"What's Eating What Radio!"
It's a fact! 100% of the men, women and children in your radio marketplace eat food, and 97.5% must buy their food from others who bring it from an average of 2,000 miles away. And so the hungry ask:
"What's in this tomato? Who planted that broccoli? Is it safe to eat genetically engineered corn? Why are they irradiating meat? Are we running short of water? Why is China growing our apples? What will happen to us if we can no longer farm? How safe is our food chain?"
The Food Chain is an audience-interactive syndicated newstalk radio program airing live Saturdays from 9am to 10am Pacific time.
The Food Chain, which has been named the Ag/News Show of the Year by California's legislature, is hosted by Michael Olson, author of the Ben Franklin Book of the Year award-winning MetroFarm, a 576-page guide to metropolitan agriculture.
The Food Chain is available live via GCN Starguide GE 8 and delayed via MP3/FTP. For clearance and/or technical information, please call Michael Olson at 831-566-4209 or email michaelo@metrofarm.com
FOOD CHAIN RADIOSTATION AFFLIATE APPLICATION
|
Guest: Austin Frerick, Author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry
Across the landscape of American agriculture, one can see where there were many, there are now few. What we see leads us to ask:
Should successful food businesses be considered “robber barons.”
Topics include how the share-cropping of the antebellum South has been adopted by industrial agriculture; how share-cropping has been used to control production and market share; and whether successful businesses, like that of Driscoll’s berry company, should be considered “robber barons.”
Guest: Maisie Ganzler, Chief Strategy and Brand Manager of Bon Appetit Management Company and Author, "You Can't Market Manure at Lunchtime"
He who has a thing to sell, and goes and whispers in a well, is not so apt to get the dollars, as she who climbs a tree and hollers! And so we ask:
How does one win the minds and dollars of those who serve food?
Topics include a look at Masie Ganzler’s 30 years of marketing at Bon Appetit Management Company; how Masie helped sell institutions on serving good foods to eat; and Masie’s 5 tips for winning the mind and dollars of those who serve food.
Guest: Fred Provenza, Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. Author, Nourtishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom
The supply chain that feeds our food chain now extends across the country and around the world. Given what we see happening across our country, and around the world, we simply must ask:
Can we go back home again with food?
Topics include how our bodies carry an intrinsic knowledge of what we should eat; how our knowledge of what we should eat is subverted to make a sale; and how we might go back home again with real, natural food.
Guest: John Marzluff, Emeritus Professor of Forest Sciences, University of Washington.
Meadowlarks are the canary of the prairie. Where one hears their song, its safe to go out onto the prairie. But where the meadlark’s song is no longer heard, there is danger on the prairie. And so we ask:
Can people get enough to eat if canaries sing?
Topics include a hard count of the nation’s meadowlark populations; why industrial forms of agriculture appear to be making good Rachel Carson’s promise of a “Silent Spring;” and thoughts as to whether people can feed themselves enough food and still allow birds to sing.
Guest: Fred Provenza, Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. Author, Nourtishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom
Yellowstone Park in winter is a cruel place for the wildlife that can no longer endure its cold, snow and hunger. And yet what is cruel for some can be a blessing for the corvids of Yellowstone’s winter And so we ask:
Can anyone love the black birds of Yellowstone’s white winter?
Topics include speculation as to why people have always disagreed about the best way to eat; a discussion of the nutritional and environmental elements of the different ways of eating; and a common sense approach to putting the argument to rest.
Guest: Fred Provenza, professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. Author, Nourtishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom
Which is the most intelligent eater:
Carnivore, herbivore or omnivore?
Topics include why corvids such as crows and ravens are considered by some in the know to be the King of the forest; how corvids take control and rule over their environment; and which corvid might make the best pet.
Guest: Fred Provenza, professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. Author, Nourtishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom
Which is the most intelligent eater:
Carnivore, herbivore or omnivore?
Topics include why corvids such as crows and ravens are considered by some in the know to be the King of the forest; how corvids take control and rule over their environment; and which corvid might make the best pet.
Guest: Fred Provenza, professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. Author, Nourtishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom
Animals learn what to eat, and what not to eat, from their mothers… before they are born. It is a taste they pick up in utero, as the mother eats her way across the landscape. If such is the case, we wonder:
What are humans learning about what to eat from their mothers?
Topics include how animals teach their young the taste of place; the three elements of Nutritional Wisdom; and what America’s moms might be teaching their young about taste.
Guest: Zen Honeycutt, Founder & Executive Director of Moms Across America & Author of Unstoppable
Over 80 million Americans, including over one-third of the nation’s children and adolescents, eat fast food every day. And some eat it multiple times a day! This leads us to ask:
Can moms chase the dangerous chemicals out of children’s food?
Topics include the extent to which children are exposed to pesticides and heavy metals in school lunches and fast foods; the impact those substances have on the growth and development of children; and how Moms Across America are trying to chase the toxicity out of children’s food.
Guest: Dr. Michael Greger, Author, How Not To Age
We have been searching for that proverbial fountain of youth for as long as we have been capable of searching. Though we have searched in many places, and spent many fortunes doing so, we still grow old! This leads us to ask:
Can we eat to maintain and retain our youthfulness?
Topics include how science is often used to lead one’s diet astray; ways in which one’s diet can significantly slow the body’s aging; and the three best foods to eat for slowing the aging process.
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Beth Hoffman, Author of Bet the Farm, & John Hogeland, Farmer, Whipporwill Creek Farm
The dream is to leave the city, go to where the grass is green, farm the land, breathe fresh air and grow food people will pay good money for. This dream leads us to ask:
Can becoming a farmer make dollars and sense?
Topics include what one hopes to find on the farm that can’t be found in the city; the challenge of confronting conventional agriculture with sustainable agriculture; and whether the business of farming can be made to make dollars and sense.
Guests: Mike Keller, Michael A. Keller & Associates Consulting
They say, if we can get to the South Pole of the Moon, we can convert some of the frozen water we find there into rocket fuel that will take us on to the next best place. That leads us to ask:
Can hydrogen be farmed to fuel our future?
Topics include the prospects of turning water into rocket fuel; the difference between blue and green hydrogen; and how hydrogen might be used to clean the environment and fuel the economy.
Guests: Farmer of the Year Tom Broz, Life Earth Farm, Watsonville, CA
Community is where everybody works together today to ensure that everybody can eat tomorrow. This thought leads us to ask:
Can one succeed by farming community?
Topics include the recent history of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA); why children and nature are important elements in the development of a community; and how a successful farm, for community, may be built on a small parcel of land.
Guests: Jo Ann Baumgartner, Executive Director, Wild Farm Alliance and Sam Earnshaw, Executive Director, Hedgerows Unlimited
When an outbreak of Ecoli killed three and sickened 200 others a couple of decades ago, those in charge of food safety began discouraging the existence of wildlife on farms. This leads us to ask:
Should wildlife be allowed back on farms?
Topics include why some say wildlife should be allowed on the farm; ways in which populations of wildlife may be encouraged on the farm; and how consumers can help return wildlife to the farm.
Guest: Jessica Ridgeway, Executive Director, Farm Discovery at Live Earth
When people moved off the farm into the city, they took their children with them. What children find on the streets of the city does not appear to bode well for their future nor the future of the country. And so we ask:
How can we lead children back to the farm?
Topics include ways in which children from the can benefit with time on the farm; how the Farm Discovery at Live Earth has brought 53,000 children– give or take– back to the farm; and how Farm Discovery-like programs are spreading throughout the nation.
Guest: Dr. John Fagan, Founder, CEO & Chief Scientist, Health Research Institute
There are many ways in which industrialization has served to make food cheap. One way is to subvert the growth of natural competitors, like weeds, with weed-killing herbicides, like glyphosate. This leads us to ask:
What happens to the weed-killer after it has been used to made food cheap?
Topics include a “Seeing is Believing” experiment demonstrating how the ubiquitous weed-killer glyphosate enters and exits the human body; how the flow of ag chemicals in the human body may be seen and measured; and how the chemicals that are used to make food cheap may be avoided by those who eat food.
Guests: Ken Kimes & Sandra Ward, Farmer / Owners, New Natives Microgreens
It is really simple: Sow some uncontaminated seeds in organic soil. Add clean water, fresh air and sunshine. Then enjoy eating the maximum nutrition available in the microgreens of the sprouted seeds. But this leads us to ask:
If it really is that simple, why doesn't everyone eat microgreens?
Topics include the nutritional value of freshly sprouted seeds; how sprouts and micro greens are farmed for local grocers and markets; and a question as to why does not everybody eat microgreens?
Guest: Jack and Sarah Kimmich, Farmer / Owners, California Kurobuta
If one is curious about what one is becoming, one then should be curious about what the food one eats, eats as well. That leads us to ask:
How can we can we know what our food ate?
Topics include whether there is a need for government to stand between a farmer and his or her customers; why animals fed on pasture produce nutritionally superior meat than animals fed with industrial foods in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs); and ways for consumers to regain control of their food.
Guest: Judith McGeary, Executive Director, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
The label on the package says, “Product of USA.” But the rules say what is in the package could have come from China, Brazil or anywhere. This leads us to ask:
How can we regain control of our food?
Topics include how four companies have come to control 80% of the nation's beef; why beef from different cows, from foreign countries, can be combined into one package labeled "Product of the USA;" and how some Texans are fighting to regain control of their local meat.
Guest: Cynthia Sandberg, Love Apple Farm's Farmer, Teacher and Entreprenuer
It’s been a very soggy, drought-breaking winter out here on the California Coast. But Spring finally did arrive, and with it my need to a perfect tomato plant in the garden. But that leads me to ask:
What is a perfect tomato?
Topics include why some tomatoes are created more equal the others; why its important to plant the very best tomatoes; and how to select tomatoes for perfection.
Guest: Crista Jones, Owner, Dave's Gourmet Seafood
The family stash of survival foods includes tiny tins of canned fish that could be stored away for a long time, if the wild food they contain did not taste so good. That leads us to ask:
How does 3 ounces of fish satisfy a lunchtime hunger?
Topics include an introduction to the tuna and salmon fisheries of the Pacific; the differences between the big processors, like StarKist, and small processors, like Dave’s Gourmet Seafood; and ways in which small producers can survive and prosper in the business of canned fish.
Guest: World Ag Expo, Tulare, California
Given the extent to which we take food for granted, and how far we have removed ourselves from the source of food, and how much we pay for cheap food, we think it wise to pause and ask those at the source: …
How do you grow our food?
Topics include a walk through the World Ag Expo to meet a cross-section of the people who are responsible for filling up the nation's grocery stores with food.
Guest: World Ag Expo, Tulare, California
As if by some kind of magic, our grocery stores get filled with food in the middle of the night! It happens every night, and every morning there is food to eat! That food is always there we take for granted¬– even the fresh tomatoes we eat in the middle of winter! It’s time to meet those magicians of food, and ask:…
How do you make our food appear?
Topics include a walk through the World Ag Expo to meet a cross-section of the people who are responsible for filling up the nation's grocery stores with food.
Guest: World Ag Expo, Tulare, California
We all get our food from grocery stores, and we all take that food for granted– even those fresh tomatoes we eat in the middle of winter! It’s time to meet the people who provide us with the food we take for granted, and ask:…
How do you provide us with all our food?
Topics include a walk through the World Ag Expo to meet a cross-section of the people who are responsible for filling up the nation's grocery stores with food.
Show #1337: A Serendipitous Stroll Through Agriculture, Part I
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: World Ag Expo, Tulare, California
We all get our food from grocery stores, and we all take that food for granted– even those fresh tomatoes we eat in the middle of winter! It’s time to meet the people who provide us with the food we take for granted, and ask:…
How do you provide us with all our food?
Topics include a walk through the World Ag Expo to meet a cross-section of the people who are responsible for filling up the nation's grocery stores with food.
Saturday, April 15, Show # 1337: A Serendipitous Stroll Through Agriculture, Part I
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: World Ag Expo, Tulare, California
We all get our food from grocery stores, and we all take that food for granted– even those fresh tomatoes we eat in the middle of winter! It’s time to meet the people who provide us with the food we take for granted, and ask:…
How do you provide us with all our food?
Topics include a walk through the World Ag Expo to meet a cross-section of the people who are responsible for filling up the nation's grocery stores with food.
Show # 1336: End of Salmon
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: John McManus, Senior Policy Director, Golden State Salmon Association
The King is dead! Long live the King! The 2023 King salmon season has been cancelled for California and much of Oregon. There will be no commercial or recreational fishing for the King this year. Why? Because there are not enough salmon left to have a salmon season!…
Can enough salmon be saved to have a salmon season in the future?
Topics include a look at what happened to the Atlantic salmon fishery; why the Pacific salmon fishery has been cancelled; and what might be done to save the Pacific salmon?
Show #1333: Weather – Nature or Nurture?
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Dane Wigington, Lead Researcher at Geo Engineering Watch
It’s becoming very difficult to see that our glass is half-full, when so many of our reservoirs are nearly empty. And so we ask:
Is weird weather a consequence of nature or nurture?
Topics include a history of climate engineering, the ways in which climate can be engineered, and speculation as to what purposes our weather may be being engineered.
Show #1332: Hidden in School Lunches!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Zen Honneycutt, Founder & Executive Director of Moms Across America and Author of Unstoppable,
Thirty million meals made with geneticallly modified crops are served to our nation’s school children every school day. What is hidden in those lunches leads us to ask:
Are school lunches ruining our nation’s future?
Topics include how Moms Across America tested 43 different food items from the school lunches of 18 different cities, in 15 different states, for 220 toxic contaminants; what Moms found hidden in those school lunches; and speculation as to whether school lunches are ruining the nation’s future.
Show #1331: Food Fights!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Christine McDaniel, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center at George Mason University & Fellow, Clayton Yeutter Institute of International Trad at University of Nebraska
Mexico is moving to ban U.S. biotech corn for human consumption, which would reduce the economic output of the U.S. by $74 billion, give or take. This economic food fight leads us to ask:
Can the world be made to accept the free trade of food?
Topics include why trade conflicts tend to be more dangerous for U.S. agriculture than for other nations; how the World Trade Organization can, and can’t, mediate trade disputes; and speculation as to whether the nations of the world can be made to accept the free trade of food.
Show #1330: War, Fertilizer & Food
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Dr. Omanjana Goswami, Interdisciplinary Scientist, Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
We are presently at war with the countries that fuel our food chain with fertilizer. This war leads us to ask:
Will there be enough fertilizer to feed our future?
Topics include how industrial agriculture has come to rely on synthetically-derived fertilizers; how those fertilizers are made and who makes them; and what impact the war in the Ukraine might have on the future price of food.
Show #1329: Card Check – End of the Secret Ballot?
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Norm Groot, Executive Director, Monterey County Farm Bureau
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law Assembly Bill 2183, which gives California’s farmworkers the right to organize a union with a simple check on a card. This leads us to ask:
Will Card Check put an end to the secret ballot?
Topics include a brief history of farm labor in California agriculture; why Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Worker Union faded out of the public’s attention; and how the “Card Check” labor law may be used to force farmers to accept union labor.
Show #1328: Our Fermented History
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Dr. Julia Skinner, Author, Our Fermented Lives
After learning how to cultivate grain some 10,000 years ago, we learned how to bake it and brew it. Thus began our history as a fermenting people. This history leads us to ask:
How did fermentation help we-the-people survive and prosper?
Topics include a look back 15,000 years to the fermenting of honey into mead wine; the many ways throughout history in which the fermenting of foods boosted the survivability of people; and how to ferment cabbage into sauerkraut.
Show #1327: Making the Inflammable Uninfllammable
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Shawn Sahbari, CEO, Komodo Fire Prevention Systems & Jack Kimmich, Fire Fighter and Prevention, Komodo Fire Prevention
Given years of neglect, a prolonged drought, and devilish winds, the forests of the American West, and all that are in them, are poised to explode in flame. This leads us to ask:
Can what is inflammable be made uninflammable?
Topics include how what is inflammable, including homes and grounds, may be made uninflammable with materials technology; how this materials technology works to deny fire its fuel; and the extent to which this technology might be used to change the business of fighting fires into that of preventing fires.
Show #1326 The Great Hemp Loophole
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Joana Cedar, Hemp Policy Expert, Terpentine Belt Farms & Director, Sonoma County Growers Alliance
When cannabis became (sort of) legalized, government piled on the rules, regulations and taxes that now afford it total control. But there is one loophole that some are driving that Mack truck through. And so we ask:
Can government gain total control of cannabis?
Topics include how legalization is impacting the cannabis industry; and how leglistation has created a great hemp loophole for intoxicating cannabis; and whether government will ever be able to gain total control of cannabis.
Show #1325 Doritos, Cravings & Big Money
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Mark Shatzker, author of The Dorito Effect and The End of Craving
As food technology improves, food becomes something very cheap that is actually very expensive. And we crave it! This leads us to ask:
Can it be that we are becoming the food for our food?
Topics include how food processing technologies are used to create cheap foods that are very expensive; how we are made to crave cheap foods: and how the cheap foods we eat lead to their vast fortunes.
Show #1324 Grass Fed Milk
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Blake and Stephanie Alexandre, Alexandre Family Farms, Crescent City, CA
Some turn up their noses at the industrial ways in which we produce most of our dairy products and say, “The cow is killing the earth.” This leads us to ask:
Can the cow save the earth?
Topics include why some say the industrial cow is killing the earth; how the non-industrial cow is raised on good grass and good genes; and why some say the cow can save the earth.
Show #1323 Feeding Our Microbiome
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: University of South Carolina Professor of Biology Andy Dyer, author of Eaters Digest
When we eat, we are not just feeding the me, we are also feeding the 100 trillion microorganisms that live with the me. That leads us to ask:
Does our microbiome get to vote on us?
Topics include a brief tour of the body’s microbiome; what the microorganisms of our microbiome eat to survive and thrive; and what we should all be feeding our microbiomes.
Show #1322 Breeding A Better Bee
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Caroline Yelle, Owner & Queen Bee, Pope Valley Queens
I happened to be watching a honey bee working over a lemon tree blossom on the 19th of July, when I realized that it was my first honey bee sighting of the year. That sighting leads me to ask:
Can we breed a bee to survive the depredations of humans?
Topics include the significance of honey bees in the food chain of humans; why populations of honey bees are threatened, and how queen bees are bred to make populations of honey bees more resistant to the stresses of threatened environments.
Saturday, January 14, Show #1321 Corralling Food Supplements
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Gretchen DuBeau, Executive and Legal Director, Alliance for Natural Health
Hippocrates is said to have said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” But the efforts by some to register food as medicine leads us to ask…
Do they not want our food to be our medicine?
Topics include how DSHEA legislation allowed for the development of the food supplement industry; why Senator Dick Durbin, billionaire Bill Gates, and the pharmaceutical industry want to corral the food supplement industry with legislation and regulation; and what value food supplements might have should the industry get corralled.
Show #1320 Failure of Factory Formula
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Sally Fallon Morell, Founding President, Weston A. Price Foundation
Four companies control 95% of the infant formula sold in the United States. When one of their factories was forced to close, mothers panicked and horded. This leads us to ask…
Is factory formula the best way to feed baby?
Topics include an overview of the baby formula industry; the consequences of one baby formula factory being forced to close by a bacterial contamination; and how baby might be better fed with formula made by mom and dad.
Show #1319 The Fight to Label Glyphosate
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Amy van Saun, Senior Attorney, Center for Food Safety
Despite losing two recent mega-million dollar decisions, the chemical giant Bayer AG vows to fight on for its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup. This fight leads us to ask:
Which should govern the labeling of glyphosate: federal government or state governments?
Topics include an overview of the legal fight to label glyphosate weedkillers; the results of mega-million dollar lawsuits and recent decisions from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and SCOTUS, and how, despite its numerous legal losses, Bayer AG vows to continue fighting on for its glyphosate weedkillers.
Show #1318 Food Angels
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Linda Lampe, Executive Director , Hollister Community Outreach and My Father's House
President Joe Biden recently announced that a food shortage is in the near future for the United States, and that it is “gonna be real.” So we ask:
Who will serve the hungry during the “it’s gonna be real” food shortage?
Topics include how many people live with hunger in one of the wealthiest metropolitan regions in the world; how to identify and serve those in hunger; and why Food Angels actually serve the hungry.
Show #1317 The Fight for Water: The Farmers
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Mike Wade, Executive Director, California Farm Water Coalition
Those who grow our food are fond of saying, “Food grows where water flows.” That they keep saying this leads us to ask:
What will happen to farmers if politicians buy up their rights to water?
Topics include who owns the rights to California’s water; how that water becomes the subject of heated contention during drought; and why politicians are considering a plan to buy up the farmers’ rights to water.
Show #1316 The Pandemic Burnout Reset
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Dr. Greg Hammer, Stanford Professor of Medicine, Author, GAIN Without Pain
After weathering nearly three years of the Covid-19 shutdown, it is time for a burnout reset. And so we ask:
How can we reset our body’s vitality?
Topics include the emotional and physical impact the pandemic shutdown has had on just about everyone; how the deliberate management of eating, exercising and sleeping can help reset the body’s vitality; and how resetting the body’s vitality could enable the United States to become a nation of happy, healthy citizens.
Show #1315 The Elites' Guilt-Free Meat
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Amanda Starbuck, Research Director, Food and Water Watch,
Franz Kafka, author of The Trial, once said, “My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.” Kafka’s guiding principle leads us to ask:
Will we be made to eat the elites’ guilt-free meat?
Topics include how factory-farmed animal meat is used to amplify human guilt; how that guilt is used to sell guilt-free animal-less meat; and whether guilt-free animal-less meat might be used to entrench the elites’ factory farming.
Show #1314 The Blue Revolution
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Nicholas Sullivan, Senior Researcher, Tufts University, Author of The Blue Revolution
Fishermen used to rely on good luck to haul in the big catch. But when they began relying on information, instead of luck, they almost caught all the fish in the sea. That leads us to ask:
Can we catch fish so there will be fish left to be caught?
Topics include how the world’s most productive fisheries were fished out; what some nations are doing to create sustainable fisheries; and how the farming of fish is replacing the fishing of fish.
Show #1313 The Foundation for a Future
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Neal Kinsey, Author, Hands on Agronomy
This just in: The Union Pacific Railway is cutting back its shipments of fertilizer to the nation’s farmers. In other words, the Union Pacific is cutting back its shipment of food to feed you and me. That leads us to ask:
Can our farmers grow enough food to feed our future?
Topics include how soil is the foundation upon which we build all culture; why agriculture is facing so many threats; and whether farmers will be able to grow enough food to feed our future.
Show #1312 Survival Food: Buy or Build?
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Brooke Whipple, Host of the Girl in theWoods YouTube
President Joe Biden has warned that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine will cause food shortages. If such is the case, we must pause to ask:
Should we buy an emergency food supply or build our own?
Topics include the nutrient essential to store; how to buy survival food in buckets; how to build a supply of survival food; and whether buying or building is best.
Show #1311 Chickens and Their Eggs!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Lisa Steele, Chief Chicken Influencer, Fresh Eggs Daily
Wherever we go, chickens go, too! The reason chickens go where we go is that they are one of our best sources of good food. In fact, chickens can take almost nothing and turn it into nature’s perfect food, its egg. And that leads us to ask:
Which should come first, the chicken or its egg?
Topics include why chickens go where people go; how to grow chickens in or near the city; and ways to cook so that one can enjoy eating fresh eggs daily.
Show #1310 Farming The Parking Lots?
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Jeff Herman, Editor in Chief, Lawn Starter
Over the past century most all of us moved into the city, where we rely on others to bring us food to eat. But what if the day comes when others stop bringing us food? That thought leads us to ask:
Can we farm the city's parking lots?
Topics include the prospect of cities needing to become a source of food instead of simply a destination for food; which cities are best suited for farming and gardening; and how one might evaluate a city's prospects to supports farms and gardens.
