Subject: Sometimes, many times, our best intentions result in unintended consequences. Take DDT, for example....
Topics include how our use of DDT led to the near extinction of many bird species, like the peregrine falcon; how real people scaled the cliffs to bring these birds back from the brink of extinction; and what lessons might be learned from this story of redempation.
|Show #417: Our Hidden Kitchens
Guests: Radio Journalists Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva
Subject: Now that we all eat the same foods from the same stores run by the same people, its time to ask: iWho does not?i
Topics include stories about the Yellow Cab Brazilian restaurant in San Francisco, the George Foreman street grill in Chicago, the Chili Queens of San Antonio, the Betty Crocker of County Jail #8, and more.
|Show #416: A Red Tide of Honey
Guests: Gene Brandi of the American Honey Board and Lyle Johnston from the American Honey Producers Association
Subject: Before you sweeten your tea with that Made-in-the-USA honey, you might want to ask from where that honey really came and what secret ingredient came with it!
Topics include how China became the world leader in honey exports; how Chinese honey contaminated with chloramphenicol came to taint some of the top names in American processed foods; and the impact Chinese honey might have on domestic producers.
|Show #415: Outsourcing the Cowboy
Guests: Gilles Stockton, rancher, Grass Range, Montana; Jim Warren, 101 Livestock Market, Aromas, California
Subject: Once the symbol of strength and self-determination, the American cowboy is now riding off into the sunset of the New World Order. At least, so say some!
Topics include a brief history of the American beef industry; a look at how that industry came to be dominated by 3 industrial giants; and a discussion about why today's ranchers think they are being chased off the range.
|Show #414: The Drifting Genes of Biotech
Guests: Drew Kershen, Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma; Jane Rissler, Deputy Director, Union of Concerned Scietists
Subject: We now have the ability to combine the genes from one species with that of a second species to create a third species. It's time to ask, "Can we control our new creations?"
Topics include whether genes from genetically-engineered plants can be prevented from flowing into the genes of other plants; the possible consequences of such a gene flow on organic agriculture; and who would claim ownership, and responsibility, for such a gene flow.
|Show #413: The End of Weeding
Guests: Ed Ortega from the California Farm Bureau and Mike Webb from the Western Growers Association
Subject: California has become the first state in the nation to ban the weeding of commercial crops by hand. And so we pause to ask, "Are we killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?"
Topics include why so many laws and regulations like the "no hand-weeding" rule are introduced; why agriculture has become the focal point for so many laws and regulations; and whether agriculture can remain competitive when beset with so many laws and regulations.
|Show #412: The Proof in the Organic Pudding
Guests: Alex Avery, Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues; Charles Benbrook, Organic Center for Education and Promotion;
Subject: We now spend over $10 billion a year on organic foods. And so its time to ask: "Is organic food better than food that is not organic?
Topics include the reasons behind the explosive growth of organic foods; what scientific evidence exists, or does not exist, as to whether organic foods are actually better; and what consumers can do to make up their own mind as to the veracity of organic foods.
|Show #411: Upstream, Downstream & The Big Dry
Guests: Eric Kuhn, Colorado River Conversation District (CO); Gerald Zimmerman, Colorado River Board of California
Subject: The Big Dry out West is in its sixth year and so we ask, "Who is going to get what's left of the water in reservoirs and rivers... those who live upstream or those who live downstream?"
Topics include the significance of a river that flows through 7 parched Western states; how these 7 states came to share the river's water; and how these states will decide who gets the water if the prolonged drought diminishes supply below the agreed-upon sums.
|Show #410: Looking for Fairness in Fair Trade
Guest: Haven Bourque, Transfair USA; Bob Fulmer, Royal Coffee
Subject: It's in supermarkets, coffee shops and fine restaurants. And so we ask, "What's so fair about fair trade foods?"
Topics include the 50-year evolution of fair trade; how consumers in wealthy nations can help poor farmers in developing nations; and how this desire to help poor farmers can lead to big profits for giant retailers.
|Show #409: Medicine for Millions
Guest: Open Microphone
Subject: When it was legal, and growing wild beside the road, few cared for its pleasures. When it was made illegal, and carefully cultivated at secret farms, it became the medicine of millions.
Topics include the difference, if any, between the use of cannabis as a drug and as a medicine; the struggle over the legalization of medical marijuana; and how WAMM may be the first group in the nation to grow legal medical marijuana.
|Show #408: What's in a Name?
Guest: Cathy Barash, Author & President of the Garden Writers of America
Subject: If you say "toe may toe" and I say "toe mah toe," we would both be wrong! The real name is "Lycopersicon esculentum."
