Deconstructing Dinner
Deconstructing Dinner is a podcast/radio show that broadcast between 2006 through 2011 with a brief return of a handful of episodes in 2014. Almost 200 episodes are available on topics ranging from corporate consolidation, animal welfare, urban food production and the local and good food movements. With host Jon Steinman.
NFU Convention w/Dr. Shiv Chopra

On today's final broadcast of 2009 (or first of 2010 depending when you listen!), Deconstructing Dinner shares audio recordings from the National Farmers Union's (NFU) recent annual convention hosted in Ottawa - November 25-27. The NFU has lent their voice to Deconstructing Dinner on well over a dozen occasions and we've always appreciated their passion and commitment to defending and promoting the Canadian family farm. This year's convention marks the NFU's 40th.

Launching the show is a feisty welcome from Member of Parliament and Liberal Party Agriculture Critic Wayne Easter. We then hear from outgoing NFU President Stewart Wells who reflects and projects on the state of Canada's farms and farmers, and rounding off the show, Dr. Shiv Chopra - the former Health Canada scientist who was fired from his job in 2004 for alleged insubordination. Chopra's case is still in process and in the meantime he has authored Corrupt to the Core: Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower. Chopra was last interviewed for Deconstructing Dinner in March 2006.

Voices

Shiv Chopra, author Corrupt to the Core: Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower (Ottawa, ON) - Shiv Chopra's name has become synonymous with food safety. He and fellow scientists have waged many battles over 4 decades against a succession of Canadian federal ministries of health and helped to protect the food supply worldwide. With support of his union, Dr Chopra and his colleagues refused to approve various harmful drugs intended for meat and milk production. He endured disciplinary actions, spoke out publicly, testified at Senate committees, and won federal court cases against Health Canada. Due to Dr. Chopra's work, Bovine Growth Hormone was barred in Canada in 1999 and in the EU. He has spoken out on BGH, dangerous antibiotics like Revalor-H Baytril, and the true causes of mad cow disease. Originally from India, he has lived in Canada since 1960. He is the author of numerous publications on science, society and religion. His academic qualifications include graduation in veterinary medicine and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards, including a Fellowship of the World Health Organization. His latest release is "Corrupt to the Core" which details a full account of how government corruption endagers the public food supply. This book contains a blueprint for the establishment of food safety and security: Dr. Chopra's "Five Pillars of Food Safety," which was presented in April 2008 to the Canadian Parliament by MP (NDP) Paul Dewar.

Wayne Easter, member of parliament Malpeque Liberal Party of Canada (North Wiltshire, PEI) - Wayne was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and was raised on the family farm in North Wiltshire. Wayne entered politics in 1993 when he was officially elected as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Malpeque, P.E.I. He was re-elected in 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2008. In Parliament, Wayne has served as Solicitor General of Canada, Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Oceans, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Agri-Food with special responsibilities for the Rural Secretariat, and is currently Agriculture Critic. Wayne was National President and CEO of the National Farmers Union for 11 years.

Stewart Wells, former president National Farmers Union (NFU) (Swift Current, SK) - Stewart was President of the NFU between 2001-2009. He farms in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

 

Direct download: DD123109.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Eating History w/ Andrew Smith

This episode is truly in the spirit of "deconstructing" our food and features a talk delivered by Andrew Smith - a writer and lecturer on food and culinary history. His latest book is Eating History - 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine. The diet of the modern American wasn't always as corporate, conglomerated, and corn-rich as it is today. Smith demonstrates how, by revisiting this history, we can reclaim the independent, locally sustainable roots of American food.

Andrew was recorded speaking in November 2009 at the Kansas City Public Library in Kansas City, Missouri.

Voices

Andrew Smith, author Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine (New York, NY) - Andrew teaches Culinary History at the New School in New York City. He's the editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America and he's the author or editor of 14 other books including The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture and Cookery, and Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America.

Direct download: DD121709.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:53pm EDT

Deconstructing Dinner continues with our ongoing coverage on the controversial subject of GMOs - genetically modified organisms. As part of our past coverage we've spent time looking at how dialogue on GMOs makes its way through the Government of Canada, whether it be the regulatory process itself, or debates heard from Canada's House of Commons. On today's episode we listen in on December 2009 meetings of Canada's Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. The Committee is made up of 12 Members of Parliament and invited a panel of experts on the subject of GMOs to share their thoughts and opinions on Canada's regulatory process for approving such foods and how the Canadian public currently perceives their presence in the food supply.

Voices

Michel Arnold, executive director, Option Consommateurs (Montreal, QC) - Option Consommateurs is a not-for-profit association whose mission is to promote and defend the basic rights of consumers and ensure that they are recognized and respected.

Randy Hoback, member of parliament, Conservative Party of Canada (Prince Albert, SK) - Randy is a Conservative MP representing the riding of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Randy purchased his family's farm in 2000 and expanded it to 3300 acres. He also established a custom spraying and trucking business.

Gord Surgeoner, president, Ontario Agri-Food Technologies (Guelph, ON) - Before joining OAFT, Gord was a professor in the Department of Environmental Biology, and then the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph until his retirement in January, 2004. Since 1999, Gord has been the President of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, a non-profit organization consisting of members from farm associations, universities, industry and governments. The organization focuses on Ontario's participation in developing, promoting and adopting biotechnology.

Devlin Kuyek, advisor, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) (Montreal, QC) - CBAN promotes food sovereignty and democratic decision-making on science and technology issues in order to protect the integrity of the environment, health, food, and the livelihoods of people in Canada and around the world by facilitating, informing and organizing civil society action, researching, and providing information to government for policy development.

Terry Boehm, president, National Farmers Union (NFU) (Allan, SK) - The National Farmers Union is the only voluntary, direct-membership national farm organization in Canada. It is also the only farm organization incorporated through an Act of Parliament (June 11, 1970). Terry farms in Allan, SK.

Peter Andrée, assistant professor, Department of Political Science, Carleton University (Ottawa, ON) - Peter's research focuses on international and Canadian environmental politics as well as the political economy of agriculture and the food system. His first book, entitled Genetically-Modified Diplomacy: The Global Politics of Agricultural Biotechnology and the Environment, was published by UBC Press in 2007.

Direct download: DD120309.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

Linnaea Farm - Ecological Gardening Program

In October 2008, Deconstructing Dinner had the pleasure of spending time on Cortes Island, British Columbia with a group of young enthusiastic adults who had just spent 8 months learning the intricacies of growing food using organic and permaculture principles. Cortes Island is located in the Straight of Georgia and can be accessed by a series of ferries originating in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. For over 20 years Linnaea Farm has been offering an ecological garden program that becomes the home to about a dozen students who learn from experienced growers before they too embark on their own paths of growing food and teaching others how to do the same.

On this episode we meet those students and instructors to learn more about this unique program, its impacts on the students, and perhaps for us as listeners, can act as inspiration to develop similar programs in our own communities.

Guests/Voices

David Buckner, garden program instructor, Linnaea Farm (Cortes Island, BC) - The Linnaea Ecological Gardening Program was founded by and is under the direction of David Buckner. David has more than 25 years experience in organic gardening and appropriate technology, including over 20 years on Cortes Island. He has studied at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the College of the Redwoods and the Farallones Institute in California and at Aprovecho Institute in Oregon. David is currently on sabbatical in Vietnam seeking inspiration and new opportunities to learn and share his skills.

Adam Schick, garden program instructor, Linnaea Farm (Cortes Island, BC) - Theory and practical instruction is provided by Adam Schick. Adam has farmed and taught at Linnaea Farm for the last nine years and previously grew vegetables for market in the Pemberton area. A graduate of the Linnaea Ecological Gardening Program, Adam shares his knowledge, skills and passion for locally-grown, organic produce with students in the garden and in the classroom.

2008 Linnaea Farm Garden Program Students - Mighk, Daveed, Sara, Corry, Leah, Jonathan, Tessa, Meg, Brenden, Kim

Direct download: DD112609.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:31pm EDT

Agroinnovations Podcast w/ Paul Stamets, Rob Hopkins & Richard Manning

In January 2009, the Agroinnovations Podcast featured Deconstructing Dinner. Agroinnovations touches many of the subjects covered on Deconstructing Dinner but further offers unique perspectives and subjects worth exploring.

The Agroinnovations Podcast is based in Albequerque, New Mexico and is hosted weekly by Frank Aragona. They have produced 70 episodes to date.

Today's episode features segments from Agroinnovations featuring well-known figures like Paul Stamets - a mycologist (aka mushroom specialist) from Olympia, Washington, the U.K's Rob Hopkins who has popularized the Transition Town Movement and Montana journalist and author Richard Manning, who possesses a keen interest in the history and future of the American prairie and agriculture.

Voices

Paul Stamets, mycologist, Fungi Perfecti (Olympia, WA) - Stamets is on the editorial board of The International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, and is an advisor to the Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Medical School. He runs Fungi Perfecti - a family-owned company specializing in using gourmet and medicinal mushrooms to improve the health of the planet and its people. Paul is the author of Mycelium Running.

Rob Hopkins, co-founder, Transition Town Totnes (Totnes, UK) - Rob is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network. He has many years experience in education, teaching permaculture and natural building, and set up the first 2 year full-time permaculture course in the world, at Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland as well as coordinating the first eco-village development in Ireland to be granted planning permission. He is author of 'Woodlands for West Cork!', 'Energy Descent Pathways' and most recently 'The Transition Handbook: from oil dependence to local resilience'.

Richard Manning, author/journalist, Against the Grain: How Agriculture has Hijacked Civilization (Missoula, MO) - Richard is an award-winning environmental author and journalist, with particular interest in the history and future of the American prairie, agriculture and poverty. He is the author of eight books, and his articles have been published in Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Audubon and The Bloomsbury Review. His 2007 release is titled Against the Grain: How Agriculture has Hijacked Civilization.

Direct download: DD111909.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:58pm EDT

The California Drought and Fox News

We travel to the State of California where 50% of all fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in Canada and the United States are produced. Beyond fresh produce, California is also a major producer of dairy, olives and nuts, and the list of foods goes on.

But how secure is this reliance we all have on Californian food? Certainly for most Canadians and Americans, the distance food is travelling from California is almost laughable. But food miles aside, California has just endured its 3rd year of drought, leaving an already-fragile agricultural and seafood economy much more vulnerable.

We learn of the challenges facing California's water supply and how this is affecting food production and as we often do on Deconstructing Dinner, we spend considerable time deconstructing the media and how some of America's largest networks and newspapers like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are communicating a pretty misleading and inaccurate message about this drought and its impacts on Californian farmers. Since President Obama took office, Fox News has taken on an aggressive campaign to do whatever it possibly can to undermine the current presidency. In some cases, Fox has become full-on activists... helping organize and advocate protests, rallies and campaigns that challenge the President and his decisions. But within this dramatic change of tone at Fox News has been the blatant politicizing of issues that in many cases has Fox grasping with such intensity, that many gaping holes in their logic have presented themselves for some overdue deconstructing.