Show #1309 Seeding Civilization
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Janisse Ray, Author, The Seed Underground and Wild Spectacle
We are all flower children. In fact, it was our relationship with flowering plants, and their seeds, that allowed us to settle down and become civilized. However, those seeds and our future with flowering plants are disappearing. And so we ask:
Can we hold on to the seeds for a future?
Topics include how flowering plants enabled people to become civilized; why civilization is eliminating most of the flowering plants upon which it depends; and whether civilization can save seeds for its future.
Show #1308 Birds That Prey!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Zeka Glucs, Ph.D., Director, Predatory Bird Research Group, University of California, Santa Cruz
Napolean the Pig was said to have said, “All animals are created equal, but some are created more equal than others.” If such is indeed the case, we ask:
Should we foster the existence of birds that prey?
Topics include a look at the predatory birds that constitute the genus Accipitres, how populations of these birds have been adopted by people, and what might be done to foster populations of raptors in human-dominated communities.
Show #1307 Our Plastic Tsunami!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Stiv Wilson, Co-Founder, Peak Plastic Foundation & Producer, The Story of Plastic
14 percent of the plastic we use is recycled. That means 86 percent of the plastic we use is not recycled. The thought of all that plastic piling up in a giant tsunami leads us to ask: Can’t we eat without all the plastic?
Topics include a brief history of how plastic became a ubiquitous element in the food chain; why the plastic trash will continue to collect until it subsumes; and what, if anything, might be done to hold back our tsunami of plastic trash.
Show #1306 Home Restaurant Freedom!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Roya Bagheri, Executive Director, COOK Alliance
As demonstrated by Stalin’s holodomor, and Mao’s great Leap Forward, the most effective way to control people is to control their food. And so we ask:
Should we take the necessary steps to open a restaurant in our kitchen?
Topics include a brief history of the food freedom movement; who and what stands in opposition to food freedom; and how people are winning the freedom to open a commercial restaurant in their home kitchen.
Show #1305 Plants Are People, Too!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Alessia Resta, Author, Plants Are My Favorite People and Host of Instagram’s “Apartment Botanits"
They are just about everywhere, except in places like the Saraha Desert, and there are so many of them. Therefore, they can’t really be special! But according to some, they are, and so we ask…
Can a plant be one’s special someone?
Topics include whether plants are, or are not, sufficiently sentient to be considered a friend; how plants make our lives more human; and how one can turn a tiny New York City apartment into a happy jungle of plant friends.
Show #1304 Eating up America's Farmland!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Congressman Dan Newhouse, State of Washington
China is buying up America’s farmland… with the money we send it to manufacture stuff for us in their coal-burning factories. Some say this a good deal because we don’t have to work in those factories. Others say it’s a bad deal because we are selling out our future. And so we ask:
Should China be allowed to buy up America’s best farmland?
Topics include why China is having trouble feeding its people; how China is buying up America's farmland; and whether Congressman Dan Newhouse and fellow legislators can stop China from buying up America's farmland.
Show #1303 Legal, Local Liquor!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: David Blume, Author, Alcohol Can Be A Gas / Farmer, Whiskey Hill Farm
California Senate Bill 620 would, if signed into law, make it legal for the state’s residents to buy liquor directly from a local distiller. The thought of legal local liquor leads us to ask:
Should one be allowed to buy liquor from a local distiller, or should one be forced to buy liquor from the state and its liquor oligarchs?
Topics include how the mind and body communicate; why what one eats may not be as important as with whom one eats; and the three essentials of longevity.
Show #1302 A Murder of Crows in Sunnyvale
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Glen Simpson, Executive Director, Golden Gate Audubon
There is a murder in the trees of Sunnyvale, CA. Yes, a murder of crows has invaded this little Silicon Valley town, and that murder has the town’s people asking:
Once a murder of crows moves in, can it be moved out?
Topics include the remarkable intelligence of crows; why they tend to frighten the residents of cities that they invade during winter months; and ways in which the crows might be managed.
#1301 Lawyer for 240,000 Farmers
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Attorney Sarah Vogel, Author, The Farmer's Lawyer
Farming commodities is a business of boom and bust. During the boom, farmers borrow big to expand production. During the bust, farmers give it all back to the banks. This leads us to ask:
Can the booms and busts of farming be eliminated?
Topics include how the collapsing economies of the 1930s and 1940s led to the foreclosure of many of America's farms; ways in which government tried to ameliorate the loss of farms, and how Attorney Sarah Vogel sued the federal government on behalf of 240,000 American farmers and saved many their farms.
#1300 Malabar Farm
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Annaliese Abbott, Author of Malabar Farm and the Rise of Sustainable Agriculture
When great clouds of dust woke America to the need to save its soil, much of the awakening took place on an Ohio farm named after the southwest coast of India. Therein lies a story that leads us to ask:
How did America save its soil?
Topics include how speculation, drought and depression led a world famous author of fiction to build Malabar Farm in Ohio; how Malabar grew to become the focal point for the nation’s effort to preserve its soil; and how Malabar’s society of soil conversation gave birth to what today is called “sustainable agriculture.”
# 1299: The Quiet Pandemic of Pesticide Devastation
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Judy Hoy, Author, Changing Faces
While the Covid-19 pandemic has been driving the world to distraction, a quiet pandemic has been building steam that could prove to be far more threatening to life on earth. And so we ask:
Is what is deforming wildlife deforming people?
Topics include how new pesticides introduced in the 1990’s are causing mutations in insect, bird and animal populations across the country; why people are reluctant to see the mutations Judy Hoy and others see; and whether people will be able to avoid the pesticides that cause mutations.
Show #1298 Wolves V Cattle
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Marc Cooke, President, Wolves of the Rockies
This just in. The Billings Gazette reports that the State of Montana will not have enough money to cover all the claims of livestock killed by predators. And so we ask:
Who should pay for the animals that have been eaten by animals?
Topics include the current state of wolf populations; how wolf populations are managed by the policies and programs of the federal and state governments; and whether taxpayers should or should not be made to pay for wolf depredations.
Show #1297 Pet Nation!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Mark Cushing, CEO of Animal Policy Group and author of Pet Nation
Twenty years ago, Duke the Dog lived out in the backyard. Now he lives in the house and sleeps in a bed. And so we ask:
How did the United States become a Pet Nation?
Topics include a look at how animals became pets that fly on planes with us; how the transformation from working animals to pets was made; and how pets are now transforming the nation’s economy.
#1296 Defending Beef, Again!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Nicolette Hahn Niman, Author, Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritiona Case for Beef
We have been told that cows cause the climate to change by emitting greenhouse gas. Now we are told to replace the beef we eat with patented, manufactured meat-like substances. And so we ask:
Should beef be banned?
Topics include a look at why some believe the cattle industry should be terminated to save the environment; why others believe we must work with cattle to save the environment; and a consideration of the nutritional value of eating beef.
Show #1295 The Albrecht Hypothesis: Soil & Health
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Annaliese Abbott, Author Malabar Farm & The Rise of Sustainable Agriculture
Common sense tells us that if soil is deficient in essential nutrients, the crops grown in that soil will also be deficient, as will the people and animals that eat those crops. And so we ask:
Is there a common-sense connection between soil fertility and human health?
Topics include why Albrecht believed there was a connection between soil fertility and human health; how he set about about to prove his theory; and how his experiments encouraged others to track down the truth.
Show #1244 The Weed of Fast Food
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Professor Catherine Keske, Ag Economist, University of California, Merced & Author, “Fast Food is Comforting, But…,”
It does not take long for weeds to take over one’s garden. The same can be said for how quickly fast food can displace good food in one’s diet. And so we ask:
How does fast food displace good food?
Topics include the extent to which poor communities, like college students, rely on fast foods; how fast foods displace good foods; and what might be done to bring good foods back into the community’s diet.
Show #1294A: India Joze: Fusion Foodie!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Chef & Restaurateur India Jozseph Schultz
His India Joze restaurant was the West Coast capital of fusion food-ism. The taste that lingers of that fusion leads one to ask Jozseph Schultz:
How can one cook East in the West so the hungry return for more?
Topics include how India Joze served an ever-changing menu of the world’s spicy foods in a commercial restaurant; how that restaurant become a cultural hotspot; and how a restaurant that fuses so many culinary traditions with so many cultural traditions can survive as a business.
Show #1293: Tending California's Golden Agriculture
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Karen Ross, California Secretary of Agriculture
They call it the “Golden State,” and $50 billion dollars of that gold is grown by the state’s farmers every year. That so much is at stake in the nation’s golden state leads us to ask:
How can California farmers keep growing their gold?
Topics include a look at some of the issues that challenge California’s farms and ranches; how California’s government is responding to those challenges; and what people can do to help farmers and ranchers grow the gold.
Show #1292: Green Acres, Redux!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Beth Hoffman, Author of Bet the Farm, & John Hogeland, Farmer, Whipporwill Creek Farm
The dream is to leave the city, go to where the grass is green, farm the land, breathe fresh air and grow food people will pay good money for. This dream leads us to ask:
Can becoming a farmer make dollars and sense?
Topics include what one hopes to find on the farm that can’t be found in the city; the challenge of confronting conventional agriculture with sustainable agriculture; and whether the business of farming can be made to make dollars and sense.
Show #1291: Fentanyl Revenge for the Opium
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, Professor of Family Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Over the past eight months, the Drug Enforcement Agency has confiscated 17 pounds of fentanyl in Northern California. If two miligrams is a lethal dose, those 17 pounds are sufficient to kill 37 million people. This leads us to ask:
Who wants to see us dead?
Topics include why fentanyl supplanted other opiods to become the king of narcotics; why fentanyl kills so indiscriminately; and who is behind pushing fentanyl onto America.
Show #1290: Farming with the Ancients
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: M.D. Usher, University of Vermont Professor of Classical Languages and Literature & Author of How to Be A Farmer:
An Ancient Guide to Life on the LandThe more things change, the more they stay the same. If you do not believe this cute little aphorism, you should dig into the ancient commentary of the classics, where you will find thinkers that lead you to ask:
How does one become a farmer?
Topics include what makes the classic writings of antiquity classic; why one should look back to their wisdom for a look at today; and a taste of the writings of the greats, including Hesiod, Luretius, Varro, Horace, Pliny, Columella, Rufus and Socrates.
Show #1289: Rethinking How to Feed the City
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Rob Bennaton, University of California Cooperative Extension Urban Ag Advisor
North America’s largest wholesale food distributor, Sysco Foods, recently had to stop delivering food to some of its customers because it did not have enough workers. That this giant of food could not deliver leads us to ask:
Should the city relearn how to feed itself?
Topics include the intrinsic vulnerability of the city’s reliance on a very few, very big food companies; how cities are becoming more acceptant of urban or metropolitan farming; and ways to connect farmers with the city’s unused land.
Show #1288: Covid's Money V. Ivormectin's Save
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Retired MD Michael Arnold, Author, How to Save Your Loved Ones From Covid
In 2015 a Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of the drug ivormocton.* In 2021, big government, big pharma, and big media are doing everything in their power to prohibit ivormoctin.* This leads us to ask:
Will we be allowed to save our loved ones from Covid?
Topics include why the drug ivormocton* is being persecuted and prohibited; how to protect against contracting Covid; and what to do in order to survive the Covid affliction.
Show #1287: Freeing Farmers From Servitude
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Corwin Heatwol, Founder & CEO Farmer Focus
Thomas Jefferson believed that a self-governing nation could be built on the foundation of small, self-sufficient farms. And it was! But then many of the nation’s farmers signed up to serve others. And that leads us to ask:
Can farmers be freed from their servitude?
Topics how much of production agriculture has been consolidated into the hands of a very few companies; why farmers signed up to serve those companies; and whether farmers might be freed from their servitude.
Show #1286: Rebugging the Farm?
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Viki Hird, CEO Alliance for Better Food and Farm & Author, Rebugging the Planet
We are doing a very good job of getting rid of the bugs that bug us. But if we do get rid of them all, we will be left with no flowers, no trees and no crops. And so we ask…
Should we rebug agriculture?
Topics include why people need bugs to survive; the extent to which people have decimated bug species; and ways in which people might re-bug their agriculture.
Show #1285: Banking on Farms and Food
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guests: Lee Ann Pearce, Senior Vice President and Manager, Food and Agribusiness Industry Advisors Group, Wells Fargo Bank, & Karol Aure-Flynn, Vice President, Food & Agribusiness Industry Sector Analyst, Wells Fargo Bank
It takes time, money and know-how to grow a crop. When most everyone moved off the farm into town, farmers supplanted expensive time with less expensive money. This leads us to ask:
Where is the money for our food?
Topics include how the Covid-19 pandemic changed the business of agriculture; how the business of financing agriculture works; and what bankers see in the future for farms and food.
Show #1284: China Stole the Farm
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Chris Bennet, Editor, Farm Journal & Author, "While America Slept, China Stole the Farm"
OreWhat was hoped would be a big win for America’s agriculture is turning out to be one of American agriculture’s greatest losses. This leads us to ask:
Did China steal America’s farm, or did America give China its farm?
Topics include why China engages with American agriculture; how China systematically mines America of all of its technologies; and how China hopes to use these technologies to become the world’s preeminent superpower.
Show #1283 Canceling The Animals
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Mary Anne Cooper / Vice President of Public Policy, Oregon Farm Bureau
Oregonians have launched an initiative to remove all animal abuse exemptions from farming, ranching and hunting. And so we ask:
Should farming, ranching and hunting be canceled to prevent animal abuse?
Topics how Oregon's Proposition 13 will remove animal abuse exemptions from farming, wildlife management and pest control; why these may make it impossible to grow animals in Oregon; and whether the effort to protect animals may eliminate animals.
Show #1282 The Tyranny of Oligarch Food
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Tereza Corragio, Author, How to Dismantle an Empire
America’s big money oligarchs are buying up the world’s farmland and its fake-food companies. Guessing at what their intentions might be leads us to ask:
Can we escape the tyranny of oligarch food?
Topics include how communities lose their food and financial sovereignty to the empire of debt; how the empire of debt might be dismantled with community banking; and how to begin the dismantling.
Show #1281 The Rush for Farmland
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Holly Rippon Butler, Land Campaign Director for the National Young Farmers Coalition
The rush is on for land– farmland. And those making the rush for farmland have pockets filled with cash– lots of cash. This land rush leads us to ask:
Who will be left on the land to tend the land?
Topics include why farmland has become such an attractive financial investment; how a very few people have come to own so much of the nation’s farmland; and what might be done to provide farmland to young farmers.
Show #1280 Covid-19's Military Industrial Complex Part II
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director, Organic Consumers Association & Author, “Gain of Function Hall of Shame”
To understand the who, what, where, why and when of Covid 19, follow the money
Did the University of California fund the development of Covid 19?
Topics include the four origin theories of Covid-19; why the coronavirus attracts so many big money speculators; and a peak into the Covid-19’s militry industrial complex.
Show #1279 Covid-19's Military Industrial Complex Part I
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director, Organic Consumers Association & Author, “Gain of Function Hall of Shame”
Some say Covid 19 was an act of nature; others say it was an accident; and still others say it was an act of war. And so we pile on to ask:
Did the University of California fund the development of Covid 19?
Topics include the four origin theories of Covid-19; why the coronavirus attracts so many big money speculators; and a peak into the Covid-19’s militry industrial complex.
Show #1278 Monsanto's Science: Real or Fake?
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Investigative Journalist Carey Gillam, Author, Whitewash & The Monsanto Papers
Every year the United States is drenched with an estimated 300 million pounds of the weed killer glyphosate. Those who manufacture glyphosate have science that proves it is safe for people and animals. That leads us to ask:
Was Monsanto’s science real or fake?
Topics include how a jury found Monsanto’s science to be “malice, oppression and fraud;” how that science was used to sell acceptance of a weed-killer said to be a “probable cause of human cancer;” and how to know whether science is real or fake.
Show #1277 A Million Dollar Burger?
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Dr. Jacob Manlove, Assistant Professor of Ag Economics, Arkansas State University
They tripled the minimum wage to 7 million a month, but all those millions are not enough to buy two pounds of meat! That leads us to ask:
Can what happened to the price of food in Venezuela happen in the US?
Topics include how Venezuela made food expensive and money cheap; how the U.S. appears to be making food expensive and money cheap; and speculation as to whether what happened to the price of food in Venezuela can happen in the United States.
Show #1276 High on Hemp Homes!
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Mike Keller, Managing Partner of New Progress Farm
The prohibition of cannabis has forced us to focus on the plant’s intoxicating properties. Now that prohibition appears to be fizzing out, we pause to ask:
Is there something else in cannabis with which we might get high?
Topics include the many possible industrial uses of the cannabis plant; how the 2018 Farm Bill and the trading of carbon credits may make it possible to realize many of those industrial uses; and what must be done to farm hemp into homes.
Show #1275: Cashing-In On Carbon Credits
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Ben Lilliston, Director of Rural and Climate Strategies, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy,
They say we have put so much carbon into the atmosphere it’s causing earth’s climate to change. We must do something, or else! And so we ask:
Can we capture the carbon we emit and sequester it in farmland?
Topics include whether the U.S. is the true owner of China’s air pollution; how agriculture is used to greenwash U.S. air polluters; and whether carbon can be efficiently sequestered in U.S. farmland.
Show #1274 Got Milk, Or Something Else
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Guest: Alan Bjerga, Senior Vice President of Communications, National Milk Producers Federation
They call the secretions of various plants milk, and thereby steal one of the most valuable words in our vocabulary. This trend to pretend foods leads us to ask:
Is there any milk in soy milk?
Topics include how, contrary to the Food and Drug Administration rules, manufacturers of plant extracts have taken the name milk; how manufacturers of dairy milk are trying to win their name back; and whether is any real milk in soy milk.
Show #1273 Eating Out of Mental Dystopia
Guest: Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, Co-Author, The Better Brain
The Golden State of California appears to be losing its collective mind. You can see evidence of that loss on the streets of San Francisco, and that leads us to ask:
Can we eat our way out of mental dystopia?
Topics include how San Francisco uses bureacracy to care for people who can’t care for themselves; how the bureacracy’s efforts always seem to exacerbate the problem; and whether nutrition might prove to be the real solution to society’s mental dystopia.
Show #1272 No! to Certifying Organic Hydroponic Food
Guest: Sylvia Wu, Attorney, Center for Food Safety
The word “organic” is worth upwards of $50 billion a year. Some believe the word should be the exclusive property of those who farm in fertile soil. Others believe those who farm without soil should also own the word. And so we ask:
Should organic food come from fertile soil?
Topics include how the Organic Food Production Act of 1990 required organic farmers to grow food with fertile soil; how the USDA subverted the fertile soil requirement to allow for certification of foods grown without soil; and what this rule change might mean for the $50 billion market for foods labeled “organic.”
Show #1271 Yes! to Certifying Organic Hydroponic Food
Guest: Lee Frankel, Executive Director, Coalition for Sustainable Organics
The word “organic” is worth upwards of $50 billion a year. Some believe the word should be the exclusive property of those who farm in fertile soil. Others believe those who farm without soil should also own the word. And so we ask:
Should organic food come from fertile soil?
Topics include how the Organic Food Production Act of 1990 required organic farmers to grow food with fertile soil; how the USDA subverted the fertile soil requirement to allow for certification of foods grown without soil; and what this rule change might mean for the $50 billion market for foods labeled “organic.”
Show #1270 Block Chaining the Oligarchs of Beef
Guest: Wyoming Rancher Drew Persson, CEO of Beef Chain
We have no legal right to know the source of our Big Mac and Whopper hamburgers. They could have come from Uzbekistan or maybe Tierra Del Fuego! And so we ask:
How can we regain control over the source of our food?
Topics include how the market for meat has come to be controlled by four large companies; how the food freedom laws enacted by the State of Wyoming threaten their control of food; and how block chain information technologies provide farmers and rancher with incentive to grow better food, and consumers with incentive to spend more money on food.
Show #1269 Eating in the State of Jefferson
Guest: Abbey Smith, Mother, Rancher, Grazer and ACRES USA Writer
There is a place in the United States that is still governed by the principal of individual responsibility. And so we ask:
Does your state still have a State of Jefferson?
Topics include the location and the reason for a State of Jefferson; how four families entered into a pact to eat local food for one year; and what lessons they learned from their year of eating locally.
Show #1268 Fighting for Food Freedom
Guest: Montana State Senator Greg Hertz, Author, Montana Local Food Choice Act
Some say there is no need for government to stand between neighbors who want to buy and sell each other’s food. And so we ask:
Does local food need government supervision?
Topics include why a grocer- politician would introduce legislation to allow neighbors to buy and sell food to each other; which interest groups stand in opposition to that food freedom; and how food freedom might survive the opposition and spread across America.
Show #1266: Hooked on the Wrong Food
Guests: Michael Moss, Author, Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit our Addictions
Remember that New Year’s resolution? Yes, the one about losing weight. Well, may as well forget about it because we’re hooked on the wrong food! And that leads us to ask:
How did they get us hooked on the wrong food?
Topics include how salt, sugar and fat are processed into calorie-dense packaged foods; how those foods exploit our inherant cravings; and how one might get unhooked.
Show #1265: Cooking Up The 1906 Pure Food Act
Guests: Anneliese Abbott, Agriculture Journalist, ACRES USA
The food was most always pretty wholesome, until they left the farm and moved into the city. Then, just like that, corn syrup mixed with red dye and a few hayseeds became strawberry jam. That bit of history leads us to ask:
How did they make food safe to eat again?
Topics include the consequences of the post-Civil war migration from farms into cities; what happened to the food of the new city people; and the forces it took to legislate and pass the Pure Food Act.
Show #1264: Big Business of Botanicals
Guests: Ann Armbrecht, PhD, Author of The Business of Botanicals
What is in plants is now reduced to a powder, put into a pill or potion, and sold for $150 billion dollars, give or take! That leads us to ask:
Is the botanical in the bottle worth all the dollars?
Topics include a look at the traditional use of plant medications; how that traditional use blossomed into a $150 billion a year industry; and speculation as to whether what is in the bottle of botanicals is worth all the dollars being spent on them.
Show #1263: Wildlife Apocalypse!
Guests: Judy Hoy, Wildlife Rescuer & Author of Changing Faces and Amazing Wildlife
Insect populations in the United States have declined by 65 percent in the past 50 years. Researchers who study insects call it, “The Insect Apocalypse.” What is being seen in this apocalypse leads us to ask:
Can people live without wildlfe?
Topics include how the ever-increasing use of pesticides is creating a worldwide “wildlife apocalypse;” what impact this apocalypse might have on the world’s population of people; and what might be done to save what wildlife remain.
Show #1262: America's Oligarchs of Trash
Guests: Neil Seldman and Brenda Platt, Institute for Local Self Reliance
At the end of the food chain there is trash, and lots of it. All that trash waiting to be dumped leads us to ask:
Can America recycle its trash, if the Oligarchs of Trash do not want to recycle that trash?
Topics include how the nation’s trash haulers, recyclers and landfills came to be dominated by two companies; why it is not in the best interest of those two companies to efficiently recyle the nation’s trash; and how some local people, organizations and governments are standing up to the Oligarchs of Trash.
Show #1261: First 100 Days for Farm Animals
Guest: Josh Balk, Vice President, Farm Animal Protection, Humane Society of the United States
A lot can happen in the first 100 days of a new President’s administration. And that leads us to ask:
What is likely to happen to our farm animals in the first 100 days of the Biden Administration?
Topics include the difference approaches of the Trump and Biden Administrations to farm animal husbandry; what the Humane Society would like the Biden Administration to accomplish in the way of animal welfare during its first 100 days; and what impact Biden’s policies might have on animal agriculture.
Show #1260: Offshoring America's Organic Food
Guest: Mischa Popoff, Author, Is it Organic?
Thirty years ago Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act thereby safeguarding organic farming. Today an estimated 80% of America’s organic food is grown elsewhere. And so we wonder:
Did America deliberately offshore its organic foods?
Topics include why family-scaled organic farmers sought the protection of the government for their organic label; how the Organic Foods Production Act was passed to protect the word organic; and why the program has fostered the offshoring of so much of America’s organic food.
