Metrofarm - Podcast Details

Shows

The Food ChainEp 1322 Building a Better BeeCaroline Yelle, Owner & Queen Bee, Pope Canyon Queens I happened to be watching a honey bee working over a lemon tree blossom on the 19th of July, when I realized that it was the first honey bee I have seen this year. That leads me to ask… Can we breed a bee that can survive us? 2025-07-2553 min

The Food ChainNutrition for DystopiaThe Golden State of California appears to be losing its collective mind. You can see the evidence of that loss on the streets of San Francisco, and that City-by-the-Bay leads us to ask: Can we eat our way out of dystopia? Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, Co-Author, The Better Brain: Overcome Anxiety, Combat Depression, and Reduce ADHD and Stress with Nutrition 2025-07-1653 min

The Food ChainEp 1398 Food Fight: Large Farms V. Small FarmsThe Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Richard J. Sexton, Professor Emeritus, Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of California Davis & Author of Food Fight: Misguided Policies, Supply Challenges, and the Impending Struggle to Feed a Hungry World In 1973, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz told the nation’s farmers to, ”Get big or get out!” Many farmers did get big or got out. That leads us to ask: Are the nation’s small farms worth saving? Topics include why Earl Butz, and most of the nation’s ag economi...2025-07-1153 min

The Food ChainEp. 242 Hr. 1. China Now 25.6.26China Now: Friend or Foe? War or Peace? Hosts Michael Olson & Nan Su China tells Brazil Xi Jinping Will Miss Brics Summit in Rio Annual reshuffling of PLA Generals Putin will visit Beijing and join Xi Jinping for military marching on 9/3. CCP to curb fentanyl precursors Chinese gangsters arrested for shipping fentanyl precursors 2025-06-2854 min

The Food ChainEp. 1397 Eating the Earth?Michael Olson hosts Michael Grunwald, Author of "We Are Eating The Earth" Some say the big problem is not fossil foods, it’s the food we eat! If what they say is true, we simply must ask: Are we really eating up the earth? Topics include why author Grunwald would say, “We are eating the earth;” how the production of food causes so much of the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere; whether agriculture can be made to reduce its pollution. 2025-06-2746 min

The Food ChainRecipe for RestaurateursMichael Olson hosts Bob Vergidis, Chief Visionary Officer, PointOfSale.Cloud When, of a sudden, the $10 restaurant burger became a $20 burger, the battle for the remaining burger customers across the land became intense. This leads us to ask: What is today's recipe for restaurateur survival? Topics include the ingredients needed to cook up a successful restaurant; how successful restaurants manage food trends; and the significance of information in providing restaurant diner satisfaction. 2025-06-2154 min

The Food ChainEp 1394 Re-Seeding the Taste of CityGuests: Greg Peterson, Founder & CEO, Urban Farm.org & Belle Star, Co-Founder, SeedSchoolOnline In a deed, plant a seed, make a garden grow and transform the taste of city! And so we ask: Where can one obtain seeds to transform the taste of city? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Greg Peterson, Founder & CEO of UrbanFarm.org and Belle Star, Co-Founder of SeedSchoolOnline, for a conversation about seeds and cities. Topics include how the commercial seed industry has been consolidated into the hands of a few...2025-06-0653 min

Feeding The FamilyCan Local Farming Feed Our World or Is Big Ag The Future? With guest Michael Olson, Food Chain Radio and Host Jill Troderman Ep 10 6/4/25 Can Local Farming Feed Our World or Is Big Ag The Future? Farms, food production, distribution and consumption are morphing rapidly in our fast paced – ever changing world. In this episode, we ask some serious questions about a topic that impacts every single person on Earth - FOOD! Join Host Jill The Food Tree Guide; Holistic Family Nutrition with Jill Troderman, N.C. and Guest Michael Olson of The Food Chain Radio Ep. 10 6/4/25 to explore why: The US has lost 160,000 farmers and ranchers between 2017 and 2024 according to USDA. Vegetable production is down 6.3%, according to USDA. Fruit production is down nearly 36% in 2024...2025-06-0554 min

The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson885: Michael Olson on the Three Laws of the Food ChainIn This Podcast: Greg interviews Michael Olson, a returning guest and influential figure in the food system. Michael shares his background as a Montana farm boy, Vietnam veteran, and author of Metro Farm. Then they jump into Michael’s 'Three Laws of the Food Chain,' which include: 1) Agriculture is the foundation upon which we build all our sandcastles, 2) The farther we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over what’s in our food, and 3) Cheap food isn't cheap. They discuss the evolution of local food movements, the impact of farmer's markets, and the...2025-05-3039 min

