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.
The Importance of Garlic to Small-Scale Farmers

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

Features:

Ken Meter, Professor, Crossroads Resource Center (Minneapolis, MN)

Liz Primeau, Author, In Pursuit of Garlic (Mississauga, ON)

Bill Christopher, President, Christopher Ranch (Gilroy, CA)

Bob Baloch, Farmer, The Fresh Veggies (Brampton, ON)

Peter McClusky, Founder, Toronto Garlic Festival (Toronto, ON)

JP Gural, Farmer, Samsara Fields (Waterford, ON)

Ross Breen, Farmer, Stone Soup Farm (Harlowe, ON)

Paul Hoepfner-Homme, Farmer, Victory Garden Vegetables (Cobourg, ON)

Direct download: 05_ImportanceOfGarlictoSmallScaleFarmers.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:12pm EDT

Honey – one of the most natural foods. In the supermarket, honey is found labelled as coming from clover, buckwheat, alfalfa or maybe orange blossom. The label might just read ‘honey’ without any indication of its source of nectar. But is the nectar source even important to those of us wishing to become more conscientious eaters? As Deconstructing Dinner has discovered, there is a curiosity surrounding honey – a curiosity, which has rarely, if ever, been spoken…. until now!

It turns out, in Canada, 80% of all the honey produced in the country is from the nectar of canola – yet, nowhere on the grocery store shelves do we ever see honey labelled as “canola honey”. And so the question becomes – just where is all that canola honey ending up? 

Features 

Vaughn Bryant, Professor, Texas A&M University (College Station, TX)

Brian Campbell, Certified Master Beekeeper, Blessed Bee Farm (Richmond, BC)

Jill Clark, Spokesperson, True Source Honey (Lancaster, PA)

 

Direct download: 04_GeneticallyEngineeredHoney.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:22pm EDT

Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman sits down with Mark Kastel - the co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute - a populist farm policy research group based in Wisconsin.

Mark and Jon discuss the changing face of organic food. Using eggs as an example - Mark explains how eaters can exercise a more discriminating awareness when purchasing 'organic' eggs. 

Features: 

Mark Kastel, Co-Founder, Cornucopia Institute (La Farge, WI)

 

Direct download: 03_HowOrganicIsAnOrganicEgg.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 6:01pm EDT

It's not uncommon for most of us eaters to view the system supplying us with food as being separate from us, but on this podcast, one of Canada's most recognized food policy analysts offers his perspectives which suggest otherwise. Instead, the food system has in many ways been designed to satisfy the demands that we make every day to eat the same food, year-round, regardless of season, geography or climate.

It seems that we eaters, have become so accustomed to that fresh tomato slice on our sandwich, that glass of orange juice in the morning, or that salad of fresh greens, that these very demands have shaped the food system, and, subsequently, shaped the world we live in. But are these demands for a perpetual harvest necessary? Could we do just fine or even better by choosing a more seasonal approach to eating?...., and, if so, could this way of eating reconstruct the food system for the better?

Features:

Rod MacRae, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University (Toronto, ON)

Direct download: 02_YearRoundVsSeasonalEating.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:19pm EDT