Heartland Stories Radio

Dr. Kamyar Enshayan is the Director of the Center for Energy & Environmental Education (CEEE) at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Dr. Enshayan has taught environmental studies since 1993 and founded the University of Northern Iowa's Local Food Program in 1997. He received the 2008 Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa. Tune in to learn more about:

- The three pillars of the CEEE: Green Iowa Americorps (energy and environmental services to Iowa communities); Community Energy & Climate Action (closes the door on fossil energy as we open the door on renewables); and Improving Community Environmental Health (protecting children's environmental health in Iowa through two statewide initiatives);

- How Iowa cannot feed itself and the world through corn and soy;

- Soil erosion, food deserts and what is wrong in Iowa's food system;

- How common language can be used to better communicate with Iowans and create positive change.

Dr. Enshayan is not only a teacher inspiring new generations of students but also an activist trying to improve the food system in Iowa through action in communities.

To learn more about Dr. Enshayan's work visit the CEEE website at: https://ceee.uni.edu/.

To celebrate Earth Day week we're bringing you a very popular episode that originally aired in February 2021 with Odessa Piper, visionary and real food pioneer.

Odessa Piper, founder of L'Etoile, a pioneering farm-to-table restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin, is an author and James Beard award winner as Best Chef Midwest in 2002. In 2018, Odessa helped launch the Food Artisan Immersion Program, a seasonal work-study residency on Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Estate in Spring Green, Wisconsin, that focuses on the Driftless Region ecology and includes instruction in gardening and food-service. Tune in to learn more about:

- The history of the L'Etoile (which she founded at only 23), which means 'star' in French, how it was inspired by the hidden stars in food and nature

- Her own story of growing up surrounded by the magic of growing your own food and going out in the forest to forage wild foods

- How she found the magic in food after dropping out of high school

- How she learned to rely and use food grown in her community and region

- About the Food Artisan Immersion Program, a seasonal work-study residency on Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Estate in Spring Green, Wisconsin

- How early childhood education about food and our food system can help Gaia (our planet)

To learn more about the Taliesin Estate, go to https://www.taliesinpreservation.org/.

For Cynthia Barstow, Senior Lecturer of Marketing at Amherst Isenberg School at the University of Massachusetts and Founder and Executive Director of Protect Our Breasts, the fight against breast cancer is personal. In 2010, a routine mammogram led to her own breast cancer diagnosis—something faced by nearly 300,000 women each year. As her treatment began, so did a deep dive into breast cancer research, especially what causes the disease. Tune in to learn more about:

- Her personal story of going through breast cancer and how the idea for her organization was born;

- About the window of susceptibility, the period of developmental stages when a woman may be most vulnerable to environmental exposures, starting from the womb all through puberty;

- About Protect Our Breasts, an organization that empowers women to make safer choices to protect their breasts during the most vulnerable periods of their lives and shares the conversation about chemicals in everyday products found on grocery shelves;

- Why packaging is as important as the ingredients when it comes to toxins, as they can leak into the product;

- The endocrine system explained;

- How 85,000 synthetic chemicals have been introduced into the environment and only 7% have been tested for effects on human health;

- About the

53 chapters of the organization in the USA, Canada, UK and India;

- About how men can get breast cancer as well;

Cynthia's 'a-ha' moment that it's younger women (up through their first full-term pregnancy) who are most susceptible to harmful chemicals and carcinogens that can lead to breast cancer later in life lead her to burst into tears. "Every day looking out on the sea of faces of those that I teach, those women were the ones that were susceptible. They were going through life believing it was their mother and their grandmother and their aunts, but it was them." She realized that getting information to younger women about positive choices they could make to steer clear from certain ingredients in everyday products was more important than ever.

To learn more about her work and Protect Our Breasts go to: https://protectourbreasts.org/.

Dr. Samina Raja is University of Buffalo's (UB) Professor of Urban Planning, Associate Dean for Research and Inclusive Excellence, principal investigator of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (the "Food Lab"), and Co-Director of UB's Community for Global Health Equity (CGHE). Dr. Raja is a leading scholar in her field and active leader in shaping food systems policies for healthier communities in Western New York, and she focuses on planning and design for sustainable food systems and healthy communities. Tune in to learn more about:

- Dr. Samina Raja's journey from Kashmir to the U.S., being trained as a civil engineer and ending up with a doctorate in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison;

- Her 'aha' moment when she learned that land is seen as the highest and best use value, with casinos being more valuable because of the taxes it generates compared to community gardens;

- About the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (the Food Lab) and the community based Participatory Action Research (PAR) done at the Food Lab;

- One question that Dr. Raja kept hearing over and over again while doing research;

- About Growing Food Connections, a comprehensive five-year initiative funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to build capacity of local governments to strengthen food systems;

- About the Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP), a nonprofit urban farm located on Buffalo's West Side that empowers youth to be leaders in the food system;

- Why local governments should add food as a local priority.

Dr. Raja's journey from the conflict zone of Kashmir to the U.S. and her experiences in Madison and Buffalo deeply influenced her to learn more about equity in the food systems. Her inspiring work with youth and teenagers in the city of Buffalo also empowers them to become agents of change. To learn more about Dr. Raja's work go to http://growingfoodconnections.org/.