Sustainability Now! on KSQD.orgFood Apartheid and Food Hubs A Visit with Saba Grocers and co-founder Lina GhanemFood insecurity and food apartheid are a common challenge in many low-income and minority neighborhoods across the United States. Big supermarket companies avoid those areas because stores are unprofitable and small stores find that they make the most money on junk foods, sodas and liquor. Saba Grocers is an Oakland-based organization, founded in 2019, that works with those small stores to enable them to sell fresh produce sourced from minority farmers across the region. Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Lina Ghanem, director and co-founder of the Saba Grocers Initiative in Oakland.Here is...2025-05-1751 min

Sustainability Now! on KSQD.orgFood Apartheid and Food Hubs--A Visit with Saba Grocers and co-founder Lina GhanemFood insecurity and food apartheid are a common challenge in many low-income and minority neighborhoods across the United States. Big supermarket companies avoid those areas because stores are unprofitable and small stores find that they make the most money on junk foods, sodas and liquor. Saba Grocers is an Oakland-based organization, founded in 2019, that works with those small stores to enable them to sell fresh produce sourced from minority farmers across the region. Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Lina Ghanem, director and co-founder of the Saba Grocers Initiative in Oakland. Here is another podcast of...2025-05-1753 min

The Food ChainStaff of Life: Local Grocer V Corporate GiantsMichael Olson with Gary Bascou, Co-Founder, Staff of Life Natural Food Market Staff of Life is a locally-owned grocery store competing for consumer dollars in a market dominated by corporate giants. And so we ask: How does a local grocery store survive in a marketplace of corporate giants? Topics include the culture that gave rise to “natural” and “organic” food markets; how those foods gave rise to Staff of Life Natural Foods Market; and how Staff of Life survives 56 years of competition with corporate food giants. 2025-05-1553 min

The Food ChainEp 1393 Regenerating Food & Agriculture with SoftwareThere was a time farmers grew food with shovels, hoes and horses. As technology progressed, they used tractors, fertilizers and pesticides. Today, farmers grow food by stringing together binary digits of “Yes” and “No.” That leads us to ask: Can software sustain and regenerate agriculture? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dan Ryan, CEO of CIBO Technologies, for a conversation about how digital software is transforming food and agriculture. Topics include how technology made it possible to farm our way out of the dire predictions of 1968’s The Population Bo...2025-05-0853 min

The Food ChainEp. 1392 The Magic Kingdom of Specialty MushroomsIt lives alone, and mostly hidden, in its magic kingdom. Its members are said to include the largest living organism on earth. That so many down-to-earth people become its ardent devotees leads us to ask: What is the magic of mushrooms? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Ian Garrone, CEO & Founder Far West Fungi, Moss Landing, CA, for a conversation about the magic kingdom of specialty mushrooms. Topics include a look into the variety of life in the kingdom of fungi; reasons why so many down-to-earth people become dev...2025-04-2553 min

The Food ChainEp 1391 Up Against the Big Four MeatThe Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Patrick Montgomery, CEO & Founder, KC Cattle Company & Valor Provisions Cooperative, for a conversation about finding real value when buying meat. Topics include how a small producer of meat competes against America’s Big Four producers; how a cooperative of like-minded producers can increase the ability of each to survive; and the value that may be found in grass-fed labeled beef. 2025-04-1853 min

The Food ChainEp 1390 Cholesterol Conundrum?Michael Olson hosts Tobias Yeh – Doctor of Pharmacy, Doctor of Medicine and Author of Clinical Truths: How to Not Be Misled by the FDA, Big Pharma & Your Doctor, for a conversation about the use of statin drugs to manage cholesterol. Cholesterol is the waxy stuff of life that floats through the rivers of our blood veins. To manage this flow of cholesterol, people take $16 billion of statin drugs every year. That leads us to ask: Should we take statin drugs to manage our cholesterol? Topics include why – upon doctors’ orders – 50% of men and 3...2025-04-0958 min

The Food ChainEp 1389 Call-of-the-Wild MeatThere is, one hopes, a little call-of-the-wild left in all of us – even those of us who live in a concrete box stacked 40 stories high in a city sky! That call leads us to ask: Where can one get a good taste of wild meat? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Daniel Laggner, Owner & Butcher, Wild Stag Provisions, for a conversation about food that is as close to the wild as commercially possible. Topics include why one would want to eat wild meat w...2025-04-0154 min