Topics include an introduction to the Swedish botanist Carl von Linne and the story of how he became Carolus Linnaeus; journeys with early plant explorers for a look at how newly discovered plants were named; and a stroll through our farms and gardens to see how names often reflect the history of our relationship with plants and animals.
|Show #407: Food For Thought!
Guests: Don Masters, Homeland Security Industry Association (HSIA) http://www.hsianet.org, and Rock Clapper, President, Datatic Technologies http://www.datatic.com
Subject: It is said that food now travels an average of 2,000 miles from where they grow it to where we eat it. And so, in this season of terror, we ask: "How safe is our food supply?"
Topics include the ways in which our food supply is vulnerable to terrorism; what agriculture and the food processing industry can do to reduce our vulnerabilities; and what consumers can do to protect themselves and their families.
|Show #406: They're Everywhere!
Guests: Mosquito Abatement Specialist Laurie Lang; Tom Skinner, spokesman, Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Subject: They're hereOe they're thereOe they're everywhere. So beware of mosquitoes that carry the dreaded West Nile virus.
Topics include the extent to which West Nile virus is a threat to animals and people; how this virus is vectored from animals to people; and the ways in which the threat of West Nile is managed.
|Show #405: Passing on the Gas
Guest: Vanessa Bogenholm, Strawberry Grower; Roger Wasson, President, California Strawberry Commission
Subject: The end is near for the poisonous gas that makes money for farmers and depletes the earth's protective ozone layer. UnlessOe.
Topics include the extent to which methyl bromide is used in the production of over 100 domestic crops; why U.S. agriculture is being asked to eliminate this gas, while other countries, like China, are not; and what the loss of this gas means to producers and consumers of fruits and vegetables.
|Show #404: The People Pests
Guest: Bill Yoshimoto, Project Director, Agricultural Crime Technology Information & Operations Network (ACTION)
Subject: During the day, farms are the picture of strength and security; but during the night, they become the epitome of vulnerability.
Topics include why crime is becoming so pernicious throughout rural America; who is committing these crimes; and what individuals can do to reduce their vulnerability to these people pests.
|Show #403: Amnesty or Travesty?
Guest: Congressman Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Craig Nelson, Director of Project USA
Subject: Democrats and Republicans love it. Farmers and farm workers love it. And so we pause to ask, "What could possibly be wrong with granting illegal immigrant farm workers permanent legal status?"
Topics include why Congressman Cannon introduced AgJOBS; what kind of relief the bill might provide to farmers and their long-term illegal immigrant workers; and what impact this form of amnesty might have on immigration into the United States.
|Show #402: Shell Games
Guest: Kirk Russell, author, Shell Games
Subject: When demand exceeds supply, prices go up. The demand for wild abalone now far exceeds the supply, and prices have gone through the roof. And so we ask, "Who will save the wild abalone?"
Topics include a brief history of the abalone fishery; why abalone poaching has become a lucrative business; and stories from the field about how Fish and Game tries to close the black market for white abalone.
|Show #401: Whither the Flavr Savr?
Guest: Dr. Kent Bradford, Director, UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center & Attorney Barbara Rae Venter (patent attorney for the Flavr Savr tomato)
Subject: The promise was great: a vine-ripened tomato that would hold its ripeness while shipped across country and stored on a grocer's shelf until purchased and consumed. And so we ask, "Whither the Flavr Savr?"
Topics include the development and disappearance of the Flavr Savr tomato; the total absense of genetically-engineered horticultural crops in today's marketplace; and a look at what kinds of foods recombinant gene technology might bright to our dinner tables.
|Show #400: The Accidental Connoisseur
Guest: Lawrence Osborne, author
Subject: What better way to celebrate the 400th edition of the Food Chain Radio Show than with a glass of fine wine. And so we pause to ask, "What exactly is fine wine?"
Topics include the development of taste; the open warfare between international and terroir style wines; and the world's great wine makers and regions.
|Show #399: The Art of Beeing
Guest: Gunther Hauk, author & biodynamic beekeeper http://www.pfeiffercenter.org/
Subject: How sweet it is, to harness the efforts of Apis Mellifera and make money, honey! But waitOe Where have all the honey bees gone?
Topics include the contribution bees make to the economies of agriculture; why 50% of the US bee population has disappeared within the past 20 years; and what people can do to make it possible for bees to survive.
|Show #398: Look Who's Coming To Dinner!
Guests: Brian McElroy, California Certified Organic Farmers & Bob Scowcroft, Organic Farmers Research Foundation
Subject: Many focused their efforts and turned an ordinary wordoiorganiciointo an extraordinary thingoclean food. But now the government is trying to sneak into the kitchen with some ingredients of its own!
