The Food Chain
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Show #920: EXOGENOUS SEMIOTIC ENTROPY:
Farmers use 200 million pounds of the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) every year to grow food without weeds. This leads us to ask
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Show #919: AG GAG LAWS
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
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Show #918: SEAWEED AS SUPERFOOD
Some claim people who eat seaweed are the healthiest and longest living people in the history of mankind. This claim leads us to ask
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Show #917: FOOD OR MONEY?
The U.S. government wants to change the way it aids the worlds hungry: Instead of sending its food, it wants to send its money. This leads us to ask
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Show #916: BOYCOTT KELLOGG'S?
K-e-double-lohdouble-good Kellogs 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
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Show #915: SHOULD WE BE ALLOWED TO GROW MEDICAL...
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
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Show #914: IT TAKES A GARDEN!
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
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Show #913:
Former Monsanto exective Michael Taylor is now the nations Food Safety Czar. His 1,200 pages of new food safety rules lead us to ask
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Show #912: 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
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Show #781: Divining by Dowsing
With a simple forked stick, the dowser called 30 gallons per minute of flowing water at 365 feet, which was about exactly where the well-driller found it. That call leads us to once again ask
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Show #911: UBIQUITOUS SOY PRECOCIOUS PUBERTY
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
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Show #910: THE POWER PROTOCOLS TO POLICE
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
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Show #909: FORGETTING THE PAST
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
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Show #908: A FEDERAL FARM FIASCO
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.
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Show #907: Nano Nano NanoFood
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
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Show #906: THE LONE WOLF OF CALIFORNIA
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
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Show #805: FOOD AS MONEY
When government prints money by the trillions, with nothing real to back that money, it diminishes its moneys ability to buy real goods and services. Thus more money buys less food. This leads us to ask
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Show #804: BUSTING OUT BIG
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
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Show #803: THE ELITE MEAT
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
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Show #802: HAND IN HAND W ENVIROS RANCHERS
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
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Show #801: FARMS VRS RESTAURANTS
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
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Show #795: RIGHT TO KNOW FEEDING FRENZY
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
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Show #794: WHO SAYS GMOS ARE SAFE?
We have re-engineered corn plants to kill insect pests, and now have millions of acres of insect-killing corn plants growing in Americas heartland. That corn now kills insects leads us to ask
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Show #793: ADDICTED 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.
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Show #792: OUR RACIST, SEXIST USDA
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
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Show #791: Growing Permanence on Shifting Sands
Sixteen trillion dollars of debt! Flash mobs of rioters! A clash of civilizations! The shifting sands of our Modern Times lead us to ask
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Show #790: YES OR NO ON THE RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT GMOS
Monsanto, Dupont, Bayer, Nestle, Pepsi, Coca Cola, General Mills, Del Monte Foods, and others are putting up about $28 million to put down Californias Proposition 37 Right to Know About GMO initiative, which leads us to ask
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Show #789: ANIMAL RIGHTS WRONGS
When the video was released showing the downer cows being slaughtered inhumanely, the federal government closed the California abattoir. This leads us to ask
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Show #788: FARM'S LABOR'S LOST, II
Twenty to Thirty million are now unemployed, and yet farmers cant find enough people to work on their farms. This leads us to again ask
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Show #787: FARM'S LABOR'S LOST
Approximately 22% are now unemployed, and yet farmers cant find enough people to work on their farms. This leads us to ask
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Show #786:EATING THE BIG APPLE
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
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Show #785: A BARN RAISING
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
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Show #784: GREEN WITHOUT BROWN?
