The Food Chain podcast

#Food #Fitness #Arts #Business #Nutrition #metrofarm

1:00:36

Do you have fond childhood memories of summer camp? For a chance at $250,000, campers must compete in a series of summer camp-themed challenges to prove that they are unbeatable, unhateable, and unbreakable. Host Chris Burns is joined by the multi-talented comedian Dana Moon to recap the first five episodes of season one of Battle Camp . Plus, Quori-Tyler (aka QT) joins the podcast to dish on the camp gossip, team dynamics, and the Watson to her Sherlock Holmes. Leave us a voice message at www.speakpipe.com/WeHaveTheReceipts Text us at (929) 487-3621 DM Chris @FatCarrieBradshaw on Instagram Follow We Have The Receipts wherever you listen, so you never miss an episode. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.…

The Food Chain

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It’s a fact! 100% of men, women and children eat food, and 97.5% of must buy their food from others who bring it from an average of 2,000 miles away. And so the hungry ask: ”What’s in this tomato? Who planted that broccoli? Is it safe to eat genetically engineered corn? Why are they irradiating meat? Are we running short of water? Why is China growing our apples? What will happen to us if we can no longer farm? How safe is our food chain?” The Food Chain is an audience-interactive syndicated newstalk radio program and podcast broadcasting weekly on radio stations and streaming on demand on the internet. The Food Chain, which has been named the Ag/News Show of the Year by California’s legislature, is hosted by Michael Olson, author of the Ben Franklin Book of the Year award-winning MetroFarm, a 576-page guide to metropolitan agriculture. The Food Chain is available live via GCN Starguide GE 8 and delayed via MP3/FTP. For clearance and/or technical information, please call Michael Olson at 831-566-4209 or email michaelo@metrofarm.com

54 episodes

The Food Chain

updated 8 days ago

Series home•Feed

54 episodes

#Food #Fitness #Arts #Business #Nutrition #metrofarm

All episodes

The Food Chain

1
Ep. 1392 The Magic Kingdom of Specialty Mushrooms 53:47

8 days ago53:47

53:47

It lives alone, and mostly hidden, in its magic kingdom. Its members are said to include the largest living organism on earth. That so many down-to-earth people become its ardent devotees leads us to ask: What is the magic of mushrooms? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Ian Garrone, CEO & Founder Far West Fungi, Moss Landing, CA, for a conversation about the magic kingdom of specialty mushrooms. Topics include a look into the variety of life in the kingdom of fungi; reasons why so many down-to-earth people become devotees of mushrooms; and how the Garrone Family built a specialty mushroom business by selling person-to-person at farmers markets.…

The Food Chain

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Ep 1391 Up Against the Big Four Meat 53:55

15 days ago53:55

53:55

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Patrick Montgomery, CEO & Founder, KC Cattle Company & Valor Provisions Cooperative, for a conversation about finding real value when buying meat. Topics include how a small producer of meat competes against America’s Big Four producers; how a cooperative of like-minded producers can increase the ability of each to survive; and the value that may be found in grass-fed labeled beef.…

The Food Chain

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Ep 1390 Cholesterol Conundrum? 58:35

24 days ago58:35

58:35

Michael Olson hosts Tobias Yeh – Doctor of Pharmacy, Doctor of Medicine and Author of Clinical Truths: How to Not Be Misled by the FDA, Big Pharma & Your Doctor , for a conversation about the use of statin drugs to manage cholesterol. Cholesterol is the waxy stuff of life that floats through the rivers of our blood veins. To manage this flow of cholesterol, people take $16 billion of statin drugs every year. That leads us to ask: Should we take statin drugs to manage our cholesterol? Topics include why – upon doctors’ orders – 50% of men and 38% of women over 60 take statin drugs to control cholesterol; what is the net result of statin use on mortality; and what alternatives are there to statins.…

The Food Chain

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Ep 1389 Call-of-the-Wild Meat 54:20

5 weeks ago54:20

54:20

There is, one hopes, a little call-of-the-wild left in all of us – even those of us who live in a concrete box stacked 40 stories high in a city sky! That call leads us to ask: Where can one get a good taste of wild meat? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Daniel Laggner, Owner & Butcher, Wild Stag Provisions, for a conversation about food that is as close to the wild as commercially possible. Topics include why one would want to eat wild meat when domestic meat is so readily available; how the business of wild meat works; and the best way for one to get a good taste of call of the wild meat.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1388 Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson 57:35

