A False Dilemma: Recent Episodes
Hannah Duff
When we oversimplify our stories, we come to the wrong conclusions. This podcast explores the false dichotomy between agriculture and biodiversity conservation and the opportunity we have to tell a better story about the food we eat and the land we protect.
An agroecological view of food production might just help us see the full picture and grow a better future.
Today we consider some underestimated applicants for a job on your farm: beetles, butterflies and worms. Hopefully, they can make their case.
Here we discuss the danger of speedy, NASCAR-style food production and the risk it poses to our natural environment.
From a puddle, to a lake, to a river; we unpack the debate between habitat amount and habitat configuration as key determinants of biodiversity.
Essential workers like grocery cashiers, garbage collectors and mail carriers provide vital services to our communities. Here we explore how biodiversity in the form of “essential workers” such as plants, insects and animals provides many hidden but crucial services to our farms.
Today I vent my fury about a bakery that sold me slices of bread that had been scattered across the state and a piece of toast that was smashed into crumbs. In the end, I promise- somehow this will all relate to habitat fragmentation.
Here we discuss the controversial Habitat Amount Hypothesis and unpack whether it’s the size or the configuration of habitats that determine which plants and animals can live there.
Here we explore misconceptions about habitat fragmentation by comparing the concepts of habitat size and connectivity to the ridiculous scenario of a bakery scattering their sliced loaves of bread all over town or selling you a handful of crumbs.
Here we cover the ongoing debate in ecology over the Habitat Amount Hypothesis and reveal it’s shortcomings when it comes to explaining biodiversity patterns at the landscape scale.
Who knew that agroecology research would lead me to recruiting young deer mice into a life of crime in rural Montana?
Here we explore the unexpected side of scientific research. Who knew that agroecology research would lead me to recruiting young mice into a life of crime in the middle of rural Montana?
We often hear that agriculture and conservation are nothing more than rivals for space on the planet. This old story tells us we have to choose either to feed the world or to conserve biodiversity. What if this story was wrong? Here we explore how agroecology provides opportunity to protect wild spaces and eat from them too.