Get ready for a soup-to-nuts conversation on the meat business on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, with Katy Keiffer. She’s joined by George Faison, partner and COO at DeBragga and Spitler, a top quality meat distributor based in NYC. George was a founder of D’Artagnan where he worked as a partner for 20 years before moving to DeBragga and Spitler. He has been honored for achievement by his peers with both the Food Arts magazine Silver Spoon Award, and the Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America from The James Beard Foundation. In 2005, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appétit magazine. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “There’s been a proliferation of high quality small meat producers.” [03:00] “Nobody wants a slaughterhouse on their weekend property.” [07:00] “There can be a lot of work done at the state level because it’s easier to find allies.” [31:00] “It’s hard to fight for something altruistic when you’re starving.” [34:00] –George Faison on What Doesn’t Kill You

This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is getting insight on the food industry from Mel Coleman, Jr. of Niman Ranch. Niman Ranch, based in the San Francisco Bay area, raises livestock traditionally, humanely and sustainably to produce the finest tasting meat in the world. Today, the Niman Ranch network has grown to include over 700 independent American farmers and ranchers. Kicking off the show talking to Mel about his father’s decision to go “natural” with the business and how the business grew from his original vision. Talking about the initial difficulty to have the USDA approve their beef as natural, the conversation moves to what the biggest changes the industry has made, for better or worse, since the start of the business. Mel also shares with Katy what exactly sets Niman Ranch a part from the Cargills or Smithfields in the meat market as far as their business models are concerned. After the break, Mel breaks down what facets of the ranch are located throughout the country, including the hog farms and processing plant, and how efficiency is central to Niman’s success. Tune in for a fascinating profile of Niman Ranch as well as insights on the food industry. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “More and more consumers are increasingly knowledgable about food and how it’s produced.” [4:20] “Our number one commitment is to our farmer and rancher partners. So, if they raise a product for us what we’re going to do is buy it and sell it.” [16:07] —Mel Coleman on What Doesn’t Kill You

Tired of the way big media covers environmental and agricultural issues? There’s a pure voice amidst the noise in FERN, The Food & Environment Reporting Network, Inc. Tune in as Katy Keiffer is joined by Sam Fromartz, author of In Search of the Perfet Loaf and Editor in Chief of FERN for a conversation on media, journalism and integrity. They also discuss the upcoming event, FERN Talks & Eats, which will cook up their written reports as dynamic, interactive storytelling. FERN is an independent, non-profit news organization that produces investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health. Their stories fall under the classic mandate of investigative reporting-to reveal corruption, abuse of power, and exploitation wherever it happens; to expose activities and subjects that the powerful work to keep hidden or which are simply overlooked by major media; and to give a voice to the voiceless. This program was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA. “Bread is my attempt to keep my sanity as a journalist.” [30:00] –Sam Fromartz on What Doesn’t Kill You

This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is speaking with Ted Genoways who is the editor-at-large at OnEarth, the magazine of the Natural Resources Defense Fund. He has also contributed to a number of other magazines such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, Harper’s, Mother Jones, The New Republic, and Outside. His new book, “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food” was published this month by Harper Collins and joins Katy in a discussion on labor concerning large companies like Hormel. Complete with thoughts on union busting and the rise of undocumented workers, Ted goes on to explain how even the ACLU came to be involved with the Hormel ordeal. Tune in to hear highlights from Ted’s book. This program was brought to you by White Oak Pastures. “So the workers showed up – they found that the processes were not easier, they were in fact more repetitive and there was a rash of carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow and other repetitive stress injuries.” [8:02] —Ted Genoways on What Doesn’t Kill You

This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, host Katy Keiffer is talking beef and welcomes guest Nicolette Hahn Niman to the program. Nicolette is a rancher, attorney, and writer. Much of her time is spent speaking and writing about the problems of industrialized livestock production, including the book Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms and four essays she has written on the subject for the New York Times. She has written for Huffington Post, CHOW, and Earth Island Journal. Previously, she was the senior attorney for the environmental organization Waterkeeper Alliance, where she was in charge of the organization’s campaign to reform the concentrated livestock and poultry industry, and, before that, an attorney for National Wildlife Federation. She joins Katy today to talk about her newest book, Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. “When you plow the Earth, that is the single most damaging thing you can do.” [11:57] “There’s nothing that makes the soil more water retentive than in well managed grazing.” [14:14] —Nicolette Hahn Niman on What Doesn’t Kill You

