Deconstructing Dinner

Michael Ableman is a farmer, author and photographer. Since he moved to Canada from the United States about 10 years ago, Michael has been creating a diverse model of how a farm can become a community unto itself.

Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island is a working 120-acre historic organic farm. The farm currently produces strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, asparagus, melons, greens, roots, a wide range of annual Mediterranean vegetables, as well as a new orchard of diverse varieties of peach, plum, apple, pear, quince, persimmon, and cherry.

Beyond Foxglove's status as just a farm, the site is also home to The Center for Art, Ecology & Agriculture, which was established to demonstrate and interpret the important connections between farming, land stewardship, food, the arts, and community well being.

In February 2009, Michael was hosted in Nelson by the Kootenay Local Agricultural Society. As he addressed the Nelson audience, Michael communicated a long list of ideas that he believes all communities must adopt to ensure that we can "feed the future before our choices are narrowed for us". He concluded his talk with a descriptive glimpse into the images and stories that fill his 2005 book, "Fields of Plenty".

Kootenay Co-op Radio recorded his talk.

Canadian Beef Consolidated Further Deconstructing Dinner examines the recent takeover of Canada's largest beef packing plant - Lakeside Packers, located in Brooks, Alberta. The plant maintains a capacity to process 4,700 head of cattle each day (that translates to a whopping 43% of all beef processed in Canada... from one facility!). The takeover leaves Alberta-based XL Foods with 51% control of Canadian beef and leaves just two companies controlling 83%.

In light of the recent and largest meat recall in Canadian history, we now know just how much of an impact that a tainted product from one company (Maple Leaf Foods) can have on Canada's food supply. The idea of any further consolidation in the meat packing sector, would, understandably, leave an already shaky Canadian public quite concerned.

To learn more about how this takeover might impact Canada's beef producers and the beef-eating public, we hear from the Competiton Bureau's Denis Courriveau and the National Farmers Union's Fred Tait.

Backyard Chickens V (Farming in the City VII) Since March 2008, The Farming in the City series has been incorporating a focus on urban backyard chickens.

If the thought of two companies controlling 83% of Canadian beef produced from only five plants turns you off of industrial protein, there is of course the increasingly popular alternative of finding some protein in your backyard. While digging up insects may be an option, backyard chickens might be easier, and for Vancouver residents, much easier! On March 5, Vancouver's city council unanimously approved a change to the city's bylaw that has long prohibited backyard chickens. Vancouver is now preparing itself for a backyard chicken revolution.

We also hear from the familiar and entertaining Bucky Buckaw, as he responds to listener questions on whether chickens can be trained to do tricks!

Guests

Fred Tait - Manitoba Coordinator, National Farmers Union (NFU) (Rossendale, MB) - Fred and his wife have raised beef cattle all of their life on their farm in Rossendale, Manitoba (southwest of Portage la Prairie). The NFU "works toward the development of economic and social policies that will maintain the family farm as the primary food-producing unit in Canada". The National Farmers Union is the country's only voluntary, direct-membership national farm organization. Less than two weeks before Fred spoke to Deconstructing Dinner, he was in Ottawa speaking to the Standing Committee on Agriculture on the state of Canada's beef producers.

Denis Corriveau - Senior Competition Law Officer, Industry Canada - Competition Bureau - (Gatineau, QC) - The Competition Bureau is an independent agency that, according to their web site, "contributes to the prosperity of Canadians by protecting and promoting competitive markets and enabling informed consumer choice." Headed by the Commissioner of Competition, the Bureau is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, the Textile Labelling Act and the Precious Metals Marking Act. The basic operating assumption of the Competition Bureau is that competition is good for both business and consumers.

Jeff Nield - Operations Manager, FarmFolk/CityFolk (Vancouver, BC) - FarmFolk/CityFolk Society is a non-profit society that works with farm & city to cultivate a local, sustainable food system. They develop and operate projects that provide access to & protection of foodlands; that support local, small scale growers and producers; and that educate, communicate and celebrate with local food communities.

Bucky Buckaw - Host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (Boise, ID) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.

Since March 2008, The Local Grain Revolution series has been following the evolution of Canada's first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project for grain.

The project has inspired a wave of support from the communities of Nelson and Creston, including support from the Kootenay Lake Sailing Association. In September 2008, a group of sailors approached the CSA and offered to sail as much of the grain as they could from the Creston Valley to Nelson along Kootenay Lake. In less than a month, four sailboats had committed to the weekend excursion and Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman joined the crew of the Kelpie so that listeners could, at the very least, take an audible part in the exciting fossil-fuel free mission.

Voices

Matt Lowe, Climate Change Campaigner, West Kootenay EcoSociety (Nelson, BC) - The West Kootenay EcoSociety promotes ecologically and socially sound communities while protecting species and ecosystems in the Southern Columbia Mountains ecoregion. Matt is the co-founder of the grain CSA.

