More than 60 counties either ban or require labelling on GMO foods; the US is not one of them. Frustrated consumers and farmers are pushing for state or county regulations, but the seed and pesticide companies are fighting back. Today, we bring you a special episode investigating corporate control of our democracy and our dinner plates. This program is part of What the Fork, a collaboration between Making Contact, Center for Media and Democracy/The Progressive Magazine and Food Democracy Now.

Featuring:

Rebecca Wilce, Progressive and ALEC Exposed reporter; Marcia Ishii-Eieman, Pesticide Action Network senior scientist; Don Tipping, Seven Seeds Farm owner; Chris Hardy, Rogue valley farmer; Elise Higley, Our Family Farms Coalition leader; Magdeleno Rose-Avila, Yes on 15-119 volunteer; Barry Bushue, American Farm Bureau vice president; Klayton Kubo, Kauai citizen; Gary Hooser, Kauai County Council member; Dr. Judy Shabert, Harvard Physician; Chris Broussard, Whinney Hee, James Masey, concerned Kauai residents; Dean Okimoro, Farm Bureau Association president; David Louie, Hawaii Attorney General; Harry Stalford & Willow Coberly, Stalford Seed Farms farmers.

More information:

What the Fork! 
 

Pesticide Action Network 
 

ALEC Exposed 

Progressive Magazine 
 

Food Democracy Now 

GMO Free Oregon 

Our Family Farms Coalition 

Food Fight Fund Vermont 
 

Center for Food Safety

Seven Seeds Farm

American Farm Bureau

Monsanto Hawaii

Syngenta

Articles:

GMO debate stretches from farm to table

GMO measure in Oregon’s Jackson County draws big money, raises questions
about local control

SHUMLIN SIGNS LANDMARK GMO LABELING LAW

Seeding Canola, Ceding the Willamette

Oregon Passes Law Preempting Local Regulation of Seed and Biotechnology

Monsanto Launches Community Engagement Campaign

The post Making Contact – G.M.nO! Genetically Modified Democracy appeared first on KPFA.

Parenting has never been easy. Merging your politics with your parenting decisions can be even more challenging. On this edition, fathers… and mothers… on fatherhood and how it’s changing. Traditional ideas about what a dad is supposed to be are slowly disappearing, but what will take their place?

Featuring:

Tomas Moniz, Rad Dad creator; Airial Clark, Sex Positive Parent blogger; Janine Macbeth, Oh, Oh, Baby Boy author;  Brent Ramos, Danny Gutierrez, Craig Elliot, Jeremy Smith, Jeremy John, Jason Oppy, fathers.

More information:

Rad Dad-A Zine About Parenting 

The Sex Positive Parent 

Oh, Oh, Baby Boy

The Other ‘F” word

Hip Mama

Father Figures—KPFA radio

The post Making Contact – Rad Dads!!! appeared first on KPFA.

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Locked up for month, years, or decades.  Poetry is form of self-expression that’s become vital to the incarcerated.  In Prison, Poetry can keep you sane, and help you move towards a better future. To mark National Poetry Month, we bring you a special production by the Prison Poetry Workshop. We go from California’s San Quentin prison, to a group of Alabama prison poets. And we’ll meet a legendary prison poet of the 1960’s who helped spark a literary movement.

Featuring:  

Andrew Gazzeny, San Quentin prisoner poet; Etheridge Knight, formerly incarcerated poet; Janice Knight-Mooney, Etheridge’s sister; James Depp, poet and friend of Etheridge; Melba Boyd, former Broadside Press employee; Ira Smith, Guy Carter, AJ Payne, Sarge Daniels, Calvin Green, Staton Correctional Facility poets; Keyes Stevens, Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project facilitator; Dwayne Betts, formerly incarcerated poet.

More information:

Prison Poetry Workshop

Etheridge Knight

Broadside Press

Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project

A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison by Dwaye Betts

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. by Luis Rodriguez

Chucha’s Centro Cultural

Voices Unbroken

The post Making Contact – Shh!: Words vs. Bars: How Prison Poets Escape appeared first on KPFA.