Topics include a brief history of iorganic;i why the government wants to change the official rules of what is, and what is not, organic; and, given the governmentis desire, whether organic farmers and consumers can maintain their position in the marketplace.
|Show #397: Rivers Run Through Us
Guests: Tom Mullen, author, Rivers of Change http://www.riversofchange.com/
Subject: Like the veins in a body, they course through the land bringing the moisture and nutrients needed to survive. And so we pause to ask, iHow is the flow in the rivers that run through us?i
Topics will include a brief look at the history of people and rivers; how those rivers were civilized to satisfy the needs of people; and why some people now want to set the rivers free again.
|Show #396: Wild Fermentation
Guests: Sandor Katz, author, http://wildfermentation.com/ Carl Honore, author, http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=006054578X
Subject: Before the age of industrial chemicals, we preserved many of our foods through the natural processes of fermentation. And so we pause to ask, "What did those fermented foods provide us that industrial foods do not?"
Topics include the homogenization of modern foods and the impact of this homogenization on culture; the health benefits of fermented foods; and ways to put culture back into our fast food nation.
|Show #395: Farming in Deep Space
Guests: Gus Koerner, Element Lead for Advanced Life Support Education
Subject: Sooner or later, we will have to find a new home somewhere out there in deep space. And so we ask, "What will we eat while on the long, long journey to our new planetary home?"
Topics will include which foods are necessary for humans traveling in deep space; how will these foods be grown in a space ship; and which foods will we take with us to our next planetary home.
|Show #394: The Conquering Worms
Guests: Amy Stewart, author, The Earth Moved
Subject: They eat the detritus of leaves and rocks and excrete rich, dark earth. Charles Darwin made them famous and we, too, are going to turn up a shovel full of them with questions.
Topics will include why Charles Darwin dedicated the last part of his life to the study of earthworms; the earthworm's remarkable ability to solve problems; and the good, and harm, earthworms do for we the people.
|Show #393: Foods That Heal
Guests: Don Talman
Subject: Why does a sliced carrot look like a human eye; a walnut like a human brain; a kidney bean like a human kidney; and a tomato, with its red color and 4 chambers, like a human heart?
Topics include whole foods that dissolves tumors, clear and clean blocked arteries; allow diabetics to get off insulin, and restore cartilage and reduce arthritis.
|Show #392: Resting at the Work Family's Working Ranch
Guests: George Work, Work Family Ranch, Paso Robles, California
Subject: When its time to get away, why not get away to something real, like a working farm or ranch? What is the Farm Stay program and how does it encourage city folk to stay on working farms and ranches? What is the difference between cattle ranching and grass farming? Can working ranchers be environmentalists?
|Show #391: Doctor Vrs Doctor
( Show available via CD )
Guests: Dr. Stuart Trager, Atkins Nutritionals and Dr. John McDougall, author Atkins Diet Alert!
Subject: Thanks to the late Dr. Robert Atkins, bread is no longer the staff of life. And so we ask, "Where is his diet going to take us?" Why do so many consume so much "Atkins-friendly" food? What dangers might there be in the Atkins diet? What impact will Dr. Atkins recent death have on the low-carbohydrate diet?
|Show #390: The Great White Way
Guests: Dr. Ron Schmid, Author, The Untold Story of Milk
Subject: It's the great white way, and it played a big part in the growth of civilization. But hey, does it really do a body good? What role did traditional dairy cultures play in the growth of civilization? How did economics and politics force the compulsory pasteurization of milk? Why do many health enthusiasts now advocate for raw milk? http://www.newtrendspublishing.com/USOMilk/
|Show #389: Andy of Mariquita
Guests: Andrew Griffen, farmer, Mariquita Farm
Subject: They say we now eat food that is shipped in from an average of 2,000 miles away... on imported oil! This leads us to ask: How can we reduce this colossal vulnerability? What is Mariquita Farm? What are the ways in which Mariquita sells its produce directly to consumers in the city? What can consumers buy from Mariquita that they cannot buy from farms 2,000 miles away? http://www.mariquita.com
|Show #388: The Dirty Dozen
Guests: Bill Walker, Environmental Working Group
Subject: News to use... You can reduce your exposure to dangerous pesticides 90% simply by avoiding "the dirty dozen" fruits and vegetables. How did the USDA determine which foods are dirty and which clean. Why did the Environmental Working Group make USDA's study user-friendly? Which 12 fruits and vegetables contain the most pesticides, and which contain the least? Note: Bill Walker's Retraction
|Show #387: Salt of the Earth
Guests: Selina DeLangre, Grain and Salt Society http://www.celtic-seasalt.com/
Subject: When it comes to the food we eat, white could be beautiful, but mostly its not! Take that stuff we call "table salt," for example.... What functions does salt serve in human nutrition? What roles has salt played in human history? Why do we manufacture the life out of salt in order to pour pure white sodium chloride onto our food?
