What Doesn't Kill You

This week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You is a continuation on the discussion of GMO technology. Along with columnist Tom Philpott and Dr. Charles Benbrook, Research Professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University, Katy Keiffer explores trends in corn and soy farming, herbicide use and the correlation between what practices are encouraged in ag programs and the companies that produce GMO products. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery “There’s a real essential need for the government and industry to take a hard and fast look at glycetate exposure levels and risk because we’re engaged in a gamble that’s affecting the entire American population” [18:00] –Dr. Charles BenBrook on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy speaks with Tom Philpott about GMOs. For five years, Tom served as a columnist, food editor, and senior food writer for the online environmental site Grist. He’s a cofounder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. Before moving to the farm in 2004, Philpott worked as a financial journalist in Mexico City and New York, most recently writing daily dispatches on the stock market as equity research editor for Reuters.com. His work on food politics has appeared in Newsweek, Gastronomica, and the Guardian. Maverick Farms has been featured in Gourmet and the New York Times, and in September 2008, Food & Wine named Philpott one of “ten innovators” who “will continue to shape the culinary consciousness of our country for the next 30 years.” In 2011, he was a finalist for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award—the “Oscars of the food world,” as Time put it—in the “Food-Related Columns and Commentary” category. This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery. Today’s music provided by Dead Stars. “We’ve allowed companies to put us kind of against their own promises on this ever accelerating pesticide treadmill, so farmers apply more and more and get less and less benefits from them.” [6:45] Tom Philpott on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

McKenzie Funk is one of the founding members of the journalism collective Deca. Since 2000, his reporting has taken him all over the United States and to dozens of countries on six continents. A National Magazine Award finalist and former Knight-Wallace Fellow, he won the Oakes Prize for Environmental Journalism for a story about the melting Arctic and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for his interview in Tajikistan with one of the first prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, National Geographic, Outside, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The New York Times. He is the author of Windfall, The Booming Business of Global Warming. Tune into this episode to learn how opportunism is emerging from the issues involved with global warming. Learn how water rights are being sold along the Colorado River, and what it means for sustainability and access. Why has government been so slow to create legislation around climate change across the globe? Are there any technologies that could potentially reverse the effects of climate change? Find out on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Tabard Inn. “A lot of the drought in the American west can be attributed to a lack of glacial ice in the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada.” [11:50] “These climate tech fixes are not bad, but they’re expensive… cutting carbon can be helpful to everybody.” [23:15] — McKenzie Funk on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Daisy Freund is the senior manager of the ASPCA’s Farm Animal Welfare campaign. In her role, Daisy works to raise public awareness about factory farming practices and improve the lives of farm animals in the U.S. through consumer education, legislative advocacy and farmer outreach. She is especially focused on driving increased transparency in the food system to allow consumers to make choices based on facts, and elevating farmers’ voices as advocates for more humane methods of farming. Daisy joined the ASPCA in 2012, bringing to the job a diversity of experience in food systems and communications, including farming, restaurant management, public relations and journalism. On today’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You, Daisy, Katy Keiffer, and Sari Kamin discuss the poultry business. Tune in for more on the lack of genetic diversity in the factory-farmed chicken world, and why consumers are willing to pay a premium for quality in light of recent food-borne illness scandals. Why does poultry production rely so heavily on antibiotics? Later, learn more about animal stress, welfare protection on farms, and why so many companies are slowly turning to slow-growing birds. Thanks to our sponsor, Route 11 Potato Chips. “The way these birds are treated is cruel, and it’s at the expense of the chickens and people.” [3:00] “The genetic stock is available- we just have to convince this industry that people care about these issues… People are eager to spend a little more in order to get a little more value.” [6:35] — Daisy Freund on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bob Martin is the director of Food System Policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future and guest lecturer at the school. Formerly, he was a senior officer at the Pew Environment Group and was the Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, a two year study funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts by a grant to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The charge to the Commission was to recommend solutions to the problems caused by concentrated animal feeding operations in the areas of public health, the environment, rural communities, and animal welfare. The Commission’s final report, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, was release on April 28, 2008. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer talks with Bob about the report, and its findings on antibiotics in livestock agriculture, waste management, contract growing, and more! Thanks to our sponsor, Cain Vineyard & Winery. Music by Dead Stars. “I think the conclusion of the report said it best – change will come from a more informed and aggressive consumer.” [34:45] — Bob Martin on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Parke Wilde is Associate Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, USA. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. He is past chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and current member of the Food Forum of the Institute of Medicine. Previously, he worked for the Community Nutrition Institute and for USDA’s Economic Research Service. Since 2004 he has run a highly respected blog, “U.S. Food Policy: a Public Interest Perspective.” He recently published the book: Food Policy in the United States. This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer chats with Professor Wilde for a economic perspective on the food system. Learn how capitalist principles inherently make farm life unpredictable. Hear how food safety is an information problem, and why lobbyists are not solely responsible for promoting big ag interests. Thanks to our sponsor, Route 11 Potato Chips. “Part of what makes farm life difficult is that their prices are subject to competitive markets.” [4:45] “Imperfect information is one of the biggest reasons that the government gets involved with food.” [13:00] “Lobbyists aren’t the only problem in politics… people support big business because big business promotes regional economies.” [19:45] — Parke Wilde on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer calls Dr. Marion Nestle to talk about dubious effectiveness of nutritional and dietary supplements. Dr. Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health; and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Learn about the origins of the supplement industry in the 60s & 70s, and find out why supplements are not regulated by the FDA. Are there any benefits to taking supplements? Hear how the supplement industry uses statins from prescription drugs in their products, and how they are able to sell these pills over the counter! Later, Katy and Dr. Nestle discuss the marketing tactics of the supplement industry, and how they seduce their customers. Thanks to our sponsor, Tabard Inn. “We got hooked on supplements when we started getting suspicious about the food system… There is very little evidence that they do good, and some evidence that they do harm.” [3:00] — Dr. Marion Nestle on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Joel Makower is chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group Inc. and producer of GreenBiz.com. For 20 years, Joel has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. He is executive editor of the acclaimed website GreenBiz.com and its sister sites, conferences, and research, all produced by GreenBiz Group, of which he is co-founder and chairman; he is also lead author of the annual State of Green Business report and hosts the State of Green Business Forum, the GreenBiz Innovation Forum, and other events. Joel also serves as a senior strategist for GreenOrder, a sustainability management consultancy, and is co-founder of Clean Edge, a cleantech research firm. He is author of more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy. He also writes “Two Steps Forward”, a popular blog on green business, clean technology, and green marketing. Joel joins Katy Keiffer on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You to talk about McDonald’s, and their recent announcement that they will aim to source only sustainable beef by 2016. How will McDonald’s define sustainability for their purposes? Why is McDonald’s jumping into the responsible beef market? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Tabard Inn. “Most of what companies are doing is not known; the media isn’t talking about it!” [5:00] “Consumers want what they want, but they aren’t always willing to pay for it.” [22:20] — Joel Makower on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What can you expect from What Doesn’t Kill You in 2014? This week, Katy Keiffer starts the year off right by outlining the future of her program. Katy has a new time slot, but she’s still going to be delivering the best food safety and policy talk on the Internet today! Hear what topics Katy hopes to revisit in the new year, and why she hopes to spotlight new topics like GMOs, dietary supplements, and finfish aquaculture. What guests will return in 2014? Find out on this week’s edition of What Doesn’t Kill You! Thanks to our sponsor, Heritage Foods USA. “California is already anticipating a state of emergency regarding their water supply… the impact that will have on the livestock and agricultural industry is yet to be seen, but it’s only going to get drier and drier.” [21:35] — Katy Keiffer on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on What Doesn’t Kill You, Katy Keiffer checks in with Christy Robb of St. John’s Bread & Life in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn to talk about holiday programs and volunteering. Tune in to learn more about St. John’s Bread & Life’s Sponsor a Family program, and what it means for families in need during the holiday season. Hear from one of the families in the Sponsor a Family program! Katy speaks with two youngsters, Peter and Chris, who were inspired by the work of St. John’s Bread & Life, and have been volunteering their time at the organization’s food pantry for years! Katy and Christy close out the show by discussing the need for healthy food for under-served communities, and how St. John’s Bread & Life are helping protect heritage breeds with their food pantry! This program has been sponsored by Route 11 Potato Chips. “I look into the dining room and see people eating really healthy food and see their bodies and faces light up because they’re actually eating good food!” [22:45] — Christy Robb on What Doesn’t Kill YouSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.