Sound Bites On Delmarva

Denzel Mitchell of Five Seeds Farm & Apiary

We launch our first live episode of Sound Bites!  We kick-off the show with Denzel Mitchell and Blain Snipstal of Five Seeds Farms and Apiary, who will talk about African American farmers in the US today.

Then we turn to the plight of the insects that bring us our food – the bees! We discuss reports that bee populations are dwindling, with: Meme Thomas, Director of Baltimore Honey, a nonprofit with a goal to maximize local honeybee pollination coverage for local food security; and Maryland State Apiarist Jerry Fischer.

We close out Sound Bites with Open Society Institute Fellow Arthur Morgan, who discusses Gather Baltimore, a program he created as a solution to help end hunger in Baltimore. Gather Baltimore collects fresh produce donated by farmers markets and farms and helps distribute it to people who don’t have access to healthy food sources, through local hospitals, meal programs, and faith communities. To support Arthur’s project, visit Gather Baltimore’s GiveCorps campaign. To volunteer, get in touch with Gather Baltimore on Facebook.

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Last month, Elaine Bean, staff writer for DelmarvaNow.com published a two-part story on farming regulations on the Eastern Shore. Here is part one and here is part two. One this episode of Sound Bites on Delmarva, we speak to some of the people from those articles, including environmentalists, farmers, and public officials, about how environmental and agricultural legislation affects the economic and ecological health of the Delmarva peninsula. We speak with Kathy Phillips, the Assateague Coastkeeper, an on-the-water advocate who patrols and protects the Maryland and Northern Virginia Eastern Shore coastal bays; Royden Powell III, Assistant Secretary for Resource Conservation at the Maryland Department of Agriculture; Lee Richardson, a poultry, soy, and corn farmer from Willards, Maryland; and Dave Wilson, Executive Director of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program.

Then, we discuss new laws, called either “Farm Animal Protection Laws” or “Ag Gag Laws” depending on who you ask, which criminalize whistle-blowing at factory farms. Do these laws stifle journalists trying to expose cruel conditions? Are they necessary to protect farmers from people who want to shut them down? We’ll hear two very different opinions on these laws from Will Potter, a journalist who focuses on animal rights, environmental movements, and civil liberties and author of Green Is The New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege; and Emily Meredith, Communications Director for the Animal Agriculture Alliance.

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We debate the “Monsanto Rider,” which caused a storm when it was anonymously inserted into the Agricultural Appropriations Bill passed by Congress. Talking about what this means are: Steve Savage, agricultural technology consultant and blogger at Applied Mythology; Colin O’Neil, Director of Government Affairs for the Center for Food Safety; and Greg Jaffe, Director of Biotechnology for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Then, we hear the latest food and agricultural news impacting our region and nation from Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch. We close with Mitch Jones, Director of the Common Resources Program at Food and Water Watch, who shares his ideas for alternative ways of measuring an economy beyond the GDP. We explore what that means for our world’s environmental resources. To see the report that Mitch wrote, entitled “Don’t Bet on Wall Street: The Financialization of Nature and the Risk to Our Common Resources,” read more here.

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Laila El-Haddad, author of The Gaza Kitchen, shares a recipe in this week’s Sound Bites (Image from The Gaza Kitchen)

This week on Sound Bites, we talk about the Ag Certainty Bill and the Pesticide Information Act, both of which are making their way through the General Assembly in Maryland right now, and both which could have a serious impact on our region either way they go. First, we talk to Tim Wheeler, writer for B’More Green, The Baltimore Sun‘s blog on the environment and agriculture, about one of the things he has been writing about: the Ag Certainty Bill.

The Ag Certainty Bill has our region’s environmental groups split. Many have expressed their opposition for the bill, while others have come down in support of its provisions. To get a sense of this divide, we talk to Kim Coble, Vice President for Environmental protection and restoration and for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Josh Tulkin, State Director for the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter.

We turn our attention now to the Pesticide Information Act (SB675 and HB775), a bill that could require farmers and pesticide applicators to submit information about the pesticides they apply to the Maryland Department of Agriculture. Delegate Cathleen M. Vitale of District 33A in Anne Arundel County and Delegate Stephen Lafferty of District 42 in Baltimore County join us to talk about what’s happening with the bill in Annapolis and where they stand on this piece of legislation. We will continue following the Pesticide Information Act until the end of session.

Now, for the part of Sound Bites that’s quickly becoming your favorite – we bring you a recipe just in time for Easter. One of my producers, Mary Gunnery, visited Laila El-Haddad in her kitchen in Columbia, MD. She is the co-author of The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey, a great new cookbook that shares traditional Palestinian recipes.

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Arthur Morgan’s Gather Baltimore – Food Stand In Baltimore’s Oliver Neighborhood

This week, we look at farmers markets in Maryland and beyond. We’ll hear from Alison Hope Alkon, Professor of Sociology at the University of the Pacific and author of Black, White, and Green: Farmers Markets, Race, and the Green Economy.

We’ll also hear from Anne Palmer, the Eating for the Future program director for Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

Visitors to the 32nd Street Farmers Market in Waverly talk to us about why farmers markets are important to them, including Arthur Morgan, a current OSI-Baltimore fellow working on a project called Gather Baltimore that puts unused food that would otherwise be wasted or disposed of into the hands of communities and organizations that need it. For those interested in supporting his cause, Arthur is looking for donations to help finance the refrigerated truck he uses to transport food, and is always looking for volunteers.

And finally, culinary historian Michael Twitty gives us a unique Passover recipe that fuses African-American and Jewish traditions.

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Shirley Sherrod, former US Department of Agriculture official and author of The Courage To Hope: How I Stood Up to the Politics of Fear

This week on Sound Bites, we start with a conversation about the poor working conditions in America’s restaurant industry, with activist, author, and professor Saru Jayaraman. Jayaraman’s new book, Behind The Kitchen Door, asks how restaurant workers survive on some of the lowest wages in America and investigates how this fact impacts the food arriving at our tables.

Then, Shirley Sherrod, former US Department of Agriculture official and author of The Courage To Hope: How I Stood Up to the Politics of Fear, shares her experience growing up in the segregated South and fighting for farmer’s rights.

Next Tom Philpott, Mother Jones Food and Agriculture Blogger, talks to us about two recent studies: one on sugar and one on the Mediterranean diet. Could the amount of sugar a nation consumes per-capita drive instances of diabetes?

We end the show with a traditional Irish recipe in honor of St. Patrick’s Day from Liam Flynn, owner of Liam Flynn’s Ale House on North Avenue in Baltimore. Click here to see the recipe for colcannon.

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Bowman v. Monsanto in the Supreme Court

It’s a new episode of Sound Bites. We’ll look at the Bowman vs. Monsanto case, recently heard in the Supreme Court, which addresses the question of who owns the rights to Monsanto’s genetically engineered RoundUp Ready seeds. We’re joined by Andrew Pollack, New York Times science and biotechnology reporter; Bill Freese, Science Policy Analyst for the Center for Food Safety; and Gary Baise, legal counsel for the American Soybean Association.

We will also hear from Mother Jones food and agriculture blogger Tom Philpott, who brings us a story about the plastic chemicals that are in our food; and Wenonah Hauter, author of Foodopoly and Executive Director of Food and Water Watch, about her visions for transforming the food system.

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