Show #1259: Winter-Feeding Hungry Animals
Guest: Kristin Combs, Executive Director, Wyoming Wildlife Advocates
You would think the site of hungry wildlife huddled together in the freezing cold of a blizzard would stir those who love wildlife to want to feed them. But that is not so for the elk of Jackson Hole. This leads us to ask:Should government stop winter-feeding wildlife?
Topics include why Wyoming’s elk herds are being fed through the winter, the potential for a calamitous pandemic this charity engenders; and how this pandemic might be averted.
Show #1258: Offshoring America's Organic Food
Guest: Eva Greenthal, Policy Associate, Center for Science in the Public Interest
The problem with babies is that they become toddlers. Every time that happens, those who manufacture baby formula lose a customer. How do the manufacturers compensate for the loss? They manufacture toddler formula! Their “toddler milks” leads us to ask:
Should “toddler milks” be regulated like baby formula?
Topics include why toddler milks are manufactured; what ingredients go into the formulas; and whether toddler milks should be regulated like baby formulas.
Show #1258: Toddlers' Sugar Formula
Guest: Eva Greenthal, Policy Associate, Center for Science in the Public Interest
The problem with babies is that they become toddlers. Every time that happens, those who manufacture baby formula lose a customer. How do the manufacturers compensate for the loss? They manufacture toddler formula! Their “toddler milks” leads us to ask:
Should “toddler milks” be regulated like baby formula?
Topics include why toddler milks are manufactured; what ingredients go into the formulas; and whether toddler milks should be regulated like baby formulas.
Show #1257: America's Big Beef
Guest: Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA
The label says, “Product of the USA,” but the rules say it does not need to be. The rules say it could be a product of China and still be labeled “Product of the USA.” This leads us to ask:
How much truth is in the advertising of food?
Topics include how the USDA’s meat labeling rules allow foreign meat to be labeled “Product of the USA;” how 85% of the nation’s beef came to be controlled by four corporations; and whether the beef industry can survive the fight for market share with the fake meat industry.
Show #1256: Henry Ford's Plants V. John Rockefeller's Petroleum
Guest: David Blume, Author, Alcohol Can Be A Gas
Once upon a time, we fueled our engines with the energy we grew on farms. But then along came Prohibition and we have been fueling our engines with petroleum ever since. this leads us to ask:
How did Prohibition turn America away from plants to petroleum?
Topics include how plant energy once fueled the economies of nations; why the energy visions of Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller clashed; and how Prohibition turned America away from plant energy to petroleum energy.
Show #1255: Consolidation of the Food Chain
Guest: Emily Miller, Policy & Research Manager, Family Farm Action Alliance
It is a fact! Agriculture, like most all industries, is growing in two directions: very big or very small. This leads us to ask:
Which provides for the greatest security: many small farms or few big farms?
Topics include why farms and food businesses tend to grow in size; what the consequences of that consolidation are to food security; and what might be done to increase the seecurity of the food chain.
Show #1254: Clean Fuel from Dirty Gas
Guest: Matteo Cargnello, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
Think of what we could do, if we were as clever as a green plant. We could turn that dirty greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide into freash air and clean energy! That thought leads us to ask:
Can we make clean energy from dirty greenhouse gas?
Topics include how scientists are emulating photosynthesis to break the bonds of CO2; how breaking those bonds makes possible a future of clean energy; and what must be done to scale up their synthetic photosynthesis to commercial viability.
Show #1253: The Myth of Contagion
Guest: Sally Fallon Morell, Fonnding President of the Weston A Price Foundation and Co-author of The Contagion Myth
On his deathbed Louis Pasteur, the father of germs, is said to have said, “The germ is nothing, the terroir is everything.” Pasteur’s famous recant leads us to ask:
Which is most responsible for disease: the bug or the body?
Topics include the historical conflict between the disease science of Louis Pasteur and Antoine Bechamp; why some say there has been no scientific proof that germs cause disease in healthy people; and what can be done to protect against Covid-19.
Show #1252: Vertical Farms for the City
Guest: Guy Elitzur, CEO of Israel’s Vertical Field Company
There is a wide-open space filled with incentive to grow right in front of our eyes, but we simply have not trained ourselves to see it. And so we ask:
Where can we look to see the incentive in farming for the city?
Topics include a brief look at all the crises we face that will, at some point in the future, likely force us to make fundamental changes; why those changes might include going back to the small farm; and how we could go about affecting that return.
Show #1251: Back to the Small Farm
Guest: Chris Smaje, Author of A Small Farm Future
We’ve cooked ourselves up a lot of problems in 2020. Perhaps we should set all those problems aside for a moment to ask:
Can we go back to the small farm?
Topics include why Israeli farmers became so proficient at small farm agriculture; the potential for vertical farming to fundamentally change how we farm specialty crops like strawberries; and what a future of vertical farms might look like for cities.
Show #1250 7-Eleven Begets Trader Joes
Guest: Benjamin Lorr, Author, The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
It is a $700 billion dollar a year business, and Americans spend about 2% of their lives shopping in them. Their story leads us to ask:
How did 7-Eleven give rise to Trader Joes?
Topics include the transformation of food into Store Keeping Units (SKUs); the transformation of general stores into supermarkets; and the story of how 7-Eleven gave rise to Trader Joes.
Show #1249: The Dicamba War: Farmer v Farmer
Guest: Arkansas farmer Terry Fuller, Chairman of the Arkansas State Plant Board
It kills weeds, which makes the farmer who applied it happy. But then it rises up and drifts off to settle on another field down wind, making that field’s farmer unhappy. And so we ask:
Which do you think will win the Dicamba War: upwind farmers or downwind farmers?
Topics include why farmers use dicamba; how, when applied topically to growing crops, dicamba volatizes and drifts off to kill the crops of other farmers; and whether the Dicamba War can or cannot be won.
Show #1248: The Green Revolution's Revolutionary
Guest: Ag Journalist Anneliese Abbott
Some say the Green Revolution saved the lives of millions of people. But others say the Green Revolution ruined the lives of millions. And so we pause to ask:
Was the Green Revolution a success or a failure?
Topics include how Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution industrialized the world’s agriculture; why some say the industrialized agriculture ruined the lives of millions of small farmers; and whether the Green Revolution was a success or a failure.
Show #1247: Pushing Delivery of Unhealthy Food
Guest: Emily Snyder, Senior Policy Associate, Center for Science in the Public Interest
The coronavirus pandemic has forced many of us to rely on others to deliver food to the front door. And that leads us to ask:
What kind of food does Amazon want to deliver?
Topics include how Covid-19 has changed the nation’s food chain; why some believe that Amazon.com is pushing unhealthy food to consumers; and how one might overcome the pushing of unhealthy food by those who have it to push.
Show #1246 The Problematic Business of Cannabis
Guest: Morgan Fox, Media Relations Director, National Cannabis Industry Association
There are two cannabis industries in the United States. One is legal, the other is illegal. Both industries generate a huge amount of income. And so we ask:
Can the legal and illegal cannabis industries co-exist?
Topics include the legal status, or lack therof, of the nation’s booming cannabis industries; why legal and illegal cannabis industries exist in the same marketplace; and whether the two cannabis industries can coexist.
Show #1245 The Hoods of Agrihoods
Guest: Anna De Simone, Author, Welcome to the Agrihood: Housing, Shopping, and Gardening for a Farm-To-Table Lifestyle
Given what we see transpiring in the nation’s big cities, it makes a lot of sense to move out and start something new. And so we ask…
How can one turn a farm into an agrihood?
Topics include how the nation’s agrihoods are developed; how agriculture is incorporated into the communities; and
why one might want to leave the Big City to live in an agrihood.
Show #1244 The Weed of Fast Food
Guest: Professor Catherine Keske, Ag Economist, University of California, Merced & Author, “Fast Food is Comforting, But…,”
It does not take long for weeds to take over one’s garden. The same can be said for how quickly fast food can displace good food in one’s diet. And so we ask:
How does fast food displace good food?
Topics include the extent to which poor communities, like college students, rely on fast foods; how fast foods displace good foods; and what might be done to bring good foods back into the community’s diet.
Show #1243 The Secret of Secret Gardening
Guest: Judith Schwartz, Author, The Reindeer Chronicles, Cows Save The Planet & Water in Plain Site
In her book The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett writes, “If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” That thought leads us to ask,
How should we tend our earthly garden?
Topics include the holistic agriculture introduced by Alan Savory; a stay at Washington State’s “New Cowgirl Camp,” and a busting of women-in-agriculture myths.
Show #1242 The Two Sciences of Hydroxychloroquine
Guest:Michael Daugherty, President, LabMD & Author, The Devil Inside the Beltway
Some scientists say hydroxychloroquine is an effective way to stop the Covid 19 coronavirus. Other scientists say hydroxychloroquine is not effective in stopping Covid 19. And so we ask:
Whose hydroxychloroquine science is real?
Topics include a history of hydroxychloroquine use; why hydroxychloroquine has become the object of political, economic and medical warfare; and how one might learn how to interpret the two sciences of hydroxychloroquine.
Show #1241 The Collapse of Agriculture
Guest:Tom Philpott, Author, Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It
The industrialization of America’s agriculture has made it possible for a very few farmers to grow most all of the nation’s food. But some say America’s agriculture is bound to collapse. And so we ask:
Why would America’s agriculture collapse?
Topics include the major stresses on American agriculture; how those stresses may lead to the collapse of agriculture; and what might be done to avoid a collapse.
Show #1240 USA's Flying Farmers
Guest: Neil Ritchie, Senior Advisor, Main Street Project and Colby Ferguson, Government Affairs Director, Maryland Farm Bureau
Agriculture uses many types of machines to grow, harvest, process and distribute the nation’s food. Among the most important of ag’s machines are the aircraft of general aviation. And so we ask:
Should government give USA’S flying farmers some Covid relief?
Topics include the impact of Covid 19 on rural America, the way’s in which agriculture uses general aviation to produce the nation’s food; and what might be done to preserve general aviation for rural America.
Show #1239 The Family Turkey!
Guest: Heidi Diestel Orrock, CEO, Diestel Turkeys
The consolidation of the poultry industry into a few giant corporations has turned chicken farmers into serfs with a mortgage. The thought of what kind of chickens they have to offer leads us to ask…
Where can we find food with its farmers face on it?
Topics include how the Diestel family began farming organic turkeys before there was organic; how the Diestel family built, and continue to build, market share; and whether the Diestel business model can be adopted to other family-scale enterprises.
Show #1238 Growing Young, Again!
Guest: Marta Zaraska, Author, Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100
People spend $250 Billion dollars a year on pills and potions they believe will help them avoid growing old. And so we ask:
What can we feed our body to grow young, again?
Topics include how the mind and body communicate; why what one eats may not be as important as with whom one eats; and the three essentials of longevity.
Show #1237 Bayer's Big Monsanto Buy
Guest: Mischa Popoff, author of Is It Organic
Bayer spent $63 billion buying Monsanto, and another $12.5 billion settling Monsanto’s legal claims. All that money leads us to ask:
Should we bet the farm on Bayer stock?
Topics include how glyphosate kills living plants; why Bayer claims glyphosate kills plants but not people or animals; and whether one should, or should not bet their future on Bayer AG stock.
Show #1236 Glyphosate and Covid-19?
Guest: Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Senior Research Scientist, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Glyphosate is ubiquitous. That is to say, glyphosate is in the ground, in the plants, in the water, in the air and in us. That glyphosate is ubiquitous leads us to ask:
Is there a connection between glyphosate and the effects of the Covid-19 coronavirus?
Topics include how the patterns of glyphosate use and Covid-19 spread match up; why Dr. Seneff suspects that aerosolized glyphosate from biofuels may be making lungs more suseptible to the effects of Covid-19; and what research needs to be done to address this possibility.
Show #1235 Up Against Goliath IV: The Davids
Guest: Vara Prasad, Professor of Crop Ecophysiology & Director, Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, Kansas State University
Vara Prasad, Professor of Crop Ecophysiology & Director, Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, Kansas State University
The Food Chain Radio Show / Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Vara Prasad, Professor of Crop Ecophysiology & Director, Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, Kansas State University, for a conversation about the small farms that feed the world real food.
Topics include how so much of the world’s food is provided by small farms; how the technologies of small farms might be intensified to increase productivity; and whether large farms will succeed in chasing all the small farms out of the marketplace.
Show #1234 Up Against Goliath III: The Bullying
Guests: Amanda Hitt, Director of Government Accountability Project’s Food Integrity Campaign & Judith McGeary, Executive Director Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance
During the coronavirus pandemic panic, the big box stores were open for business, but the little Mom and Pop’s were shut down. That being the way things were we wonder…
How does big business bully small business out of business?
Topics include how so much of the world’s food is provided by small farms; how the technologies of small farms might be intensified to increase productivity; and whether large farms will succeed in chasing all the small farms out of the marketplace.
Show #1233 Up Against Goliath II: The Rules
Guest: Erica Smith, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
During the coronavirus pandemic panic, all the big stores were open for business, while all the Mom’s and Pop’s were forced to close. At least, so it seemed. And so we ask:
How does big business make its own rules & regulations?
The Food Chain Radio Show / Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Erica Smith, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice, for a conversation about how big business makes rules and regulations that prevent small businesses from competing.
Topics include how North Dakota bureacrats made rules that denied the legislated will of the state’s residents to eat each others’ food; why bureaucrats are unwilling to grant food freedom to citizens; and whether citizens are doomed to eat the food of big business.
Show #1232 Up Against Goliath I: The Bribe
Guest: ClaireKelloway, Researcher and Reporter, Open Markets Institute,
During the coronavirus pandemic panic, all the big box stores were open for business, while all the Mom’s and Pop’s were forced to close. At least, so it seemed, and that leads us to ask:
How does big business fight off small businesses?
The Food Chain Radio Show / Podcast with Michael Olson hosts researcher and reporter Claire Kelloway with the Open Markets Institute for a conversation about how big business uses bribes to fight off small businesses.
Topics include the consolidation of the institutional dining industry; how a few, very big businesses maintain their control over institutional dining; and why the foods of institutional dining will always taste the same.
Show #1231 Abating the Mosquito
Guest: Ken Klemme, Manager, Northern Salinas Valley Mosquito Abatement District
There are frightening critters in the world: mama grizzlies, great white sharks, rampaging elephants. But none are more devastating than the one that kills 750,000 of us every year, and it leads us to ask…
How can we fight off the blood-sucking mosquito?
Topics include a look at the most dangerous of the 2500 species of mosquitoes; how nations, states and communities fight off mosquito populations; and how the blood-sucking insects are fought off by homeowners.
Show #1230 Drinking Up China
Guest: Derek Sandhaus, Author. Drunk in China & Co-Founder of Ming River Sichuan Baijiu
It is said that when one is in Rome, one should do as the Romans do. The same could be said for what one should do when in China. And that leads us to ask…
What can one learn by getting drunk in China?
Topics include the 9000 year history of the Chinese drinking culture; how the bottoms up “gangbei” culture works in a typical Chinese business dinner; and how the Chinese Communist Party copes with China’s drinking culture.
Show #1229 / Pandemic Panic Gardening
Guest: Missy Gable, Director, University of California Master Gardener Program
I went shopping for some hope to plant in the garden, only to find that my favorite garden shop was closed by the pandemic panic for being non-essential. And so I ask:
Should gardening be certified an essential pandemic panic activity?
Topics include what gardening brings to the life of a family; how to start a pandemic-era garden; and whether gardening should be considered an essential activity during the coronavirus pandemic panic.
Show #1228 / Coronavirus on the Food Supply Chain
Guest: Dr. Ellen Bruno, UC Cooperative Extension Specialist & Co-author: “The Coronavirus and
The Food Supply Chain”We see the empty shelves at the grocer, and watch as farmers dump milk, crush eggs and plow their crops under. Then we look to the future and ask:
Will agriculture survive the coronavirus?
Topics include how our food supply chain worked in normal times; how it works in the abnormal times of the coronavirus; and whether agriculture will or will not survive the coronavirus.
Show #1227 / The Hemp Hurdle
Guest: Doug Fine, Farmer and Author of American Hemp Farmer: Adventures and Misadventures in the Cannabis Trade,
Some say the next cannabis gold rush will come from the THC-free plant called hemp. But there is one significant hurdle for hemp, and it leads us to ask…
Can a viable industry be grown from hemp?
Topics include why some cannabis is called hemp; how legal hemp farming quickly grew into a billion dollar industry; and whether the “hemp hurdle”can be overcome in order to sustain a viable industry.
Show #1226 / Identifying the Owners of Covid19
Guest: Yacov Apelbaum, Artificial Intelligence Analyst, XRVision
As the Covid19 coronavirus continues to eat its way around the world, we wonder…
Who owns Covid19? And, why do they want to own it?
Topics include how Apelbaum’s AI search uncovered the true story of Covid19; the individuals who own the virus; and the reason why they would want to own it. (One Apelbaum points to is George Soros.)
Show #1225 / Avoiding the Contagion!
Guest: Meteorologist, Computer Scientist & Christian Scientist Mary Alice Rose
What’s eating what? The contagion of the made-in-China cornona virus is eating us– the world-wide us! And that leads us to ask…
Can we avoid the contagion?
Topics include whether science and Christian Science are compatible; the four short paragraphs that describe how to avoid contagion; and if it is indeed possible to avoid the coronavirus contagion.
Show #1224 / Salmon: The Fish We Love to Eat!
Guest: Mark Kurlansky, Author of Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate
In 1864, Scotsman Alexander Russel wrote, “The salmon is the free gift of nature, its importance as an article of food has been undervalued or overlooked.” That thought leads us to ask:
Can we have our salmon and eat them too?
Topics include why the salmon feeds so many other species– like humans; the ways in which people, animals and birds catch salmon; and whether salmon can survive the human drive to consume nature.
Show #1223 / Moms Against Bad Food!
Guest: Zen Honneycutt, Founder & Executive Director of Moms Across America and Author of Unstoppable
Though we all want good food, nobody wants good food more than the mothers of America. And so we ask:
How can mothers, and the rest of us, find real good food?
Topics include the impact contaminated foods have on the health of children; how mothers organized to oppose those contaminated foods; and what mothers hope to do to transform how food is purchased.
Show #1222 / The Like-Cures-Like of Homeopathy
Guests: Dr. Jeff Lester, Trilogy Medicial Center for Integrative Medicine
It was a very simple solution to very complex problems. Then a very complex solution came along and pushed the simple solution off the shelf. Even so, we pause to ask…
Can homeopathy cure the Made-in-China corona virus?
Topics include how the “like-cures-like” medicine of homeopathy was employed to fight bacteria, viruses and even cancers; why the medicine was abandoned in the 1940s; and whether homeopathy might now be used to turn the tide of the corona virus pandemic.
Show #1221 / Phage: Return of the Perfect Predator
Guests: Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, PhD, UCSD Associate Dean of Global Health Services & Author of The Perfect Predator
Antibiotics proved to be too much of a good thing, so we used them too much and too often. Bacteria learned how to recognize them and became resistant superbugs. Now we are in a fix that leads us to ask…
How can we fight anti-biotic resistant superbugs?
Topics include why antibiotics replaced phage therapy for the treatment of infection; how bacteria became anti-biotic resistant superbugs; and how Dr. Strathdee resurrected phage therapy to save her husband's life.
Show #1220: Raising the Resistance to Body Threats!
Guests: Dr. Mindy Pelze, Author, The Reset Factor
Though the United States has become one of the cleanest countries in the world, we are being threatened by toxins every day and in every possible way. And so we pause to ask…
How can we resist the body threat of toxicity?
Topics include the toxic elements that we live with in one of the cleanest nations of the world; the harm can those toxic elements cause our fragile human bodies; and what can be cone to resist toxic threats to our body?
Show #1219: Eating Up to a Big Brain!
Guests: Smithsonian Paleoanthropologist Dr. Briana Pobiner
We weren’t always as smart as we think we are today. Way back when, a million years or so ago, we were not even smart enough to come in out of the cold! And so today we pause to ask:
What did we eat back then that made us so smart today?
Topics include why the story of our very distant forebears is found in the sediments of Africa; what the bones and fossils of what they ate tells us about how they survived; and why what they ate enabled them to develop the big brains that we think with today.
Show #1218: Curing Climate Change
Guests: Ronnie Cumins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Union and Author of Grassroots Rising
Some say it is the most serious existential threat humans have ever had to confront, and that if we do not do something about it, we will lose the life-support systems of our planet. And so we pause to ask:
Can we cure climate change?
Topics include why so many fear global warming and climate change; what people can do to reverse the damage done by climate change; and how a movement to save the earth might be organized.
Show #1217: Cheap Food Isn't!
Guest: Dan Kittredge of the Bionutrient Food Association & The Real Food Project
Some say industrialization has made food cheap. But others say the nutrients essential to health are disappering from food, and therefore the food is not cheap at all. They lead us to ask:
How cheap is cheap food?
Topics include the extent to which essential nutrients are disappearing from commercial foods; why those nutrients are disappearing; and how the essential nutrient content of a commercial food may be measured against a baseline.
Show #1216: Open the Gates!
Guest: David Breemer, Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
The Hollister Ranch has been a privately-owned sheep ranch since 1794, but it has some of the best surf breaks in California. And so we ask:
Should government force private property to open its gates?Topics include a brief history of the 14,400 acre Hollister sheep ranch; how that ranch holds some of the best surf locations on the Pacific Coast behind its gates, and how the State of California is moving to force Hollister’s gates to the public.
Show #1215: Intoxicated In Utero
Guest: Alexis Olson, Child Mental Health Counselor & Austin Olson, Child Mental Health Program Director
The number of children who were intoxicated in utero is frightening, but what is really frightening are the stories told by those who care for them. And so we ask:
Is there hope for children who were intoxicated in utero?
Topics include the consequences to children from mothers who drink and consume drugs while pregnant; how the consequences become manifest for those charged with caring for those children; and whether there is hope for those who were intoxicated in utero.
Show #1214 Sustained Control– of the Food Chain
Guest: Tom DeWeese, President of American Policy Center & Author of The War on Free Enterprise
There are many definitions for what is “sustainable,” and most all of them would seem to be good. But what if the one that really counts is “sustained control.” That definition would lead us to ask…
Who would want to sustain control over us?
Topics include the evolution of sustainable development initiatives; how these initiatives are used to manage the use of the environment; and whether sustainable development will allow agriculture to survive as a business.
Show #1213 Vinegar: The Sweet of our Sour!
Guest: Reginald Smith, President of Supreme Vinegar & Author, The Eternal Condiment
Two fermentations have carried us through history. The one that pleases our senses has only one use; but the one that displeases our senses has many uses. And so we ask:
How did we become addicted to vinegar?
Topics include the essential difference between wine and vinegar; why vinegar is so important to our food chain; and how the production of vinegar was industrialized to make it readily available, then de-industrialized to make it precious.
Show #1212: Total Pesticide War!
Guest: Ag Journalist & Historian Anneliese Abbot
The world’s most widely used pesticide has been found to be the likely cause of serious birth defects in large mammals– like humans. And so we ask…
Why did pesticides become the weapon of choice for farmers?
Topics how the chemical pesticides were invented; how elected representatives deliberated on the efficacy and safety of pesticides; and whether the extent to which they are now used is a cause for concern.
Show #1211: Local Fuel from Waste
Guests: David Blume, Author, Alcohol Can Be A Gas, Farmer-in-Chief, Whiskey Hill Farm
The dream is energy independence. The reality is an economy dependent on hydrocarbons. And so we ask…
Can local fuel turn energy dependence into energy independence?
Topics include why ethanol produced from carbohydrates makes a fuel superior to gasoline produced from hydrocarbons; how ethanol might be produced from local crop wastes; and how local fuel might lead to a regeneration of rural communities.
Show #1210: California's Train to Nowhere
Guests: Mark A Wasser, Attorney
The dream was to connect California’s major cities with a high-speed rail line. The nightmare is a collosal concrete mistake that is eating up some of the most productive farmland on earth. And so we ask:
Where is California’s train to nowhere going?
