Ecotopia

6 September 2011

Guest Host: Bill Fritsch

Ecotopia

Exploring Ecosystems: Environmental, Social, Technological” Each week Ecotopia explores a topic on a concern that relates to a more sustainable world, and we tie together diverse concerns from science, technology, and society.

Tonight’s Topics
1. Farm products
–GRUB: growing, raising, & selling farm items
–Sierra Nevada Brewery: buying & preparing items for consumption

2. Recycling/Composting
–GRUB: http://grubchico.org/compost
–Sierra Nevada Brewery: http://www.sierranevada.com/environment/recycling.html

3. Bicycling as alternative transportation
–GRUB: hosted most of the recent Chico Bicycle Festival
–Sierra Nevada Brewery: encouraging employees to bike to work

Listen to the Program

Camerone Scott

• GRUB Farm
• The Noetics (bass, manager) / Strange Seed Studio
• People On The Moon

Bob Littell

• Taproom and Restaurant General Manager (also the Big Room)
• Mossy Creek
• Make It So

GRUB

www.grubchico.org

1525 Dayton Rd (continuation of Nord Avenue)
Chico

Who is the GRUB Cooperative?

We live in intentional community; a collective of resources connecting communities in our community to food in one way or another.

Sustainably Farming in Chico since 2007, the GRUB CSA Farm (Community Supported Agriculture) is a diversified vegetable farm growing forty-five crops in more than 180 distinct varieties to feed Chico’s longest running CSA. While we specialize in growing heirloom tomatoes, summer lettuce, gourmet potatoes, and heirloom dry beans, the strength of a CSA lies in the diversity of its crops. It is the great diversity of crops that we grow combined with responsible land stewardship that allows us to be confident in our ability to provide our members with an abundance of produce each week throughout the growing season. Compost, cover crops, and crop rotations, along with OMRI listed soil amendments help us give back to the soil that gives us so much. No chemically synthesized or petroleum based fertilizers, fungicides, or pesticides are ever used on our farm. At the GRUB CSA Farm we are dedicated to sustainable farming practices, and take our responsibilities as stewards of the land seriously. Everything in your weekly CSA share is grown by us truly, and is as local as the trip from your house to ours.

The best way to enjoy what the farm has to offer is to become a member of our CSA program (Community Supported Agriculture).

Thursday Night Farmer’s Market 6-9 pm,

Wednesday Morning Farmer’s Market 7:30 am–1 pm in North Chico, North Valley Plaza parking lot near Trader Joe’s.

Our produce can also be found at the Chico Natural Foods Co-op at 8th and Main St, at S&S Produce on Mangrove Ave just south of highway 99, and some of the more distinctive kitchens of Chico restaurants.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

www.sierranevada.com

1075 E 20th St
Chico

Taproom and Restaurant General Manager Bob Littell and Chef Micheal Iles.

Our vegetarian entrées change with the seasons, showcasing the freshest locally grown produce and most succulent ingredients. All of our breads are baked in-house daily. Malted barley from our brewing process gives our whole-grain rolls and pizza crusts a tender, chewy bite, and sauces based on our ales and lagers flavor many other dishes.

We serve choice aged beef from our own locally raised herd, fed on a special natural diet that includes brewer’s yeast with beer and the nutritious spent grains from our brewery. Like our wood-fired pizzas and flatbreads, our grilled meats are cooked over local almond wood – which burns hotter than most woods – to sear meats quickly, locking in juices and flavor.

Sustainability Practices

Honored 2010 by:

• Sacramento Area Sustainable Business program
• Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP)
• Environmental Protection Agency.

The Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) is administered by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). WRAP provides an opportunity for California businesses and nonprofit organizations to gain public recognition for their outstanding waste reduction efforts and lets the community know the business takes waste reduction seriously. WRAP evaluates the waste reduction, procurement, and education activities in the internal business practices of the applicant, not in the services or products it may provide. WRAP also provides businesses with examples of successful waste reduction techniques, which they may adopt as their own.

