Interviews

The future is abundant, asserts permaculture designer Larry Santoyo. His vision of living in the present provides a wonderful antidote to fear about uncertain futures. People need to rediscover that we're part of the ecosystem, and apply permaculture design principles to the many problems we face. Larry teaches sustainable permaculture design as a discovery of the world around us. He notes that trying to be self-sufficient is really anti-permaculture. Instead, we need to develop self-reliance skills. Then as we find others in our communities to interact with, everybody gets to play!

Part VII of The Local Grain Revolution series featured a full episode on the sailing of locally-grown grains from the Creston Valley of British Columbia to the City of Nelson. A fleet of four boats transported 5,000 pounds of the grains. Shortly after the grains were unloaded in Nelson, sailor Jay Blackmore embarked on another journey, however, this time, on-line. He was keen to find other intrepid communities who were too exploring the practice of sailing food...Dave spoke to Deconstructing Dinner over the phone and shared his exciting business model of a fossil-fuel free distribution system for zucchinis, tomatoes, and many other fresh vegetables.

Since March 2008, Deconstructing Dinner has featured The Local Grain Revolution - a series tracking the evolution of Canada's first community supported agriculture (CSA) project for grain. On this eighth episode, we listen in on a workshop hosted by a member of the CSA, Lorraine Carlstrom. Just as the project has already spawned involvement from many individuals and businesses in the region, Lorraine recognized yet another gap needing to be filled... education in the kitchen. When the 180 CSA members received their 80+lbs of whole grains in December 2008, many members were left wondering what to do with them. Lorraine stepped forward to offer classes to teach members how to use their grains. Among those offered, Deconstructing Dinner recorded one of her first... sourdough waffles.

Since March 2008, The Local Grain Revolution series has been following the evolution of Canada's first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project for grain.

The project has inspired a wave of support from the communities of Nelson and Creston, including support from the Kootenay Lake Sailing Association. In September 2008, a group of sailors approached the CSA and offered to sail as much of the grain as they could from the Creston Valley to Nelson along Kootenay Lake. In less than a month, four sailboats had committed to the weekend excursion and Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman joined the crew of the Kelpie so that listeners could, at the very least, take an audible part in the exciting fossil-fuel free mission.

Crop To Cuisine gives you the exclusive sneak peak into this years Aspen Food & Wine Classic. The festival has come to be a destination for some of the worlds most recognized celebrity chefs. And while these people have paved the way for a culture of food, we are drawing attention towards those in the industry that are working towards sustainable food & farming practices. You don't want to miss this episode of Crop To Cuisine. We hear from Chef Michel Nischan, a good friend of the late Paul Newman and the founder of the Wholesome Wave Foundation. We also speak with Peter Jacobsen. Peter has been a farmer in California's Napa Valley for over 28 years, and has worked closely with some of the worlds greatest chefs, including Thomas Keller (The French Laundry) and Michael Chiarello (Restaurant Bottega). Our guests also include a team of Colorado Chefs and Brewers, offering food, wine and beer pairings at the Aspen event, using almost entirely locally and sustainably grown products.

What does a modern, productive food system without fossil fuels look like and how might we get there? In this episode of The Reality Report, host Jason Bradford speaks with Michael Bomford of Kentucky State University. Mike discusses his research on the energy and labor inputs of different farming methods and covers much of the information contained in the booklet “The Food and Farming Transition" co-authored with Richard Heinberg.

Richard Heinberg was interviewed on CBC radio in "Peru Oil Standoff", a segment of the CBC daily show The Current.

John Weber's Boise, Idaho house with south-facing windows rarely needs heat and never air conditioning. Meet a man who has built a passive-solar house with solar electric power and solar hot water; plus a solar-powered electric car — and who rides a bike! With photovoltaics tied to the grid, he sells surplus electricity back to the power company. John shows how he converted his "Sun Car" from a junked Festiva to all-electric, with added solar panels on top to extend its range. Ride with us — and hear how quiet it is!

In this episode of Crop To Cuisine, we connect the dots between out outdated and broken economic system and our food system. We speak with founder of the Slow Money Alliance, Woody Tasch. We also visit a local farm to see how Slow Money principles can take shape and sustain a farm well into the future. We also hear from Master Gardener Carol O'Meara as the gardening season takes off. Aired on May 4, 2009.

As the economy shrinks so does our consumption. Do we view this as a bad thing or an opportunity? Jim Merkel and Peter Lawrence chose to earn less money and live more simply. We’ll find out how they do it, and how they like it on the Reality Report.

In this episode of Crop To Cuisine we speak with food activist, humanitarian, and animal welfare advocate, Art Eggertsen. Art has worn many hats during his long career in food and health. He joins us in the studio to discuss his accomplishments, his new projects, and his thoughts on the future of food in this country. We hear about lobbying for animal welfare, health, life in Utah, and the planned sustainable community called Entelechy.