What Doesn't Kill You: Recent Episodes
Heritage Radio Network
Food production is a curious business; it's nuanced, layered, complex, and political. In What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer endeavors to identify and explain some of the key issues in our food system through interviews with journalists, authors, scientists, activists, and industry experts. Water rights, meat and agricultural production, food waste, labor issues, and new technologies are just some of the topics explored so we can better understand how to feed the future.
Prairie Rivers Network has published the results of a 6 year study on the impacts of herbicide drift in Illinois, and its not a good picture. Herbicide drift isn't confined to agricultural fields. They float right into our backyards, schoolyards, parks, and natural spaces. Herbicide drift is having a major impact on trees and naturally occurring plant species, not to mention humans. Kim Erndt-Smith, Director of Ecolocgical halth at Prairie Rivers Network explains whats in that report, and why we should all be concerned. It's not just happening in Illinois.
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Journalist Keith Schneider reports on some groundbreaking cases in Michigan and in Federal Court addressing the pollution caused by CAFOs and the spreading of manure across famrland that winds up in our water system.
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Dr. Thomas Boving, Chair of The Department of Geosciences joins to discuss what and how we can address the contaminations of our waterways, from lakes and streams to groundwater. With agrochemicals, PFAS and other toxic additives, American waterways are challenged like never before. Dr. Boving has worked here and abroad to address challenges to drinking water from a myriad of sources.
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Avian Influenza, AKA bird flu is just a few mutations away from becomimg a much bigger deal for humans. With the pandemic just in the rear view mirror, teh news that H5N1 has moved from bird populations to dairy herds to humans should be a red alert. Curiously, the USDA seems relatively unconcerned. Gail Hansen, Public health veterinarian and subject matter expert for government and non-government organizations on public health and animal policy, discusses what could be our next major public health crisis.
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John Rumpler, Clean Water Director of Environment America; Research and Policy Center, explains how protecting our "ephemera" streams has a major impact on our water supply. With last years Supreme Court Ruling excepting "ephemeral" streams from the Clean Water Act, and laying them open to polluters. It will take a concerted effort to restore protected status to these types of streams that in the end, supply nearly 55% of our drinking water.
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Erik Kanter, President of Clean Wisconsin joins to explain how republicans are withholding funds for clean up until the legislature passes a bill immunizing polluters from prosecution for polluting the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites.
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New legislation introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ro Khanna would put the kybosh on trading in water futures. Will it succeed? Mary Grant, Director of the Public Water for All initiative at Food and Water Watch joins to discuss this legislation, and other issues affecting our water supplies.
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Will Harlan from the Center for Biological Diversity joins to talk about the keystone species horseshoe crabs, a population that is crashing, and for which the Center is seeking endangered species protection. Learn why we need to protect this harmless and ancient creature from human exploitation.
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Science writer Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug and Big Chicken, joins to discuss the feeble attempts to rein in antibiotic use in animal agriculture. As the World Health Organization and others blare out the warnings about a post antibiotic medical landscape, American livestock producers can't quite seem to fully wean their herds off prophylactic antibiotics. Incremental progress has been made over the last decade plus, but we are running out of time.
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The Humane League, an advocacy organization seminal to both encouraging the egg industry to improve its conditions for laying hens, but also to hold restaurants accountable when they don't keep their promises to use only cage free eggs. Kelly Myers, Director of Corporate Engagement joins to discuss this sea change, and the new Humane League Eggspose, that busts the bad actors who promise one thing, and do another.
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According to journalist Keith Schneider whose prize winning series Toxic Terrain has explored many of the ills associated with our style of agriculture, "the voluntary conservation practices promoted by federal and state governments, and Big Ag, are the costliest and least effective pollution prevention strategy ever devised. In the Mississippi Basin $30 billion spent since 1997 by the federal and state governments."
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Professors Viveca Morris and Jennifer Jacquet dug into how the livestock industry has co-opted certain university experts to minimize the impact of findings on climate change related to industrialized animal agriculture. Their findings have been published in a new paper detailing just how successful meat companies have been in skewing perceptions of climage change, altering emission targets, and making sure the industry remains the unregulated monster it is. Prepare to be outraged.
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Veteran agricultural journalist Tom Philpott joins to talk about what is and isn't in the newest iteration of the Farm Bill. Despite all the extra funds from the Investment Recovery Act, and all the information we now have about climate disruption, and other impacts on agriculture, we seem to be marching toward the same old same old...
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Professor Upmanu Lall, director of the Water Institute at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University gives us the details on how we map, model, and distribute our dwindling groundwater supplies.
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Author Austin Frerick joins the show to talk about his new book: Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food System. An awesome journey through the biggest monopolies in the food biz, from grains, to hogs, to coffee, to grocery chains... Meet the unknown players making bank on the food system.
Photo Courtesy of Kris Graves.
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For at least 20 years, the burgeoning poultry industry has been spreading the waste litter from their barns across one particular watershed in Oklahoma. Journalist Ben Felder dug into the origins of the lawsuit brought by a long gone state attorney general seeking to bring some accountability to the industry over damage to the local waterways. 20 years later, negotiations on how to manage this by product have broken down, and now new legislation threatens to give industry even wider latitude to pollute at will. Why is industry more important than clean water?
Photo Courtesy of Investigate Midwest.
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Accross the farm belt, cancer cases are spiking, and states are getting serious about tracking and providing guidelines for exposure to agro-chem. Journalist Keith Schneider has been digging into this for months and reports.
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Straight outta the NY Times, a groundbreaking article by journalists Christopher Flavelle and Somini Sengupta shows the highway between mcNuggets and our diminishing supply of fresh clean water for human consumption. Flavelle joins the show to describe what he and his colleague uncovered as part of an ongoing and important series in the NYT.
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John Rumpler, Clean Water DIrector and lead attorney for Environment America, joins to talk about the long overdue revision of regulations governing wastewater from slaughterhouses and meat processing plants. Decades overdue, public hearings on the subject are being held January 24th and 31st 2024. Learn more about how much toxic waste could be captured if these revised regulations are allowed to pass. Aside from reducing contamination of our drinking water, these revisions would also have an impact on wildlife, recreation, human health, and the ecology of rivers and streams currently unprotected.
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Chris Jones, author of The Swine Republic, featured here in June, is back to talk about the remarkable series of conversations he is now having around Iowa and his region about big ag and water pollution. We will also talk about heavily funded mitigation tools that are not mitigating, but are lining some peoples pockets with taxpayer money.
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Big Ag and Big Oil are getting in bed together to promote the buildout of bio-digesters to manage animal waste. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing masquerading as a good thing? Reporter Keith Schneider gives some context on this long overdue attention to pollution from the animal agriculture segment.
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Professor Sylvia Secchi from University of Iowa joins to talk about how ethanol is a giant giveaway to the ag industry, purporting to be a partial solution to fossil fuel impacts. Instead, the excessive cultivation of corn is having disastrous impacts on soil and water... and guess what? It's anything but fuel efficient. How did we get here???
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Journalist Keith Schneider examines a spate of cancer diagnoses in farm country in Minnesota. On one short stretch of a road in Berne Minnesota, shared by four farming families, 12 people developed cancer, and seven of them died. What linked these people in disease is the contamination of their drinking water with excess nitrates, the chemicals used to encourage bumper crops of corn, soy, and other crops. It has yet to be definitively proven, but the science shows excessive nitrate in drinking water is increasingly connected to cancer clusters such as this one in Minnesota.
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Organic food purchasers buy organic and pay the extra for a reason. New regulations being proposed by some members of congress would make it much easier for corporate food businesses to use that premium label to sell product that doesn't actually meet the real benchmarks of organic. Tom Chapman, CEO of the Organic Trade Association, and others have introduced the new Continuous Improvement and Accountability in Organic Standards to counteract these efforts to dilute the organic label.
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The National Family Farm Coalition is advocating for the Farmland For Farmers Act introduced by Senator Cory Booker in July of this year. Agricultural land needs to stay accessible to actual farmers, rather than offer an opportunity to corporate entities to capitalize on high land prices, at the same time driving those prices into a stratosphere no mere mortal can possibly attain. Our food security depends on measures like this. Tune in to see how this fits into the Farm Bill, and its chances at passage.
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Western states are home to herds of grazing beasts, and to keep them in the right place, thousands of miles of fencing is required. Conservation Northwest Associate Director Jay Kehne advocates a different path: shock collars for cattle. The cattle stay put, but other wildlife (think deer, elk, and other ruminants) can run free instead of fouling the fence. A big win for wildlife, and for a rancher's bottom line.
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Award winning journalist and author, and favorite guest, Tom Philpott returns to talk all things Farm Bill. What will change, what is new, and what is, sigh, same old, same old?
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Every day a new article describes the prevalence of PFAS in our water, land, food, and bodies. David Cwiertny, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and in Chemistry at the University of Iowa, takes us through the impacts, the options for remediation, and what to expect from regulatory bodies in the wake of increased knowledge on the ubiquity of "forever" chemicals.
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Iowa State University Water Quality expert Chris Jones, @riverraccoon, just published a damning indictment of the governing officials of Iowa and Big Ag in overseeing the disastrous consequences of our profit over people driven agricultural model. Learn how the Department of Natural Resources and a host of other agencies collude in allowing agriculture to extract maximum payment from taxpayers, even as they flush ever increasing quantities of pollutants into the water system.
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Tom Philpott, author of Perilous Bounty, was prescient in his 2020 book in a lengthy description of the 1862 floods that inundated Central Valley in a once in a century flood. Now Central Valley is facing an even more catastropic scenario as climate disruption adds fuel to an already volatile area now packed with dairy farms, oil wells, and massive swaths of land planted to almonds, pistachios, tomatoes, and cotton. What will ensue with the predicted flooding caused by potential rapid snowmelt is a desperate scenario indeed.
Read Tom's latest piece here.
Read an excerpt from his book here.
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Vermont farmer Erik Andrus is practicing an ancient form of agro-ecology from Japan. Learn how the old informs the new as Erik describes his approach and how it works.
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Bryce Oates, a regular contributor to Civil Eats, Daily Yonder and other pubs has launched a newsletter that comes from a rural perspective. In this episode we talk about the new WOTUS controversy, and all the bluster and drama that plays out in a rule that essentially regulates nothing, but some would like us to believe our food supply is at risk from protecting water supplies.
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Science writer and author Maryn McKenna is back to talk about her newest piece for Wired where she considers the implications of Avian flu moving to new territory and infecting new mammals, though not yet infecting people to any great degree. What does this say about our methods for raising animals in confinement, and how do we check the spread of this pathogen and others like it?
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Sherri Dugger, Executive Director of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, joins What Doesn't Kill You to discuss a recent meeting in Washington with advocacy groups urging the USDA and Congress to fund actual farms, rather than subsidizing commodities for animal feed and ethanol. Learn how SRAP helps communities organize against CAFO's, and how they transition farmers from the CAFO model of pork production.
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Vicky Bond, President of the Humane League, joins to discuss their campaign to transition the egg industry to cage free. Who is walking the walk and who talks the talk but doesn't walk?
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Chloe Sorvino, journalist and author of Raw Deal, returns to talk about alt meat and where it's headed. Is it really better?
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Journalist Christina Cooke joins to discuss her lead off piece in a five part series on worker safety in animal agriculture called Injured and Invisible. Today we discuss the plight of workers who have been long left out of OSHA safety regs extended to every other industry.
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Forbes's food writer Chloe Sorvino brings the business in her new book about the corruption of the meat industry. Exploitation, price fixing, pollution and bribery all get a turn in the barrel. Should be a fun discussion between a couple of real meat heads!
Photo Courtesy of Nick Rice.
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Blue Triton has gobbled up a lot of water companies, including Nestle's water division. They say they are addressing the kinds of problems we saw in Flint. But what exactly does that mean, and what should consumers expect from a giant water company that makes its profit from selling bottled water? Chief sustainability officer Ed Ferguson will try to show us what role his company plays in maintaining water quality and supply.
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Civil Eats reporter and former host of the Farm Report, Lisa Held, was at the conference and can give listeners an informed recap of this long overdue conference. From root causes of hunger, to expanding the role of government in nutrition science, and much more, this conference was based on 5 Pillars of action proposed by the Biden Administration. Learning what those goals are and the proposals to achieve them can help us all understand why America lags in public health, and inform who we vote for in the future.
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On October 11, the Supreme Court heard a case that will have major implications for animal welfare standards nationwide. The case was brought forward by National Pork Producers Council against the state of California, citing unfair trade practices. Prop 12 guaranteed a better standard of living for pigs, veal calves and egg birds. NPPC et al. says otherwise. Hog farmer Ron Mardesen joins to discuss.
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Despite banner investments in big ag, not to mention the end of the trade wars with China and a host of other farm friendly policies, Biden gets no love. Journalist Art Cullen dissects why farmers love to bite the hand that feeds them, gives us the skinny on governor and senate races, and gets real about water.
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President of the Humane League, a non profit animal rights organization, discusses the game-changing release of internal reports that were previously available only via FOIA requests. What is to be learned, and what to do next is the subject of this episode.
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Agriculture is getting some serious attention from the Biden administration with significant investments via the Inflation Recovery Act, and even more from Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities. Tom Philpott from Mother Jones deconstructs.
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Author, activist, and professor Marion Nestle joins to talk about her "Unexpected Life in Food Politics". A groundbreaking author and the developer of the first formal food studies program at NYU, Marion Nestle has inspired and informed the public about the many hidden issues that plague our food system and damage our health.
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Robin Madel takes us through the uses of the Water Calculator, a new tool that measures not just your water use from the tap, but the water used in growing, processing, and distributing agricultural products, clothing, appliances.. pretty much every thing you use. Jerusha Klemperer explains the Food Water Energy Nexus and the implications of our current food system on dwindling water supplies.
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If you follow the news, you have probably noticed a lot of copy devoted to the commercial cultivation of kelp. Kelp farmer Jonathan McGee explains why farming kelp is a winner for consumers, the ocean, and climate change.
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Forbes journalist Chloe Sorvino describes what happened at a recent congressional hearing where meatpacking CEOs are questioned about their anti competitive, monopolistic, rip-off practices of the last 30 plus years.
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Surprise! Those certification labels promising no antibiotics in animals are sometimes a hollow promise. Andrew deCoriolis from Farm Forward unpacks the recent studies from both the Milken Institute School of Public Health and Farm Forward's own research that show that corners can and are being cut, and no one is really minding the store. USDA/FSIS, once again, fail to deliver.
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Investigative reporter Helena Bottemiller-Evich digs deep into the many ways the FDA, supposedly monitoring our food supply, abjectly fails to adequately monitor and regulate basic products like baby formula, the water used to process vegetables and fruits, and forever chemicals in food packaging. Every year more than 128,000 people are made sick from food-borne illnesses, while over 3000 people die. The US lags far behind other developed nations in maintaining a safe, inspected food supply.
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If you are wondering why a conflict so far away is going to hit so close to home, listen up here to Tom Philpott of Mother Jones. He explains how we are all connected when it comes to food security. Regionalizing our food system makes more sense than ever.
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Senior scientist and Director of the Food and Environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ricardo Salvador evaluates some 10 key initiatives brought by Tom Vilsack in his second term as Secretary of Agriculture. There is also some talk about the 2023 Farm Bill and what to expect, and to hope for!
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My guest today is Anuradha Mittal, the founder and executive director of The Oakland Institute. They recently released a report that exposes how corruption, governments, and major industrial agricultural players are sucking sub-saharan nations dry, even as they promise infrastructure that will provide food security and clean water. Instead, they pollute and displace.
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Democratic State Representative Art Staed has put forth a bill that demands a moratorium on building new CAFOs for the next five years. He won't name names, but he tells a story of how an industry has co-opted the state legislature that is the signature of our era, whether state or federal governance.
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Most farm equipment is manufactured by a very few industry giants like John Deere. Shutting farmers out of the ability to fix their equipment themselves or locally costs millions of dollars in lost opportunity, not to mention heightened costs for farmers. Right to repair has an impact on all of us, not just farmers. Learn more with Kevin O'Reilly, Director of the Right to Repair Campaign at US PIRG.
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Mike Callicrate, activist and rancher, comes aboard to talk about breaking up consolidation in the meat industry and re-regionalizing the system. The man has a plan.
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Anastasia Cole Plakias, co-founder of the Brooklyn Grange, talks about the role of urban agriculture, the business model, community engagement, and more.
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Tom Philpott of Mother Jones returns to discuss the role of Ag Sec Tom Vilsack in fostering and perpetuating the ethanol industry, with his son now stepping into a role with a major "carbon sequestration" project. The MidWest Carbon Express pipeline sounds good on paper, but just how good is it really?
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In 2012 I did the first of many interviews about antibiotics in the animal agriculture sector.. what has happened since then? Join science writer Maryn McKenna for an update on where that all-important and somewhat forgotten issue stands today.
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Emily Broad Leib, Faculty Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, offers policy solutions to managing food waste on consumer and corporate platforms.
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Executive Director of Farm Forward, an advocacy group, takes on the greenwashing of Animal welfare certifications, drawing the distinctions between industry and independent labeling, as well as animal welfare elements frequently overlooked by consumers. Executive Director Andrew DeCoriolis explains why most labels are meaningless, or worse.
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Magaly Licolli is a labor organizer in Northwest Arkansas, home to the chicken industry. She has been helping poultry workers push back against industry, demanding health care, paid leave, and better wages and working conditions, particularly during the pandemic.
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Economic researcher Dave Swenson and Niman Ranch Farmer Ron Mardesen discuss the financial impact on rural communities of hog farming in more traditional systems vs the industrialized model so prevalent today.
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Sonja Trom Eayrs, a family law attorney in Minneapolis, has documented the way factory farming giants are deploying deceptive practices, intimidation, and harassment to expand their facilities throughout the farm belt.
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Corwin Heatwole, Founder and CEO of Farmer Focus, joins to talk about creating a whole new model for industrial chicken production: "farmer-focused", organic, and certified humane. How did he achieve that??
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Deputy Editor of The Counter, Joe Fassler, joins the show to deconstruct his article on lab-grown meat; the economics, the infrastructure, and the viability as a replacement for actual meat.
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Rudy Howell, a long-time contract grower for Perdue spoke up. He got fired. He has something to say about the industry, along with Amanda Hitt from the Food Integrity Campaign/ Government Accountability Project.
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Journalist H. Claire Brown comes in to discuss the implications of her NY Times article on how weeds are outpacing science by half a decade. What will that mean for farmers? What will it cost consumers?
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Author Nicolette Hahn Niman comes back to talk about her revised and expanded, Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat.
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Professor Meredith Hastings and PHD candidate Emily Joyce of Brown University's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, discuss the implications of several recent studies on how rising levels of nitrogen and ammonium are affecting national waterways and coastal areas to their detriment.
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Mike Callicrate, activist and cattle rancher comes back to talk about the Executive Order signed by Biden that addresses long standing grievances in the animal agriculture sector, among others. Included in the EO are measures to address pricing transparency, labeling, enforcement and re-write of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
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Colonel John Hoffman of the Food Protection and Defense Institute has been advising companies and government on how to harden their cyber functions. Here he deconstructs how JBS came to be hacked and what government and corporations need to do to ensure national food security.
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Mother Jones ag correspondent Tom Philpott deconstructs the boondoggle that is the new "climate bill" beloved by all who pollute. Dubbed "GROWING CLIMATE SOLUTIONS", this bill makes people like Joni Ernst and the good people of the National Pork Producers Council rub their legs together like crickets. How can this be good?
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Dr. Steve Suppan joins to discuss the very first futures contract for water, and the implications for the rest of us.
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Eating with the Ecosystem director Kate Masury joins to talk about encouraging chefs and consumers to appreciate underutilized species of fish, improving the fishing industry for fishermen, and adjusting for the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification.
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Legal expert Valerie Baron from Natural Resources Defense Council joins to discuss the existential threat to safe, available drinking water across the United States. Topics include The Clean Water Act and regulatory standards, PFAS and other contaminants in the water supply, the effects of climate change, and new leadership at the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Art Cullen comes on to talk about the pressure of the hog industry on Iowa's environment, joined by Wisconsin Farmer Lisa Doerr. Support the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation here.
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Leah Douglas reports on a Smithfield meatpacking plant in California whose negligence has exposed hundreds of workers to Covid, and thousands of people in the surrounding community.
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Award winning journalist Barry Estabrook shares his insights on the multibillion dollar industry that is the diet industry. Fascinating and funny.
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Draining the "Big Food" Swamp is an in depth report on lobbying money in politics backed by major food and beverage corporations. Buying politicians and skewing legislation is the game. Executive Director of Feed the Truth, Lucy Martinez Sullivan joins to highlight key points.
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H2A visa workers, those who pick and harvest our food, are some of the most abused and least protected of all labor categories. David Bacon, author of a new report on the subject joins to describe their plight and what measures the Biden Administration needs to adopt to halt this abuse.
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Anti-trust lawyer and University of Wisconsin Professor Emeritus Peter Carstensen joins to discuss the recent fines and settlements extracted from the poultry industry in the wake of investigations into price fixing and collusion.
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Journalist Greta Moran digs into the new version of the National Dietary Guidelines so the rest of us don't have to. Big surprise! Industry dictates what they are going to be.
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Mark Bittman, former NYTimes columnist and noted author joins to discuss his newest book.
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Aaron DeLong of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture in PA will describe his organizations efforts to recharge and rebuild Pennsylvania's dairy industry
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In this update, Leah talks about her most recent piece for FERN detailing how numbers are underreported in meatpacking plants in North Carolina, and no agency is regulating them.
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Tom Philpott from Mother Jones comes by to chat about who is in the running for the Secretary of Agriculture, and to discuss newly introduced legislation to recompense and support Black farming families.
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Amanda Hitt from the Government Accountability Projects Food Integrity campaign comes back to talk about the increases in line speed jammed through by the industry and the Trump administration. What does this mean for consumers, food safety, and workers?
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The Counter's senior reporter Claire Brown joins Katy Keiffer to describe her team's predictions on rules rolled back by Trump. Their conversation covers topics as varied as SNAP, WOTUS (the EPA's efforts to define "waters of the United States"), and pesticide use.
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Leah Douglas comes back for her monthly wrap of Covid news in the meatpacking industry. Who is collecting data? Where is it going?
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Reporter for Civil Eats, and Farm Report host and producer Lisa Held gives a look at what a Biden presidency might mean for addressing the impact of climate change on agriculture.
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As if being a farmworker could get any worse, the Trump administration, via USDA has killed a critical report that determines wages for farmworkers, all but guaranteeing even less income in the coming year. Why and how is explained by Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice.org
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Wright's Dairy farm in northern Rhode Island INCREASED profitability during Covid. Huh?
Image courtesy of Cathryn Kennedy.
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Michigan Meteorologist and professor of Geography at MSU, Jeff Andreson, joins to talk about how changing weather patterns are affecting agricultural communities.
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In our monthly roundup with Leah Douglas we talk about the recent fines levied on Smithfield and JBS by OSHA. Spoiler alert, they are barely even fines. Meanwhile the companies continue to see significant numbers of Covid.
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Tom Philpott returns to discuss his new book, Perilous Bounty, an examination of American Agriculture in our key food producing states.
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FERN reporter Leah Douglas reviews the Covid Map for meatpackers, describes her oped in rebuttal to Smithfield and reviews the ag news
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Tom Philpott of Mother Jones discusses his recent story about Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and how he has steered the industry away from safety for workers.
In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition bandanas.
Keep What Doesn't Kill You on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.
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Ethan Steinberg of Propagate Ventures describes a modeling tool to identify costs and rewards of adopting an agroecology style of farming.
In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition bandanas.
Keep What Doesn't Kill You on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.
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Leah Douglas updates her map of COVID-19 in food workers, and discusses the lack of oversight on "depopulation" and its impacts on the environment.
In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition bandanas.
Keep What Doesn't Kill You on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.
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Jessica Mayhew and Maggie LePrise offer their thoughts on how to make dairy work better, especially in RI.
In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition bandanas.
Keep What Doesn't Kill You on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.
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The Interim Director of OCM, Ben Gotschall, talks about a moratorium on beef imports, consolidation in the industry, and improving the markets for American producers.
In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition bandanas.
Keep What Doesn't Kill You on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.
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Policy Director for NSAC, Dr. Eric Deeble joins to discuss the USDA program, the biggest direct payment program to farmers in history, what works, and what doesn't.
HRN will be donating 10% of our membership drive proceeds from now until June 15 to the Philando Castile Relief Foundation. Visit heritageradionetwork.org/donate to make your gift.
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Leah Douglas from the FERN returns to discuss a couple of her recent stories, including jaw-dropping stats on COVID-19 in meatpacking towns and a scary executive order opening the path toward FinFish aquaculture in open seas.
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Mike Callicrate, a Colorado rancher and activist joins to talk about the beef industry and COVID-19.
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Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams joins the show to talk about improving the diet and food system for Brooklyn Residents.
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Award-winning science writer Maryn McKenna joins the conversation to talk about the rumors around factory farming and COVID-19, vaccines, mutations, and food safety.
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Veteran Agricultural reporter Leah Douglas joins today to talk about how the supply chain is doing and how smaller farms/independent fishermen are managing.
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Derek Wagner owns two farm-to-table restaurants in Providence, RI. Keeping his family, his staff, and his purveyors going is the Sisyphean task he faces.
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Sonia and Pedro own a small restaurant in one of the last remaining city markets in Lisbon. Food traditions, preparations, supermarket encroachment and generational attitudes are discussed.
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Kay Cornelius, and Elle Gadient give an overview of the partnership between Niman Ranch and Chipotle to extend money in scholarship and in stocking new farmers, a relatively rare phenomenon in which corporations are building the future through investing in young farmers now.
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Caitlin Arnold is National Regional Manager for the National Young Farmers Coalition. She is joined by Alicia Harvie from Farm Aid to discuss the challenges to new and beginning farmers
The holiday season is all about food and community. There’s no better time to show your support for food radio by becoming a member! Lend your voice and help HRN continue to spreading the message of equitable, sustainable, and delicious food – together, we can change minds and build a better food system. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate today to become a crucial part of the HRN community.