The Food ChainEp. 1388 Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael OlsonThey live where we can’t see them for a very good reason! They come in the night – and during the day– to steal the precious fruits of our labor. Their unrelenting assault on our good nature leads us to ask: How can we get that #%*%# gopher? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Thomas Wittman of Gophers Limited, for a conversation about controlling gophers in the farm and garden. Topics include why gophers make farmers and gardeners so frustrated; the ways in which gophers are controlled on the farm a...2025-03-2757 min

The Food ChainFood InflationMichael Olson hosts Dr. Jacob Manlove, Assistant Professor of Ag Economics, Arkansas State University MSN recently served up some news that caught my attention. The headline read, “Venezuela triples wages but still not enough to buy food.” The writer went on to say that Venezuela’s new minimum wage of seven million bolivares per month is not enough buy two pounds of meat. Shortly after reading this story I enjoyed a leisurely meal with my lady at a nearby sit-down restaurant. The meal wa...2025-03-2153 min

The Food ChainEp 1387 Feeding the FamilyMichael Olson host Nutritionist / Author Jill Troderman Some facts: One in five children are obese. Two in five adults are obese. The rate at which we are becoming obese has doubled since 1990. A question: What should we feed the family? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Jill Troderman, award-winning nutritionist and author of The Food Tree, for a conversation about how best to feed one’s family. Topics include why so many are so overweight; the health dangers of eating too much of the wrong foods; and how...2025-03-1353 min

The Food ChainFrench Chef – Taking the Heat!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 fo...2025-03-0753 min

China NowEp. 1385 Bee-ing there for 900,000,000,000 Blossoms.When the fruit and nut trees in California’s Central Valley explode into mile upon mile of blossoms, the bees simply must be there! That leads us to ask: How do bees get to bee-ing there for all those blossoms? The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Jason Miller, Apiarist, Miller Honey Farms, Newcastle, CA, for a conversation about pollinating the West's fruit and nut trees. Topics include the annual migration of the nation's apiarists to the blossoms of California's Central Valley; how the apiarists' pollination services changed the nature...2025-02-2746 min

The Food ChainFood Crash - A Farmer on OffenseA 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...2025-02-1853 min

The Food ChainEp 1383 About Food: A Farmer On DefenseAccording 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 woul...2025-02-1245 min

The Food ChainEp. 1382 Infertility on the MenuFood Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson Infertility on the Menu 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 l...2025-01-2846 min

The Food ChainANATOMY OF THE FOOD RECALLFood 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 tra...2025-01-2347 min

The Food ChainEp. 1380 Biodynamic Lotions, Potions & NotionsHippocrates 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 pot...2025-01-1653 min

The Food ChainEp. 1379 Farming Flowers for the TableKaysea Clark, Owner & Farmer, Flowers by the Sea They say “The eyes are first to feast!” If such is indeed the case, we wonder, 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...2025-01-1053 min

The Food ChainEp. 1357 Yellowstone's King CorvidFred 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 be...2024-12-1953 min

The Food ChainEp. 1378 Kennedy's MAHA MomentDavid 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 he...2024-12-1546 min

The Food ChainEp. 1378 Food Chain Radio: 2024's Food RevolutionThey 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 th...2024-12-1246 min

The Food ChainEp. 1377 Real Food from Real Farmers - Guaranteed!Michael Olson with Catherine Barr, Executive Director, Monterey Bay Area Certified Farmers Markets In the 1826 edition of The Physiology of Taste, Jean Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” Then in the 1863 edition of Spiritualism and Materialism, German philosopher Ludwig Feurerbach wrote, “A man is what he eats.” Today, in the 1377th edition of the Food Chain Radio Show, Michael Olson is jumping into the conversation by saying, “If we are what we eat, then we are what our food ate.” Following tha...2024-12-0551 min

The Food ChainEp. The Tyranny of Oligarch FoodMichael Olson with Tereza Corragio, Author, How to Dismantle an Empire America’s big money oligarchs are buying up the world’s farmland and its fake-food companies. Guessing at what their intentions might be leads us to ask: Can we escape the tyranny of oligarch food? Topics include how communities lose their food and financial sovereignty to the empire of debt; how the empire of debt might be dismantled with community banking; and how to begin the dismantling. 2024-11-3053 min

