Green Grid Radio

Engaging and transformative reporting on the environment, energy, and sustainability


Leave a comment

S3E8: One Nation Under Meat: The American Dream Strikes Back

This week we returned to the topic of meat production and food systems, exploring political and economic barriers to change in the U.S. and abroad, ways to move toward a less environmentally and socially destructive food system, and our own thoughts and perspectives on these critical issues. Like last week, we followed the wisdom of one of our guests, Dan Blumstein, and experimented with talking about food over food; Green Grid Radio team members Mallory, Adam, Erik and Diane discussed politics, education, climate change and energy, the world food economy, interconnections in the food system, local food, diversification, American eating habits and social norms, top-down versus bottom-up change, and more!

S3E8: One Nation, Under Meat: The American Dream Strikes Back

Image attributed to Meriwether, American Meat (2013)

Guests include: Stanford undergraduate student Caroline Hodge; Matt Rothe, Fellow at the Institute of Design at Stanford; Environmental Earth System Science Professor Rosamond Naylor, of the Center on Food Security and the EnvironmentGraham Meriwether, Director of the documentary American MeatEli Zigas, Food Systems and Urban Agriculture Program Manager at San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association; UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Professor Dan Blumstein, author of Eating Our Way to Civility; Professor Christopher Gardner of the Stanford School of MedicineVasile Stanescu, Stanford PhD candidate in the Program of Modern Thought and Literature; and Debra Dunn, co-founder of FEED Collaborative and Professor at the Institute of Design at Stanford.

Hosted by Mallory Smith and Erik Olesund.

Resources mentioned in this podcast: the American “Farm Bill“; “Quinoa’s Global Success Creates Quandary at Home,” from the New York Times (2011); “High-yield agriculture slows pace of global warming, say Stanford researchers,” from Stanford News (2010); Carnegie Mellon study comparing carbon emission reductions of eating local versus reducing meat consumption (2008); American Meat documentary.

Music featured by James Pants, Candlegravity, Dexter Britain, Sycamore Drive, Podington Bear, and Gable.


Leave a comment

Coming up in S3E8: One Nation, Under Meat: The American Dream Strikes Back

This Thursday, we’ll dive back in right where we left off last week in our discussion of meat production and food systems.  While the first hour of this two-part series diagnosed some of the symptoms of our failing meat industry, the next hour will explore food on a broader level: How did we get here? What are the barriers that prevent meaningful reform? Does the world food economy suffer from the same flaws that plague us here in the U.S.? What can each of us do to provoke change?

S3E8: We Meat Again: A Tragic Love Story of the American Appetite

Image attributed to Kevin Uhrmacher/NPR , “A Nation of Meat Eaters” (2012)

Make sure to tune in to KZSU 90.1FM on Thursday, 6-7PM PST, or stream the show live on kzsulive.stanford.edu. As always, the show will also be available shortly after on this site and our iTunes podcast.


Leave a comment

S3E7: One Nation, Under Meat: A Tragic Love Story Of the American Appetite

The Green Grid Radio team sliced into a meaty topic this week: the broken American food production system, specifically focusing on meat. Today turkeys cannot naturally reproduce and must be artificially inseminated, 60 billion farm animals are annually killed for human consumption worldwide, and we consume eight times as much chicken as our grandparents did eighty years ago. What else is going on in meat production?

dinnerpartyThe Green Grid Radio team talking about meat at our dinner party.

Guests include: Stanford undergraduate student Caroline Hodge; Matt Rothe, Fellow at the Institute of Design at Stanford; Environmental Earth System Science Professor Rosamond Naylor, of the Center on Food Security and the EnvironmentGraham Meriwether, Director of the documentary American MeatEli Zigas, Food Systems and Urban Agriculture Program Manager at San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association; UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Professor Dan Blumstein, author of Eating Our Way to Civility; Professor Christopher Gardner of the Stanford School of Medicine; and Vasile Stanescu, Stanford PhD candidate in the Program of Modern Thought and Literature.

Hosted by Mallory Smith and Adam Pearson.

Resources mentioned in this podcast: “Give Thanks for Meat,” an essay by Jay Bost; FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) report “Livestock’s Long Shadow” (2006); Peter Singer’s book, Animal Liberation; the American “Farm Bill“; the American Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (1958); “Unnatural Turkeys” Freakanomics podcast (2011).

Audio featured, in chronological order, by Keshco, My Imaginary LovesChris ForsythShake That Foot, Dan Warren, Gable, MUTE, and Personal and the Pizzas.


Leave a comment

Coming Up in S3E7: One Nation, Under Meat: A Tragic Love Story Of the American Appetite

A very wise person at Stanford once explained that changing food habits is a powerful way for an individual to reduce his or her environmental impact, because every single day, three times a day, we sit down to eat. So are there choices you can make every single day, that will make a difference? We sat down with people– a lot of people– students, scholars, and animal rights activists, folks at non-profits, nutritionists and professors from more than one institution, seeking insight into the food system (especially the meat industry) today. We present the results of our roller-coaster ride through the world of meat on Thursday.

turkey

Make sure to listen live at 90.1FM if you’re in the Bay Area or online at kzsulive.stanford.edu from 6-7PM PST. Shortly thereafter, we will post the podcast to this site and make it available via our iTunes podcast.


Leave a comment

Founder Adam Pearson featured on “Green Is Good”

Want to know more about how the producers approach Green Grid Radio? Founder Adam Pearson was recently featured on the satellite XM radio program Green Is Good. The program aired on Sirius XM channel 244 on June 3rd.
AP

Take a listen to the interview here, and read more about Adam’s discussion with host John Shegerian here.