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
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Show #783: BUSINESSES OF CANNABIS
Though the cannabis plant aka hemp, marijuana has been illegal since 1937, it is now the foundation upon which many legal businesses are built. This leads us to ask
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Show #782: SPYING ON WAL-MART
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
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Show #781: DIVINING BY DOWSING
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
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Show #780: MYSTERY OF THE DIRTY FISH IN CLEAN WATER
Though they swim in the pristine waters off Californias north coast, they are contaminated with man-made pollutants like Methylmercury. This leads us to ask
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Show #779: YELLOW DRAGON DISEASE
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
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Show #778: BIODYNAMIC LOVE APPLES
She was a corporate attorney, but chucked it all to become the love in Love Apple Farms, where she now grows for David Kinchs world-famous Manresa Restaurant. Her biodynamic incantations lead us to ask
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Show #777:Frozen Fresh
We have always preserved foods by freezing them, but when we learned how to freeze foods quickly, we quickly moved into the city. This leads us to ask
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Show #776: FOODIE FANATICS
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
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Show #774: AGENT ORANGE CORN
So much Monsanto herbicide was applied to so many Monsanto GE crops that weeds became resistant. Dow Chemicals solution to the resistance is Agent Orange Corn, which leads us to ask
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Show #773: GOD'S GREEN GAS
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
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Show #772: AMERICA'S FAMILY-LESS FARMS
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 familys farm. This leads us to ask
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Show #771: POLITICS OF CALORIES
Calories are the fuel for the bodys fire. When more calories are consumed than can be burned, the body stores the excess as fat. This leads us to ask
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Show #770: TO BUY A FAT HOG
Farm animals have been taken off the farm and confined in industrial facilities controlled by a few large corporations. Given this control of the nations food chain, we ask
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Show #769: CAPITALISM OR SOCIALISM?
We have come to a fork in the road to our future. One road will take us toward capitalism; the other toward socialism. We must decide which road to take, and so pause to ask
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Show #768: FREE GOVERNMENT LUNCH II
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
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Show #767: FREE GOVERNMENT LUNCH
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
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Show #766: GREEN PLANTS BLUE BABIES
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 its impossible to prevent water from running off their farms
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Show #765: FARMERS THAT KILLED SOCIALISM
In the blink of an historical eye, China went from being the worlds capital of totalitarian socialism to being the worlds capital of free-booting capitalism. This leads us to ask
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Show #764: EATING NORTH AFRICA
While the north side of the Mediterranean basin is green and fertile, the south side is brown and barren. This leads us to ask
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Show #763: BILLIONS OF BUGS
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
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Show #762: BIG OR SMALL?
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
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Show #761: FOLKS, THIS AIN'T NORMAL
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&
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Show #760: MONSANTO'S GOV MAN
In 2009, President Barack Obama selected Monsanto executive Michael Taylor to be the nations first food safety czar. In 2012, citizen Fredrick Ravid collected 60,000 signatures on a petition to force Taylors removal. All those signatures
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Show #759: POPPING PILLS FOR PEACE
Depressed, anxious, and cant 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
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Show #758: A REAL EXTRA VIRGIN
Some are virgin. Others are extra virgin. The rest are not very virgin at all. Its difficult to tell which is which when shopping the sublime and scandalous world of olive oil, and so we ask
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Show #757: TO KNOW OR NOT TO KNOW
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
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Show #756: THROUGH MF GLOBAL'S LOOKING GLASS
Thousands of U.S. farmers lost over 1.2 billion dollars when MF Globals off-balance-sheet leveraged repo-to-maturity play on foreign sovereign debt collapsed into bankruptcy. And so we ask
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Show #755: A REVERSE ROBIN HOOD?
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
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Show #754: TOO SAFE FOR FAMILIES
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
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Show #753: THE REAL GOOD 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
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Show #752: CRUEL UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT FOOD
When the prison replaced meat with the nations most popular health food ingredient, prisoner Eric Harris sued. This leads us to ask
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Show #751: CHILDREN, WITH CHORES
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
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Show #750:MEDICAL MARIJUANA MAYHEM
When Matthew Cohens 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
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Show #749: PRACTICAL GAS
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
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Show #748: MALI'S GOAT THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY
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
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Show #746: FUNDING FAT
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
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Show #746: FROM THEIR FARM TO OUR FORK
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
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Show #745: SAYING
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
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Show #744: FROM THE MANY A FEW
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
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Show #743: WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
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
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Show #742: TOTAL CONTROL
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
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Show #741: TRY THIS COUNTRY
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
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Show #740: REAL LIFE SUPERFOOD
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
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Show #739: THE MONSANTO BUG
With its roundup herbicide and roundup-ready genes, the Monsanto Corporation has made growing crops a lot easier. Some, however, say Monsantos technology has spawned a new pathogen that causes abortion rates of 20% to 45% in the animals that feed
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Show #738: THE GREAT TRANSITION
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
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Show #737: DODGING DEATH BY FOOD
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
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Show #736: MEAT FOR THE ELITE?