The Food ChainEp. 1376 FEEDING BABY POUCH FOODA FOOD CHAIN RELEASE FROM MICHAEL OLSON The hungry baby is crying for food. The harried parent is short on time. The solution: Give baby a baby food pouch. But that solution leads us to ask: Do convenience pouch foods do a baby’s body good? The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, Research Fellow, George Institute, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, and Author of “An Evaluation of the Nutritional and Promotional Profile of Commercial Foods for Infants and Toddlers in the United States...2024-11-1453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1296 Defending Beef!Michael Olson hosts Nicolette Hahn Niman, Author, Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Beef We have been told that cows cause the climate to change by emitting greenhouse gas. Now we are told to replace the beef we eat with patented, manufactured meat-like substances. And so we ask: Should beef be banned? Topics include a look at why some believe the cattle industry should be terminated to save the environment; why others believe we must work with cattle to save the environment; and a consideration of the nutritional value of eating be...2024-11-0853 min

The Food ChainEp. 1314 The Blue RevolutionHost Michael Olson with guest Nicholas Sullivan, Senior Researcher, Tufts University, Author of The Blue Revolution Fishermen used to rely on good luck to haul in the big catch. But when they began relying on information, instead of luck, they almost caught all the fish in the sea. That leads us to ask: Can we catch fish so there will be fish left to be caught? Topics include how the world’s most productive fisheries were fished out; what some nations are doing to create sustainable fisheries; and how the farming of fish is r...2024-10-3153 min

The Food ChainEp. 1375 Hawaii's Condominium FarmingMichael Olson with Peter Savio, Savio Realty LTD, Honolulu, HI In the 1970s, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz told America’s farmers to “Get big or get out.” Since Butz made his proclomation, farms have been getting bigger, and farmers have been getting fewer. This leads us contrarians to ask: Can unprofitable big farms be converted into profitable small farms? Topics include how real estate developer Peter Savio converted Hawaii’s defunct plantations into income-generating condominium farms; how condominium farmers generate a huge cash income from their 1 or 2 acre-sized farms; and how the co...2024-10-1753 min

The Food ChainEp. 1374 Costs of Alcohol on the Body and MindTechnology has given us the ability to look deep into the human body, and to see how the body reacts to various environmental stimuli. That being the case, we simply must ask: Does alcohol do a body good? The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Timothy B. Sullivan, Doctor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine, for a conversation about alcohol’s effects on the body and mind. Topics include the 9,000 year history of the human use and abuse of alcohol; how many of the studies that tout the health benefits of alco...2024-10-1253 min

The Food ChainAgainst the Big Food MergerClaire Kelloway, Manager, Food Systems Program, Open Markets Institute As is true with the fish swimming in the sea, big companies grow bigger by eating smaller companies. That being the case, we simply must ask: Should Kroger be allowed to eat Albertsons? The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Claire Kelloway, Manager, Food Systems Program, Open Markets, for a conversation about the consolidation of the nation’s grocery stores. Topics include why Kroger and Albertsons believe they must merge to survive; why some believe that a merger...2024-10-0353 min

The Food ChainEp. 1372 A Big Food Merger of ConvenienceMichael Olson hosts Scott Moses, Partner, Solomon Partners Head of Grocery, Pharmacy and Restaurnts, for a conversation about the consolidation of the nation’s grocery stores. Should Kroger and Albertsons be allowed to merge? For the moment, you and I live in the small town of Anywhere, USA. There are two grocers in town, Deluxe Food on North Main and Star Market on South Main. Deluxe and Star have been competing for our grocery dollars by offering their best prices on food. Sometimes Deluxe has the best prices and wins our dollars, other times Star wins. ...2024-09-2653 min

The Food ChainEp. 1371 Just In-Time FoodMichael Olson hosts Robert Wolcott & Kaihan Krippendorff, Co-Authors, Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-In-Time Transform Business, Society and Daily Life. It is said that food now travels an average of 1200 miles from where it was grown to where it is eaten. If one were to look forward a hundred years into the future, from a hundred years in the past – when people lived on farms and ate food they grew those farms – one would think that 1200-mile food chain of the future to be an impossibility. And yet, here we are, eating food that t...2024-09-2651 min