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Leah Douglas illustrates the divisions in ag communities between pro and con CAFOs through a story for the Food and Environment Reporting Network.
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Crispin Hernandez came up from Mexico to work in an upstate NY dairy with 10,000 cows. In 3 years he was transformed into an activist, participating in a successful lawsuit against the industry with the help of Rebecca Fuentes and Workers Center of Central New York, and author of Milked.
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NYT published a gagging expose of animal cruelty in 2015 at the behest of veterinarian and research scientist Jim Keen. In this episode he describes what they were doing and how we, the taxpayers, were funding it.
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What is NESAWG and why should you go to their conference. Tracy Lerman, Director of NESAWG and Angela Davis Angela C. Davis, Director, Division of Food & Nutrition for NJ health and Human Services Dept, explain what work they are doing to promote a better food system in the Northeast.
Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auction. Tickets available now at heritageradionetwork.org/gala.
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Leah Garces joins the show to talk about her new book Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry.
Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auction. Tickets available now at heritageradionetwork.org/gala.
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ILSI is a secretive lobbying group that is deployed by major food companies to push their agenda in legislative matters.
Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auction. Tickets available now at heritageradionetwork.org/gala.
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Arizona is a high producing agricultural state despite its desert conditions, and it relies obviously on water from far away. Trouble is, it competes with other states for that same water. How to resolve this is the subject of this episode.
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Lia Biondo from the US Cattlemen's Association takes us through the troubles for ranchers and feeders.
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How are farmers doing financially in the wake of the trade wars and historically low crop prices. The ERS, or Economic Research Service agency within the USDA, (yes that agency, now located in Kansas City) keeps tabs on those numbers and what they mean to the agricultural community.
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Amanda Hitt from the Government Accountability Project gives a long view perspective on the new rules in pork inspection.
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FERN Reporter Leah Douglas discusses a recent article on how the poultry industry has been colluding for years on price fixing and wages.
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Author Jennifer Gaddis discusses her new book about The National School Lunch Program.
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The Rich Earth Institute is pioneering technology to capture and convert human urine into no/low cost fertilizer for agriculture. What will it take to make it universal?
It's HRN's annual summer fund drive, this is when we turn to our listeners and ask that you make a donation to help ensure a bright future for food radio. Help us keep broadcasting the most thought provoking, entertaining, and educational conversations happening in the world of food and beverage. Become a member today! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have brand new member gifts available. So snag your favorite new pizza - themed tee shirt or enamel pin today and show the world how much you love HRN, just go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate
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New interest in an ancient agricultural technnique brought together several thousand educators, scientists, and activists at a conference in France. With Erik Hoffner of Mongabay.com.
It's HRN's annual summer fund drive, this is when we turn to our listeners and ask that you make a donation to help ensure a bright future for food radio. Help us keep broadcasting the most thought provoking, entertaining, and educational conversations happening in the world of food and beverage. Become a member today! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have brand new member gifts available. So snag your favorite new pizza - themed tee shirt or enamel pin today and show the world how much you love HRN, just go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate
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Alyssa Charney from NSAC reports on recent congressional committee meetings acknowledging the devastating impacts of climate change on farmers. Lip service paid to building resiliency. The question is, will they do anything about it.?
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Margaret Read a food policy consultant for school districts explains why this national story about school lunch debt is a pretty common occurrence.
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Today we talk with Bryce Oates of the Daily Yonder. If you have been paying attention, there has been a fair amount of new about the proposed relocation of the ERS and NIFA, two agencies within the USDA that deal with farming and grants. Moving the agencies from their DC locations keeps them away from legislators who need their information. More alarming still is a new rule that the ERA cannot publish reports without being given an ok by USDA head, and will carry a caveat that says they are not official!
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Janet Holt saw a niche for low gluten, ancient and heirloom grains already cooked. She started RTE Cuisine and has some lessons to impart to anyone who thinks they have a great idea!
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Art Cullen, the Pulitzer Prize winning editor of Iowa's Storm Lake Times joins the show today to talk about the Democratic candidates whose panel he moderated recently at the Heartland Forum.
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FERN reporter Leah Douglas attended the Family Farmers Rally in Storm City Iowa where 5 democrats tried to explain that they have a recipe to fix american agriculture. At least they are talking about it!
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Chris Jones returns to the show to talk about hog waste and its impact on water quality
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Meet Diane Rosenberg, an Iowa citizen who does more than her fair share in helping communities stave off the expansion of animal agriculture.
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Larry Cahoon, PHD professor of Biology and Marine Biology takes us through the impacts of chemical dumping in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina
Photo courtesy of Larry Cahoon.
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Rick Dove, Senior Advisor to the Waterkeeper Alliance and Riverkeeper for the Neuse River comes back to describe the state response to the disastrous flooding caused by Hurricane Florence.
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Samantha Levy, regional policy manager for New York State joins Katy to talk about a new initiative called Farmland for a New Generation New York that works to bring access to land and knowledge to aspiring young farmers through an extensive list of partnerships throughout New York State.
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David Sanchez Carpio is the Spanish liaison to Food and Water Watch. In this episode he describes how rural communities push back against industrial animal ag with the help of NGOS like FWW
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Patricia de Rada from Compassion in World Farming, and Alberto Diez from Anda discuss how the industry is running roughshod over rural communities and traditional methods to ramp up their export business.
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Amanda Hitt, Director of the Food Integrity Campaign at the Government Accountability Project takes listeners through a lawsuit the organization has filed on behalf of a Pilgrims Pride poultry grower. If he succeeds, how will this change the game for integrators and contractors?
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Believe it or not, McDonalds has been a forward thinking corporation since the 90's with regard to sustainability. Author and former CSR officer Bob Langert tells the story
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Host Katy Keiffer talks past and future shows.
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How does a quick service restaurant company with over 2000 outlets change its supply chain? With the help of Compassion in World Farming, Panera has become a leader in responsible sourcing for the industry.
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Chef Andrew Hunter from Niman Ranch joins Katy today to talk about how corporations move forward in sustainability goals, the rise of blended and impossible burgers, food innovation and changing consumer trends.
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In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, Hog manure lagoons breached and oceans of untreated animal waste flooded over land and into waterways, releasing VOCs and contaminating water. What role do corporations play in cleaning up their mess. Shefali Sharma, Director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy describes their campaign to avoid any real remediation.
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Some recently concluded studies by the USGS indicate some better news about water quality in agricultural areas, but its not all rosy as the amount of nitrogem in our water systems is growing, due to fertilizer runoff. The impacts can be seen in the Dead Zone in the Gulf, the great lakes and the chesapeake. How much should rural communities in the Corn Belt worry?
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Nitrogen and Phosphorus runoff from agricultural chemicals is killing the gulf of Mexico, and local waterways as well. Iowa is a case in point. Chris Jones, a hydraulic engineer is the lead author on a new study just out from the University of Iowa talking about how that fertilizer runoff is an expanding problem, despite efforts to curb it. Agricultural runoff is not just a problem in Iowa, but in many states with major corn soy cropping. What to do about it, and how to fix this is the subject of this episode.
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In this second installment of news from North Carolina, Donna Lisenby the Global Advocacy Manager for Riverkeeper Alliance talks about the ongoing problems with managing coal ash waste after major flooding. North Carolina has struggled with Duke Energy to enforce common sense regulations with limited success. In the second part of the show, Joe Reardon, Consumer Protection Assistant Commissioner from the Department of Environmental Quality will describe the impact of a major hurricane on the farming sector of this largely agricultural state and the role his agency plays in the aftermath.
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New Yorker Journalist Chalres Bethea and Water Keeper Alliance senior advisor Rick Dove talk about the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, the impact on local communities from the CAFO flooding and how citizens cope with living in the nations capital for hogs, chickens, coal ash and chemicals. Part 1 of 2 discussions on the impact of Hurricane Florence.
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Eminent agricultural expert Fred Kirschenman describes the end of this era of agricultural activity and what must be adopted going forward. In his view we have reached the end of the line in our extractive exploitative and environmentally disastrous style of growing food and must move forward now into a more intergrated and holistic system. Recorded at the Niman Ranch Hog Farmers Appreciation Dinner in Des Moinies, Iowa.
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Coastal Florida has seen a disastrous season of harmful algae blooms, unprecedented in scale, duration, and severity. Mayor John Holic of Venice Florida, and Dr. Larry Brand from the University of Miami explain the impacts on the community and why this is happening.
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Ferd Hoefner launched NSAC over 30 years ago, and has seen a few Farm Bills. In this discussion we talk about the most important funding demands to foster a robust agricultural sector and revitalizing rural communities.
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Kristin Lawless has written a highly provocative book that assigns the blame for many of society's ills on a food industry run amok. Whether its how we feed our young, the impact of chemicals on our bodies, the incidence of chronic disease, and the economic, gender, and racial disparities, a surprising number of connections can be made between big food and social injustice. Its a fascinating and scary read, as well as a thoughtful analysis of what will be required to take back food, and return people and the environment to good health.
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In a wide ranging discussion with one of America's foremost thinkers, activists, and academics on food systems, we discuss Patel's forthcoming book on the chicken industry, the food system, and politics.
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In order to support their local farming community, an entire town drinks bottled water. Their groundwater is polluted by agricultural runoff, but the townspeople don't want to penalize their farmers by forcing a costly fix, so they suck it up...from a bottle.
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Iowa, like many states has major water quality issues thanks to Big Ag. Francis Thicke is an organic dairy farmer, soil scientist and leader in the organic food movement. He is also an expert in water quality issues and how the Iowa corn belt is wreaking havoc on the states water supply. Is there a solution?
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Many a suit has been brought against the big guns in Animal Agriculture to force them to clean up their stinking poisonous manure pits. Until now, not one has prevailed. Liz Crampton, a reporter for Morning Ag at Politico, had a ringside seat at the trial.
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Michael Stumo, CEO of Coalition for a Prosperous America explains why he sees President Trumps efforts to realign trade agreements and impose tariffs as a much needed correction to long abuses of American industry and agriculture. While unable to exactly reassure that the imposition of massive tariffs on our trading partners, especially the Chinese, along with rewriting NAFTA , won't have an negative impact on the agricultural sector, he voices opinions that many of Trumps supporters in the farm belt share.
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Diana Moss is the President of the American Antitrust Institute, an organization that investigates issues of market concentration and monopoly and litigates on behalf the of the American consumer to break up monopolies and further fair competition. Moss is an expert in agricultural monopoly and in this episode, we discuss the impacts of agri-chemical and seed companies on farmers and on consumers.
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Mike Weaver is the president of the Organization for Competitive Markets, a group that supports small and medium size farms and meat producers in the face of the consolidation of American agriculture. In this episode he describes the difficulty of competing with mega agribusiness; key changes for the upcoming negotiations to the farm bill, and the failure of legislators to support small and medium scale farming.
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Understanding what really needs to be fixed to revive american agriculture seems to be more about policy than what we grow and how we grow it. Anti trust legislation, agricultural reform, and a better farm bill would go a long way toward addressing the many issues that face american agriculture. I am trying to make sense of all the things I have learned in the past decade.
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Board member and lobbyist for the National Dairy Producers Organization, Gary Genske threads the needle on why the industry is falling apart and how Dairy Farmers of America and the USDA are presiding over a colossal industry failure that puts small and medium size dairy farmers at risk for economic losses and more, including a record number of suicides.
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Gary Hirshberg is a pioneer in developing a national market for an organic commodity, milk. His company began producing yogurt in 1985, after being a farming school for a few years. What is the future of organic dairy, and how did they achieve the immense success that has made the company a national bestseller. What can current dairy farmers learn from Stonyfield.
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Professor Andy Novakovic takes listeners through the economics of the dairy industry and why milk prices have fallen below the price of production. What can small to medium size dairy farms do to survive under these circumstances?
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How did milk become the dietary and nutritional staple it is? Dr. Willett explains the history of the marketing campaign that has encouraged Americans to consume massive quantities of milk, and then debunks some of the nutritional claims made by the industry to justify that consumption. Is it really a super food? Willett's research has shown otherwise, but we continue to promote milk around the world. What will the dietary consequences be for developing nations? The ins and outs of dairy marketing and discussion get a full on exam in this episode with one of America's leading nutritionists and scientists.
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Alex LaPrise explains how a small group of Rhode Island dairy farmers banded together to call their own shots. the challenges and the pitfalls of competing with the dairy industry as a small producer.
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Professor Peter Carstensen has made anti trust law his specialty, particularly as it pertains to the American Dairy Industry. He explains how a co-op model initiated decades ago to help dairy farmers bargain collectively has become the major impediment to their financial success. Consolidation and monopolization in dairy are very similar to the meat industry. The impacts of that consolidation are examined closely in this episode.
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In the first episode of 2018, What Doesn’t Kill You launches a multipart series diving into the dairy industry. Today’s guest is a dairy farmer and environmental attorney in Herkimer County N.Y., Lorraine Lewandrowski. The lively discussion goes from a day in the life of a dairy farmer to rural development, and from milk prices to consumer education.
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Is plant-based meat really the meal of the future? Alison Rabschnuk, Director of Corporate Engagement for the Good Food Institute explains how this organization is supporting companies making huge strides in the field of research and development for meat substitutes for the future. It isn't just companies such as Impossible Burger who are developing this alternative, but even the big players such as Tyson are investing. What those products are and how they are formulated to go beyond just a burger substitute are covered in this fascinating discussion about the future of the center of the plate.
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In the 1930's President Roosevelt responded to the tragedy of the dustbowl by planting millions of trees in what he called "shelterbelts". The trees were meant to hold water, as well as protect the plains from the effects of over planting and loss of topsoil. Over the last few decades, many of those all important shelterbelts have been destroyed as agriculture has planted fencerow to fencerow. Could we see a second Dust Bowl scenario as climate change advances? Carson Vaughn explains what is at stake and why we can't have too many trees.
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As the farming population wanes, its essential to train up new ones, or we will be buying everything we eat from other countries. Juli Obudzinski is co-author on a new report about the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. Juli describes how this program works, and who is benefitting. Training up new farmers is essential to our food security in the future and this program leads the way.
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Trump's administration is taking aim at SNAP benefits, WIC benefits, watering down school lunch standards, and implementing draconian immigration policies. A distinguished panel led by Food and Environmental Reporting Network, and CUESA, Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture held a panel discussion to look for community based solutions to these problems. Sam Fromartz moderated the panel and is interviewed about the discussion and any solutions.
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Veteran agricultural reporter Helena Bottemiller Evich delves into an obscure but highly impactful aspect of climate change; the loss of nutrients from plant life. As temperatures rise, the nutritional content of the plants we eat including staples such as rice or wheat are declining in proteins and minerals. This could have devastating consequences for human health in future decades particularly as the planet continues to warm. Scientists are only now beginning to investigate this troubling trend, and certainly not fast enough to evolve new plant varieties in time to stave off the worst effects.
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Indonesia is home to a wealth of species, and a vast rainforest that is rapidly disappearing through the untrammeled sale of land to internal and external forces intent on becoming the largest producers of palm oil in the world. The land grabbers are mostly Indonesian but they sell their product to companies around the world at the expense of the indigenous population. Philip Jacobson covers Indonesia for the environmental news organization Mongabay, which as part of a journalistic collaboration with The Gecko Project has produced a remarkable series of articles and short films showing what happens when profit trumps people. His team has created a compelling narrative that is a template for similar stories throughout the developing world.
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Carey Gillam has spent over a decade researching and writing about Monsanto and Glyphosate the worlds most popular agro chemical. Her new book WhiteWash describes a perfect storm of collusion between Monsanto, the EPA, USDA and FDA in suppressing negative studies, buying scientists, and discrediting those whose work showed some of the potential dangers of this ubiquitous chemical. Glyphosate is so widely used it now exists in the bodies of virtually every human on the planet. This book teases out the corporate strategies that circumvent the regulations supposed to protect the population, in the pursuit of profit.
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The roots of our food system can be traced back multiple centuries according to author Eric Holt-Gimenez. In a far ranging discussion, just how intertwined food and capitalism is laid bare. The neo liberal economic model brought forth by Reagan and Thatcher has much to do with the current inequities, but they don't bear all the blame. This is a fascinating episode that proposes a major overhaul to how we view our political, economic, and food systems.
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Immigrants rights activist Jose Oliva describes the impact of revoking DACA on the American Food Chain. The effects won't be pretty, and we are already seeing them as produce and fruit rot in fields and on trees due to lack of immigrant labor to harvest. What happens when restaurants have to kick out their workers? We will see the effects in grocery stores, fast food and fine dining, and we aren't going to like it. We need Dreamers and they need our support.
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Ted Genoways spent a year following the day to day life of a farming family in Nebraska. What follows is a close up look at the risks and rewards of medium size farming in an Agri-business world. He shows the extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge required to farm successfully, along with just the gut instinct and appetite for gambling that are an essential part of the equation.
The latest from agro journalist Maryn McKenna, Big Chicken, should be rattling more than a few cages. Her exhaustive work on the rise of antibiotic resistant pathogens, largely thanks to the American methods of producing chicken are examined in detail in this excellent book on the industry. It makes a powerful case for consumers to rear up and demand that agriculture take antibiotics for growth promotion and for disease prevention right out of the equation, and to adopt methods that have been successfully trialed in other countries to preserve the precious medical miracle of antibiotics.
On this week's episode of What Doesn't Kill You, Katy is joined by documentary filmmaker Lydia Tenaglia of Zero Point Zero Production to talk about Lydia's film Wasted! The Story of Food Waste . Through the eyes of chef-heroes like Massimo Bottura, Dan Barber and Danny Bowien, the film shows how the world’s most influential chefs battle food waste — transforming what most people consider garbage, scraps, and rejects into incredible dishes that feed more people, impact the bottom line, and create a more sustainable food system.
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Marc Brazeau started the Food and Farm Discussion Lab several years ago to unite his many interests: agriculture, restaurants, social justice, and culinary education. The group grew to over 6,000 members at its peak. He just shut it down. We are going to talk about what the major themes of discussion were, how they changed, and what ultimately led him to close the forum.
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Chuck Abbott, the Ag Insider, gives up the skinny on Sam Clovis set to head up the Science Department at USDA, along with some opinions on Sonny Perdue and what he is likely to get up to. Plus, he explains why farm incomes are heading down after recent highs five years ago...though it all depends on what kind of farming is in question.
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Former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food at the UN, and one of the masterminds behind Plate of the Union, Olivier de Schutter discusses food policy and politics at the global level.
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Journalist Carey Gillam has been rooting around in the glyphosate archives and comes up with some studies from 1985 that show tumors in mice, but those were neatly suppressed. Tune in to hear what else she found out.
Tom Driscoll, Director of the NFU Foundation and Conservation Policy describes the biggest challenges facing farmers today. Whether its the 50% reduction in income projected for this year, or the market consolidation in commodities and agriculture, farmers are being squeezed up and down the supply chain. Listen up for a fast paced discussion of the state of American farming and its future.
Twenty Questions with Marion Nestle. We celebrate her ten years of Food Politics, consider the Farm Bill, discuss school food, imagine a food policy, visit probiotics and wind up with an optimistic view of individual states doing the right thing with soda tax, school food, and other promising developments that show that the food movement is unbowed by the Trumpsters, and forging ahead. Its always a joy with Dr. Nestle.
A wide ranging discussion of all things in the world of retail gourmet foods. Steve talks about his new import company, why grocery stores are boring and whose writing he likes the best. Never a dull moment with this one.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Andrew F. Smith, a writer and lecturer on food and culinary history. His latest book is the three volume set Food In America, which focuses on food controversies related to the environment, nutrition and health, and the economy.
In his quest to reveal the solutions beneath our feet, David Montgomery introduces us to innovative farmers who practice regenerative agriculture. Montgomery shows that restoring fertility to the land is not an either-or choice between modern technology and time-tested traditions. Ending with a call for action beyond the fields, Growing a Revolution is an inspiring addition to the bookshelf of anyone seriously concerned with the future of food and farming, our relationship with nature, and the fate of civilization and the planet.
Schweid & Sons has focused on making great ground beef, and finding the best possible sources for it. As a result, their sales are up by about 12%, while sales of conventional ground beef have only risen by 2%. Why that is and how consumers are voting with their forks is the subject of this conversation.
Land Grabbing is a strategy being deployed by many countries to boost their food production, grow crops for manufacturing purposes, or just to hold for investment. Anuradha Mittal explains how this predatory behavior plays out for indigenous populations, their ability to grow food, and the environmental impacts of the practice on its unwitting victims.
Jeff Tripician, general manager of Niman Ranch, gives a tour of their new line of charcuterie, a natural extension of the Niman commitment to sustainable farming. Along with the new line, Niman is working hard to bring new farmers along for next generation farming with programs that help new farmers get financial and legal assistance as well as mentoring and a new series of how-to videos!
Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition, Lindsay Lusher Shute explains the impact on young and beginning farmers should the Trump budget prevail. The barriers to entry in farming are formidable, and discretionary spending from the USDA helps fund a multitude of programs that encourage and assist people who are looking to get into farming. Losing that money could mean a lot of younger farms wither on the vine. This has major implications for the future of our food supply as our older farmers literally die off. Advancing the cause of young farmers is an imperative in a profession where the average age is over fifty. We could easily lose some of our most vital intellectual capital if we fail to invest in young farmers as they carry on the work of the previous generations.
Join Scott Nichols, founder of Food's Future and an expert in aquaculture as he explains the new technologies that will make aquaculture a more environmentally friendly, cost effective source of protein for the future population.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Will Carey and Lesha Pierson, volunteers for the 2017 Panhandle Fire Relief organization.
On March 6, wildfires swept through an estimated 1.5 million acres in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Thousands of cattle were lost, and homes were destroyed, yet this story remains largely underreported in the mainstream news media.
On this week's What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Joe Fassler and Sally Lee.
Joe Fassler is Senior Editor for New Food Economy, where he covers the politics, economics, and culture of the changing food system His food reporting for TheAtlantic.com has been a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award in Journalism.
Sally Lee works directly with poultry farmers and manages Rural Advancement Foundation International’s Contract Ag Reform program. She has a background in social justice, including working at RAFI previously for four years with the Agricultural Justice Project, a social justice certification program for farms and businesses. She also worked as the Social Justice Consultant for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in contributing to the development of the Sustainability Assessments for Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) indicators, which are used globally as a framework for policy development and business assessment.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Bill Stowe, CEO of Des Moines Water Works, to discuss an Iowa Supreme Court ruling that the utility cannot win damage payments from drainage districts accused of sending fertilizers and other pollution unchecked into the Raccoon River. The utility hoped to recover damages in its lawsuit to make up for the costs of running its nitrate removal facility. But the court upheld nearly a century of precedent that drainage districts are immune to lawsuits.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, Tom Philpott joins us to talk about the new regime for our agricultural sector: no more earthy crunchy stuff like supporting Know your Farmer, Know your Food. Who is Sonny Perdue and what can the AG sector and the food movement expect from his office in the coming four years? Hint: bye bye to any regs around food safety, pollution, consolidation etc. Whoopee!
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Mike Callicrate, a native of Evergreen, Colorado, who has spent his career as a farmer-rancher, business entrepreneur, and family farm advocate. Frustrated by the monopoly control corporations were exerting over the markets and the “bigger is better” mentality common to agriculture, he began to forge a new path, forming a pasture-to-plate marketing company in 2000 named Ranch Foods Direct. He chose to locate his processing and retail facility in Colorado Springs, where it has become an integral part of the community’s shift toward healthier, fresher, more locally grown food.
In recent years, he instigated an ongoing campaign to establish a public market and a food hub to benefit local food growers and processors and to help relocalize the food system. He also pioneered the capacity to do on-farm USDA-inspected slaughter at his ranch, where he is also developing a multi-species regenerative agricultural production model. Considered the “go-to expert” on the negative consequences of highly concentrated, industrial meat production, he has served as an advisor for the films Food Inc. and FRESH, and for several best-selling books including Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Tim Fitzgerald, director of the Impact Division of Environmental Defense Fund’s Fishery Solutions Center – leading its global programs on training, seafood markets, supply chain engagement and fisheries finance. Tim also serves on the boards of Ecofish LLC and GulfWild, and is an advisor to Fair Trade USA, the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions.
CEO Andrew Dahl of Zivo BioScience joins Katy to discuss the applications and virtues of microalgae as a feedstuff for livestock and humans. Algae has the potential to take a leading role in animal nutrition, taking the pressure off of arable land to grow corn and soy for feed. Will this be the game changer in meat production we need if we are going to keep up with demand?
In a recent article for Forbes magazine, journalist Nancy Huehengarth parses the divides within the progressive food movement between those that want immediate and complete change and those who work within the channels to effect change from within. Later she discusses the incoming administration and the fight for a food policy.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined in studio Sari Kamin. Also a host at Heritage Radio Network, today Sari is sitting on the guest's chair as she chats with Katy about election fake news, Donald Trump, Women's March, and more. Don't forget to check out Sari's The Morning After.
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Molly Anderson. Anderson is part of the Food Studies program at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she teaches about hunger and food security, fixing food systems, and sustainability. She is especially interested in multi-actor collaborations for sustainable food systems, sustainability metrics and assessment, food system resilience, human rights in the food system, food security and the right to food in the U.S. and other industrialized countries, and the transition to a post-petroleum food economy.
On the season premiere of What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Ted Genoways, award-winning writer and editor, and author of The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food, a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Writing and Literature.
Tune in to hear them discuss the failings of the media throughout the recent election cycle, the dangers of forcing voter demographics to conform to stereotypes, the proliferation of anti-intellectualism, and the vital importance of grain commodities to this country and its economy, and more!
What is a sustainable food system? Former undersecretary of the USDA, Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director of Sustainability at George Washington University talks about what's possible, what's happening and what to hope for.
