Does a commonly used herbicide cause cancer? Biologist Tyrone Hayes and Mark Fuchs from New Hope Farm in Denton, MD join us to offer opposing takes on the herbicide atrazine.
Then, we speak with Native American activist, environmentalist, economist, writer and former Vice Presidential candidate Winona LaDuke about her work to preserve indigenous food traditions and, at the same time, provide people with healthier food choices today.
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Today, we sit down with Lucas Benitez, who came to the United States as a teenager to help support his family by doing farmwork. As a response to the unfair treatment of farm laborers, he co-founded the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida.You can read about Lucas in the Yes! Magazine Breakthrough 15.
Then, Angela Smith Project Director of Center for a Livable Future’s Baltimore Food and Faith Project, Kellie Vaughan-James from Ark Church and Christian Metzger from the Franciscan Center of Baltimore join us to discuss their activism and work in bringing fresh foods to food deserts.
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Today on the show we take a look at the drugs we feed to livestock, and how that affects human health. First, Dr. Lance Price joins us. He’s the author of a study that links the use of antibiotics in livestock to the development of drug resistant bacteria. Then we speak with Dr. Keeve Nachman, from the Farming for the Future Program at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins. He joins us to talk about a bill that recently passed the Maryland Senate and House that bans the drug roxarsone from chicken feed in the state.
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We continue our coverage of the Perdue/Hudson lawsuit with this update on a bill that would require the University of Maryland Law Clinic to reimburse the Hudson family for their legal expenses. We’re joined by Senator Richard Colburn, who introduced the bill, Senator Jamie Raskin, Wicomico County farmer James Adkins, and Michele Merkel of Food & Water Justice.
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This week on the show, we’ll speak with three farmers who work small parcels of land in Baltimore County. Becky and Jack Gurly operate Calvert’s Gift Farm in Sparks, MD, where they grow organic vegetables on 5 acres. They also help run a training program for new farmers. They joined us along with Denzel Mitchell, one of their trainees, to discuss the importance of increasing the number of small farmers, to share what it’s like to run a small farm today, and to discuss how they came to the approach to farming that they’ve chosen. Then, join us for a tour of a new shrimp farm that’s being built in an old warehouse in the heart of Baltimore. We’re joined by Peter May, an estuarine ecologist, and Bryon Salladin, an arborist.
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Will Allen is a native of Rockville, Maryland, where he grew up on a small farm. After a career in the NBA, Allen returned to agriculture, but not by heading back to his family farm. Instead he’s at the forefront of a new movement in urban agriculture called vertical farming, where levels of plants and aquaculture are stacked to maximize productivity on small parcels of inner city land. He joined us to discuss his organization, Growing Power, and the future of urban farming.
Then, Tom Horton celebrates spring on the Delmarva Penninsula.
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Anim Steel is Director of National Programs at the Food Project in Boston. Through his Real Food Project he’s working to transform our food system by encouraging colleges and universities to purchase $1 billion in local food by 2020. He joined us to discuss how his personal history led him to the world of food justice.
Then, Jonathan Bloom joins us. He joins us to discuss the tremendous waste of food in this country, where we throw away more than 40% of the food that we produce for consumption. He’s the author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), and he blogs at www.wastedfood.com.
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Food deserts, areas where residents do not have easy access to fresh, healthy, affordable food, are a problem in many places, from cities to rural areas. First we’ll hear from Joyce Smith, Executive Director of Operation Reach Out Southwest. Joyce is a longtime community activist who has dedicated her life to ensuring that her neighbors in Southwest Baltimore are educated about healthy food choices, and have access to affordable, delicious, healthy options. Then Rebecca Messner, Assistant Editor of Urbanite Magazine, joins us to talk about the Urbanite Project, a search for the most creative solution to the problem of food deserts. Finally, our correspondent Tom Horton takes us inside the mind and motivations of that familiar Chesapeake creature, the jellyfish.
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This week’s episode of Sound Bites focuses on a lawsuit that’s garnered significant controversy in farming and environmentalist communities in Maryland. Assateague Coastal Trust and the Waterkeeper Alliance filed suit against Perdue Farms and the Hudson family, alleging that the runoff from the Hudson farm violated the Clean Water act.
Joining us on the show are:
Allen Hudson, one of the plaintiffs in the suit
Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips, who found the pollutants in the water coming from the Hudson Farm
Julie DeYoung, Perdue spokesperson and Steve Schwalb, Vice President of Environmental Sustainability for Perdue
Michelle Merkel and Scott Edwards, attorneys for Food and Water Watch
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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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