While the California drought and it's impact on farmers is a multi-faceted and complex issue, Fox has chosen to instead blame the drought on the President and a "two-inch fish"!

Guests

Pete Lucero, Public Affairs Officer, Bureau of Reclamation (Sacramento, CA) - The Bureau of Reclamation is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. The Bureau is in the 17 western states and the goal of reclamation is to provide water and power to those states. As for California, the Bureau operates 20 dams and reservoirs to help provide and deliver water for agriculture, urban use and maintaining natural habitat.

Doug Obegi, Staff Attorney, Western Water Project, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) (San Francisco, CA) - After working as a policy analyst for a national environmental group for several years, Doug earned a law degree from UC Hastings College of the Law. According to Doug, he has now landed his dream job, by working to help NRDC restore the Bay-Delta and protect its imperiled wildlife.

Zeke Grader, Executive Director, Institute for Fisheries Resources (San Francisco, CA) - Since 1992, Grader has served as Executive Director of the Institute for Fisheries Resources, an organization begun by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. Zeke works to assure sustainable fisheries, including measures to protect against over-fishing, decreasing bycatch, rebuilding depleted fish stocks and protecting and restoring fish habitats. He has served as the president of the western region of the old National Federation of Fishermen and the West Coast Fisheries Development Foundation, and he currently serves on the board of directors of the Marine Fish Conservation Network.

Other Voices

Sean Hannity - Commentator, Hannity (Fox News) (New York, NY) - Sean Hannity is a popular commentator through his nationally syndicated radio show. His television program airs weeknights at 9pm on the Fox News Channel.

Ainsley Earhardt - Correspondent, Fox News (New York, NY) - Earhardt joined the Fox network in 2007 and provides live news cut-ins during the overnight hours. Prior to her current position, Earhardt served as a morning/noon anchor for CBS affiliate, KENS-5 in San Antonio, Texas.

Devin Nunes - United States Congressman, 21st Congressional District (Tulare, CA / Washington D.C.) - Rep. Devin Nunes is a Congressman from the agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley of California. He is currently serving in his fourth term in the House of Representatives.

Jon Stewart - Comedian, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (New York, NY) - Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian. He is best known as the host of The Daily Show, a satirical news program airing on Comedy Central in the United States and on The Comedy Network in Canada.

Direct download: DD111209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:07pm EDT

Dan Barber - A Perfect Expression of Nature (Conscientious Cooks VI) / Backyard Chickens IX

Dan Barber - A Perfect Expression of Nature (Conscientious Cooks VI)


However we try to look at it, agriculture itself - as it's existed for 10,000 years, will always be a departure from acquiring our food as nature intended. By extension, agricultural and food production methods will always be debated on their merits of balancing natural systems with the social needs of human populations. But what if the line between social needs and natural systems disappeared and the two were to become one and the same? On this episode, we hear how such a scenario is playing itself out on a farm in Spain and which is producing a food most often associated with being one of the most controversial - foie gras. Telling the story is chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City. Dan was recorded in 2008 at the E.F. Schumacher Society lecture series held in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Backyard Chickens IX
On part IX of our ongoing Backyard Chickens series (a sub-series of Farming in the City, Bucky Buckaw lends his wisdom to backyard chickeners on the options available to decrease your reliance on processed chicken feed. Bucky also encourages President Barack Obama to help push Bucky's backyard chicken agenda by establishing a White House backyard chicken flock!

Guests

Dan Barber, executive chef / co-owner, Blue Hill (New York, NY) - Dan Barber began farming and cooking for family and friends at Blue Hill Farm in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In May of 2000, Dan opened Blue Hill restaurant with family members David and Laureen Barber, and in 2002, Food and Wine Magazine named him one of the country's "Best New Chefs." Since then, he has addressed local food issues through op-eds in the New York Times and articles in Gourmet, Saveur and Food and Wine Magazine. Dan has been featured in the New Yorker, CBS Sunday Morning, House and Garden, and Martha Stewart Living; his writing has been incorporated into the annual "Best Food Writing" anthology for the past five years. Blue Hill's menu showcases local food and a wine list with producers who respect artisanal techniques. Ingredients come from nearby farms, including Blue Hill Farm in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a forty-five minute drive from New York City.

Bucky Buckaw - host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (New York, NY) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.

Direct download: DD102909.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:35pm EDT

Sustainable Agriculture at Fleming College / The Local Grain Revolution XI (Sailing Grain Year 2)

Sustainable Agriculture at Fleming College (Deconstructing Dinner in our Schools IV)
Deconstructing Dinner is excited to share with our listeners an amazing new agriculture program for new farmers being offered at Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario. The proposed curriculum touches on many of the areas of focus that Deconstructing Dinner has shared since the show was launched in 2006. The Sustainable Agriculture program appears like an ideal way for any unexperienced and interested new farmers to be introduced to many of the critical pieces necessary to launch a profitable and sustainable farm business.

The Local Grain Revolution XI (Sailing Grain Year 2)
Another exciting weekend has come and gone for the Kootenay Grain Community Supported Agriculture project. Between October 15-18, 2009, a fleet of 11 sailboats made their way from the city of Nelson to the Creston Valley of British Columbia to once again pick up a cargo of locally grown grains and transport it back to Nelson. Launching today's episode, we recap the second year of this exciting stage in the evolution of this local grain project that Deconstructing Dinner has been documenting now for over 2 years.

Guests

Matt Lowe, co-founder, Kootenay Grain CSA (Nelson, BC) - When not volunteering his time for the CSA, Matt Lowe is the Assistant Coordinator in the produce department at the Kootenay Country Store Co-operative and a Climate Change Campaigner for The West Kootenay EcoSociety.

Helen Knibb, coordinator, Sustainable Agriculture, Fleming College (Lindsay, ON) - Helen grew up in rural England and worked on farms there. After arriving in Canada, Helen led the program in museum management and worked on curriculum development. Her passion for farming and rural life led her to purchase a farm and later conceive the Sustainable Agriculture program.

Tom Hutchinson, instructor, Sustainable Agriculture, Fleming College (Indian River, ON) - Tom has been teaching courses in sustainable agriculture at Trent University for over 20 years. He is a member of the Sustainable Agriculture program advisory committee. He breeds Cotswold sheep, heritage poultry and pigs and has done extensive work with heritage breeds and seeds. He is the director of Rare Breeds Canada.

Sue Chan, instructor, Sustainable Agriculture, Fleming College (Lakefield, ON) - Sue Chan has been developing the Sustainable Agriculture modules around the principles of sustainable agriculture (soils, soil amendments, composting, weed management). She is an apiarist and studied agriculture at McGill University.

Direct download: DD102209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:37am EDT

Sally Fallon Morell

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated non-industrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets. Dr. Price's research demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.

The Foundation is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism. It supports a number of movements that contribute to this objective including accurate nutrition instruction, organic and biodynamic farming, pasture-feeding of livestock, community-supported farms, honest and informative labeling, prepared parenting and nurturing therapies.

Today's broadcast features a lecture delivered by the president of the Foundation - Sally Fallon Morell. Sally was recorded in October 2008 by the E.F. Schumacher Society based in Massachusetts.

Guests

Sally Fallon Morell - president and treasurer, Weston A. Price Foundation (Washington D.C.) - Sally Fallon Morell is a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community activist. She is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. This well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods contains a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels.

Direct download: DD101509.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:17pm EDT

Halifax Awaits a World-Class Farmers' Market

In October 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon the Halifax Farmers' Market. Founded in 1750, it is the oldest continuously running farmers' market in North America. The first market vendors were Acadian - the original European immigrants to the land. 

In 1983, the vendors launched what is now a self financed cooperatively governed group of local producers, processors and artisans that has grown to over 200 vendors. The model is a unique one that ensures the market stays true to its roots as a food-focused venue.

With the rising demand for locally produced foods, the market has outgrown its current space and over the past 8 years has been working towards moving to a better location. That move is now expected to take place in June 2010.

Market management believes the new Seaport Market will be an ecological and cultural showpiece linking the Province's urban and rural economies in a seamless community focused on local food and sustainable principles. The market will be open six days a week at Pier 20, the busiest tourist entry point in the province, and it will be at the heart of the cultural, social and community centre that is emerging in the Halifax Seaport Development.

The building itself is expected to be the highest rated LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building on the eastern side of North America.

Guests

Fred Kilcup - general manager, Halifax Farmers' Market (Halifax, NS) - The Halifax Farmer's Market has been operating since 1750, and is the oldest farmer's market in North America. With approximately 150 weekly vendors and up to 9,000 visitors on a busy day, it is a vibrant and bustling shopping environment.

Gordon Michael - executive director, Farmers' Market Investment Co-operative - (Halifax, NS) - The FMIC is seeking to raise $2.25 million from the people of Nova Scotia to help fund the new Seaport Market. The model is a unique example of how local food projects can receive funding from the public at large.

Richard Rand - farmer, Foxhill Cheese - (Port Williams, NS) - Fox Hill Farm, a sixth generation family farm nestled in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, is home to Fox Hill Cheese House. Specializing in aged and specialty cheddar, plain and herbed havarti and gouda, quark and quark dips, fresh curds, feta, Parmesean (a Parmesan style cheese), natural yogurt, and gelato.

Jude Major - farmer/pet baker, Katie's Farm - (Clam Harbour, NS) - A micro producer of Certified Organic Treats for pets. Katie's Farm is Canada's first Certified Organic bakery for pets. And it's the only operation to grow its own ingredients.

Jogi Mullner - baker (Nova Scotia) Jogi and his wife are immigrants from Germany and bake breads and black-forest squares in true German style.

Sass Minard - member, The Grainery Food Co-op - (Halifax, NS) - The Grainery Food Co-Operative is a non-profit, volunteer run organization dedicated to making local and organic food affordable and available to Halifax communities.

Peter Darnell - owner, Indian Point Marine Farms - (Indian Point, NS) - Indian Point Marine Farms Ltd. has been growing mussels in the waters of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia since 1982. They are a small family-owned business.

Bill McKibben - author, Deep Economy - (Ripton, VT) - In March 2007 McKibben published Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. It addresses what the author sees as shortcomings of the growth economy and envisions a transition to more local-scale enterprise. Bill was interviewed in 2007 on Corporate Change Radio and a segment from that show is featured here.

 

Direct download: DD100809.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:52pm EDT

Pedal-Powered Groceries / Tom Stearns on Hardwick, VT

Pedal-Powered Groceries
Martin Gunst is an active cyclist in Vancouver. Throughout the summer of 2009, Martin joined Kevin Cooper in a unique project that offered bicycle delivery services to customers at Vancouver farmers' markets. Known as Marketcargo, the project also assisted the UBC Farm and an urban agriculture business with their bicycles and heavy-duty trailers. Martin then went on to launch Grocer Gunst - a bicycle delivery service for freshly harvested biodynamic produce from three Demeter certified farms in the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan: Biota Farm in Abbotsford, Forstbauer Family Natural Food Farm in Chilliwack, and Harveys' Orchards in Cawston.

