Deconstructing Dinner

Across the US and Canada, there is an exciting emergence of a unique type of food festival – a festival for garlic! When looking at a map of where garlic festivals are emerging, it’s clear that garlic knows no geographic boundaries – it’s a food that grows well in most climates across the continent. This popularity of garlic festivals appears to be communicating an important story – a story of our longing to connect and celebrate with one another around food, a story of people wanting to make more flavorful dinners, and a story of a food that has become an incredibly important crop for small-scale farmers. Features: Ken Meter, Professor, Crossroads Resource Center (Minneapolis, MN) Liz Primeau, Author, In Pursuit of Garlic (Mississauga, ON) Bill Christopher, President, Christopher Ranch (Gilroy, CA) Bob Baloch, Farmer, The Fresh Veggies (Brampton, ON) Peter McClusky, Founder, Toronto Garlic Festival (Toronto, ON) JP Gural, Farmer, Samsara Fields (Waterford, ON) Ross Breen, Farmer, Stone Soup Farm (Harlowe, ON) Paul Hoepfner-Homme, Farmer, Victory Garden Vegetables (Cobourg, ON)

Across the US and Canada, there is an exciting emergence of a unique type of food festival – a festival for garlic! When looking at a map of where garlic festivals are emerging, it’s clear that garlic knows no geographic boundaries – it’s a food that grows well in most climates across the continent. This popularity of garlic festivals appears to be communicating an important story – a story of our longing to connect and celebrate with one another around food, a story of people wanting to...

Honey – one of the most natural foods. In the supermarket, honey is found labelled as coming from clover, buckwheat, alfalfa or maybe orange blossom. The label might just read ‘honey’ without any indication of its source of nectar. But is the nectar source even important to those of us wishing to become more conscientious eaters? As Deconstructing Dinner has discovered, there is a curiosity surrounding honey – a curiosity, which has rarely, if ever, been spoken…. until now! It turns out, in Canada, 80% of all the honey produced in the country is from the nectar of canola – yet, nowhere on the grocery store shelves do we ever see honey labelled as “canola honey”. And so the question becomes – just where is all that canola honey ending up? Features Vaughn Bryant, Professor, Texas A&M University (College Station, TX) Brian Campbell, Certified Master Beekeeper, Blessed Bee Farm (Richmond, BC) Jill Clark, Spokesperson, True Source Honey (Lancaster, PA)

Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman sits down with Mark Kastel - the co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute - a populist farm policy research group based in Wisconsin. Mark and Jon discuss the changing face of organic food. Using eggs as an example - Mark explains how eaters can exercise a more discriminating awareness when purchasing 'organic' eggs. Features: Mark Kastel, Co-Founder, Cornucopia Institute (La Farge, WI)

It's not uncommon for most of us eaters to view the system supplying us with food as being separate from us, but on this podcast, one of Canada's most recognized food policy analysts offers his perspectives which suggest otherwise. Instead, the food system has in many ways been designed to satisfy the demands that we make every day to eat the same food, year-round, regardless of season, geography or climate. It seems that we eaters, have become so accustomed to that fresh tomato slice on our sandwich, that glass of orange juice in the morning, or that salad of fresh greens, that these very demands have shaped the food system, and, subsequently, shaped the world we live in. But are these demands for a perpetual harvest necessary? Could we do just fine or even better by choosing a more seasonal approach to eating?...., and, if so, could this way of eating reconstruct the food system for the better? Features: Rod MacRae, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University (Toronto, ON)

On this all-new podcast, Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman examines some of the key differences between conventional and organically produced wheat. Features: Stephen Jones, Director, Washington State University Research Station (Mount Vernon, WA) Kevin Christenson, Owner, Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill (Burlington, WA) Sam Lucy, Farmer, Bluebird Grain Farms (Winthrop, WA) Roy Lawrence, Farmer, Kootenay Grain CSA (Creston, BC) Scott Mangold, Baker, Breadfarm (Edison, WA)

Guests Roy Lawrence, farmer, R&S Lawrence Farm (Creston, BC) - Joanne Gailius, farmer, Full Circle Farm (Canyon, BC) - Nancy Crowell, volunteer, KLOI 102.9FM (Lopez Island, WA) Rhea Miller, assistant director, Lopez Community Land Trust (Lopez Island, WA) O.J. Lougheed, seed saver, Lopez Community Land Trust's Grain Project(Lopez Island, WA) Kathryn Thomas, farmer, Horse Drawn Farm(Lopez Island, WA)

