Digging in the Dirt - Archives

Host Kevin Gallagher speaks with David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé on this episode of "Digging in the Dirt The duo wrote the book The Hidden Half of Nature which tells the story of our tangled relationship with microbes and their potential to revolutionize agriculture and medicine, from garden to gut.

Kevin Gallagher brings his guest Jay Feldman on Digging in the Dirt to talk about the effects the proliferation of chemicals in our food has on our health. Jay is a co-founder and Executive Director of the organization Beyond Pesticides and has served as its director since 1981. In Addition, Jay served a 5 year term on National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).
Beyond Pesticides works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. They believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them.

My guest on this episode of "Digging in the Dirt" is Tyson Gersh Co-founder & President of MUFI The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative, which is billed as the 1st sustainable U.S. "Agrihood". The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that seeks to engage members of the Michigan community in sustainable agriculture. They believe that challenges unique to the Michigan community (e.g., vacant land, poor diet, nutritional illiteracy, and food insecurity) present a unique opportunity for community-supported agriculture. Using agriculture as a platform to promote education, sustainability, and community—while simultaneously reducing socioeconomic disparity—by doing this they hope to empower urban communities. Listen to "Digging in the Dirt" as Kevin checks out a Detroit Agrihood!

On this segment of "Digging in the Dirt" I'll be Talking to Edwina von Gal about her Perfect Earth Project. Founded in 2013 by Edwina, Perfect Earth Project is a rapidly expanding non-profit organization operating from offices in East Hampton, NY.
They raise consciousness about the dangers of synthetic lawn and garden chemicals to humans, animals, and the environment, and educate homeowners and professionals about natural, PRFCT (toxin-free) techniques that provide beautiful, safe results at no extra cost.
Perfect Earth Project promotes toxin-free lawns and landscapes for the health of people, their pets, and the planet.
If you have kids or pets who play on your lawn this is something you want to hear. perfectearthproject.org/

Lawn Facts:
• Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used annually in USA.
• 2-3 times the amount of pesticide are used on an acre of lawn vs. an acre of agriculture.
• Common landscape pesticides have been linked to autism, Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, brain cancer, and endocrine disruption such as erectile dysfunction.
• Of the 30 most common lawn pesticides, 17 are probable or possible human carcinogens, 11 are linked with birth defects, 19 linked with reproductive effects, 14 associated with neurotoxicity, 24 linked to liver or kidney damage, 25 are sensitizers or irritants, and 18 are endocrine disrupters.
• In 2015, the World Health Organization deemed glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup (the most used pesticide in the USA), a "probable" human carcinogen.
• 185 million pounds of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) are used in the USA.

prefect Earth Project

Edwina von Gal

Digging in the Dirt

Toxin free lawns

Organic landscaping.

chemicals on your lawns

On the eve of testifying in front of the US House of Representatives Science Committee eight years ago, Kevin welcomes back to another edition of Digging in the Dirt, Michael Mann. Michael is an American climatologist and geophysicist, currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, His latest book is entitled "The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy (2016)." The discussion revolves around the fight to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures on our planet under an environmentally hostile Trump regime.

Michael Mann

Global warming denialism'

Digging in the Dirt

Kevin Gallagher

Wpkn

Global Weirding

Madhouse Effect

My guest on "Digging in the Dirt is author Paul Bogard - Author. I Paul Bogard's mission in THE GROUND BENEATH US is to find out Is there any untrodden foot of ground left? Paul takes a closer look at what is going on with the layers of soil beneath our civilizations.
Increasingly we live separated from the natural ground itself, concealing from us our profound relationship to the source not only of our food, water, and energy, but to the many majestic, poetic, and yes, very basic, ways the ground sustains our lives. In short, the ground holds the facts that define us, but most of us know almost nothing of the world beneath our feet. Paul Bogard, beautifully, tells these stories of subsurface technologies like sewers to idyllic subterranean Eden's, from what and how we grow in the ground, to how we bury our dead and how our modern ways of reshaping our tiny planet may be the end of it all.

Paul Bogard

The Ground Beneath us

Digging in the Dirt

Kevin Gallagher WPKN

My guest this time around on "Digging in the Dirt" is Tim Schipper founder and owner of a Bridgeport business, Tulip Colorblends …....a wholesale bulb distributor and a WPKN radio supporter. Tim's family has been in the tulip Bulb business since Tim's Grandfather started the business back n the Netherlands in the early 1900's and brought it here to the US after WW ll. Listen up all you flower lovers!

My guest on "Digging in the Dirt" this time around was Josh Volk talking about his new book "Compact Farms" 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less; Includes Detailed Farm Layouts for Productivity and Efficiency.
Josh in addition to his new book Compact Farms. He is the proprietor of Slow Hand Farm in Portland, Oregon, and has been working on and managing small farms around the country for the last 20 years, studying the systems that make them efficient.

I was reading an article in Ensia Magazine about a subject near and dear to me, soil. In fact it's called the healthy soil movement. The author Steven Rosenzweig joined me to discuss the fascinating things happening with farmers and the soil they grow our food in. The ideas and practices apply to all of us who grow food...small, large and corporate farmers and you the backyard gardener.
Ensia is an independent, nonprofit magazine presenting new perspectives on environmental challenges and solutions to a global audience.

My guest today is Ira Haspel Bio-Dynamic Farmer and owner of KK's Farm in Southhold, NY on The North Shore of Long Island. This is Ira's second visit to "Digging in the Dirt" because he's here to talk about his up coming annual Dandelion Festival at the farm, to be held all day Sunday May 5th. Plus we'll get into chemical free growing through Bio-Dynamic principles.

BioDynamic Farming

KK's Farm

Ira Haspel

Digging in the Dirt

Kevin Gallagher

Dandelion Festival