Environment

Since 2005, we have significantly reduced the amount of material sent to landfill and increased the amount of material recovered for beneficial use. Our comprehensive waste diversion program diverts 99.6% of the solid waste leaving our facility from the landfill.  With the addition of more awareness and even more creative recycling programs, we hope to drive this number as close to 100% as possible.  Materials that are currently being collected for recycling include (but are certainly not limited to): cardboard, shrink wrap, glass, scrap metal, wood, paper, and plastic strapping.  One hundred percent of the spent grain and yeast is recovered and used as a protein rich supplement for cattle and dairy lots within 50 miles of the brewery.  A small portion feeds the Sierra Nevada cattle that are served in the restaurant.

Compost
The newest addition to the Sierra Nevada resource recovery program is a HotRot composting system.  The HotRot is a large, in-vessel composting system that allows us to compost waste from the brewing process and discarded food scraps from our restaurant and is the first of its kind in the country.  Sierra Nevada invested in this state-of-the-art composting system due to a lack of composting options in our region.  We can compost filter pads from our filtration process, spent hops from the dry hopping process, spent grain screened from our water treatment plant, food and paper towels from break rooms, and all food and paper materials from our restaurant and concert venue.  We can feed approximately 5,000 lbs of organic material into the machine daily. The finished compost is highly valuable and provides a nutritious amendment for our hop field, restaurant garden, and employee garden area. This composting system helps us close the loop on discarded organics and prevents these materials from ending up in a landfill.

Honored 2010 for its sustainability practices by:

• Sacramento Area Sustainable Business program
• Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP)
• Environmental Protection Agency.

The Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) is administered by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). WRAP provides an opportunity for California businesses and nonprofit organizations to gain public recognition for their outstanding waste reduction efforts and lets the community know the business takes waste reduction seriously. WRAP evaluates the waste reduction, procurement, and education activities in the internal business practices of the applicant, not in the services or products it may provide. WRAP also provides businesses with examples of successful waste reduction techniques, which they may adopt as their own.

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13 September 2011

This week we’ll be looking at some coming Northstate events that have local-to -global importance.

In the first part of the program, we’ll talk with Luisa Garza of the Label GMOs campaign, which aims to get legistlation requiring GMO labeling on the California ballot. She’ll also tell us about an event coming next Monday night, when Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, will be speaking here in Chico.

And in the second part of the show, we’ll talk with Allen Harthorn of Friends of Butte Creek about the Wild and Scenic Film Festival coming up this Friday at the Sierra Nevada Big Room.

Listen to the Program

Our Conversation with Luisa Garza

Luisa Garza is a longtime promoter of safe and healthy foods and has served on the Board of Chico Natural Foods. She is also active in the Label GMOs initiative that would place GMO labeling on a ballot initiative. Welcome Luisa.

–Before we get to a discusssion of the Label GMOs petition, we’d like to ask you to tell us about an event coming up next week, where Jeffrey Smith, author of the widely respected Seeds of Deception: Genetic Roulette, will be speaking.

–Please tell us about the event coming up. [Monday, September 19, 5 pm, Masonic Family Center. Folks can get tickets here online http://jeffreysmith.eventbrite.com/ or at Chico Natural Foods Co-op.]

–Can you tell us a little about Jeffrey Smith and why this lecture is so important? [Background: Jeffrey Smith–Seeds of Deception: Genetic Roulette The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods Jeffrey M. Smith argues that eating genetically modified food is gambling with every bite. The biotech industry’s claim that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe is explored in this book book. Sixty-five health risks of the foods that Americans eat every day are presented in two-page spreads: The left page is designed for the quick scanning reader; it includes bullets, illustrations, and quotes. The right side offers fully referenced text, describing both research studies and theoretical risks. The second half of the book, called, Genetic Roulette, argues that safety assessments on GM crops are not sufficient to identify the health problems presented in the first half.]

–In an earlier program, we talked with Pamm Larry about the Label GMO initiative in California. Can you remind us of what that involves and where the project stands? How many signatures will you need? How are you collecting them? What kind of support do you have in the legislature? What are the barriers to, first, getting the initiative on the ballot, and, second, once you’re on the ballot, what are the obstacles and the timetable?

