What Doesn't Kill You

We all know that there are problems in our meat supply. Genetics, antibiotic use, animal welfare, the list goes on and on. Some of the main producers and people in the entrenched cattle production industry are coming together trying to develop standards for sustainable beef production and identify the problems facing the industry today. On this weeks episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer explores this topic with Jonathan Gelbard, Conservation Scientist & Sustainable Agriculture Specialist, for National Resources Defense Council. This program was brought to you by Consider Bardwell. “The average age of ranchers in the industry is somewhere around 60. It’s a hard audience to change – these folks have been doing what they’ve been doing for a long time. There is a rising tide of younger ranchers and farmers who are coming up who are interested in remote and monitoring technology and new management systems and are engaging in new programs.” [16:00] –Jonathan Gelbard on What Doesn’t Kill You

What did we learn from the National Climate Assessment Report? What did the Farm Bill get wrong? What will we do when California runs out of water? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as host Katy Keiffer is joined by friend and frequent guest Tom Philpott, the Food and Ag Correspondent for Mother Jones and cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. He was formerly a columnist and editor for the online environmental site Grist and his work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “If present trends continue – it will be really really hard to grow much more food on the land here in the United States.” [11:00] “Very few of the key challenges facing agriculture come up in the Farm Bill.” [16:00] “I am worried that global trade flows will drive a lot of agricultural change here in the united states that we can’t control.” [29:00] –Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t Kill You

Get ready to be convinced that you should be eating insects! Pat Crowley, Founder of Chapul Bars, is this week’s guest on What Doesn’t Kill You, and he’s got his sights set on introducing bugs to the American plate. Chapul Bars are protein bars made using insects as healthy, eco-friendly, and tasty alternatives to unsustainable sources of protein. Pat makes a compelling case for eating insects. Grossed out? Pat and the folks at Chapul are making their protein bars using milled cricket flour, helping the consumer psychologically deal with eating bugs. He remembers a time when sushi seemed foreign to American consumers, and thinks insects are going through a similar phase right now. Could his cricket bars be the new California roll? Could insects solve our unsustainable protein problem? Tune in and get the inside scoop on insects. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market. “Bugs are an unknown future as far as agricultural products are concerned. If you look at it objectively – it’s a no brainer that we should have insects in our diet. the only reason we don’t is a psychological one.” [03:00] “All of this has been about spreading an idea and creating change for future generations.” [26:00] –Pat Crowley on What Doesn’t Kill You

Water management is a serious issue – one that affects almost everything in the world of agriculture. How can you insure your crops against drought as a farmer? What happens when the rain won’t fall? What are some new irrigation technologies that are helping keep crops healthy? Today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You is all about water – as host Katy Keiffer is joined by Claire O’Connor, the Agricultural Water Policy Analyst in the NRDC Santa Monica Office. She focuses on designing and implementing solutions to water challenges that are good for both farmers and people who eat the food that farmers grow. Tune in and wrap your head around some serious water issues on What Doesn’t Kill You. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “The best insurance policy farmers have is their soil. Healthy soil can hold more water and absorb more water. That’s where we need to be encouraging farmers to look at how they’re managing their risk.” [08:00] “Unless we get serious about managing our water – it could be a big problem not only for farmers but all of us who like fruits and vegetables in this country.” [21:00] –Claire O’Connor on What Doesn’t Kill You

What are beta agonists? Beta-agonists are a class of non-hormonal compounds fed to livestock. Why should we care? Well, for a number of reasons – including both animal and consumer safety. On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer is here to catch you up to speed on yet another drug being used in livestock production with esteemed guest Guy Loneragan, a veterinary epidemiologist and Professor of Food Safety and Public Health and at Texas Tech University. Tune in and learn more about beta agonists and the debate surrounding their use. This program was sponsored by Tabard Inn “We had information on almost a million head of cattle across 20 different operations. What we found is relatively consistent across all operations there is a significant increase in the likelihood in death of animals that are administered beta agonists.” [19:00] –Guy Loneragan on What Doesn’t Kill You