The Food ChainEp. 1370 Winning The Fight for the Right to GardenMichael Olson hosts Nicole Virgil, Gardener and Practitioner of Christian Science, for a conversation about winning the right to garden. Topics include how municipal governments prohibit residents from establishing gardens in their yards, why Nicole Virgil refused to accept that prohibition; and how Nicole’s fight for the right to garden resulted in Illinois becoming the second state in the U.S. to guarantee residents the right to garden. One thing we learned from the Covid years is that our food chain has some very weak links, and that is a cause for con...2024-09-2653 min

The Food ChainEp. 1369 Giving a Damn FoodMichael Olson hosts Will Harris, Farmer, Rancher and Author of Giving a Damn: A Bold Return to Giving A Damn for a conversation about giving a damn farming and ranching. Topics include why conventional farming and ranching were industrialized into commodity agriculture; why some farmers and ranchers are returning to conventional agriculture; and what it means to be “give a damn” farmers and ranchers. I spent many of my early summers growing up on the Grandparents’ farm near Belfry, Montana. The farm was a 360-acre boy wonderland, as it contained most all of the...2024-09-2653 min

The Food ChainEp. 1368: Healed by HorseCharlie Jenks, Founder, Connecting Vets with Horses (Animals as Emotional and Cognitive Therapists for humans) To heal one’s broken body, frazzled nerves or confused mind, one could take the drugs, as many do… or one could hop into the saddle and ride the horse. And so we ask… How can one be healed by horse? To heal our broken bodies, frazzled nerves and confused minds, we Americans take drugs, and we take lots of them. But what if… What if we could be healed by horse? Now, had it n...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1367: Thanatology - What Animals Think of DeathSusana Monso, Author, Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death Every person thinks about where we all will eventually go, but no person knows for certain where we will go. This leads some people to think about the animals for which we have taken dominion, and wonder: What do animals think about dying? Up and down the food chain, it is eat and be eaten. This elemental fact gives rise among people to thanatology, which is the study of death. Today we begin our Food Chain discussion with some concluding thoughts about tha...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp.1366: Wild Horses? Let Em Run!Lacy J Dalton, President, Let Em Run Foundation & Internationally acclaimed Country and Western Music Recording Star (Wild Horse Management, Policies and Procedures) 83,000 horses and burros roam wild and free throughout the empty spaces of the great American West. Though some very serious voices say they should not be allowed to run free, other serious voices say, “Let em run!” And so we ask: Should we let wild horses run free? Out here in the great American West, there is still a lot of wide open spaces. But as Aristotle once said, “Nature abho...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp.1365: California's Certified Farmers MarketsJennifer Leidolf, CDFA Direct Marketing Program Supervisor &Joshua W. Bingham, Public Information Officer II, Division of Inspection Services (Farmers Market Certification, Governance and Marketing) When it comes to which farms get the most help from the government, the answer is most always the biggest farms. This leads us to ask: Can there be a government program that helps small farms more than big farms? Our federal government hands out a lot of money to farmers. How much is a lot? In 2021 it was about $14.5 billion. Which farms get the gove...2024-08-0454 min