Tom Stearns on Hardwick, VT
Hardwick is a town in Caledonia County, Vermont. The population is approx. 3,400 and has become a unique model of a small community that is sustaining a number of innovative agricultural and food security businesses. In September 2009, Tom Stearns of Hardwick's High Mowing Organic Seeds joined Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman at an event in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Tom shared the history of Hardwick and the future of food security work both there and throughout North American communities.

Guests

Martin Gunst - founder, Grocer Gunst (Vancouver, BC) - Martin grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and moved to British Columbia to attend the University of British Columbia (UBC). At 21 years old, Martin is a student of philosophy, economics, and Spanish. He loves good food, local economies, and active transportation. He's proud to be the only biodynamic produce distributor in Vancouver offering services to his neighbours.

Tom Stearns - president, High Mowing Organic Seeds - (Hardwick, VT) - Tom launched High Mowing Organic Seeds in 1996 with just 28 varieties. After tilling up a portion of his backyard and turning his shed into a seed packing area, he had no trouble selling the seed he grew that first year. Suddenly, what had started as a hobby became a practical business pursuit as Tom realized the growing and unmet demand for organic seed. This demand allowed Tom to expand the business beyond his backyard, renting parcels of land to produce the seed he was selling through a hand-made catalog. By 2001, business had grown to such an extent that Tom began to contract with other local farms to grow seed, in addition to continuing to produce seed himself on High Mowing's own 5 acres.

Direct download: DD100109.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:39pm EDT

Farming in the City XI (Nelson Urban Acres / Massachusetts Avenue Project)

Nelson Urban Acres
Nelson Urban Acres is bringing fresh produce closer to home. They are a multi-plot urban farm in Nelson, British Columbia that launched into operation in 2009 based on the SPIN farming model. Co-founders Paul Hoepfner-Homme and Christoph Martens are working backyard gardens within the city using low-impact, organic farming techniques to grow fresh produce. This year they have been growing a variety of vegetables throughout the season for Nelson's community markets. Deconstructing Dinner checks in with Paul to learn of the challenges and opportunities learned from trying to make living as an urban farmer.

Massachusetts Avenue Project
The Massachusetts Avenue Project hosts the Growing Green Program, a youth development and urban agriculture program about increasing healthy food access and revitalizing the Buffalo community through urban farming, healthy nutrition, environmental stewardship and social enterprise. In addition to its urban farm, Growing Green also hosts a youth enterprise, a farm to school initiative, a mobile market and runs various workshops related to urban agriculture.

Guests/Voices

Paul Hoepfner-Homme - urban farmer, Nelson Urban Acres (Nelson, BC) - Paul is 28 years old and was fortunate to grow up in a gardener's oasis uncharacteristic of the norm in suburban Oakville, Ontario. His mother, a passionate gardener, transformed the lawns into a thriving landscape consisting of native plants and shrubs, vegetables and berries. Being raised in this environment gave Paul an early appreciation for what grows out of the ground. During university he developed a passion for sustainability when he read the novel Ishmael, and upon completing his computer science degree he made it his mission to learn how to live sustainably. This passion led him to enroll in a 7-month internship at Everdale, an organic farm in Ontario, where he gained valuable skills and knowledge in operating an organic vegetable farm. In 2008 he moved to the Kootenay region of British Columbia and took a Permaculture Design course in Winlaw where he gained a deeper understanding of growing food in relationship with ecosystems.

Diane Picard - executive director, Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) (Buffalo, NY) - Diane has been with MAP since 1997. She was instrumental in opening the Neighborhood Outreach Center in 1998 and she currently directs Growing Green. She received a Masters of Social Work from Boston University, specializing in Program Planning and Community Organizing. Her undergraduate degree in International Agriculture and Development from Cornell University prepared her to teach agriculture and art at a rural secondary school in Botswana, where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1986-1988. Diane is devoted to grassroots community-building as a means of making positive change.

 

Direct download: DD091009.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:17pm EDT

The Local Grain Revolution X (Retail Supported Agriculture? / Sprouting Grain)

What is Retail Supported Agriculture?

As far as the North American local food movement is concerned, it's not a concept that has yet been coined in any notable way. The Kootenay Grain CSA (community supported agriculture) project located in the Kootenay region of British Columbia is now changing that.

Community Supported Agriculture is most often a model exclusively serving individual eaters (shareholders), whereby the eater invests in their food at the beginning of the season, providing the farmer with much-needed revenues up front when expenses are highest. The CSA model guarantees the farmer a market and secures the eater with whatever the harvest unearths. While eaters might not be used to such an idea, it's not a stretch for most eaters to commit to such a model. Retailers on the other hand are in a different position as the volumes used by bakeries, grocers and restaurants are substantially higher, requiring a much more significant investment. At the April 2009 meeting of the Kootenay Grain CSA, farmers and steering committee members discussed how businesses might be incorporated into the CSA project and the discussion that ensued was fascinating to say the least. Could this mark the beginning of a new model? Deconstructing Dinner sat in on the meeting to find out.

Sprouting Grain

When shareholders in Canada's first CSA for grain received over 80 pounds of five varieties of whole grains in late 2008, many were left wondering what to do with it all. In comes Lorraine Carlstrom, a Nelson, B.C., resident who saw an opportunity to share her experience and create some part-time employment at the same time. Lorraine offered a series of workshops to CSA shareholders and on this episode, we listen in on a class on the ins and outs of sprouting grain. As Lorraine points out, sprouting grain has significant health benefits.

Voices

Lorraine Carlstrom, Chapter Leader, Weston A. Price Foundation (Nelson, BC) - Lorraine is a member of the Kootenay Grain CSA and a chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation - a nonprofit, charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated non-industrialized peoples established parameters of human health and identified characteristics of what he saw as optimum human diets. Dr. Price's research sought to demonstrate that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods. The Foundation is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism.

Matt Lowe, co-founder, Kootenay Grain CSA (Nelson, BC)
Brenda Bruns, co-founder, Kootenay Grain CSA (Creston, BC)
Drew and Joanne Gailius, farmers, Full Circle Farm (Canyon, BC)
Keith Huscroft, farmer, Huscroft Farm (Lister, BC)
Roy Lawrence, farmer, Lawrence Farm (Creston, BC)
Wayne Harris, farmer, Mountain Valley Farm (Lister, BC)
Abra Brynne, foodshed animator (Nelson, BC)
Jenny Truscott, miller (Creston, BC)
...and others

Direct download: DD090309.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:18am EDT

The Local Grain Revolution IX

Since March 2008, Deconstructing Dinner has featured The Local Grain Revolution - a series tracking the evolution of Canada's first community supported agriculture (CSA) project for grain. The CSA completed its first year in the end of 2008 following a commitment by 3 farmers in the Creston Valley of British Columbia who planted 15 acres of grain for 180 members and 1 business. On this ninth episode, we continue with our detailed coverage of the CSA's evolution and zero in once again on some of the meetings of the CSA's steering committee as they discuss year two of the project.

These and past recordings of the meetings of the Grain CSA provide a listening and learning opportunity not often found within media... and of the hours and hours of audio that Deconstructing Dinner has recorded of the CSA's meetings, this episode will feature some of the more compelling discussions and debates that took place not long after the completion of the CSA's year one. These segments will introduce the CSA's decision to triple in size and incorporate more businesses into the project and in doing so introduce yet another interesting model that has since been called RSA, or, Retail Supported Agriculture.

Voices

Matt Lowe, co-founder, Kootenay Grain CSA (Nelson, BC)
Brenda Bruns, co-founder, Kootenay Grain CSA (Creston, BC)
Drew and Joanne Gailius, farmers, Full Circle Farm (Canyon, BC)
Keith Huscroft, farmer, Huscroft Farm (Lister, BC)
Roy Lawrence, farmer, Lawrence Farm (Creston, BC)
Wayne Harris, farmer, Mountain Valley Farm (Lister, BC)
Abra Brynne, foodshed animator (Nelson, BC)
...and others

 

Direct download: DD082009.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:17pm EDT

Stuffed and Starved / Food Sovereignty / The Canadian Wheat Board

Deconstructing Dinner features three segments produced by the National Radio Project's Making Contact and Vancouver Co-op Radio's (CFRO) Redeye.

The segments include a lecture of Raj Patel - author of Stuffed and Starved, an interview with the University of Regina's Annette Desmarais on the topic of food sovereignty and an interview with freelance journalist Frances Russell on the current state of The Canadian Wheat Board and the Canadian government's efforts to strip the Board of its single-desk marketing of western Canadian wheat.

Voices

Raj Patel, author, Stuffed & Starved (Berekley, CA) - Raj Patel has worked for the World Bank, interned at the WTO, consulted for the UN and been involved in international campaigns against his former employers. Currently a researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and a visiting scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, his education includes degrees from Oxford, the London School of Economics & Cornell University. He's also a researcher with the Land Research Action Network. His thoughts on food, hunger, and globalization have appeared in a number of US and international news sources, including the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian.

Annette Desmarais, professor, justice studies, University of Regina (Regina, SK) - Justice Studies Prof Annette Desmarais's area of research includes food sovereignty, or, the right of peoples to define their own food systems and not have them be determined from the outside, by the forces of global capitalism. Her related research interests include globalization and agrarian change. She is currently involved in an ongoing research project with the Via Campesina, an international peasant and farm movement, to develop an international research framework for all future study of the group. She is a member of the advisory board of the Journal of Peasant Studies, as well as the Canadian Association of Food Studies, and has published the book La Via Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants, which has been translated into French and Spanish.

Frances Russell, freelance journalist (Winnipeg, MB) - Frances Russell is a Winnipeg-based freelance journalist and author. She is a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press and is the author of two books. Her career as a journalist and columnist spans nearly 40 years. From 1981 to 1999, she wrote a tri-weekly column on national and provincial politics for the Winnipeg Free Press. Prior to this, she worked as a reporter and political columnist with The Winnipeg Tribune, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail and United Press International in Ottawa. During this time she also provided occasional columns and commentary for CBC-TV, CBC Radio, CBC Newsworld, The Ottawa Journal, The Edmonton Journal, The Toronto Star, Canadian Forum Magazine and Time Canada Magazine.

 

Direct download: DD081309.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:03pm EDT

Genetically Engineered Sugar, Trees, Alfalfa and Wheat / Backyard Chickens VIII

As one of the clearest examples of the direction in which our food and agricultural systems are heading, Deconstructing Dinner has paid considerable attention to the evolution of genetically modified or "engineered" foods. These ever-present ingredients in our food supply represent one of the most controversial and debated shifts that have taken place among modern agricultural practices over the previous few decades. With the product of this genetic engineering being a plant, tree or animal that could never exist through conventional breeding techniques or natural processes, genetic engineering leaves many farmers, eaters and the majority of countries around the world quite skeptical of their known and unknown risks.