Jay Blackmore, Sailor, Kootenay Lake Sailing Association (Nelson, BC) - When Jay first heard about the CSA, he was eager to become part of this exciting initiative. He quickly gathered a group of sailors who will be sailing the grains from the Creston Valley to Nelson on the weekend of October 25, 2008.

David Oosthuizen, Sailor, Kootenay Lake Sailing Association (Nelson, BC) - David was the skipper of the Kelpie.

Roy Plummer, Volunteer (Fruitvale, BC)

Jon Steinman, Producer/Host, Deconstructing Dinner (Nelson, BC)

Keith Huscroft, Farmer, Huscroft Farm (Lister, BC)

Cecile Andrews, Author, Slow is Beautiful (Seattle, WA)

Drew Gailius, Farmer, Full Circle Farm (Canyon, BC)

Music

Earl Hamilton, Musician/Educator (Nelson, BC) - Earl was invited to author a song in honour of the Creston Grain CSA. He has since been recorded performing "Close to Home" in the studios of Kootenay Co-op Radio and performed the song live on the shores of Nelson just after the grain had arrived via sailboat from the Creston Valley. Earl was joined by Norman Richard

In February 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon Edmonton for a week of local and global food education. Every year, the University of Alberta hosts International Week, the largest annual extracurricular educational event on campus. International Week "fosters global citizenship through engagement with today's most pressing issues". In its 24th year, the theme was Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine and Frenzy.

Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman delivered two lectures throughout the week and was invited to be a part of an evening panel on the topic of biofuels. In November 2007, the show aired its Biofuel Boom series and this formed the basis for Jon's panel presentation. This broadcast features recordings of the panel from February 4, 2009.

Voices

David Bressler, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB) - David's general area of research is the industrial application of chemical, thermal and biological systems for the catalytic conversion of conventional biomass streams to platform chemicals, fuels and value-addedd commodities. Biofuels are a major focus of his research. David is also the Chair of the Management Committee of Agri-Food Discovery Place which is the department's pilot facility.

Alex McCalla, Professor Emeritus in Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Davis (Davis, CA) - Alex is an expert in international trade and has directed the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at the World Bank, has chaired the Technical Advisory Committee of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and was a founding member and co-convenor of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium. Since graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1966, Alex has served in many roles at the University of California at Davis.

Jon Steinman, Producer/Host, Deconstructing Dinner (Nelson, BC) - Outside of his role with Deconstructing Dinner, Jon also sits on the board of the Kootenay Country Store Co-operative and is involved in Community Food Matters - a coalition of Nelson-area residents who are inspired to foster a more food-secure community.

In February 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon Edmonton for a week of local and global food education. Every year, the University of Alberta hosts International Week, the largest annual extracurricular educational event on campus. International Week "fosters global citizenship through engagement with today's most pressing issues". In its 24th year, the theme was Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine and Frenzy.

As outlined by the event's organizers, "We live in an unprecedented, contradictory era. Hunger soars amid record harvests. At the same time, community-based democratic movements on every continent are showing the way toward a world without hunger. They are proving that it is possible to reconnect farming with ecological wisdom by enhancing soils and yields while empowering citizens to meet universal human needs for both food and dignity. In such a dark and disorienting time, solutions are still evident. The only real problem we have to worry about is despair arising from feelings of powerlessness. As we dig to the roots of the global crisis, we protect against despair and find our own power. Only then can we perceive how our individual and group actions can dissolve the forces that brought us here and plant the seeds of lasting solutions."

Deconstructing Dinner recorded one of the event's featured speakers, Palagummi Sainath.

Voices

Palagummi Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor, The Hindu (Mumbai, India) - Once described by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as "one of the world's foremost experts on poverty and hunger", Palagummi Sainath is a dedicated development reporter and photojournalist. He spends the majority of his year with the village people of India's rural interior on which he reports. As the current rural affairs editor of The Hindu and author of the highly acclaimed Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts, his writing on the impacts of globalization on India's rural poor, and particularly farmer suicides, has raised public awareness and influenced both policy in India and the development debate in general. His unflinching coverage of the negative impacts of neoliberal policy on India's poorest populations has earned him over 30 awards including Amnesty International's Global Human Rights Journalism Prize and the Raymond Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication.

In February 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon Edmonton for a week of local and global food education. Every year, the University of Alberta hosts International Week, the largest annual extracurricular educational event on campus. International Week "fosters global citizenship through engagement with today's most pressing issues". In its 24th year, the theme was Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine and Frenzy.