5 weeks ago57:35

57:35

They live where we can’t see them for a very good reason! They come in the night – and during the day– to steal the precious fruits of our labor. Their unrelenting assault on our good nature leads us to ask: How can we get that #%*%# gopher? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Thomas Wittman of Gophers Limited, for a conversation about controlling gophers in the farm and garden. Topics include why gophers make farmers and gardeners so frustrated; the ways in which gophers are controlled on the farm and in the garden; and reasons why gophers should be managed without poisons.…

The Food Chain

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Food Inflation 53:57

6 weeks ago53:57

53:57

Michael Olson hosts Dr. Jacob Manlove, Assistant Professor of Ag Economics, Arkansas State University MSN recently served up some news that caught my attention. The headline read, “Venezuela triples wages but still not enough to buy food.” The writer went on to say that Venezuela’s new minimum wage of seven million bolivares per month is not enough buy two pounds of meat. Shortly after reading this story I enjoyed a leisurely meal with my lady at a nearby sit-down restaurant. The meal was very good, but nothing special, just a couple of burgers and beers. What did make the meal special was the check that, with tip, approached a hundred dollars! Yes! Almost a hundred bucks for a couple of burgers and beers! It is becoming increasingly evident that more money is buying less food. And that leads us to ask: Can what happened to the price of food in Venezuela happen to the price of food in the US?…

The Food Chain

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Ep 1387 Feeding the Family 53:50

7 weeks ago53:50

53:50

Michael Olson host Nutritionist / Author Jill Troderman Some facts: One in five children are obese. Two in five adults are obese. The rate at which we are becoming obese has doubled since 1990. A question: What should we feed the family? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Jill Troderman, award-winning nutritionist and author of The Food Tree , for a conversation about how best to feed one’s family. Topics include why so many are so overweight; the health dangers of eating too much of the wrong foods; and how best to feed the family for a healthy future.…

The Food Chain

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French Chef – Taking the Heat! 53:46

8 weeks ago53:46

53:46

Michael Olson with Executive Chef Avram Samuels, Director of Culinary and Food & Beverage Operations, Chaminade Resort and Spa, Santa Cruz, CA In 1963, California native and World War II veteran Julia Child showed up on Boston’s PBS television to tout her book on French cuisine. It took her over a decade to get off that station! During that time, Child’s “The French Chef” changed America’s taste in food. And so we ask: What makes French cuisine so French? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Executive Chef Avram Samuels for a conversation about being a classically-trained chef of French cuisine. Topics include the essential difference between French and Italian cuisines; the difference between classical and modern French cuisine; and how a classically-trained French chef combines his artistry with the business of feeding Silicon Valley techies business banquets.…

The Food Chain

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Food Crash - A Farmer on Offense 53:54

11 weeks ago53:54

53:54

A FOOD CHAIN RELEASE FROM MICHAEL OLSON Yogi Berra once gave this piece of sage advise: “When you get to a fork in the road, take it!” And so we ask: Which way should we grow our food: our way or nature’s way? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dr. Felix Zu Lowenstein, farmer & author of Food Crash: Why Organic is the Only Way Forward , for a conversation about his insistence that growing food organically is the only way forward. Topics include why human civilization is facing a major food crash in its immediate future; how this crash is consequent to the industrial technologies used to grow food; and why organic agriculture presents the only way to ensure a future of plentiful, healthy food. Show Recording: “Food Crash: A Farmer on Offense” (#1384) Radio: www.santacruzvoice.com Host: www.metrofarm.com Sponsor: TimeShare Media…

The Food Chain

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Ep 1383 About Food: A Farmer On Defense 45:58

12 weeks ago45:58

45:58

According to a University of Minnesota survey, 75% of people trust farmers, but only 24% trust food. That leads us to ask: Why do so many people trust farmers, but so few trust food? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dennis Bulani, 4rth Generation Saskatchewan farmer, CEO of The Rack Petroleum & Author About Food: What a Farmer Wants you to Know , for a conversation about the efficacy and safety of industrial agriculture’s food. Topics include: why so many people trust farmers, but so few trust food; what the farmer would like people to know about the efficacy and safety of his food; and whether people can be made to trust food that comes from so far away.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1382 Infertility on the Menu 46:08