The major foods that have been genetically engineered consist of canola, corn, soy and cotton, and it has long been suggested that genetically engineering all commercially used plants, trees and animals, is the future of our food system. In a world where it seems everything is being privatized, such a prospect comes as expected, because when a company genetically engineers a living organism, they can then patent that lifeform and thereby own that lifeform.

Some notable news in the world of genetically engineered food has bubbled to the surface over the past six months that confirms that the future is shaping up to be a genetically modified one. This episode will examine the recent arrival of genetically engineered sugar into the North American food supply and will discuss the steps being taken to introduce genetically engineered alfalfa, genetically engineered trees and perhaps the most controversial... genetically engineered wheat.

Guests

Lucy Sharratt, coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) (Ottawa, ON) - Lucy Sharratt has extensive experience as a researcher and campaigner with organizations concerned about genetic engineering and global justice issues. She worked as Coordinator for the International Ban Terminator Campaign in 2005/6 (the international moratorium on Terminator at the United Nations was upheld and strengthened in this phase of the campaign). Lucy was the Coordinator of the Safe Food/Sustainable Agriculture Campaign at the Sierra Club of Canada and worked as a researcher for the BioJustice Project of the Polaris Institute in Ottawa. Lucy also worked as Project Manager for Voices from the South, a project of the Working Group on Canadian Science and Technology Policy, which focused on issues raised by genetic engineering in the Global South.

Other Voices

Carl Casale, vice-president strategy & development, Monsanto Corporation (St. Louis, MO)

E. Ann Clark, associate professor, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph (Guelph, ON)

Other Audio

Bucky Buckaw - Host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (Boise, ID) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.

 

Direct download: DD080609.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:24pm EDT

Permaculture at The Blue Raven Farm

Deconstructing Dinner revisits with the topic of permaculture... a concept and philosophy that has grown significantly in popularity since we first aired a show on the topic back in 2006.

In September 2008, Deconstructing Dinner's Andrea Langlois visited The Blue Raven Permaculture Farm on Salt Spring Island British Columbia. Farmers and Instructors Brandon and Patti Bauer escort Andrea around the farm and describe the principles of permaculture as they apply on their particular parcel of land. We then travel to San Francisco, California and then off to Devon, England where we take a glimpse at two more of the many examples of how permaculture is being adopted worldwide as a new way of cultivating food, shelter and energy and doing so while maintaining a harmonious relationship with their surroundings. Instead of working against nature as agriculture and other systems so often do, permaculture seeks to work within it.

Guests

Brandon & Patti Bauer, farmers/instructors, The Blue Raven Permaculture Farm (Salt Spring Island, BC) - The Blue Raven Permaculture Farm is located on 5 acres near Mt. Maxwell Provincial Park on Salt Spring Island. Brandon and Patti have been teaching Permaculture and developing their site since 2002.

Voices

Kevin Bayuk, urban permaculture designer (San Francisco, CA) - Kevin Bayuk rents an apartment in the Haight Ashbury district of San Fransicso. He also grows a large amount of his own food, actively composts, raises ducks and captures rainwater- total urban permaculture. One might think you need to own a large plot of land in the country to create an abundant food growing system, but Kevin proves this theory wrong on a number of counts.

Additional Audio

Permaculture: Farms for the Future, Rebecca Hosking (Devon, England)

Direct download: DD073009.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:37pm EDT

Norway, British Columbia V ("Organic" Salmon?) / Co-operatives: Alternatives to Industrial Food VI

Norway, British Columbia V ("Organic" Salmon?)
The presence of open net-cage salmon farms are an ongoing and contentious debate off the coast of British Columbia and around the world where such farms exist. Norway, Chile, Scotland and Canada are some of the most notable locations for these controversial operations.

By all accounts these farms are industrial factory farms with many of the sites in Canada being home to half a million fish in a surface area no larger than a football field. The farms interact directly with the marine environment raising concerns over their concentrated accumulations of waste, disease and parasite transfer between the cultured and wild fish, animal welfare concerns, and the list goes on.

So when salmon eaters around the world are slowly being introduced to salmon labelled as "organic", we certainly need to inquire into what exactly that means? Salmon after all are most commonly recognized as a wild food... and is wild food not as organic as any?

Co-operatives: Alternatives to Industrial Food VI
This edition of our ongoing series on the co-operative model features a production produced by New York City's Christine Black titled "Will Work for Food - the Park Slope Food Co-op". The Co-op is one of the last remaining member-run food cooperatives in the United States and Christine's half-hour production appeared on Pacifica Radio's weekly radio show Sprouts - Radio From the Grassroots.

Guests

Shauna MacKinnon - markets campaigner, Living Oceans Society (Vancouver, BC) - Before earning her Masters in Geography at the University of Guelph, Shauna worked on salmon farming issues for a New York City foundation, which later led to work developing funding strategies for small B.C. NGOs. Her research and work interests have focused on the economic development opportunities that are being created through more local and organic food systems. In her current position Shauna works with retailers and the public to bring attention to how our food choices really can make a difference.

 

Direct download: DD071609.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:33pm EDT

Norway, British Columbia IV (Farming Atlantic Salmon in the Pacific)

In October 2008, host Jon Steinman spoke with wildlife biologist Alexandra Morton who was in the midst of taking the Province of British Columbia and Marine Harvest Canada to B.C. Supreme Court. Morton was challenging the ongoing regulation of the industry by the Province, arguing that the Province is not constitutionally permitted to do so. Instead, it was argued that the Federal government is responsible for regulating salmon farms.

Justice Christopher Hinkson came to his decision on February 9, 2009. Morton was victorious. Deconstructing Dinner invites Morton back onto the show to share the outcomes of that decision and what has transpired since then. Also lending their thoughts to the B.C. Supreme Court decision is Otto Langer - a former federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) biologist who applauds the decision but remains highly skeptical of the DFO's capability to now manage the farmed salmon fishery.

The episode also examines a perplexing letter sent to Deconstructing Dinner not long after our January 2009 episodes. As part of those January episodes, Deconstructing Dinner shared recordings from our October 2008 tour of a salmon farm site and hatchery owned by Marine Harvest - the largest salmon farming company in the world. It appears the company was not happy with those broadcasts and subsequently sent a letter to us outlining a number of rather odd requests.

Guests/Voices

Otto Langer - former Biologist, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) (Richmond, BC) - Otto is a 32-year veteran of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada who quit his job in 2001 after becoming unhappy with the direction the department was heading. He then became the Director of the Marine Conservation Program for the David Suzuki Foundation and one of DFO's most outspoken critics. Otto is now retired. He is considered one of Canada's leading authorities on the issue of open net cage salmon farming. Otto also authored a chapter in the book, "Stain Upon the Sea: The Battle for the West Coast Salmon Fishery" (2001).

Alexandra Morton - Scientist/Researcher, Raincoast Research Society (Echo Bay, BC) - While studying orca whales up until the 1990s, Alexandra watched as the salmon farming industry appeared in the Broughton Archipelago where she calls home. As she observed the arrival of industrial salmon farms, the whales she studied disappeared. She believed the cause was salmon farms, and when 10,000 pages of letters to all levels of government failed to elicit meaningful response, Alexandra realized that she would have to scientifically prove that salmon farming had driven out the whales and caused epidemic outbreaks of bacteria, viral and parasitic infections in wild salmon. By partnering with international scientists and in some cases commercial fishermen, Alexandra has documented the loss of the whales, thousands of escaped farm salmon, lethal outbreaks of sea lice, and antibiotic resistance near salmon farms.

Bill Harrower - Manager of Regional Operations for Aquaculture Development, Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - (Courtenay, BC) Aquaculture is a significant contributor to the provincial economy, and most aquaculture jobs are located in coastal communities. Farmed salmon is B.C.'s largest agricultural export product. Bill Harrower has worked with the Department since the 1980s.

Barb Addison - Manager, Big Tree Creek Hatchery, Marine Harvest Canada (Sayward, BC) - Big Tree Creek is one of five hatcheries currently being managed by the company. It's in the process of a $3-million expansion.

 

Direct download: DD070909.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:58pm EDT

The Future of Prison Farms

In February 2009, it was discovered that Canada's Public Safety Minister, Peter Van Loan, alongside the Correctional Service of Canada, had planned the closure of all six of the prison farms owned by the people of Canada and operated by CORCAN - the branch of the Correctional Service that operates rehabilitation programs that provide employment training to inmates. The farms are located in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick.

The closure of the farms has resulted in a wave of opposition across the country from organizations, unions and individuals who see the farms as playing an important rehabilitative role, they further the growing interest across the country to support local agricultural infrastructure, they produce food for their own operations, and they hold the potential to become even greater models of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Deconstructing Dinner was not granted an interview with Minister Van Loan, and judging by the questionable reasons provided for the prison farms closure, it's not surprising the Minister was not interested to explain and defend those reasons.

In early June 2009, Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman visited Kingston, Ontario, home to two of the six farms set to close over the next two years. After viewing the perimeter of Kingston's Frontenac Institution, Jon is convinced that the farm is almost certainly the largest urban farm in Canada (see image below). He sat down across from the Kingston Penitentiary with Andrew McCann - a vocal opponent of the announced closures, to learn more about the situation and the efforts underway to stop the closures.

Guests

Andrew McCann - Urban Agriculture Kingston (Kingston, ON) - Andrew connects scholarship with community development through his work on global and local food systems. He is turning his masters thesis into a book which visions collaboration between the polarized worlds of "sustainable local food" and "agricultural biotechnology". Cultural and environmental history underpin his writing, as well as his paid work in Kingston's food system where he has been a CSA (Community Support Agriculture) market gardener, lab tech on the Canadian Potato Genome Project, and initiator of the National Farmers' Union's Food Down the Road: Toward a Sustainable Local Food System for Kingston and Countryside. He recently helped found the Kingston Urban Agriculture Action Committee which has been working with the City of Kingston to develop a progressive municipal policy on community gardens and urban farming. Andrew also instructs Sustainable and Local Food for all Canadians - an on-line distance education course offered by St. Lawrence College.

Dianne Dowling - Farmer Dowling Farm (Kingston, ON) - Dianne farms with her husband Peter on Howe Island - located in the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. The dairy farm is also home to a vegetable CSA operated by their daughter and her partner. Dianne is the Vice-President of the National Farmers Union of Ontario's Local 316, representing farmers in Frontenac and Lennox-Addington counties and the city of Kingston.