Who’s watching you? Nowadays it seems everyone wants to get their hands on our personal data. From the FBI to the welfare department, to some of the country’s biggest retailers. On this edition, we take a closer look at the world of surveillance.

Featuring:  

Hasan Elahi, artist and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland; Charles Duhigg, New York Times journalist and author of “The Power of Habit”; Jodie Berger, public benefits lawyer; John Gilliom, Professor of Political Science at Ohio University; Kaaryn Gustafson, welfare lawyer and University of Connecticut teacher.
 

More information:

Tracking Transience

FBI here I am! (Hasan Elahi TED talk)

Giving the FBI what it wants

How Companies Learn Your Secrets

Parents Voices

Surveillance Self Defense Project

The post Making Contact – Shh!: Life in a State of Surveillance appeared first on KPFA.

Cesar Chavez has made it to the big screen. Millions of people are now learning about the legendary farmworker organizer. But where did Chavez get his organizing philosophies?

This week, Paul Ingles and Carol Boss of Peacetalks radio take us down ‘The Non-Violent path of Cesar Chavez’, through conversations with Chavez’ colleague and friend Delores Huerta, and Jose Antonio Orozco, author of the book, Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence.

Featuring:  
Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers co-founder; Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers co-founder; Jose Antonio Orozco, Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence author, Barack Obama, President of the United States.

More information:

Peacetalks Radio 

United Farm Workers 

Coalition of Immokalee Workers 

The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Struggle

Cesar Chavez movie

Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence

Cesar Chavez Foundation

Dolores Huerta Foundation

The post Making Contact – The Non-Violent Path of Cesar Chavez appeared first on KPFA.

Noise pollution is a growing problem. Affecting everything from the lives of people living under airplane flight paths, to marine life. On this edition, we’ll hear from people struggling to be heard over the din of our noisy modern life and ask, is there anywhere left in the world you can get some peace and quiet?

Featuring:  
Les Blomberg, Noise Pollution Clearing House executive director, Bernie Krause, Wild Sanctuary founder; Gordon Hempton, One Square Inch of Silence founder; Professor John Hildebrand, Scripps Institute of Oceanography; Miyoko Sakashita, Center for Biological Diversity, oceans director; Kenneth Hess, Naval Operations, Energy and Environment Readiness Division chief;  Dr. Aaron Rice, Cornell University Bioacoustics Research Program science director; Janet McEneaney and Robert Whitehair, Queens Quiet Skies.

More information:

Extremely Loud

Wild Sanctuary 

The Great Animal Orchestra 

Noise, Sovereignty, and Civility

 Noise Busters

Bernie Krause TED Talk

One Square Inch of Silence

The post Making Contact – Sounding the Alarm: Noise Pollution appeared first on KPFA.

Needle exchange programs began springing up in the 1980’s during the AIDS crisis. Countless lives have been saved by providing IV drug users with clean needles. But even now, with hundreds of programs across the US and throughout the world, some states still view distributing needles as illegal.

This week, WABE reporter Jim Burress takes us to ‘The Bluff’, a neighborhood in Atlanta where a needle exchange program–breaking the law every day– has become a vital part of a struggling community.

Featuring:

Ruth Kanatser, Denver Harm Reduction Center syringe access director; Lisa
Rayvell, Denver Harm Reduction Center director; Darlene, Beverly, Claude, Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition clients; Mona Bennett, Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition program manager; Verna Gaines, Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition Outreach Coordinator; Marshall Rancifer, Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition staffer, Rick Mason, Atlanta Police Lieutenant; Renee Unterman, Georgia State Senator.

More information:

WABE Atlanta 

Creative Loafing Atlanta

Altanta Harm Reduction Coalition 

Denver Harm Reduction Center 

ACT UP

Articles:

Stuck in the Bluff: the Complete Documentary Collection

Endgame: AIDS in Black America

The post Making Contact – Stuck in the Bluff appeared first on KPFA.

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