Tom Philpott is the food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones and author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It (Bloomsbury 2020). His work has won numerous awards, including a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. Tune in to learn more about:

- His book Perilous Bounty, where he dives into two abundant but very different agricultural areas - California's Central Valley and the Corn Belt state of Iowa;

- Why corn and soybeans do not work for farmers;

- Why farmers love their tractors and the sad truth about the technology treadmill of John Deere;

- What the current pandemic taught the meat plants operators;

- Why the current government should focus on climate change policies;

- How the Midwest could learn to become more self sufficient and rely on a more local and regional food system;

To learn more about Tom's work, follow his blog on Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/author/tom-philpott/.

George Siemon is the co-founder and former CEO of CROPP/ Organic Valley, the largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation's leading organic brands. As an organic pioneer and advocate for family farms over the last 30 years, George is passionate about alternative ownership models, such as the cooperative model and the newer purpose trust. Tune in to learn more about:

- The 1980s farm crisis and the history of the Organic Standards

- The benefits of organic agriculture and how we can feed the world

- The true cost of food

- Why family farms are going out of business

- Why everything starts in the soil and how we are hurting it

- The purpose trust and steward ownership

George reminds us that organic is a very viable form of agriculture that takes care of land and soil and thus the people. We should all ask ourselves if conventional farmers can stand up now for the change needed in their sector, if they are able to protect our children's health and how they can reduce their impact on the earth and focus on food for people not for cars and animals?

Dr. Leonardo Trasande, Jim G. Hendrick MD Professor, is the Director of the Division of Environmental Pediatrics and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine. Dr. Trasande is also the author of the 2019 published book "Sicker, Fatter, Poorer: The Urgent Threat of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals to Our Health and Future . . . and What We Can Do About It." Tune in to learn more about:

• Endocrine disruptors, the chemicals that interfere with the body's hormones
• The five categories of chemicals we all need to be aware of and avoid: Bisphenol, Phthalates, Pesticides, Flame retardants, Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
• Obesogens (a category of endocrine disruptors)
• The problem with fertility and low sperm count
• How to avoid and reduce your exposure to flame retardants

Dr. Trasande is recommending that it is never too late to completely avoid and limit your exposure to any toxic chemical, and there are always short, medium and long term benefits for your health. There are simple steps that anyone can take, by simply choosing food, packaging, furniture, cosmetics that are free of these chemicals. To learn more about Dr. Trasande's work, go to: https://www.leotrasande.com/about.

Kelly Ryerson is an environmental health writer, filmmaker, and ardent public health advocate. After alleviating her own chronic illness by eating a gluten-free and organic diet, she realized that toxins and chemicals were at the core of the explosion in chronic disease in the United States. Determined to make the issue of glyphosate's impact on the microbiome more well-known, she began the blog Glyphosate Girl. She continues to focus on the ways in which our food system, soil, and microbiome have been corrupted by both the rampant use of toxic herbicides and the regulators who support the agricultural chemical industry. Tune in to learn more about:

- Her own story of battling chronic/autoimmune disease and depression

- Her A-ha moment when she found out that Roundup is being sprayed on wheat

- Why she started the blog Glyphosate Girl, which covers the Monsanto cancer trials, glyphosate science, and glyphosate's contribution to intestinal permeability.

- The leaky gut and how glyphosate kills the "good bacteria" in the gut leading to so many health issues

- Her reaction when she found out that glyphosate was detected in her daughter's baby tooth

To learn more about Kelly visit her blog: https://glyphosategirl.com/.

Carey Gillam is an American investigative journalist and author with more than 30 years of experience covering food and agricultural policies and practices, including 17 years as a senior correspondent for Reuters international news service. She has specialty knowledge regarding the rise of biotech crop technology and the associated rise in pervasive pesticide use in our farming and food production system. Carey's second book, a legal thriller titled "The Monsanto Papers - Deadly Secrets, Corporate Corruption, and One Man's Search for Justice", is due for release March 2, 2021 (Island Press). Tune in to learn more about:

- "The Monsanto Papers", Carey's second book which is the inside story of Lee Johnson's landmark lawsuit against Monsanto

- What she has learned from the process of litigation and the internal documents from Monsanto that were trying to discredit her work and destroy her career

- The levels of deceptions by Monsanto

- How she transcribes the stories of farmers, scientists and academics in a way that is meaningful

- Why she thinks farmers are essential and critical

To quote Carey " Our food is where it all began, and we need to respect that and do everything we can to protect our food production system, our environment and the health of our children."

To learn more about Carey's work go to https://careygillam.com/ and https://usrtk.org/.

Dr. Bruce Lanphear is a public health physician and professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. His goal is to quantify and ultimately prevent chronic disease from widespread exposures to toxic chemicals and pollutants. Tune in to learn more about:

- Little Things Matter, a compilation of short videos that explain exposure to pollutants, toxic chemicals and excess consumption

- How lead exposure in adults is the leading risk factor for dying from coronary heart disease

- How President Bush's dog lead poisoning (during renovations at the White House) sparked the implementation of the Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992

- The synergies of toxic chemicals - 1 in every 4 children exposed to both lead and tobacco met the criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

- His advice on how we can reduce the exposure to toxic chemicals in our daily lives

- Why prevention is the key of battling chronic diseases

To learn more about Dr. Lanphear's work visit http://littlethingsmatter.ca/.