Direct download: DD070209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:14am EDT

Deconstructing Dinner in our Schools III (Ryerson University) / Backyard Chickens VII

Deconstructing Dinner in our Schools III (Ryerson University)
The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, in partnership with Ryerson's School of Nutrition and the Centre for Studies in Food Security, offers a post-degree Certificate in Food Security. This unique program is offered nowhere else in the world, and can be completed entirely through the convenience of distance education. The Certificate in Food Security introduces students to topics of hunger and poverty, food policy and programs, community development, urban food security and global nutrition. The schools teaching team is recognized internationally in the field and having lived and worked around the globe, they understand the challenges of implementing food security in Canada and the developing world.

Backyard Chickens VII (Farming in the City IX)
On part VII of our ongoing Backyard Chickens series (a sub-series of Farming in the City, Bucky Buckaw of Radio Boise shares his wisdom on the topics of swine flu and approaching neighbours about your backyard chicken plans, and he introduces listeners to the smallest chicken in the world - the Serama.

Guests/Voices

Cecilia Rocha, Director, Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University (Toronto, ON) - Cecilia Rocha, PhD in Economics, is an Associate Professor in the School of Nutrition of Ryerson University where she teaches Food Policy and Economics of Food Security. Dr. Rocha is a Research Associate of the Reference Centre for Food and Nutrition Security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dr. Rocha is very active in initiatives involving collaboration between academia and practitioners in the area of food security in Canada and in Brazil. She has volunteered as a member of the Oxfam-Canada Food and Trade Policy Working Group (2003-2005), is a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (since 2006), and the coordinator of the Betinho Project, a partnership between the CSFS, the Stop Community Food Centre, Toronto Food Policy Council, FoodShare Toronto, and a number of volunteers from the Brazilian community in Canada. Her current research interests include assessing the social efficiency of food security initiatives and programs, the role of civil society in governance for food security, and food security issues among immigrant groups in Toronto. Dr. Rocha is also the Director of the CIDA-UPCD project Building Capacity in Food Security in Brazil and Angola, and is a collaborator in the CIDA-UPCD project Urban Food Security and HIV-AIDS in Southern Africa, led by the Southern African Research Centre at Queen's University.

Bucky Buckaw - Host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (Boise, ID) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.

 

Direct download: DD061809.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:09pm EDT

Sailing Vegetables in Puget Sound
Part VII of The Local Grain Revolution series featured a full episode on the sailing of locally-grown grains from the Creston Valley of British Columbia to the City of Nelson. A fleet of four boats transported 5,000 pounds of the grains. Shortly after the grains were unloaded in Nelson, sailor Jay Blackmore embarked on another journey, however, this time, on-line. He was keen to find other intrepid communities who were too exploring the practice of sailing food. Sure enough, Jay came across Dave Reid of the Sail Transport Company in Seattle, Washington. For less than a year now, Dave has been in the early stages of creating a business around the idea of sailing vegetables from farms neighbouring Puget Sound and delivering them to customers in Seattle. Dave spoke to Deconstructing Dinner over the phone and shared his exciting business model of a fossil-fuel free distribution system for zucchinis, tomatoes, and many other fresh vegetables.

The Local Grain Revolution VIII (Sourdough Waffles)
Since March 2008, Deconstructing Dinner has featured The Local Grain Revolution - a series tracking the evolution of Canada's first community supported agriculture (CSA) project for grain. On this eighth episode, we listen in on a workshop hosted by a member of the CSA, Lorraine Carlstrom. Just as the project has already spawned involvement from many individuals and businesses in the region, Lorraine recognized yet another gap needing to be filled... education in the kitchen. When the 180 CSA members received their 80+lbs of whole grains in December 2008, many members were left wondering what to do with them. Lorraine stepped forward to offer classes to teach members how to use their grains. Among those offered, Deconstructing Dinner recorded one of her first... sourdough waffles.

Guests/Voices

Dave Reid, Founder, Sail Transport Company (Seattle, WA) - The concept behind Sail Transport Company (STC) is to use wind and tidal power coupled with human ingenuity, skills and labor to provide a reliable system of trade and transport that is fossil fuel independent. Dave Reid first learned to sail Mirrors in Peterhead Bay Scotland in the 80's. He designed the model for STC after realizing that rock climbing was too dangerous, engines were too complicated and processed food didn't taste very good. Dave is involved with other groups such as Seattle Peak Oil Awareness, SCALLOPS, and Sustainable Ballard.

Lorraine Carlstrom, Chapter Leader, Weston A. Price Foundation (Nelson, BC) - Lorraine is a member of the Kootenay Grain CSA and a chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation - a nonprofit, charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated nonindustrialized peoples established parameters of human health and identified characteristics of what he saw as optimum human diets. Dr. Price's research is seend to have demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods. The Foundation is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism.

 

Direct download: DD061109.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:11pm EDT

Pigshit! - Industrial Hog Farming in Quebec

Recorded in May 2008, Pigshit! is a three-part documentary about the social, economic and environmental impacts of the factory hog farming industry in Quebec. The production features environmental activists, voices from citizen's coalitions, and vintage tunes from Quebec's past.

Pigshit! was produced by CKUT's Charlotte Scott.

Guests

Holly Dressel, Author (Montreal, QC) - Holly sits on the board of directors of the Sierra Club of Canada, is a best-selling author of books on environmental subjects, and has co-authored two books with David Suzuki: "From Naked Ape to Super Species" and "Good News for a Change". Holly was born in the U.S., immigrating to Canada in the 1970s. She has worked with aboriginal groups and Nobel Prize winners alike, all around the world. She works closely with several First Nations groups, including the Quebec Cree and Mohawk, and is also actively involved in Quebec environmental issues, including industrial farming, water privatization, forest use and more. Holly lives outside Montreal with her extended family on an organic farm.

Denise Proulx, Author, Porcheries! (Montreal, QC) - Denise is the author of Porcheries! - The Unintended Pork Culture of Quebec, which vehemently denounces and details the health impacts, environmental, social, political and economic consequences of industrial hog factories. Denise believes Quebec has taken an agricultural turn for the worse. Her journalistic work specializes in environment, agriculture and social development. Denise is also associated researcher and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Education at UQAM.

Benoit Girouard, President, Union Paysanne (St. Hyacinthe, QC) - Union Paysanne advocates for an agricultural focus on food sovereignty in order to provide people with a healthy and diverse supply of food while respecting nature, soil, animals, the environment and communities. They seek to maintain a healthy standard of living for farmers.

Daniel Green, Scientific Advisor, Sierra Club of Canada (Montreal, QC) - Sierra Club Canada is a member-based organization that empowers people to protect, restore and enjoy a healthy and safe planet.

Tony King, Cathleen Edwards, and Patricia Woods, community members

Direct download: DD060409.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:41pm EDT

Genetically Engineered Crops - A "Spectacular Failure"? w/ Dr. E. Ann Clark

On our April 9 episode, Deconstructing Dinner examined the precarious state of the University of Guelph's organic agriculture program. As was learned, the University had chosen to cut the program along with others displaying low enrollment. The program now sits in limbo. The episode explored the key decision makers at the University in an effort  to determine why the lion's share of research funding at the school is directed towards the genetic engineering of lifeforms and the corporate control of seeds instead of towards organic research. As a coordinator of the organic agriculture major, Dr. E. Ann Clark's work within the Department of Plant Agriculture has provided her with an ideal vantage point from which to critically analyze the outcomes of the genetic engineering of the food supply also underway at the university.

On May 10, Deconstructing Dinner recorded Ann speak at an event hosted by the Kootenay Local Agricultural Society. Ann's talk dealt with the topic of genetically engineered food, and she sought to demonstrate the "spectacular failures" of these technologies, which are now pervasive throughout the North American food supply.

Topics Covered:

  • The May 14, 2009 joint statement from wheat producers supporting commercialization of GM wheat
  • The questionable groups communicating to Canadian wheat farmers
  • The formalization of Dow's NAFTA challenge against the Canadian Government
  • Challenging the genetically engineered promises of "higher yields", "reduced biocide use", "feeding the world", "saving the soil", "farmers would make more money"
  • Misleading promises of Bt Corn
  • Seemingly manipulated research findings on consumer preferences of GM vs. conventional corn
  • The disinformation communicated by Canada's largest agricultural publication, The Western Producer

Voices

Dr. E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph (Guelph, ON) - Ann received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and a Masters of Science in Agronomy both from the University of California at Davis. Ann later went on to earn a Ph.D. in Crop Production and Physiology from Iowa State University. Her specific research interests are in organic and pasture production systems, and in risk assessment in genetically modified crops. She has authored 14 books or book chapters, 25 refereed journal publications, given 51 presentations at conferences and symposia, and 150 extension and technical papers or presentations. She currently teaches or team teaches 7 undergraduate courses, and together with Paul Voroney in Land Resource Science, coordinates the Major in Organic Agriculture at Guelph.

 

Direct download: DD051409.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:07am EDT

Deconstructing Dinner at the Dairy Farmers of Canada / Rally for Farms, Farmers & Food Security

Deconstructing Dinner at the Dairy Farmers of Canada
On February 5, 2009, Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman addressed the Dairy Farmers of Canada at their annual policy conference in Ottawa. The Dairy Farmers of Canada is the national policy, lobbying and promotional organization representing Canada's 14,600 dairy farms. According to the organization, they strive to create favourable conditions for the Canadian dairy industry, today and in the future. They work to maintain policies that foster the viability of Canadian dairy producers and promote dairy products and their health benefits. The organization is run for producers, by producers and has existed since 1934.

To help speak to the organization's interest to prepare for the future, Jon's talk focused on the rapidly changing perspectives of food and farming among Canada's urban populations. The talk was not void of the critical approach that Deconstructing Dinner uses when covering the many issues addressed on the show and used as a foundation for the talk was a magazine-style publication titled the Real Dirt on Farming - a tool designed to communicate agricultural education to Canada's urban populations. While Jon commended the effort put into the publication, there was much to be found within deserving of a critical eye.

Rally for Farms, Farmers & Food Security
On April 18, the Farms, Farmers & Food Security rally was held in front of the British Columbia Legislature in Victoria. The intention of the rally was to raise awareness of the many underreported concerns around food and agriculture leading up to British Columbia's May 12 provincial election. Members of the three major political parties were invited, and The Green Party and NDP were both in attendance. The BC Liberals were not. Event co-organizer Jordan Marr ensured the rally was recorded for Deconstructing Dinner listeners.

Guests

Tom Henry, Editor, Small Farm Canada (Metchosin, BC) - Small Farm Canada is a national magazine promoting small-scale farming as a legitimate and viable endeavour. The magazine's editorial position is that the lives of small-scale farmers and their families are worthy, complex and rich in possibility, and that the communities serving small-scale farmers are unique and dynamic. Tom farms on Vancouver Island.

Voices

Jordan Marr - Farmer (Sooke, BC) - In 2006 Jordan graduated from a bachelor program in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia, and then apprenticed for seven months on an organic farm in Nova Scotia. Jordan now farms in East Sooke.