Voices Justin Nolan, assistant professor, Department of Anthropology, J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR) - Lewis Williams, Feasting for Change (Tsawout First Nation near Saanichton, B.C.) - Nancy Turner, distinguished professor, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Victoria, BC) - Food Plants of Coastal First PeoplesFood Plants of Interior First PeoplesPlants of Haida Gwaii and The Earth's Blanket - Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living Linda Different Cloud, ethnobotanist / restoration ecologist, Sitting Bull College (Standing Rock Lakota Nation, ND/SD) - Jane Mt. Pleasant, associate professor, Department of Horticulture, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) -

TED Voices Jamie Oliver, chef/author, JamieOliver.com (London/Essex, UK) - Carolyn Steel, architect/author, Hungry City - (London, UK) Christien Meindertsma, author/artist, PIG 05049 (Rotterdam, Netherlands) -

Voices Grayson James, executive director, Petaluma Bounty (Petaluma, CA) - Melanie Cheng, founder, FarmsReach (San Francisco, CA) - Christine Cherdboonmuang, coordinator, Oakland Farms-to-Schools Network (Oakland, CA) - Michael Dimock, president, Roots of Change (San Francisco, CA) - Bucky Buckaw - host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (New York, NY) -

Packaged Foods Exposed V Unequal Harvest Guests Nicole Shaw, publisher/editor Synergy Magazine (Lantzville, BC) - Kami Desilets & Brent Hirose, actors Unequal Harvest (Winnipeg, MB) -

Exploring Ethnobiology III Investigating Eggs Update Guests/Voices Severn Cullis-Suzuki, masters in ethnobotany, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Haida Gwaii, BC) - Josh Wisniewski, PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK) - Nancy Turner, distinguished professor, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Victoria, BC) - Food Plants of Coastal First PeoplesFood Plants of Interior First PeoplesPlants of Haida Gwaii and The Earth's Blanket - Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living James Rogowsky, specialist, egg products, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) (Winnipeg, MB) -

Guests/Voices Jeremy Lack, farmer/chairman, Mad Dog Farm / Kootenay Local Agricultural Society (Tarrys, BC) - Heide Stang, co-owner, Eggs R Uz (Wynndel, BC) - Bonny Kavaloff, co-owner, Nature's Den (Rossland, BC) - Cindy King, warehouse manager, Kootenay Country Store Co-operative (Nelson, BC) - Matt Lowe, busted backyard chicken enthusiast (Nelson, BC) - Other voices of people wishing to remain anonymous...

Conscientious Cooks seriesCenter for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (or CUESA) Voices Gail Feenstra, food systems analyst, University of California Sustainable Agriculture & Research Program (Davis, CA) Helene York, director, Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation (Palo Alto, CA) Laura Stec, chef/author, The Global Warming Diet (Portola Valley, CA) Bonnie Powell, co-founder, The Ethicurean (San Francisco, CA)

Guests/Voices Andrew McCann Urban Agriculture Kingston (Kingston, ON) - Aric McBay farmer Root Radical Community Shared Agriculture (Howe Island, ON) - Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life after GridcrashWhat We Leave BehindDeep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet Dianne Dowling - Farmer Dowling Farm (Howe Island, ON) - National Farmers Union of Ontario's Local 316 Jeff Peters farmer / director National Farmers Union Local 316 (Inverary, ON)

Voices David Montgomery, professor, Earth & Space Sciences, University of Washington (Seattle, WA) - "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations"PAGES Ronald Wright, author, A Short History of Progress, (Salt Spring Island, BC) -

Guests Nancy Turner, distinguished professor, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Victoria, BC) - Food Plants of Coastal First PeoplesFood Plants of Interior First PeoplesPlants of Haida Gwaii and The Earth's Blanket - Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living Cheryl Bryce, lands manager, Songhees Nation, (Victoria, BC) - Pamela Tudge, former student, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Victoria, BC) -

Voices Toby Hemenway, author, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (Portland, OR) -

Fermenting Revolution Deconstructing Dinner in Our Schools II The Meatrix Guests Christopher O'Brien - author, Fermenting Revolution (Silver Spring, MD) - Kodiak Morasky, student, Blewett Elementary School (Blewett, BC) -