The Food ChainEp. 1364: Bone-Building BrothCindy Campos, Weston A. Price Foundation, and Andrew Renard and Michelle Carter, Kitchen Table Cultures (Traditional Nourishing Food, Bone broth, Bone broth recipes) All ancient cultures included bones in their diets. The ancients ate bones because they tasted good and strengthened their own bones. Then along came modern times and broken bones! And so we pause to ask: Should we look to ancient diets to strengthen weak bodies? Like many, I often started my day with a hot cup of strong coffee. The heat warmed me up and the caffeine jerked me a...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1363: A Mexican Maize StandoffCarey Gillam, Author, The Monsanto Papers & Research Director, U.S. Right to Know (GMOs, WTO, Glyphosate, International Food trade) After standing firm on its plan to ban genetically modified corn from Germany, and the attendant pesticides from China, Mexico capitulated to the demands of the United States and cancelled its plan to ban. That leads us to ask: Why did Mexico stand-down from its GMO maize stand-off? A while back I participated in a panel discussion at the U.S. Farmer and Rancher Alliance International Biotech conference in Chicago. The su...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1362: Bonders Metropolitan BeesEmily Bonder, Apiarist & Educator, Santa Cruz Bee Company (metropolitan bee keeping, apiarists, honey bees) They say bees are responsible for one-third of every bite of food we eat. Given how much we love to eat, and how much we love to hear the buzzing of bees, we simply must ask: How does one keep bees in the city? We all know how important honeybees are to the productivity of natural and man-made food chains. And so, when we look about the garden and see fewer and fewer bees every year...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1361: Driscoll's - Barons of Berries?Austin Frerick, Author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry (Food industry consolidation, Driscoll's Berries, Across the landscape of American agriculture, one can see where there were many, there are now few. What we see leads us to ask: Is it better to have a few big farms or many small farms? The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Austin Frerick, Author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, for a conversation about the consolidation of the nation’s food cha...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1360: Maizie's Marketing MagicMaisie Ganzler, Chief Strategy and Brand Officer Bon Appetit Management Company & Author, You Can’t Market Manure at Lunchtime (Food marketing, advertising and public relations) He who has a thing to sell, and goes and whispers in a well, is not so apt to get the dollars, as she who climbs a tree and hollers! And so we ask: How does one win the minds and dollars of those who eat food? Much of our food now comes from far, far away, where it was grown, processed and packaged with mysterious techno...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1359: Local Versus NaturalFred Provenza, Emeritus Professor of Behavioral Ecology, Utah State University & Author of Nourishment: What animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom (Food Nutrition and Labeling) The supply chain that feeds our food chain now extends across the country and around the world. Given what we see happening across our country, and around the world, we simply must ask: Can we go back home again with food? I just returned from attending Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, which bills itself as the having the largest collection of natural, organic and...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1358: Meadowlark - The Canary of the PrairieJohn Marzluff, Emeritus Professor of Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Author of In Company of Meadowlarks (Environmental Degradation and the Vanishing of Song birds) Meadowlarks are the canaries of the prairie. Where one hears their song, its safe to go out onto the prairie. But where the meadlark’s song is no longer heard, there is danger on the prairie. And so we ask: Can people get enough to eat if canaries sing? Having grown up on that narrow slice of geography that lies between the peaks of the Rocky Mo...2024-08-0447 min

The Food ChainEp. 1357: Yellowstone's Crows of WinterJohn Marzluff, Emeritus Professor of Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Author of In the Company of Crows and Ravens (Animal Nutrition and Environment) 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? There was a stretch of years when wife Marlene and I would sneak off to Cooke...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1356: Carnivore, Herbivore or Omnivore?Fred Provenza, Emeritus Professor of Behavioral Ecology at Utah State University, Author of Nourtishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom (Animal and Human Natural Nutrition) One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Carnivore, herbivore or omnivore? Back in the day… Way back in...2024-08-0447 min

The Food ChainEp. 1355: A Taste of PlaceFred Provenza, Author, Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom (Animal & Human Environmental Nutrition) Animals learn what to eat, and what not to eat, from their mothers – before they are born. It is a taste they pick up in utero, as the mother eats her way across the landscape. If such is the case, we wonder: What tastes are American mothers teaching their children to desire? Researchers believe that humans have been using plants as medicine for over 1,650,000 years. Birds, fish, insects, and other mammals are also known t...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1354 Moms Versus Toxic FoodZen Honeycutt, Founder & Executive Director of Moms Across America / Author of Unstoppable: Transforming Sickness and Struggle Into Triumph, Empowerment and a Celebration of Community Over 80 million Americans, including over one-third of the nation’s children and adolescents, eat fast food every day. And some eat it multiple times a day! This leads us to ask: Can America’s moms chase the dangerous chemicals out of fast food Over 80 million Americans, including over one-third of the nation’s children and adolescents, eat fast food every day. And some eat it multiple times a day...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1353 A Fountain of Youth DietDr. Michael Greger, Author, How Not To Age (Diet, Nutrition, Aging) We have been searching for that proverbial fountain of youth for as long as we have been capable of searching. Though we have searched in many places, and spent many fortunes doing so, we still grow old. This leads us to ask: Can we maintain what we have, so we can retain what we want? As we grow old, we begin resisting the fact that we are growing old. And so we begin our resistance by searching for a fountain of yo...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1351: Farming for the Certified Farmers MarketsAllen Moy, Executive Director, Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association (California's Certified Farmers Markets) They say, in the United States food travels an average of 1,500 miles from where it is grown to where it is eaten. That leads us to ask: Can city dwellers close the distance to their food? We begin with Michael Olson’s Second Law of the Food Chain: The farther we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over what’s in our food. If, as is said, the average...2024-08-0447 min