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
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Show #735: PRIVATE GAIN ON PUBLIC PROPERTY
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
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Show #734: FUNNY MONEY VRS FARMER MONEY
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
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Show #733: WATER WAR
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
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Show #732: BEE LISTENING
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
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Show #731: People, Pests Poisons
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
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Show #730: E VERIFIED FOOD
The Supreme Court has upheld Arizonas 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
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Show #729: THROUGH THE ROOF
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
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Show #728: FOOD WITH ITS FARMERS FACE ON IT
The farther we go from the source of our food the less control we have over whats 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
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Show #727: THE WHITE WAVE
Amish farmer Dan Allgyer has been arrested by the Food and Drug Administration for selling fresh whole milk across state lines. The FDAs police action leads us to ask
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Show #726: GREENING THE GREEN REVOLUTION
Norman Borlaugs Green Revolution made possible an explosion of the worlds 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
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Show #725: WHITHER ORGANIC?
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
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Show #724: STARTING ANEW!
Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved. George Washingtons thought leads us to ask
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Show #723: LOCAL FOOD REBELLION
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 nations first Food Sovereignty law. This rebellion leads us to ask
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Show #722: FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BUSCH
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 pla
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Show #721: A PROPERTY IMPROPRIETY?
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
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Show #720: OUT OF THE FRYING PAN
We have decided to quit our jobs in the city to start a farm. Now we must ask
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Show #719: BREAD, BEER CHANGE II
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. As Santayana suggests, there is much in the history of food from which we can learn, and that history leads us to ask
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Show #718: BEER, BREAD 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
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Show #717 : Along Comes Mary
To save the endangered Delta smelt, Judge Oliver Wanger turned off the water to Californias 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
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Show #716: FROM GOLDEN STATE TO RED INK STATE
Once the Golden State, California is now an estimated $500 billion in debt, and thus has become the Red Ink State. This transformation leads us to ask
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Show #715: THAT AIN'T HAY!
The Obama administration has approved the release of Monsantos genetically-engineered alfalfa. They say farmers will be able to grow more crops, and that aint hay! But GE Alfalfa leads us to ask
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Show #714: AMERICA'S FIRST CROP
Tobacco was Americas 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
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Show #616: THE DENIALISTS II
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 le
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Show #597: IS SMOKEY HOKEY?
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
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Show #630: PLAYING CHICKEN
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
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Show #586:
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 be
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Show #506: Return of the Strong Arm
There are millions of jobs for the taking, and millions of hands willing to take them. This leads one to ask, "Should we return to the days of the strong arm?" Topics include why the Bracero ("strong arm") Program was abandoned in 1964; whether an upda
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Show #574: COFFEE BREAK
Many of the big issues of the day globalization, immigration, womens rights, pollution, self-determination are associated with the production of coffee. And so we pause to ask, Whats in your cup? Topics includ
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Show #702: UP IN SMOKE
Californias illicit cannabis crop is worth $14 billion and the states politicians can get their hands on that money by making the crop legal with Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. This proposition leads us
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Show #544 :
Rachel Carsons Silent Spring was so powerful it helped end the use of DDT. But pointing to the millions who suffer from malaria, some now ask, Should we end the ban on DDT? Topics include the extent to which Silent Spring changed e
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Show #682: THE HANDS OF CHILDREN
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
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Show #663: GENTICALLY-ENGINEERED ORGANICS
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
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Show #654: The Food Pirates
Though seven out of every ten Indians depend on income from farms, they are selling off their farmland to the worlds corporations. This leads us to ask
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Show #611: A WILDLIFE GENOCIDE
In the leafy green fields of the nations 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
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Show #549:
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
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Show #658: THE POLITICS OF SCARCITY
The Man of Steels 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
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Show #665:
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
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Show #552: Foods of Color
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.