Antibiotic use in livestock is a topic that has been discussed many times on Heritage Radio Network, but this week on What Doesn’t Kill You, journalist, author and blogger Maryn McKenna explains what’s going on in a way that should make it clear for everybody. Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist specializing in public health, global health and food policy. She is a contributing writer for Wired and also for National Geographic’s food-writing platform The Plate, and writes for Scientific American, Nature, Slate, the Guardian, the Atlantic, and other publications in the United States and Europe. She is the author of the award-winning books SUPERBUG, about the global rise of antibiotic resistance, and Beating Back the Devil, about the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is currently working on a book about food production. She is a Senior Fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and a research affiliate at MIT. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “I think that what i see happening is that the market is moving the companies much more than the regulators can.” [23:00] I think of antibiotics are the wizard behind the curtain. They are this thing causing all the other change in the meat industry from 1940 forward.” [43:00] –Maryn McKenna on What Doesn’t Kill You

Katy Keiffer and Dr. Gail Hansen dissect the new protocols on antibiotic use announced recently by Perdue on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Gail is the Senior officer for Pew’s campaign on human health and industrial farming, a project aimed at phasing out overuse of antibiotics in food production. She has served on or chaired numerous state and federal infectious disease committees, as a scientific advisor for several national and international conferences, and is an adjunct faculty member at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She has authored several peer-reviewed publications on various infectious diseases and public health topics and has provided practical training in applied epidemiology to public health scholars. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “It’s important to remember that the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics not the chickens.” [06:30] Dr. Gail Hansen on What Doesn’t Kill You

Quick service restaurants are one of the most interesting case studies in sustainability and sourcing – and Chipotle is arguably the best in the business. Tune in to a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer chats with Chipotle Communications Director Chris Arnold. Chris oversees a variety of external communications, including media relations, government relations and public affairs, and philanthropic programs for the national burrito restaurant. He is an architect of the company’s brand and external messaging, and a counselor to the company’s executive team. Get an inside look at the companies philosophy, initiatives and future plans. This program was brought to you by Tabard Inn. “When you’re dealing with very small niche producers in the United States it’s difficult for them to sell at prices that work with our model and it’s difficult for our model to work with theirs.” [06:00] “If you’re going to sell tacos at 99 cents then you can’t have a 34% food cost.” [09:00] –Chris Arnold on What Doesn’t Kill You

Get ready to meet one of the hardest working people in institutional dining on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer is joined by Ken Toong, Executive Director of University of Massachusetts Amherst Auxiliary Enterprises (AE) for the past 15 years. AE is the umbrella for UMass Dining. It is the nation’s largest campus dining operation with over 17,000 students on various meal plans and 83 million in annual revenue. UMass Dining serves over 45,000 meals daily, including 15 world cuisines. This program was brought to you by Tabard Inn “We want to be at the forefront of campus dining – that’s important to us.” [05:00] “By the year 2020 20% of the food we purchase will be ‘real’ food.” [18:00] “The good thing about campus dining is we work closely together, we don’t compete [with each other]” [27:00] –Ken Toong on What Doesn’t Kill You

Preview the upcoming Chefs Collaborative’s Sustainable Food Summit on a brand new episode of What Doesn’t Kill You. Chefs Collaborative’s Sustainable Food Summit brings hundreds of chefs and food professionals together from across the country to share ideas and get inspired. It is a powerful opportunity to connect in-person with community members that share a commitment to help fix America’s broken food system. Host Katy Keiffer is joined by Michael Leviton is Chairman of the board for Chefs Collaborative; and Chef/Owner, Lumiere and Chef/Partner, Area Four Boston, Massachusetts and Alisha Fowler, Program Director for Chefs Collaborative. They discuss issues of sustainability as they relate to seafood, restaurants and more. This program was brought to you by White Oak Pastures “We keep coming back to the idea of thinking big, acting big and having a really big impact.” [06:00] “The first rule of running a sustainable restaurant is to keep your doors open.” [08:00] –Michael Leviton on What Doesn’t Kill You