At George Washington University, Dr. Merrigan leads the GW Sustainability Collaborative, GW Food Institute, and serves as Professor of Public Policy. She serves as a Co-Chair for AGree, Board Director for the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and FoodCorps, a member of the Harvard Pilgrim Healthy Food Fund Advisory Committee, Senior Advisor at the Kendall Foundation, and steering committee member of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors of the National Council for Science and the Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme led initiative TEEB for Agriculture & Food.
Recognizing the history and scope of her work, Time Magazine named Kathleen among the “100 most influential people in the world” in 2010.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Christopher Leonard, a former national business reporter for the Associated Press and author of The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business. His work has appeared in Fortune, Bloomberg, Businessweek, Slate, and The Wall Street Journal. He is a Schmidt Family Foundation fellow with The New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington, DC. He is currently writing his second book, a profile of Koch Industries.
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer brings us an intriguing phone conversation with Baylen J. Linnekin, food lawyer and an adjunct professor at George Mason University Law School, where he developed and teaches Food Law & Policy. His new book, Biting the Hands that Feed Us, calls for less food regulations in our school lunch program, addressing four major areas where he believes government interference is getting in the way.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by Jonathan Gelbard, lead scientist at Grasslands Alliance and conservation scientist and sustainable agriculture specialist at Conservation Value, which serves clients interested in developing and implementing programs that benefit our environment, climate and economy alike. In partnership with other conservation entities, Dr. Gelbard’s work for Grasslands Alliance and Conservation Value focuses devising innovative programs for distinguishing the livestock producers who demonstrate verifiably good ranch and farm management, and rewarding them with economically valuable benefits.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, Chef Evan Mallett brings an activist sensibility to cooking with his emphasis on biodiversity and promotion of local products. His new book Black Trumpet: A Chef’s Journey Through Eight New England Seasons was published last month by Chelsea Green Publishing.
On this Election Eve edition of What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Heritage Radio Network's current and soon-to-be executive director, Erin Fairbanks and Caity Moseman Wadler! Tune in to hear them discuss ballot initiatives, right-to-farm laws, U.S. food policies, and the varying complexities of the progressive food movement as a whole.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined on the line by Anna Lappé, an author and educator known for her work as an expert on food systems and as a sustainable food advocate. A recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award, Anna is the co-author or author of three books and the contributing author to more than a dozen others. Anna’s most recent book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It (Bloomsbury), was named by Booklist and Kirkus as one of the best environmental book’s of the year. Anna is also the co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (Penguin) and Hope’s Edge (Penguin), which chronicles grassroots solutions to hunger around the world.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined by John Ikerd, a visionary scholar and author who writes and speaks on issues related to sustainability with an emphasis on economics and agriculture. Dr. Ikerd's work on sustainable farming and agricultural economics has galvanized and informed the progressive food movement.
Journalist David Dayen offers insights into the trade agreements being negotiated by the Obama Administration right now. The negotiations are conducted in secret, and are essentially deals worked out between big industry players. The impact of these agreements on our food system could be profound. Tune in to learn how and why.
Today on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer tells us about Joys & Trump-centric Sorrows before sharing her interview with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine's 1st Congressional District. Pingree weighs in on food policy from organic farming to France's recent zero-food-waste law.
Newly revealed documents show how the sugar industry skewed public perception toward fat and away from sugar as the source of obesity and health problems. Marion Nestle, currently writing a new book on the subject will show how they developed this campaign and ran with it over the course of decades.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, Arlin Wasserman shows how reliance on corn relates to risk management and financial results in the food industry which has a direct impact on consumers in many ways.
Arlin Wasserman is a partner at Changing Tastes, founding our company in 2003. He is also a fellow at the Aspen Institute and a past recipient of a Food and Society Policy Fellowship, awarded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Arlin holds masters degrees in Natural Resource Sciences and Public Health and has served as an advisor on agriculture, trade and development issues to both the US Department of Agriculture and the European Union Parliament. From 2007 until 2012, Arlin served as Vice President of Sustainability at Sodexo, the world’s leading institutional food service provider, leading it’s efforts to develop and implement its first sustainability strategy encompassing both environment and public health concerns.
Join Dr. Ricardo Salvador, Food Policy Director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, as he parses out what food policy change means, where to start, and how politicians and consumers have responded to the Plate of the Union initiative.
Today on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer speaks with Annie Speicher and Matt Wechsler, the two filmmakers behind Hourglass Films and a new documentary. Sustainable tells the story of a family farmer in Illinois who fought to keep a sustainable farming model in the midst of transformation in America’s heartland.
This week on What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer welcomes Mike Schade of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.
Schade spearheads the Mind the Store campaign which aims to work with the nation's leading retailers on creating comprehensive chemicals policy. For the previous eight years, Mike was the Markets Campaign Coordinator with the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), a national environmental health organization where he led national campaigns to phase out PVC plastic, phthalates, BPA and dioxin. Prior to CHEJ, he was the Western New York Director of Citizens’ Environmental Coalition. Ethisphere Magazine listed Mike as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics for 2007 and the PVC Campaign received two awards from the Business Ethics Network.
Learn about the incredible operation at Shelburne Farms this week on What Doesn't Kill You. Shelburne Farms is a nonprofit organization educating for a sustainable future. That means learning that links knowledge, inquiry, and action to help students build a healthy future for their communities and the planet. Their home campus is a 1,400-acre working farm, forest, and National Historic Landmark.
Katy Keiffer is once again joined by friend of the show, Tom Philpott on a new episode of What Doesn't Kill You. They chat about the Presidential race, the National Food Policy for the 21st Century, and the Plate of the Union initiative that has fallen flat despite the talent behind it.
Tom Philpott is the food and agriculture reporter for Mother Jones. Prior to that he was at Grist for five years. His work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. He is also a host on the new podcast The Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel and Rebecca McInroy, as well as The Bite, a podcast developed for Mother Jones Magazine.
The Center for a Livable Future has a Food System Policy Program. What is it? Find out this week on What Doesn't Kill You. Katy Keiffer is joined by Bob Martin, currently the director of Food System Policy at the Center for a Livable Future. Bob served as Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which was housed at the Center for a Livable Future. Prior to that appointment, Bob worked for nearly 30 years in public policy at the state and federal level.
This week's guest on What Doesn't Kill You hiked 1,700 miles along the proposed Keystone XL route. Yes, actually! Ken Ilgunas started in Denver, hitchhiked across the Canadian border, took a flight over the Tar Sands of Alberta, and commenced his walk in Hardisty, AB, the northern terminus of the soon-to-be pipeline. The journey was documented in the recently published "Trespassing Across America: One Man's Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland". He and Katy chat about the long journey, the trials and tribulations Ken experienced along the way and the realities facing the areas along this route.
Katy Keiffer is flying solo today on What Doesn't Kill You and she's got plenty to say. First, she recaps some news - from legal pot to cheese in cat food. Later, she talks about the industrial food industry at large and identifies some of the worst and best aspects of the current system we have. Tune in for some sharp insights and timely topics!
Tune into a brand new episode of What Doesn't Kill You as Katy Keiffer is joined by Sandy McLeod, director of Seeds of Time. Seeds of Time is a documentary about preserving our agricultural heritage, featuring Dr. Cary Fowler, a pioneer in identifying the global threat to food security posed by losing seed diversity.
Will the Trans-Pacific Partnership bring to livestock agriculture? Listen to a couple of fire-breathing ranchers and activists duke it out on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Host Katy Keiffer is joined by Bill Bullard of R-Calf and Steve Dittmar of AgFreedom.org. Things get very heated – this is a must listen for anybody following the cattle industry.
On this week's episode of What Doesn't Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Andrew F. Smith, a writer and lecturer on food and culinary history. Andrew serves as the general editor for the Edible Series, published by Reaktion Press, and teaches Food Studies at the New School University in New York. He is also the author of the new book Fast Food: The Good, the Bad and the Hungry. Tune in as they discuss why the fast food industry has been so successful, and the myriad consequences that have occurred as a result.
On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy welcomes Daisy Freund and Robert Hensley of the ASPCA to discuss North Carolina’s “Anti-Sunshine” Law. A coalition of animal protection, consumer rights, food safety, and whistleblower protection organizations recently filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law, which is designed to deter whistleblowers and undercover investigators from publicizing information about corporate misconduct. Under the law, organizations and journalists who conduct undercover investigations, and individuals who expose improper or criminal conduct by North Carolina employers, are susceptible to lawsuits and substantial damages if they make such evidence available to the public or the press. The law is part of a growing number of so-called “ag-gag laws” which are pushed by lobbyists for corporate agriculture companies, in an attempt to escape scrutiny over unsafe practices and animal abuses by threatening liability for those who expose these improper and, in many cases, illegal practices.
“The public wants to see justice served when these kinds of abuses are documented, they don’t want to hear about, well, technically because we managed to get away with almost no regulation, that’s perfectly legal to do that to an animal – but that’s not the point.” [25:00] – Daisy Freund
This week on “What Doesn’t Kill You”, Katy Keiffer opens with her aches and pains regarding new and creative ways teenagers are getting a buzz on. Later, she chats with Leah Garces, e xecutive director of Compassion in World Farming USA, about Target’s and other large chain’s dedication to end cage and crate farming.
“We can’t address climate change unless we address our animal product consumption levels” [45:00]–Leah Garces
Saru Jayaraman is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley. After 9/11, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded ROC, which now has more than 18,000 worker members, 150 employer partners, and several thousand consumer members in over 30 cities nationwide. The story of Saru and her co-founder’s work founding ROC has been chronicled in the book The Accidental American. Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was profiled in the New York Times “Public Lives” section in 2005, named one of Crain’s “40 Under 40” in 2008, was 1010 Wins’ “Newsmaker of the Year” and New York Magazine’s “Influentials” of New York City. She was listed in CNN’s “Top 10 Visionary Women” and recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014, and a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2015. Saru authored Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press, 2013), a national bestseller, and has appeared on many news programs. Her new book is Forked: A New Standard for American Dining (Oxford University Press).
“There’s a lot of momentum to organize whatever way, whether it’s through a union or otherwise, just to get together and collectively demand change, because it’s just too long in coming, it has to be now.” [32:45] – Saru Jayaraman
This week on _ What Doesn’t Kill You, _Katy Keiffer is joined by Claire Benjamin, Executive Director of Food Policy Action. Food Policy Action was established in 2012 through a collaboration of national food policy leaders in order to hold legislators accountable on votes that have an effect on food and farming. Our goal is to change the national dialogue on food policy by educating the public on how elected officials are voting on these issues. Through education and the National Food Policy Scorecard, more people will be armed with the information they need to vote with their forks and elect more food policy leaders across the country.
Claire oversees operations of Food Policy Action, including publication of the National Food Policy Scorecard and the organization’s public education and advocacy work. Prior to her work at Food Policy Action, Claire worked for nine years on food and agriculture issues on capitol hill. From 2008-2013, Claire served as Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s legislative director. In this role, Claire led the Congresswoman’s efforts to reform agriculture and food policy. Claire grew up in Vermont and attended the University of Vermont. She resides in Washington, DC.
On today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, journalist Richard Manning shows the link between big agriculture and big money in politics. Manning is an environmental author and journalist, whose work has explored the enormous impact that agriculture has had on human civilization and evolution. One of the consequences of this reliance on a steady food supply is the issue of agricultural pollution – and whose responsibility it is to deal with it. But, as Manning discusses, political realities often present an obstacle to dealing with these mounting problems.
“Industrial agriculture is like a corporation, it’s not a community at all.” [11:00] – Richard Manning
Learn more about a precedent setting lawsuit against upriver counties for municipal water pollution in Des Moines, Iowa on today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Katy Keiffer is joined by Bill Stowe, CEO of Des Moines Water Works. In 1919, Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) was formed as an independently owned and operated public utility, deriving its legal status from the Constitution of the State of Iowa and the statutes enacted by the Iowa General Assembly. Its legal authority is set out in Article III, Sec. 38A, Constitution of the State of Iowa; Chapter 388, Code of Iowa; and Division V, Chapter 384, Code of Iowa. The Board of Trustees has all of the powers of the City Council to operate the utility, except for levying taxes. The utility is owned by the water rate payers. The Board of Water Works Trustees of the City of Des Moines, Iowa, consists of five members, appointed by the Mayor of the City of Des Moines for a term of six years. The Board of Water Works Trustees appoints Des Moines Water Works CEO and General Manager.
“90% of the [water] nutrient problem is from agriculture.” [20:00] — Bill Stowe “A sales tax to deal with water quality problems. Why should everybody else have to pay for agricultural pollution?” [23:00] — Katy Keiffer
Katy Keiffer is charged up and is continuing her politically themed shows with a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You that features special guest Congressman Tim Ryan. Tim Ryan has been a strong advocate for progressive agricultural policy. He’s also the author of The Real Food Revolution: Healthy Eating, Green Groceries, and the Return of the American Family Farm. Learn more about his votes for food justice, the Farm Bill and more.
This week on _ What Doesn’t Kill You _, host Katy Keiffer is on the line with Twilight Greenaway, Managing Editor of Civil Eats. Civil Eats is a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system, publishing stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities. The duo comment on the biggest food and food policy related stories published throughout the past year as well as highlighting Twilight’s article about the National Food Policy for the 21st Century and the Plate of the Union. How is the food platform being weaved into the coming election cycle? Why is the mainstream media slow to engage these important topics? Tune in for further insight!
“We know that our wages are stagnating, so as much as people would like to be able to vote with their dollar, their dollars are limited and that puts consumers in a bind.” [17:00] “Food is a blatant example of income inequality.” [32:45] –Twilight Greenaway on What Doesn’t Kill You
Is the fossil fuel industry too big to be held accountable by the US Government? Tune in for a spirited conversation on our government, the environment, lobbying mechanisms and how they work as Katy Keiffer is joined by Senator from Rhode Island to the US Congress, Sheldon Whitehouse. Sheldon is the junior United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party and previously served as a United States Attorney from 1993 to 1998 and as the Attorney General of Rhode Island from 1999 to 2003.
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“The oceans are really climate change’s true witness.” [08:00]
“I think corporate America, in some respects, doesn’t really want to come and deal with Congress.” [22:00]
On the first episode of What Doesn’t Kill You in 2016, Katy recaps last years news stories and prepares for the year ahead. Hear why the Future of Food Manifesto might have been the most important story of the year and get a refresher on topics like antibiotic resistance, anti-trust issues and the e-coli Chipotle outbreak!
Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories,NIAID,NIH
“When we sell agricultural products in this country, we’re not just selling the product. It’s also the soil, the water, the various components that go into creating that product.” [10:00]
Blow the whistle with Amanda Hitt and Katy Keiffer on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Amanda Hitt is the Director of The Government Accountability Project’s Food Integrity Campaign (FIC). Amanda oversees FIC operations and is responsible for ensuring that FIC fulfills its mission of enhancing food integrity by facilitating truth telling. To do this, Amanda works closely with partner organizations, clients, legislators, and the media to alter the balance of power between the food industry and consumers. She acts to protect the rights of those who speak out against the practices that compromise food integrity, and empower whistleblowers and food activists.
“Things are not in a good place when it comes to the industrialized food industry.” [14:00]
Director Ricardo Salvador outlines a partnership with Food Policy Action and other groups that addresses the principal issues around US food policy. Their combined initiative is called Plate of the Union. The goal is to propose common sense reforms to current food policy directions that ultimately lead to few corporations harvesting vast profit at the expense of public health and environmental safety.
“We’re determined – if you fix food you can fix other front line issues these candidates talk about.” [05:00]
Why aren’t solar powered stoves being given a green light? This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is joined by friend of the show and photojournalist Erik Hoffner. His articles and images appear in numerous publications, from Grist to National Geographic News Watch, OnEarth, The Sun, and The Guardian. His most recent Guardian piece explored the issue of developing cleaner cooking methods for the world’s poor, and the growing importance of of solar cooking to the effort. Tune in and find out why smoke from cooking issues is such an issue globally and what measures can be done to bring solar cooking to light.
“The act of cooking is actually killing millions of people.” [05:00] “4.7 people die every year from smoke [from cooking fires].” [08:00] “Solar suffers from two problems – weather and nighttime.” [14:00]
In a blistering report on the state of the poultry industry, Oxfam USA noted the appalling conditions for poultry and workers alike. Today on _ What Doesn’t Kill You _, Katy Keiffer discuss the report and its impact on industry and consumers with Oliver Gottfried, Senior Advocacy and Collaborations Advisor at Oxfam. Oliver Gottfried is based in Boston, MA and serves as the Senior Advocacy and Collaborations Advisor for Oxfam America’s US Regional Office. Oliver has led Oxfam’s poultry work over the last two years and served as the organizer of the coalition of over a dozen groups working together on poultry worker issues. Prior to coming to Oxfam America, Oliver spent 14 years leading campaigning and advocacy work for political campaigns and labor unions across the United States. He holds an undergraduate degree from Haverford College.
Cider has the power to transform rural economies but only if people embrace drinking it and not settling for commercial hard cider made from concentrate from other parts of the world. Join Ian Merwin of Black Diamond Farm and Dan Wilson of Slyboro as they discuss the challenges of orchard work and returning Americans to their traditional beverage.
“The blends are the art of cider making.” [14:00] – Dan Wilson “Mass market or 6 pack ciders are typically made from apple juice concentrate not from the juice of fresh apples.” [23:00] – Ian Merwin
This week on _ What Doesn’t Kill You _, Katy Keiffer is talking Meat Matters by Chefs Collaborative with guests Butcher Adam Danforth, Chef Paul Ferhlibach, and Butcher and Larder Owner Rob Levitt. With Meat Matters coming to Chicago on November 10, such events are collaborative, educational fundraisers organized by Member chefs to celebrate – and help create demand for – good, well-raised, and appropriate portions of meat (as well as protein-rich vegetables and grains). The goal of these events is to inspire fellow chefs and the general public to use their individual and collective buying power to ‘Change Menus. Change Lives.’ Specifically delving into the topics of raising and butchering older animals, the value of older animals on the plate, as well as the need to change the current system of growing animals for food and other meaty matters, this is a conversation not to be missed!
“Goat is starting to change in its awareness as a popular ingredient. A lot of people think goat is going to be gamier than lamb or sheep but the reality is it’s a milder meat.” [4:30] –Adam Danforth on What Doesn’t Kill You “It would be great if we had a system where we could raise an old dairy cow and sell her for the meat instead of any fate she might find [currently].” [29:00] –Rob Levitt on What Doesn’t Kill You
Former sheep farmer, John Wilkes has a unique perspective on how livestock should raised and is raised. Thanks to his work with the American Livestock Breed Conservancy, Wilkes has first hand knowledge of farming practices in the US and the UK. Who is going it at better? Find out this week on _ What Doesn’t Kill You _ as Katy Keiffer is joined by John Wilkes for a spirited discussion.
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Katy Keiffer is joined by the legendary activist and writer Frances Moore Lappé on an inspiring episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Frances More Lappé is the author or co-author of 18 books including the three-million copy Diet for a Small Planet. Frances was named by Gourmet Magazine as one of 25 people (including Thomas Jefferson, Upton Sinclair, and Julia Child), whose work has changed the way America eats. Her most recent work is World Hunger:10 Myths which she and co-author Joseph Collins co-wrote (October 2015, Grove/Atlantic). She is the cofounder of three organizations, including Oakland based think tank Food First and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. Frances and her daughter have also cofounded the Small Planet Fund, which channels resources to democratic social movements worldwide. – See more at: http://smallplanet.org/about/frances/bio#sthash.VKZsX8pC.dpuf
“Our whole book is about rethinking power down to its latin root meaning – which is ‘our capacity to act’.” [07:00] “If we don’t set the rules that are fair and democratic, then its set by highest return on existing wealth.” [16:00] “We have to stop complaining and join together in a movement like the movement that I was fortunate enough to experience in the 1960’s and 70’s. That movement is rising now and it’s a bipartisan movement.” [19:00] –Frances Moore Lappe on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on _ What Doesn’t Kill You, _Dr. Urvashi Rangan from Consumer Reports discusses her recent report on the safety of ground beef in the US and looking beyond phasing out antibiotics in the meat industry.
“It’s not sustainable to feed healthy animals antibiotics every day!” [18:00]
Des Moines is suing upstream counties for agriculture pollution in municipal water. Is this the new paradigm? Find out on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer is joined by friend of the show Tom Philpot to discuss, amongst other things, water quality, nitrogen, drainage and runoff. Tom is the food and agriculture reporter for Mother Jones. Prior to that he was at Grist for five years. His work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian.
“Farming is a high pressure business in that you’re caught between the input suppliers and the buyers who are very highly consolidated.” [28:00]
The Other White Meat is dead. Just Mayo is.. not mayo? Tune in to a fascinating episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as host Katy Keiffer talks about labeling, slogans and other issues in food with Parke Wilde, Associate Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, USA. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. He is past chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics. Previously, he worked for the Community Nutrition Institute and for USDA’s Economic Research Service. Since 2004 he has run a highly respected blog, “U.S. Food Policy: a Public Interest Perspective.”
“The inspector general’s goal is to make sure (checkoff) money isn’t being corruptly moved to a private bank account. The inspector general hasn’t asked questions (about sustainability and environment). Nobody is asking those questions.” [29:00] — Parke Wilde on What Doesn’t Kill You
Are we winning the war against big soda? Dr. Marion Nestle says YES! Tune in to a brand new episode of _ What Doesn’t Kill You _as Katy Keiffer chats with Dr. Nestle about her latest book, Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning).
Marion Nestle: “Soda sales are down, and they’ve been going down for 12 years. The soda companies believe this is due to health advocacy and who am I to doubt them?” [03:00]
Water is one of the most important issues in the world right now. Access, supply, regulation, law… H20 is central in almost every agricultural conversation. Today on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is joined by Brooke Barton, senior director of Ceres’ water program, directing the organization’s research and engagement with investors and corporations on the financial risks and opportunities related to water scarcity and quality. Brooke specializes in analyzing how large food and beverage companies are addressing water risks in their operations and agricultural supply chains. She is the author and co-author of numerous reports, including Feeding Ourselves Thirsty: How the Food Sector is Managing Global Water Risks, The Ceres Aqua Gauge: A Framework for 21st Century Water Risk Management, and Water & Climate Risks Facing U.S. Corn Production.. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery
“You can’t talk about agriculture without talking about water supply, water regulation and water law. The conversation is painfully lacking.” [02:00] “There should be no election where people don’t scrutinize the polling history of their wanna be elected representative on issues of environmentalism and social justice.” 42:00
–Katy Keiffer on What Doesn’t Kill You
“There’s growing competition for water everywhere you look.” [07:00]
–Brooke Barton on What Doesn’t Kill You
When Katy Keiffer and Tom Philpott talk about the pork industry, you better listen. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, the two discuss JBS’s acquisition of Cargill pork production and the impact that exports have on the industry. Tom Philpott is the Food and Ag Correspondent for Mother Jones. He is also the cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. He was formerly a columnist and editor for the online environmental site Grist and his work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“I can’t think of a major meat deal in the last 25-30 years that’s been shut down by anti-trust authorities.” [09:00] “In 2000, pork exports were close to 0. it was not something we were doing a lot of exporting of.” [18:00]
“Do we want to be a hog farmer to the world?” [36:00]
–Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is joined by Matt Wadiak, co-founder and COO of Blue Apron, a subscription service that delivers ingredients, recipes, instructions and ready-to-cook meals to your home. Matthew Wadiak has been pursuing his passion for food for over 20 years. He began his career by cooking for chefs Charlie Trotter and Paul Bertolli and later spent several years sourcing and importing rare ingredients, such as white truffles, for chefs and food companies around the world. In 2004, Matthew founded Cooks’ Venture, a catering and events company. As Executive Chef, he and his team hosted and cooked for culinary events for a wide array of clientele including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Matthew’s ideals of cooking have always been based on sustainability, local ingredients, and simple yet expertly prepared cuisine. Matthew is a graduate of The Culinary institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and believes that the best food is made at home. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“With the advent of the internet, everything changes.” [08:00] “Our mission is to make great home cooking accessible to everyone.” [24:00]
“We’re creating a marketing outlet for companies to sell their produce to and distribute to the country – for the first time.” [26:00]
–Matt Wadiak on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You host Katy Keiffer interviews Adam Eskin about the work he is doing at Dig Inn seasonal markets. Adam tells us about his transition from the business world to the food world, and why they are fairly similar. Katy and Adam then discuss Dig Inn’s work with smaller scale producers and and how Dig Inn tries to do everything they can to help their efforts. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard and Winery.
“We come to the table with a partnership approach, what can you do for us what can we do for you?” [13:00]
— Adam Eskin on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer returns from the Slow Meat Conference with a new friend and guest, Joe Oliva, who has plenty of insight to share on the show! Jose Oliva is Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance after starting as the Associate Director from August 2013 to December 2014. He is from Xelaju, Guatemala. Jose founded the Chicago Interfaith Workers’ Center in 2001 and then became the Coordinator of Interfaith Worker Justice’s National Workers’ Centers Network. In 2008 he went on to run the Center for Community Change’s worker justice program. From 2009-2014, Jose held a number of leadership roles at Alliance member Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, the national organization of restaurant workers. He also served as Board Chair of the FCWA Board of Directors from 2010-2012. He is a member of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“We see food as the central component of society – it’s what makes us as individuals go and what makes the world go round.” [04:00]
“Good food is good food everywhere – it’s not going to change.” [17:00]
“25% of all the groceries sold in the United States are sold at Wall-Mart.” [20:00]
“As long as there is a draw in this country for work – people will come here. That’s the reality.” [30:00]
–Jose Oliva on What Doesn’t Kill You
How do we make sure animals are being farmed safely and who has the main oversight in these areas? You might try asking Dr. Flora-Josephine Hagen Liste, the District Veterinary Officer of Western Iceland in the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority. Host Katy Kieffer interviews Dr. Flora-Josephine about her work in Iceland overseeing farm conditions, and maintaining animal safety. How do the US and the EU differ in animal food production, and what can the USDA learn from Iceland’s practices? All this week on What Doesn’t Kill You. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard and Winery.