Topics include why California voted to build a high-speed rail line between San Diego and San Francisco; how politics turned it into a low-speed rail line from nowhere to nowhere; and what impact the project might have on some of the best farmland in the world.
Show #1209: Waters of the United States
Guests: Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Foods of Sichuan
Farmer John Duarte was caught plowing his field in violation of the Waters of the United States and fined $1.1 million. Though WOTUS provisions have been repealed, farmers are still being fined for plowing their fields. And so we ask:
Topics include why farmers are being fined millions of dollars for plowing their fields; how government used water and soil to take total control of farmers’ fields; and whether farmers must now get government permission to plow their fields.
Show #1208: Some Like It Sichuan Hot!
Guests: Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Foods of Sichuan
My family was served an entre nearly five decades ago at a Sichuan Restaurant that was said to be one of the seven best in the world. That we all remember that dish as if it were yesterday leads us to ask:
What makes the foods of Sichuan so memorable?
Topics include a brief description of living in Sichuan; a description of the incredible diversity of Sichuan foods and cooking methods; and a demonstration of Sichuan cooking by the West’s leading authority – Fuchsia Dunlop.
Show #1207: Food Bullies Bull Speak
Guests: Michele Payn, Author, Food Bullying: How to Avoid Buying B.S.
Where a big box store might sell a gallon of milk for $3, an upscale natural food store might sell a gallon for $8. To sell the milk, each store must present an argument as to why theirs is the best value. This leads us to ask:
Which is most likely to get a person to buy a brand: fear or guilt?
Topics include the difference between food bullying and food marketing; food fairytales and folklore; and how to avoid being bullied into buying B.S. .
Show #1206: Strawberry Fields– But Not Forever
Guests: Mary Flodin, Retired School Teacher & Author, Fruit of the Devil
Farming strawberries was an itinerant business, but then settled down in coastal California to become a $5 billion dollar a year industry. Given such bounty, we ask:
Why do farmworkers call the strawberry “fruit of the devil?”
Topics include the impact of soil fumigants on Flodin’s school; how the school’s teachers fought a decades long fight to have the fumigants banned; and what the future might hold for California’s strawberry industry.
Show #1205: Heroine of the Heroin Epidemic
Guests: Rori O'Hara, Author, Hero Versus Heroin
More than 500,000 Americans have succumbed to opiods over the past decade and a half, and over a hundred continue to die every day. This leads us to ask:
Why are Americans so taken by opiods?
Topics include how one of O’Hara’s sons succumbed to an overdose while the other survived; what led her sons into drugs; and why one lost while the other won.
Show #1204: Myths of Agriculture
Guests: David Montgomery, University of Washington Professor of Earth Sciences and Author of Growing a Revolution
Many things said about modern agriculture are myth. One such myth is that large scale agriculture feeds the world. These myths lead us to ask…
Will the truth about agriculture lead to a “Brown Revolution?
Topics include the four big myths of agriculture; why we come to believe in the myths; how learning the truth might lead to a “brown revolution” and a future of good food.
Show #1203: Fighting Fraudulent Food
Guests: Kim Richman, Richman Law Group
They sold it as “organic,” but it was not organic at all! And they sold it as “clean,” but it was not clean at all! And so we ask:
How can those who sell food be forced to sell what they promise?
Topics include the consumers’ right to expect the food promised will be the food delivered; the extent of fraudulent foods being sold to consumers; and what is being done to force those who sell food to sell the food they promise.
Show #1202: The Lost Voices
Guests: Maryam Henein, Journalist & Host of HoneyColony.com
Some of our voices have been lost. The voices belong to those who advocate for alternative health. The loss of their voices leads us to ask:
Why are the voices of alternative health being lost?
Topics include why voices are being lost; which voices have already been lost; and how those voices were lost.
MP3 Download Now (Right click and "Save As")
Show #1201: The Fountain of Youth Fast
Guests: Dr. Dan Pompa, Author, Beyond Fasting & Dr. Duncan McCollum, McCollum Family Chiropractic
Autophagy is the process by which our body renews itself by eating itself. Yoshinori Ohsumi won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine for figuring out how autophagy works. His discovery leads us to ask:
Can we manage the renewal of our body without the use of drugs?
Topics include an introduction to ketosis, fasting and autophagy; how those processes, and others, can be employed to help one manage autophagy; and how autophagy acts to renew the body.
Show #1200: The Most Equal of All
Guest: Jack and Sarah Kimmich, California Kurobuta Pastured Pork
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, we hear Napolean the Pig proclaim, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Today we ask,
Where can we find the animals that are most equal of all?
Topics include how the Kimmichs’ 12-year old daughter led the family into farming pastured pork; how the family farm evolved to serve their community that pork; and the ways in which the Kimmich family must compete with giant CAFOs for the consumer dollars.
Show #1199: Revolt of the Lunch Ladies!
Guest: Jennifer Gaddis, Associate Professor of Civil Society and Community Studies, University of Wisconsin, and author of The Labor of Lunch
We’ve all been there, and eaten that! And that would be the food we ate at the hands of … school lunch ladies. Thinking back at the taste of all those school lunches, we ask:
Can schools do a better job of feeding our children?
Topics include the radical beginnings of the National School Lunch Program, how that program became the province of “cheap food;” and whether the program can be re-imagined to provide better food for our children.
Show #1198: What to order off the menu?
Guest: Restaurant Menu Engineer Gregg Rapp
We walk into the restaurant tired, grumpy and hungry. We sit down and open the menu. At that point, we pause to ask
How do they get us to eat, what they want us to eat?
Topics include how the design of a menu can improve a restaurant’s sales by 30% and more; how a professional menu engineer re-engineers restaurant menus; and how restaurant patrons can get more from their dining out dollars.
Show #1197: The Soil War - Biology V Chemistry
Guest: Agriculture Journalist and Historian Anneliese Abbott
Shortly after World War II, U.S. agriculture came to that proverbial fork in the road, and took it. Looking back at the taking of those two directions at once, we pause to ask…
Which soil produces the best food: biological or chemical?
Topics include how U.S. agriculture developed in two directions after World War II; why advocates of each direction conduct an on-going war of words against those who advocate the other direction; and speculation as to whether both sides can find a way to “just get along.”
Show #1196: The Vaccine Shot in the Dark
Guest: Vaccine Resistors Dr. Dina Churchill & Laura Hays
Having been a child in the era of polio, and a sailor in foreign ports, and a stranger in many strange lands, I have received a lot of vaccinations. That I am well, as are so many others like me, leads us to ask:
Why should we fear vaccinating our children?
Topics include why those who vaccinate children are so fearful of those who do not vaccinate children; how parents tell vaccine stories that mainstream media will not tell; and what is in the vaccines we shoot into our children 74 times.
Show #1195: Crazed by Coffee
Guest: Mark Pendergrast, Author, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed the World
Legend has it that a shepherd was led to coffee arabica by the froclicking of his highly excited goats. And that long-ago discovery leads us to ask:
How did coffee transform our world?
Topics include how the introduction of coffee changed the way we socialized with others; how the coffee bean became the world’s fourth most valuable agriculture commodity; and where Howard Schultz discovered the future of Starbucks.
Show #1194: Feeding A Hospital
Guest: Steven Ward, Executive Chef, Dignity Health Dominican Hospital
The hospital is one place we do not want to go in order to to dine out. But sometimes we must, and that leads us to ask…
How does one cook for guests who would rather be somewhere else?
Topics include the obstacles a hospital chef must overcome to turn patients into happy customers; how those obstacles may be overcome; and what changes hospitals might make to improve their food service.
Show #1193: Call of the Wolf
Guest: Teo Alfero, Founder and Director, The Wolf Connection Conservancy & Author, The Wolf Connection
Somewhere along the line, I, and a whole lot of other people, became capitivated by the call of the wolf. And being so capitivated, pause to ask:
Why does the wolf call to us?
Topics include the extent to which civilized people go to see wild wolves; how wolves taught people to behave like wolves, and in doing so, gave people their humanity; and what dispossessed wolves and unwanted people learn from each other.
Show #1192: Autophagy: Our Self-Eating Self
Guest: Dr. Richard Vierstra, Professor of Biology, Washington University of St. Louis
Our body renews itself by eating itself, and Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize for figuring out how. And so we ask…
How does our body renew itself by eating itself?
Topics include why the 2016 Nobel Prize was given for revelations about autophagy; why venture capital is pouring hundreds of millions into autophagy startups; and what autophagy means to the lives of all.
Show #1191: Soy Boys – Losing it!
Guest: Sally Fallon Morell, President, Weston A. Price Foundation
60 and 40! The total sperm count of North American males declined nearly 60 percent in 40 years. And so we ask…
What are we eating that is drowning our swimmers?
Topics include why males in developed nations have lost so much of their total sperm count; the possible consequences of such a loss; and what young couples can do to become fertile.
Show #1190: Bayer's $66 Billion Bet
Guest: Mischa Popoff, Author, Is It Organic?
When German chemical giant Bayer bought American seed and chemical giant Monsanto for $66 billion in cash, it became the owner of 13,400 glyphosate lawsuits. And so we ask:
Why did Bayer buy Monsanto?
Topics include a look at the combined businesses of Bayer and Monsanto; the 13,400 glyphosate lawsuits Bayer bought with other Monsanto assets; and speculation as to the reason why Bayer bought Monsanto.
Show #1189: A Nation of Guilty Eaters
Guest: Cindy Glover, Data Analyst, Crestiline Custom Promotional Products
Buying a chicken sandwich at the drive up could mean one is supporting a company that promotes traditional family values, and while eating that sandwich may be right, or wrong, it does lead us to ask:
How do we decide which food is right and which is wrong?
Topics include a survey of the food purchasing patterns of consumers; what consumers fear most in their food; and how one’s political beliefs help shape one’s food purchasing decisions.
Show #1188: Taming the Wild, Wild West
Guest: David Wolman, Co-Author, Aloha Rodeo
Buying a chicken sandwich at the drive up could mean one is supporting a company that promotes traditional family values, and while eating that sandwich may be right, or wrong, it does lead us to ask… .
How do we decide which food is right and which is wrong?
Topics include a survey of the food purchasing patterns of consumers; what consumers fear most in their food; and how one’s political beliefs help shape one’s food purchasing decisions.
Show #1187: The Sheer Madness of Cannabusiness!
Guest: Jim Coffis, Co-Founder and Deputy Director of Green Trade Santa Cruz
After being prohibited for the the best part of a century, the plant known as Cannabis is now open for business… but only in some places! This leads us to ask…
Can reefer madness be turned into a sustainable industry?Topics include a brief history of America’s “reefer madness;” the current legal status of the plant throughout the U.S.; and a close up look at how one tiny county in California is trying to turn reefer madness into a sustainable industry.
Show #1186: Watered Down Organic!
(available upon request)
Guest: Dave Chapman, The Real Organic Project
In 1990, “organic” meant anything made of carbon and was therefore not worth much as a word. Today organic means “food grown right” and the word is worth over $50 billion dollars. Leads us to ask:
Will it be possible to keep organic organic?
Topics include how the official definition of “organic farming” was built around biological soils; how that definition was changed to include no soil; and what no soil means to those who buy organic foods.
Show #1174: Immunological Breakthrough Cure for Cancer
(available upon request)
Guests: Charles Graeber, Author, The Breakthrough: Immunology and The Race To Cure Cancer
Some times we eat. Other times we are eaten. One that eats us up is cancer, which we try to fight off by cutting, burning and poisoning. But there has been a breakthrough in fighting cancer that leads us to ask:
Can our bodies be made to be the cure for cancer?
Topics include a look back into what is likely the most remote and primitive environment in the “lower 48;” why some would like to convert this remote landscape from ranching into recreation; and whether land dedicated to producing food should be converted to recreation.
Show #1173: Good Break or Bad for the Missouri Breaks!
(available upon request)
Guests: Mike Kautz and Beth Saboe from American Prairie Reserve
If there is any wild left in the West, it is most likely where ranchers contend with nature to grow food in Montana’s Missouri Breaks. But that wildness just might make for some world class recreation, and so we ask:
Should the last of the Wild West be for food or fun?
Topics include a look back into what is likely the most remote and primitive environment in the “lower 48;” why some would like to convert this remote landscape from ranching into recreation; and whether land dedicated to producing food should be converted to recreation.
Show #1172: A Burning Question!
(available upon request)
Guests: Nutriculturalist Gary Kline, Blossom Consulting Services & Forester and Biochar Advocate Jenna Bennett
The stupid fires came again this year, and burned the Golden State of California to a crisp. Thankfully, the rain came to put out the fires, but also to provide more fuel for next year’s stupid fires. And so we ask…
Can we turn stupid fires into smart fires?
Topics include a look back to the primitive Amazonian art of making “terra preta,” or “black earth; why those in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest are rediscovering and refining those ancient technologies, and whether the wastes of woodlands might be used to turn deserts into forests.
Show #1171: Let Us Eat Lettuce!
(available upon request)
Guest: Jim Prevor, Founder & Editor in Chief, Produce Business Magazine
Once again, the Federal government has warned us away from romaine lettuce. But wait, some say the odds of getting sick from lettuce are only one in 11 million and, “Let us eat lettuce?” And so we ask:
Is our produce safe to eat?
Topics include why consumers come to fear, and even panic, at contaminations of produce like romaine lettuce; what the real odds are of becoming sickened by lettuce; and ways consumers can protect themselves from food borne pathogens.
Show #1170: Taking Dominion of Forests
(available upon request)
Guest: Warren Knox, Designer, Builder & Owner, Knox Garden Box
The good Lord gave us dominion over all living things, but he did not leave any directions. And so we do what we always do best, which is to choose up sides and fight about it… Today we head to where the fight is red hot to ask…
Can we save our forests by exploiting them?
Topics include why California forests and wildlands burn with such intensity; what might be done to better tend the forests; and how the forests might provide a source of energy for homes and cities.
Show #1169: Addicted to Poison Food
(available upon request)
Guest: Fred Provenza, Professor Emeritus of Wildland Resources, Utah State & Author of Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom
We think we are pretty smart. After all, we have stepped foot on the moon! But somewhere along the line we forgot how to eat, and instead became addicted to poison. And so we ask:
Can we break our addiction to poison food?
Topics include how people lose the wisdom of what to eat; why they become addicted to foods that poison; and how the addiction to that poison might be overcome.
Show #1168: Employing Worms to turn Garbage into Gold
(Worm casting show available upon request)
Guest: Rhonda Sherman, North Carolina State Extension Specialist & Author of The Worm Farmers Handbook
We live in a land of abundance. So much abundance, in fact, that we to toss about 40% of the food we produce into the garbage. And so we ask…
How can we transform our garbage into gold?
Topics include how worms may be emplooyed to turn organic matter into a nutrient dense fertilizer selling for up to $1,800 per cubic yard; how worm casting improve the soil; and speculation as to whether metropolitan food wastes might be used to bring life back to the nation’s depleted soils.
Show #1167: Policing the $80 billion dollar word "Organic!"
(Organic show available upon request)
Guest: Laura Murray, Organic Food Industry Certification Inspector
The word organic was given to the federal government in order to protect the livelihood of small farmers, but with that government protection, the word grew into an $80 billion dollar a year industry. And so we ask:
How do they keep the money in the word “organic.”
Topics include how the organic industry grew from that of small, indepednent farms to an $80 billion dollar industry; how government oversees the organic industry; and how the integrity of organic is policed by independent inspectors.
Show #1166: Homeless Garden Project
(Homeless show available on request)
Guest: Anthony Reyes, Farm Manager, The Homeless Garden Project of Santa Cruz, California
Give them a fish, and they will eat today. Teach them to fish, and they will eat always. Well okay, but we’ve caught most of the fish, and the few that are left are being guarded by people with badges. And so we ask:
Can those in need be taught to farm their way out of need?
Topics include the objective of the Homeless Garden Project; the strategy and tactics employed to achieve that objective; and whether those who are homeless can be taught to farm their way out of homelessness.
Show #1165: Farmers of 40 More Centuries!
(Farmers show available on request)
Guest: David Blume, Author, Alcohol Can Be A Gas, Farmer, Whiskey Hill Farm, Owner, Blume Distillation
At the beginning of the last century, former USDA Secretary of Agriculture FH King studied the agriculture of China, Korea and Japan. He then came home and wrote, Farmers of Forty Centuries, which today leads us to ask:
How can we farm for forty more centuries?
Topics include a look at the differences between traditional and modern ag technologies; how these technologies are being combined to create more efficient, and profitable, ways of growing crops; and whether the old and new might be combined to provide the means to sustain us for 40 more centuries.
Show #1164: Salt of the Earth!
(Right Thing show available on request)
Guests: Mischa Popoff, Author, Is it Organic?
We are blessed with an abundance of cheap food. At least, so they say. But others say the ways in which food have been made cheap have cheapened the food and degraded the land in which it was grown. And so we ask…
Can we grow nourishing food that restores the land?
Topics include how political opposites work together to "Do the right thing" with food; ways in which various crops are being grown to feed people and regenerate land; and how society might amplify the the effort to "do the right thing with food production."
Show #1163: Doing the Right Thing, with Food!
(Right Thing show available on request)
Guests: Gary Nabhan, Author, Food From the Radical Center
We are blessed with an abundance of cheap food. At least, so they say. But others say the ways in which food have been made cheap have cheapened the food and degraded the land in which it was grown. And so we ask…
Can we grow nourishing food that restores the land?
Topics include how political opposites work together to "Do the right thing" with food; ways in which various crops are being grown to feed people and regenerate land; and how society might amplify the the effort to "do the right thing with food production."
Show #1162: Eating NAFTA
(NAFTA show available on request)
Guests: Alyshia Galvez, Author, Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico
For those who industrialized food on both sides of the U.S. Mexican border, the North American Free Trade Agreement was a good deal. But for those who had to eat NAFTA, we simply must ask:
What did NAFTA do to our food?
Topics include a consideration of traditional Mexican food; how the trade agreement changed that traditional food into “industrial” food; and how industrial food has resulted in diabetes becoming the most frequent cause of death in Mexico.
Show #1161: Farming the Federal Government
(Government show available on request)
Guests: Adam Andrzejewski, Founder & CEO of American Transparency (www.openthebooks.com)
The federal government gives farmers over $13 Billion a year. One fourth of that money goes to six thousand farmers, with one getting nearly $10 million a year. All that free money leads us to ask:
How does one farm the government?
Topics include why government subsidizes farmers; how farm subsidy programs work; and why government pays rich farmers not to farm.
Show #1160: Homes of Hemp
(Hemp show available on request)
Guests: Kathryn Mathewson, Secret Gardens dot com; Dr. Trey Riddle & Adam Block, Sunstrands
For over twelve thousand years cannabis has been cultivated for textiles, fiber, food and, yes, for fun. Looking back to all its uses, and forward to all its potential, we ask:
Can we build homes with cannabis?
Topics include the many industrial products cannabis sativa L. (hemp) has provided throughout history; how hemp is now being put back to use in the building of homes; and whether hemp may supplant trees as a source of renewable building materials.
Show #1159: City Chic...kens!
(Chicken show available on request)
Guests: Lisa Steele, FreshEggsDaily.com
They are among the best at turning pests, weeds and food scraps into the most beautiful form of abundantly useful protein. And so we ask…
Can one safely keep chickens in the city?
Topics include the synergies of people and their chickens; why city folks raise “kitchen” chickens; and how chickens are raised in the city without the diseases to which they are prone.
Show #1158: Going Legit in the Cannabusiness
(Going Legit show available on request)
Guests: Attorney Nicole Wagner, Clark Neubert LLC
You have been growing illicit cannabis at a farm in the hills, or have been growing licit legumes in the valley, and have now decided to enter the legal cannabis trade. So, we ask:
What does it take to go legit in the cannabis trade?
Topics include the extent to which cannabis is, and is not, a legal crop; the legal steps that must be taken to enter the legitimate cannabis trade, and the costs of those steps; and speculation as to how the industry might develop in the future.
Show #1157: Killed by Weed Killer?
(Killed by Weedkiller show available on request)
Guests: U.S. Right to Know’s Carey Giliam and Stacy Malkin
Every year, the U.S. is drenched with some 200 million pounds of the weed killer glyphosate. Manufacturers say their weedkiller is safe, but 4,000 say it caused their cancer. And so we ask:
Which will win the lawsuits: cancer patients or Bayer/Monsanto?
Topics include the extent to which agriculture has become dependent on glyphosate; the science for and against glyphosate; and speculation as to which will win the glyphosate cancer liability lawsuits, cancer patients or manufacturers.
Show #1156: The Bees in the Mine
(Bees show available on request)
Guest: Thor Hanson, Author, Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees
Bees are the canaries in the mine of our environment, and they make possible every third bite of food we eat. As goes the bee, so go we, and so we pause to ask:
Are bees thriving or dying?
Topics include how the bee may have helped build up the modern human brain; how we rely on the bee for so much of our food; and the four reasons why bee colonies collapse and die.
Show #1155: The Great Consolidation
(Consolidation show available on request)
Guest: Claire Kelloway, Food Reporter and Policy Analyst, Open Markets Institute
Up and down the food chain, the big eat the little. So many little food companies have been eaten, only 11 big companies are now left to provide us with most of what we eat. And so we ask:
Has the consolidation of food made us more or less secure?
Topics include how the many businesses that did provide our food have become the 11 that now do most of the providing; the forces that led to this consolidation; and speculation as to whether consolidation has made our food chain more or less secure.
Show #1154: The Russians Are Coming! (And so are the Chinese, and Iranians, and North Koreans.)
(Russians show available on request)
Guest: Bob Norton, PhD, Director of Auburn University’s Open Source Intelligence Lab, Faculty Liaison of Auburn’s Cyber Initiative, and Chair of Auburn’s Food System Institute’s Food and Water Defense Working Group
The Russians are coming! No, not in battle tanks, but hiding in digital Trojan horses so as to hack their way into our nation’s digital infrastructure to steal and destroy at will. And so we ask:
Can hackers shut down our industrial food chain?
Topics include how the USA’s critical digital infrastructure is under constant attack by hackers supported by foreign governments; why our industrial food chain is vulnerable to these attacks; and what can be done to protect our food from digital enemies.
Show #1153: 10,000 Years of Milk
(Pests show available on request)
Guest: Mark Kurlansky, Author, Milk! A 10,000 Year Food Fracas
Ten thousand years ago, give or take, we figured out how to feed ourselves with the milk of lactating animals. We have been drinking, eating and fighting over that milk ever since. And so we ask:
How did milk do our bodies good?
Topics include a look back at the beginnings of our history with the milk of lactating animals; why some of us developed the ability to consume milk into adulthood while others did not; and how milk nourished us down through history.
Show #1152: Hidden Spirits
(Pests show available on request)
Guests: Sondra Barrett, PhD, Cellular Wisdom School & Dick Tippett, West Coast Dowsers Association,
Some say hidden spirits exist that can enable one to tell good food from bad, and all one needs for the telling is a forked stick. And so we ask…
Do hidden spirits exist that can guide our way?
Topics include a look at the ancient art of dowsing; a photographic look at the wisdom of cells; and how one’s intent may actually change the taste of wine.
Show #1151: Competing with Pests
(Pests show available on request)
Guests: Pest Control Expert Thomas Wittman, Gophers Limited
`We build up our farms, gardens and homes to satisfy our needs, but then they sneak in and steal all our work away. Their unrelenting assault on what we believe to be ours leads us to ask.
Can we control pests without harming ourselves?
Topics include a consideration of the true costs of controlling pests with poisons; non-toxic, humane alternatives to pest control with poisons; and whether we can control pests without harming ourselves.
Show #1150: Trapped by History
(History show available on request)
Guests: Gail Myers PhD, Founder Farms to Grow, Will Scott, Scott Family Farms & Sophia Wilmore, Ag Student, UCSC
We build up our farms, gardens and homes to satisfy our needs, but then they sneak in and steal all our work away. Their unrelenting assault on what we believe to be ours leads us to ask…
Can we control pests without harming ourselves?