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Show #599: AN EXTRA EFFORT?
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
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Show #668: DRUGS IN THE DRINK
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
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Show #589: A FAILING FOUNDATION
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 cant the worlds hungry feed themselves? T
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Show #660: GALLO BE THY NAME
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
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Show #636: Killing Them Softly II
This from a concerned listener: No Dont 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?
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Show #509: Foraging the Finest
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
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Show #610: OUR $10 TRILLION BILL
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
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Show #551: Buffalo in the House!
Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam. Wait, whats this a buffalo in the house? Topics include why buffalo were slaughtered to near extinction; how, in the 1850s, a Texas rancher and wife saved the great herd from extinction;
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Show #701: BITE OF THE BEDBUG
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
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Show #637 : NANO FOOD
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
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Show #640: NOT BY BREAD ALONE
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
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Show #560: Got (Organic) Milk?
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 paper
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Show #656: SQUEEZED FRESH
Its 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
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Show # 517: Blood Moon
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 traditio
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Show #545: Samuari, Supermarkets Sushi
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
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Show #607: WAYNE HAGE'S WAR: PRIVATE PROPERTY ON PUBLIC...
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 Hages war leads us to ask
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Show #486 :
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 bus
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Show #615: THE DENIALISTS
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:
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Show #462: The Man Who Listens to Horses
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 viol
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Show #503: Public Enemy #1
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 with
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Show #557: Angels in the Pantry
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
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Show #686: IMMIGRATION REFORM II
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
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Show #531 :
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 g
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Show #515: Farming for Fairies
Psychologist Nicola Amadora believes farmers and gardeners should grow for fairies-. This leads one to ask, Are fairies real? And, if so, Why bother growing for them? Topic include... whether fairies are real or imagined;
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Show #705: BIOMASS COWBOYS
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.
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Show #538: 39,000 POISONED PETS
We have poisoned 39,000 of our pets by feeding them commercial pet food from 100 different companies. This leads one to ask, Whats in the food? Topics include why so many pets came to be poisoned by so many pet food companies at one
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Show #570: A RUN FOR THE HONEY
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
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Show #680:ALL WE CAN EAT SHRIMP
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
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Show #622: WENDELL WES... ON HOPE!
During the Great Depression, wind picked up the nations 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 dest
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Show #659: THE SEED GIANTS
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
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Show #649: BORROWED MONEY
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
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Show #578: BEYOND THAT KITCHEN DOOR
Topics include a 38-year history of restaurant inspections; common and uncommon kitchen faults; and how restaurant inspectors decide where to eat when they eat out. Topic include... Guests: Retired restaurant inspector Roger Houston and restaurateurs M
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Show #504: Stalin Redux?
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?"
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Show #576: COOL is Coming!
Imagine the surprise when it was revealed that a Tasters Choice selection for best frozen spinach came from China! And so we ask, Should manufacturers be forced to reveal a foods source? Topics include a look at who is respo
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Show #627: FARMLANDS OF LINCOLN
Abraham Lincoln spent his first 21 years on the dirt-poor farmlands of the young nations frontier. His upbringing leads us to ask:
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Show #533: Revisiting the Political Pig
The year of the pig has returned to China. This year, however, arbitors of the politically correct demand that the pig totem be covered so as not offend the Muslim minority. This leads us to ask, Why did the pig become a political animal?
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Show #667: THE RIGHT TO RAW
In 2006, government launched an campaign to eliminate raw milk. In 2010, raw almonds have been banned from the shelves of grocery stores. Today we ask
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Show #507: Greenwashed Milk
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
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Show #588:AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DINNERS
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 meals set and setting affect how we experience that meal; what to watch out for when out around the world; and some me
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Show #713: JFK'S BIG CHALLENGE
When President John F. Kennedy issued the challenge: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, many asked
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Show #618: WHAT WILL YOU DO TO SECURE THE FOOD CHAIN?
Congratulations! You have been appointed Secretary of Agriculture for the United States of America. Your appointment leads us to ask
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Show #690: ON THE RUN!