“I may have my own personal views…the only thing I am allowed to demand is what’s in the regulations and the laws…it is a challenge to see things that you disagree with and not be able to change them.” [14:00]
“This outside inspection of the inspectors helps us do the right thing, and that is something I don’t think the USDA has.” [18:00]
— Dr. Flora-Josephine on What Doesn’t Kill You
Dr. Marion Nestle is back on Heritage Radio! Tune in as she joins Katy Keiffer for a lively and spirited discussion on What Doesn’t Kill You. Freshly back from visiting the USA Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Milan, Marion has a new book, Soda Politics on the horizon and has lots to share on today’s show. Hear about the power of the ethanol lobby, the need to bring agriculture and health policy together, and the continued failings of the US Congress. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (the department she chaired from 1988-2003) and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“I think we need to bring agriculture and health policy together.” [06:00] “The ethanol lobby has a lot of power in Congress.” [14:00]
“The soda industry is running scared these days.” [33:00]
“I’m enormously optimistic about what the food movement is doing. There’s a lot going on. On an international basis food is being taken seriously in a way it never was before.” [39:00]
–Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill You
Water and labor are two extremely important topics currently being discussed in the United States, and no state is discussing these issues more than California. Writer and reporter Lauren Markham discusses, with host Katy Keiffer, how the drought in California is effecting migrant workers. Her recent article for the Food & Environmental Reporting Network (FERN) and Pacific Standard focused on the intersection of the recent migration influx and the California drought. How do workers cope with the extreme conditions? How will producers keep these workers safe? How will we as a country protect and support immigrants who flee political violence in their homelands to have a chance at living a better life here? All this and more today on What Doesn’t Kill You . This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard and Winery.
“Some of the workers convince themselves not to take a break, because thats 15 minutes of not crops or 15 minutes of less money for you family…the job encourages overwork.” [8:00]
“The more we see and publicize the struggle of migrant workers, the more the numbers will do the work that gives hope to me.” [38:00]
“Migrant workers are literally feeding our country.” [39:00]
Lauren Markham on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on a brand new season of What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer welcomes writer Tom Philpott to discuss a plethora of inter-related topics, kicking off the show with a discussion on the California drought situation and its coinciding water politics, plus how almond and pistachio farmers are responding. Currently there are minimal regulations in California regarding ground water, and as Tom explains, the problem is that the legislation that is in place may not have an adequate chance to benefit anyone at the rate water sources are being depleted. Conversation turns to general precipitation amounts throughout the state and with numbers dwindling, Tom discusses the effect this will likely have on the economy as well as farm workers. After the break, Katy brings up Tom’s writing on the impact of chemicals on field workers and gets his thoughts on exactly what’s going on before delving deeper into labor conditions in the food industry. Tune in for another thought-provoking show! This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center.
“If we can ‘de-Californify’ the food supply while we push for better conditions for workers on factory farms then we can start to see a future that doesn’t look quite so grim.” [44:36] —Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t Kill You
Barry Estabrook joins Katy Keiffer for this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You to discuss his latest book, Pig Tales: An Omnivore’s Quest for Sustainable Meat —
an eye-opening investigation of the commercial pork industry and an inspiring alternative to the way pigs are raised and consumed in America. Barry Estabrook, author of the New York Times bestseller Tomatoland and a writer of “great skill and compassion” (Eric Schlosser), now explores the dark side of the American pork industry. Drawing on his personal experiences raising pigs as well as his keen investigative reporting, Estabrook shows how these immensely intelligent creatures are too often subjected to lives of suffering, sustained on a drug-laced diet just long enough to reach slaughter weight, then killed on mechanized disassembly lines. It doesn’t have to be this way, and Pig Tales presents a lively portrait of those farmers who are taking an alternative approach, proving that it is possible to raise pigs responsibly and respectfully in a way that is good for producers, consumers, and some of the top chefs in America. Provocative and richly informed, Pig Tales is bound to generate conversation at dinner tables across America. This program was brought to you by EscapeMaker.com.
“97 percent of pigs raised in this country live in these horrific crammed confinement buildings where their feet never touch the ground and they never breathe fresh air or see sunshine.” [15:00] “Gestation crates will be relics of past — they will be goners.” [44:00]
–Barry Estabrook on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is talking about one of her favorite topics – fecal engineering! She’s joined by Craig Scott of Bion Environmental Technologies, a
provider of comprehensive livestock waste treatment technology. They discuss anaerobic digesters, Pennsylvania Senate Bill # 994, livestock production, TMDL regulations and much much more.This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Anaerobic digestion is focused on recovering renewable energy from the waste stream – it’s not an environmental solution” [03:00]
–Craig Scott on What Doesn’t Kill You
“Insects are the future, people!” This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer continues her innovation series, chatting with Andrew Brentano, co-founder and COO of Tiny Farms, Inc. He is working to improve the efficiency and commercial viability of insect farming with the application of modern technology and data analytics. Andrew explains that he is fascinated with technology, particularly the potential for human and technology interaction to enable humanity to solve its mundane and existential problems, like sustainable food sources. Throughout the show, Katy gets the scoop on his latest project, Open Bug Farm, and how exactly one farms insects and the differences between the input/output ratio of insect farming versus conventional animal, marine, and even tofu protein sources. After the break, Katy asks Andrew what’s next for Tiny Farms, Inc. and if they might also venture into agricultural feed, providing for perhaps poultry and fish one day. Andrew certainly gives food for thought in this detailed interview – tune in for more! This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“There are almost 2000 documented species that humans consume around the world. There’s every variety of ant, cricket, locust… but in the near term we’re going to see more caterpillar species being eaten.” “The big kicker is how much pro they [insects] have. Certain species are very high in healthy fats… and are high in vitamins and minerals.”
“For the aspiring insect farmer you really have two great markets: you’ve got your market for your actual insects and you’ve got your fertilizer market.”
—Andrew Brentano on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You Katy interviews professor Hod Lipson about his work with 3D printing, and how this process has recently intertwined into printing food. They start the show by discussing one of the first foods that people have been 3D printing, chocolate. They use chocolate as a framing device for discussing the almost limitless possibilities of 3D printing and how beef, candy, and synthetic mixtures may become the future of the food industry. This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center.
“I see it as the ultimate kitchen appliance [3D Printer].” [12:00]
“The sky is the limit, once you put all this information into a computer…its mind boggling.” [15:00]
“You aren’t abandoning conventional foods, you are just using them in a different way.” [17:00]
— Professor Hod Lipson on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer launches a series of shows that will spotlight innovative new businesses dealing with the challenges we face in feeding our burgeoning population. On this episode, she’s talking with Jason Drew, an international business leader and serial entrepreneur turned environmentalist and author. His most recent endeavor is Agriprotein, a revolutionary concept in feed for industrialized fish and poultry farming. He is a passionate environmentalist, visionary, and capitalist. His books are The Protein Crunch: Civilization on the Brink and The Story of the Fly and How it Can Save the World. This program was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.
“Our ancestors grew up on the insects of the land!” [31:00]
–Jason Drew on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You Katy has no guest and decides to interview herself. She begins the show by addressing some of the major food issues that she has covered before the mainstream media began to cover them such as fracking, or HIMP. Her discussion jumps from topics of unfair payment for food workers, the pork industry, farm worker strife, and food stamps. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard and Winery.
“Nothing is for free, if it seems to good to be true, thats usually the fact.” [8:00]
“We must pay more attention to who we’re voting for to maintain some state of sanity.” [15:00]
— Katy Keiffer on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You Katy interviews two-time James-Beard-award winning author of Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit , Barry Estabrook. Barry and Katy discuss the topic of slave labor in the Thai shrimp industry. The two focus on various issues such as the root causes of this problem as well as US companies that participate in the industry. This program was sponsored by Underground Meats.
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You Katy interviews contributing editor to Popular Science and award winning author Catherine Price. The two discuss Catherine’s recent book, Vitamania, which focuses on the worlds vitamin and dietary supplement market. The conversation turns to what foods we should grow and eat to make sure children get the vital nutrients they need to prevent disease and other similar health issues. Catherine informs us on the specifics of how losing certain vitamins can affect us negatively and important foods to include in our daily lives. This program was sponsored by Bi-Rite Market.
“When you take all the nutrients off of a grain of wheat, you don’t know what you are losing that helps you process those nutrients.” [13:00]
“If you have a cupcake that has vitamins in it, or chia seeds in it, its still a cupcake.” [14:00]
— Catherine Price on What Doesn’t Kill You
Get a deep look at the state of antibiotic use in the livestock industry on this weeks episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Host Katy Keiffer is joined by Sasha Stashwick, senior advocate at National Resources Defense Council’s food and agriculture program, which works on reforming the use of antibiotics in the livestock industry. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“This problem isn’t exclusive to the livestock industry. Antibiotic misuse and overuse in human medicine is a big problem as well.” [20:00] “Our goal is to make this a product [antibiotic free chicken] that’s accessible to all Americans and all consumers, not just an elite few.” [25:00]
“We can vote with our wallets and these big buyers will respond.” [41:00]
–Sasha Stashwick on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, whistle blower Amanda Hitt returns to talk about the latest news on HIMP, a new meat inspection model heavily touted by industry, and heavily protested by former and current meat inspectors. This program was sponsored by Bi-rite Market
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You , award winning journalist Michael Moss deconstructs his recent NY Times story on abused animals at the hands of USDA researchers. This program was sponsored by Route 11 potato chips.
“There is a huge difference between research to promote the beef industry, and research to improve consumer safety.” [22:30] “It is becoming increasingly hard for me to go to a restaurant and blindly eat meat without knowing who raised it.” [29:00]
–Michael Moss on What Doesn’t Kill You
In this corner we have the Center for a Livable Future’s Bob Martin, and in the other, Doctor John Glisson, representing the National Chicken Council! The debate? A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health gives what the Chicken Council calls a fair and balanced look at antibiotics in poultry, while Bob Martin, speaking for consumers, suggests it’s missing a few key details. A robust back and forth between the two sides characterizes this vigorous debate about the present course, and future expectations, of our food system. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery
“The reason I thought this was an important study was not so much what it said or didn’t say – it was the way they dispassionately looked at the facts and what is known and drew their conclusions based on that. It wasn’t very speculative. They didn’t point fingers. It mostly concluded we don’t know enough to make conclusions. Thats’s why I thought it was refreshing.” [06:00] –Dr. John Glisson on What Doesn’t Kill You
“The problem is really is the way antibiotics are used in farm animal production. They’re not used the same way in clinical medicine. In clinical medicine, an infection is treated with a strong enough dose to kill the bacteria. [..] The difference in food animal production is that low levels of antibiotics are used daily to suppress bacteria and that’s how resistant bacteria emerges.” [08:00]
–Bob Martin on What Doesn’t Kill You
Chipotle recently took Carnitas off the menu in over 600 restaurants. Why? Is this a watershed moment for the pork industry? Find out on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Katy Keiffer is joined by Chris Arnold, Communications Director at Chipotle and Jeff Tripician, Chief Marketing Officer & Executive Vice President at Niman Ranch. This program was brought to you by Rt 11 Potato Chips.
“It’s been a big story and what’s been most eye opening on our end is the degree at which customers are supporting the decision. The overwhelming majority of people appreciate our standing on principle and our decision not to make a compromise.” [05:00] “We’ve invested quite a lot over the years in building a supply chain that meets these higher standards and it becomes a pretty significant differentiator for Chipotle from the rest of the restaurant industry.” [16:00]
–Chris Arnold on What Doesn’t Kill You
“The industry is there to provide choices. Niman is a choice and there are lots of different ways people can raises animals and provide food. If you are a farmer in the middle and you’re somewhere between very large and quite small and invested in infrastructure, it’s difficult to make a transition. That’s what we do – we work with those farmers and help them understand how to make that transition.” [11:00]
–Jeff Tripician on What Doesn’t Kill You
On a thought provoking episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is joined by Danielle Nierenberg, President of Food Tank (www.FoodTank.com) and an expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues. Danielle has authored or contributed to several major reports and books, including Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry (2005), State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet (Editor and Project Director, 2011), Eating Planet 2012 (2012), Food and Agriculture: The Future of Sustainability (2012), and Food Tank by the Numbers: Family Farming Report. Danielle tackles a variety of topics on the show today and previews some of the discussions that will take place at the upcoming 1st annual Food Tank Summit! Food Tank, in partnership with The George Washington (GW) University, is excited to announce the 1st Annual Food Tank Summit at the Jack Morton Auditorium (former home of CNN’s Crossfire)! This two-day event will feature more than 75 different speakers from the food and agriculture field. Researchers, farmers, chefs, policy makers, government officials, and students will come together for panels on topics including; food waste, urban agriculture, family farmers, farm workers, and more. This program was brought to you by Tabard Inn.
“So many people are watching food as a spectator sport. If we could use those forums to teach people practical things we could make some headway.” [08:00]
“We try to spread information – spread it to a range of stakeholders whether it’s regular eaters, policy makers, businesses…really just exploring how the use of information can spread innovations – not just from north to south but south to south – having communities talk to each other.” [28:00]
“If we ignore industry, we’ll never make the change we need to see.” [33:00]
–Danielle Nierenberg on What Doesn’t Kill You
Learn about the future of composting on the 2015 season debut of What Doesn’t Kill You! Katy Keiffer is joined by the team behind FOR Solutions, the “sustainable answer to the food scraps management issue.” Their patented solution creates nutrient-dense compost in just 5 days. The mission of FOR Solutions is to change the way people perceive food scraps from thinking of them as waste to thinking of them as a renewable, recoverable natural resource that has the power to revitalize Earth’s soil. Food scraps management is truly the epitome of the sustainability movement. Katy chats with Founder & Executive Chairman, Nicholas Smith-Sebasto, Ph.D. and Chief Executive Officer, Edward Friedman who help listeners understand the technology behind FOR Solutions and some of the problems we face when it comes to composting in this country. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Our digestion vessel just mimics the human stomach. We can digest anything that humans can digest.” [07:00]
“We need to stop thinking of discarded food as waste. If we think of it as waste – we will treat it like waste.” [26:00]
–Nicholas Smith-Sebasto on What Doesn’t Kill You
“The first time I saw this system it was mind blowing and game changing. I thought if we could bring this system to places with large amounts of discarded food – the effect would be tremendous.” [11:00]
–Edward Friedman on What Doesn’t Kill You
Things are changing quickly in the chicken industry. The Urban School Food Alliance, a coalition of the largest school districts in the United States that includes New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami-Dade, Dallas and Orlando, recently announced an antibiotic-free standard for companies to follow when supplying chicken products to its schools. Katy Keiffer digests this news with a great panel of guests on both sides of the industry on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. She’s joined by Dr. John Glisson, Vice President of research at the US Poultry & Egg Association in Tucker, Georgia, Eric Goldstein, Chief Executive of the Office of School Support Services and Mark Izeman, Director, New York Urban Program, Senior Attorney, Food & Agriculture and Senior Attorney, Urban Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“The cost of producing chicken will go up soon as a result of this [The Urban School Food Alliance announcement]” [16:00] –Dr. John Glisson on What Doesn’t Kill You
“We came to the realization there’s an overuse of non therapeutic antibiotics in the poultry sector. That’s just something we don’t like.” [25:00]
–Eric Goldstein on What Doesn’t Kill You
“As the scientific evidence mounts, industry groups often tend to splinter.” [37:00]
–Mark Izeman on What Doesn’t Kill You
Tune in to this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You for an in-depth conversation on labor issues in the restaurant industry. How do tipped wages affect workers? Why is there a labor shortage in the industry? Find out as Katy Keiffer chats with Michael Leviton, the former Chairman of the board for Chefs Collaborative; and Chef/Owner, Lumiere and Chef/Partner, Area Four Boston, Massachusetts. He is a seven-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee and recipient of national awards from Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Gourmet and Saveur. This program was brought to you by Consider Bardwell.
“I don’t know what needs to be done, but there’s definitely a labor shortage in this industry.” [11:45]
“The only way to gain mastery is by doing it over and over again.” [34:30]
–Michael Leviton on What Doesn’t Kill You
Meet Sarah Teale, documentary filmmaker and founding member of Adirondack Grazers Cooperative, a group of beef producers from small to mid-scale, family farms in New York and Vermont that naturally raise and finish beef. The Co Op’s mission is to maximize member revenue by developing sales in wholesale and specialty markets not easily available to individual farmers. Tune in as Katy Keiffer chats with Sarah on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. They discuss the co-op model, it’s successes and shortcomings, and the distribution challenges that small farmers face in 2014. Sarah is also creating a documentary film to tell the story of Adirondack Grazers and simultaneously highlight the loss of family farms in today’s agricultural landscape. Learn how serious this issue is as Sarah describes just how much farmland is being lost today and what we need to do to reverse the trend. This program was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.
“Just to call it grass fed isn’t right. There ought to be distinctions made on labels and menus.” [11:00]
“Our sweet spot is in wholesale. Doing frozen meant a lot of management of tiny pieces of meat.” [17:00]
“I think there is an understanding now from the governor that there is potential for bringing money to upstate New York where they seriously need it. There’s a willingness to try and help, I just don’t think they know how yet.” [28:00]
–Sarah Teale on What Doesn’t Kill You
Katy Keiffer is rounding up the headlines and providing sharp commentary with guest Marion Nestle on a topical episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (the department she chaired from 1988-2003) and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her books include the seminal Food Politics, Why Calories Count, Pet Food Politics, Safe Food and many more. She blogs at foodpolitics.com. Katy and Marion chat about everything form fad diets to FDA labeling rules. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market.
“Nobody needs genetically modified foods – we have foods. We don’t need them to be genetically modified.” [18:00]
“Functional foods is the word given to foods that have some nutritional thing added to them above and beyond what they already contain.” [32:00]
“I love the Paleo diet because it makes me laugh every time I think of it. The biggest intellectual problem in nutrition is trying to figure out what people eat. It’s really challenging figuring out what people ate yesterday, let alone 15,000 years ago.” [37:00]
–Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is once again joined by journalist Tom Philpott for an insightful conversation on immigration, food chains and more! For five years, Tom Philpott served as a columnist, food editor, and senior food writer for the online environmental site Grist. He’s a cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. Before moving to the farm in 2004, Philpott worked as a financial journalist in Mexico City and New York, most recently writing daily dispatches on the stock market as equity research editor for Reuters.com. His work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center
“Americans are eating less meat for a lot of reasons, and we don’t fully know what’s going on with that.” [18:00] –Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t Kill You
Get ready for a soup-to-nuts conversation on the meat business on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, with Katy Keiffer. She’s joined by George Faison, partner and COO at DeBragga and Spitler, a top quality meat distributor based in NYC. George was a founder of D’Artagnan where he worked as a partner for 20 years before moving to DeBragga and Spitler. He has been honored for achievement by his peers with both the Food Arts magazine Silver Spoon Award, and the Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America from The James Beard Foundation. In 2005, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appétit magazine. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“There’s been a proliferation of high quality small meat producers.” [03:00]
“Nobody wants a slaughterhouse on their weekend property.” [07:00]
“There can be a lot of work done at the state level because it’s easier to find allies.” [31:00]
“It’s hard to fight for something altruistic when you’re starving.” [34:00]
–George Faison on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is getting insight on the food industry from Mel Coleman, Jr. of Niman Ranch. Niman Ranch, based in the San Francisco Bay area, raises livestock traditionally, humanely and sustainably to produce the finest tasting meat in the world. Today, the Niman Ranch network has grown to include over 700 independent American farmers and ranchers. Kicking off the show talking to Mel about his father’s decision to go “natural” with the business and how the business grew from his original vision. Talking about the initial difficulty to have the USDA approve their beef as natural, the conversation moves to what the biggest changes the industry has made, for better or worse, since the start of the business. Mel also shares with Katy what exactly sets Niman Ranch a part from the Cargills or Smithfields in the meat market as far as their business models are concerned. After the break, Mel breaks down what facets of the ranch are located throughout the country, including the hog farms and processing plant, and how efficiency is central to Niman’s success. Tune in for a fascinating profile of Niman Ranch as well as insights on the food industry. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“More and more consumers are increasingly knowledgable about food and how it’s produced.” [4:20] “Our number one commitment is to our farmer and rancher partners. So, if they raise a product for us what we’re going to do is buy it and sell it.” [16:07]
—Mel Coleman on What Doesn’t Kill You
Tired of the way big media covers environmental and agricultural issues? There’s a pure voice amidst the noise in FERN, The Food & Environment Reporting Network, Inc. Tune in as Katy Keiffer is joined by Sam Fromartz, author of In Search of the Perfet Loaf and Editor in Chief of FERN for a conversation on media, journalism and integrity. They also discuss the upcoming event, FERN Talks & Eats, which will cook up their written reports as dynamic, interactive storytelling. FERN is an independent, non-profit news organization that produces investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health. Their stories fall under the classic mandate of investigative reporting-to reveal corruption, abuse of power, and exploitation wherever it happens; to expose activities and subjects that the powerful work to keep hidden or which are simply overlooked by major media; and to give a voice to the voiceless. This program was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.
“Bread is my attempt to keep my sanity as a journalist.” [30:00]
–Sam Fromartz on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is speaking with Ted Genoways who is the editor-at-large at OnEarth, the magazine of the Natural Resources Defense Fund. He has also contributed to a number of other magazines such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, Harper’s, Mother Jones, The New Republic, and Outside. His new book, “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food” was published this month by Harper Collins and joins Katy in a discussion on labor concerning large companies like Hormel. Complete with thoughts on union busting and the rise of undocumented workers, Ted goes on to explain how even the ACLU came to be involved with the Hormel ordeal. Tune in to hear highlights from Ted’s book. This program was brought to you by White Oak Pastures.
“So the workers showed up – they found that the processes were not easier, they were in fact more repetitive and there was a rash of carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow and other repetitive stress injuries.” [8:02]
—Ted Genoways on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is talking beef and welcomes guest Nicolette Hahn Niman to the program. Nicolette is a rancher, attorney, and writer. Much of her time is spent speaking and writing about the problems of industrialized livestock production, including the book Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms and four essays she has written on the subject for the New York Times. She has written for Huffington Post, CHOW, and Earth Island Journal. Previously, she was the senior attorney for the environmental organization Waterkeeper Alliance, where she was in charge of the organization’s campaign to reform the concentrated livestock and poultry industry, and, before that, an attorney for National Wildlife Federation. She joins Katy today to talk about her newest book, Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market.
“When you plow the Earth, that is the single most damaging thing you can do.” [11:57] “There’s nothing that makes the soil more water retentive than in well managed grazing.” [14:14]
—Nicolette Hahn Niman on What Doesn’t Kill You
Antibiotic use in livestock is a topic that has been discussed many times on Heritage Radio Network, but this week on What Doesn’t Kill You, journalist, author and blogger Maryn McKenna explains what’s going on in a way that should make it clear for everybody. Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist specializing in public health, global health and food policy. She is a contributing writer for Wired and also for National Geographic’s food-writing platform The Plate, and writes for Scientific American, Nature, Slate, the Guardian, the Atlantic, and other publications in the United States and Europe. She is the author of the award-winning books SUPERBUG, about the global rise of antibiotic resistance, and Beating Back the Devil, about the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is currently working on a book about food production. She is a Senior Fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and a research affiliate at MIT. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“I think that what i see happening is that the market is moving the companies much more than the regulators can.” [23:00] I think of antibiotics are the wizard behind the curtain. They are this thing causing all the other change in the meat industry from 1940 forward.” [43:00]
–Maryn McKenna on What Doesn’t Kill You
Katy Keiffer and Dr. Gail Hansen dissect the new protocols on antibiotic use announced recently by Perdue on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Gail is the Senior officer for Pew’s campaign on human health and industrial farming, a project aimed at phasing out overuse of antibiotics in food production. She has served on or chaired numerous state and federal infectious disease committees, as a scientific advisor for several national and international conferences, and is an adjunct faculty member at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She has authored several peer-reviewed publications on various infectious diseases and public health topics and has provided practical training in applied epidemiology to public health scholars. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“It’s important to remember that the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics not the chickens.” [06:30]
Dr. Gail Hansen on What Doesn’t Kill You
Quick service restaurants are one of the most interesting case studies in sustainability and sourcing – and Chipotle is arguably the best in the business. Tune in to a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer chats with Chipotle Communications Director Chris Arnold. Chris oversees a variety of external communications, including media relations, government relations and public affairs, and philanthropic programs for the national burrito restaurant. He is an architect of the company’s brand and external messaging, and a counselor to the company’s executive team. Get an inside look at the companies philosophy, initiatives and future plans. This program was brought to you by Tabard Inn.