14 weeks ago46:08

46:08

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson Infertility on the Menu They say men today have 60% less sperm than their grandfathers, and if the decline is not reversed, the sperm count in American males will drop to zero by 2045. That thought leads us to ask: Can eating the wrong food cause our population to collapse? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Samantha LeJune, Researcher, Population Research Institute, for a conversation about the possibility that we are eating ourselves to infertility. Topics include the real life consequences of Paul Erhlich’s 1968 book, The Population Bomb ; why America’s young adults are have trouble conceiving and carrying to term their offspring; and which foods might be causing this deadly infertility. Radio: www.santacruzvoice.com Host: www.metrofarm.com Sponsor: TimeShare Media…

The Food Chain

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ANATOMY OF THE FOOD RECALL 47:54

14 weeks ago47:54

47:54

Food now travels a long way from where it was grown to where it is eaten. Sometimes bad things happen to good food along the way. This leads us to ask: What happens when bad food gets eaten by good people? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Wiggs Civitillo, Founder & CEO | Starfish-Network, for a conversation about the tracking food as it travels the food miles from farm to fork. Topics include why the U.S. has three to five hundred food recalls every year; how all food that travels food miles will soon be tracked from farm to fork; and the technology that will– hopefully – make it possible to track food and keep people safe.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1380 Biodynamic Lotions, Potions & Notions 53:50

15 weeks ago53:50

53:50

Hippocrates is said to have said, “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” What Hippocrates said so long ago leads us to ask: Which food makes the best medicine? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Carin Fortin & Delmar McComb, Owners and Farmers, Blossom’s Biodynamic Farm, for a conversation about the biodynamic growing of food that that is medicine. Topics include why Fortin and Delmar employ biodynamic technologies to grow a hundred varieties of medicinal herbs; how their medicinal herbs are converted into lotions and potions; and how notions are used to sell their medicinal preparations directly to customers at farmers markets. Radio Affiliation: The one-hour “Biodynamic Lotions, Potions & Notions” (#1380) is available as a market exclusive at www.foodchainradio.com .…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1379 Farming Flowers for the Table 53:49

16 weeks ago53:49

53:49

Kaysea Clark, Owner & Farmer, Flowers by the Sea They say “The eyes are first to feast!” If such is indeed the case, we wonder, Which flower is best to feast on? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Kaysea Clark, Owner & Farmer, Flowers by the Sea, for a conversation about growing and selling flowers to enjoy with food. Topics include Clark’s transition from gardener to farmer; why the technology of her biologically-intensive farming are important to the character of her flowers; and how Clark sells flowers at farmers’ markets. Show Recording: “Food with Flowers Farmer” (#1378) Radio: www.santacruzvoice.com Host: www.metrofarm.com Sponsor: TimeShare Media…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1357 Yellowstone's King Corvid 53:50

19 weeks ago53:50

53:50

Fred Provenza, Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. Author, Nourtishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom Yellowstone Park in winter is a cruel place for the wildlife that can no longer endure its cold, snow and hunger. And yet what is cruel for some can be a blessing for the corvids of Yellowstone’s winter And so we ask: Can anyone love the black birds of Yellowstone’s white winter? Topics include speculation as to why people have always disagreed about the best way to eat; a discussion of the nutritional and environmental elements of the different ways of eating; and a common sense approach to putting the argument to rest.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1378 Kennedy's MAHA Moment 46:42

20 weeks ago46:42

46:42

David Blume, Farmer at Whisky Hill Farm in Freedom, California, Author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas, proprietor of Blume Distillation, & Candidate to be Robert Kennedy Jr’s Food & Energy Coordinator They are moving on Washington, DC with the battle cry, “Make America healthy again!” Their battle cry leads us to ask: How can America be made healthy again? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts US HHS Food and Energy coordinator candidate David Blume for a conversation about how he would help Robert Kennedy Jr make America healthy again. Topics include why Kennedy believes America’s food chain must undergo a revolutionary change; ways in which that change might be made; and how revolutionary change can be made given all the money lined up to prevent it from being changed.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1378 Food Chain Radio: 2024's Food Revolution 46:42

