The Food Chain - What's Eating What Radio

During the coronavirus pandemic panic, all the big box stores were open for business, while all the Mom’s and Pop’s were forced to close. At least, so it seemed, and that leads us to ask:

There are frightening critters in the world: mama grizzlies, great white sharks, rampaging elephants. But none are more devastating than the one that kills 750,000 of us every year, and it leads us to ask:

It is said that when one is in Rome, one should do as the Romans do. The same could be said for what one should do when in China. And that leads us to ask: What can one learn by getting drunk in China?

I went shopping for some hope to plant in the garden, only to find that my favorite garden shop was closed by the pandemic panic for being non-essential. And so I ask:

We see the empty shelves at the grocer, and watch as farmers dump milk, crush eggs and plow their crops under. Then we look to the future and ask: Will agriculture survive the coronavirus?

We see the empty shelves at the grocer, and watch as farmers dump milk, crush eggs and plow their crops under. Then we look to the future and ask: Will agriculture survive the coronavirus?

Some say the next cannabis gold rush will come from the THC-free plant called hemp. But there is one significant hurdle for hemp, and it leads us to ask:

As the Covid19 coronavirus continues to eat its way around the world, we wonder:

What’s eating what? The contagion of the made-in-China cornona virus is eating us– the world-wide us! And that leads us to ask:

In 1864, Scotsman Alexander Russel wrote, “The salmon is the free gift of nature, its importance as an article of food has been undervalued or overlooked.” That thought leads us to ask:

Though we all want good food, nobody wants good food more than the mothers of America. And so we ask:

It was a very simple solution to very complex problems. Then a very complex solution came along and pushed the simple solution off the shelf. Even so, we pause to ask: Can homeopathy cure the Made-in-China corona virus?

Antibiotics proved to be too much of a good thing, so we used them too much and too often. Bacteria learned how to recognize them and became resistant superbugs. Now we are in a fix that leads us to ask:

Though the United States has become one of the cleanest countries in the world, we are being threatened by toxins every day and in every possible way. And so we pause to ask: How can we resist the body threat of toxicity?

We weren’t always as smart as we think we are today. Way back when, a million years or so ago, we were not even smart enough to come in out of the cold! And so today we pause to ask: What did we eat back then that made us so smart today?

Some say it is the most serious existential threat humans have ever had to confront, and that if we do not do something about it, we will lose the life-support systems of our planet. And so we pause to ask:

Some say industrialization has made food cheap. But others say the nutrients essential to health are disappering from food, and therefore the food is not cheap at all. They lead us to ask: How cheap is cheap food?

The Hollister Ranch has been a privately-owned sheep ranch since 1794, but it has some of the best surf breaks in California. And so we ask: Should government force private property to open its gates?

The number of children who were intoxicated in utero is frightening, but what is really frightening are the stories told by those who care for them. And so we ask…

There are many definitions for what is “sustainable,” and most all of them would seem to be good. But what if the one that really counts is “sustained control.” That definition would lead us to ask: Who would want to sustain con

Two fermentations have carried us through history. The one that pleases our senses has only one use; but the one that displeases our senses has many uses. And so we ask: How did we become addicted to vinegar?

The world’s most widely used pesticide has been found to be the likely cause of serious birth defects in large mammals– like humans. And so we ask: Why did pesticides become the weapon of choice for farmers?

The dream is energy independence. The reality is an economy dependent on hydrocarbons. And so we ask:

The dream was to connect California’s major cities with a high-speed rail line. The nightmare is a collosal concrete boondoggle that is eating up some of the most productive farmland on earth. And so we ask:

Farmer John Duarte was caught plowing his field in violation of the Waters of the United States and fined $1.1 million. Though WOTUS provisions have been repealed, farmers are still being fined for plowing their fields. And so we ask: