The Food Chain

Michael Olson with Washington State Congressman Dan Newhouse China is buying up America’s farmland…  with the money we send it to manufacture stuff for us in their coal-burning factories.  Some say this a good deal because we don’t have to work in those factories.  Others say it’s a bad deal because we are selling out our future.  And so we ask:  Should China be allowed to buy up America’s best fa...

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson features Michele Thorne, Executive Director of The Good Meat Project Given the economies of consolidation, 99% of chickens, 98% of hogs and 70% of cows are now grown and processed on industrial-scaled farms, most all of which use antibiotics, pesticides and pharmaceuticals.      Topics include how the production of meat has been consolidated into the han...

Before the horse we walked everywhere, and it was a downright slog to get there.  But 4,750 years ago, a mutant gene began working its way through the horse herds of the Eurasian Steppes.  Then, about 800 years ago, Genghis Khan raced those horses throughout the World to conquer one and all.  And so we ask: Have you ridden a horse? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Ludov...

The fight is on for one-third of the food we eat.  On one side is a ferocious vampire mite, on the other side is human ingenuity.  The battleground is Apis mellifera – the Western Honeybee.  This fight leads us to ask:   Can human ingenuity save the honey bee and our food?

Michael Olson hosts Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, Co-Author, The Better Brain The Golden State of California appears to be losing its collective mind.  You can see evidence of that loss on the streets of San Francisco, and that leads us to ask: Can we eat our way out of mental dystopia? Topics include how San Francisco uses bureacracy to care for people who can’t care for themselves; how the bureacracy’s ef...

 7-11 BEGETS TRADER JOE'S Michael Olson with Benjamin Lorr, Author, The Secret Life of Groceries It is a $700 billion dollar a year business, and Americans spend about 2% of their lives shopping in them.  Their story leads us to ask: How did 7-Eleven give rise to Trader Joes? Topics include the transformation of food into Store Keeping Units (SKUs); the transformation of general stores into superm...

Caroline Yelle, Owner & Queen Bee, Pope Canyon Queens I happened to be watching a honey bee working over a lemon tree blossom on the 19th of July, when I realized that it was the first honey bee I have seen this year.  That leads me to ask…   Can we breed a bee that can survive us?

The Golden State of California appears to be losing its collective mind.  You can see the evidence of that loss on the streets of San Francisco, and that City-by-the-Bay leads us to ask:   Can we eat our way out of dystopia? Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, Co-Author, The Better Brain: Overcome Anxiety, Combat Depression, and Reduce ADHD and Stress with Nutrition  

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Richard J. Sexton, Professor Emeritus, Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of California Davis & Author of Food Fight: Misguided Policies, Supply Challenges, and the Impending Struggle to Feed a Hungry World In 1973, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz told the nation’s farmers to, ”Get big or get out!”  Many farmers d...

China Now:  Friend or Foe?  War or Peace? Hosts Michael Olson & Nan Su  China tells Brazil Xi Jinping Will Miss Brics Summit in Rio Annual reshuffling of PLA Generals Putin will visit Beijing and join Xi Jinping for military marching on 9/3. CCP to curb fentanyl precursors Chinese gangsters arrested for shipping fentanyl precursors

Michael Olson hosts Michael Grunwald, Author of "We Are Eating The Earth" Some say the big problem is not fossil foods, it’s the food we eat!  If what they say is true, we simply must ask:  Are we really eating up the earth? Topics include why author Grunwald would say, “We are eating the earth;” how the production of food causes so much of the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere; whether...

Michael Olson hosts Bob Vergidis, Chief Visionary Officer, PointOfSale. Cloud When, of a sudden, the $10 restaurant burger became a $20 burger, the battle for the remaining burger customers across the land became intense.  This leads us to ask: What is today's recipe for restaurateur survival? Topics include the ingredients needed to cook up a successful restaurant; how successful restaurants mana...

Guests:  Greg Peterson, Founder & CEO, Urban Farm.org & Belle Star, Co-Founder, SeedSchoolOnline In a deed, plant a seed, make a garden grow and transform the taste of city!  And so we ask:  Where can one obtain seeds to transform the taste of city? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Greg Peterson, Founder & CEO of UrbanFarm.org and Belle Star, Co-Founder of S...

Michael Olson with Gary Bascou, Co-Founder, Staff of Life Natural Food Market Staff of Life is a locally-owned grocery store competing for consumer dollars in a market dominated by corporate giants.  And so we ask: How does a local grocery store survive in a marketplace of corporate giants? Topics include the culture that gave rise to “natural” and “organic” food markets; how those foods gave rise...

There was a time farmers grew food with shovels, hoes and horses.  As technology progressed, they used tractors, fertilizers and pesticides.  Today, farmers grow food by stringing together binary digits of “Yes” and “No.”  That leads us to ask: Can software sustain and regenerate agriculture? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dan Ryan, CEO of CIBO Technologies, for a con...

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...

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 t...

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 dru...

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...

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 g...

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 readin...

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...

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 t...

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 hi...

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...