What’s the deal with GRAS? “GRAS” is an acronym for the phrase Generally Recognized As Safe. On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats GRAS with Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. Find out how this has allowed food manufactures more freedom to add different types of additives without much oversight. This program was sponsored by Tabard Inn “Cooking is really a great public health safety measure but when it comes to things like nanotechnology it does you no good whatsoever.” [11:00] “Its hard to know how much sweetener people are eating – it’s in everything now!” [16:00] “People have tried for decades to find something wrong with caffeine, turns out it’s really hard.” [23:00] “Congress doesn’t like regulation because it’s perceived as anti-business. I think that’s a very narrow way of looking at it – we need regulation and it’s better for business in the long run.” [30:00] –Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill You

NRDC attorney Avinash Kar breaks down the news that drug companies have agreed to re-label antibiotics in compliance with recent FDA guidances on their usage in livestock agriculture. In a wide ranging discussion Kar covers the loopholes in the guidances, the pending legislation co-sponsored by NRDC to regulate and monitor antibiotic use in livestock in California, and how to manage intensive livestock agriculture without the use of these important drugs either for growth promotion or disease prevention. On a sad note, after this broadcast it was learned that, Dr. Scott Hurd, a previous guest on the show, and referenced several times during this program, passed away suddenly yesterday. Our condolences to his friends and family. This program has been sponsored by Tabard Inn. Today’s music provided by Dead Stars. “There’s a lot of evidence that the use of antibiotics in animals is contributing to adverse health effects in humans.” [16:45] –Avinash Kar on What Doesn’t Kill You

Fish farms are a growing industry – and there are plenty of issues to explore around the idea of “growing” fish. What are the environmental and sustainability concerns? Why does fish farming have such a bad reputation? Find out on a fish-themed episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, as Katy Keiffer is joined by Scott Nichols, Director of Verlasso®, a salmon fish farm, and Environmental Defense Fund’s Sustainable Seafood Program manager Tim Fitzgerald. This program was sponsored by Rolling Press. “The large scale farming of fish is a new business. Through time, the salmon industry has learned its way through a lot of challenges and has been able to develop rapidly.” [05:00] –Scott Nichols on What Doesn’t Kill You

What does Hormel have to do with the water supply in Nebraska? What are the issues facing workers in the pork industry? Find out on a pork-themed episode of What Doesn’t Kill You as Katy Keiffer chats with expert Ted Genoways. Ted Genoways is editor-at-large at OnEarth, the magazine of the Natural Resources Defense Council. 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 book, The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food, is forthcoming from HarperCollins in October. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “The bigger issue is how these animals are raised in such an intense concentration and how that then creates a situation where manure is present in such concentration. The hog truckers don’t want to move the waste over large distances, and it wouldn’t be idea because there are spills. So, to me, the real solution is to have the raising of animals be spread out as it was up until these confinements became the next step in big agriculture in the 1970’s.” [20:00] –Ted Genoways on What Doesn’t Kill You

The meat industry is becoming “chickenized” and it’s not a good thing. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer talks to Christopher Leonard, author of The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business. Christopher is the former national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press. His work has appeared in Fortune, Slate, and The New York Times. He is a fellow with The New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington, DC. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “We used to have a rigorous cash market for hogs – that totally got destroyed and erased by contract production.” [26:00] “There is a deep aversion in [some states] to government regulation. People see the hand of big government as stupid and ineffective. Mostly what producers encounter are regulations, so there’s an inherent distrust for government intervention. The irony is […] big corporations are characterized by centralized control, secret contracts […] it’s a command and control system. That’s what happens when you don’t have anti-trust regulations. The laws of supply and demand don’t determine the price of chicken any more – it’s market power.” [29:00] –Christopher Leonard on What Doesn’t Kill You