–Why do you personally feel so strongly about this issue? What’s the harm in not knowing whether foods have been genetically modified? –The GMO industry has always reassured consumers that GM products are safe and well regulated. We assume you beg to differ with that assurance : ). Why do consumers need to be self-protective?

–Finally, how can people sign onto the Label GMOs project and even become engaged in the process of gathering signatures? What’s on your web site and what’s its address? [LabelGMOs.org]

Followup on Food Democracy: We want to follow up on our continuing coverage of the efforts of Dave Murphy and Food Democracy Now project to monitor Federal handling of food safety in general and GMOs in particular. Michael Taylor was appointed by the Obama administration as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration–he’s widely regarded to be the “Food Safety Czar,” advising the commissioner on food safety, small farms, factory farms, use of antibiotics, and control of GMOs.

When Taylor was appointed, many food activists, including Jeffrey Smith, (speaking next week in Chico) complained. In an article in Huffington Post, Smith said this is a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse, because Taylor has been Monsanto’s attorney and has also served as Monsanto’s vice president and chief lobbyist.

We’ve discussed Monsanto’s monopolistic practices in several Ecotopia programs, including their threats to organic farmers in Oregon, whose crops may become pollinated by Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” beets and other Genetically Modified Organisms. Because of Michael Taylor’s background with Monsanto, he is widely seen as favoring big ag and the production of food using chemicals and GMOs. He’s also responsible in part for the FDAs raids on small dairies that do not pasturize milk. Food Democracy now is circulating a petition to Preisident Obama to “fire Michael Taylor for putting family dairy farmers in the crosshairs of his federal agency while letting giant factory farm violators with massive food safety outbreak violations off without even a fine.” To learn more and to see the petition, go to http://fooddemocracynow.org. To read Jeffrey Smith’s article Michael Taylor’s background, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com. We will also post the full links to the petition and article on our website: ecotopiakzfr.net.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/419?akid=373.188896.pbU1LM&t=9

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/youre-appointing-who-plea_b_243810.html]

Our Conversation with Allen Harthorn

Tonight we are talking about some upcoming local events that connect with broader, global issues. With us in the studio now is Allen Harthorn  of Friends of Butte Creek, and who will tellus about a film festival coming up on Friday. It’s called “Films to Change Your World.” Welcome to Ecotopia.

–Please tell us about the festival: when, where, etc.

[Sierra Nevada Brewery Big Room, Friday, September 16th. Doors open at 5:00. Films start at 6:00

•Music by the Gordy Ohliger Trio

•Farmers’ Market Buffet featuring organic and local goodies prepared by the Sierra Nevada Restaurant

•Silent auction items

Tickets available for films only and films plus buffet. There is also a membership special. Tickets available at: Pure Skin at 136 W. 3rd Street or online at: Brown Paper Tickets More information at: www.buttecreek.org or call: Pamela at 893-0360]

–Let’s talk about the films. The one most prominently featured in your promotions is called Truck Farm. Please tell us about it. Why is it the centerpiece of your festival?

[This year, Friends of Butte Creek is proud to feature the new and award winning film: Truck Farm: A whimsical, musical documentary about the quirky world of urban agriculture. After filmmaker Ian Cheney plants a garden in the back of his pickup truck, he and the Truck Farm set out to explore the rooftops, barges and windows that represent New York City’s newest edible oases. Can these urban farmers feed a city? Can the old Dodge and its crops survive the winter? Featuring time machines, Victorian dancers, physicists, nutritionist Marion Nestle, chef Dan Barber, and explorer Henry Hudson. Award for WSFF One of the Best of the Festival.]

–What other films will you be showing? Is there are schedule online or elsewhere?

–This may be an obvious question, but how do films “change your world”? Could you give us a couple of examples?

–How does the festival benefit Friends of Butte Creek? What are your particular interests–passions–through your involvement with the Friends. [Salmon restoration. Other projects?]