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
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Show #569: WHO'S IN CHARGE?
Consider Michael Olson's Irrefutable Law of the Food Chain #2: The farther we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over whats in that food. And so we ask, Who is in charge of food safety? Topics include the dis
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Show #631: LAWYERING UP FOR FOOD SAFETY
Campylobacter, E. coli, hepatitis A, listeria, norovirus, salmonella, and shigella are some of the food borne pathogens that lead us to ask
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Show #575: MARK ON THE BEAST IV
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 lead
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Show #554:
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
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Show #553: HUNGER'S FRIENDS
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 worlds hungry? Topics
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Show #664: WILL THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SURViVE?
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 endange
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Show #462 Revisted: The Man Who Listens to Horses
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
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Show #708: TESTING TESTOR'S FOOD SAFETY
Some say S510, The Food Safety Modernization Act, is so onerous it will destroy our nations 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, r
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Show #598: A WAITER'S RANT
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
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Show #530: BIG GOVERNMENT VRS LITTLE BUGS
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 c
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Show #675: BIG VRS SMALL
Agriculture, like most industries, appears to be growing in two directions: very big and very small. This observation leads us to ask
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Show #521 : TALKING ANT OF PERU
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
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Show #502: Blithe Farmer
To market... to market... to the farmers' market, for food with its farmers face on it, ambiance that is small-town friendly and people as real as the goods in their hands. And so we ask, "Can these people be real?" Topics include the why Eric the Dane
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Show #528: E.COLI 0157:H7 AND FARMERS
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 manag
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Show #687: PINK GOLD OF VEGAS
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
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Show # 612: THE LAND SNATCHERS
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
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Show #530: HUMANE ANIMALS?
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 ag
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Show #601: BLUEFIN: COCAINE OF THE SEAS
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
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Show #653: A LEAFY GREEN DISAGREEMENT
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 Americas small farms. And so we ask
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Show #696: FOOD WITHOUT ELECTRICITY
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...
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Show #505: The Fuss Over Factory Farms
There are 8,570,000 references to factory farming accessible on the internet, and few are favorable. This leads one to ask, "What's all the fuss about factory farming?" Topics include a look at why animals are grown in "factory farms;" whether factory f
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Show #642: HOW SWEET IS IT?
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
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Show #679: GOVERNMENT GUARANTEED SAFE FOOD
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
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Show #635: CHILD FARM LABOR
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
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Show #609: THE HOWLING
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
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Show #711: EATING WHILE 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
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Show #595: MIND OR STOMACH?
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,
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Show #534: Human Rice
The Department of Agriculture has approved the large-scale planting of rice containing human genes. This leads one to ask: Can those human genes be kept down on the farm? Topics include why some want to infuse rice with human genes; why so
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Show #695: DOCTOR OF ASHES
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
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Show #608: GUERRILLA GARDENERS
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 mans la
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Show #511: Transmissible Madness
To protect America from transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, USDA ordered Linda and Larrys prized milking sheep slaughtered. This leads us to ask, What did the Fallaces milk sheep have to do with mad cows? Topics includ
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Show #558: Preparation 501
To become one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, you have to serve some of the best foods in the world. Manresa restaurant obtains its foods via the biodynamic technologies of Love Apple farm. This leads us to ask, Do biodynamics make dollar
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Show #602: DEFIANT GARDENERS
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
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Show #674: BLACK FARMER REPARATIONS
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
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Show #634: THE TWINKIES OFFENSE
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
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Show #514: WAL-MARTING ORGANICS
Wal-Mart recently announced it will greatly expand its offering of organic foods, and will price organic only slightly higher than conventional. This leads some to ask, Will Wal-Mart wal-mart organics? Topic include... the short history
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Show #685: BUGS THAT BUG US
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
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Show #501: Magic Bullets & Super Bugs
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?" Topic
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Show #677: HOW ORGANIC IS ORGANIC?
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
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Show #626: THE GRANDMOTHER PLANT
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.
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- Santa Cruz, CA
- Agriculture, Food, Country Talk
- English
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