“When you’re dealing with very small niche producers in the United States it’s difficult for them to sell at prices that work with our model and it’s difficult for our model to work with theirs.” [06:00]
“If you’re going to sell tacos at 99 cents then you can’t have a 34% food cost.” [09:00]
–Chris Arnold on What Doesn’t Kill You
Get ready to meet one of the hardest working people in institutional dining on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer is joined by Ken Toong, Executive Director of University of Massachusetts Amherst Auxiliary Enterprises (AE) for the past 15 years. AE is the umbrella for UMass Dining. It is the nation’s largest campus dining operation with over 17,000 students on various meal plans and 83 million in annual revenue. UMass Dining serves over 45,000 meals daily, including 15 world cuisines. This program was brought to you by Tabard Inn
“We want to be at the forefront of campus dining – that’s important to us.” [05:00] “By the year 2020 20% of the food we purchase will be ‘real’ food.” [18:00]
“The good thing about campus dining is we work closely together, we don’t compete [with each other]” [27:00]
–Ken Toong on What Doesn’t Kill You
Preview the upcoming Chefs Collaborative’s Sustainable Food Summit on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Chefs Collaborative’s Sustainable Food Summit brings hundreds of chefs and food professionals together from across the country to share ideas and get inspired. It is a powerful opportunity to connect in-person with community members that share a commitment to help fix America’s broken food system. Host Katy Keiffer is joined by Michael Leviton is Chairman of the board for Chefs Collaborative; and Chef/Owner, Lumiere and Chef/Partner, Area Four Boston, Massachusetts and Alisha Fowler, Program Director for Chefs Collaborative. They discuss issues of sustainability as they relate to seafood, restaurants and more. This program was brought to you by White Oak Pastures
“We keep coming back to the idea of thinking big, acting big and having a really big impact.” [06:00]
“The first rule of running a sustainable restaurant is to keep your doors open.” [08:00]
–Michael Leviton on What Doesn’t Kill You
Katy Keiffer is back from Australia and in the studio for another episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. She’s joined by writer Tom Philpott, the Food and Ag Correspondent for Mother Jones and the cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. He was formerly a columnist and editor for the online environmental site Grist and his work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. Katy and Tom discuss ag-news items like blue green algae in water supplies, neonicotinoid insecticides, Bt-corn and more. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“These are the first instances in the US of people being told they can’t drink their water because of blue green algae.” [07:00] –Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t Kill You
We’re losing our sturgeon supply and black market caviar is becoming a real thing. Tune in to a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer is chatting caviar with Michelle Nijhuis. Michelle writes about science and the environment for National Geographic and other publications. She is also a contributing writer for Smithsonian and a longtime contributing editor of High Country News, a magazine known for its in-depth coverage of environmental issues in the American West. Her most recent piece is called Caviar’s Last Stand, published simultaneously with FERN and Medium, about the loss of a species in the service of gluttony.. for money and for food. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“[Caviar is] small, it can be smuggled – it’s really in some ways the ideal black market item.” [05:00]
“Caviar rose in popularity before it came rare. I think it was the allure of a foreign delicacy in Europe that came with that stature. Now that it’s gotten rare, that’s only added to its cache.” [24:00]
–Michelle Nijhuis on What Doesn’t Kill You
When it comes to the United States seafood industry, there is perhaps no better thinker and writer than Paul Greenberg. He’s this week’s guest on What Doesn’t Kill You, as host Katy Keiffer picks his brain on all things seafood related. From the salt marshes in Louisiana to the triangular trade of codfish, Paul touches on all corners of the domestic seafood industry and discusses the seriousness of the problems we face as a nation. Why is most of our seafood imported when we have such a bountiful supply? What does the future hold for our fish? Find out on a aquatic episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“More than 85% of the seafood Americans eat is coming to us from abroad. Meanwhile, about 3 billion pounds of what we catch, which would be enough to satisfy the per capita demand in this country, is exported.” [03:00]
“The United States controls more ocean than any country on earth, but how we came to control all that water was a political slight of hand.” [12:00]
“Even after everything that’s been thrown against it, Louisiana is still the largest seafood producer in the continental United States.” [25:00]
–Paul Greenberg on What Doesn’t Kill You
River restoration affects more than just the natural environment. On today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, learn about one of the most essential restoration projects in the country right now, The San Joaquin River Restoration Program, as host Katy Keiffer chats with Monty Schmitt, Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the San Joaquin River Restoration Project Manager, Water Program. The SJRRP is a direct result of a Settlement reached in September 2006 on an 18-year lawsuit to provide sufficient fish habitat in the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam near Fresno, California, by the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Friant Water Users Authority (FWUA). The Settlement received Federal court approval in October 2006. Federal legislation was passed in March 2009 authorizing Federal agencies to implement the Settlement. Learn more about the project, the river and all of the issues that surround it. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Two thirds of all Californians get their water from the Bay Delta.” [09:00] “The San Joaquin River is arguably one of the most degraded large rivers in the country. It’s also one of the hardest working because of how much of the water is diverted for various purposes.” [24:00]
“We have to do a much better job managing our limited resource and be prepared for droughts and have better adaptation methods.” [31:00]
–Monty Schmitt on What Doesn’t Kill You
If you eat burgers, chances are you’ve enjoyed one from Burger Maker. Their client list includes Five Guys, Cheesecake Factor, Fuddruckers and many many more. Born out of the Meatpacking District in NYC, Burger Maker’s family ownership is in its 4th generation of Meat experience. Beginning with slaughtering and fabrication cattle in the early 30’s in the 125th Street Market, they have evolved today to a purely specialized hamburger company. On a “ground”-breaking episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats with Executive Vice President of Burger Maker Jamie Schweid about all things beef related. From market demand to farming practices – get the inside scoop on the burger industry. This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center.
“The Australian beef supply is arguably as safe as the united states. It’s a very clean product. Almost all of the product there is grass-fed.” [15:00] “The custom blend movement is a small niche movement in the food world that gets a significant amount of publicity for the volume that’s being sold. A custom blend is a great product for a fine dining restaurant.” [17:00]
“We have a record low inventory, sales are declining but more and more burger joints are opening. This is something down the road that could lead to a supply challenge.” [29:00]
–Jamie Schweid on What Doesn’t Kill You
It’s a very fishy episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer’s talking fish with Rick Shepro, author of Degrees of Freshness: The Contemporary International Market for Hyperfresh Seafood. Get some serious insights into the sustainable seafood industry as Rick explores the world of fish in all it’s different forms – wild, farmed, domestic and imported. Learn about Ike Jime, cold chain technology and find out why freshness may be a misleading term when talking about fish. This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center.
“The seafood market has become more and more international, at the high and low ends of the market.” [02:00] “Fresh used to mean just out of the water. Nowadays people are more likely to talk about freshness in terms of the condition of the fish.” [09:00]
“In terms of freshness, properly handled aquaculture products have a huge advantage over wild fish.” [25:00]
–Rick Shepro on What Doesn’t Kill You
Get ready to go beyond the label as Katy Keiffer explores the world of olive oil on a new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. How has California emerged as an olive region? How can you spot fraudulent olive oil? Guest Dan Flynn, Executive Director of UC Davis Olive Center, helps listeners answer these questions. Dan served as a consultant to the California State Legislature from 1985 to 2004 in a variety of policy areas and is the former owner and manager of an organic farm in the Sierra foothills. Dan received a B.A. in Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a M.A in Political Science from Rutgers University. This program was brought to you by Bonnie Plants.
“We’re trying to do for olives what UC Davis did for wine.” [01:00] “What we’ve found when we analyzed olive oil is that a lot of oil available to consumers here in the US is not meeting the standards of extra virgin. From our view point, there needs to be better methods to analyze quality and the existing standards need to be tightened up.” [09:00]
“Olive oil is a fruit juice so freshness is important! One way to determine freshness is the harvest date. In our experience, if a producer cares enough to put a harvest date on the product they usually care about the oil.” [29:00]
–Dan Flynn on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats with Patrick Martins about his book, The Carnivore’s Manifesto: Eating Well, Eating Responsibly, and Eating Meat. The book features fifty ways to be an enlightened carnivore, while taking better care of our planet and ourselves. We have evolved as meat eaters, proclaims Patrick Martins, and it’s futile to deny it. But, given the destructive forces of the fast-food industry and factory farming, we need to make smart, informed choices about the food we eat and where it comes from. In 50 short chapters, Martins cuts through organize zealotry and the misleading jargon of food labeling to outline realistic steps everyone can take to be part of the sustainable-food movement.
“If there’s a truth out there – that truth applies to everybody whether you’re rich or poor, black or white. The elitism argument [in food] demeans poor people.” [13:00] “We need more farms producing more food for more Americans. That’s one of the goals of this book.” [16:00]
–Patrick Martins on What Doesn’t Kill You
Nicholas Freudenberg is Distinguished Professor of Public Health at CUNY’s School of Public Health at Hunter College. He is also co-director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College. He has written or edited five books and more than 75 scientific articles on urban health policy, HIV prevention, community mobilization for health and the role of food policy in health. Recently, Nicholas wrote Lethal but Legal, a book outlining the ‘corporate consumption complex’. Tune into this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You to hear Nicholas uncover the roots of corporate dominance, the problems with current tax laws, and externalization. Why should government be the only type of organization to monitor industry? How can a society overturn the ‘corporate consumption complex’ and expose the problems of globalization? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“Companies propose voluntary guidelines that are much looser than what public health professionals suggest, and then they don’t even follow those guidelines!” [14:35]
“Today many regulatory agencies lack the resources, but only government- as an independent voice- can monitor these industries.” [16:00]
— Nicholas Freudenberg on What Doesn’t Kill You
The stat sheet on hemp sounds almost too good to be true: its fibers are among the planet’s strongest, its seed oil the most nutritious, and its potential as an energy source vast and untapped. Its one downside? For nearly a century, it’s been illegal to grow industrial cannabis in the United States-even though Betsy Ross wove the nation’s first flag out of hemp fabric, Thomas Jefferson composed the Declaration of Independence on it, and colonists could pay their taxes with it. But as the prohibition on hemp’s psychoactive cousin winds down, one of humanity’s longest-utilized plants is about to be reincorporated into the American economy. Get ready for the newest billion-dollar industry. This week’s guest is Doug Fine, a man who knows his hemp. In his latest book, Hemp Bound:Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution, Doug embarks on a humorous yet rigorous journey to meet the men and women who are testing, researching, and pioneering hemp’s applications for the twenty-first century. Tune in to this episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Doug goes from A-Z on hemp and makes a serious case for this serious crop. This program was brought to you by Consider Bardwell.
“Hemp is any variety of the cannabis plant that has .3% or less of THC.” [02:00]
“There are farmers making money growing hemp and americans know it know – that’s why it’s coming back.” [08:00]
“I think we’re going to have a world leading [hemp] industry here very very soon.” [10:00]
–Doug Fine on What Doesn’t Kill You
We all know that there are problems in our meat supply. Genetics, antibiotic use, animal welfare, the list goes on and on. Some of the main producers and people in the entrenched cattle production industry are coming together trying to develop standards for sustainable beef production and identify the problems facing the industry today. On this weeks episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer explores this topic with Jonathan Gelbard, Conservation Scientist & Sustainable Agriculture Specialist, for National Resources Defense Council. This program was brought to you by Consider Bardwell.
“The average age of ranchers in the industry is somewhere around 60. It’s a hard audience to change – these folks have been doing what they’ve been doing for a long time. There is a rising tide of younger ranchers and farmers who are coming up who are interested in remote and monitoring technology and new management systems and are engaging in new programs.” [16:00]
–Jonathan Gelbard on What Doesn’t Kill You
What did we learn from the National Climate Assessment Report? What did the Farm Bill get wrong? What will we do when California runs out of water? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as host Katy Keiffer is joined by friend and frequent guest Tom Philpott, the Food and Ag Correspondent for Mother Jones and cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. He was formerly a columnist and editor for the online environmental site Grist and his work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“If present trends continue – it will be really really hard to grow much more food on the land here in the United States.” [11:00] “Very few of the key challenges facing agriculture come up in the Farm Bill.” [16:00]
“I am worried that global trade flows will drive a lot of agricultural change here in the united states that we can’t control.” [29:00]
–Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t Kill You
Get ready to be convinced that you should be eating insects! Pat Crowley, Founder of Chapul Bars, is this week’s guest on What Doesn’t Kill You, and he’s got his sights set on introducing bugs to the American plate. Chapul Bars are protein bars made using insects as healthy, eco-friendly, and tasty alternatives to unsustainable sources of protein. Pat makes a compelling case for eating insects. Grossed out? Pat and the folks at Chapul are making their protein bars using milled cricket flour, helping the consumer psychologically deal with eating bugs. He remembers a time when sushi seemed foreign to American consumers, and thinks insects are going through a similar phase right now. Could his cricket bars be the new California roll? Could insects solve our unsustainable protein problem? Tune in and get the inside scoop on insects. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market.
“Bugs are an unknown future as far as agricultural products are concerned. If you look at it objectively – it’s a no brainer that we should have insects in our diet. the only reason we don’t is a psychological one.” [03:00] “All of this has been about spreading an idea and creating change for future generations.” [26:00]
–Pat Crowley on What Doesn’t Kill You
Water management is a serious issue – one that affects almost everything in the world of agriculture. How can you insure your crops against drought as a farmer? What happens when the rain won’t fall? What are some new irrigation technologies that are helping keep crops healthy? Today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You is all about water – as host Katy Keiffer is joined by Claire O’Connor, the Agricultural Water Policy Analyst in the NRDC Santa Monica Office. She focuses on designing and implementing solutions to water challenges that are good for both farmers and people who eat the food that farmers grow. Tune in and wrap your head around some serious water issues on What Doesn’t Kill You. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“The best insurance policy farmers have is their soil. Healthy soil can hold more water and absorb more water. That’s where we need to be encouraging farmers to look at how they’re managing their risk.” [08:00] “Unless we get serious about managing our water – it could be a big problem not only for farmers but all of us who like fruits and vegetables in this country.” [21:00]
–Claire O’Connor on What Doesn’t Kill You
What are beta agonists? Beta-agonists are a class of non-hormonal compounds fed to livestock. Why should we care? Well, for a number of reasons – including both animal and consumer safety. On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is here to catch you up to speed on yet another drug being used in livestock production with esteemed guest Guy Loneragan, a veterinary epidemiologist and Professor of Food Safety and Public Health and at Texas Tech University. Tune in and learn more about beta agonists and the debate surrounding their use. This program was sponsored by Tabard Inn
“We had information on almost a million head of cattle across 20 different operations. What we found is relatively consistent across all operations there is a significant increase in the likelihood in death of animals that are administered beta agonists.” [19:00] –Guy Loneragan on What Doesn’t Kill You
What’s the deal with GRAS? “GRAS” is an acronym for the phrase Generally Recognized As Safe. On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats GRAS with Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. Find out how this has allowed food manufactures more freedom to add different types of additives without much oversight. This program was sponsored by Tabard Inn
“Cooking is really a great public health safety measure but when it comes to things like nanotechnology it does you no good whatsoever.” [11:00] “Its hard to know how much sweetener people are eating – it’s in everything now!” [16:00]
“People have tried for decades to find something wrong with caffeine, turns out it’s really hard.” [23:00]
“Congress doesn’t like regulation because it’s perceived as anti-business. I think that’s a very narrow way of looking at it – we need regulation and it’s better for business in the long run.” [30:00]
–Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill You
NRDC attorney Avinash Kar breaks down the news that drug companies have agreed to re-label antibiotics in compliance with recent FDA guidances on their usage in livestock agriculture. In a wide ranging discussion Kar covers the loopholes in the guidances, the pending legislation co-sponsored by NRDC to regulate and monitor antibiotic use in livestock in California, and how to manage intensive livestock agriculture without the use of these important drugs either for growth promotion or disease prevention. On a sad note, after this broadcast it was learned that, Dr. Scott Hurd, a previous guest on the show, and referenced several times during this program, passed away suddenly yesterday. Our condolences to his friends and family. This program has been sponsored by Tabard Inn. Today’s music provided by Dead Stars.
“There’s a lot of evidence that the use of antibiotics in animals is contributing to adverse health effects in humans.” [16:45] –Avinash Kar on What Doesn’t Kill You
Fish farms are a growing industry – and there are plenty of issues to explore around the idea of "growing" fish. What are the environmental and sustainability concerns? Why does fish farming have such a bad reputation? Find out on a fish-themed episode of What Doesn't Kill You, as Katy Keiffer is joined by Scott Nichols, Director of Verlasso®, a salmon fish farm, and Environmental Defense Fund's Sustainable Seafood Program manager Tim Fitzgerald. This program was sponsored by Rolling Press.
"The large scale farming of fish is a new business. Through time, the salmon industry has learned its way through a lot of challenges and has been able to develop rapidly." [05:00] –Scott Nichols on What Doesn't Kill You
What does Hormel have to do with the water supply in Nebraska? What are the issues facing workers in the pork industry? Find out on a pork-themed episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer chats with expert Ted Genoways. Ted Genoways is editor-at-large at OnEarth, the magazine of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He has also contributed to a number of other magazines such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, Harper’s, Mother Jones, The New Republic, and Outside. His book, The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food, is forthcoming from HarperCollins in October. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“The bigger issue is how these animals are raised in such an intense concentration and how that then creates a situation where manure is present in such concentration. The hog truckers don’t want to move the waste over large distances, and it wouldn’t be idea because there are spills. So, to me, the real solution is to have the raising of animals be spread out as it was up until these confinements became the next step in big agriculture in the 1970’s.” [20:00] –Ted Genoways on What Doesn’t Kill You
The meat industry is becoming “chickenized” and it’s not a good thing. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer talks to Christopher Leonard, author of The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business. Christopher is the former national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press. His work has appeared in Fortune, Slate, and The New York Times. He is a fellow with The New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington, DC. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“We used to have a rigorous cash market for hogs – that totally got destroyed and erased by contract production.” [26:00] “There is a deep aversion in [some states] to government regulation. People see the hand of big government as stupid and ineffective. Mostly what producers encounter are regulations, so there’s an inherent distrust for government intervention. The irony is […] big corporations are characterized by centralized control, secret contracts […] it’s a command and control system. That’s what happens when you don’t have anti-trust regulations. The laws of supply and demand don’t determine the price of chicken any more – it’s market power.” [29:00]
–Christopher Leonard on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You is a continuation on the discussion of GMO technology. Along with columnist Tom Philpott and Dr. Charles Benbrook, Research Professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University, Katy Keiffer explores trends in corn and soy farming, herbicide use and the correlation between what practices are encouraged in ag programs and the companies that produce GMO products. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery
“There’s a real essential need for the government and industry to take a hard and fast look at glycetate exposure levels and risk because we’re engaged in a gamble that’s affecting the entire American population” [18:00] –Dr. Charles BenBrook on What Doesn’t Kill You
On this week's episode of What Doesn't Kill You, Katy speaks with Tom Philpott about GMOs. For five years, Tom served as a columnist, food editor, and senior food writer for the online environmental site Grist. He's a cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. Before moving to the farm in 2004, Philpott worked as a financial journalist in Mexico City and New York, most recently writing daily dispatches on the stock market as equity research editor for Reuters.com. His work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. Maverick Farms has been featured in Gourmet and the New York Times, and in September 2008, Food & Wine named Philpott one of "ten innovators" who "will continue to shape the culinary consciousness of our country for the next 30 years." In 2011, he was a finalist for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award—the "Oscars of the food world," as Time put it—in the "Food-Related Columns and Commentary" category. This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. Today's music provided by Dead Stars.
"We've allowed companies to put us kind of against their own promises on this ever accelerating pesticide treadmill, so farmers apply more and more and get less and less benefits from them." [6:45]
Tom Philpott on What Doesn't Kill You
McKenzie Funk is one of the founding members of the journalism collective Deca. Since 2000, his reporting has taken him all over the United States and to dozens of countries on six continents. A National Magazine Award finalist and former Knight-Wallace Fellow, he won the Oakes Prize for Environmental Journalism for a story about the melting Arctic and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for his interview in Tajikistan with one of the first prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, National Geographic, Outside, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The New York Times. He is the author of Windfall, The Booming Business of Global Warming. Tune into this episode to learn how opportunism is emerging from the issues involved with global warming. Learn how water rights are being sold along the Colorado River, and what it means for sustainability and access. Why has government been so slow to create legislation around climate change across the globe? Are there any technologies that could potentially reverse the effects of climate change? Find out on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Tabard Inn.
“A lot of the drought in the American west can be attributed to a lack of glacial ice in the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada.” [11:50]
“These climate tech fixes are not bad, but they’re expensive… cutting carbon can be helpful to everybody.” [23:15]
— McKenzie Funk on What Doesn’t Kill You
Daisy Freund is the senior manager of the ASPCA’s Farm Animal Welfare campaign. In her role, Daisy works to raise public awareness about factory farming practices and improve the lives of farm animals in the U.S. through consumer education, legislative advocacy and farmer outreach. She is especially focused on driving increased transparency in the food system to allow consumers to make choices based on facts, and elevating farmers’ voices as advocates for more humane methods of farming. Daisy joined the ASPCA in 2012, bringing to the job a diversity of experience in food systems and communications, including farming, restaurant management, public relations and journalism. On today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Daisy, Katy Keiffer, and Sari Kamin discuss the poultry business. Tune in for more on the lack of genetic diversity in the factory-farmed chicken world, and why consumers are willing to pay a premium for quality in light of recent food-borne illness scandals. Why does poultry production rely so heavily on antibiotics? Later, learn more about animal stress, welfare protection on farms, and why so many companies are slowly turning to slow-growing birds. Thanks to our sponsor, Route 11 Potato Chips.
“The way these birds are treated is cruel, and it’s at the expense of the chickens and people.” [3:00]
“The genetic stock is available- we just have to convince this industry that people care about these issues… People are eager to spend a little more in order to get a little more value.” [6:35]
— Daisy Freund on What Doesn’t Kill You
Bob Martin is the director of Food System Policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future and guest lecturer at the school. Formerly, he was a senior officer at the Pew Environment Group and was the Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, a two year study funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts by a grant to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The charge to the Commission was to recommend solutions to the problems caused by concentrated animal feeding operations in the areas of public health, the environment, rural communities, and animal welfare. The Commission’s final report, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, was release on April 28, 2008. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer talks with Bob about the report, and its findings on antibiotics in livestock agriculture, waste management, contract growing, and more! Thanks to our sponsor, Cain Vineyard & Winery. Music by Dead Stars.
“I think the conclusion of the report said it best – change will come from a more informed and aggressive consumer.” [34:45]
— Bob Martin on What Doesn’t Kill You
Parke Wilde is Associate Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, USA. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. He is past chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and current member of the Food Forum of the Institute of Medicine. Previously, he worked for the Community Nutrition Institute and for USDA’s Economic Research Service. Since 2004 he has run a highly respected blog, “U.S. Food Policy: a Public Interest Perspective.”
He recently published the book: Food Policy in the United States. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats with Professor Wilde for a economic perspective on the food system. Learn how capitalist principles inherently make farm life unpredictable. Hear how food safety is an information problem, and why lobbyists are not solely responsible for promoting big ag interests. Thanks to our sponsor, Route 11 Potato Chips.
“Part of what makes farm life difficult is that their prices are subject to competitive markets.” [4:45]
“Imperfect information is one of the biggest reasons that the government gets involved with food.” [13:00]
“Lobbyists aren’t the only problem in politics… people support big business because big business promotes regional economies.” [19:45]
— Parke Wilde on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer calls Dr. Marion Nestle to talk about dubious effectiveness of nutritional and dietary supplements. Dr. Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health; and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Learn about the origins of the supplement industry in the 60s & 70s, and find out why supplements are not regulated by the FDA. Are there any benefits to taking supplements? Hear how the supplement industry uses statins from prescription drugs in their products, and how they are able to sell these pills over the counter! Later, Katy and Dr. Nestle discuss the marketing tactics of the supplement industry, and how they seduce their customers. Thanks to our sponsor, Tabard Inn.
“We got hooked on supplements when we started getting suspicious about the food system… There is very little evidence that they do good, and some evidence that they do harm.” [3:00]
— Dr. Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill You
Joel Makower is chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group Inc. and producer of GreenBiz.com. For 20 years, Joel has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. He is executive editor of the acclaimed website GreenBiz.com and its sister sites, conferences, and research, all produced by GreenBiz Group, of which he is co-founder and chairman; he is also lead author of the annual State of Green Business report and hosts the State of Green Business Forum, the GreenBiz Innovation Forum, and other events. Joel also serves as a senior strategist for GreenOrder, a sustainability management consultancy, and is co-founder of Clean Edge, a cleantech research firm. He is author of more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy. He also writes “Two Steps Forward”, a popular blog on green business, clean technology, and green marketing. Joel joins Katy Keiffer on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You to talk about McDonald’s, and their recent announcement that they will aim to source only sustainable beef by 2016. How will McDonald’s define sustainability for their purposes? Why is McDonald’s jumping into the responsible beef market? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Tabard Inn.
“Most of what companies are doing is not known; the media isn’t talking about it!” [5:00]
“Consumers want what they want, but they aren’t always willing to pay for it.” [22:20]
— Joel Makower on What Doesn’t Kill You
What can you expect from What Doesn’t Kill You in 2014? This week, Katy Keiffer starts the year off right by outlining the future of her program. Katy has a new time slot, but she’s still going to be delivering the best food safety and policy talk on the Internet today! Hear what topics Katy hopes to revisit in the new year, and why she hopes to spotlight new topics like GMOs, dietary supplements, and finfish aquaculture. What guests will return in 2014? Find out on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Heritage Foods USA.
“California is already anticipating a state of emergency regarding their water supply… the impact that will have on the livestock and agricultural industry is yet to be seen, but it’s only going to get drier and drier.” [21:35]
— Katy Keiffer on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer checks in with Christy Robb of St. John’s Bread & Life in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn to talk about holiday programs and volunteering. Tune in to learn more about St. John’s Bread & Life’s Sponsor a Family program, and what it means for families in need during the holiday season. Hear from one of the families in the Sponsor a Family program! Katy speaks with two youngsters, Peter and Chris, who were inspired by the work of St. John’s Bread & Life, and have been volunteering their time at the organization’s food pantry for years! Katy and Christy close out the show by discussing the need for healthy food for under-served communities, and how St. John’s Bread & Life are helping protect heritage breeds with their food pantry! This program has been sponsored by Route 11 Potato Chips.
“I look into the dining room and see people eating really healthy food and see their bodies and faces light up because they’re actually eating good food!” [22:45]
— Christy Robb on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is joined via the phone lines by Maureen Ogle, author of In Meat We Trust to talk about the history and evolution of the meat industry in the United States over the past 140 years! Learn how ideas surrounding animal agriculture led to colonizers taking land from Native Americans. Find out how World War II initiated factory farming and the onset of automated feeding procedures. Learn how health figures like Ancel Keys greatly hurt the meat industry’s profits after publishing some untrue nutritional deficits of beef. How did Ralph Nader’s influence turn the country on to meatless meals? Tune in to hear Maureen weigh in on how our nation can turn around its food system. This program has been sponsored by White Oak Pastures. Music by Dead Stars.