20 weeks ago46:42

46:42

They are moving on Washington, DC with the battle cry, “Make America healthy again!” Their battle cry leads us to ask: How can America be made healthy again? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts US HHS Food and Energy coordinator candidate David Blume for a conversation about how he would help Robert Kennedy Jr make America healthy again. Topics include why Kennedy believes America’s food chain must undergo a revolutionary change; ways in which that change might be made; and how revolutionary change can be made given all the money lined up to prevent it being changed.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1377 Real Food from Real Farmers - Guaranteed! 51:54

21 weeks ago51:54

51:54

Michael Olson with Catherine Barr, Executive Director, Monterey Bay Area Certified Farmers Markets In the 1826 edition of The Physiology of Taste , Jean Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” Then in the 1863 edition of Spiritualism and Materialism , German philosopher Ludwig Feurerbach wrote, “A man is what he eats.” Today, in the 1377th edition of the Food Chain Radio Show, Michael Olson is jumping into the conversation by saying, “If we are what we eat, then we are what our food ate.” Following that thought will take us deep into the soil, where everything is eating everything. It is the great smorgasbord of life that we do not see, and therefore just take for granted, like we do with all that food that fills the grocers’ shelves. But if we really want to know what we are, we must come to grips with what our food eats. That is not an easy thing to do, because so much of what we eat now comes to the table wrapped in fancy packaging from thousands of miles away. What that food has eaten should be listed on the package label, but that means we must trust in the truthfulness of whoever wrote the labels, and they are in the business of selling food to people they will never meet. There is one way to really know what food our food has eaten, and that is to look directly into the eyes of the farmer who grew that food, and ask him or her. Aside from the farm itself, there is one place where one can shop and be guaranteed that the food for sale is real food. And so we ask: Where can one be guaranteed the food for sale is real food from a real farmer?…

The Food Chain

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Ep. The Tyranny of Oligarch Food 53:47

22 weeks ago53:47

53:47

Michael Olson with Tereza Corragio, Author, How to Dismantle an Empire America’s big money oligarchs are buying up the world’s farmland and its fake-food companies. Guessing at what their intentions might be leads us to ask: Can we escape the tyranny of oligarch food? Topics include how communities lose their food and financial sovereignty to the empire of debt; how the empire of debt might be dismantled with community banking; and how to begin the dismantling.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1376 FEEDING BABY POUCH FOOD 53:48

24 weeks ago53:48

53:48

A FOOD CHAIN RELEASE FROM MICHAEL OLSON The hungry baby is crying for food. The harried parent is short on time. The solution: Give baby a baby food pouch. But that solution leads us to ask: Do convenience pouch foods do a baby’s body good? The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, Research Fellow, George Institute, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, and Author of “An Evaluation of the Nutritional and Promotional Profile of Commercial Foods for Infants and Toddlers in the United States,” for a conversation about feeding babies and toddlers. Topics include a look at what Dr. Dunford’s study found in baby convenience foods; the possible consequence of feeding babies convenience baby foods, and what time-poor parents might do to feed their babies and toddlers good food. Show Host: SantaCruzVoice.com “Feeding Babies Pouch Foods” (#1376) Producer Host: www.metrofarm.com: Share your story, win the business!…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1296 Defending Beef! 53:50

25 weeks ago53:50

53:50

Michael Olson hosts Nicolette Hahn Niman, Author, Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Beef We have been told that cows cause the climate to change by emitting greenhouse gas. Now we are told to replace the beef we eat with patented, manufactured meat-like substances. And so we ask: Should beef be banned? Topics include a look at why some believe the cattle industry should be terminated to save the environment; why others believe we must work with cattle to save the environment; and a consideration of the nutritional value of eating beef.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1314 The Blue Revolution 53:53

26 weeks ago53:53

53:53

Host Michael Olson with guest Nicholas Sullivan, Senior Researcher, Tufts University, Author of The Blue Revolution Fishermen used to rely on good luck to haul in the big catch. But when they began relying on information, instead of luck, they almost caught all the fish in the sea. That leads us to ask: Can we catch fish so there will be fish left to be caught? Topics include how the world’s most productive fisheries were fished out; what some nations are doing to create sustainable fisheries; and how the farming of fish is replacing the fishing of fish.…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1375 Hawaii's Condominium Farming 53:46