Topics include a consideration of the true costs of controlling pests with poisons; non-toxic, humane alternatives to pest control with poisons; and whether we can control pests without harming ourselves.
Show #1149: Managing Pain in the Opioid Crisis
(Opioid show available on request)
Guest: Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Nicholas Abidi and Palleative Care Dr. William Morris
In one year of the Opioid Epidemic– 2016– the United States lost more people than in did in the entire nineteen years of the Viet Nam War. And so we pause to ask…
Can we manage pain without killing ourselves with opioids?
Topics include the relationship of pain management and healing; why the United States lost control over its opioid use; and how doctors are now managing pain with and without opioids.
Show #1148: A Most Ominous Sign
(Ominous show available on request)
Guest: Dr. Mike Rosmann / Farmer, Harlan IO & Psychologist, Ag Behavior Health
To all who eat food: The farmers who grow our food are committing suicide at a rate 500 percent greater than the rest of us. And so we simply must ask….
Why are our farmers committing suicide at a record rate?
Topics include include a look at the condictions that lead to despair among farmers; why U.S. farmers are taking their lives at record rates; and what is being done to reduce the suicide rate.
Show #1146: Pesticide-Laden Foods
(Pesticide show available on request)
Guest: Farmer Mike Madison, Author, Fruitful Labor
They say 60% of U.S. farm laborers are undocumented– which is the nice way of saying, “illegal.” If the nation secures its borders, as many hope, its farms will be left without laborers. And so we ask…
Who will provide labor for our farms?
Topics include the kinds of labor that must be employed on farms; the impact of rising labor costs on farm production; and speculation as to who might be available to work on our farms.
Show #1145: Laboring for Farms & Food
(Labor show available on request)
Guest: Farmer Mike Madison, Author, Fruitful Labor
They say 60% of U.S. farm laborers are undocumented– which is the nice way of saying, “illegal.” If the nation secures its borders, as many hope, its farms will be left without laborers. And so we ask…
Who will provide labor for our farms?
Topics include the kinds of labor that must be employed on farms; the impact of rising labor costs on farm production; and speculation as to who might be available to work on our farms.
Show #1144: Sickening Children with the Good Food
(Children show available on request)
Guest: Pediatrician Michelle Perro
According to the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, over half of US children and teens live with a chronic health problems, and 40% live with allergies. And so we ask…
Is it the good food that is sickening our children?
Topics include why a pediatrician came to believe that food is the source of chronic health issues; why medical science is at odds on how to address the issue of food; and what can be done to heal our children.
Show #1143: Fake Science
(Fake Science show available on request)
Guest: Veterinarian Will Winter
In 1955 Physiologist Ancel Keyes presented a scientific theory that saturated fat in meat, milk and eggs caused heart disease. Over a half century later, we learned that he had faked the science. And so we ask…
Why do we believe fake science?
Topics include how science is faked; the pressures on scientists that leads to their studies being faked; and what one might be able to do to see through the fakery.
Show #1142: Feeding 137.2 Trillion Living Cells
(Cells Show Available on request)
Guest: Dr. Dan Pompa, Author, The Cellular Healing Diet
We look into the mirror and say, “That’s me!” But that big “Me” in the mirror is really 137.2 trillion little “me’s,” and each and every one of them is hungry! And so we ask:
How does one feed one’s 137.2 trillion living cells?
Topics include the role living cells play in the health and well-being of our bodies; what happens when cells are malnourshed and treated poorly; and the five simple steps to making and keeping living cells happy.
Show #1141: California's 100% Weedkiller Wine
Guest: Zen Honeycutt, Founder & Executive Director, Moms Across America
100% of the California wines tested on behalf of Moms Across America were found to contain the weedkiller glyphosate. And so we ask…
Why is weedkiller in 100% of California wines?
Topics include how Moms found the weedkiller glyphosate in 100% of the California wines tested (including organic); what the consumption of that glyphosate might mean for human health; and what might one do to find wine– or any food or drink– that does not contain weedkiller.
Show #1140: Feeding Homicidal Ideation
(Homicidal Ideation Show Available on request)
Guest: David Kupelian, Author, The Snapping of the American Mind
Each of the 36 school shooters had a gun, a history of psychotropic medication, and homicidal ideation. And so we ask…
Do psychotropic medications feed homicidal ideation?
Topics include the school shooters and the psychotropic medications they take; how media covers their depredations; and why government looks the other way.
Show #1139: Recovering Opioid Nation
(Opioid Show Available on request)
Guest: Psychotherapist Elisa Dakiwag, Clinical Manager, Janus Addiction Treatment Center,
A nation with five percent of the world’s population consumes 80% of the world’s opiods, and watches as 60,000 citizens are killed by those opioids each year. And so we pause to ask…
How can we recover Opioid Nation?
Topics include how people become addicted to opiates and opioids; the point at which they elect to overcome their addiction; and how a professional helps an addict recover.
Show #1138: Addicting Opioid Nation
(Opioid Show Available on request)
Guest: Bradley DeHaven, Author How to Prevent, Detect, Treat and Live with the Addict Among Us,
A nation with five percent of the world’s population consumes 80% of the world’s opiods, and watches as 60,000 citizens are killed by those opioids each year. And so we pause to ask…
How did the U.S. become Opioid Nation?
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
(Science Show Available on request)
Guests: Rachel Herz, PhD, Neuroscientist & Author of Why You Eat What You Eat
To keep on the move, we must keep shoveling fuel into that burner in our belly. And so we eat, and eat and eat! But some among us pause on occasion to wonder at all the eating we do. And for them we pause to ask….
Why do we eat what we eat?
Topics include how our senses, mind and environment impact our experience of eating; a considerations that govern what we eat; and how we might learn to eat better.
Show #1136: Decolonizing the Food Chain
(Decolonizing Show Available on request)
Guests: Gail Myers, PhD, Founder of Farms to Grow & Will Scott, Scott Family Farms
Everyone must eat, and most everyone must buy the food they eat from others. The business of growing, processing and selling food has become dominated by a relatively few very big businesses. And that leads us to ask…
Can the food chain be decolonized?
Topics include how the industrial food system became colonized; how the colonization effects the food we eat; and whether it is possible to decolonize the food system so that small farmers can participate.
Show #1135: Hippie Food Changes How America Eats
(Hippie Show Available on request)
Guests: Jonathan Kauffman, Author of Hippie Food: How Back to the Landers, Longhairs and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat
They were children of the greatest generation. But frustrated with fighting their own war in Viet Nam, they turned on, tuned in, dropped out and changed the way Americans eat. And that leads us to ask…
How did Hippies change 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: You Choose: Cultural Selection
(Cultural Selection Show Available on request)
Guests: Gavin Ehringer, author of Leaving the Wild
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?
(Capitalism Show Available on request)
Guests: Eric Holt Gimenez, PhD., author of Foodies Guide to Capitalismn
Capitalism is how we feed oureselves. But some now point to capitalism as being the cause of hunger, obesity, land-grabbing, global warming and environmental pollution. And they lead us to ask…
Which can best feed us: capitalism or socialism?
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?
(Beef Show Available on request)
Guests: Bryan Mussard, President of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and Bill Bullard, CEO of R-Calf USA
China’s largest online retailer has agreed to buy $200 million worth of premium Montana beef over the next three years. Looking twenty-five years out, we wonder…
To whom will the good food go?
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
(Chewing Show Available on request)
Guest: University of Arkansas paleoanthropologist Peter Unger, Author of Evolution’s Bite
In Januar200 million years ago, give or take, we began developing the kinds of teeth it would take to eat our way to today. Looking back– way back– we ask…
How did teeth help make us human?
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 / Part IV: Consequences
(Green Gold Rush IV Show Available on request)
Guest: Fred Krissman, Research Associate, Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research, Emerald Triangle
In January 2018, cannabis will become legal– sort of–in California. This momentous change in the body politic leads us to ask…
Who will prosper from California’s Green-Gold rush?
Topics include a look at the traditional cannabis cultivation in California’s “Emerald Triangle;” where legal cannabis is likely to be farmed; and speculation as to the economic and cultural consequences of legalization.
Show #1129: The Settling of Science
(Settling of Science Show Available on request)
Guests: Carey Gillam, Author, White Wash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science
When they say the science is settled, we should all take it as fact and call it a day. But some of us with rebellious minds refuse to take the settling of science as a fact, and with that in mind, we pause to ask…
Is the weed killing herbicide glyphosate safe to eat?
Topics include the science that says glyphosate is safe to eat; the science that says glyphosate is not safe to eat; and whether one should, in fact, accept settling of science regarding the weed-killer we all eat.
Show #1128: California's Green-Gold Rush / Part III: The Farming
(Green Gold Rush III Show Available on request)
Guests: Jeff Brothers, CEO, Harborside Farms
Cannabis farming in California is moving out of the tree covered forests into the sunshine of the state’s fertile valleys. And so we ask…
How will legal cannabis be farmed?
Topics include the emergence of cannabis farming within California’s traditional agriculture; how the technologies of agriculture are being employed to grow cannabis; and what impact those technologies might have on the cannabis people consume.
Show #1127: California's Green-Gold Rush / Part II: The Money
(Green Gold Rush I Show Available on request)
Guests: Cannabis Financial consultants John Downs from Arcview and Gavin Kogan from Grupo Flor
Like gold, cannabis is sold by the gram for a lot of money. But unlike gold, anyone can grow cannabis anywhere. Now that California has made cannabis legal– sort of– we ask…
Can one make a lot of money growing cannabis in California?
Topics include how California legalized cannabis– sort of; how each county is establishing the legal framework for the cultivation and distribution of cannabis; and speculation as to whether one can make a lot of money growing legal– sort of– cannabis in California.
Show #1126: California's Green-Gold Rush / Part I: The Law
(Green Gold Rush I Show Available on request)
Guests: Maximillian Mikalonis, KStreet Consulting; Loretta Moreno, Santa Cruz County Cannabis Licensing; Dave Potter, Former Monterey County Supervisor,
Like gold, cannabis is sold by the gram for a lot of money. But unlike gold, anyone can grow cannabis anywhere. Now that California has made cannabis legal– sort of– we ask…
Can one make a lot of money growing cannabis in California?
Topics include how California legalized cannabis– sort of; how each county is establishing the legal framework for the cultivation and distribution of cannabis; and speculation as to whether one can make a lot of money growing legal– sort of– cannabis in California.
Show #1125: Local Liquor
(Local Liquor Show Available on request)
Guest: Sean Venus, Owner & Distiller, Venus Spirits
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: Big Bucks of Bottled Water
(Kellogg's Show Available on request)
Guests: Story of Stuff Campaign Manager Miranda Fox
Flint, Michigan’s tap water is bad, which is good if you are in the business of selling bottled water to Flint, Michigan. And so we ask…
Should water be a public or private resource?
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
(Kellogg's Show Available on request)
Guests: Journalist Warner Todd Huston
In 1930, W.K. Kellogg directed his foundation to “use the money as you please so long as it promotes the health, happiness, and well-being of children.” But today the Foundation gives millions to political causes. And so we ask…
Is the W.K. Kellogg Foundation stealing money from children?
Topics include the relationship between Kellogg’s cereals and the Kellogg Foundation; how the Foundation established to benefit children came to benefit political causes; and how the W.K. Kellogg Company and Foundation have become players in the political war of left vrs right.
Show #1122: Venezuel Runs out of Other People's Money
(Venezuela Show Available on request)
Guests: Francisco Valencia, President, Codevida
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?
Topics include whether what we hear happening in Venezuela is happening in Venezuela; why Venezuela has become dependent on other nations for 80% of its food and medicines; and speculation as to the nation’s future.
Show #1121: Deliberate Bureaucratic Terrorism
(Bureacratic Show Available on request)
Guests: David McCumber, Editor of the Montana Standard, and Bart Riley, Proprietor of Riley Meats
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) appears to have conducted a decade-long campaign of bureacratic terror throughout Montana and North Dakota’s family food sector. That campaign leads us to ask…
Is the USDA deliberately killing off family food businesses?
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 apparent bureaucratic terrorism.
Show #1120: Fake Food Fraud
(Fake Food Show Available on request)
Guests: Larry Olmsted, Author, Real Food Fake Food
Though the package’s label says “real food,” the food contained therein is really fake food. This fraud leads us to ask…
Which tastes best: real food for a lot money or fake food for a little money?
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
(Activism Show Available on request)
Guests: Julie Guthman, PhD, Co-author, The New Food Activism
They say we can’t fix the injustices of the food chain by simply voting with our dollars. To really get the job done right, we must take to the streets and force change. And so we ask…
Can political activism bring social justice to food?
Topics 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 Hydroponic Food?
(Organic HydroponicsShow Available on request)
Guests: Dave Chapman of Long Wind Farm and Karen Archipley of Archi’s Acres
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?
Topics include a look at the legality of organic food; the essential difference between growing food in soil and in water; and whether foods grown hydroponically should be labeled “organic.”
Show #1117: Break Up the FDA?
(FDA Show Available on request)
Guest: Dr. Renee Dufault, Former FDA Inspector, Author of Unsafe At Any Meal
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the efficacy of the nation’s foods and drugs. Some say this dual responsibility represents a monumental conflict of interest. If so, we ask…
Should the Food & Drug Administration be split into the Food Administration and the Drug Administration?
Topics include how the FDA allows bad things in good food; how those bad things likely lead to increases in diseases like alzheimer’s, autism, and cancer; and how the FDA helps pharmaceutical companies sell drugs to treat those diseases.
Show #1116: Whither the FDA?
(Sperm Count Show Available on request)
Note: Live remote broadcast!
Guest: Dr. Renee Dufault, Former FDA Inspector, Author of Unsafe At Any Meal
A couple of weeks ago it was phthalates in Kraft Macaroni and cheese, then glyphosate in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, then the revelation men have lost 59.3% of their sperm . And so we ask…
Why does the FDA allow bad things in good food?
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
(Sperm Count Show Available on request)
Guests: Irina Mindlis, Research Project Manager, Mount Sinai School of Medicine & co-author of “Temporal Trends in Sperm Count: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis”
American men have lost 59.3% of their total sperm count, and half are now close to being – or are – unable to reproduce. Men in developing nations have lost none of their sperm. And so we ask…
Why did American men lose 59.3% of their sperm?
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 Ben & Jerry's?
(Ben & Jerry's show available upon request)
Guest: Open Mic
Ten of eleven samples of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream were found to contain the weed-killer glyphosate. And so we ask…
Will you buy the glyphosate in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, or will you boycott until its gone?
Topics include why Ben & Jerry’s ice cream contains the weed-killer glyphosate; who says glyphosate is safe to eat and who says it is not; and whether you will buy the glyphosate in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, or boycott?
Show #1113: A Scream for Ice Cream
(Pink Slime available upon request)
Guests: Amy Ettinger, Author, Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America
I scream. You scream. And we all– at least, 90% or so– scream for ice cream! This quintessential American food leads us to ask…
If you could only have one flavor for the rest of your life, which would it be?
Topics include how ice cream became America’s food; why the ice cream industry industrialized into a few simple flavors; and how the emergence of craft ice creameries are bringing many new flavors back home to America.
Show #1112: Getting Down To Cannabusiness
(Pink Slime available upon request)
Guests: Les Isralow, Cannabis Media Producer; Steve Leavy, MedMen;
Kayvan Khalatbari, Cannabis Entrepreneur & PoliticianThough still listed as a Class One narcotic by the Single Convention Treaty of 1961, cannabis has been made legal, or semi-legal, in states across the land.
And the rush is on to turn the green plant into green money. That prospect leads us to once again ask…
Is it time to get down to cannabusiness?
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
(Pink Slime available upon request)
Guests: Anthony Francois, Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Farmer John was caught plowing his field by the Army Corps of Engineers and fined $2,800,000.00. That fine leads us to ask….
Can farmers grow food under such diligent government oversight?
Topics include why Farmer John Duarte 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
Show #1110: Stories From The Farm
(Stories from the Farm available upon request)
(Stories from The Farm available upon request)
We pause to celebrate the farms and farmers that enable the United States to remain free and independent. And what better way to celebrate than with stories of life on the farm. And so we ask…
What is your story about life on the farm?
Listeners are invited to call the live Food Chain Show Saturday 9am to 10am Pacific and tell their life-on-the-farm story. The studio call-in line is 831.479.1080.
Show #1109: Of Pink Slime & Fake News
(Pink Slime available upon request)
Guests: Dan Gainor, VP Media Research Center, Attorney James Wagstaffe, Kerr & Wagstaffe
ABC News called the textured beef “pink slime,” so National Beef sued the network for $1.9 billion. And so we ask…
Was the textured beef pink slime or fake news?
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 Animals
(Temple Grandin Show available upon request)
Guests: Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University, Author, Working With Farm Animals
Humans think one way. Animals think another way. And so we ask…
Can humans work animals more humanely by thinking like animals?
Topics include how humans think; how animals think; and how humans can work animals by thinking like animals.
Show #1107: Bad Food / Good Attorney
(Bad Food Good Attorney show available upon request)
Guests: Attorney Bill Marler, Marler Clark LLP
Campylobacter, E. coli, Hepatitis A, Listeria, Norovirus, Salmonella and Shigella are some of the pathogens that lead us to ask…
Is food becoming safe to eat, less safe to eat, or will food always be unsafe to eat?
Topics include how he won more than $600 million for clients in foodborne illness lawsuits; whether government’s Food Safety Modernization Act is making food safe to eat; and which foods he avoids eating.
Show #1106: Biology Or Chemistry
(Biology Or Chemistry Show available upon request)
Guests: Biologist Anne Bikle, author of Dig to Grow and Geologist David Montgomery, author of Growing a Revolution,
Some say there are two ways to grow food: one way is with biology; the other way is with chemistry. If such is true, we ask…
Which is best to eat: foods grown with biology or foods with chemistry?
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: Foods and Moods
(Foods & Moods Show available upon request)
Guests: University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of Soil Science Carol Shennan and Assistant Specialist, Margherita Zavatta
That mean cruel world out there can have a big impact on one’s moods, and a convenient way to try to manage those moods is by eating and drinking.
And so today we pause to ask…
Can we manage our moods with our foods?
Topics include why we are all becoming so emotionally charged; how we try to manage our moods; and whether food can be used to better manage moods.
Show #1104: Strawberry Fields Forever
(Strawberry show available upon request)
Guests: University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of Soil Science Carol Shennan and Assistant Specialist, Margherita Zavatta
We eat nearly eight pounds of fresh strawberries a year, and each strawberry we eat, according to USDA, contains an average of 7.7 pesticides. And so we ask…
Can strawberries be mass produced without pesticides?
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
(Fake Meat show available upon request)
Guest: San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writers Tara Duggan & Jonathan Kauffman
They are rushing to Silicon Valley for the opportunity to produce fake meat, and the venture capital is rushing to join them. This leads us to ask…
Will fake meat grow into a real meat industry?
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
(Invasives show available upon request)
Guest: Heath Packard, Director of Communications, Island Conservation
They arrive when no one is looking– or cares enough to be looking– and then, lacking any meaningful competition, they take control and supplant the natives. And so we ask…
Should invasive species be eliminated, or allowed to grow?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio Show hosts
Heath Packard, Director of Communications, Island Conservation, for a conversation about eliminating invasive species from islands of the world.Show #1101: Wolves to the Heal
(Wolves show available upon request)
Guest: Mark Cooke, President, Friends of the Rockies
Chronic Wasting Disease is a transmissable brain-wasting spongiform encephalopothy that is spreading throughout the deer and elk population of the West. Some say the best antidote to the debilitating transmissable disease is the wolf. That thought leads us to ask….
Should the strong be freed to eat the weak?
Topics include how Chronic Wasting Disease is being transmitted throughout the American west; why wolves might prove an effective antidote to this disease; and whether wolves should be freed to prey on the diseased deer, elk and moose.
Show #1100: Food Fights & Culture Wars
(historical food trends show available upon request)
Guest: Tom Nealon, Author, Food Fights & Culture Wars
Food trends have led us about for as long as can be remembered. And who better to tell us where trends have taken us in the past than an antiquariun cook book collector and seller. Let’s ask him...
What do food trends of the past tell us about trends in the future?
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!
(externalized costs of producing food show available upon request)
Guests: Professor Marion Nestle, author of Soda Politics, & Katy Keiffer, author of What’s the Matter with Meat
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?
Topics include why food in the U.S. is cheap, while food elsewhere is expensive; how foods like soda and meat have been made cheap in the U.S., and what are the consequences, if any, of the nation’s reliance on cheap food.
Show #1098: Pesticides & The Future of Food
(Show available on request)
Guest: Open Mic
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
(pesiticides and food show available on request)
Guest: Hilal Elver, Professor of International Law &UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
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!
(Pollinator or Pesticide Show available on request)
Guests: Madeleine Carnemark, Pollinator Program and Policy Coordinator at the Center for Food Safety and University of California Intern Producer Olivia Duncan
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!
(resistance to disease show available on request)
Guest: Professor Andy Dyer, University of South Carolina and author of Chasing the Red Queen
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 a Weapon of Terror
(Agroterrorism show available on request)
Guest: Hank Parker, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Georgetown University, Author Containment
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: Journey to the Center of Life
(ribosomes show available on request)
Guest: University of California Molecular Biologist and Professor Emeritus Harry Noller
Way down there at the center of life are machines that manufacturer the stuff of life. Those machines lead us to wonder...
Can we find viable replacements for nonviable antibiotics?
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 for agriculture show available on request)
Guests: Danny Merkley, Director of Water Resources, California Farm Bureau & Bill Wattenburg, PhD, Engineer, Radio Host, Senior Research Scientist Research Foundation, California State University
That 200,000 were evacuated from their homes due to the bursting flood gates of the Oroville dam is a good indication of just how precarious is California’s water supply, and that leads us to ask...
Will California have enough water to grow the nation’s food?
Topics include how California has been dammed and plumbed to satisfy the water needs of a flood-prone north and a drought-prone south; how that water provides for the growth of one-half of the nation’s fresh fruit and vegetables; and given the state of it’s water infrastructure, whether California will have enough water to grow the nation’s food?
Show #1091: Safely Substantially Equivalent!
(GMOs, food safety & the Future of Food show available on request)
Guests: Alison Van Eenennaam, PhD Animal Geneticist, UC Davis & McKay Jenkins, Author, Food Fight
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 substanially equivalent to an non-GMO?
Topics include how the doctrine of substantial equivalence came to be the criteria for judging the safety of genetically modified foods; the factors that determine equivalency; and how the doctrine has been used to develop the world’s biotech industry.
Show #1090: Of Sanctuary Cities & Lifeboat Ethics
(Immigration, Sanctuary Cities & Lifeboat ethics show available on request)
Guest: Matt O'Brien, Director of Research, Federation for American Immigration Reform
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?
Topics include how the U.S. manages immigration; how those policies compare with the policies of other nations; what the impact of U.S. policies might be on the nation’s body politic.
Show #1089: Lions in the Hood!
(Mountain Lions in the city and suburbs)
( Lions in the Hood Show available on request)
GuestS: Justine Smith, Doctoral Candidate, UC Santa Cruz
The mountains bordering California’s Silicon Valley provide prime habitat for people and pumas. That ever more people and pumas live in those mountains gets us to wondering...
Can people and pumas just get along?
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
(EcoFarm Farm Conference)
( EcoFarm Conference Show available on request)
GuestS: Ecological Farming Foundation veterans Sam Earnshaw, Thomas Wittman and Deborah Yashar
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?
(USDA Agriculture subsidies and rotating doors show)
( Drain the political swamp show available on request)
Guest: Jim Bovard, Author & "Anti-Czar Czar"
A new president is moving on Washington, D.C. with the promise to “drain the swamp!” Given the extent of that swamp, and the protections established to maintain it, we simply must ask...
Is it possible to drain the swamp of Washington, DC?