–In addition to attending the festival and becoming a member, how can people become involved in the work of the Friends of Butte Creek? [www.buttecreek.org] [Repeat festival info.]

Additional local events: The September issue of David Grau’s Valley Oak Magazine is now available online at http://valleyoakmagazine.com/. It includes gardening tips for the fall and information on Bill McKibben’s 350.org project. In addition, David alterted us to several upcoming events in the Northstate.

–Tomorrow evening, September 14, 6pm to 7:30pm. Hands-On Canning Class with Stephanie Elliott at Cocina Cortes, 1110 Dayton Rd., Chico. 781-3253. There’s also an interview with Stephanie in the magazine.

–Sunday, September 18. Vegan Whole Food Prep with Eartha Shanti. Cocina Cortes, 1110 Dayton Rd., Chico. 781-3253.

–Saturday, September 24, 10:30am to 7:30 pm at Cedar Grove in Bidwell Park. Chico EarthDance. features live music, dance, vendors, veggie foods, and more. This is Chico’s 350.org Moving Planet event. There will be an info booth on 350.org and Moving Planet, and a solar oven display and workshop. You can get more info at www.chicoearthdance.org or www.350.org. Sunday,

–September 25. A workshop on Live Food Prep with Eartha Shanti. Cocina Cortes, 1110 Dayton Rd., Chico. 781-3253.]

Playlist:

Back To The Garden 4:03 Jason Webley Against The Night
Monsanto (Go Away!) 6:17 Human Naked
Let’s Go To The Movies (Album Version) 4:42 Aileen Quinn;Albert Finney;Ann Reinking;Chorus
Let’s Make a Movie 2:57 Ratcliff Bailey Deuce
Earth Anthem 3:54 The Turtles Go Green: Songs for Earth Day,God’s Away On Business 3:00 Tom Waits Blood MoneyI Remember California 5:04 R.E.M. Green RockRain On The Scarecrow 3:46 John Mellencamp Scarecrow
Break Up The Concrete 2:39 The Pretenders Break Up The Concrete

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Date: 8/9/2011

Tonight we are going to continue exploring sustainable economics in a world that increasingly seems faced with a major economic collapse.

Frequently mentioned as a way of getting the nation back on the right track is to cut back on military expenditures and to devote the savings to domestic and international humanitarian assistance. There seems to be no reason that we should be cutting back on social services and education while the military continues to consume over 50% of our discretionary spending.

We’ll have two guests tonight who have very specific ideas about how we can reduce military spending and resurrect social programs.  First, we’ll talk with Jo Comerford, who is the Executive Director of the National Priorities Project, which monitors military spending and favors changing our national priorities.

Then we’ll talk with Anita Dancs, an economics professor at Western New England University, who will discuss specific green initiatives and social support services that can potentially create more jobs than the military programs they might replace.

The opinions voiced on Ecotopia do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of KZFR, its staff, Board of Directors, or programmers.

Listen to the Program

Our Discussion with Jo Comerford

Tonight we are talking about national priorities and a sustainable economy, with a particular focus on the cost of the military.  Our guest on the phone is Jo Comerford, Executive Director of the National Priorities Project, based in Northampton, Massachusetts.  The Project monitors  military spending and presents data on the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the cost of the military generally, and the minute-by-minute costs of war to taxpayers in the Sacramento Valley, the foothills, and beyond [our listening area].  She is also a community organizer, including work with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and with the American Friends Service Committee’s justice and peace-related work in the western Massachusetts.

–There is an enormous amount of budget information on the National Priorities Project website <www.nationalpriorities.org>.  But to get us started, please give us some ballpark figures.  What is the proposed defense budget for 2012?  What will be the additional costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?  And (as the National Priorities Project points out), there are all sorts of military costs hidden elsewhere in the budget (e.g., Homeland Security)–what are those costs?

–There has been talk in the White House and Congress about cuts in military spending…the figure of $400 billion is often mentioned. [Leon Panetta just issued a warning that cutting more than that would cripple the military.]  What are these proposed cuts? Is this what NPP has been proposing?  Are you satisfied with these proposed cuts?  Is cutting the military dramatically a threat to our security? Are there any cuts in the new debt limit/spending cut package that make sense?