The Food ChainEp. 1350: Farming Green HydrogenMike Keller, Michael A. Keller Associates Turning ice into hydrogen fuel They say, if we can get to the South Pole of the Moon, we can convert some of the frozen water we find there into rocket fuel that will take us on to the next best place. That leads us to ask: Can hydrogen be farmed to fuel our future? Topics include the prospects of turning water into rocket fuel; the difference between blue and green hydrogen; and how hydrogen might be used to clean the environment and fuel the eco...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1349 Farming CommunityTOM BROZ, FARMER OF THE YEAR, LIFE EARTH FARM Community Supported Agriculture Community is where everybody works together today to ensure that everybody can eat tomorrow. This thought leads us to ask: How does one farm community? A while ago, I had a consulting contract on the island nation of Cyprus. The task was to find a crop with an economy sufficient to repopulate an agricultural plateau near the village of Akourdahleia, that had been depopulated by the jobs available in coastal casinos. As I strolled the plateau with my...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1348 Farming NatureJO ANN BAUMGARTNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WILD FARM ALLIANCE & SAM EARNSHAW, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEDGEROWS UNLIMITED When an outbreak of Ecoli killed three people and sickened 200 others a couple of decades ago, those in charge of food safety began discouraging the existence of wildlife on farms. This leads us to ask: Should wild life be allowed back on farms? Back in 2006, a multistate outbreak of E. Coli O157:H7 killed three and sickened an additional 202. The source of that E. Coli was found to be spinach from California, and the cause was...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1347 Farming ChildrenJESSICA RIDGEWAY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FARM DISCOVERY AT LIVE EARTH When people moved off the farm into the city, they took their children with them. What children find on the streets of the city does not appear to bode well for their future nor the future of country. And so we ask… How can we lead children back to the farm? I had the good fortune to having lived on the grandparents’ Montana farm when very young. I still remember, to this day, driving my first working tractor at the age of six. It wasn’t a...2024-08-0454 min

The Food ChainEp. 1345 Glyphosate Lab TomatoDR. JOHN FAGAN, HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE LABS There are many ways in which industrialization has served to make food cheap. One way is to subvert the growth of natural competitors, like weeds, with herbicides, like glyphosate. This leads us to ask… What happens to the chemicals after they have been used to made food cheap? In the 1930s, people began the migration from the farm into the city. Those farmers who were left on the farm began growing food with money, which they used to buy equipment and chemicals to do the work that pe...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainEp. 1345 Microgreens - Maximum NutritionKen Kimes & Sandra Ward, New Natives, Microgreens It is really simple: Sow some uncontaminated seeds in organic soil. Add clean water, fresh air and sunshine. Then enjoy eating the maximum nutrition of microgreens. This leads us to ask: If it really is this simple, why doesn’t everybody eat microgreens? It seems as though we are running out of food. That is not to say that we are running out of things to eat. No! On the contrary, there are many things to eat, and they are cheap, too! And yet, so many o...2024-08-0453 min

The Food ChainTending to California’s Golden Agriculture with Karen Ross, California Secretary of AgricultureTending to California's Golden Agriculture Karen Ross, California's Secretary of Agriculture Begin with a Mediterranean climate; add a long range of mountains to collect and store winter’s precipitation; carve out a deep valley at the foot of those mountains, then add to that valley rich, alluvial soils. It is a fact, the nation’s Golden State was designed and built for agriculture. Stand back and have a look: California’s 77,000 farms and ranches produce nearly $50 billion dollars of revenue a year, and that is nearly double the revenue produced by #2 Iowa. ...2024-01-1547 min

The Food ChainIndia Joz - Fusion FoodieGuest: Chef & Restaurateur India Jozseph Schultz His India Joze restaurant was the West Coast capital of fusion food-ism. The taste that lingers of that fusion leads one to ask Jozseph Schultz: How can one cook East in the West so the hungry return for more? Topics include how India Joze served an ever-changing menu of the world’s spicy foods in a commercial restaurant; how that restaurant become a cultural hotspot; and how a restaurant that fuses so many culinary traditions with so many cultural traditions can survive as a business. 2024-01-0447 min

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael OlsonFarming the City's Parking LotsJeff Herman, Editor in Chief, Lawn Starter I once worked as a story producer for NBC Magazine with David Brinkley. One story we told was about the “survivalists” who believe the economy is going to collapse and so move more than one tank of gas from the nearest big city, where they arm themselves with defensive weapons, store up canned foods, and hunker down to wait. Our story was titled, “Armed for Armageddon.” To get our establishing shot we took the network camera and talent to a hilltop overlooking the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon. “Beyond you can see th...2023-11-1047 min