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 Subsidize
Guest: Don Scott, Director of Sustainability, National Biodiesel Board
( Biofuel industry subsidy show available on request)
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
( Animal Chiropractor show available on request)
Guest: Dr. William Strickland, D.C., Rose City Veterinary Hospital
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?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Elaine Khosvrova, Author, Butter: A Rich HIstory
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Chuck Allen, Agriculture Realty Specialist, Keller Williams
Cannabis is becoming legal– sort of– in states across the United States, thus precipitating a real estate green-gold landrush for cannabis farmland. And so we ask...
What is the value of cannabis farmland?
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
( Show available on request)
NOTE: This show runs 52:26
Guest: Kent Heckenlively, Author, Inoculated: How Science Lost its Soul in Autism
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dave Murphy, Founder & Executive Director, Food Democracy Now!
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?
Topics include how the weed-killer glyphosate, trade name Roundup, found its way into so many of the nation’s popular foods; what impact glyphosate might have on those who eat the foods; and why the federal government has stopped testing foods for glyphosate.
Show #1080: Food for the Long Walk
( Show available on request)
Guest: Hiker Jared Perry
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?
Topics include a look at the Pacific Crest and Continental Divide Trails; what compels one to hike those trails; and how one sustains one’s body through such sustained physical effort.
Show #1079: Goin up the Country, Got to Get Away!
( Show available on request)
Guest: Shawn & Beth Dougherty, The Independent Farmstead
I’m goin up the country, don’t you wanna go? Gonna leave this city, got to get away. All this fussin’ and fightin’, man, you know I sure can’t stay... That, from Canned Heat, leads us to ask...
Can we get away by going back to the country?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: UCSF Professor of Medicine Stanton Glantz e
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?
Topics include the 50 years of marketing warfare between simple carbohydrates and saturated fats; the consequences of that warfare on the nation’s health; and which authority consumers should believe as to the efficacy of dietary advise.
Show #1077: Food Safety Laws
( Show available on request)
Guest: Baylen Linnekin, Author, Biting the Hands that Feed Us
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?
Topics include a survey of the laws we have enacted to make food safe; the effect those laws have on farmers’ ability to grow food; and whether there may be a more effective approach to governing the production of food.
Show #1076: Growing Up Farm Kids
( Show available on request)
Guest: Lorraine Rominger, Author, The Rangity Tango Kids
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?
Topics include how farm children learned to work; how their farm culture enabled them to thrive; and what they learned on the farm their children won’t learn in the city.
Show #1075: Roundup-Ready Vaccines
( Show available on request)
Guest: Research Scientist Anthony Samsel
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?
Topics include the relationship of glyphosate weed killer and the formation of disease; how glyphosate was worked into the nation’s vaccines; and what pesticide-laden vaccines portend for the nation’s health.
Show #1074: Farming Food, Jobs and Hope in the City (2 of 2)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Michael Ableman, author of Street Farm
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?
Topics include whether the city’s unemployed can be trained to farm; the obstacles that must be overcome to establish and maintain a farm in the city; and whether farms in the city can bring hope to the residents of the city.
Show #1073: Teenagers in Hunger (1 of 2)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Elaine Waxman, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute
Ten 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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Steve Smith, Spokesman, Save Our Crops
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dave Carter, Executive Director, U.S. Bison Association
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 Disease Resistance
( Show available on request)
Guest: Associate Professor Anne Sperling, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Chicago
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?
Topics include a look at the paper Dr. Sperling’s co-authored in the New England Journal of Medicine that examined asthma rates in Hutterite and Amish children; why one community suffered from high rates of asthma, while the other suffered little; and what lessons might be learned from the hygiene hypothesis of disease resistance.
Show #1069: Organic Vrs Organic: The Compost Fight
( Show available on request)
Guest: Stan Mitchell, Pacific Coast Ag
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dick Peixote
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Catherine Frompovich, Author, Eat to Beat Disease
Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” But Hippocrates said that over 2,500 years ago. And so today we pause to ask...
Which foods are worthy of being one’s medicine?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Rob Thompson, Thompson Well Location
Food grows where water flows. In California’s Napa and Sonoma Counties food is the wine grape, and water is that which flows hundreds of feet below the surface. And so we ask...
How does one find water hundreds of feet below the surface?
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: A Bubbly Buggy Brew
( Show available on request)
Guest: Hannah Crum, President of Kombucha Brewers International
It is an effervescent drink of many names and many claims. Here in the United States we call it “kombucha,” and we drink up about $500 million dollars worth every year. All that bubbly buggy brew leads us to ask...
Does kombucha heal what ails?
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: Losing Our Food Trade Mojo?
Guest: Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
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?Topics include the United States strengths in growing food; why its balance of food trade is in the midst of an epic collapse; and what the collapsing food trade balance could mean to the nation’s economy.
Show #1063: Too Sweet to Eat?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dr. Dana Flavin from the Foundation for Collaborative Medicine and Research
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: Cannabinoid of Pain Relief?
( Show available on request)
Guests: Steve Alexander, retired pilot and CBD patient; Michael Backes, co-author of Cannabis Pharmacy; and Slovenia CBD cannabis farmer Matt Hrovatt
After Steve was blown out of a truck in Viet Nam he woke up to a lifetime of severe pain. Decades later he discovered relief in the CBD from a family farmer in Slovenia! Steve’s relief from a life of pain leads us to ask...
Can the CBD in cannabis bring true pain relief?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Thor Hanson, PhD, Author, The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernals, Pulses & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
They fuel today’s humanity, yet for most of evolutionary history, did not even exist. That leads us to ask...
How did seeds aid in the development of the “Cooking Ape?”
ToTopics 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 of the right seeds to guarantee a future.
Show #1060: GETTING DOWN TO CANNABUSINESS
( Show available on request)
Guest: Guest Producer Les Isralow, 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
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: UCSF found glyphosate– Roundup– in 93% of the urine sampled from the general public. The World Health Organization claims glyphosate is a probable cause of cancer in humans. And so we ask...
What is feeding us the glyphosate: air, water or food?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Ernest M. Curtis, M.D., author of The Cholesterol Delusion
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?
Topics include the development of plant-based unsaturated fats as a dietary alternative to animal-based saturated fats; how unsaturated fats were sold to the public as a healthy dietary staple; and the consequences of consuming unsaturated fats on the body’s cardiovascular system.
Show #1057: Cannabis Industry's Conundrum
( Show available on request)
Guests: Taylor West, National Cannabis Industry Associatio, Steve DeAngelo, Harborside Health Center; Lamarr Baxter, Alternative Investments & Consulting; Mark Goldfogel, IWorkForCannabis.com
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 stands in opposition to it.
Show #1056: The Community's Garden
( Show available on request)
Guest: UCSC Doctoral Student Monika Egerer & USCS Environmental Studies student Sara Rezaie
For twenty years it was the community’s garden. Then the corporation that owned the land and allowed its use took it back, leaving the distraught community with no place to grow. This leads us to ask...
Which should own the community’s garden: private party or public institution?
Topics include why community gardens get planted on private property; how, through the growth of the garden, that private property tends to become the community’s property; and whether that property should be owned by a private party or a public institution.
Show #1055: BIG GOVERNMENT ≠ SMALL FARMS
( Show available on request)
Guest: Brittany Cole Bush, Urban Shepherdess, BCB Shepherdess
The lunatic farmer of Polyface Farm came to speak and, without the slightest twitch of uncertainty, said, “You can’t have small farms and big government.” The shocked silence of the audience leads us to ask...
Can we have small farms and big government?
Topics include why a small farmer, like Joel Salatin, might think big government cannot support small farms; the impact a farm’s size has on government’s decision-making processes; and whether small farms can survive in an economy dominated by big government.
Show #1054: THE WAR ON WEEDS
( Show available on request)
Guest: Brittany Cole Bush, Urban Shepherdess, BCB Shepherdess
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Marta Zaraska, Author, Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession With Meat.
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: THE LUNATIC FARMER OF POLYFACE FARM
( Show available on request)
Guest: Joel Salatin, Farmer & Author of "The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer"
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?
Topics include why Salatin calls himself “the Lunatic Farmer;” how he uses farm animals to grow grass; and whether selecting the best animals, and culling the rest, is fair.
Show #1051: THE ZIKA VECTOR
( Show available on request)
Guest: University of California Assistant Professor of Entomology Omar Akbari
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 CORVIDAE
( Show available on request)
Guest: University of Washington Professor of Forest Sciences John Marzluff
When crows move in– or ravens, magpies, jays– the song birds move out. The conquering corvidae then take over the neighborhood, and watch to make certain we behave, or so it seems. The brains of these birds lead us to ask...
Can anyone control the crows?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: University of California Natural Science Graduate Student Hamutahl Cohen
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 if the problems that plague the bee might plague humans as well.
Show #1048: OUTBREAK AT CHIPOTLE 2
( Show available on request)
Guests: Michael Palmer, Food Safety Consultant, GAP Solutions
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Michael Palmer, Food Safety Consultant, GAP Solutions
From coast to coast, many dining on the “food with integrity” of Chipotle Mexican Grill were sickened by e.coli, salmonella and norovirus. That no one has determined why leads us to ask...
What caused the food poisoning outbreak at Chipotle?
Topics include speculation as to what caused the outbreak at Chipotle; where the greatest vulnerabilities for consumers are in fast foods; and how consumers can best protect themselves when ordering up at the fast food counter.
Show #1046: THE 100-MILE FOOD CHAIN
( Show available on request)
Guests: Dr. Elliot Campbell, Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of California, Merced
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...
Can you live on local food?
Topics include the impact the prolonged drought has had on the West’s aquifers; what impact El Nino rains are having on the aquifers; and how best to manage the commons of aquifer waters.
Show #1045: TRAGEDY OF THE AQUIFERS
( Show available on request)
Guests: Horatio Amezquita from The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water and Stiv Wilson, Campaign Director for “The Story of Stuff” Project
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?
Topics include the impact the prolonged drought has had on the West’s aquifers; what impact El Nino rains are having on the aquifers; and how best to manage the commons of aquifer waters.
Show #1044: LEARNING HOW TO EAT
( Show available on request)
Guests: Bee Wilson, Author, First Bite: Howe We Learned to Eat
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?
Topics include a brief history of feeding children the right foods; the physical and social factors that influence childrens’ taste in foods; and how best to teach chldren to enjoy eating the right food.
Show #1043: Hunting Them To Save Them
( Show available on request)
Guests: Ben Lamb, Hunter & Wildlife Advocate & Jared Wiklund, Public Relations Specialist for Pheasants and Quail Forever
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!
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dr. Jonathan Lundgren of the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service Lab in Brookings, South Dakota, USDA has also been invited
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?
Topics include the extent to which neonicotinoid or “neonic” pesticides are used in U.S. agriculture; whether neonics are indeed harmless to pollinators, as manufacturers claim; and how and why USDA appears to be discouraging research into disappearing bees.
Show #1041: To Label, Or Not To Label, GMOs
( Show available on request)
Guests: Kelly Damewood, Policy Director, California Certified Organic Farmers, and Hank Campbell, President, American Council on Science and Health
The Campbell’s Soup Company, maker also of Pepperidge Farm cookies, Prego sauces, Spaghetti-Os and fourteen other brands, has broke ranks with the Grocery Manufacturers Association to back a national GMO labeling initiative. This leads us to ask...
Will you buy Campbell’s GMO-labeled foods?
Topics include why science has failed to sell the efficacy of GMOs to the public; why the Campbell’s Soup Company broke ranks with an industry opposed to GMO labeling; and why establish a GMO label when foods labeled “organic” are GMO free.
Show #1040: The Nutrition Blame Game
( Show available on request)
Guest: Laura MacCleery, Regulatory Affairs Director at Center for Science in the Public Interest
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 #971: THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Open Mic
Negotiated in secret between governments of the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is said to provide free trade for all. But when Wiki dumped the docs, all were left to wonder…
Will the TPP’s free trade be fair trade?
Topics include a look at evolution of this trade agreement; how the agreement will affect trade in food among nations; and whether the TPP’s free trade will be fair trade.
Show #1039: Not COOL!
( Show available on request)
Guest: Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
The U.S. Congress enacted the 2002 Country of Origin (COOL) food labeling law so consumers could know the source of their food. In 2015, the World Trade Association authorized over $1 Billion in sanctions against the U.S. because COOL was “incompliant with WTO standards.”
Which should control what U.S. citizens may know about their food: the U.S. Congress or the World Trade Association?
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?
( Show available on request)
Guests: Matt Rogers of Whole Foods, John Musser of Tropic Trade and Hannah Freeman of Fair Trade USA
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?
Topics include the extent to which the world tries to help Haiti; why the world’s help never seems to help; and how the planting of mangoes actually helped Haiti and Haitians.
Show #1037: How The Gringos Stole Tequila
( Show available on request)
Guest: Chantal Martineau, author of How The Gringos Stole Tequila
Who among us has not had a good Bad Tequila Experience? The reason for our Experience might just be what we– the gringos– have done to tequila. And so we ask…
HOW DID WE GRINGOS STEAL 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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Sheldon Krimsky, Professor, Tufts University
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 To Eat
( Show available on request)
Guests: Natalie Winch, Author, Ditching the Drive-Thru
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: Professor William Albrecht: Food Heretic
( Show available on request)
Guests: Veterinarian & Naturopathic Doctor Joel Wallach
He stood up to the Green Revolution, and with his teachings, became a heritic of modern agriculture. Professor William Albrecht’s advocacy leads us to ask…
Can we live without living soil?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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Open Microphone
They have conducted 11 deliberate attacks on the physical infrastructure of the internet over the past year. Their efforts lead us to ask you…
Who will feed us if they shut down the internet?Topics include speculation as to who is conducting deliberate, probing attacks on the internet’s physical infrastructure; why they are conducting the attacks, and who will feed us if they succeed in shutting down the internet.
Show #1032: The Life Within
( Show available on request)
Guests: David Montgomery & Anne Bikle, Authors, The Hidden Half of Nature
We have 100 trillion little organisms living within our body. They outnumber our own cells on the order of 10 to 1, and they talk with each other. And so we ask...
Are we what we eat, or are we what they eat?Topics include a look at how soil microbes govern the growth and development of plants; how human microbes govern the health of the body; and what we can do to “just get along” with all those little bugs.
Show #1031: The One-Straw Revolutionary
( Show available on request)
Guest: Larry Korn, Author, One-Straw Revolutionary
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?Topics include an introduction to Masanobu Fukuoka and his “One-Straw” or “Do-Nothing” farming; how the One-Straw technology differs from conventional farming technologies; and whether the One-Straw could make it possible to grow nothing and harvest everything.
Show #1030: THE GOAT MILK WAR
( Show available on request)
Guest: Gingi Freeman & Kristeina Wolfert, Urban Farmers for Food Freedom
Gingi Freeman needed goat milk for her babies, but did not want to pay the $32 per gallon, and so raised a miniature goat, for which the City of Visalia will fine her $1,000 per day. And so we ask…
Should city folks be free to raise a goat or chickens?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: MEALS BY MAIL
( Show available on request)
Guest: Michael Joseph, Founder & CEO, Green Chef
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!
(NOTE: Due to technical difficulty, program runs 1.5 minutes short at 52.37.50)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Ken Whiting of Whiting’s Foods
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 Creeping Things
( Show available on request)
Guests: Rebecca Thistlethwaite, co-author of The New Livestock Farmer
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: To Know Or Not To Know
( Show available on request)
Guests: Maisie Ganzler, VP Bon Appetit Management Company, Randy Krotz, CEO U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, Rodger Wasson, Wasson Idea Farming,
A century ago, Upton Sinclair opened the door to the meat packing facilities of Chicago with his novel The Jungle, and its been producers versus consumers ever since. 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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Dr. Lincoln Taiz and Lee Taiz, co-authors of Flora Unveiled: The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants
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 know plants actually do it? Which leads us to ask…
Do plants enjoy sex?
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 Responsibly-Grown Ratings
( Show available on request)
Guests: Organic Farming Pioneers Mark Lipson & Steve Sprinkel
Whole Foods wants to rate the food it sells as being “good,” “better” or “best,” so long as farmers pay it an estimated $5,000 to $20,000 a year for the rating. And so we ask…
Why did Whole Foods institute a “Responsibly Grown” food rating system?
Topics include reasons why Whole Foods established a food rating system; what impact the system will have on the farmers who supply it with food; and how much Whole Foods’ rated food will cost at the check out stand.
Show #1023: Psychotropic Drugs for Children
( Show available on request)
Guests: Columbia University Research Psychiatrist Dr. Mark Olfson
They say a culture may be judged by how it treats its children. If such is true, we ask…
How should a culture that feeds its children psychotropic medications be judged?
Topics include why psychotropic drugs are prescribed for children; how the drugs impact the behavior children; and the effects of the drug use by children on the culture of the nation.
Show #1022: Homo neanderthalensis Vrs Homo sapiens
( Show available on request)
Guests: Anthropology Professor Pat Shipman, Author of The Invaders
50,000 years ago it was us against them, and they were the home team. The winners would eat; the losers would fade into fossils. This food fight for the ages leads us to ask…
How did we beat the Neanderthal to food and the future?
Topics include a comparison of Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens; what happened when humans nvaded the Neanderthal turf 50,000 years ago; and how humans beat the Neanderthal to food and the future.
Show #1021: Farm Owners Vrs Farm Renters
( Show available on request)
Guests: Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute & Dean Kuipers, Orion Magazine
Knowing every country needs more farmland to feed their 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?
Topics 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 #1020: Feds vrs States on GMO Labeling
( Show available on request)
Guests: Open Microphone
Proponents call it the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Law.” Opponnents call it the “Deny Americans the Right to Know,” or “Dark Act.” Question is…
Should government restrict what consumers may know about food?
Topics include why bi-partisan legislation was introduced to restrict states from requiring GMO labeling; how this legislation, if passed, will restrict consumers’ knowledge of their foods; and whether the listening audience believes the legislation should be signed into law.
Show #1019: Farm Labor's Lost
( Show available on request)
Guests: Bob Martin, General Manager of Rio Farms and Butch Lindley, Partner of J&L Farms
When Butch told about the 20 acre farm with $400,000 worth of lettuce that went unharvested because no one would harvest it, we just had to ask…
Where have all the farm workers gone?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio will host Pete Kennedy, President, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund for a conversation about the possible consequences of government’s effort to make food safe.
Topics include the extent to which U.S. farmers suffer from farm labor shortages; the impact labor shortages have on farmers’ ability to grow and process food; and what the farm labor shortage portends for the nation’s ability to feed itself.
Show #1018: Food Safety Modernization Act
( Show available on request)
Guest: Pete Kennedy, President, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund
In response to food contaminations that sickened and killed many, the federal government passed the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010. The pending implementation of this Act leads us to ask…
For whom will government make food safe?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio will host Pete Kennedy, President, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund for a conversation about the possible consequences of government’s effort to make food safe.
Topics include a brief look at the five-year history of the Food Safety Modernization Act; how the Act’s rules and regulations were developed; and what impact government’s effort to make food safe will have on the nation’s food chain.
Show #1017: Learning Life's Lessons
( Show available on request)
Guest: Kiera Butler, Author, Raise: What 4-H Teaches 7 Million Kids
It takes a lot of effort for a child to raise a farm animal, and a lot of emotion for the child to see his or her animal sold away to the marketplace. And so we ask…
Should children be allowed to work on the farms of family and friends?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio will host Kiera Butler, author of Raise: What 4-H Teaches 7 Million Kids, for a conversation about teaching children the lessons of life.
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: The Organic Tug-of-War
( Show available on request)
Guest: Mark Kastel, Cornucopia Institute
Is “organic” still organic?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio will host Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute for a conversation about the tug-of-war over organic food and agriculture.
Topics include how establishing an official definition for “organic” made possible the incredible growth of the organic food industry; how government was tasked to manage the word so as to hold its value; and why some now want the head of the National Organic Program fired.
Show #1015: Africa & America
( Show available on request)
Guests: Godfrey Kasozi, Centre for Environment Technology and Rural Development, Uganda & Peggy Pollard, Sister Cities program.
Godfrey Kasozi came to the U.S. from Uganda to learn how to become an organic farmer, and now trains thousands of Ugandans to be organic farmers. And so we ask…
What can we in the developed world learn from those in the devoloping world?
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?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Health Insurance Expert Pamela Fugitt-Hetrick, Host of The Money Moves Radio Show
When fully implemented in 2017, the Affordable Care Act will change the cost of doing business for many businesses across the land. This change leads us to ask…
How will the Affordable Care Act affect the price of food?
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Wes Bolden, Cool Planet Inc; Ivy Young, Santa Cruz Compost
They say we throw away 40% of our food, but that’s only the tip of the biomass waste iceberg. This tremendous waste of life and energy leads us to ask…
How can we get the gold in our garbage?
Topics include what is lost in our biomass waste stream; how the ancients of the Amazon turned biomass into life-sustaining “Terra Preta” soil; and the ways in which we can get the gold in the garbage.
Show #1012: Who to Believe?
( Show available on request)
Guests: Caroline Cox, Center for Enviornmental Health; Rebecca Riley, Natural Resources Defense Council. (NOTE: Monsanto Inc and the National Corn Growers Association refused to participate.)
An area greater than the land mass of the United States or China has been planted with crops genetically-engineered to withstand the herbicide glyphosate. And so we ask…
Is glyphosate safe to eat?
Topics include how GMO crops have increased the use of glyphosate; which interests say glyphosate is safe, and which say it is a “probable” cause of cancer; and which interest should consumers of food believe.
Show #1011: From Apricots to Apple Inc
( Show available on request)
Guest: Robin Chapman, Author, California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley
The Santa Clara Valley once contained some of the most productive farmland in the world, but now contains office space renting for up to $100 per square foot. And so we ask…
Where will we grow food when we pave all our farmland into cities?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Keith Helkes, Chief Operating Officer of the Genex Cooperative, Inc.
You’ve heard the one about the old bull and the young bull. Toystory may well have been the young bull, as he went on to sire 500,000 calves. And so we ask…
How does agriculture get so many out of so few?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: John McQuaid, author of Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat
Fats are bad. Fats are good. Grains are good. Grains are bad. Eggs are bad. Eggs are good. It seems nothing flies faster than a food fad, and so we ask…
Can our taste tell good food from bad?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?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Andy Dyer, author of Chasing the Red Queen
Those farms out there in the country may look peaceful, but in fact they are battlefields in which pests compete with farmers for the crops. This competition leads us to ak…
Which will win the fight for our food: pests or pesticides?
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: Buying the Good Earth
( Show available on request)
Guests: Chuck Allen of Keller Williams and Randy Dickhut, Vice President of Real Estate Operations with Farmers National Company
The value of land, which is usually expressed in terms of a monetary price, is the ultimate point of contention in its sale. This observation leads us to ask…
What factors give farmland its value?
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Jean Kvamme and Stacy James-Ryan of the Lichen Oaks Adaptive Riding Center
To heal one’s broken body, frazzled nerves or confused mind, one could take the drugs or one could ride the horse. And so we ask…
Can one be healed by horse?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Katherine Reid PhD, mother, biochemist and Executive Director of Un Blind My Mind,
There are 100 trillion microorganisms living within the digestive tract of our body, and they are hungry. All that hunger leads us to ask…
What should we feed the life within?
Topics include the intellectual break-through that gave Dr. Reid the means to control her daughter’s debilitating autism spectrum disorder; how this break-through led Dr. Reid to the relationship between the microorganisms within and health; and how we can best feed the microorganisms within to insure optimum health.
Show #1004: Antidote to Autism?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Katherine Reid PhD, mother, biochemist and Executive Director of Un Blind My Mind,
The three-year old’s autism was so severe she would cry through hours of yes/no loops. The antidote her mother discovered was not a drug to feed her; it was food not to feed her. And so we ask…
Can what we don’t eat be the antidote to autism?
Topics include the degree to which Dr. Reid’s daughter suffered from autism; Dr. Reid’s efforts, as a biochemist, to find an antidote to her daughter’s autism, and the intellectual break-through that gave Dr. Reid the means to control her daughter’s austim.