28 weeks ago53:46

53:46

Michael Olson with Peter Savio, Savio Realty LTD, Honolulu, HI In the 1970s, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz told America’s farmers to “Get big or get out.” Since Butz made his proclomation, farms have been getting bigger, and farmers have been getting fewer. This leads us contrarians to ask: Can unprofitable big farms be converted into profitable small farms? Topics include how real estate developer Peter Savio converted Hawaii’s defunct plantations into income-generating condominium farms; how condominium farmers generate a huge cash income from their 1 or 2 acre-sized farms; and how the condominium farm community is organized around a plantation camp. Radio Station: www.santacruzvoice.com Show Host Contact: www.metrofarm.com…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1374 Costs of Alcohol on the Body and Mind 53:52

29 weeks ago53:52

53:52

Technology has given us the ability to look deep into the human body, and to see how the body reacts to various environmental stimuli. That being the case, we simply must ask: Does alcohol do a body good? The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Timothy B. Sullivan, Doctor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine, for a conversation about alcohol’s effects on the body and mind. Topics include the 9,000 year history of the human use and abuse of alcohol; how many of the studies that tout the health benefits of alcohol are tainted with biases; and whether alcohol really does do a body and mind good. Broadcast Home: www.santacruzvoice.com Host contact: www.metrofarm.com…

The Food Chain

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Against the Big Food Merger 53:48

30 weeks ago53:48

53:48

Claire Kelloway, Manager, Food Systems Program, Open Markets Institute As is true with the fish swimming in the sea, big companies grow bigger by eating smaller companies. That being the case, we simply must ask: Should Kroger be allowed to eat Albertsons? The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Claire Kelloway, Manager, Food Systems Program, Open Markets, for a conversation about the consolidation of the nation’s grocery stores. Topics include why Kroger and Albertsons believe they must merge to survive; why some believe that a merger of the supermarket chain giants is unfair; and whether the competition between businesses for the consumers’ dollars can be managed fairly by the government. Host Radio: www.SantaCruzVoice.com Producer / Host Contact: www.metrofarm.com…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1372 A Big Food Merger of Convenience 53:48

31 weeks ago53:48

53:48

Michael Olson hosts Scott Moses, Partner, Solomon Partners Head of Grocery, Pharmacy and Restaurnts, for a conversation about the consolidation of the nation’s grocery stores. Should Kroger and Albertsons be allowed to merge? For the moment, you and I live in the small town of Anywhere, USA. There are two grocers in town, Deluxe Food on North Main and Star Market on South Main. Deluxe and Star have been competing for our grocery dollars by offering their best prices on food. Sometimes Deluxe has the best prices and wins our dollars, other times Star wins. All goes well, in our small town world, until one day a big box store pops up in the neighboring small town of Somewhere with really cheap prices! Deluxe and Star are now unable to compete for our grocery dollars with their prices. To survive, Deluxe and Star must do something. But what can they do? We see this small town dilemma being played out on a national scale with the proposed $20 billion merger of two of the nation’s largest supermarket chains, Kroger and Albertsons. With about 5,000 stores between them, Kroger and Albertsons would seem to be big enough to compete for the nation’s grocery dollars. And they were big enough, until others with different business models appeared on the scene and grew to be much larger. You know the names: Walmart, Costco, Amazon. Kroger and Albertsons, though with many stores between them, now find themselves becoming the little fish in the sea, and their business is gradually being eaten up by bigger fish. What can Kroger and Albertsons do to survive? Contact: www.metrofarm.com Radio Host: www.santacruzvoice.com…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1371 Just In-Time Food 51:46