“Anything that went wrong with the food system – no matter what the issue was – the meat packer’s were to blame!” [8:45]
— Maureen Ogle on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is talking about the King Amendment to the Farm Bill with John Goodwin, Director of Animal Cruelty Policy for the Humane Society’s Animal Rescue Team, and Brian Klippenstein of Protect the Harvest. The King Amendment is a highly-debated measure that features unclear language concerning the regulation of transported agricultural products across state lines. The King Amendment also has repercussions on food safety, animal welfare, and more. Does the amendment prevent a state from regulating both in-state and out-of-state producers beyond federal standards, or does it only prohibit a state from setting production requirements for food sold in-state if the food is produced or manufactured in another state? Learn about the vitriolic opposing viewpoints of John and Brian’s groups, and why Katy believes that their clash is unproductive. This program has been sponsored by Tabard Inn.
“It [King Amendment] really should have gone to at least one judiciary hearing where constitutional lawyers could really debate and vet this thing!” [23:10]
— John Goodwin on What Doesn’t Kill You
Bill Marler is an accomplished personal injury lawyer and national expert on foodborne illness litigation. He began representing victims of food-borne illness in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, resulting in her landmark $15.6 million settlement. Since that time, Bill and his law partners at Marler Clark have represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused serious injury and death. His advocacy for better food regulation has led to invitations to address local, national, and international gatherings on food safety, including testimony before the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keifer discusses a myriad of topics with Bill, including the Foster Farms Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak, HIMP, and antibiotic resistance. Tune in to hear Bill talk about food safety, solutions to foodborne illness, and why changes are not only doable but profitable. This program has been brought to you by Route 11 Potato Chips.
“I would love to say that Foster Farms is a bad egg when it comes to poultry production, but realistically, they are just like every other producer when it comes to its salmonella profile.” [5:30]
— Bill Marler on What Doesn’t Kill You
J. Alfredo Gomez serves as a Director in the Natural Resources and Environment team of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). He is responsible for overseeing the team’s work in environmental protection and food safety issues. His environment and food safety portfolio currently includes work in cleanup of hazardous substances, drinking and clean water issues, ecosystem restoration, pesticides, toxic chemicals, climate change, and USDA’s and FDA’s efforts to provide a safe food supply. On today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer speaks with Alfredo on the issue of HIMP, the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project, and asks him more about the 15-year old pilot program and it’s effectiveness. With GAO recently publishing a report on HIMP, Alfredo explains his concerns about the program and poultry standards. Later,Alfredo speaks about the recent salmonella outbreak within Foster Farms chickens, and explains whether HIMP could have been a factor in this recent event. This program has been sponsored by Tabard Inn. Music by Hardbodies.
“GAO talks to everybody, we gather comments, and we draft our reports to make sure we get our facts correct.” [18:35]
— Alfredo Gomez on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer focuses on two separate reports, one by the Pew Commission and the other by the Animal Agriculture Alliance, regarding the state of animal agriculture. Katy talks with Emily Metz Meredith of the Animal Agriculture Alliance. Emily serves as the Communications Director for the Alliance and manages all aspects of the communications strategy. She is responsible for the Issues Management Committee and coordinating effective responses to the issues of the industry. Meredith also works closely with the media and develops the Alliance’s online outreach efforts. Using both traditional and social media, she educates urban consumers about the importance of animal agriculture. Tune in to hear how Emily views groups like the Pew Commission regarding the hot button topic of antibiotic resistance. How have resistant pathogens grown since the spread of antibiotics? Hear why veterinarians are getting involved with antibiotic administration in animal agriculture. This program has been brought to you by Route 11 Potato Chips.
“It’s easy for us who don’t raise animals for food production to make suggestions, but we are not the ones on the ground doing the work. We don’t see the forest for the trees.” [13:40]
— Emily Meredith on What Doesn’t Kill You
Dr. Marion Nestle is a Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003. She is also Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of the recent book, Eat Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer catches up with Dr. Nestle and covers a wealth of food politics topics! Tune in to hear discussions concerning food labeling, subsidies, soda taxes, and more. Get updated about antibiotic usage in animal livestock! This program has been brought to you by Tabard Inn.
“Corporations and the existing food system are being supported in many different ways, and all that foodie advocates like me are asking is that the system be tweaked a little bit in order to promote healthier choices.” [18:45]
— Dr. Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill You
Learn about the science and economics behind snack foods with Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You. Katy Keiffer chats with Michael about the origins of sugary, salty snacks in Kellogg’s. Did you know that John Harvey Kellogg was originally very against sugar? Learn about the marketing of snack foods, and the parallels and connections with tobacco advertising. Hear what forces are causing many developing countries to adopt the American tradition of snack foods and leaving scratch-cooking behind. Find out how food scientists engineer foods to appeal to a certain “bliss point” in eaters! How are the USDA and FDA involved with growing cheese consumption in the United States? Find out all of this and more on this week’s installment of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Route 11 Potato Chips.
“While the content of salt, sugar, and fat might not have changed in many products like sodas, but the amount of ‘snack-able’ foods that replaced meals increased.” [7:15] — Michael Moss on What Doesn’t Kill You
Tom Philpott is a food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones and the cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. For five years, Philpott served as a columnist, food editor, and senior food writer for the online environmental site Grist. His work on food politics has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Orion, OnEarth, Gastronomica, and the Guardian, and he has been interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Before moving to the farm in 2004, Philpott worked as a financial journalist in Mexico City and New York, most recently writing daily dispatches on the stock market as equity research editor for Reuters.com. In 2011, Utne Reader named him one of “25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.” On this special episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Phil talks about the use of corn and soy as fuel additives, and how commodity farming creates various issues in the food business today, including raised costs and environmental effects. Given the dwindling of the farm population, Phil also talks about what he sees as the way forward for farmers today, and how and if the new farm bill will deal with these current issues. Tune-in to learn more about these problems, and how to continue staying involved in these important matters today through motherjones.com, or connecting with Tom himself. This program has been sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.
“Both the House and the Senate in the past year have passed a version of the farm bill that is shifting to subsidized insurance. It’s this crazy subsidy system that will continue this chain of farmers just getting by.” [26:10] — Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t KIll You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is talking expiration date labeling with Dana Gunders of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Recently, the NRDC and The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic just released a report on food waste in the US called “The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America”, and Dana is on the program to review the report and dispel concerns regarding food labeling and food safety. Find out what organizations are in charge of determining “use by” and “sell by” dates, and how governmental regulation could potentially lead to better consistency. Learn how these dates mislead consumers and often lead to unnecessary food waste. How is date labeling also tied up in the controversies surrounding GMO labeling? How should labeling differ between fresh and processed foods? How do food labels affect grocers’ bottom line? Find out all of this and more on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Underground Meats. Music provided by Dead Stars.
“The FDA has the authority under current law to provide standardization for food labeling if they wanted to.” [8:15] “Food-borne illness is a result of contamination, not its age.” [11:00]
— Dana Gunders on What Doesn’t Kill You
This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer talks with Paul Greenberg about the state of fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Paul is the author of the James Beard Award winning New York Times bestseller Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food and a regular contributor to The New York Times. He is currently a fellow with The Blue Ocean Institute and in April became the writer-in-residence at New York’s The South Street Seaport Museum. His next book American Catch — a book about how we lost and how we might regain American local seafood, will be published by The Penguin Press. Katy and Paul discuss his recent article published in American Prospect and FERN entitled “A River Runs Through It” about ‘the dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico. How are fertilizers causing algae blooms in the Mississippi that monopolize oxygen? Find out how corn production lends itself to agricultural runoff. Find out if it’s possible to regulate nutrient-runoff along the entire length of the Mississippi. How is nutrient loading affecting the fishing industry in the United States? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Heritage Foods USA. Music provided by Dead Stars.
“So much agriculture is running on auto-pilot. You don’t need as many people to run a farm anymore. If you were to put switching on your tiling, it would take too much time or money, and it wouldn’t be worth it.” [10:50] “Any time you see a lot of soil without a cover crop, that soil can be carried by rainwater into a watershed.” [11:25]
— Paul Greenberg on What Doesn’t Kill You
Jane Black is a journalist who covers food politics, trends and sustainability issues. Her column, “Smarter Food”, appears monthly in the Washington Post and her work appears regularly in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and New York Magazine. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats with Jane about her recent article entitled “SNAP Judgment” in Slate Magazine (co-published by the Food and Environmental Reporting Network) that analyzes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Why do certain politicians historically vote against SNAP benefits based on their relationships with corporate food lobbyists? How are these political relationships changing? Are there ways to regulate the types of food or beverages that can be purchased with SNAP benefits, and will anti-hunger groups support these types of legislation? How do SNAP recipients feel about the idea of regulations on their benefits? Hear Katy and Jane talk about the lack of nutrition education, and the roots of the obesity epidemic in this country. Thanks to our sponsor, Cain Vineyard & Winery. Today’s music has been provided by Dead Stars.
“Back when they first started fighting for food stamps, the food companies would help the anti-hunger organizations because at that time, people with low incomes were hungry as opposed to obese. It was a perfect partnership!” [3:25] — Jane Black on What Doesn’t Kill You
Patty Lovera is the Assistant Director of Food & Water Watch. She coordinates the food team. Patty has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Lehigh University and a master’s degree in environmental policy from the University of Michigan. Before joining Food & Water Watch, Patty was the deputy director of the energy and environment program at Public Citizen and a researcher at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer talks with Patty about the current motion that the Food & Water Watch have filed to intervene in a case filed by entities in the meat industry against the EPA to shut down the gathering of basic information about CAFO’s. Tune-in to find out how Patty and the Food & Water Watch is making an impact in our food systems and regulations today. To donate to protect your food and water, be sure to visit Food And Water Watch today. This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Before you know how to regulate it, you have to know what you’re dealing with.” [17:35] — Patty Lovera on What Doesn’t Kill You
Arsenic in our food supply? This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer checks in Dr. Urvashi Rangan regarding the prevalence of arsenic in food products like rice, apple juice, and poultry. Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D. leads and directs the Consumer Safety and Sustainability Group for Consumer Reports. She is responsible for managing risk analysis, policy assessments, label evaluations and consumer advice for tests, reports, and related advocacy work. Urvashi joined Consumers Union in 1999 and developed the ratings system, database, and Web site, Eco-labels.org for evaluating environmental and food labels. Dr. Rangan serves as a primary, national spokesperson for Consumer Reports in the areas of sustainable production/consumption practices, food safety, and product safety issues related to chemical and contaminant hazards. How are aresenicals introduced into the food supply? Find out ways to avoid arsenic by filtering drinking water, and selectively sourcing apple juice. Are cancer rates at all related to rice consumption due to arsenic levels? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Cain Vineyard & Winery. Thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“Rice likes to take up arsenic in general because it is grown in anaerobic conditions.” [4:45] “We should all be really concerned about our exposure to heavy metals over time.” [10:40]
— Dr. Urvashi Rangan on What Doesn’t Kill You
Hospital food has a pretty awful reputation, and the Physicians for Social Responsibility are working on new procurement opportunities that include small farmers and focus on anti-biotic free meat. Tune in to this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer is joined by Robert Gould, a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Professor and Vice Chair of Radiology for Technology and Capital Projects at the University of California, San Francisco. Find out why it’s so difficult to change the culture of eating within hospitals, and why contract purchasing companies need to hear feedback from institutions regarding food. Do patients who eat better food have better health outcomes? Tune in to learn what the Physicians for Social Responsibility are doing for the environment outside of the agricultural scope. Hear about their projects that aim to curb chemical waste, and find out where Dr. Gould stands on subtherapeutic antibiotic applications. This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. Thanks to Idgy Dean for today’s break music.
“In certain food deserts, Kaiser has set up farmers markets. It’s the only place in the area where you can get locally-grown, organic food.” [28:30]
Margo Wootan is the director of nutrition policy at CSPI. Wootan received her B.S. in nutrition from Cornell University and her doctorate in nutrition from Harvard University’s School of Public Health. Wootan co-founded and coordinates the activities of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) and the Food Marketing Workgroup. She has coordinated and led efforts to require calorie labeling at fast-food and other chain restaurants, require trans fat labeling on packaged foods, improve school foods, reduce junk-food marketing aimed at children, and expand the nutrition and physical activity program at CDC. Wootan has received numerous awards and is quoted regularly in the nation’s major media. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is taking on school food with Margo. Tune into this episode to hear about Margo’s work with school food, and how recent legislation is changing snacking in schools. Find out why vending machines were introduced into schools in the 70s in order to bolster underfunded school programs. How do schools eliminate the stigma associated with buying school lunch? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, White Oak Pastures. Today’s music has been provided by Dead Stars.
“School lunches teach kids how to eat healthy, and prepare them to eat healthily their whole lives.” [5:35] “Kids have a more refined palate than in the past, and they want to try new food items.” [22:40]
— Margo Wootan on What Doesn’t Kill You
On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is talking with Thomas Fox about sustainable building practices. Thomas Fox writes on far-ranging interests, among them sustainability and resilience. An attorney and research editor at Reader’s Digest, Fox is the author of Green Town USA and Urban Farming: Sustainable City Living in Your Backyard, in Your Community, and in the World. His work has been published in The Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, and elsewhere. Hear how a devastating tornado caused Greensburg, Kansas to “go green” in their rebuilding efforts post-storm. How did the storm help Greenburg’s citizens reconnect with their homesteading roots? What environmentally-friendly technologies did Greensburg implement in the build? Find out how weather resilience in Greensburg has increased after the rebuilding process, and learn how climate change is affecting tornado activity in the Midwest. Today’s program has been brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery. Thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“People in the Midwest aren’t prepared for these kind of wind events. But then again, us on the East Coast are not prepared for floods!” [17:00] “Producing a pound of cement produces about a pound of carbon dioxide.” [21:10]
— Thomas Fox on What Doesn’t Kill You
Katy Keiffer is discussing the sale of Smithfield to Shuanghui International Holdings on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You with meat industry insider Raoul Baxter. What makes this deal any different than, say, the sale of Swift to JBS, a Brazilian company? What implications will this sale have on American pork prices and production? Raoul gives some very important insight and gives listeners his honest perspective on the situation, noting that at the end of the day The American meat industry is, and will remain, the most inspected and safe industry in the world. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Over time you will see the amount of pork needed in America go up – and what Smithfield can’t supply it will spill over to other packers. I think it’s a positive for prices.” [14:00] “Nobody said a word when JBS, a Brazilian company, bought Swift.” [14:30]
“The American meat industry is the most inspected industry in the world!” [17:00]
— Raoul Baxter on What Doesn’t Kill You
On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is joined by Paul Willis, Manager of Niman Ranch Pork Company, former Peace Corps volunteer, father, grandfather, husband, community advocate, sustainability expert, owner and operator of Willis Free Ranch Pig Farm, Global Animal Partnership Board member, and Step-rated farmer 5-step pork farmer. Paul and Katy discuss everything from the history of Niman ranch to the recent proposed sale of Smithfield to Shuanghui International. If you’re at all interested in pork production, tune in for an informative and fun episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch. Music provided courtesy of The California Honeydrops.
“We really have a different product, and we have people that are willing to pay for it because it tastes better and they don’t want to eat animals that have lived under stresseful conditions and force fed things to be kept alive.” [20:00] — Paul Willis, Manager of Niman Ranch Pork Company on What Doesn’t Kill You
Today on What Doesn’t Kill You, Dr. Scott Hurd, Associate Professor and Director of the Food Risk Modeling and Policy Laboratory at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Ames, Iowa, talks with us over the phone about antibiotics in our food system today. He also served as Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety at the USDA in 2008, and in this position he directed all federal meat and poultry inspection. Learn where Dr. Hurd stands in the antibiotic debate, and our current state in terms of developing new drugs, getting new antibiotics to our farmers, and creating a better animal and livestock industry within our communities. Dr. Hurd also goes in depth with current legislation for passing new antibiotics within Congress, and provides a solution for solving the animal infectious diseases problem. Tune in to see how the current state of antibiotics is changing rapidly within our food system today, and how finding a way to present this issue to the media and consumers is such a key component in solving the problem. Thanks to our sponsor, Cain Vineyard & Winery. Today’s break music has been provided by takstar.
“Bottom line, what they’re left with on the farm right now are ancient antibiotics. They need us to help them.” [15:20] — Dr. Scott Hurd on What Doesn’t Kill You
Emily Meredith is back for this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Emily is the communications director for the Animal Agriculture Alliance. Established in 1987, the Animal Agriculture Alliance includes individuals, companies, and organizations who are interested in helping consumers better understand the role animal agriculture plays in providing a safe, abundant food supply to a hungry world. Emily is also the blogger for MeatingPlace.com’s “Activist Watch” blog. Tune in to hear Katy Keiffer talk about Emily’s job in the meat industry as ‘damage control’, and how she wades through the treacherous waters of meat PR. Tune in to hear more about animal welfare, insider video leaks, and curbing animal abuse. Thanks to our sponsor, Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“A lot of people have been doing this for generations, and they want to uphold their family tradtitions and ethics.” [29:05] — Emily Meredith on What Doesn’t Kill You
Katy Keiffer talks east coast shellfish with Bob Rheault on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You. Bob “Skid” Rheault was president of Moonstone Oysters in Narragansett, RI for 26 years. He has a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography and is an adjunct faculty member in the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Fisheries & Aquaculture. He served as ECSGA President for five years before taking the Executive Director’s seat. Bob established the East Coast Shellfish Research Institute and has been successful in attracting several substantial federal research grants to address critical industry research priorities. He is an active member of the National Fisheries Institute and is a passionate industry advocate. Learn about the food safety considerations of eating clams and oysters, and find out if eating shellfish during the summer months is more dangerous. Hear about some of the innovations that have helped the shellfish industry. How do clams and oysters account for sales in the New England shellfish market? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! This program has been sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons. Thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“It turns out that you can cover 50% of most bodies of water with oyster farms without environmental concern.” [28:00] — Bob Rheault on What Doesn’t Kill You
Eben Bayer and Ecovative Design are revolutionizing the packaging industry using mushrooms and agricultural waste. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer calls up Eben to get the scoop on Ecovative Design. Eben is the CEO and co-founder Ecovative, a bio-materials company that grows sustainable materials and products using unique living organisms. Ecovative has been recognized by the World Economic forum as a Tech Pioneer, for its potential impact on climate change by the PostCode Lottery Green Challenge, and recently won an environmental quality award from the EPA. Ecovative has been widely covered in the media, including articles in Wired Magazine, Popular Science, and Time. Tune into this episode to learn why mushroom mycelium offers a sustainable and earth-friendly alternative to foam. How can Mushroom Packaging change the food service industry? Hear how Eben hopes to implement these new technologies in building and insulation processes. This program has been sponsored by Fairway Market. Thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“Nature is an incredible toolkit of natural polymers… The food packaging marketing is 95% foam and plastic, where I think it could be 95% in the other direction- with natural packaging products instead.” [9:45] — Eben Bayer on What Doesn’t Kill You
Vickery Eckhoff is a journalist who has written for most of the major upscale publications and media companies including The New York Times, Dow Jones, Forbes, The New Yorker, Golf Digest and, for shorter projects, Vogue and InStyle. She has a new blog on Forbes.com called Fat Cats. Her initial series has been an investigation of the horse industry; investigating racing, breeding, responsible ownership and the political and industry forces that are working to open horse slaughterhouses again in the US. Tune into What Doesn’t Kill You for a conversation about horse meat, slaughter and health concerns with consumption. This program was sponsored by The International Culinary Center.
“There has to be an outlet for old sick horses. 99% of responsible owners euthanize their horses. Not that many horses go to slaughter – less than %1 of the total population. 70% of all slaughter horses are quarter horses.” [4:45] “Horse meat consumption has been steadily declining for a decade – but for the past few years the sales of horses going to slaughter has gone up and that’s attributed to the amount of horse meat being mixed with beef when nobody knew it.” [13:00]
— Vickery Eckhoff on What Doesn’t Kill You
Janet Riley is the senior VP, Public Affairs and Professional Development for the American Meat Institute. In her role, she develops public information and issue management strategy, manages press relations and drafts speeches, news releases and other public communications and oversees the Institute’s news reporting on MeatAMI.com. She also oversees AMI’s member services department. In addition, she is the liaison to the Animal Welfare Committee and oversees policy initiatives in this area. As a member of the AMI Crisis Management Team, she provides strategic counsel to AMI members when needed. Riley also serves as president of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council. On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, find out all about audits, undercover videos and both bad and good behavior in the slaughterhouse business. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. Thanks to The California Honeydrops for today’s music.
“In any industry you’re in, unfortunately it involved people, and people don’t always behave the way that they should.” [7:30] “Sustainability has become a bigger and bigger issue – it’s now a customer expectation.” [23:00]
— Janet Riley on What Doesn’t Kill You
Tom Colicchio, the face of Top Chef and Craft Restaurant, is talking antibiotics in the food system on this week’s What Doesn’t Kill You. Katy Keiffer calls up Tom to talk about how he good involved in the politics of food and activism. Listen in to hear Tom talk about the differences between charity and direct action, and their respective impacts in the realm of food policy. Hear how Tom’s experience with staph has inspired him to tackle antibiotic usage in food production. How can the restaurant industry support antibiotic-free meat besides using their purchasing power? Find out how Tom’s restaurants source their meat, and how they can afford humanely-raised, antibiotic-free meat. Tune into this episode to hear more about growth promotion, the environmental effects of livestock production, and CAFO conditions. Thanks to our sponsor, Fairway Market. Thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“If there is a food movement, it needs to encompass everything. We need to look at hunger issues, environment, farm safety, antibiotics… we really need to make a voting block that will vote on food issues.” [9:50] — Tom Colicchio on What Doesn’t Kill You
Dr. Marion Nestle joins Katy Keiffer for this week’s What Doesn’t Kill You to talk about the tenth anniversary of her seminal book, Food Politics. Tune into this episode to hear Dr. Nestle and Katy talk about the inspiration for the book, and how cancer research influenced ‘the food movement’. Why is Dr. Nestle optimistic about the future of health and good food? Listen in to find out Dr. Nestle’s opinions about Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move’ campaign, and why food labeling is duping consumers into believing that junk food is healthy. This program has been brought to you by Route 11 Potato Chips. Thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“When we started Food Studies at NYU in 1996, there was only one other school that had something like that, but now- everybody has some sort of food program.” [7:50] “That’s where policy comes in; there’s a reason why some foods cost less than others, and it’s not because one is cheaper to produce.” [12:00]
— Dr. Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill You
Katy Keiffer is talking antibiotic resistance as seen in ground turkey on this week’s What Doesn’t Kill You with Dr. Urvashi Rangan. Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D. leads and directs the Consumer Safety and Sustainability Group for Consumer Reports. She is responsible for managing risk analysis, policy assessments, label evaluations and consumer advice for tests, reports, and related advocacy work. Dr. Rangan serves as a primary, national spokesperson for Consumer Reports in the areas of sustainable production/consumption practices, food safety, and product safety issues related to chemical and contaminant hazards. Learn about the differences between bacteria strains found in conventional and organic, antibiotic-free ground turkey, and what it says about antibiotic resistance. Hear Dr. Rangan talk about animal welfare standards in conventional livestock agriculture, and how sub-therapeutic antibiotic usage is only the first step for better food and health. Hear what proposed legislation could curb antibiotics in the food chain. This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. Thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“We’re not stopping at antibiotics; we need systemic changes to conventional agriculture if we want to see any long term changes.” [21:00] “We hope that we can treat sick animals for a long time, and sick humans, too.” [26:15]
— Dr. Urvashi Rangan on What Doesn’t Kill You
What goes into meat inspection? Find out on another informative episode of “What Doesn’t Kill You”, as Katy Keiffer chats with Ted Conover, the author of five books, most recently The Routes of Man, about roads, and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, an account of his ten months spent working as a corrections officer at New York’s Sing Sing Prison. Newjack won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001 and was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His other books are Whiteout: Lost in Aspen, Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders With America’s Illegal Migrants, ( and Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails With America’s Hoboes. In recent years he has taught at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Oregon. He contributes to publications including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. Most recently he published “The Way of All Flesh”, the cover story for this months Harpers Magazine about working as a USDA inspector in a meatpacking plant in Nebraska. This program was sponsored by Tabard Inn.
“They need inspectors at lots of small town slaughterhouses – these spots are not always easy to fill.” [03:00] “The machinery is all about the interface between industry and life.” [15:00]
“The abscesses begin when the cattle’s diet changes from grass. The bacteria that results from that makes ulcers in the cattle’s stomachs and livers. The antibiotic is used to control those abscesses.” [16:00]
–author/journalist Ted Conover on What Doesn’t Kill You
Hank Cardello mixes business and health. This week on What Doesn't Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats with Hank about calories and obesity. Hank is chief executive officer of 27ºNorth, a consulting firm which addresses societal issues that businesses play the largest role in solving. Over two decades, Hank was an executive at some of the world's largest food and beverage companies, including Coca-Cola and General Mills. He chairs the annual Global Obesity Business Forum, an initiative sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently the Director, Obesity Solutions Initiative as a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, Hank is also author of Stuffed: An Insiders Look at Who Is (Really) Making America Fat. Listen in to hear Hank and Katy discuss realistic and practical measures that would curb the nation's obesity epidemic. Find out why demonizing opponents generally does not work towards progress or change, and why changes in the economy can ultimately lead towards better health amongst Americans. This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. Thanks to Dead Stars for today's music.
"If you're trying to reverse obesity, get the calories off the street in a way that the companies will want to jump in head first!" [25:50]
— Hank Cardello on What Doesn't Kill You
Chris Daly is getting parents and children in touch with nutrition! This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer sits down with Chris to discuss his non-profit, Hip4Kids. Chris founded Hip4Kids, as in Hospitality Industry Professionals, 11 years ago. Hip4Kids Inc., a 501 c (3) company, is designed to educate parents and children on the fundamentals and ongoing importance of healthy eating and good nutrition. Hip4Kids’ primary components include multi-media learning programs and community outreach through innovative educational lifestyle programs for children and young adults. In this episode, hear about some of Hip4Kids’ new initiatives, and how their curriculum has influenced schools and organizations across the world. Learn why it’s important not to demonize foods with children, and how healthy eating encompasses more than just fruits and vegetables. Thanks to our sponsor, Tabard Inn, and thanks to Dead Stars for today’s music.