Show #1003: To Label Or Not Label
( Show available on request)
Guests: Diana Reeves, Founder, GMO Free USA & Not Available, Grocery Manufacturers Association
93% of consumers support labeling the genetically modified foods industry has spent over $100 million dollars to avoid labeling. And so we ask…
Should the federal government support or prohibit the labeling of GMO foods?
Topics include the degree to which modified genes are found in the nation’s foods; the efforts made by consumers to have GMO foods labeled; and the efforts by industry to prevent labeling through federal government legislation.
Show #1002: Bone Tea for Thee and Me
( Show available on request)
Guests: Sally Fallon Morell and Kaayla Daniel, President and Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and co-authors of Nourishing Broth,
They say we now spend over $300 billion a year on prescription medications. If so, we are making somebody else feel very good. And so we ask...
Can what healed us in the past heal us today?
Topics include the science of bone broth remedies; affilictions treated with bone broths; and how to make bone broth teas and soups at home.
Show #1001: DOG – THE PERFECT EMPLOYEE
( Show available on request)
Guest: Cattle Rancher & Dog Trainer Jerry Davis
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 #1,000: FARMING FOR THE CITY
( Show available on request)
Guest: Author of MetroFarm and Food Chain Radio Host Michael Olson
You can earn a substantial income – 8 times the average personal income, and more – by farming a small parcel of land in or near the city, for the city. If this assertion is true, we ask…
How can I grow for big profit on a small parcel of land?
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
( Show available on request)
(Note: Remote broadcast quality sound)
Guest: Activist, Author and University of Arizona Professor Gary Paul Nabhan
It did rain once this season, but then the “California High” returned and forecasts now call for an extended period of sunny and dry. All this nice weather leads us to ask…
Can we grow enough food farming the Big Dry?
Topics include a look at the world’s more successful desert horticultural oases; what the oases can teach us about farming in dry conditions; and whether we can adapt in time to grow enough food.
Show #998: FARMER BOT FOOD
( Show available on request)
Guest: Attorney Roger Royce, Host, Silicon Valley AgTech Incubator and Conference
In 1900, the average farm was 147 acres; today, the average farm is 447 acres. Given how technology has made it possible for one farmer to grow more crops, we simply must ask…
Will humans still farm in 2050?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Author, Rancher, Vegetarian Nicolette Hahn Niman, Defending Beef
Government will soon recommend we eat less beef as part of an environmentally friendly diet. That government says beef is so unfriendly leads us to ask…
Should beef be banned?
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?
( Show available on request)
Guest: UC Berkeley Conservation Biologist Lauren Ponisio
Some say we need all the tools of industrial agriculture to feed our future, but others point to a study that says organic agriculture may made to produce as much without the environmental costs. And so we ask…
Which agriculture is most productive: industrial or organic?
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
(Technical Loss, No recording Available)
Guest: Tom Bruce, Consultant, Central Coast Food & Beverage
They say we all, being average, spend $2,700 per year eating out. There being 316 million of us averages, that means we eat up over $853 billion a year eating out. And so we ask…
Who gets the money’s worth when we eat out?
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: Our Liquid Staff of Life
( Show available on request)
Guest: Amelia Loftus, author of Sustainable Homebrewing
A few short years ago, we had but a few big brands of beer from which to select. Today we select from thousands of international, national, regional, local, and home brewed beers. And so we ask…
What kind of beer-drinker are you?
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Greenpeace Co-Founder Patrick Moore of Allow Golden Rice Now, and Greenpeace Senior Scientiest Janet Cotter from the Greenpeace International Science Unit
Some say genetically modified golden rice will prevent blindness for millions of malnourished people, but others say it is an industry Trojan horse filled with GMOs for invading unwilling nations. And so we ask…
Is golden rice good rice?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio show hosts Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, of Allow Golden Rice Now, and Senior Scientist Janet Cotter, of Greenpeace’s International Science Unit, for a green vrs green conversation about golden rice.
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 #937: RIGHTS TO FOOD
(HOLIDAY REPLACEMENT SHOW AIRED 11.29)
( Show available on request)
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 #992: The Pacific Protein War
( Show available on request)
Guests: Joe Hamby, COO of the Tri Marine Group, and Adam Baske, of Sea Strong, LLC
Billions of dollars worth of tuna swim in the Pacific Ocean, until they are caught. That fishermen are so good at catching leads us to ask…
Who should control the catching of the Pacific’s protein?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio show hosts Joe Hamby, COO of the Tri Marine Group, and Adam Baske, of Sea Strong, LLC, for a conversation about Pacific protein.
Topics include a look at the Pacific’s tuna species; who catches the tuna and how much they catch; and who should control the catching of the Pacific’s protein.
Show #991: Our Beginning Farmers
( Show available on request)
Guests: Lauren Markham, author of “The New Farmer,” an article in Orion Magazine, and Eliza Greenman of Legacy Fruit in Virginia
Farming is physically demanding. Farmers now average 58 years of age. With these two facts in mind, we pause to ask…
Who among the young will step up to grow our food?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio show hosts Lauren Markham, author of “The New Farmer,” an article in Orion Magazine, and Eliza Greenman of Legacy Fruit in Virginia, for a conversation about beginning farmers.
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance Executive Director Judith McGeary
The Federal government’s Food Safety Czar, former Monsanto VP Michael Taylor, has placed government’s second round of proposed food safety rules on the table for comment. And so we ask…
For whom will government’s proposed rules make food safe?
Topics include why government had to issue a second round of rules and regulations on how food can be produced; who, or what, will be able to produce food under government’s new guidelines; and for whom will government’s proposed rules make food safe?
Show #989: Brown, Then Green
( Show available on request)
Guests: Rancher Gabe Brown, Bismark, North Dakota)
It has been said the quality of our lives depends on the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. If such is true, we ask…
Can we become green, without first becoming brown?
Topics include soil’s influence on the health of the environment; what happens to health when soil’s biological processes are bypassed; and how people and animals can work together to restore soil and health.
Show #988: Feeding Our Future's Billions
( Show available on request)
Guests: John Kempf, Advancing Eco Agriculture, and Mischa Popoff, Heartland Institute
Today’s agriculture supports 7.2 billion people; tomorrow’s agriculture will have to support 9.1 billion people, and most of them will live in cities. This leads us to ask…
Which agriculture will feed the future: ecological or industrial?
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: Eating Words
( Show available on request)
Guest: Stanford University Professor Dan Jurafsky, author of The Language of Food
An ancient Chinese fish sauce that became the first widely-produced alcohol now commands grocers’ shelves as Ketchup. This journey through time leads us to ask…
What can food words teach us about human history?
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 Burger
( Show available on request)
Guest: David Peterson, Owner of Corralitos Market and Sausage Company
They say hamburgers are environmentally incorrect, and so billionaires like Bill Gates and Li Ka-shing are investing in proprietary replica burgers. Their billions lead us to ask…
Can real meat survive competition from replica meat?
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 food dollars.
Show #985: The Red Delicious Paradox
( Show available on request)
Guest: The Professor of Agriculture, Tom Burford, Author of Apples of North America
It is the most delicious looking item on the grocer’s shelf, and yet it is the one most often discarded uneaten. This paradox of the Red Delicious apple leads us to ask…
Why does a food so beautiful taste so bad?
Topics include a brief history of the Red Delicous apple; the impact of industrialization on the taste of the Red Delicous; and what is lost when we buy into one apple to the exclusion of so many others.
Show #984: One Billion Pounds of Poison
( Show available on request)
Guest: Andre Leu, President of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, and author of The Myths of Safe Pesticides
We use over 1 billion pounds of pesticide every year to grow the food we eat. All those pounds of poison lead us to ask…
Where do pesticides go, when they go away?
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?
( Show available on request)
Guests: San Francisco Supervisor David Chiu and Recreation and Parks General Manager Phil Ginsburg
The City of San Francisco, which contains some of the most expensive real estate in the world, has elected to encourage the growth of farms within its city limits. This leads us to ask…
Can farms be made to grow in San Francisco?
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Kyle Olson, of Education Action Group, and Chef Jamie Smith, of Food Smith
You can lead school children to healthy food, but you can’t force them to eat it, and so school trash cans are now filled with $1 billion worth of healthy food. This leads us to ask…
Should government force school children to eat healthy food?
Topics include federal government involvement in the nation’s school lunch programs; how school children are reacting to government’s healthy food; and whether government should force school childen to eat healthy food.
Show #981: $304,480 to Raise a Child to 18
( Show available on request)
Guest: Lauren Greutman, Author, How to Coupon Effectively
USDA says it will cost young parents $304,480 to raise a child to age 18. Topping the list of things parents must buy their child is food. And so we ask…
Where can one find the best value in food?
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 in the Great California Drought
( Show available on request)
Guest: Michael Marsh, Executive Director, Western United Dairyman
Like a plum drying in the sun, California is shriveling into a prune of a state. As its lakes, reservoirs, rivers and aquifers evaporate, we pause to ask…
Who should get what little water is left to get?
Topics include a look at the severity of California’s drought; how California farmers have been forced to the end of the public’s water line; and to what extent can Golden State farmers continue to produce the nation’s food with so little water.
Show #979: Our Rural Hungry
( Show available on request)
Guest: John Crabtree, Center for Rural Affairs
We are losing the abilitly to feed ourelves. In the U.S., 50 million receive food stamps and in California, 139 depend on the 100 who work. The greatest percentage of hungry live in rural areas, which leads us to ask…
Why are so many in rural America so hungry?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: University of Toronto Professor Pierre Desrochers, author of The Locavore’s Dilemma
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So when so many say local food is best, others will just have to say…
Food from 10,000 miles away is best!
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Journalist Kristina Johnson, author of the Civil Eats post, “The Love Lives of Farmers,”
She moved out into the country to become a farmer, but had to name her farm “BYOB,” for “Bring your own Boyfriend.” “The pickings out here are slim,” she said. And so we ask...
Where does one find a mate in farm country?
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!
( Show available on request)
Guest: Bryce Bauer, author of Gentlemen Bootleggers
Our two great experiments in prohibition, that of alcohol and cannabis, have both proved to be monumental failures, at least to their stated intentions. But that leads us to ask…
Why do we prohibit substances we do not want to have prohibited?
Topics include why two of mankind’s most used substances– alcohol and cannabis– were prohibited by law; the impact those prohibitions had on local and national economies; and why we prohibit substances we do not want to have prohibited.
Show #975: FARMING IN THE SKY
( Show available on request)
Guests: EcoStation NY’s Maggie Cheney and Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ Steven Peck
There is a lot of extremely valuable land available in the big cities of the world. Trouble is, that valuable land is up on the roofs This leads us to ask…
Can it be practical to farm in the sky?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Virginia farmer Martha Boneta and Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund President Pete Kennedy
When local government discovered family farmer Martha Boneta selling vegetables, carving pumpkins, and hosting birthday parties, it tried to shut her down with the threat of a $15,000 per day fine. This leads us to ask…
Does government want family farms to survive?
Topics include government’s attempt to shut down Martha Boneta’s Virginia farm; how Martha’s pitchfork rebellion sent government scurrying for its cubicles; and why consumers and family farmers find it necessary to support a legal defense fund.
Show #973: HOPE IN HERITAGE
( Show available on request)
Guest: Farmer and Organic Pioneer Amigo Bob Cantisano
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?
Topics include a look at how California’s Sierra gold country became populated by fruit and nut tress from around the world; how some of those trees survived untended through time; and why some wish to preserve the heritage trees for the future.
Show #972: GMO SCIENCE VRS SCIENCE
( Show available on request)
Guest: UC Davis Animal Science Professor Allison Van Eenennaam and U of Georgia Plant Science Professor Wayne Parrott
Hundreds of scientific studies prove genetically-modified (GM) foods are safe to eat, but then along came Carman’s study showing severe stomach inflammation, and Seralini’s study showing cancerous tumors. And so we ask…
Whose GM science should we trust?
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: THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Open Mic
Negotiated in secret between governments of the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is said to provide free trade for all. But when Wiki dumped the docs, all were left to wonder…
Will the TPP’s free trade be fair trade?
Topics include a look at evolution of this trade agreement; how the agreement will affect trade in food among nations; and whether the TPP’s free trade will be fair trade.
Show #970: THE FORK IN THE ROAD
( Show available on request)
Guest: Kristin Carlson, Anna Ringelman, Seniors in Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz
Like most industries, agriculture seems to be heading in one of two directions: very big or very small. As Yogi Berra said, “When you get to the fork in the road, take it!” And so…
What kind of food do we want the future to serve for dinner?
Topics include a look at the two directions in which the producers of agriculture appear to be headed; from which agriculture will the graduating students want to feed their families’ future; and what they, as individuals, will do to help sustain that agriculture.
Show #969: ARMING USDA
( Show available on request)
Guest: Ray Parga, Del Valle Gunsmithing
We are arming the United States Department of Agriculture with .40 Caliber submachine guns and gender-specific body armor. This leads us to ask…
Why are we arming USDA with submachine guns and body armor?
Topics include USDA’s public request for purchase of submachine guns and body armor; USDA’s response to a request for a clarification interview; and the purposes for which USDA’s firearms are designed.
Show #968: WASTES NOT, WANT NOT!
( Show available on request)
(AIRED SATURDAY MAY 24, 2014 )
Guest: 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
China recently admitted to contaminating 20% of its farmland and 90% of its surface water with the unrestricted dumping of domestic and industrial wastes. China’s hunger for clean food leads us to ask …
Are foods grown in treated industrial wastes safe to eat?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Patty Lovera, Assistant Director, Food & Water Watch
Our math problem: If 20% of China’s farmland, and 90% of its surface water, are contaminated with toxic heavy metals, and if 1/3 of the organic food we import is from China, then…
How much of the organic food we eat is contaminated with China’s toxic heavy metals?
Topics include why the United States imports so much organic food from China; how organic is the organic food we import from China; and who we can trust to tell us how organic is China’s organic food.
Show #966: BECOMING CHEF
( Show available on request)
Guest: Chef Enzo Fargione, author of Visual Eats
We love good food and we love to cook for family and friends… So, given our love of food, and of cooking, and of people, why don’t we open a restaurant and become chef? This thought leads us to ask…
What are the odds of a good cook becoming a successful chef?
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
(AIRED SATURDAY MAY 3)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Gary Paul Nabhan, author, Cumin, Camels, and Caravans
When the day-to-day becomes too dull for our taste, we reach for the spice rack. This reaching for interest leads us to ask…
How have spices spiced-up history?
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: COVENENT OF FOOD IGNORANCE
(AIRED SATURDAY APRIL 26)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Ann Vileisis, Author, Kitchen Literacy
Though nothing is more intimate to us than the food we eat, we have, as a city-dwelling people, agreed to deprive ourselves of the knowledge about that food. This leads us to ask…
Should we learn the story of our foods?
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
(SATURDAY APRIL 19)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Gautum Dantas, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Washington State University
In order to grow a large number of animals in very small spaces, the animals are fed large amounts of antibiotics. Some bacteria die, but others resist. This leads us to ask…
How do bacteria learn to resist antibiotics?
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: SUPER GENES / SUPER WEEDS
(SATURDAY APRIL 12)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Steve Smith, Save Our Crops Coalition
There is a war going on between people and pests for or the nutrients stored in growing crops. This war leads us to ask:
Which will win: people or pests?
Topics include why some primitive cultures were healthier than many of today’s civilized cultures; what happened to food when we civilized it through agriculture; and whether the nutrients we lost through agriculture can be regained through agriculture.
Show #961: THE MISSING FOOD
(SATURDAY MARCH 22)
( Show available on request)
Guest: Physician Daphne Miller, author of The Jungle Effect and Farmacology
Some say essential nutrients went missing when we civilized our food, and we pay for that loss with sickness and disease. This leads us to ask…
Can farming return the nutrients missing in our food?
Topics include why some primitive cultures were healthier than many of today’s civilized cultures; what happened to food when we civilized it through agriculture; and whether the nutrients we lost through agriculture can be regained through agriculture.
Show #960: DECERTIFYING THE UFW
( Show available on request)
Guest: Silvia Lopez, Farm Worker, Gerawan Farms
On November 5, 2013, farmworkers at Gerawan Farms voted to decertify the United Farmworkers Union, a vote California’s Agriculture Labor Relations Board refused to count. This leads us to ask…
Should government count the vote to decertify the union?
This Saturday at 9am Pacific, the Food Chain Radio show with Michael Olson hosts Gerawan Farm worker Silvia Lopez for a conversation about her federal civil rights suit against California’s ALRB. (The UFW and ALRB have been invited to participate.)
Show #959: MAN OR BEAST?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good And Evil
On television’s nature channels we watch animals eat animals, and on the nightly news we watch people dispatch people. This televised carnage leads us to ask…
Which is most cruel: man or beast?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Sheriff’s Sergeant Michael Chapman from the Fresno County Ag Task Force
The bounty of agriculture is a mega-billion dollar treasure sitting out in the open for everyone to see, and for some to simply take. This theft leads us to ask…
Can the stealing be stopped?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Mark Stambler, Pagnol Boulanger
Mark kneaded some dough, threw it in the oven, then sold bread to neighbors. When Mark’s bread became famous, the food safety police stepped in and confiscated the lot, which leads us to ask…
Which is most important: food safety or food sovereignty?
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 GMO STOMACH STUDY
( Show available on request)
Guest: Howard Vlieger of Verity Farms
There have been many studies as to the safety of genetically modified organisms in our food. Some studies say GMO foods are safe, others say they are not safe. And so we ask…
Who is telling the truth about the safety of GMOs in our food?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Gregory Conko, Executive Director, Competitive Enterprise Institute,
Some say we should not want to know, nor should we ask, what’s in the Cheerios. Others say we should want to know, and should ask. And so we ask…
Should General Mills reveal whether its foods contain GMOs?
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Rachel Sheffield, Policy Analyst, DeVos Center for Religtion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Erik Altieri, Communications Director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Esalen and Tracy Korpela from the Lotus Collaborative Eating Disorder Recovery Center,
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, AND FAITH
( Show available on request)
Guest: Fred Bahnson, Director of the Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative, and author of Soil and Sacrament
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 ISLANDS
( Show available on request)
Guest: Charles Moore, Founder of The Algalita Marine Institute
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Bert Atwood, Author, My Father Was A Crop Duster
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Stephen Gardner, Director of Litigation, Center for Science in the Public Interest
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Karen Karbo, Author, Julia Childs Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life
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, too, cook 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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Hong Kong University Professor Frank Dikotter, author of Mao’s Great Famine
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Professor Walter Zaryckyj, Center for U.S. – Ukrainian Relations
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 #943: LOSING ONE BILLION YEARS
( Show available on request)
Guest: David H. Freedman, author, "How Junk Food Can End Obesity"
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 #942: THE NEW RULE
( Show available on request)
Guests: Jo Ann Baumgartner from Wild Farm Alliance, Sarah Hackney from National Sustainable Agriculture Alliance, and Ken Kimes from New Natives Organic Sprouts.
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 #941: THE MISSING ESSENTIAL
( Show available on request)
Guests: Joar Opheim, Founder & CEO of Nordic Naturals
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!
( Show available on request)
Guests: Thomas Wittman, Gophers Limited
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!
( Show available on request)
Guests: Various participants of Eat Local First Festival
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 #925: OUT OF POVERTY INTO AFRICA
( Show available on request)
Guests: Larry Jacobs & John Graham, Del Cabo Cooperative
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 #938: FEEDING THE POOR
( Show available on request)
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: RIGHTS TO FOOD
( Show available on request)
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
( Show available on request)
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Joann S. Grohman, Author, Keeing a Family Cow
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: David George Gordon, Author, The Eat-A-Bug Book)
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Beverly Bell & Tory Field, Co-Authors,Harvesting Justice
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Farmers Christian and Stephanie Alexandre & Cornucopia Farm Policy Analyst Mark Kastel
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 preventing chickens from ranging free make eggs safe.
Show #931: GLUTEN-FREE WE
( Show available on request)
Guests: Diane Javelli, Dietician, University of Washington Medical Center
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Lynn Rogers, PhD, Wildlife Research Institute
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Stephen Murdoch, Vice President Public Relations, Enterprise Canada
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Geomorphologist Professor David Montgomery, author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Harvard Environmental Health Professor Chensheng Lu and Beekeeper David Hackenburg of Hackenburg Apiaries
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 #627: LANDS OF LINCOLN (holiday best of)
( Show available on request)
Guests: 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 #926: ASPERTAME IN MILK
( Show available on request)
Guests: Peggy Armstrong, International Dairy Foods Association & Sally Fallon Morell, Weston A. Price Foundation
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Larry Jacobs & John Graham, Del Cabo Cooperative
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Terry Wanzek, Farmer and North Dakota State Senator
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: TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST ORGANIC
( Show available on request)
Guest: Mischa Popoff, Author, Is It Organic
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Judith Schwartz, Author of Cows Save The Planet,
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Mark Pendergrast, Author of For God, Country, & Coca Cola
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Stephanie Seneff, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Emily Meredith of Animal Agriculture Alliance, Paul Shapiro of The Humane Society
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
( Show available on request)
Guests: Scott Kennedy, FarmaSea
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 a good food for the human body?
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 CASH?
( Show available on request)
Guests: Kathy Kozer National Family Farm Coalition, Eric Munoz Oxfam America, and Mary Kay Thatcher American Farm Bureau
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.
Show #916: BOYCOTT KELLOGG'S?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Diana Reeves, Founder, GMO Free USA
“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: GROW OUR OWN?
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dave DeWitt, author of Growing Medical Marijuana
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!
( Show available on request)
Guest: Eric Toensmeier, Author, Paradise Lot
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 #641: FEEDING THE HUNGRY... BEARS
( Show available on request)
Guest: Bearman Kevin Sanders, 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 #913: Government-Safe Food
( Show available on request)
Guest: Judith McGeary, Executive Director, Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance
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
( Show available on request)
Guest: Dr. Paul Lee, Author, There is a Garden in the Mind
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 #781: DIVINING BY DOWSING
( Show available upon request)
Guests: Dowsers Steve Herbert and Sue Trumpfheller
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 #911: Ubiquitous Soy & Precocious Puberty
( Show available upon request)
Guests: Nancy Chapman, Executive Director of the Soyfoods Association of North America, and Pharmacist Ben Fuchs, Host of the Bright Side radio show
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
( Show available upon request)
Guest: David Runsten, Policy Director for Community Alliance of Family Farmers & Sandra Eskin, Director of Food Safety, Pew Charitable Trusts
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: David Buchanan, author of Taste, Memory
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Food and Agriculture Consultant Burleigh Leonard
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Journalist Heather Millar
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: LONE WOLF OF CALIFORNIA
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Karen Kovacs, Program Specialist, California Department of Fish & Wildlife
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.
NOTE: Audit of Food Chain History revealed the show number to be 906 instead of 806. (July 16, 1994 To January 26, 2013)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Show #805: FOOD AS MONEY
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Kara Newman, Author, The Secret Financial Life of Food
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Stacey Mitchell, Institute for Self Reliance
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Custom Butcher Rian Rinn & EcoFarm Conference Board Member Thomas Wittman
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
( Show available on CD
Guests: Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis of the Sierra Foothill Conservancy and Logan Page of Sierra Lands Beef
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
( Show available on CD
Guests: National Council of Chain Restaurants & Renewable Fuels Association
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 BIG QUESTION
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Open Microphone
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Laura Batcha, Organic Trade Association & Liana Hoodes, National Organic Coalition
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!
( Show available on CD)
Guest: James Sterba, Author, Nature Wars
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Author / Nutritionist Pam Killeen
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 FOR SCHOOL LUNCH
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Chef Jamie Smith & Nutritionist Jill Troderman
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…
What is a healthy school lunch?
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!