As outlined by the event's organizers, "We live in an unprecedented, contradictory era. Hunger soars amid record harvests. At the same time, community-based democratic movements on every continent are showing the way toward a world without hunger. They are proving that it is possible to reconnect farming with ecological wisdom by enhancing soils and yields while empowering citizens to meet universal human needs for both food and dignity. In such a dark and disorienting time, solutions are still evident. The only real problem we have to worry about is despair arising from feelings of powerlessness. As we dig to the roots of the global crisis, we protect against despair and find our own power. Only then can we perceive how our individual and group actions can dissolve the forces that brought us here and plant the seeds of lasting solutions."

Deconstructing Dinner recorded the event's keynote address, delivered by well-known democracy advocate, Frances Moore Lappé.

Voices

Frances Moore Lappé, co-founder, Small Planet Institute (Boston, MA) - Frances Moore Lappé is a democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored sixteen books. She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and more recently, the Small Planet Institute. In 1987, she received the Right Livelihood Award. Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered to be the first book to present a modern-day approach to more conscientious eating.

Her most recent books include Hope's Edge, written with her daughter Anna Lappé, about democratic social movements worldwide and Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad.

In October 2008, host Jon Steinman was toured around a salmon farm along with delegates of the 2008 conference of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation. The tour was sponsored by the Province of British Columbia's Ministry of Agriculture & Lands and the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA).

The farm is owned by Marine Harvest Canada and located off the shore of East Thurlow Island - about a 45-minute boat ride from Campbell River, BC. The farm is home to 500,000 Atlantic salmon.

On this part III of a multi-part series on salmon farming along the BC coast, Steinman poses some probing questions to the tour guides.

Helping balance the positive and promotional role of the BCSFA and the Province, the episode will also hear from Alexandra Morton of the Raincoast Research Society. Morton is one of the most vocal critics of open-net salmon farms and played a pivotal role in helping introduce the long-standing and contested debate of whether or not salmon farms are harming wild salmon populations.

Morton was given the opportunity to respond to the comments made on the tour by the guides. Of interest are the number of startling discrepancies that were discovered between what conference delegates were told versus what Morton has discovered through her research.

It was a timely tour to embark upon as it was only days earlier when Morton was in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver challenging the legal and constitutional authority of the Province to regulate salmon farms in the marine environment. Morton, alongside a group of petitioners, argue that the regulating of salmon farms in BC waters should constitutionally be within the purview of the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. This episode will introduce this case, which is currently awaiting a decision.

Guests/Voices

Alexandra Morton - Scientist/Researcher, Raincoast Research Society (Echo Bay, BC) - While studying orca whales up until the 1990s, Alexandra watched as the salmon farming industry appeared in the Broughton Archipelago where she calls home. As she observed the arrival of industrial salmon farms, the whales she studied disappeared. She believed the cause was salmon farms, and when 10,000 pages of letters to all levels of government failed to elicit meaningful response, Alexandra realized that she would have to scientifically prove that salmon farming had driven out the whales and caused epidemic outbreaks of bacteria, viral and parasitic infections in wild salmon. By partnering with international scientists and in some cases commercial fishermen, Alexandra has documented the loss of the whales, thousands of escaped farm salmon, lethal outbreaks of sea lice, and antibiotic resistance near salmon farms.

Paula Galloway - Member and Community Relations, British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) (Campbell River, BC) - The BC Salmon Farmers Association was established in 1984. The Association is the voice of the province's salmon farming industry, a forum for communication, a vehicle for lobbying, and a point of contact for stakeholders and the public. Prior to her role with the BCSFA, Paula worked with EWOS - an international feed company serving the aquaculture industry. EWOS is owned by Norway's Cermaq.

Bill Harrower - Manager of Regional Operations for Aquaculture Development, Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - (Courtenay, BC) Aquaculture is a significant contributor to the provincial economy, and most aquaculture jobs are located in coastal communities. Farmed salmon is B.C.'s largest agricultural export product. Bill Harrower has worked with the Department since the 1980s.

Barb Addison - Manager, Big Tree Creek Hatchery, Marine Harvest Canada (Sayward, BC) - Big Tree Creek is one of five hatcheries currently being managed by the company. It's in the process of a $3-million expansion.

In February 2006, Deconstructing Dinner aired an episode that explored salmon farming off the coast of BC. Three years later, we're revisiting the topic and creating a new multi-part series of the same name.

While the structure of the industry has not changed much over the past three years, public opposition has remained strong. Catherine Stewart of the Living Oceans Society believes this opposition has been pivotal in keeping the growth of the industry at bay. Stewart suggests that this static growth is much to the chagrin of the Liberal government who had announced that the industry would increase 10-fold when they came into power in 2001.

As part of the Norway, British Columbia series, highlights will include a tour of an Atlantic salmon hatchery near Campbell River and a salmon farm off the shores of East Thurlow Island. Featured throughout the series will be interviews with industry, government, and conservation groups. The controversy surrounding the placing of an 'organic' label on a package of salmon will be explored alongside the prospects of genetically-engineered salmon entering into BC waters.