–NPP has also done a good deal of research into possible additional cuts, especially of military programs that are out-of-date or irrelevant in our time.  Please tell us about some of those. What are your preferred programs for getting the ax?

–Where do we stand in terms of Congressional budget negotiations for FY 2012?  What battles are looming?  What are the prospects of getting some significant cuts in the military right now?

–Please tell us how people can get involved in the movement.  In addition to the National Priorities Project <www.nationalpriorities.org>, are there other organizations or individuals that our listeners should know about?

Our Conversation with Anita Dancs

Tonight we are talking about military expenditures and, more specifically, how cutting the military budget and getting out of the war business could create a more sustainable world and nation.  With us on the phone now is Anita Dancs (It’s spelled D-A-N-C-S and pronounced <DUNCH>.  She is a member of the economics department at Western New England University and former research director for the National Priorities Project. She has written and taught widely here and abroad on budget priorities and social issues.  In the first part of the program we talked with Jo Comerford about cuts in military spending.  In this segment, we’d like to talk about the effects of those kinds of cuts.

–One often hears, sometimes even from “progressives,” that cutting military spending would be an economic disaster–jobs lost, the economy taking a nosedive. Further, we know that most members of Congress have military installations and contractors in their home states, and they all seem to worry that cutting military spending would negatively affect jobs in their electoral district. What would happen if we made big cuts in military spending starting in 2012?

–How does current military spending negatively affect our social and educational programs?  Which areas (e.g., housing, health care, education) seem to you to have been damaged most by military spending?  What will be future costs if we continue to value the military over social justice?  [From NPP: climate investment, energy conservation, air marshalls, food and nutrition, National Endowment for the Arts, Unemployment Compensation.]

–You have argued that spending on non-military priorities can create more, not fewer jobs.  Please explain.  What is the evidence for this?

–We’ve also heard a great deal about job creation through a green economy, and California certainly is something of a greenhouse for that kind of work.  Yet even here, politicians are arguing against green legislation and want to roll back emissions limits based on an argument that green regulations cost jobs.  Comments?

–If you were in charge of next year’s U.S. budget (and we wish you were), how would you re-prioritize military versus non-military spending?  What would be the broad dimensions of a “peace dividend” if we successfully reoriented spending?

–Economics is a field that is intimidating to many of us.  Could you recommend some additional sources of reading, information, or economic activism for our listeners?

Announcements: Taking Action on National Priorities

As we close tonight, we want to tell you about two upcoming events that are linked closely to the budget and military issues we’ve discussed this evening.

Tonight at 8:30–just an hour and a half from now–Peace Activists will gather at the Bidwell Amphitheater on the CSU campus for a candlelight vigil commemorating the 66th anniversary of the nucear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Mayor Schwab will be on hand to read a proclamation and information will be available on the anti-nuclear movement, both the use of nucelar weaponry and the dangers of nuclear electrical generation.  Again, that’s at the Bidwell Amphitheater on Big Chico Creek on the CSU campus at 8:30

And then on Saturday, August 13, a movement called “Rebuilding the American Dream,” will hold a rally at City Plaza, 10 am, to challenge the recent debt ceiling “deal” that, as Representative Pelosi has said, “doesn’t make anybody happy.”   The Rebuild the Dream Movement is comprised of North State residents who are calling for the government to meet the needs of ALL Amerians by prioritizing creating good jobs, saving Social Security and Medicare,  building strong communities, and fair taxation. They call upon our Representative Wally Herger and Congress to stop cuts to vital human services, to close corporate tax loopholes and have America’s wealthy, and to have corporations pay their fair share of the burden.

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2 August 2011

Tonight we will be talking with Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute who has an important new book called The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality. He discusses why the idea of economic “growth” is obsolete. Heinberg is also author of a book called Peak Everything, where he argues that it’s not a question of whether the good old days of carbon dependency are over, but how we are going to cope with the inevitability of the post-carbon economy.