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Washington DC Attorney Joseph E. Sandler
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Dr. Michael Hansen, Senior Staff Scientist, Consumer's Union
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Peter M. McCarthy, author Adrenaline Nation
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: USDA and its owners
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Bioneer / Permaculturalist Trathen Heckman
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 #773: GOD'S GREEN GAS
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Geologist Leighton Steward, author Fire, Ice and Paradise
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 #790: Yes or No on the Right to Know
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Professor Kent Bradford, Director, UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center
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 #788: ANIMAL RIGHTS & WRONGS
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Matt Rice of Mercy For Animals, and Kay Johnson Smith, of Animal Agriculture Alliance
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 #787: FARM'S LABOR'S LOST, I
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Ann Lopez, Ph.D., Director, Center For Farmworker Families
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 #739: THE MONSANTO BUG
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Newly discovered glysophate pathogen kills plants and causes spontaneous abortions in animal populations.
Guest: Plant pathologist Dr. Don Huber, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University (Monsanto declines participation)
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 #786: FARMING THE BIG APPLE
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Robin Shulman, Author, Eat the City
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 Big Apple?
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Jacqueline Dougan Jackson, Author, The Round Barn: A Biography of an American Farm
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: John Roulac, President, Nutiva Superfoods
Though cannabis– 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Tracie McMillan, Author, The American Way of Eating
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Dowsers Steve Herbert and Sue Trumpfheller
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 #780: MYSTERY OF THE DIRTY FISH IN CLEAN WATER
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Jay Davis, PhD, Senior Scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Aaron Dillon of Four Winds Nursery
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Cynthia Sandberg, Love Apple Farms
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 multi-starred 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 #776: FOODIE FANATICS
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Daniel Duane, Author, How to Cook Like a Man
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 ANOMALY
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Allergist / Immunologist Dr. Mark Hobreich
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Attorney Jean Sieler and food processor Steve Smith from Save Our Crops
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Geologist Leighton Steward, author Fire, Ice and Paradise
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: FAMILYLESS FARMS
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Kristi Boswell from the American Farm Bureau Federation
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Marion Nestle, Professor of Food Studies, NY University
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Walter Jeffries of Vermont’s Sugar Mountain Farm
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 #768: FREE GOVERNMENT LUNCH II
( Show available on CD)
Guests: City Schools Food Director Jamie Smith
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: City Schools Food Director Jamie Smith
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Politics of Water Runoff Rules for Farmers
Guests: Science Professor Marc Los Huertos, California State University Monterey Bay
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Politics of Farmers overcomes politics of Chinese Communist Party
Guests: Profession Kate Xiao Zhou, author of "How The Farmers Changed China"
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 socialism allowed farmers to win back their freedom.
Show #764: EATING NORTH AFRICA
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Impact of Culture and Religion on Geography
Guests: Historian Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Genetically Modified Foods
Guests: Plant Pathologist Steve Savage
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?
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Space Intensive Farming
Guests: Author / Farmer / John Jeavons
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: THIS AIN'T NORMAL
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Food Safety Norms
Guests: Author / Farmer / Philosopher Joel Salatin
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Food Safety Czar Michael Moore
Guests: Citizen Activist Frederick Ravid
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Side Effects of Pyschoactive Pharmaceuticals
Guests: Martha Rosenberg, Health Journalist
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Real and Fake Virgin Olive Oils
Guests: Tom Mueller, author, Extra Virginity
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Gentically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the Food Chain
Guests: Pamm Larry of LableGMOs.org, and Thomas Wittman of the Genetic Engineering Blog
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: MF Global Bankruptcy Impact on Farm Economy
Guest: Farmer / Newspaper Reporter Bryant Osborn
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 #678: WOMEN OF THE DIRT
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Women of the Dirt members 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 #706: FOUNDING FOODIES
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Dave DeWitt, Author, The Founding Foodies
Subject: Foods of Franklin, Jefferson and Washington
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 #755: A REVERSE ROBIN HOOD
( Show available on CD)
Subject: 2012 FARM BILL
Guest: State University Economics Professor Bruce Babcock and Farm Bill Hackathon Hostess Beth Hoffman
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Child Farm Labor Laws and Regulations
Guest: Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Mark Costello and Oklahoma Farmer Matt Muller
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Food and the quality of life
Guest: Ferenc Mate, author, A Real Life
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Prison lawsuit against soy food.
Guest: Sally Fallon Morell, Co-Founder, Weston A. Price Foundation
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Government control of medical marijuana
Guests: Audrey Kohout from the K Ranch Creamery in Corsegold, California, and Nancy Vail from the Pie Ranch in Pescadero, California,
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!
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Government control of medical marijuana
Guests: Matthew Cohen, Medocino County Medical Marijuana Farmer and Allen St. Pierre, Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML),
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: BAD GAS?
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Industrial use of methyl bromide gas
Guest: Retired University of California crop scientist Art Greathead
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-methyl bromide 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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Government raids threaten local food systems
Guest: Mali McGee from the Milk Mama Goat Farm
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 #747: FUNDING FAT
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Why do taxpayers subsidize corn and soy?
Guest: Michael Russo, Policy Analyst for U.S. Public Interest Research Group
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 #746: FROM THEIR FARM TO OUR FORK
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Distance amplifies food contaminations
Guest: Andrew Monbouquette and Dan Susman, producers of the movie “Growing Cities,”
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 #745: SAYING "NO!" TO GMO
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Consumer rejection of GMO foods.
Guest: Andrew Kimbrell from the Center for Food Safety and Megan Westgate from the Non-GMO Project
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 foods?
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: From 7,500 apple varieties we taste only a few.
Guest: Apple Farm Geri Prevedelli
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: The business of turning organic wastes into commercial energy, or biogas.
Guest: Michael Keller, CEO of Scandanavian Biogas US
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: FDA implements new controls over food supplements to comply with Codex Alimentarius.
Guest: Attorney Jonathan W. Emord
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: How to eat your way around the world without leaving town.
Guest: Danyelle Freeman, Author / Restaurant Critic
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 LIVE SUPERFOOD
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Sprouts contain more nutrients than any other food, and are the subject of frequent contaminations.
Guest: Ken Kimes, New Natives Farm
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Newly discovered glysophate pathogen kills plants and causes spontaneous abortions in animal populations.
Guest: Plant pathologist Dr. Don Huber, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University (Monsanto declines participation)
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 #716: FROM GOLDEN STATE TO RED INK STATE
( Show available on CD)
Subject: California Agriculture Lending
The Golden State is now an estimated to be $500 billion in debt, and thus has become the Red Ink State. This transformation of California 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 #738: THE GREAT TRANSITION
( NOTE: DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES THIS PROGRAM IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD)
Subject: The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture
Guest: Anthropologist Amanda Mummert
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Protecting against Food Allergies
Guests: Sandra Beasley, Author, "Don't Kill the Birthday Girl"
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?
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Is grass-fed beef meat for the elite?
Guests: Mark and Elizabeth Shelley of Tassajara Natural Meats
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 GRAZING ON PUBLIC LANDS
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Environmental and Economic Concerns about Private Grazing on Public Lands
Guests: Author / Cowboy Bob Kinford
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 our land to China?
Topics 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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Federal Reserve System vrs The Bank of North Dakota
Guests: Ellen Brown, Author, The Web of Debt
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Water quality rules / farmers vrs environmentalists
Guests: Jennifer Cleary, Clean Water Action & Dick Peixoto, Lakeside Organic Gardens
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!
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Colony Collapse Disorder
Guests: Lynne Bottazo, Amen Bee Products
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 & POISON
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Pest Control Without Poison
Guests: Stella McMillin from California Department of Fish and Game, Maggie Sergio from WildCare, and Thomas Wittman from Gophers Limited
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Illegal Immigrant Farm Labor
Guest: Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Food price inflation
Guest: Harwood Schaffer, Research Professor at University of Tennessee
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: How to develop a farmers market
Guest: Catherine Barr, General Manager, Monterey Bay Area Certified Farmers Markets
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Prohibition of raw milk
Guest: David Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Redesigning Green Revolution Agriculture
Guests: John Reganold, Regents Professor at Washington State University, and Bryce Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms (tent.) e
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?
( Show available on CD)
Subject: How organic is organic?
Guests: Barney Bricmont, Founder, California Certified Organic Farmers / Mischa Popoff, author, Is It Organic? / Mark Kastel, Cornucopia Institute
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!
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Which seeds
Guests: Sedgwick, Maine residents Bob St. Peter of Saving Seeds Farm and Mia Strong of the Local Stock Food Cooperative
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 #723: LOCAL FOOD REBELLION
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Local Food Sovereignty
Guests: Sedgwick, Maine residents Bob St. Peter of Saving Seeds Farm and Mia Strong of the Local Stock Food Cooperative
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Why did the Busch family sell its Budweiser?
Guests: Julie MacIntosh, author, Dethroning the King
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: PROPERTY IMPROPRIETY?
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Should one be allowed to trademark an activity?
Guests: K. Ruby Blume, Director of the Institute of Urban Homesteading, and Patrick Reilly, Intellectual Property Society
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...
( Show available on CD)
Subject: How does one start a farm, and make it pay?
Guest: Kurt Timmermeister, author of Growing a Farmer
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Can modern agriculture allow us to escape the fate of the ancients?
Guest: Thomas Sinclair, PhD, and Carol James Sinclair, authors of Bread, Beer & the Seeds of Change
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…
Will modern agriculture allow us to escape the fate of the ancients?
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: BREAD, BEER, & CHANGE I
( Show available on CD)
Subject: What we can learn about the future from ancient agriculture.
Guest: Thomas Sinclair, PhD, and Carol James Sinclair, authors of Bread, Beer & the Seeds of Change
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Saving Delta Smelt and Farms
Guest: Retired government research biologist Mary Winfree, PhD
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: CALIFORNIA: FROM GOLDEN STATE TO RED INK STATE
( Show available on CD)
Subject: California Agriculture Lending
The Golden State is now an estimated to be $500 billion in debt, and thus has become the Red Ink State. This transformation of California 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!
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Genetically-Engineered Alfalfa
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…
What will become of organic meat and dairy foods?
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
( Show available on CD)
Subject: From Ancient Tobacco to the Modern Cigarette
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 #712: SAYING NO TO BIG BRO
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Food Safety Modernization Act
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 FOR AGING
( Show available on CD)
Subject: Eating for Aging
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Summer Whitford, Author, Join us at the Embassy
Subject: Selling with Food
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: WAR OF THE WORD
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Linda Brown of Scientific Certification Services and Bob Young of the American Farm Bureau Federation
Subject: Sustainable Agriculture Standard
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 S510
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Montana Senator Jon Tester and Western Growers Association Vice President Cathy Enright
Subject: S510 The Food Safety Modernization Act
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Compounding Pharmacist Ben Fuchs
Subject: skin care, cosmetics, food for skin
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Dave DeWitt, Author, The Founding Foodies
Subject: Foods of Franklin, Jefferson and Washington
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: biomass energy consultant Michael Keller
Subject: Biomass to energy conversion
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Andrew Rimas, co-author, Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Subject: Food and Civilization
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 MACHINE
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Anita Mangels, Yes on Proposition 19, Renata Brillinger, No on 19.
Subject: Delaying the implementation of California's Global Warming Act of 2006
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 CO2 and maintain a profitable agriculture.
Show #702: UP IN SMOKE
( Show available on CD)
NOTE: THIS PROGRAM IS 1 MINUTE 30 SECONDS SHORT
Guests: James Rigdon, Yes on Proposition 19 / Roger Salazar, No on Proposition 19
Subject: Legalization of Cannabis (marijuana) via California's Proposition 19, The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010
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. 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Entomologist Dr. Susan Jones, Ohio State University
Subject: Invasion of the Bedbugs
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Host Michael Olson becomes guest Michael Olson.
Subject: From Food to Freedom
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
PART II: THE KILL
( Show available on CD)
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. But government intentions lead 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
( Show available on CD)
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
PART I: THE CRISIS
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Dr. Joel Wallach, author of 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 when our relationship to the soil is severed; and why some live long, healthy lives by eating ashes.
Show #694: ANOTHER AUTISM ANOMALY
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst Health Services
Subject: The rate of autism among the general population, according to the CDC, is one in 110. 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Sharon Grossi, Valley End Farm
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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!
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
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: THE PINK GOLD OF VEGAS
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Bob Combs, R.C. Farms, Las Vegas, Nevada
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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: OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Deborah Notkin, Past President, 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?
Topics include why there appears to be no government sanctions against illegal immigration into the United States; a look at the costs of immigrant farm labor; and what directions immigration reform might take.
Show #680: ALL WE CAN EAT SHRIMP
( Show available on CD)
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 SAFE FOOD
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Mark Kastel, Cornucopia Institute; Judith McGeary, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance; Fran Schaul, Attorney / Local Food Advocate
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Women of the Dirt members 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?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Fred Kirschenmann, 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: RUNAWAY DEBT TRAIN
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Tony Livoti, Director, Monterey Bay International Trade Association; Lynn Reaser, President, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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 REPARATIONS
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Erin Fitzpatrick, Assistant Vice President, 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: SAVINGS THE SEEDS
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Stanford Franklin from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: David Gumpert, Author, The Raw Milk Revolution
Subject: In 2006, government launched a 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: UC 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: EATING OUR WAY TO HAPPINESS
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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 CALIFORNIA SURVIVE?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Environmental attorney Andy Hitchings (Natural Resources Defense Council, San Francisco Baykeeper and Earthjustice have been invited to participate)
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: GE ORGANIC!
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Pamela Ronald, Director, UC Davis Plant Genetics & Raoul Adamchak, Instructor of Organic Agriculture at UC Davis
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: AMISH AUTISM ANOMALY
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Investigative Reporter Dan Olmsted
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 #525: ANOTHER MAGIC MUSHROOM
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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 #661: WHERE IS CUBA LIBRE?
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Jerome Tuccille, author, Gallo Be Thy Name
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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: POLITICS OF SCARCITY
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Sarah Woolf, Westlands Water District, and Dick Pool, Water 4 Fish
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Alissa Hamilton, PhD, Author, Squeezed: Everything 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Bruce McClure, PhD, University of Missiouri Interdisciplinary Plant Group
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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: LEAFY GREEN DISAGREEMENT
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Patty Lovera, Food & Water Watch and Paul Simonds 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
( Show available on CD)
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, which 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Dr. Fred Provenza, from the 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Jay Platt, Region Director, R-CALF USA & Sharon Zecchinelli, Author, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Ag Lending Specialist Pete Graff, PhD
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author / Chef / 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author / Chef Mike Rounds
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: CHEAP LABOR
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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 (tent)
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Dr. Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible International, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Bearman Kevin Sanders, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Professor Melissa Caldwell, Author of Not by Bread Alone
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 #638: CHEAP FOOD FROM CHINA
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Dr. Shane Journeay, CEO, Nanotechnology Toxiology 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Open Microphone
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Steve Ettlinger, Author, Twinkies, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: MacKenzie Cowell, Founder of DIYbio; 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Gerald Nelson, Ph.D, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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 #629: RIGHTEOUS ANIMALS
( Show available on CD)
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 FARMS
( Show available on CD)
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: LANDS OF LINCOLN
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Curandera 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?
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
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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 FOOD IN OUR FOOD
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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?
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: FOOD AS MEDICINE
( Show available on CD)
Guests: UC Medical Anthropologist Nancy Chen, Ph.D.
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 WHITE HOUSE FARM
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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: SECURING THE FOOD CHAIN
( Show available on CD)
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?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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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?
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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 I
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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
( Show available on CD)
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?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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Paul Bonnifield, PhD, author, 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
( Show available on CD)
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 #578: BEYOND THAT KITCHEN DOOR
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Retired restaurant inspector Roger Houston and restaurateurs Michael Clark and Chip Kirchner
Subject: Trust is something we all do when we eat out. We trust that whoever is beyond that kitchen door is going to respect us as they prepare our food. But trust, like respect, must be earned. And so we ask, “How can we verify?”
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.
Show #611: A WILDLIFE GENOCIDE
( Show available on CD)
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: THE $10 TRILLION BILL
( Show available on CD)
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…
How will we feed all those people?
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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?
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
( Show available on CD)
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:POLITICS TRUMPS SCIENCE
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Where Our Food Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine
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: A BOOM IN THE GLOOM
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Paul Shapiro from Yes on California Proposition 2 and Bob Perkins, Executive Director, Monterey County Farm Bureau
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: University of Oregon Professor Kenneth Helphand, author of 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Richard Ellis, author, Tuna: A Love Story
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?
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
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!
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
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?
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 FOOD
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
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?
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 SEARCH FOR FOOD
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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 billiion 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
( Show available on CD)
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 #525: Another Magic of Mushrooms
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author and 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 #591: BIG CITY BEES
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Susan Allport, Author, 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
( Show available on CD)
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: OUT TO DINNER
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Bill & Cheryl Jamison, Around the World in 80 Days
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Historian / Author 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: METRO LIVESTOCK
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Human Geographer Jennifer Blecha, 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: CHEAP FOOD
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Paul Elerick, International 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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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 NOT TO SPRAY?
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
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: CONFINED FOR LIFE
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Retired restaurant inspector Roger Houston and restaurateurs Michael Clark and Chip Kirchner
Subject: Trust is something we all do when we eat out. We trust that whoever is beyond that kitchen door is going to respect us as they prepare our food. But trust, like respect, must be earned. And so we ask, “How can we verify?”
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.
Show #577: THE BIG DRY
( Show available on CD)
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!
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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, “Can small farms survive NAIS?”
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: author / coffee roaster Dean Cyclon
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Vermont farmer Sharon Zecchinelli and Missouri farmer Doreen Hannes
Subject: To 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. This leads us to ask, “Can small farms survive NAIS?”
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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: Run for the Honey
( Show available on CD)
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 #551: Buffalo in the House!
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Richard Rosen, Author of A Buffalo in the House
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 #569: Who's in Charge?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Caroline Smith DeWaal, Director of Food Safety, Center for Science in the Public Interest
Subject: Consider the 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Ferenc Mate, A Vineyard in Tuscany
Subject: Sometimes we simply must break the pattern and go someplace different and do something different. And so today we travel to the Tuscany to build 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 to Fire
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Note: due to poor recording quality, this edition of the Food Chain will not be available for rebroadcast.)
Guests: Food & Wine Makers of the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon)
Subject: In 1941, residents of Southern Oregon and Northern California voted to secede and form the new State of Jefferson. While that State now exists only in the mind, garagiste foodies are keeping that spirit alive and well.
Topics include a brief history of garagiste agriculture; how outsiders gravitated into the State of Jefferson to start a new food chain of high quality foods and wines; and what lessons might be learned from their efforts.
Show #565: King Corn
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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, “Why did corn become King?”
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Mark McAfee, founder of Organic Pastures Dairy Note: 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?”
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!
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Janice Stillman, Editor, The Old Farmers 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 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: Lies of Labels
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Mike Adams, 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 #533: Pondering the Political Pig
( Show available on CD)
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 #561: Strawberry-Flavored Prozac
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Karl Hoffower from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (The 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?
( Show available on CD)
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?”
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.
Show #559: The $100,000,000 Mouse
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Farmer Cynthia Sandberg and Chef David Kinch
Subject: To become one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, you have to serve some of the best foods in the world. This leads us to ask, “How close to perfect can one get, and still earn a dollar?”
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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 #533: Pondering the Political Pig
( Show available on CD)
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 #555: Boarding the Blenheim
( Show available on CD)
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: By Bread Alone
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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!
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Richard Rosen, Author of A Buffalo in the House
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....
( Show available on CD)
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: Wild Weather!
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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, “How did we eat before there were stores?”
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?
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
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 #511: Transmissible Madness
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Linda 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 #545: Samurai, Supermarket & Sushi
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Trevor Corson, 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: Rethinking Rachel
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Angela Logomasini from the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Subject: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was so powerful it helped end the use of DDT. Pointing to the millions who now suffer from malaria, some ask, “Is it time to rethink Rachel?”
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!
( Show available on CD)
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!
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Bill Bullard from R-Calf USA; 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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: “What will happen to our babies?”
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 #462: The Man Who Listens to Horses
( Show available on CD)
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 #540: What's in a Name?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Author Joanna Lamb Hayes
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Author Joanna 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Anthropologist / Author Roger Welsch of Dannebrog
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
( Show available on CD)
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?”
Topics include why E. Coli 0157:H7 has precipitated such a civil war; why two armies have formed behind two courses of action; and with the help of you, which side will win the consumer dollar.
Show #535: A Spring of Dying Bees
( Show available on CD)
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 their might be to halt the die-off.
Show #521: Talking Ant of Peru
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author / Anthropologist Farmer Jeremy Narby
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 #534: Human Rice
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Union of Concerned Scientists and Ventria Bioscience (tentative)
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 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: Pondering the Political Pig
( Show available on CD)
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 #532: Humane Animals?
( Show available on CD)
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 #531: Who Should Get the Money?
( Show available on CD)
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 (E. coli 0157:H7 Part III)
( Show available on CD)
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 #529: WWOOFing Around
( Show available on CD)
Guests: WWOOF USA Founding Director Leo Goldsmith and WWOOFer Rebecca Rukeyser.
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 (Part II)
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author John Berlau, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author and 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 #486: Big Apple on the Half Shell
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
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 #524: Plain Vanilla
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author and Webmistress Patricia Rain www.vanilla.com
Subject: Its name has become synonymous with that which is boring. This leads us to ask, “Can there be anything exciting about vanilla?”
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author / Anthropologist Farmer Jeremy Narby
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: Goin' Up The Country
( Show available on CD)
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 (Part I)
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Charles Smith, Ph.D., Author, The Process of New Drug Discovery and Development
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; whether they should be on animals; 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Psychologist 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?”
Topics 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
( Show available on CD)
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?”
Topics 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Oklahoma State Senator Paul Muegge; TBA 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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Linda 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?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Peter Golbitz, Soyatech LLC and Larry Matlack, American Agriculture Movement
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 #462: The Man Who Listens to Horses
( Show available on CD)
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 #509: Foraging the Finest
( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD) ( Show available on CD)
Guest: Jeanette McDoogal, National Alliance for Health & Safey 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
( Show available on CD) ( Show available on CD)
Guest: 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
( Show available on CD) ( Show available on CD)
Guests: John Fund, Editorialist with 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 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 About Factory Farming
( Show available on CD)
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 very 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?
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Mike Madison, Flower Farmer and Author of Blithe Tomato
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. Just ask the Blithe Farmer!
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Ronald Goossens, David Hodges and Christopher Smith from Phage International
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!
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Nancy Tappan and Vernon Hixson, Trium Winery, Rogue River, Oregon
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Katherine Eban, Author, Dangerous Doses
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
( Show available on CD)
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Ross Frazier, Willy Elliott-McCrea and Lee Mercer from Second Harvest Food Bank
Subject:
They say that, where obesity is becoming the major health issue, more and more are going hungry. This leads us to ask, “Who's 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Nathanael Greene, Natural Resources Defence Council; David Blume, Author, "Alcohol Can Be A Gas"
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 #495: Farmer to Hippy to Farmer
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Dan Imhoff, Author of Farming with the Wild & Jo Ann Baumgartner, Director, 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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Author / Farmer Joel Salatin
Subject: Farm-Direct Foods
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?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: James Tillotson, Tufts University and 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?
( Show available on CD)
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 some milk does a body good. And still 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
( Show available on CD)
Guest: Shannon Hayes, PhD, 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!
( Show available on CD)
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
( Show available on CD)
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 reduction—if 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
( Show available on CD)
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!"
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Farmers / Writers Michael Ableman and Steve Sprinkel
Subject: Bryce Knorr, Senior Editor of Farm Futures magazine, and Martha Works, Professor of Geography at Portland State University
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
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Farmers / Writers Michael Ableman 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!!!
( Show available on CD)
Guests: Ornithologist Kevin McGowan from Cornell University and Mayor John Vincent from Riverton, Wyoming
Subject: Life imitates art! A plague of fearless crows has descended on Riverton, Wyoming—and 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 Seed?
( Show available on CD)
Guests: 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.