Michael Olson with Executive Chef Avram Samuels, Director of Culinary and Food & Beverage Operations, Chaminade Resort and Spa, Santa Cruz, CA

In 1963, California native and World War II veteran Julia Child showed up on Boston’s PBS television to tout her book on French cuisine.  It took her over a decade to get off that station!  During that time, Child’s “The French Chef” changed America’s taste in food.  And so we ask:   

What makes French cuisine so French?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Executive Chef Avram Samuels for a conversation about being a classically-trained chef of French cuisine.

Topics include the essential difference between French and Italian cuisines; the difference between classical and modern French cuisine; and how a classically-trained French chef combines his artistry with the business of feeding Silicon Valley techies business banquets.

A FOOD CHAIN RELEASE FROM MICHAEL OLSON  

Yogi Berra once gave this piece of sage advise:  “When you get to a fork in the road, take it!”  And so we ask:

Which way should we grow our food:  our way or nature’s way?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dr. Felix Zu Lowenstein, farmer & author of Food Crash: Why Organic is the Only Way Forward, for a conversation about his insistence that growing food organically  is the only way forward.

Topics include why human civilization is facing a major food crash in its immediate future; how this crash is consequent to the industrial technologies used to grow food; and why organic agriculture presents the only way to ensure a future of plentiful, healthy food.

Show Recording: “Food Crash: A Farmer on Offense” (#1384)

Radio:  www.santacruzvoice.com 

Host:  www.metrofarm.com  

Sponsor:  TimeShare Media 

According to a University of Minnesota survey, 75% of people trust farmers, but only 24% trust food.  That leads us to ask:

Why do so many people trust farmers, but so few trust food?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dennis Bulani, 4rth Generation Saskatchewan farmer, CEO of The Rack Petroleum & Author About Food: What a Farmer Wants you to Know, for a conversation about the efficacy and safety of industrial agriculture’s food.

Topics include: why so many people trust farmers, but so few trust food;  what the farmer would like people to know about the efficacy and safety of his food; and whether people can be made to trust food that comes from so far away.

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson

They say men today have 60% less sperm than their grandfathers, and if the decline is not reversed, the sperm count in American males will drop to zero by 2045.  That thought leads us to ask:

Can eating the wrong food cause our population to collapse?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Samantha LeJune, Researcher, Population Research Institute, for a conversation about the possibility that we are eating ourselves to infertility.

Topics include the real life consequences of Paul Erhlich’s 1968 book, The Population Bomb; why America’s young adults are have trouble conceiving and carrying to term their offspring; and which foods might be causing this deadly infertility.   

Radio:  www.santacruzvoice.com 

Host:  www.metrofarm.com  

Sponsor:  TimeShare Media 

Food now travels a long way from where it was grown to where it is eaten.  Sometimes bad things happen to good food along the way.  This leads us to ask:

What happens when bad food gets eaten by good people?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Wiggs Civitillo, Founder & CEO | Starfish-Network, for a conversation about the tracking food as it travels the food miles from farm to fork.

Topics include why the U.S. has three to five hundred food recalls every year; how all food that travels food miles will soon be tracked from farm to fork; and the technology that will– hopefully – make it possible to track food and keep people safe.  

Hippocrates is said to have said, “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” What Hippocrates said so long ago leads us to ask: 

Which food makes the best medicine?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Carin Fortin & Delmar McComb, Owners and Farmers, Blossom’s Biodynamic Farm, for a conversation about the biodynamic growing of food that that is medicine.

Topics include why Fortin and Delmar employ biodynamic technologies to grow a hundred varieties of medicinal herbs; how their medicinal herbs are converted into lotions and potions; and how notions are used to sell their medicinal preparations directly to customers at farmers markets. 

Radio Affiliation: The one-hour “Biodynamic Lotions, Potions & Notions” (#1380) is available as a market exclusive at www.foodchainradio.com.

Kaysea Clark, Owner & Farmer, Flowers by the Sea

Which flower is best to feast on?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Kaysea Clark, Owner & Farmer, Flowers by the Sea, for a conversation about growing and selling flowers to enjoy with food.

Topics include Clark’s transition from gardener to farmer; why the technology of her biologically-intensive farming are important to the character of her flowers; and how Clark sells flowers at farmers’ markets.

Show Recording: “Food with Flowers Farmer” (#1378)

Radio:  www.santacruzvoice.com 

Host:  www.metrofarm.com  

Sponsor:  TimeShare Media 

Fred Provenza, Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University.  Author, Nourtishment:  What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom

Yellowstone Park in winter is a cruel place for the wildlife that can no longer endure its cold, snow and hunger.  And yet what is cruel for some can be a blessing for the corvids of Yellowstone’s winter   And so we ask:  

Can anyone love the black birds of Yellowstone’s white winter?

Topics include speculation as to why people have always disagreed about the best way to eat; a discussion of the nutritional and environmental elements of the different ways of eating; and a common sense approach to putting the argument to rest.

David Blume,  Farmer at Whisky Hill Farm in Freedom, California, Author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas, proprietor of Blume Distillation, & Candidate to be Robert Kennedy Jr’s Food & Energy Coordinator  

They are moving on Washington, DC with the battle cry, “Make America healthy again!” Their battle cry leads us to ask: 

How can America be made healthy again?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts US HHS Food and Energy coordinator candidate David Blume for a conversation about how he would help Robert Kennedy Jr make America healthy again.

Topics include why Kennedy believes America’s food chain must undergo a revolutionary change; ways in which that change might be made; and how revolutionary change can be made given all the money lined up to prevent it from being changed.

They are moving on Washington, DC with the battle cry, “Make America healthy again!” Their battle cry leads us to ask:

How can America be made healthy again?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts US HHS Food and Energy coordinator candidate David Blume for a conversation about how he would help Robert Kennedy Jr make America healthy again.

Topics include why Kennedy believes America’s food chain must undergo a revolutionary change; ways in which that change might be made; and how revolutionary change can be made given all the money lined up to prevent it being changed.