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.

TED has become an incredibly popular series of conferences featuring inspiring speakers from around the world. TED is a small non-profit devoted to what they call - "Ideas Worth Spreading." Starting out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment & Design, TED has since broadened its scope to include two annual conferences in California, a global conference in the UK and many on-line resources where more than 700 TEDTalks are now available. TED believes in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.

With a number of the talks delivered at their annual conferences involving food, on this episode, we hear three of those talks including one delivered by well-known television personality Jamie Oliver who speaks passionately about teaching children about food. We hear architect and author Carolyn Steel speaking about the history of how cities fed themselves and we hear author/artist Christien Meindertsma speak about the astonishing afterlife of the ordinay pig, parts of which make their way into at least 185 non-pork products!

Voices

Jamie Oliver, chef/author, JamieOliver.com (London/Essex, UK) - Jamie Oliver has been drawn to the kitchen since he was a child working in his father's pub-restaurant. As the host of the BBC2 television show Naked Chef launched in the late 90s, Jamie Oliver has built a worldwide network of TV shows, books, cookware and magazines, all based on a formula of simple food. Today, Jamie's focus has been on bringing attention to the changes he believes are needed to the diets of Brits and Americans and has launched campaigns such as Jamie's School Dinner, Ministry of Food and Food Revolution USA.

Carolyn Steel, architect/author, Hungry City - (London, UK) Carolyn uses food as a medium to read cities and understand how they work. In her book Hungry City, she traces and puts into historical context food's journey from land to urban table and thence to sewer.

Christien Meindertsma, author/artist, PIG 05049 (Rotterdam, Netherlands) - Christien is a dutch artist who explores raw materials in thoughtful ways, making simple books and products to better showcase once-hidden processes. Her second book, titled PIG 05049, documents the astounding array of products that different parts of a pig named 05049 could support -- revealing the lines that link raw materials with producers, products and consumers that have become so invisible in an increasingly globalized world. PIG 05049 was acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art this past winter.

Direct download: DD101410.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:13pm EDT

Deconstructing Dinner has long been exploring the many ways through which farmers, businesses, organizations and communities are accessing food using new and innovative models. On today's broadcast we hear more of those examples shared as part of the March 2010 panel - Produce to the People, hosted by the San Francisco based CUESA.

The Produce to the People panel examined a few inspiring models for getting fresh, local food to residents in the San Francisco Bay area of California and featured Grayson James of Petaluma Bounty, Melanine Cheng of FarmsReach and Christine Cherdboonmuang of the Oakland Farms-to-Schools Network and Oakland FRESH School Produce Markets. Moderating the panel was Michael Dimock of Roots of Change.

And closing out the broadcast - a new episode from Bucky Buckaw and his Backyard Chicken broadcast. Bucky discusses the pros and cons of eating raw eggs and provides suggestions on the safest source of those eggs to reduce exposure to the risks of salmonella.

Voices

Grayson James, executive director, Petaluma Bounty (Petaluma, CA) - Petaluma Bounty is a non-profit organization formed in 2006. The organization works to create a sustainable Petaluma food system with healthy fresh food for everyone by helping residents to grow their own healthy food, redistributing surplus food, and providing affordable fresh food to low-income families and seniors.

Melanie Cheng, founder, FarmsReach (San Francisco, CA) - FarmsReach is an online farm food marketplace focusing on the San Francisco Bay area that connects farmers to business buyers. Their mission is to help businesses source fresher and healthier foods and put better food on more plates while supporting healthy farms.

Christine Cherdboonmuang, coordinator, Oakland Farms-to-Schools Network (Oakland, CA) - The Oakland Fresh School Produce Markets is a program of the Oakland Unified School District Nutrition Services and the East Bay Asian Youth Center. The markets are set up to sell fresh, mostly locally grown and pesticide-free fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, honey and other foods at public schools. The produce is purchased from local family farms and distributors, and sold by parents and students during after-school hours every week at each school site. The markets, which operate at 12 schools are open to parents, students, staff and community residents. Their goal is to open 25 markets by 2012.

Michael Dimock, president, Roots of Change (San Francisco, CA) - Roots of Change is a collaboration of community, nonprofit, philanthropic, government, and business organizations that seeks to accelerate the transition to more sustainable food systems in California.

Bucky Buckaw 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: DD093010.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:31am EDT