We also want to link tonight’s discussion of the post-growth economy to the goings on in Washington these past 24 hours. The House and Senate have managed to pass a compromise bill that will raise the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion in exchange for $2.4 billion in proposed cuts as well as the possibility of a constitutional balanced budget amendment. Large cuts to the military are supposed to be a part of the cuts package, and that’s a topic we’ll be exploring in two weeks on this program as we talk with people from the Beyond War movement and the New Priorities Project, which keeps track of how much the military is costing us minute by minute here in the Northstate.

Why are cuts and deficits a topic for Ecotopia? Quite simply (as our guest, Richard Heinberg, will explain), the economic crash is fundamentally linked to resource exploitation and failure of capitalism to include pollution and environmental damage in the cost of doing business. The world has treated Mother Nature as a Santa Claus, and those days are over. Santa’s bag is depleted, and if we continue to steal from Mother Nature’s handbag, we are merely going to exacerbate a decaying human condition.

Listen to the Program

Richard Heinberg is author of a book just published: The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality. He is a Senior Fellow at the Post-Carbon Institute in Santa Rosa, and author of a number of books about peak oil and resource depletion.

Part I: The End of Growth

–You don’t hide the thesis of the book. On page one you say, “Economic growth as we have known it is over and done with.” Yet every day, even on “independent” media like National Public Radio, we hear discussion of positive economic growth and a “recovery.” Why do you so powerfully refute the notion of economic growth in the near and distant future?

–You write about three causes of the end of growth–exhausted resources, the price of pollution, and financial systems. We were especially interested in the ways you link the current banking, currency, and economic systems to environmental issues. Could you outline a few of those connections?

–You went to press with this book before the current “crisis” over raising the debt ceiling. What’s your view of the debt ceiling and the cuts passed by Congress yesterday. Should we be raising the debt ceiling? Do either the Republicans or the Democrats have a grip on the reality of economic growth? (Can our economy grow without piling up debt? p. 53) (What do you think of calls for a balanced budget constitutional amendment?)

–You also argue that many of the governmental solutions attempted or proposed so far–austerity, cutting taxes for the rich, bailouts, stimulus packages, “Lemon socialism”–are just buying time in the face of the end of growth. Please explain.

–We were also very interested in your point that as energy sources grow more scarce and of lower quality, more capital becomes tied up in the energy system itself, exacerbating the financial crisis. Could you give us an example or two? (We’ve discussed both Fracking and the Gulf Oil Spill in recent programs.)

–You also argue (and have been lead author on a detailed report explaining) that alternative energy sources do not have the potential to close the deficit created by peak oil. Why can’t we just go green? solar on every rooftop? a windmill in every backyard?

Part II: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality

–Let’s talk about adapting to the no growth economy. For openers, you are very skeptical of claims that we can succeed through “efficiency, substitution, and innovation.” (156) Why are you so down on all-American ingenuity to solve our problems? (Perhaps discuss Moore’s Law vs. Murphy’s Law.) Won’t capitalistic impulses and imagination lead to a lean, green post-growth post-carbon economy?

–Let’s explore (your choice of) some of the alternatives you find encouraging:

…”Development” as freedom for individuals (Amartya Sen 218)

…Gross National Happiness (Jigme Singye Wangchuck 255)

…Post-Growth Money (local currencies, non-government)

…Mutual Credit Clearing

…Voluntary Simplicity

and the three you stress in Chapter 7:

…Transition Towns (Chico has a modest effort going)

…Common Security Clubs

…Community Economic Labs

–You’ve created a web site where people can learn about and contribute to solutions to end of growth issues. Please tell listeners what they can find at endofgrowth.com.

–Finally, as we close, we’d like to ask a question we often ask guests on this program, “What will it take?” government regulation? free-market mechanisms? voluntary good behavior? being pushed to (or over) the brink? And, what is your level of optimism at this point?

Richard Heinberg is author of The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality, published by New Society. And you can also get in touch with him by facebook.com/richardheinberg and facebook.com/postcarbon. We’ll post those links along with a recording of this program at ecotopiakzfr.net.