31 weeks ago51:46

51:46

Michael Olson hosts Robert Wolcott & Kaihan Krippendorff, Co-Authors, Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-In-Time Transform Business, Society and Daily Life. It is said that food now travels an average of 1200 miles from where it was grown to where it is eaten. If one were to look forward a hundred years into the future, from a hundred years in the past – when people lived on farms and ate food they grew those farms – one would think that 1200-mile food chain of the future to be an impossibility. And yet, here we are, eating food that traveled 1200 miles to get to our dinner plate. This 1200-mile food is very convenient for us city people: Just open the plastic container and eat. No spending hours out in the fields and gardens with shovels, rakes and hoes. Just open and eat, and move on to the more important things we conjure up to do with our time. But wait! According to Michael Olson’s Second Law of the Food Chain, “The farther we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over what’s in our food.” It is a fact: those of us who eat 1200-mile food have very little control over what is, or is not, in that food. We can only trust the businesses that grow, process, package, ship, store and sell that food to deliver us real nutrition. However, we also know that the businesses that sell the least amount of essential nutritients for the highest price are the businesses that tend to stay in business. And so we wonder: Can the technology and innovation that delivers 1200-mile food, deliver 1-mile food? Contact: www.metrofarm.com Radio Host: www.santacruzvoice.om…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1370 Winning The Fight for the Right to Garden 53:47

31 weeks ago53:47

53:47

Michael Olson hosts Nicole Virgil, Gardener and Practitioner of Christian Science, for a conversation about winning the right to garden. Topics include how municipal governments prohibit residents from establishing gardens in their yards, why Nicole Virgil refused to accept that prohibition; and how Nicole’s fight for the right to garden resulted in Illinois becoming the second state in the U.S. to guarantee residents the right to garden. One thing we learned from the Covid years is that our food chain has some very weak links, and that is a cause for concern for all of us who eat food for a living. Consequent to that concern, many of the hungry have turned to growing their own food. Only a very few can grow all of their own food, but many can grow some of their own food in a garden. Those who do garden enjoy the physical benefits of eating food they have grown, but also the spiritual benefits of growing the food. But wait! What if City Hall prohibits the growing of food within its City limits? Sounds perfectly crazy, don’t you think. Not so, say most cities. In fact, only six states in the United States have passed legislation guaranteeing citizens the right to garden within the limits of cities. Florida was the first state to grant such a right in 2019. Illinois became the second state in 2021. Those that won the right to garden in the city, lead us to ask… How can one fight City Hall and win? Contact: www.metrofarm.com Radio Host: www.santacruzvoice.com…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1369 Giving a Damn Food 53:52

31 weeks ago53:52

53:52

Michael Olson hosts Will Harris, Farmer, Rancher and Author of Giving a Damn: A Bold Return to Giving A Damn for a conversation about giving a damn farming and ranching. Topics include why conventional farming and ranching were industrialized into commodity agriculture; why some farmers and ranchers are returning to conventional agriculture; and what it means to be “give a damn” farmers and ranchers. I spent many of my early summers growing up on the Grandparents’ farm near Belfry, Montana. The farm was a 360-acre boy wonderland, as it contained most all of the traditional farm animals, an orchard filled with fruit trees, a huge kitchen-garden, pastures for grazing animals, crop lands for growing plants and the Big Red Barn. Everywhere this boy looked, there was an adventure in living to be had, and food to eat – real, whole food fresh from the soil in which it was raised. Then, somewhere along the way, farmers and ranchers learned to grow crops with money instead of time. With money borrowed against the equity in their land, they could buy equipment and chemicals that reduced the time required for them to work in the field. Today the farm that sits where the Grandparents’ farm sat grows government-subsidized sugar beets fence post to fence post. The big red barn is gone, and so are all the people. As a citified adult, I am always keeping an eye open for that farm of my youth. I hunger for the farm’s adventures in living, and most especially, for its food. Those farms and ranches are not easy to find. Indeed, the great majority of the nation’s farmers and ranchers now grow commodity crops that are processed, wrapped in plastic, and shipped over a thousand miles to where we eat. In commodity farming and ranching, whoever grows the most for the least wins, and least is what most of us eat in the confined animal feeding operations we call “the city.” When I do find that farm of my youth – with real farmers growing real food in real soil –I like to call attention to it, in the hope that attention will engender more farms of my youth. One of the best ways to call attention to something, is to ask questions. And so today I pause ask: Have you ever tasted “Giving a Damn” food? Contact: www.metrofarm.com Radio Host: www.santacruzvoice.com…

The Food Chain

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Ep. 1368: Healed by Horse 53:49

39 weeks ago53:49