|Show #386: The Right to Own Life
Guests: Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser http://www.percyschmeiser.com/
Subject: Imagine waking up one day to find a neighbor's weeds growing in your garden. And because of those weeds, a giant corporation now owns your garden! How did Monsanto's genetically-engineered canola seeds sprout on Percy Schmeiser's farm? Why did the courts force Percy to become a serf of Monsanto? Should anyone have the right to own life?
|Show #385: The Oil in our Food
Guests: Richard Manning, author, Against The Grain
Subject: It is said that if everyone were to eat as we in America eat, the world would run out of oil in ten years! Topics include how ancient "wheat-beef" people conquered the world; how the "Green Revolution" brought fossil fuels to the kitchen table; and what might happen if the world adopts America's agriculture.
|Show #384: 70,000 Walk the Line
Guests: Pastor Carol Been, National Interfaith Committee for Workers Justice; Ron Lind, United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Subject: They struggled for decades to establish a living wage, only to see that living wage melt away like a snowman in July. So, to save their piece of the American dream, 70,000 of them walked the line in the great California grocery strike.
|Show #383: The Simple People of our Complex World
Guests: Mike Klein of Farming Magazine http://www.farmingmagazine.net/
Subject: We have it all... nice homes, fast cars and sushi on-demand. But the Amish do not live the high-voltage lifestyles of our wired-world, and its time we had a talk with them.
|Show #382: About Those Sand Castles
Guests: Brian Halweil, Worldwatch Institute http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/paper/163/
Subject: It's a fact! Agriculture is the foundation upon which we build all our sand castles. Which leads us to ask: "What will hold us up if agriculture, like most other manufacturing, disintegrates under the competitive forces of the new world order?"
|Show #381: Food With a Farmers Face
Guests: Nita Gizdich with her cast of stars from the North American Farmer's Direct Marketing Conference (http://www.gizdichranch.com)
Subject: According to Michael Olson's irrefutable Law of the Universe, the further we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over what is in that food. And in the USA, we eat food that is brought to us from an average of 1,400 miles away! So, where do we find some "food with a farmer's face on it?"
|Show #380: A Big Box For Small Towns
Guests: Al Norman, author, "Slam-Dunking Wal-Mart;" and Bill Quinn, author, "How Wal-Mart Is Destroying America" (www.sprawl-busters.com)
Subject: If Wal-Mart is the great American success story, why do so many say that it is destroying small-town America?
|Show #379: The Don Quixote of Vitamins and Minerals
Guest: John Hammel, Founder, International Advocates for Health Freedom www.iahf.com / www.lef.org
Subject: If you take extra vitamins and minerals to ward off colds and flu, your healthy ways are in jeapordy. The U.N.'s Codex Alimentarius must harmonize the laws of Europe, which say supplements are drugs that must be purchased through doctors and pharmacies, and the laws of the U.S., which say supplements are foods that may be purchased at grocery stores. Guess which side is winning!
|Show #378: It's COOL, and it's Redhot!
Guest: Joaquin Contente, President, California Farmers Union; Shawna Thomas, Government Relations Liason, National Meat Association
Subject: Should we know from where our food comes, or should we be content with whatever is placed on the table before us? Consumers and farmers overwhelmingly say that we should have the right to know, but others say we should not!
|Show #377: Mad About Mad Cows
Guest: Mark Purdey-- Father, Farmer & Field Scientist
Subject: Mad cow disease has entered the U.S. food chain via a single "downer" dairy cow in Washington State. And so we travel to the epicenter of the disease, Great Britain, for a conversation with Mark Purdey, who says that, when it comes to mad cow disease, "the Emperor has no clothes!"
|Show #348: Crime and Nourishment
Guests: Professor Stephen Schoenthalerl
Subject: Doestoevsky observed that people with criminal minds project that others owe them something-- money, a job, or happiness. And if what is owed is not forthcoming, the criminal mind believes its okay to make amends. And so we ask, where do people get their criminal minds?
Topics include the relationship between nutrient deficiency and criminal intent; what impact, if any, supplementation with nutrients has on the criminal mind; and whether criminals should be forced to supplement with nutrients.