On this Part II, we'll learn of expansion plans at one of the hatcheries of Marine Harvest Canada - the largest aquaculture company operating in BC. As the industry has been running into many barriers to get new farm sites approved, we'll examine whether this expansion is a sign that the industry is getting prepared to grow? With an election looming, activists believe that a re-elected Liberal government will pave the way for a string of rubber-stamped site approvals. There are currently many applications before the Province requesting amendments to production limits and along with the history of over-production violations within the industry, open-net salmon farm opponents like the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR), are deeply concerned.

The broadcast will also explore the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) outbreak that has caused massive restructuring in Chile's salmon farming industry. With the virus popping up in Scotland in January 2009, British Columbians should be left to wonder whether ISA will hit BC next?

Guests

Catherine Stewart - Salmon Farming Campaign Manager, Living Oceans Society (Vancouver, BC) - Living Oceans Society is Canada's largest organization focusing exclusively on marine conservation issues. They are based in Sointula, a small fishing village on the Central Coast of British Columbia. Prior to her role with Living Oceans, Catherine worked with Greenpeace for seventeen years, holding the positions of Regional Director and oceans and forests campaigner.

Clare Backman - Environmental Compliance and Community Relations, Marine Harvest Canada (Campbell River, BC) - Marine Harvest is one of the world's largest aquaculture companies and is based in Norway. Their Canadian division is the largest aquaculture company operating in the Province of British Columbia. With 75 farm licenses, the company produces more than half (55%) of the total production of farmed salmon in BC.

Barb Addison - Manager, Big Tree Creek Hatchery, Marine Harvest Canada (Sayward, BC) - Big Tree Creek is one of five hatcheries currently being managed by the company. It's in the process of a $3-million expansion.

Other Voices

Jay Ritchlin - Director Marine and Freshwater Conservation, David Suzuki Foundation (Vancouver, BC)

Ian Roberts - Communications, Marine Harvest Canada (Campbell River, BC)

Bill Harrower - Manager of Regional Operations for Aquaculture Development, Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - (Courtenay, BC)

Deconstructing Dinner launches our 2009 season of programming with a restrospective and forward-looking presentation by Brent Warner of Farmers' Markets Canada. Brent was recorded in October 2008 speaking to delegates of the annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) held in Courtenay, British Columbia.

Voices

Brent Warner - Interim Executive Director, Farmers' Markets Canada (Sidney, BC) - FMC has been created to help connect Canadian consumers to their local farmers and to address the needs of farmers' markets across the country. Brent is a former Industry Specialist in Agritourism/Direct Marketing with British Columbia's Ministry of Agriculture & Lands. Brent is a horticulturalist who has also served as the Secretary of the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association.

Whopper Virgins

Since early December, controversy has been strirring in newspapers and on Internet blogs about a recent marketing gimmick launched by Miami-based global fast-food giant Burger King (BK). The marketing ploy is called Whopper Virgins and is being waged via www.whoppervirgins.com as well as a series of television ads directing people to that site.

So what is all the controversy?

BK hired PR firm Crispin-Porter and Bogusky to take a film-crew and travel the globe. The purpose? To introduce BK's flagship Whopper hamburger to people in some of the world's most far-flung places. The film, which is posted on the Whopper Virgins web site, shows Inuit of Greenland, Transylvanian farmers of Romania, and the Hmong of Thailand as the subjects for the Whopper feeding experiment.

It was hoped that Americans would be fascinated to see the reactions of such 'foreign' people tasting this homogeneous staple of American fast-food - the hamburger

Deconstructing Dinner comments on these latest efforts by Burger King and presents a reworked version of their 7-minute film. We hope that our version tells a more revealing and accurate depiction of why Whopper Virgins has generated so much controversy.

Backyard Chickens IV (Farming in the City VI)

Since March 2008, The Farming in the City series has been incorporating a focus on urban backyard chickens.

Raising poultry within an urban setting provides eggs, fertilizer, garden help and meat with a minimal environmental footprint. Having suffered decades of disconnection from our food, bringing the farm into the city (and in this case animals), can provide a much needed dose of agriculture and food awareness. It's this very disconnection that has allowed for the appalling conditions now found in factory egg and chicken barns.

On this Part IV, we meet the producers of what is perhaps the first feature-length documentary film about the growing backyard chicken movement. Since its release in late 2008, Mad City Chickens has screened at a number of North American film festivals and will be available on DVD in early 2009.

Guests

Tashai Lovington & Robert Lugai - Producers, Mad City Chickens (Madison, WI) - Tashai & Robert collaborate to form Tarazod Films. When not producing films, Tashai is a Program Producer and NLE Editor for a Madison-area television station. Robert is the Education Director and Program Coordinator for a Madison-area television station.