Something a little different today: a short collection of recent audio-visual items for streaming or download. There is too much material below to be listened to before the next digest, so fill up your MP3 player for your commute, dish washing sessions, a summer road trip, or a long delay in a thunderstorm-impacted air traffic control system.
A big improvement over pledge week: KQED public radio in San Francisco went wild for the Food and Farm Bill crazy this week with two programs. First, KQED Forum spent an hour talking about the Food and Farm Bill, with guests including two people who are much admired at the Ethicurean: Michael Pollan and Judith Redmond (of Full Belly Farm). Second, the California Report has a short segment about the apple moth’s first appearance in Los Angeles County and a brief interview with Michael Pollan about the Food and Farm Bill. Available for stream or download MP3. For San Francisco readers: Pollan mentioned that the Speaker of the House chooses which Democrats will be on the conference committee that reconciles the House and Senate bills, so those San Francisco reader that haven’t yet written to Speaker Pelosi should encourage her to put a few reformers and conservation-minded representatives–like Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI)–on the conference committee, instead of picking them all from the Agriculture Committee.
From poo to power: Farms, restaurants and consumers are converting their organic waste into energy, as a video segment from the excellent Quest program from KQED explains. Converting manure to electricity sounds like a great idea (a dairy cow produces almost 100 pounds of manure per day), but there is a danger that a rush to subsidize such systems could unevenly benefit large operations and encourage even bigger facilities (and bigger manure lagoons). On the other hand, having manure become a revenue stream might provide an incentive to keep the manure in the lagoon. You can watch the video in the window below or in a larger window at KQED Quest.
Tearing down restaurant walls: Deconstructing Dinner, a great radio program from Nelson, British Columbia, continues their Conscientious Cooks series with a trip to Toronto to meet Maria Solakofski. Ms. Solakofski runs Guerilla Gourmet, a "home restaurant" program in which the guests are educated about what they are eating, instead of simply reading terse descriptions on a menu. A huge collection of archives are available for download (the sugar episode was especially interesting). (Deconstructing Dinner)
Through the cooking glass: NPR has a relatively new podcast called "Kitchen Window" made up of bits of NPR’s food-related reporting, commentary by the host, and special interviews. So far, quite a bit of Ethicurean-related content. For example, the July 11 episode a segment about local eating. (NPR’s Kitchen Window)
Into the lab: A little bit off topic, but too good not to mention. Thanks to This American Life, I discovered a radio program called Radio Lab (from WNYC). I have only listened to 30 minutes of their programs, but all I can say is, "Wow! That’s great radio.". The "Sleep" episode, for example, investigates why all mammals, fish, insects, and reptiles need to sleep through interviews with a number of researchers and also magical sound moments like the sound of a cat sleeping. Full episodes are available for download from the website or through iTunes. The episodes are heavy in science and philosophy.
Anything for a buck: Another slightly off-topic item is a disturbing look into how money rules Washington, D.C. Bill Moyers interviews Harper’s Magazine writer Ken Silverstein about his undercover investigation into Washington lobbying and public relations firms. Taking on the role of an energy investor interested in extracting energy from Turkmenistan (one of the world’s most repressive regimes), Silverstein had no trouble finding firms ready to help improve the notorious nation’s image among policymakers and opinion leaders in Washington. (Bill Moyers Journal)
All of the above programs offer a free podcast subscription through iTunes and other podcasting services.
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
Humor:
July 13th, 2007 at 7:08 am
…”why all mammals, fish, insects, and reptiles need to sleep through interviews with a number of researchers”…
I suppose they sleep through these for the same reason we slept through some of those dull lectures at Cal. :-))
July 13th, 2007 at 8:21 am
MEJ — that’s a very funny observation. Perhaps “through” wasn’t the best word for that sentence…
July 13th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Hey - just thought you guys might be interested in this article: “Routine Feeding Of Antibiotics To Livestock May Be Contaminating The Environment.” It’s good research, although the conclusion is sort of sad.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070711134530.htm
July 13th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Anastasia — thanks for the tip. I have that exact story as a “green star” item in the next news digest (coming out later today).
July 14th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Something that makes me hesitant about the manure to fuel idea is we need good fertilizer. When they make fuel from the fertilizer they’re taking some of the good out of it. I would rather have my pigs, sheep and chickens spread their manure evenly across the pastures than have to shovel it, make it into fuel and then drive somewhere to buy fertilizer to do what the animals do naturally. The whole manure to fuel idea seems rather odd…
July 18th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Walter:
Your point is well taken about what to do with the post-fuel remnants. The dairy that was the subject of the QUEST story re-uses the organic leftovers as bedding for their livestock:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kqedquest/769751079/