Brent Warner - , White Loaf Ridge Management (Saanich, BC) - White Loaf Ridge Management Company (WLR) is an independent contractor that was born out of interest on the part of owner Charlie Touchette, to satisfy the agricultural industry with educational and business development opportunities in order to nurture the livelihood of families who operate farms. Brent spent 20+ years working for British Columbia's Ministry of Agriculture & Lands and serves as the interim Executive Director of Farmers' Markets Canada.

Linda Geggie - Food Policy, LifeCycles Project Society (Victoria, BC) - LifeCycles is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating awareness and initiating action around food, health, and urban sustainability in the Greater Victoria community. We work proactively to promote and create personal, shared and community gardens, research, and educational activities and youth skills development programs.

 

Direct download: DD050709.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:32am EDT

A Primer on Pesticide Propaganda II

Since the recent streak of municipal pesticide bans were put into place across Canada, the pesticide industry has been on the defence. Represented by trade association CropLife Canada, the public relations strategies used by the industry were front and centre at the association's September 2007 conference in Saskatoon, which Deconstructing Dinner host Jon Steinman attended.

But how is the media presenting those messages?

In this multi-part series, Deconstructing Dinner explores the messages coming from industry and Canada's regulatory bodies; it examines research on the pesticide and cancer connections; it digs deep into the care that agricultural migrant workers receive when working within our borders; and it challenges one of the most frequently used arguments -- "Without pesticides, the world would go hungry!"

Part II
Part II was sparked in light of CropLife Canada becoming engaged in an aggressive and defensive campaign since the Province of Ontario announced in April 2008 that they would legislate a province-wide ban on the non-essential use of 250 pesticides. That ban came into place on April 22 of this year and other provinces who have not already banned non-essential pesticides are thinking of doing the same. One of those provinces being pressured to enact such a ban is British Columbia where the Canadian Cancer Society is putting pressure on the province to do so. The issue has become somewhat of an election one in light of the upcoming May 12th provincial election and is likely what sparked CropLife to hold a meeting with other pesticide industry supporters on April 23 in the City of Richmond.

This episode explores the latest messages from CropLife including an exclusive unheard interview between Host Jon Steinman and CropLife's Lorne Hepworth - recorded in September 2007 at CropLife's annual conference. Richard Wiles (Environmental Working Group) and M. Jahi Chappell (Cornell University) were invited to respond to questionable remarks made by Hepworth during that interview.

Guests

Lorne Hepworth, President, CropLife Canada (Toronto, ON) - Lorne Hepworth has been President of CropLife Canada (formerly Crop Protection Institute of Canada) since 1997, having previously (1992-93) served as Vice President. CropLife Canada is the trade association representing the manufacturers, developers and distributors of plant science innovations - pest control products and plant biotechnology - for use in agriculture, urban and public health settings. Member companies include Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont and Syngenta among others.

Richard Wiles, Executive Director, Environmental Working Group (Washington, D.C.) - Richard Wiles co-founded EWG with Ken Cook in 1993 and now supervises all staff. He is a former senior staff officer at the National Academy of Sciences' Board on Agriculture, where he directed scientific studies, including two that resulted in landmark reports: Regulating Pesticides in Food: The Delaney Paradox and Alternative Agriculture. Wiles is a leading expert in environmental risks to children, and under his direction, EWG has become one of the most respected environmental research organizations in the United States. EWG's exposure and risk assessment methods are recognized as state of the art, and have been used by the EPA and the National Research Council. Wiles holds a BA from Colgate University and an MA from California State University at Sacramento.

M. Jahi Chappell, Postdoctoral Associate, Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) - Jahi is the co-author of "Organic Agriculture and the Global Food Supply" published in June 2007 in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. The University of Michigan study has received widespread attention. When the paper was being researched, Jahi was a PhD student in ecology, specializing in the intersection of conservation and food issues. His interest lay in analyzing how conservation policy could effectively be advanced to prevent the rapid loss of biodiversity, which Jahi indicates is, today, similar to the extinction rate that wiped out the dinosaurs. Jahi is now engaged in postdoctoral studies at Cornell University.

Other Voices

Samuel Epstein - Professor Emeritus, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, University of Illinois School of Public Health (Chicago, IL)

Arzeena Hamir - Coordinator, Richmond Food Security Society (Richmond, BC)

Ben West - Healthy Communities Campaigner, Western Canada Wildnerness Committee (Vancouver, BC)

Harold Steves - City Councillor, City of Richmond (Richmond, BC)

Robert Wright - Field Development Manager - Eastern Canada, Syngenta Crop Protection Canada (Guelph, ON)

Marian Stypa - Regulatory and Biological Development, Syngenta Crop Protection Canada (Guelph, ON)

 

Direct download: DD043009.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:56am EDT

Mountain Valley Farm II (Kootenay Alpine Cheese)

On last week's episode we ended up at Mountain Valley Farm - a dairy farm in the Creston Valley of B.C. operated by Wayne and Denise Harris and family.

Mountain Valley Farm is a working example of an organic dairy farm that is quickly recognizing the economic potential of tapping into the growing public interest in organic and locally produced food. The farm is one of many models in Canada that is moving in a much different direction than most of the industrial food system. For the Harris family, this 'direction' is already proving itself to be socially and environmentally rewarding, and as they've gradually begun to recognize since the launch of their Kootenay Alpine Cheese business - economically rewarding too!

On this episode we take a tour of the farm and their new cheesemaking facility, and we'll hear from Wayne Harris on the challenges and opportunities found from operating a small-scale organic dairy.

Rounding off the show, a segment from a talk recorded in Burnbay, B.C. in October 2007 at an event hosted by Health Action Network Society (HANS). Speaker Mark McAfee is the founder of Organic Pastures Dairy Company (OPDC) - the first raw milk dairy with certified organic pasture in the State of California. Since the 1950s, McAfee Farms have been leading advocates of "nature-friendly farm practices". Organic Pastures is one of the few remaining family-owned and operated dairies in California.

Guests

Wayne and Denise Harris, Farmer, Mountain Valley Farm / Kootenay Alpine Cheese (Lister, BC) - Towering over Mountain Valley pastures is the magnificent Thomson Mountain range, and it's alpine meadows and forested slopes maintain a sentinel over this dairy farm. The farm is situated in the heart of the Kootenays, on benchland above the Creston Valley, 10 minutes from the Idaho border and 4 hours from the Alberta border. Mountain Valley uses no pesticides, GMO's or chemical fertilizer on the land. They nurture and replenish the soil through many sustainable management practices, including the application of composted manure from the farm and whey from their new cheesemaking facility. The health of the herd is maintained following organic practices, with no hormones being used. They are certified organic with Pacific Agricultural Certification Society and also belong to Kootenay Local Agricultural Society whose mandate is to foster local, sustainable agriculture.

Voices

Mark McAfee, Founder, Organic Pastures Dairy Company (Fresno, CA) - Founder of Organic Pastures Dairy, Mark is internationally recognized as an expert in raw milk production, and has spoken in over fifteen states and three countries on the subject. He invented the first dietary supplements made from fresh raw colostrum, and secured their certification from the FDA and DHS. Mark created and published the first international raw milk safety standards at www.rawusa.org.

 

Direct download: DD041609.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:05pm EDT

University of Guelph Organic Agriculture Axed... Almost / Mountain Valley Farm I

In late March 2009, the University of Guelph announced that a number of programs at the school would be cut in response to budgetary challenges. Among those proposed cuts was Canada's only organic agriculture degree program. While the number of enrolled students in the program is small in comparison to the University's entire Agricultural College (the largest in the country), there is of course a rapidly growing interest in organic food and the values and principles such food espouses. Understandably, the proposed cancellation of the program concerned many students and a number of rallies were held alongside intense vocal opposition.

Deconstructing Dinner invited two students to share their concerns with the proposed cuts.

Host Jon Steinman also delivers an in-depth analysis of the University's proposal. While the demand for organic food has skyrocketed to the point where demand is far outstripping supply, Jon seeks to understand why a University and its President would be unable to recognize the economic, social and environmental potentials of maintaining one of the most promising futures within the food system. What was discovered was a telling story of a convergence of non-organic interests going well beyond the walls of the University of Guelph.

Guests

Silvie Fojtik, Third-Year Student, Water Resources & Engineering, University of Guelph (Guelph, ON) - Water Resources Engineering combines elements of other disciplines such as Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Agricultural Engineering, Planning and Geography in a unique combination ideally suited to addresses society's concerns and needs surrounding water. Silvie participated in designing a water resource system for the University's newly established Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming.

Erin Carlson, Second-Year Student, Organic Agriculture, University of Guelph (Guelph, ON) - Erin hails from Summerland, BC, where her family grows cherries. The Major in Organic Agriculture at Guelph is available within the 4-year B.Sc.(Agr) degree program at the University. Diploma or degree students may also elect specific courses from within the organic repertoire available at Alfred, Guelph, and Kemptville campuses. Interdisciplinary research programs approach questions ranging from composting and nutrient management, to crop breeding, weed control, and marketing, and offers research positions to undergraduate as well as graduate students.

Wayne Harris, Farmer, Mountain Valley Farm / Kootenay Alpine Cheese (Lister, BC) - Towering over Mountain Valley pastures is the magnificent Thomson Mountain range, and it's alpine meadows and forested slopes maintain a sentinel over this dairy farm. The farm is situated in the heart of the Kootenays, on benchland above the Creston Valley, 10 minutes from the Idaho border and 4 hours from the Alberta border. Mountain Valley uses no pesticides, GMO's or chemical fertilizer on the land. They nurture and replenish the soil through many sustainable management practices, including the application of composted manure from the farm and whey from their new cheesemaking facility. The health of the herd is maintained following organic practices, with no hormones being used. They are certified organic with Pacific Agricultural Certification Society and also belong to Kootenay Local Agricultural Society whose mandate is to foster local, sustainable agriculture.

Voices

Alastair Summerlee, President, University of Guelph (Guelph, ON) - Summerlee became the 7th President of the University of Guelph on July 15, 2003. Summerlee, whose career as a scholar, professor, researcher and administrator spans nearly 30 years, joined the University of Guelph faculty in 1988 as a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. He was named an associate dean of the Ontario Veterinary College in 1992, dean of graduate studies in 1995, associate vice-president (academic) in 1999, and provost and vice-president (academic) in 2000.

Direct download: DD040909.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:28pm EDT

Hosting a Community Dialogue on Local Food Systems II / Backyard Chickens VI

Hosting a Community Dialogue on Local Food Systems II

Part II in a series featuring recordings from the 2009 Community Food Matters Gathering.

Over the past few years, Deconstructing Dinner has involved itself with the Nelson, B.C. based networking group, Community Food Matters. Like many similar community food security groups operating throughout North America, Community Food Matters is made up of organizations, businesses and individuals interested in enhancing the local food system.

On March 24, 2009, Deconstructing Dinner, alongside Community Food Matters, hosted an event designed to stimulate awareness and collaboration within the community. For those outside of the community, the event acts as a model of how other North American communities concerned with local food security could gather once a year and share their work and future plans.

What resulted from the March 24 event was an amazing snapshot of the capacity of just one community seeking to tackle the difficult but critical task of fostering a viable local food system.

Funding for this project has been provided by the Community Food Action Initiative, in cooperation with Interior Health

Backyard Chickens VI (Farming in the City VIII)
The familiar and entertaining Bucky Buckaw has some important perspectives on the tradition of giving chicks to children on Easter

Voices

John Alton - Community Farm (Nelson, BC)

Florence Christophers - Nelson CARES Society (Nelson, BC)

Paul Hoepfner-Homme - Nelson Urban Acres (Nelson, BC)

Paul Craig - Sharing Backyards (Nelson, BC)

Jesse Phillips - Canning (Nelson, BC)

Joe Karthein - Community Futures Central Kootenay (Nelson, BC)

SueAnne Smith - Ellison's Market (Nelson, BC)

Nadiv & Chets-Rashone - Preserved Seed Cafe / Mount Sentinel Farm (Nelson, BC)

Valerie Sanderson - Backyard Chickens (Nelson, BC)

Abra Brynne - Foodshed Animator (Nelson, BC)

Robert Agnew - Upper Columbia Co-operative Council (Crawford Bay, BC)

Jay Blackmore & David Oosthuizen - Kootenay Lake Sailing Association (Nelson, BC)

Jennie Barron - Central School Garden (Nelson, BC)

Bucky Buckaw - Host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (Boise, ID) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.

 

Direct download: DD040209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:42pm EDT

Hosting a Community Dialogue on Local Food Systems I

Over the past few years, Deconstructing Dinner has involved itself with the Nelson, B.C. based networking group, Community Food Matters. Like many similar community food security groups operating throughout North America, Community Food Matters is made up of organizations, businesses and individuals interested in enhancing the local food system.

On March 24, 2009, Deconstructing Dinner, alongside Community Food Matters, hosted an event designed to stimulate awareness and collaboration within the community. For those outside of the community, the event acts as a model of how other North American communities concerned with local food security could gather once a year and share their work and future plans.

What resulted from the March 24 event was an amazing snapshot of the capacity of just one community seeking to tackle the difficult but critical task of fostering a viable local food system.

This episode marks part one of two episodes featuring recordings compiled at the event.

Funding for this project has been provided by the Community Food Action Initiative, in cooperation with Interior Health

Voices

Abra Brynne - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society (KLAS) (Nelson, BC)

Suzanne Miller - Kootenay Organic Growers Society (KOGS) (South Slocan, BC)

Aimee Watson - Kaslo Food Security Project (Kaslo, BC)

Matt Lowe - Kootenay Grain CSA (Nelson, BC)

Gail Southall - Creston Valley Food Action Coalition (Creston, BC)

John Alton - West Kootenay Eco Society (Nelson, BC)

Laura Sacks - Soil Matters CSA (Tarrys, BC)

Laura Gareau - Nelson Food Cupboard Society (Nelson, BC)

Jesse Phillips - Oso Negro Coffee (Nelson, BC)

Sandi McCreight - Kootenay Food Strategy Society (Castlegar, BC)

Colleen Matte - Earth Matters (Nelson, BC)

Tara Stark - Interior Health (Nelson, BC)

Michelle Beneteau - Kootenay Country Store Co-operative (Nelson, BC)

Frank & Libby Ruljancich - Growing Through the Seasons (Deer Park, BC)

Conversation Voices: Florence Christophers (Nelson CARES Society), Ryan Martin (Hume Hotel / Best Western), Brenda Hyshka (Aurora Gardens), Marilyn James (Sinixt Nation), Geoffrey Austin (Fisherman's Market), Robert Agnew (Upper Columbia Co-operative Council), Nadiv (Preserved Seed Cafe / Mount Sentinel Farm)

 

Direct download: DD032609.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:45pm EDT

A Crisis in Awareness & Participation - Michael Ableman

Michael Ableman is a farmer, author and photographer. Since he moved to Canada from the United States about 10 years ago, Michael has been creating a diverse model of how a farm can become a community unto itself.

Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island is a working 120-acre historic organic farm. The farm currently produces strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, asparagus, melons, greens, roots, a wide range of annual Mediterranean vegetables, as well as a new orchard of diverse varieties of peach, plum, apple, pear, quince, persimmon, and cherry.

Beyond Foxglove's status as just a farm, the site is also home to The Center for Art, Ecology & Agriculture, which was established to demonstrate and interpret the important connections between farming, land stewardship, food, the arts, and community well being.

In February 2009, Michael was hosted in Nelson by the Kootenay Local Agricultural Society. As he addressed the Nelson audience, Michael communicated a long list of ideas that he believes all communities must adopt to ensure that we can "feed the future before our choices are narrowed for us". He concluded his talk with a descriptive glimpse into the images and stories that fill his 2005 book, "Fields of Plenty".

Kootenay Co-op Radio recorded his talk.

Direct download: DD031909.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:26pm EDT

Canadian Beef Consolidated Further / Backyard Chickens V

Canadian Beef Consolidated Further
Deconstructing Dinner examines the recent takeover of Canada's largest beef packing plant - Lakeside Packers, located in Brooks, Alberta. The plant maintains a capacity to process 4,700 head of cattle each day (that translates to a whopping 43% of all beef processed in Canada... from one facility!). The takeover leaves Alberta-based XL Foods with 51% control of Canadian beef and leaves just two companies controlling 83%.

In light of the recent and largest meat recall in Canadian history, we now know just how much of an impact that a tainted product from one company (Maple Leaf Foods) can have on Canada's food supply. The idea of any further consolidation in the meat packing sector, would, understandably, leave an already shaky Canadian public quite concerned.

To learn more about how this takeover might impact Canada's beef producers and the beef-eating public, we hear from the Competiton Bureau's Denis Courriveau and the National Farmers Union's Fred Tait.

Backyard Chickens V (Farming in the City VII)
Since March 2008, The Farming in the City series has been incorporating a focus on urban backyard chickens.

If the thought of two companies controlling 83% of Canadian beef produced from only five plants turns you off of industrial protein, there is of course the increasingly popular alternative of finding some protein in your backyard. While digging up insects may be an option, backyard chickens might be easier, and for Vancouver residents, much easier! On March 5, Vancouver's city council unanimously approved a change to the city's bylaw that has long prohibited backyard chickens. Vancouver is now preparing itself for a backyard chicken revolution.

We also hear from the familiar and entertaining Bucky Buckaw, as he responds to listener questions on whether chickens can be trained to do tricks!

Guests

Fred Tait - Manitoba Coordinator, National Farmers Union (NFU) (Rossendale, MB) - Fred and his wife have raised beef cattle all of their life on their farm in Rossendale, Manitoba (southwest of Portage la Prairie). The NFU "works toward the development of economic and social policies that will maintain the family farm as the primary food-producing unit in Canada". The National Farmers Union is the country's only voluntary, direct-membership national farm organization. Less than two weeks before Fred spoke to Deconstructing Dinner, he was in Ottawa speaking to the Standing Committee on Agriculture on the state of Canada's beef producers.

Denis Corriveau - Senior Competition Law Officer, Industry Canada - Competition Bureau - (Gatineau, QC) - The Competition Bureau is an independent agency that, according to their web site, "contributes to the prosperity of Canadians by protecting and promoting competitive markets and enabling informed consumer choice." Headed by the Commissioner of Competition, the Bureau is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, the Textile Labelling Act and the Precious Metals Marking Act. The basic operating assumption of the Competition Bureau is that competition is good for both business and consumers.

Jeff Nield - Operations Manager, FarmFolk/CityFolk (Vancouver, BC) - FarmFolk/CityFolk Society is a non-profit society that works with farm & city to cultivate a local, sustainable food system. They develop and operate projects that provide access to & protection of foodlands; that support local, small scale growers and producers; and that educate, communicate and celebrate with local food communities.

Bucky Buckaw - Host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (Boise, ID) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.

Direct download: DD031209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:38pm EDT

The Local Grain Revolution VII - Sailing Grain

Since March 2008, The Local Grain Revolution series has been following the evolution of Canada's first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project for grain.

The project has inspired a wave of support from the communities of Nelson and Creston, including support from the Kootenay Lake Sailing Association. In September 2008, a group of sailors approached the CSA and offered to sail as much of the grain as they could from the Creston Valley to Nelson along Kootenay Lake. In less than a month, four sailboats had committed to the weekend excursion and Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman joined the crew of the Kelpie so that listeners could, at the very least, take an audible part in the exciting fossil-fuel free mission.

Voices

Matt Lowe, Climate Change Campaigner, West Kootenay EcoSociety (Nelson, BC) - The West Kootenay EcoSociety promotes ecologically and socially sound communities while protecting species and ecosystems in the Southern Columbia Mountains ecoregion. Matt is the co-founder of the grain CSA.

Jay Blackmore, Sailor, Kootenay Lake Sailing Association (Nelson, BC) - When Jay first heard about the CSA, he was eager to become part of this exciting initiative. He quickly gathered a group of sailors who will be sailing the grains from the Creston Valley to Nelson on the weekend of October 25, 2008.

David Oosthuizen, Sailor, Kootenay Lake Sailing Association (Nelson, BC) - David was the skipper of the Kelpie.

Roy Plummer, Volunteer (Fruitvale, BC)

Jon Steinman, Producer/Host, Deconstructing Dinner (Nelson, BC)

Keith Huscroft, Farmer, Huscroft Farm (Lister, BC)

Cecile Andrews, Author, Slow is Beautiful (Seattle, WA)

Drew Gailius, Farmer, Full Circle Farm (Canyon, BC)

Music

Earl Hamilton, Musician/Educator (Nelson, BC) - Earl was invited to author a song in honour of the Creston Grain CSA. He has since been recorded performing "Close to Home" in the studios of Kootenay Co-op Radio and performed the song live on the shores of Nelson just after the grain had arrived via sailboat from the Creston Valley. Earl was joined by Norman Richard

 

Direct download: DD030509.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:36pm EDT

Biofuels: Food, Fuel and Future

In February 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon Edmonton for a week of local and global food education. Every year, the University of Alberta hosts International Week, the largest annual extracurricular educational event on campus. International Week "fosters global citizenship through engagement with today's most pressing issues". In its 24th year, the theme was Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine and Frenzy.

Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman delivered two lectures throughout the week and was invited to be a part of an evening panel on the topic of biofuels. In November 2007, the show aired its Biofuel Boom series and this formed the basis for Jon's panel presentation. This broadcast features recordings of the panel from February 4, 2009.