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael OlsonA Serendipitous Stroll through Agriculture, Part IVVarious Participants World Ag Expo, Tulare, California How do they grow our food? Given the extent to which we take food for granted, and how far we have removed ourselves from the source of food, and how much we pay for cheap food, we think it wise to pause and ask those at the source: How do you grow our food? Welcome to Part IV of our “Serendipitous Stroll” through the world of agriculture at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California. I am Michael Olson, and...2023-05-0948 min

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael OlsonA Serendipitous Stroll Through Agriculture: Part IIIA Serendipitous Stroll Into Agriculture III Various Participants World Ag Expo, Tulare, California How do they make our food appear? As if by some kind of magic, our grocery stores get filled with food in the middle of the night, while we are sleeping! It happens every night, and every morning there is food to eat! That food is always there in the morning we take for granted– even the fresh tomatoes we eat in the middle of winter! It’s time to meet the magicians of food, and ask...2023-04-2847 min

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael OlsonA Serendipitous Stroll Through Agriculture, IThe World Ag Expo Tulare, CA We all get our food from grocery stores, and we all take that food for granted– even those fresh tomatoes we eat in the middle of winter! It’s time to meet the people who provide us with the food we take for granted, and ask: How do you provide us with all our food? Welcome to our “Serendipitous Stroll” through the world of agriculture at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California. I am Michael Olson, and I will be guiding this stroll...2023-04-1347 min

The Frankie Boyer ShowCANNABIS TALK A TO Z: Thunder Walker of Proud Mary Holdings; Best of Cannabis Show w Michael Olson and Elliott AaronThunder Walker https://www.womenpushingdirt.com/https://proudmaryholdings.com/Best of Cannabis Show w Michael Olson and Elliott Aaron originally aired 10.07.2022Thunder Walker is a successful self-starter and exceptional leader in the real estate industry, Thunder Walker is a mom, an intuitive, a God, and a cannabis and CBD influencer now applying her 3 decades of business acumen towards the cannabis space. Thunder devoted 30 years of her career to real estate, which culminated in Breathe Capital Group Corp, her own registered builder company in Dallas, TX. Over the last 7 years, Thunder has made a name...2022-11-2539 min

The Frankie Boyer ShowCANNABIS Talk A to Z: Michael Olson and Elliott Aaronhttps://metrofarm.com/https://takecbdtoday.com/contactMichael Olson, author of the Ben Franklin Book of the Year award-winning MetroFarm, is the host of The Food Chain, an audience-interactive syndicated news talk radio program airing live Saturdays from 9am to 10am Pacific time. The Food Chain, which has been named the Ag/News Show of the Year by California's legislature. http://www.foodchainradio.com/Elliott Aaron is founder of Today CBD. They offer a viable, safe accessible option to the discomfort so many others share. Today CBD only uses premium CBD from local Wisconsin...2022-10-0739 min

The Frankie Boyer ShowPat Gentile CPA & Hugh WoodwardMichael Olson, author of the Ben Franklin Book of the Year award-winning MetroFarm, is the host of The Food Chain, an audience-interactive syndicated news talk radio program airing live Saturdays from 9am to 10am Pacific time. The Food Chain, which has been named the Ag/News Show of the Year by California's legislature. http://www.foodchainradio.com/Matt Avery aka Master Roachee, is the founder and CEO of Master Roachee’s Garden. Matt has been involved with Hemp and Cannabis since the late 80’s and has watched the evolution. https://masterroacheesgarden.com/15% Off discount if they appl...2021-12-1339 min

The Frankie Boyer ShowMichael Olson, Host Of The Food Chain Radio ShowMichael Olson, host of The Food Chain radio show, and author of the Ben Franklin Book of the Year award-winning MetroFarm, joins the program today to discuss possible industrial uses of cannabis and what must be done to farm hemp in homes. The Food Chain is available live via GCN Starguide GE 8 and delayed via MP3/FTP. For more information, email Michael Olson at michaelo@metrofarm.comAlso on the program is a former television news anchor suffering from Multiple Sclerosis weened herself off of the daily intake of nine pharmaceuticals, retooled her health regimen, and started focusing...2021-06-1239 min