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Date: 7/26/2011

Tonight we’ll be talking with Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, a grassroots movement of American farmers and citizens dedicated to reforming our food and agriculture. I’m Stephen Tchudi
We’ve talked with Dave Murphy in the past, once about the Food Safety Act and another time about the bee collapse. Food Democracy Now! is in the forefront of nonprofits keeping a close eye on the safety and healthfulness of our food.
When we talk with Dave Murphy tonight we want to hear about the efforts to try to break the strangle-hold big ag has on our food system—with Monstanto being the most oppressive and aggressive in the business.

In the past we’ve talked about Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered sugar beets being planted in Willamette Valley in Oregon. We talked both with one of the affected organic farmers—Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed—and with Earthjustice lawyer—Paul Achitoff–who made the organic farmers’ case in court. While the judge agreed that the organic farmers’ crops were being threatened by GE seed, Monsanto planters were able to get around the ruling and continue the planting.

Listen to the Program

Our Discussion with Dave Murphy

Dave Murphy  is the founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, a grassroots movement of more than 250,000 American farmers and citizens dedicated to reforming our food and agriculture. We had Dave on the show last September to talk about the Food Safety Bill and in January to talk about Bee Collapse. Tonight we’ll talk a bit about the campaign of Food Democracy Now! to investigate the abuses of Monsanto and other campaigns the group is focusing on.

1. First of all can you tell us just a little about the history and goals of Food Democracy Now!? (How old is it? How did it began? What sere some of the early successful campaigns, etc.?)

2. Describe the recent campaign to rein in Monsanto. What motivated it? What are your goals?

3. What do you see as the most egregious policies of Monsanto? Are there other players that you see as equally threatening?

4. How did American agriculture come to be dominated by agri-business?

5. Your campaign against Monsanto seems to proceed along several lines–through the justice system, the legislature, and the president and his administration. Can you talk a little bit about your strategies for taking on issues? What have you found successful as a line of attack? (What do you think of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack? What’s up with President Obama?)

6. What do you anticipate as an outcome of efforts to diminish the power of big ag?

7. Food Democracy Now! has grown significantly. Do you know who your supporters are and why they have joined your cause?

8. Another issue that involves Monsanto is the use of GMOs. Can you tell us what action Food Democracy Now! has taken on this issue? What are the big concerns about GMOS? Where do things stand in our protection against GMOs?

9. Food Democracy Now! has a number of campaigns underway. One that I wanted to ask you about is the proposed USDA fair market contract rules that govern packer and slaughter house operations. Can you explain what this is and why it’s significant? (set of proposed fair market contract rules under Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) that would make it illegal for packers and slaughter houses to unfairly discriminate against poultry, hog and cattle farmers to protect family farmers)

10. What are some other campaigns Food Democracy Now! has in the works? (One that’s important here in California is Methyl Iodide.)

11.We’re curious about your level of optimism/hope. We talk to a lot of people on this program who are involved in daily work of environmental protection, food protection, climate change issues, protection of water and air and land. Often this work seems frustrating. What do you see in the future? What change for the better do you see? How do you stay positive?

12. Finally, can you tell our listeners how they can get involved? What should they be doing? How can they contact Food Democracy Now!? How can they help?

http://www.fooddemocracynow.org

Playlist

1. Farm 2:57 Imagination Movers Juice Box Heroes Children’s Music 4 9/27/10 3:41 PM

2. Health and Strength 4:28 Pressure Riddim Ruller: Drop It Riddim International 2 4/25/10 9:59 PM

3. Monsanto (Go Away!) 6:17 Human Naked Pop

4. Real Food 2:58 Jerry Engler Very Jerry Country

5. El Condor Pasa (If I Could) 3:08 Simon & Garfunkel Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits Pop 26 2/15/11 1:16 PM

6. The Health And Welfare 8:58 Urlaub In Polen Health And Welfare Alternative Rock

Ecotopia # 148: Food Democracy Now!

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