Voices

David Bressler, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB) - David's general area of research is the industrial application of chemical, thermal and biological systems for the catalytic conversion of conventional biomass streams to platform chemicals, fuels and value-addedd commodities. Biofuels are a major focus of his research. David is also the Chair of the Management Committee of Agri-Food Discovery Place which is the department's pilot facility.

Alex McCalla, Professor Emeritus in Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Davis (Davis, CA) - Alex is an expert in international trade and has directed the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at the World Bank, has chaired the Technical Advisory Committee of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and was a founding member and co-convenor of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium. Since graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1966, Alex has served in many roles at the University of California at Davis.

Jon Steinman, Producer/Host, Deconstructing Dinner (Nelson, BC) - Outside of his role with Deconstructing Dinner, Jon also sits on the board of the Kootenay Country Store Co-operative and is involved in Community Food Matters - a coalition of Nelson-area residents who are inspired to foster a more food-secure community.

 

Direct download: DD021909.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:38pm EDT

Palagummi Sainaith - The Age of Inequality

In February 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon Edmonton for a week of local and global food education. Every year, the University of Alberta hosts International Week, the largest annual extracurricular educational event on campus. International Week "fosters global citizenship through engagement with today's most pressing issues". In its 24th year, the theme was Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine and Frenzy.

As outlined by the event's organizers, "We live in an unprecedented, contradictory era. Hunger soars amid record harvests. At the same time, community-based democratic movements on every continent are showing the way toward a world without hunger. They are proving that it is possible to reconnect farming with ecological wisdom by enhancing soils and yields while empowering citizens to meet universal human needs for both food and dignity. In such a dark and disorienting time, solutions are still evident. The only real problem we have to worry about is despair arising from feelings of powerlessness. As we dig to the roots of the global crisis, we protect against despair and find our own power. Only then can we perceive how our individual and group actions can dissolve the forces that brought us here and plant the seeds of lasting solutions."

Deconstructing Dinner recorded one of the event's featured speakers, Palagummi Sainath.

Voices

Palagummi Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor, The Hindu (Mumbai, India) - Once described by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as "one of the world's foremost experts on poverty and hunger", Palagummi Sainath is a dedicated development reporter and photojournalist. He spends the majority of his year with the village people of India's rural interior on which he reports. As the current rural affairs editor of The Hindu and author of the highly acclaimed Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts, his writing on the impacts of globalization on India's rural poor, and particularly farmer suicides, has raised public awareness and influenced both policy in India and the development debate in general. His unflinching coverage of the negative impacts of neoliberal policy on India's poorest populations has earned him over 30 awards including Amnesty International's Global Human Rights Journalism Prize and the Raymond Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication.

 

Direct download: DD021209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:37pm EDT

Frances Moore Lappe - Ending Hunger, Feeding Hope

In February 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon Edmonton for a week of local and global food education. Every year, the University of Alberta hosts International Week, the largest annual extracurricular educational event on campus. International Week "fosters global citizenship through engagement with today's most pressing issues". In its 24th year, the theme was Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine and Frenzy.

As outlined by the event's organizers, "We live in an unprecedented, contradictory era. Hunger soars amid record harvests. At the same time, community-based democratic movements on every continent are showing the way toward a world without hunger. They are proving that it is possible to reconnect farming with ecological wisdom by enhancing soils and yields while empowering citizens to meet universal human needs for both food and dignity. In such a dark and disorienting time, solutions are still evident. The only real problem we have to worry about is despair arising from feelings of powerlessness. As we dig to the roots of the global crisis, we protect against despair and find our own power. Only then can we perceive how our individual and group actions can dissolve the forces that brought us here and plant the seeds of lasting solutions."

Deconstructing Dinner recorded the event's keynote address, delivered by well-known democracy advocate, Frances Moore Lappé.

Voices

Frances Moore Lappé, co-founder, Small Planet Institute (Boston, MA) - Frances Moore Lappé is a democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored sixteen books. She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and more recently, the Small Planet Institute. In 1987, she received the Right Livelihood Award. Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered to be the first book to present a modern-day approach to more conscientious eating.

Her most recent books include Hope's Edge, written with her daughter Anna Lappé, about democratic social movements worldwide and Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad.

Direct download: DD020509.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:09pm EDT

Norway, British Columbia III (Farming Atlantic Salmon in the Pacific)

In October 2008, host Jon Steinman was toured around a salmon farm along with delegates of the 2008 conference of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation. The tour was sponsored by the Province of British Columbia's Ministry of Agriculture & Lands and the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA).

The farm is owned by Marine Harvest Canada and located off the shore of East Thurlow Island - about a 45-minute boat ride from Campbell River, BC. The farm is home to 500,000 Atlantic salmon.

On this part III of a multi-part series on salmon farming along the BC coast, Steinman poses some probing questions to the tour guides.

Helping balance the positive and promotional role of the BCSFA and the Province, the episode will also hear from Alexandra Morton of the Raincoast Research Society. Morton is one of the most vocal critics of open-net salmon farms and played a pivotal role in helping introduce the long-standing and contested debate of whether or not salmon farms are harming wild salmon populations.

Morton was given the opportunity to respond to the comments made on the tour by the guides. Of interest are the number of startling discrepancies that were discovered between what conference delegates were told versus what Morton has discovered through her research.

It was a timely tour to embark upon as it was only days earlier when Morton was in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver challenging the legal and constitutional authority of the Province to regulate salmon farms in the marine environment. Morton, alongside a group of petitioners, argue that the regulating of salmon farms in BC waters should constitutionally be within the purview of the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. This episode will introduce this case, which is currently awaiting a decision.

Guests/Voices

Alexandra Morton - Scientist/Researcher, Raincoast Research Society (Echo Bay, BC) - While studying orca whales up until the 1990s, Alexandra watched as the salmon farming industry appeared in the Broughton Archipelago where she calls home. As she observed the arrival of industrial salmon farms, the whales she studied disappeared. She believed the cause was salmon farms, and when 10,000 pages of letters to all levels of government failed to elicit meaningful response, Alexandra realized that she would have to scientifically prove that salmon farming had driven out the whales and caused epidemic outbreaks of bacteria, viral and parasitic infections in wild salmon. By partnering with international scientists and in some cases commercial fishermen, Alexandra has documented the loss of the whales, thousands of escaped farm salmon, lethal outbreaks of sea lice, and antibiotic resistance near salmon farms.

Paula Galloway - Member and Community Relations, British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) (Campbell River, BC) - The BC Salmon Farmers Association was established in 1984. The Association is the voice of the province's salmon farming industry, a forum for communication, a vehicle for lobbying, and a point of contact for stakeholders and the public. Prior to her role with the BCSFA, Paula worked with EWOS - an international feed company serving the aquaculture industry. EWOS is owned by Norway's Cermaq.

Bill Harrower - Manager of Regional Operations for Aquaculture Development, Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - (Courtenay, BC) Aquaculture is a significant contributor to the provincial economy, and most aquaculture jobs are located in coastal communities. Farmed salmon is B.C.'s largest agricultural export product. Bill Harrower has worked with the Department since the 1980s.

Barb Addison - Manager, Big Tree Creek Hatchery, Marine Harvest Canada (Sayward, BC) - Big Tree Creek is one of five hatcheries currently being managed by the company. It's in the process of a $3-million expansion.

 

Direct download: DD012209.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:45am EDT

Norway, British Columbia II (Farming Atlantic Salmon in the Pacific)

In February 2006, Deconstructing Dinner aired an episode that explored salmon farming off the coast of BC. Three years later, we're revisiting the topic and creating a new multi-part series of the same name.

While the structure of the industry has not changed much over the past three years, public opposition has remained strong. Catherine Stewart of the Living Oceans Society believes this opposition has been pivotal in keeping the growth of the industry at bay. Stewart suggests that this static growth is much to the chagrin of the Liberal government who had announced that the industry would increase 10-fold when they came into power in 2001.

As part of the Norway, British Columbia series, highlights will include a tour of an Atlantic salmon hatchery near Campbell River and a salmon farm off the shores of East Thurlow Island. Featured throughout the series will be interviews with industry, government, and conservation groups. The controversy surrounding the placing of an 'organic' label on a package of salmon will be explored alongside the prospects of genetically-engineered salmon entering into BC waters.

On this Part II, we'll learn of expansion plans at one of the hatcheries of Marine Harvest Canada - the largest aquaculture company operating in BC. As the industry has been running into many barriers to get new farm sites approved, we'll examine whether this expansion is a sign that the industry is getting prepared to grow? With an election looming, activists believe that a re-elected Liberal government will pave the way for a string of rubber-stamped site approvals. There are currently many applications before the Province requesting amendments to production limits and along with the history of over-production violations within the industry, open-net salmon farm opponents like the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR), are deeply concerned.

The broadcast will also explore the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) outbreak that has caused massive restructuring in Chile's salmon farming industry. With the virus popping up in Scotland in January 2009, British Columbians should be left to wonder whether ISA will hit BC next?

Guests

Catherine Stewart - Salmon Farming Campaign Manager, Living Oceans Society (Vancouver, BC) - Living Oceans Society is Canada’s largest organization focusing exclusively on marine conservation issues. They are based in Sointula, a small fishing village on the Central Coast of British Columbia. Prior to her role with Living Oceans, Catherine worked with Greenpeace for seventeen years, holding the positions of Regional Director and oceans and forests campaigner.

Clare Backman - Environmental Compliance and Community Relations, Marine Harvest Canada (Campbell River, BC) - Marine Harvest is one of the world's largest aquaculture companies and is based in Norway. Their Canadian division is the largest aquaculture company operating in the Province of British Columbia. With 75 farm licenses, the company produces more than half (55%) of the total production of farmed salmon in BC.

Barb Addison - Manager, Big Tree Creek Hatchery, Marine Harvest Canada (Sayward, BC) - Big Tree Creek is one of five hatcheries currently being managed by the company. It's in the process of a $3-million expansion.

Other Voices

Jay Ritchlin - Director Marine and Freshwater Conservation, David Suzuki Foundation (Vancouver, BC)

Ian Roberts - Communications, Marine Harvest Canada (Campbell River, BC)

Bill Harrower - Manager of Regional Operations for Aquaculture Development, Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - (Courtenay, BC)

Direct download: DD011509.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:07pm EDT

Food System Retrospective and Outlook w/Brent Warner

Deconstructing Dinner launches our 2009 season of programming with a restrospective and forward-looking presentation by Brent Warner of Farmers' Markets Canada. Brent was recorded in October 2008 speaking to delegates of the annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) held in Courtenay, British Columbia.

Voices

Brent Warner - Interim Executive Director, Farmers' Markets Canada (Sidney, BC) - FMC has been created to help connect Canadian consumers to their local farmers and to address the needs of farmers' markets across the country. Brent is a former Industry Specialist in Agritourism/Direct Marketing with British Columbia's Ministry of Agriculture & Lands. Brent is a horticulturalist who has also served as the Secretary of the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association.

Direct download: DD010809.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:51pm EDT