The Food Chain - What's Eating What Radio

It seems as though invasive species are finding their way everywhere in our new world order of wide-open borders. This leads us to ask, “Should we tolerate or eliminate?” Topics include whether non-native species should be called “inv

Guest: Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance Executive Director Judith McGeary

They say a culture may be judged by how it treats its children. If such is true, we ask: How should we judge a culture that feeds its poor and dispossessed children psychotropic drugs? Topics include why so many psychotropic drugs are prescribed to so

More than 40% of bottled drinking water comes from the taps of municipal water systems. This leads us to ask, “Why do we pay up to 10,000 times more for city water when it is bottled in plastic?” Topics include what differences exist in dri

The government appears to be changing its agriculture lending policy so that only farmers who do not need money get money. This new policy leads us to ask…

Guest: Pete Kennedy, President, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

We have learned to raise more animals in less space by confining them in ever-smaller cages. Some now say we are confining animals in cages that are simply too small. This leads us to ask: “How small is too small?” Topics include the evol

Congratulations! You have been appointed Secretary of Agriculture for the United States of America. Your appointment leads us to ask…

Topics include the fundamental strategy for successful metropolitan farming; which crops are most appropriate, and most profitable; and a look a successful metropolitan farms. Guest: Michael Olson, Author of MetroFarm and Host of Food Chain Radio

I went fishing with fellow foodie Thomas in the beautiful waters of the Monterey Bay. We caught two healthy lingcod, which became the object of some magnificent meals. But those meals lead us to ask…

They moved the animal farm into a factory so we could have cheap food. But Michael Olson’s Third Law of the Food Chain says Cheap food isn’t! And so we wonder…

Its name has become synonymous with that which is boring. This leads us to ask, “Can vanilla be exciting?” Topics include a look at the vanilla farmers of the developing world; how Ms. Rain became the “Vanilla Queen;” and what i

They are the last to freely move livestock across the great American landscape. But since their livestock is not cattle, perhaps we should call them... beeboys and beegirls! Topics include how one in three bites of food we eat is made available by bees

In 2010, Congress granted the federal government total control over the nation’s food. The Obama administration hired former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor to rule over this new dominion. This leads us to ask…

Twice he took on the icy summit of Mt. Everest, and then he went after the biggest mountain of all, the Monsanto Corporation. And so we ask…

In 1982, it appeared on the hamburger patties of fast food. Since then, it has repeatedly contaminated the leaves of leafy greens. This leads us to ask, “Can farmers protect us from E.coli 0157:H7?” Topics include how agriculture has manag

“Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.” George Washington’s thought leads us to ask…

The foods we eat, if not sterilized to death, contain billions and trillions and maybe even zillions of foreign microorganisms. That we consume the genes of all those bugs without harm leads some to ask…

Some say we should eat foods that are organic. Others say we should eat foods that are local. This leads us to ask, “Which is most important: organic or local?” Topics include why it is important to know how food is produced; how organic f

The Year of the Pig has returned to China. This year, however, Chinese censors have requested that the pig totem be downplayed so as not to offend Muslims. This leads one to ask: “Why did the pig become a political animal?” Topics include

The price city people pay for animal protein is going through the roof. And so we ask, “Can livestock be raised in the city?” Topics include the emerging trend of raising animals for food in the city; which animals are most conducive to be

While we pull our plows with giant diesel-burning tractors, they pull theirs with teams of grass-eating horses. Speeding by, we look out the window and think, ‘How quaint.’ But somewhere down the road we pause to ask….

Santayana tells us, Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. There is much in the history of food from which we can learn, and that history leads us to ask…

Monsanto, Dupont, Bayer, Nestle, Pepsi, Coca Cola, General Mills, Del Monte Foods, and others are putting up about $28 million to put down California’s Proposition 37 “Right to Know About GMO” initiative, which leads us to ask…

When times were good, California voted to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide to fight global warming. But unemployment is now at 22% and the state is reconsidering its vote, which leads us to ask…