“If you take basic culinary knowledge and relay it to people, you can really turn things up on it’s end.” [23:00] — Chris Daly on What Doesn’t Kill You
Paul Shapiro is Katy Keiffer’s guest on this week’s installment of What Doesn’t Kill You to talk about animal welfare and ag gag laws. Paul is the Vice President, Farm Animal Protection for the Humane Society of the United States. Shapiro’s work has helped enact farm animal protection laws in California, Arizona, Michigan, Maine, Colorado, Oregon, and Ohio. He’s also worked with dozens of companies, including some of the world’s top retailers, to improve animal welfare in their supply chains. Find out why the meat industry is trying to blow the whistle on whistleblowers. Learn more about poultry farming practices on factory farms, and how the treatment of chickens offers many food safety considerations. Learn how the meat industry intends to stifle media outlets through ag gag laws! This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“This is problem because routine practices in the meat industry have become inhumane. This isn’t just a case of a few rotten eggs!” [7:05] — Paul Shapiro on What Doesn’t Kill You
In 2005, after a long career in family medicine and as Nebraska’s chief medical officer, Dr. Raymond was appointed Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For the next 3 years, Dr. Raymond was responsible for overseeing the policies and programs of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). In semi-retirement now, he writes several blogs on food safety, has consulted with law firms on foodborne illness cases, is a frequent lecturer on food safety and public health, and is a food safety and public health consultant for Elanco, the Animal Health branch of Eli Lilly. Doctor Raymond serves as a Board member of the National Multiple Sclerosis Colorado-Wyoming Chapter, and is engaged in volunteer work with that organization. Tune into this episode of Straight, No Chaser to hear Katy Keiffer talk with Dr. Raymond about antibiotics in the food chain. Find out how Dr. Raymond defines sub-therapeutic antibiotic dosages, and learn how the different chemistry of specific drugs leads to antibiotic resistance. How do resistant bugs develop due to human and animal medicine? Find out on this week’s installment of Straight, No Chaser! Thanks to our sponsor, Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“We’re creating a problem as a human doctors. No one ever talks about over-prescription in human medicine!” [22:45] “The people who want to eliminate antibiotic use in the meat industry are people who don’t want us to eat meat and poultry!” [24:45]
— Dr. Richard Raymond on Straight, No Chaser
49 million people in the U.S. – one in four children – don’t know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans. Today’s guest on Straight, No Chaser is Peter Pringle, the editor of the Participant Guide for A Place at the Table, the recently released documentary about hunger in America. For 30 years Peter was a correspondent for The Sunday Times, The Observer, and The Independent, working in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and the United States. He has also written for several US newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and The New Republic. Among his many books, the most recent, besides this project, is Experiment Eleven about the discovery of streptomycin, The Murder of Nicolai Vavilov, Food Inc, Day of the Dandelion, and Those are Real Bullets. Tune in and find out what prompted Peter to explore these issues of hunger, and hear about some of the alarming facts he discovered in his research. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“You should have a right to food. The government has a responsibility to make sure people are not hungry. It’s a public health problem.” [11:00] –Peter Pringle on Straight, No Chaser
Tune in for an in-depth conversation on food politics as Katy Keiffer chats with Wenonah Hauter, the Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. She has worked extensively on food, water, energy and environmental issues at the national, state and local level. Her book Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America examines the corporate consolidation and control over our food system and what it means for farmers and consumers. She has worked and written extensively on food, water, energy and environmental issues on the local, state, and national levels. Katy and Wenonah chat about everything from anti-turst law to the industrial meat system on a jam packed 30-minutes full of insight into our American food systems. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Food isn’t even look at as food any more, it’s looked at as money and something that can be traded.” [05:00] “I don’t think Americans want to eat fecal matter – even if the bacteria has been killed!” [17:00]
–Wenonah Hauter on Straight, No Chaser
Gary Oppenheimer is connecting food producers with surpluses to food pantries across the world! This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is talking with Gary about his initiative, AmpleHarvest.org! Why is it so hard for communities to connect to food pantries in their area? Hear how AmpleHarvest.org plans to expand and reach more producers. Tune in to hear Gary talk about global food waste, and the percentage that can be attributed to the United States. Find out how local food can address the lack of fresh food in food pantries. Did you know that food waste creates three different environmental problems? Find out more about food waste, hunger, and the environment on this episode of Straight, No Chaser! Thanks to our sponsor, Fairway Market.
“The number of food pantries has grown significantly because the need has grown significantly.” [5:20] “Food waste starts at the farm and ends in the kitchen.” [16:15]
— Gary Oppenheimer on Straight, No Chaser
What happens to our waste water and how does it get cleaned? Find out on Straight, No Chaser as Katy Keiffer chats with Jim Pynn, Superintendent at the Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Get down and dirty as Jim explains the three steps in waterwaste treatment, including a very interesting process of using microorganisms. Find out what kinds of regulations are in place for businesses to account for chemicals in wastewater and learn how the city dealt with the effects Super Storm Sandy had on our wastewater infrastructure. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Modern waste water treatment plants were not meant for metals and petroleums. NYC has an industrial pre-treatment program. anybody with a business in NY has to report their chimerical usage to DEP and we have the right to monitor it. Any excess chemicals are the responsibility of the business.” [12:00] –Jim Pynn, Superintendent at the Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
Will “natural” health and medicine practices save the world? On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer chats with freelance journalist Nathanael Johnson about everything from microbes to community gardens. Nathanael’s first book “All Natural: A Skeptic’s Quest to Discover If the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing, and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier”, separates fact from faith when it comes to natural practices. Tune into today’s program to get more insight into the themes and ideas explored in the book. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“I grew up in a family that believed it was better to embrace nature rather than using technology to protect ourselves against nature.” [02:14] “Scientists say humans are super organisms – we’re not unique systems, we’re an incorporation of our environment in a very fundamental way” [05:45]
–Writer Nathanael Johnson on Straight, No Chaser
Emily Meredith and Katy Keiffer talk about monitoring slaughter facilities and ag gag laws on this week’s Straight, No Chaser. Emily Meredith is the communications director for the Animal Agriculture Alliance. Established in 1987, the Animal Agriculture Alliance includes individuals, companies, and organizations who are interested in helping consumers better understand the role animal agriculture plays in providing a safe, abundant food supply to a hungry world. Emily is also a blogger for the industry blog, Meatingplace.com. Tune in to hear Emily and Katy talk about third-party audits, and if they would actually make slaughter processes more transparent. Do organizations like the Human Society hurt the livestock industry? Does Emily believe that animal abuse is systemic? Find out on this week’s Straight, No Chaser! This episode has been sponsored by Bi-Rite Market.
“There is a huge disconnect between the consumer and the producer. This country is fed by less than 2% of the population.” [25:25] — Emily Meredith on Straight, No Chaser
Michael Dimin is in the business of sustainable seafood. On this week’s installment of Straight, No Chaser, Michael joins Katy Keiffer in studio to talk about the organization he co-founded, Sea2Table. Tune in to learn about the cod catch share in New England, and how recent restrictions are making some fisherman shake in their galoshes. Hear Michael and Katy talk about the history of fishing in New England, and why it’s not just a livelihood, but a culture. Learn why fisherman are in favor of traceable supply chains, and find out some surprising facts about the Gulf oil spill. How will Sea2Table change the food world? Find out on today’s Straight, No Chaser! This episode has been brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Fisherman love to know where their fish is going to go. Traditionally, fish is a commodity, and they never know where their fish goes.” [10:10] — Michael Dimin on Straight, No Chaser
Maryn McKenna is talking resistant bacteria with Katy Keiffer on this week’s Straight, No Chaser! Maryn is an independent journalist and author who specializes in public health, global health and food policy, and a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. She is a blogger for Wired, a columnist and contributing editor for Scientific American, and writes frequently for national and international magazines including SELF, TheAtlantic.com, Nature, The Guardian, and more. Her work has also appeared in Health, China Newsweek, MSNBC.com, CNBC.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Boston Magazine, Chicago Magazine, the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Heart Healthy Living and Georgia Trend among other publications. She is a regular contributor to the Annals of Emergency Medicine.She is the author most recently of SUPERBUG: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. Tune into this episode to learn how agriculture and human medicine are responsible for germs like MRSA. Hear why meat production facilities need to take more responsibility in the realm of food safety. How have today’s active lifestyles encouraged increased medical antibiotic usage? Find out on Straight, No Chaser! Today’s program has been sponsored by Tabard Inn.
“The bacteria (from raw chicken) can get onto things that you might not be cooking to death- lettuce, for instance… We are putting a big burden on the consumer.” [9:45] “The rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is due to overuse in all areas of human life.” [13:10]
“Is properly raised food only something that people with money can afford?” [25:00]
— Maryn McKenna on Straight, No Chaser
What is nanotechnology? Find out with Heather Millar, an award-winning freelance magazine writer and author who has covered science, health, and technology for twenty years, contributing to magazines such as Sierra, Smithsonian, and The Atlantic. Tune in and learn how these microscopic particles could bring on the next industrial revolution. From solar panels to medicinal purposes to whitening agents in food – take a trip down the rabbithole in the world of nanoparticles and technology. Discover the potential health risks as well as the potential for good with this new frontier of science. This program was sponsored by Route 11 Potato Chips.
“The problem with nano technology is that it’s such an incredibly broad field. It’s described as being the next industrial revolution – it has the potential to revolutionize solar cells for solar power, medicine for diagnostics, pretty much anything you can imagine.” [4:00] — Heather Millar on Straight, No Chaser
Katy Keiffer’s guest on today’s Straight, No Chaser is Elizabeth Royte. Elizabeth is the author of Bottlemania: How Water Went On Sale and Why We Bought It; Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash; and The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest. Her writing on science and the environment has appeared in Harper’s, National Geographic, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, and other national publications. Elizabeth is on the show talking about the negative effects of hydrofracking on livestock in drilling areas. Hear Elizabeth share a devastating story about a cattle rancher’s losses in North Dakota. How have farmers been silenced on the issue? Why is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce backing fracking? Find out on this week’s Straight, No Chaser. This program has been brought to you by The International Culinary Center.
“There are so many unknowns- there’s industry secrecy and there’s a lack of funding for these long-term, peer-reviewed studies to show the fate and transport of these chemicals.” [19:00] — Elizabeth Royte on Straight, No Chaser
Katy Keiffer rings in 2013 by talking about the upcoming season of Straight, No Chaser! Tune in to hear about recent studies on hydraulic fracturing, and how its methane byproducts make it no more environmentally sound than burning coal. Hear about nanotechnology in cosmetics and the food chain, and why the label of “generally regarded as safe” doesn’t actually mean that it’s safe. Katy talks about how she hopes to delve deeper into antibiotic use in food, and hear about her recent conversation with a physician concerning superbugs. Support local fisherman! Support local wineries! Listen to Straight, No Chaser in 2013! This episode has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch.
“Hydro-fracking releases 9% methane… The whole argument for hydraulic fracturing has gone out the window!” [2:00] — Katy Keiffer on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by guest co-host Dr. Marion Nestle! Dr. Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003. She is also Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. Katy and Dr. Nestle are talking sugar with Cristin Couzens, a senior consultant at the University of Colorado Center for Health Administration and an instructor at the University of Washington School of Dentistry. Hear about Cristin’s experiences digging up the dirt of the sugar industry! Find out how the sugar business has attempted to hide the facts and abscond responsibility from the increase of Type 2 diabetes. How do sponsored studies alter scientific progress? Tune in to hear Dr. Nestle talk about some poorly-controlled scientific studies involving pomegranates, and learn just how many studies are influenced by outside corporate money. This program has been sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“I’m all for suggesting that people cut down on the sources of sugars in their diet, especially through soft drinks because soft drinks have no redeeming nutritional value at all… The body is not equipped to handle that amount of sugar.” [32:15] — Dr. Marion Nestle on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is talking poultry and public health with Amanda Hitt, the Director of the Food Integrity Campaign for the Government Accountability Project. Amanda oversees FIC operations and is responsible for ensuring that FIC fulfills its mission of enhancing food integrity by facilitating truth telling. Founded in 1977, GAP is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. Located in Washington, DC, GAP is a nonpartisan, public interest group. In addition to focusing on whistleblower support in our stated program areas, we lead campaigns to enact whistleblower protection laws both domestically and internationally. Tune in to learn about the microbial swabbing of poultry, and why it is likely to be less effective in locating disease than prior methods of inspection. Hear how antibiotic resistance has affected the poultry industry, and how poultry often escapes criticism when compared to beef. What are some alternatives to industrial poultry, and what should the consumer expect to pay for safe, quality birds? Find out on Straight, No Chaser! This episode has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch.
“When the going gets tough, and the government wants to save money, they go after inspectors.” [8:40] “It’s hard for consumers to ‘keep the faith’ when the industry isn’t doing the right thing in [poultry] production.” [12:45]
— Amanda Hitt on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is geeking out with Dr. Charles Benbrook. Dr. Benbrook is a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University. He is the program leader of “Measure to Manage: Farm and Food Diagnostics for Sustainability and Health.” His career has focused on developing science-based systems for evaluating the public health, environmental, and economic impacts of changes in agricultural systems, biotechnology, and policy. He has worked extensively on pesticide use and risk assessment, and the development of bio-intensive Integrated pest Management. He played an important role in the evolution of the 1996 “Food Quality Protection Act,” and has produced multiple reports on agricultural biotechnology. Tune into this episode to hear about herbicide-resistant crops, and whether or not they will be a solution to extravagant herbicide usage. Learn the differences between GMO crops and hybridized plants. Are resistant insect populations a worry for farmers in the United States? Hear about some commonly used herbicides, and their health and environmental concerns. Click here for a study concerning toxicity and Roundup-resistance. This program has been sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“This largest group of GE crops that have been planted around the world since 1996, they really don’t have anything to do with increased yields. In fact, the evidence suggests a small yield drag as a result of the genetic transformation that renders them tolerant to applications of this Roundup herbicide…” [4:55] “I’m just trying to keep the industry honest. You will still find claims by so-called experts that today’s GE crops are reducing pesticide use. It’s just not true!” [32:00]
— Dr. Charles Benbrook on Straight, No Chaser
Today on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Lily Kelly. Lily Kelly is the Interim Director for Global Green USA’s New York Office and the Coalition for Resource Recovery. Prior to joining Global Green USA, she contributed to various environmental and social stewardship projects with both for- and non-profit agencies, including the Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, the Majora Carter Group, and The Earth Institute. Tune into this episode to learn about greenhouse gas that occurs in landfills, and how recycling reduces greenhouse gases. Listen in to hear Lily talk about her work with wholesale retail packaging. How does Global Green USA affect corporations and legislature for environmental good? Find out on this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser! This program has been brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.
“Methane is a 25-27 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.” [5:00] “How can we maximize the infrastructure we have, the technology we have…and recover more of it [consumer waste] now?” [13:35]
— Lily Kelly on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Christy Robb, the Director of Food Services at St. John’s Bread & Life in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Today, Katy and Christy are discussing disaster relief after Hurricane Sandy. Tune into this episode to hear how St. John’s Bread & Life has been serving hot meals in affected areas such as Coney Island and The Rockaways since the storm hit the city. Hear about the differences in services provided by large organizations like the American Red Cross, and smaller community organizations like Occupy Sandy. Is New York City prepared for another major storm? Hear Katy and Christy weigh in on what measures need to be taken to prevent a crisis in the case of another disaster. Preparedness is key; tune into Straight, No Chaser and learn what you can do to help the victims of the storm, and how to be prepared for the next one! This episode has been brought to you by White Oak Pastures.
“Now is the time to figure out next time… we need lights, water, sanitation… How many port-a-potties are in New York? How hard would it be to put those out in areas that don’t have flushing water?” [18:15] — Christy Robb on Straight, No Chaser
On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is talking with Dr. James Johnson. James R. Johnson, M.D. is Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota, Director of the Infectious Diseases T32 Training Program and Senior Associate Director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program (both, University of Minnesota), and Director of the Minneapolis VA Molecular Epidemiology Unit. Dr. Johnson is a frequently invited speaker at national and international scientific meetings, has presented at Capitol Hill briefings and hearings, and has served on multiple national task forces, committees, and grant review panels. He serves as an Attending Physician for the VA Infectious Diseases Consult Service and Infectious Diseases Clinic, and sits on multiple hospital committees, including (currently) the Antimicrobial Subcommittee, Space Committee, and Institutional Biosafety Committee. Tune into this episode to learn about the spread of resistant strains of bacteria, and how mere contact can cause extreme contamination. Hear how nations abroad have curbed antibiotic use food animals, and how it has affected food safety. Listen in to hear Dr. Johnson and Katy discuss the measures that consumers can take to protect and educate themselves from the ever-prevalent problem of food contamination. This episode has been brought to you by White Oak Pastures.
“The U.S. uses more antibiotics per animal per pound of meat that comes to market than any other industrialized country for which we have data.” [10:00] “To suggest that one needs growth promoter to have a healthy agriculture industry is patently false as demonstrated by the totality of Europe.” [23:50]
— Dr. James Johnson on Straight, No Chaser
On this episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is talking with Erik Cutter of Alegría Farms and EnvironIngenuity. Tune into this episode to her Eric discuss the water retention benefits of certain drip hydroponic systems. Learn why Eric prefers hydroponics to organic row farming, and what the differences are between hydroponic and row crop seeds. At what point does vertical farming become as cost-efficient as vertical farming methods? Learn how hydroponics can be used as an educational tool for today's youth, and how hydroponics can increase local food production in desert areas such as the American Southwest and the Middle East. This episode has been sponsored by Hearst Ranch.
"We've got to get to a decentralized urban environment with may hundreds of small farms… We're talking farm-to-table in minutes!" [16:45] "We're not short on oil… we're short on two resources: soil and water." [23:20]
— Erik Cutter on Straight, No Chaser
Today on Straight, No Chaser Katy Keiffer is on the phone with Dr. Richard Raymond. In 2005 after a long career in family medicine, Dr. Raymond was appointed Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For the next 3 years, Dr. Raymond was responsible for overseeing the policies and programs of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). In semi-retirement now, he writes several blogs on food safety, has consulted with law firms on foodborne illness cases, is a consultant with the Nebraska Medical Association helping build public health advocacy, is a frequent lecturer on food safety and public health, and is a food safety and public health consultant for Elanco, the Animal Health branch of Eli Lilly. Tune into this episode to hear Katy and Dr. Raymond discuss low-dose and sub-therapeutic antibiotic usage in the meat and poultry industry and the prevalence antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Learn more about bacteria contamination in produce, and why poor meat-handling practices may be to blame. Katy and Dr. Raymond also talk about the inspection procedures of poultry plants and how it has affected salmonella levels in our food. This program has been brought to you by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“Consumers have some responsibility. They need to understand that raw meat should not be considered sterile… The meat industry does not often come out and say, ‘Raw meat should not be considered sterile- you need to do a better job of handling it.’ They don’t like to say that about their product.” [18:50] — Dr. Richard Raymond on Straight, No Chaser
Libbie Summers returns to Straight, No Chaser! Libbie is an accomplished writer, culinary producer and stylist for television and print media. She is the author of The Whole Hog Cookbook and a forthcoming baking book called Sweet and Vicious. Tune in to hear Libbie talk with Katy Keiffer about the decline of good food in France, and why Southern cuisine has become so fashionable. Learn more about Libbie’s work as a food stylist, and how her styling work informs her everyday life. Libbie and Katy also talk about the upcoming Sweet and Vicious, and how it deviates from the traditional format of baking cookbooks. Hear how food styling has changed since Libbie started working in the industry, and learn what makes a great stylist and designer. This episode has been sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“I always reference something with food- if it’s the color of my dress, or a wallpaper I want to use…I realize that food informs everything creatively in my life.” [24:20] “Forget the look- the look needs to be the client’s look.” [31:37]
— Libbie Summers on Straight, No Chaser
Jean Halloran rejoins Katy Keiffer on this week’s installment of Straight, No Chaser. Jean has worked on food safety and sustainability issues at in the Yonkers Office of Consumers Union for the last 25 years, and also works with consumer organizations globally. She helped develop international standards for safety assessment of genetically engineered food at the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Once again, Katy and Jean are talking about antibiotic usage in meat production. Recently, Consumers Union has urged Trader Joe’s to stop selling antibiotic-laden meat with a petition of 557,772 signatures from consumers. Learn more about the campaign and its outcome on this episode. Later, Katy and Jean talk about MRSA in pork, and other forms of resistant bacteria. How do antibiotics in meat affect antibiotic resistance in hospitals and medical treatment? Find out on this week’s Straight, No Chaser! This episode has been sponsored by Hearst Ranch.
“MRSA has become disturbingly common in hog production and among hog workers. How it got there, we’re not exactly sure…but there is evidence of Staph Aureus at a very low level in about half of the samples they [Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy] looked at. About 6 percent was antibiotic-resistant MRSA.” “The treatment of sick animals accounts for only 5% of antibiotic use as indicated by how many animals are injected with antibiotics. The remaining percentage of usage has been traditionally thought to be for growth promotion, although now they are calling it disease prevention…”
“‘Natural’ has nothing to do with how the animal was raised. ‘Natural’ only means that there was no coloring added to the meat after slaughter.”
— Jean Halloran on Straight, No Chaser
Food borne illness is the theme on this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser as host Katy Keiffer welcomes Doug Powell to the program. Doug is a food scientist and creator of an online repository of food-safety related information called barfblog.com, a forum for information about current food safety issues where he has written more than 5,000 entries since 2006. He is a professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University. Listen in for a great conversation on food safety. Why are sprouts and raw milk so unsafe? Tune in to learn more about how immune systems, contaminated water systems, and more all contribute to our health and safety. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Cross contamination is a much bigger issue in food safety than we all thought.” –Doug Powell of BargBlog.com on Straight, No Chaser
Katy Keiffer continues her investigation of the cattle industry on this week’s Straight, No Chaser with Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is a leading expert in animal handling and psychology, a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and a best selling author. She is also well-known for her design of livestock handling facilities. Recently, Dr. Grandin worked on a film documenting and touring the inside of a beef packing facility. Tune into this episode to learn why it is important for third parties to audit meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses to ensure food safety and good animal treatment practices. Why are there so many misconceptions about animal treatment due to biological reactions to slaughter methodologies? Learn what to expect during the slaughter process, and hear Dr. Grandin give an overview of a slaughter facility in terms of equipment and animal corralling. Learn more about third party auditors, and how they ensure the safety of hospitals and other services. Don’t miss this informative episode of Straight, No Chaser! This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“If you stress cattle with electric prods five minutes before slaughter, you get tougher meat. If you stress pigs with jamming, squealing, and electric prods five minutes before slaughter, that can make pale, watery meat. That last five minutes before slaughter is very critical because if you stress the animal during that period, you can have bad meat quality.” — Dr. Temple Grandin on Straight, No Chaser
Katy Keiffer is back with more Straight, No Chaser! In the beginning of the episode, Katy outlines some of the topics and guests for the upcoming season. So don’t miss a single episode; tune in for Straight, No Chaser every Sunday at 1pm! Katy’s guest on this week’s episode is Andrew F. Smith, professor of Food Studies at the New School. Andy’s newest book is called American Tuna: The Rise and Fall of an Improbable Food. Learn about the reasons for the culinary evolution of the tuna. Once a “trash fish”, tuna has become a staple in American households. Hear more about the threat of methylmercury in commercially caught tuna, as well as the reason for so many dolphin deaths in tuna fishing. This program has been brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“How do you convince Americans to buy a fish that they have never bought before?” “When this first came to light, it is estimated that they [Yellowfin tuna fisherman] were killing 1 million dolphins per year.”
— Andrew F. Smith on Straight, No Chaser
This marks the end of Straight, No Chaser’s first season! Congratulations to our host, Katy Keiffer! Each week, Katy offers insight into the world of food politics and policy, focusing on topics like the cattle industry, The Farm Bill, and urban agriculture. Tune into this episode to hear some highlights from shows thus far, and to learn what Katy has up her sleeve for upcoming episodes. This program has been brought to you by White Oak Pastures.com.
This week on Straight, No Chaser host Katy Keiffer takes on the crisis of hunger with guest Anthony Butler, Executive Director of St. John’s Bread and Life. Learn about how the federal cuts of the Reagan years left many people in a state of food insecurity that still lingers today and how the current Farm Bill is working its way through the Senate and could leave millions of people hungry with looming cuts to the SNAP program. Tune in to find out how, despite these challenges, Anthony and St. John’s Bread and Life are helping millions of hungry New Yorkers by integrating technology, such as their innovative digital food pantry, to streamline costs and get more people fed the right food. This program is sponsored by Whole Foods Market.
” What’s happening right now to SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] is that the Senate is proposing over 10 years to cut over $4.5 billion dollars in SNAP money. 40% of those who are hungry will be affected by that, that’s around 800,000 families who will lose $90 a month on groceries. The biggest people who will be hurt are people who are receiving other federal subsidies, so the biggest people who will be hurt are working families and seniors.”
“Food stamps supports farmers– that’s the purpose of it! This money goes back into farms. Food stamps also dramatically support local economies. “
–Anthony Butler of St. John’s Bread & Life on Straight, No Chaser
On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is talking cattle and beef with Lynne Curry, author of Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meat with Recipes for Every Cut. Hear Katy and Lynne trace beef from pasture to package, and how all of the processes involved with producing beef alter the way it tastes. Learn about the differences between grass-fed and grain-fed beef in terms of taste, texture, and look. Lynne explains the differences between the commodity cattle industry and independent, artisan meat providers, and how independent producers have a lot more control over the diet of their cattle and the taste of their beef. Hear about some of Lynne’s educational beef tastings that aim to teach consumers about the different flavors present in varieties of beef. Lynne also discusses ground meat, and why it is not necessarily of low quality! This episode has been brought to you by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“Cows on grass produce muscle very well. They’re naturally designed to do that. But muscle becomes meat through human intervention, and all those steps in the production system I’ve described: from raising, to slaughter, to the processing, to the handling, to the butchering, to the dry-aging (or not dry-aging), to the consumer and how they cook that piece of meat. Every step in that supply chain determines the quality of meat.” — Lynne Curry on Straight, No Chaser
On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Jean Halloran. Jean has worked on food safety and sustainability issues at in the Yonkers Office of Consumers Union for the last 25 years. She also works with consumer organizations globally and helped develop international standards for safety assessment of genetically engineered food at the Codex Alimentarius Commission. How do different strains of bacteria become resistant to antibiotics? And what does resistant bacteria mean in terms of food safety? Tune in to this episode to learn about sub-therapeutic antibiotic use in confined animals, and how this practice affects the food that we eat. Learn why antibiotic usage is profitable for meat producers, and why so many people in the meat industry are resistant to change. This episode has been brought to you by White Oak Pastures.
