On Delmarva

Should Maryland ban the use of arsenic in chicken feed?

In this week’s episode of Sound Bites, we’ll take an in-depth look at an issue we discussed briefly on the show last week. Should Maryland become the first state to ban the use of arsenic in chicken feed?

Joining us are:

Maryland Delegate Tom Hucker
Maryland Senator Joan Carter Conway
Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Quality at Perdue
Julie DeYoung, a Perdue spokesperson
Jorge Aguilar, Southern Region Director for Food and Water Watch
Maryland Delegate Charles Otto

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Today on Sound Bites we return to a subject that is at the heart of the debate over the future of agriculture: can organic farming produce enough affordable food for everyone? Starting off the show, we tour Lee Richardson’s farm in Willards, Maryland along with James Adkins from the Wicomico County Young Farmers. Richardson, who grows chicken, corn and soybeans, believes that large-scale conventional agriculture is the only viable option for feeding the world’s population. Cleo Braver, our guest in the second half of the show, is an environmental lawyer-turned-farmer who believes that organic farming is the best way to grow healthy food for everyone without drastic environmental consequences.

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The history of agriculture with Mike Lewis and Wes Jackson

This week on the show, we continue our look at the history of agriculture. First, Mike Lewis, Director of Environmental Studies and professor of history at Salisbury University, joins us to talk about the major transformations that brought Delmarva agriculture from colonial farming to today’s chicken farms and large feed operations. Then don’t miss our conversation with Wes Jackson, founder and current president of The Land Institute, who shares his vision for an agriculture system that can feed the world and minimize environmental damage.

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We’re joined by a panel this week to discuss political advocacy within the sustainable agriculture community. The panelists are Joan Norman, who, along with her husband Drew, owns One Straw Farm, the largest organic vegetable farm in Maryland, Bryan Snyder, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, writer and gardener Lucie Snodgrass, and Will Morrow, farm manager of Whitmore Farm in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The panel was taped at the 13th annual Future Harvest, A Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainale Agriculture, conference in Lansdowne, Virginia.

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The poultry industry is the cornerstone of Delmarva’s economy, with about 14,000 people directly employed and another 100,000 or so indirectly employed by the Delmarva poultry industry. Approximately 600 million birds are raised for meat on Delmarva annually.

With the Delmarva poultry industry in the spotlight due to a still-pending lawsuit accusing Perdue and the Hudsons, who own a farm in Berlin, Maryland, of allegedly causing water pollution through runoff from the Hudson farm, we sat down with members of Perdue’s management to discuss the lawsuit, environmental issues, and more.

Our guests are Steve Schwalb, Vice President of Environmental Sustainability, Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Quality, Mike Levengood, Vice President of Live Production, and Julie DeYoung, a Perdue spokesperson.

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Welcome to Sound Bites on Delmarva. In the past year we have brought you stories about the land, the farms and the people of Delmarva. Throughout the year it became clear to us that our listeners want to see the rural character of Delmarva survive. So we began to look deeper into certain questions: What will it take to keep farmers on their land? Is it possible to tend to the health of the environment and also to the needs of the people of our state and our nation?

Today, we launch Sound Bites on Delmarva, in which we will continue to hear the intriguing stories of this lush peninsula, as we explore together a future world where all of us can have access to healthy food, where people can make a fair living doing meaningful work, and where this beautiful land is fertile and thriving.

We will explore how farms, both urban and rural, can feed and employ our people, how we can get fresh produce to our citizens, how we can take care of the environment, and how we can create a 21st century food system that is more just and healthier for each of us and our world. We believe it can be done. Please join us as we explore how we get there together.

I recently moderated a panel discussion following screenings of the documentary film Food Inc. in Cape Charles, Virginia and at Salisbury University. Food Inc. looks at our country’s current system of food production with a critical eye, while also exploring some alternatives. On our show today, we’re going to hear some of the discussion from those panels, including questions and comments from audience members.

The panelists are chicken grower Carole Morison, farmer Ted Wycall, and two writers, David Kirby, author of Animal Factory, and Mark Winne, author of Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas.

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