“We have a crisis, and the people who should be doing something, like the FDA or the USDA, are not stepping up to the plate.” “You are what you eat, and what you eat is formerly you.”
“Of the antibiotics produced and sold in the United States, only 20% of are used on humans, and 80% are used on animals.”
— Jean Halloran on Straight, No Chaser
What could be more ‘local’ than buying produce that was grown at your supermarket? On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is talking with Paul Lightfoot, CEO of BrightFarms. BrightFarms designs and builds greenhouses that use hydroponics to grow produce such as tomatoes and leafy greens at supermarket retail locations. Because there is a lack local food to fill the demand, Paul is taking a large-scale approach to create a system to provide healthy, local food at a reasonable price. Hear about how terms like ‘locavore’ have entered the mainstream lexicon, as well as the importance of creating an avenue for local food in poorer communities. Hear about BrightFarms recent business deal with A&P, and how Paul hopes it will provide healthier food for a larger section of the population. To learn more about BrightFarms, tune into this week’s Straight, No Chaser! This episode has been brought to you by White Oak Pastures.
“If you put a tomato on a truck starting in Mexico and it bounces all the way to Chicago, that’s about the worst thing you can do to a tomato.” “In most supermarkets across the country, ‘local’ is a hugely successful strategy in the marketing departments, but isn’t getting any traction in the produce department.” — Paul Lightfoot on Straight, No Chaser
On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, we’re talking about the 2012 Farm Bill. Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Benjamin Solotaire of the Brooklyn Food Coalition and the NYC Food and Farm Bill Working Group, and Caitlin Salemi of the Urban Rural Alliance Building Committee, and also the NYC Food and Farm Bill Working Group. Tune in to hear discussions concerning cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and what it means in terms of food security for low-income families. Learn about the budget dedicated to crop insurance subsidies, and how these affect commodity crops such as corn, sugar, and soy. Why it is so important for an agreement to be reached concerning this year’s Farm Bill? Learn more about the process in the Senate and the House of Representatives that determine what the final bill will look like. This program has been brought to you by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“One in five kids in the United States are at risk for food insecurity”. — Benjamin Solotaire on Straight, No Chaser “Farmers who grew commodities were paid regardless of what the price of the commodity was on the market, and regardless of whether or not they actually had that commodity planted. It was based on historic base acres, or what they could have planted. So the fact that that was eliminated and replaced with a much smaller commodity support system is a big deal.”
“The largest farms will not be eligible for the same amount of subsidies on what they pay as a premium. Now, farmers- regardless of income or size- the government subsidizes 62% of their premium that they pay for that crop insurance. That’s almost a reverse of what it was in the year 2000.” —Caitlin Salemi on Straight, No Chaser
Welcome to another episode of Straight, No Chaser! On this week’s installment, Katy Keiffer is talking with Raoul Baxter of R.J.B. World Wide, and formerly of Smithfield Foods Company. Today’s theme is the commercial meat industry; topics range from health regulation to growth promotion. Tune in to hear Katy and Raoul discuss the need for transparency in the beef industry, the phenomenon of ‘stress meat’, and the pink slime controversy. The discussion also touches on antibiotics in commercial cattle feed and ethanol production, as well as the need for the beef industry to turn a profit while considering public health. Will cuts to subsidies from The Farm Bill cause beef prices to rise? And is there a way to meet the demand for beef internationally without feeding cattle grain? Find out the answers on this week’s Straight, No Chaser! This program has been brought to you by White Oak Pastures.
“As you look at all the programs that go on, from different groups…it seems like you’re having a government convention at each plant everyday. The question becomes, ‘How much information do you need to make a decision [about beef safety]?'” “Humanity and good business go hand in hand.”
“It’s the most difficult thing to do – raising cattle on grass.”
— Raoul Baxter on Straight, No Chaser
On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is on the phone with Tim Fitzgerald. Tim currently directs EDF’s sustainable seafood program, and specializes in the intersection of environmental sustainability and public health. He is also a senior member of EDF’s National Policy team, advocating for more sustainable federal fisheries management policies. Tim serves on the conservation board of Ecofish LLC and is an advisor to SeaWeb’s KidSafe Seafood campaign and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Coastal Sharks Board. Tune in to hear Tim discuss the My Gulf Wild program, which uses tagging methods to provide traceability for customers and protect them against “fish fraud”. Tim and Katy also talk about the state of Gulf seafood. Is it safe? How is seafood being tested for contaminants? And who is doing the testing? Finally, Katy and Tim discuss the Whole Foods Sustainable Seafood initiative, and the dichotomy between supporting local fisherman and trying to preserve certain fish species. Also, HRN’s own Jack Inslee calls in with a report live from Bonnaroo. This episode has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch.
“One of the most frustrating things from my perspective as a scientist and trying to look at the scientific and ecological ramifications of the spill is that there’s just so much information that is still being guarded or not being released to public because of this whole legal process. BP hired a bunch of scientists and consultants to collect data to support their case.” — Tim Fitzgerald on Straight, No Chaser
On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Peter Kaminsky, food writer and author of Culinary Intelligence. Peter defines “culinary intelligence” and discusses his weight loss process by eliminating “white foods”: sugar, flour, potatoes, etc. Tune in to hear Katy and Peter discuss the cost effectiveness of eating seasonally, the importance of eating home-cooked meals, and why portion sizes in restaurants are causing the country’s waistbands to expand. Hear about how the Food Network has turned cooking into a sport, why a petroleum-based agricultural economy is not sustainable, and how the Western fast-food diet has spread internationally. Listen to this episode of Straight, No Chaser to learn more about health and sustainable eating! This episode has been brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“If things don’t have flavor, they’re not going to satisfy you. And if they don’t satisfy you, you’re going to compensate with a lot of sugar, salt, and fat.” “They ain’t gonna change the portion size just because you walk in with health on your mind.”
“We have blazed a path, [people across they world] picking up our Slurpees and french fries.”
— Peter Kaminsky on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser Katy Keiffer has an in-depth conversation about vertical farming with Dr. Dickson Despommier, the author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century. A professor emeritus at Columbia University, Dr. Despommier spent thirty-eight years as a professor of microbiology and public health. Hear some radical ideas including underground farming without daylight and plasma arc gasification. From wind power in Holland to seed banks in Japan, hear about some of the concepts being integrated into new agricultural models across the globe. This show was made possible by Fairway Market.
“Vertical farming is simply tacking high tech green houses on top of each other and integrating the systems.” “The concept of vertical farming is not new. If you look back at history you can find hanging gardens of Babylon and references of urban gardening and agriculture – but the timing was wrong.”
–Dr. Dickson Despommier on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer chats with Michele Simon, a public health lawyer who has been researching and writing about the food industry and food politics since 1996. She specializes in legal strategies to counter corporate tactics that harm the public’s health. She is the author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back. She is also president of Eat Drink Politics, an industry watchdog consulting firm. Tune in as Katy and Michele discuss the many issues we face as Americans in trying to improve our public policy surrounding food and health. This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.
“We’re contaminating the environment to such an extent, that it’s become harder and harder for farmers who want to engage in ethical and organic practices to do so.” “Transparency isn’t really something the food industry is interested in.”
–public health lawyer Michele Simon on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by J.M. Hirsch, Food Editor for the Associated Press. Get an insiders view on how food media has grown over the last decade and how Americans are starting to care more about their food and where it comes from. Hear J.M.’s thoughts on culinary education, food stamps and the sustainable food movement. How can we get people back in the kitchen and away from processed foods? Tune in and find out! This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.
“It is possible to eat really well without blowing the budget. Often, there’s a knowledge gap. Those of us who best know how to make a food dollar stretch are the people who least need to to it.” “Once people get back in the kitchen and start cooking, basic skills will be learned and come back.”
–J.M. Hirsch, food editor for the Associated Press on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer talks urban agriculture with Jennifer Cockrall-King, author of “Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution”, a tour of urban agricultural centers in Canada, the US, Cuba and Europe. Tune in as they discuss the viability of growing food in cities and highlight some particular cities that are helping to make agriculture sustainable again in an urban setting. Learn how beekeeping and urban chickens were once commonplace and how the recent explosion of homesteading and self sustenance is a throwback to the way things once were. This program was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.
“Urban farming is one single activity that can cure a host of other urban problems.” “We haven’t invented urban agriculture, we’ve just re-discovered it.”
–author Jennifer Cockrall-King on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by Michael Hurwitz, Executive Director of Greenmarket NYC and Stacy Miller, Executive Director of The Farmers Market Coalition. Together they discuss the current state of farmers markets and how the recent growth of these markets has impacted urban life. Find out more about how immigrant populations are being considered at farmers markets and cultural gaps are being bridged through communities. Learn about everything involved in getting food from our farms to our tables. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market.
“More and more farmers are realizing that the industrial system is not working for them. 90% of our farmers would not be in production if they didn’t have the ability to sell directly to consumers.”
—Michael Hurwitz, Executive Director of Greenmarket NYC on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer chats with one of our generations great food thinkers, Dr. Marion Nestle. Marion’s latest book, “Why Calories Count”, explores the essential measurement of energy in food and how it affects our nutrition and diets. Find out why food addiction troubles Marion, and how she thinks tackling problems like obesity can be much simpler than it’s made out to be. Learn why portion size is to blame for most weight-related problems and why the days of sensible farming and blue chip stocks are long gone. This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.
“Calories are involved in the two most important public health problems we face right now – starvation and obesity”. “Nutritionists are not comfortable talking about food as addiction. People talk about food as if its addictive… but we have to eat to live. We can’t live without eating food. The question is, what foods do we choose?”
“Food labels were implemented in 1993. Up until that time, the FDA said that food companies could not make health claims about their products. When congress passed the Nutrition Fact Label law, the industry complained if they had to disclose what’s bad about their product, they should be able to advertise what’s healthy about their product.”
“Any diet will help you lose weight if it helps you reduce calories.”
–Dr. Marion Nestle on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, host Katy Keiffer discusses the Ag Gag Laws with Amanda Hitt is the Director of the Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) for the Government Accountability Project. Amanda oversees FIC operations and is responsible for ensuring that FIC fulfills its mission of enhancing food integrity by facilitating truth telling. Iowa and Utah have just enacted new Ag Gag Laws, and clearly there is an increased interest in the industry to enact more of this type of legislation. Ag-gag bills remain pending in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York and Tennessee. Is transparency a good idea for the livestock and farming industry or will people get the wrong idea with the curtain pulled back? This program was sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“The whole business of agriculture as we know it requires a certain veil of secrecy.” “We need to change our relationship to the industry itself, and how they present themselves with regards to food safety and wholesomeness. More than often that presentation is not grounded in reality.”
–Amanda Hitt, Director of the Food Integrity Campaign
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer chats with Mark Dunlea about everything current in US Food Policy. Mark is Executive Director of Hunger Action Network of NYS, for which he has worked for 26 years. For the last 11 years he has helped coordinate the Faith and Hunger Network with Bread for the World. He is a co-convener of the NYC Food and Farm Bill group. Tune in to learn more about the Farm Bill and why it is not necessarily helping family farms as advertised. This program was sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“[They] promote things like corn, which gets turned into corn syrup, and soy, that gets turned into fat, rather than provide incentives for fresh foods and vegetables.” “If farmers don’t exist in America, then food prices will be through the roof. We need to create a sustainable food system that provides both an adequate wage to the farmer while providing us healthy food at a reasonable price.”
“If one looks at almost any community and sees how much money is being spent on food in that community, it’s often the single largest part of the economy. Everybody, rich or poor, has to eat three times a day.”
“Most farmers in America get almost nothing out of the Farm Bill.”
“The problem isn’t what people buy with food stamps, the problem is with what American people buy overall.”
–Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of Hunger Action Network
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer sits down to chat with Steve Jenkins of Fairway Market and Michele Buster of Forever Cheese to have an in-depth conversation on the import/export process as it relates to foreign and domestic artisanal cheese. Find out why Steve thinks the government has made it impossible through regulations and restrictions to price domestic artisanal cheese competitively and how some of the product that gets imported to our country is destroyed for reasons as silly as label misprints. Also find out why Steve believes government mandated testing for olive oil is a nightmare. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market.
“Meat actually has a sturdier life than cheese does. You have to use kid gloves to bring cheese in [from abroad].”
“We’ve always believed that, as a whole, it’s best to promote all cheese, not just imported cheese.”
–Michele Buster of Forever Cheese on Straight, No Chaser
“The truth is, the stuff that we import is the most precious and unforgettable food items you could possibly want to get your hands on as an American.”
“The [FDA] makes us destroy things with simple labeling errors, not because there was anything wrong with the food. Then they charge you to destroy it! It’s big-mamma government just waltzing around, sitting on everybody’s face and I’ve had it up to here with it.”
–Steve Jenkins of Fairway Market on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer chats with Jeannette Beranger of the American Livestock Breed Conservancy and Chris Ritthaler of the Farmer Veteran Coalition. Tune in and hear how the ALBC helps set up veterans who are interested in taking up farming after serving for their country. Learn why heritage livestock appeals to these vets and how they adapt to life on the farm even if they have no background in agriculture. Also learn more about the unemployment epidemic that veterans in our country face and why the general public should learn more about what veterans actually did when they served. This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.
“There’s been a huge upsurge in interest in traditional breeds over the past few years.” –Jeanette Beranger of the American Livestock Breed Conservancy on Straight, No Chaser
“There are a few reasons you’re seeing vets interested in heritage breeds. Because a lot of the vets don’t have a background in agriculture, they are taking a real close look at their situation and financials and realizing they have to be smart. Heritage breeds fit a niche market and don’t require a large level of infrastructure.”
“The unemployment rate for veterans is significantly higher than the national average. The unemployment rate for vets in the post 9/11 era is over 10%.”
“Less than 10% of the US has ever served in the military. There’s a huge disconnect between the knowledge base of what a veteran does.”
–Chris Ritthaler of the Farmer Veteran Coalition on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer chats with Ben Flanner, Anastasia Cole Plakias, Chase Emmons & Michael Meier of Brooklyn Grange, a community oriented commercial organic farm located on New York City rooftops. Hear what the crew has been up to and what plans they have in store for the new rooftop farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Learn more about storm water management, beekeeping, seed saving and the educational components of the farm. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market.
Photo by Cyrus Dowlatshahi
“We’re living in a city who’s sewer system was built well before a period of rapid development. With all these non-porous surfaces that have been added, there’s a lot more water entering the sewer system. Now people are looking for creative ways to manage storm water, such as green roofs, and a farm like ours can store much more storm water than a normal green roof.” –Anastasia Cole Plakias of Brooklyn Grange
“In the new farm at the Navy Yard we will have between 20-30 beehives. Part of that project is genetic-oriented. In three years or so we hope to end up with New York City genetics, bees that are adapted to their environment. We want people to purchase bees from us, not just honey.”
–Chase Emmons of Brooklyn Grange on Straight, No Chaser
There are few topics more important in this country than the health of our children, and this week on Straight, No Chaser host Katy Keiffer chats with Jessica Donze Black, project director for the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project at the Pew Health Group, The Pew Charitable Trusts. Together they discuss some of the efforts being made to ensure that all of the food choices available to kids at school are healthy choices. Find out how vending machines can be used for good and why standards like snacks and bake sales need to be re-imagined to achieve food safety at our schools. Learn more about healthy school food here. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“What we want to do is set minimum standards so that all children have access to healthy food choices. We want parents to be comfortable knowing that ALL of the food choices that their children would have at school would be choices [the parents] would be comfortable with.” “The beverage industry has agreed to stop selling full sugar-sweetened beverages to schools, such as full-sugar soda.”
“New York is a place that has made some significant changes in the school environment and in early childhood development. So far the results are really encouraging.”
— Jessica Donze Black, project director for the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project on Straight, No Chaser
In this very important and very timely episode of Straight No Chaser host Katy Kieffer talks with farmer Jim Gerritsen who is the President of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, which is currently battling the agriculture giant Monsanto in federal court. Learn how this group of farmers is seeking protection from contamination of their crops by Monsanto transgenic (GMO) seeds by litigating in the very complicated the arena of patent law. Find out what exactly is at stake not only for farmers but also the state of U.S. patent law as a whole when the verdict is handed down. This insightful episode is sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons
“What we’re going to the court for is to try and receive court protection from abusive behavior from Monsanto. . should we become contaminated by Monsanto seeds, not only do we suffer harm by the contamination of our crops, but in a perverse situation Monsanto’s view is that we possess that technology through that cont episode and we would be liable for patent infringement.” “Part of our argument will be that transgenic agriculture, or commonly known as GMOS, that these lack ‘social utility’ ”
“The expectation of the [organic seed] market is that good quality organic seed is free of GMO content. So if our crops become contaminated by GMO their value becomes extinguished with that contamination and that obviously then threatens our livelihood.”
–Jim Gerritsen on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer has an in-depth conversation on raw milk and food borne illness with Bill Marler, the managing partner of the Seattle law firm Marler and Clark, and a nationally recognized expert in food safety. Tune in and learn about some of historical context behind raw milk and some of its inherent risks. Can we find a safe way to distribute raw milk? Is the risk worth the reward? What other problems do we face concerning food borne illness? Find out the answers to these questions and more! This program was sponsored by Fairway Market.
“People read studies the way they want to read them. There are some nutritional enzymes that are denatured during pasteurization, but those are things that can be picked up in other food items that don’t carry as high a risk as raw milk.”
“The difficulty with food borne illness analysis is that most people don’t report mild illnesses.”
“You have to look at raw milk from a historical perspective. The rational for pasteurization was that in the teens and twenties, the major causes of food borne illness and death was consuming raw milk.”
“I think you will see a continued development of states dealing with the raw milk issue.”
–Food borne illness lawyer Bill Marler on Straight, No Chaser
Katy Keiffer has a deep discussion about slaughterhouses and transparency with the author of “Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight”, Timothy Pachirat. How do people deal with the routine slaughter of animals? How can we successfully compute and understand the practice of animal processing on a human and emotional level? Tune in and get an insiders perspective on transparency, morality and the many implications of eating meat. Carnivores and vegetarians alike can learn something new from this show. This program was sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“I do think there is something significant to the act of taking life…What happens to the way we think about these practices if we begin to collapse some of the distances that shield us from having to confront the realities that they demand?”
“What I really want to get across is that there’s absolutely something that happens in the act of taking another life. The current industrialized meat model allows people to eat meat without confronting that something. I believe that is deeply problematic.”
–Author Timothy Pachirat on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by Michael Conard, the Assistant Director of the Urban Design Lab. Tune in for an intense discussion on re-imagining regional and nationalized food systems and implementing improved infrastructure into these systems. They also explore the links between food and health and the potential for venture capitalism in creating more regionalized food hubs. Hear about some of the change that could be possible with an overturn of many of the systems and political models when it comes to food in the United States. This episode was sponsored by Fairway Market.
“There people who are thinking about [venture capital]. It’s just beginning to be directed and invested. We’re working with people talking about regionalized food hubs attached to health care facilities. ”
–Michael Conard, Assistant Director of the Urban Design Lab on Straight, No Chaser
You’ve heard about it, you’ve seen it, but what IS “pink slime”? This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by meat industry expert and president of The Meat Industry Hall of fame Chuck Jolley. Chuck explains what makes price points so sensitive with ground beef and how the industry has adapted with products such as the aforementioned “pink slime”. With the slime now being tossed aside in the industry, what’s next? Will things get better or worse? Find out all about some of the truths and misconceptions behind big meat from a true insider. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“A lot of people in the industry object to the pink slime moniker. It’s not slimy, it’s meat.” “When meat is deboned, there’s always a little trim left over and there was never a good use for that trim. Eldon Roth decided that if we could make this perfectly clean and sanitary, it would be perfect for ground meat.”
“Jamie Oliver is the single biggest culprit in [the misrepresentation of the meat industry]. He spoke in almost complete ignorance of the process and the product. There was no scientific basis.”
“Most people buy ground meat based on cost. The industry has known for years that ground beef is the most price sensitive product.”
“The vast majority of antibiotics used in feedlots are not the same products as are used on humans. At this point my gut reaction is that the industry may be using too many antibiotics but not nearly as much as some say.”
–Meat industry expert Chuck Jolley on Straight, No Chaser
You may think you’ve had extra virgin olive oil, but there’s a good chance you haven’t. Tune in to an informative episode of Straight, No Chaser as Katy Keiffer chats with Tom Mueller, author of “Extra Virginity”, about the process of making and distributing olive oil. Learn what makes true extra virgin olive oil so expensive and how some labels are completely misleading. Hear about the many different varieties of olive oil and find out how the range of varietals are very similar to wine. Experts and novices alike can learn something new about one of the most integral ingredients in our culinary landscape. This episode was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Real extra virgin olive oil is a fresh squeezed fruit juice. It’s expensive to make, you have to take good care of the trees. Harvesting costs alone can be staggering.” “There is no such thing as second pressed extra virgin olive oil.”
“Olive oil is a bit like wine, each varietal is completely different.”
–Tom Mueller, author of “Extra Virginity” on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of the great state of Maine. Tune in for a lively discussion on all things related to food, agriculture, policy and the way we feed our nation. Find out what Congresswoman Pingree is trying to achieve with her Local Food, Farms and Jobs Act including incentives for fisheries, value added producer grants and improvements to school food programs. Hear more about the 2012 Farm Bill and find out how young farmers are changing the landscape of food production in our nation. This episode was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“Kids have a great palate, we just don’t give them the opportunity to develop it.” “Patriotism used to be supporting family farms and communities, not shipping tomatoes on a truck from Florida across the country.”
— Congresswoman Chellie Pingree on Straight, No Chaser
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy is joined by the new Editor-in-Chief of the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Sam discusses how food writing and blogging has changed over the years and what it takes to create an interesting online publication in today’s digital landscape. Hear his thoughts on waste management, industrial agriculture and the issues facing the dairy industry. This episode was sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.
“The most important thing about food, agriculture and environmental health is the fact that they are connected.” “Farmers are in-tune to climate, more than anybody else.”
–Sam Fromartz on Straight, No Chaser
What is nano technology and how does it relate to food? Tune in to a scientific episode of Straight, No Chaser and find out about how things like nano silver in food packaging can potentially be harmful if it gets in our food. The FDA’s existing regulations do not require nano technology to be tested for in food, and Katy speaks with Michael Passoff, Senior Strategist on Environmental Health Issues for As You Sow & Dr. Jennifer Sass of the Natural Resources Defense Council to learn more about nano particles and how they relate our food safety. This episode was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
“The FDA’s existing regulations do not require nano technology to be tested for in food” – Michael Passoff on Straight, No Chaser, 12/11/11
This week Straight, No Chaser takes on foodborne illness when lawyer Bill Marler joins host Katy Keiffer. Marler began representing victims of foodborne illness in 1993, when he represented the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Since then he has represented thousands of victims of foodborne illness, including Stephanie Smith, the subject of a Pulitzer Prize winning story in the NY Times magazine, about E. coli contamination. So tune in to get the latest news on apple juice and arsenic, the American Meat Institute and new screening processes, and finally the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics. This episode is sponsored by Hearst Ranch.
Water is the defining resources of the 21st century. Learn more about our water supply and why the issues surrounding our reserves are so important on an informative episode of Straight, No Chaser with Katy Keiffer and guest Alex Prud’homme, author of “The Ripple Effect”. Tune in to learn about everything from Dick Cheney’s Halliburton Loophole and how it’s affected the Clean Water Act, how Eastern water law differs from ours, and why climate change and population growth play an important role in how we think about our water. This episode was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
Food Safety is the theme on this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser hosted by Katy Keiffer. Listen in as she speaks with Ben Hewitt, author of “Making Supper Safe: One Man’s Quest to Learn the Truth About Food Safety”, who dispels many food safety myths relating to acute foodborne illness, bacteria and pasteurization. Learn more about the pressing issue of drug resistant bacterium and find out why sub therapeutic antibiotics used to promote growth in livestock are so dangerous. This episode was sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.
This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by one of the founders of The Brooklyn Grange, a one-acre rooftop farm in Long Island City. Tune in to hear how the farm was started and how vertical and rooftop farming can play a huge role in the future of agriculture in urban areas. Find out what the guys at The Brooklyn Grange are up to right now, and make sure to vote for them in the BBC’s World Challenge. Vote here!This episode was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.
On this week’s edition of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is joined by food activists Erika Lade and Kristin Wartman to discuss yesterday’s Occupy Against Big Food Rally. Tune in and find out more about the growing movement to change our food system in this country. Can things be fixed by venture capitalists and corporations or do we have to take things into our own hands? Tune in and get inspired! This episode was sponsored by Fairway Market.
The hydrofracking debate is as important as ever and host Katy Keiffer speaks about our water supply with Wes Gillingham of Catskill Mountain Keeper on the 2nd installment of Straight, No Chaser. Listen in and get caught up with recent developments surrounding flowback water and open storage containers. How long do gas wells last? Will drilling affect our water supply and health? Tune in to find the answers to these questions and more. This episode was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.
Straight, No Chaser debuts! Tune in as Katy Keiffer starts the show off right with three talented food personalities and cookbook authors. Hear from Katy Gunst, author of “Notes from a Maine Kitchen: Seasonally Inspired Recipes”, Katherine Alford, director of the Food Network Test Kitchen & Libbie Summers, author of “Whole Hog Cookbook”. Find out what it takes to write a successful cookbook and how recipe testing, “irreverence” , and finance all play in to the final product. All three guests remind listeners why food and cooking should be fun above all else. This episode was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.