What's in store for the future of farmland in the US?

On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the value of agricultural land and how we can keep from losing it. Between 1982 and 2007, over 41 million acres of rural land in the US were developed. How much viable farmland is left? Where is it? Who owns it? Join us at 10 or email feedback@yourcallradio.org. Should we have a policy to protect farmland? What would that look like? How does the loss of farm land impact food production and local agriculture? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar, and You.

Guests:
Ed Thompson, California director & senior associate with the American Farmland Trust

Ned Conwell, co-founder of Blue House Farm in Pescadero and regional advocate for land access through Pie Ranch in San Mateo county.

Constance Washburn, community outreach director with the Marin Agricultural Land Trust

Click to Listen: What's in store for the future of farmland in the US?

How are genetically engineered crops affecting food?

How are genetically engineered crops affecting agriculture and the food supply? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and how they are changing the landscape of food and farming. An estimated 70 percent of processed foods contain genetically engineered ingredients. And more than 270,000 organic farmers filed a lawsuit against Monsanto this year for the right to keep a portion of the world food supply organic. So what do we need to know about how GMOs are affecting farmers and consumers? Join us at 10 or email feedback@yourcallradio.org. It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Eric Holt-Gimenez, executive director of Food First and author of Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice

 Ignacio Chapela, associate professor of microbial ecology at UC Berkeley

 Mike Ludwig, Truthout reporter who covers the biotech industry

 Jim Gerritsen, organic seed farmer in northern Maine and one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Monsanto

 Click to Listen: How are genetically engineered crops affecting food?

Do slaughterhouse videos influence you?

Do slaughterhouse videos change your opinion of how animals should be treated? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about undercover investigations into how animals are slaughtered for food. Have you been influenced by amateur videos and how? Join us live at 10 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. There have been efforts in many states to make these videos illegal. What do these videos reveal about how we treat animals? And should they be legislated? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Tom Laskawy, a contributing writer on food and agriculture for Grist Magazine

Nathan Runkle, the founder and executive director of Mercy For Animals

Click to Listen: Do slaughterhouse videos influence you?

What is it like to work on a farm today?

On the next Your Call, we'll mark Cesar Chavez's birthday by talking about the realities facing small farmers and farmworkers in the United States. A new report based on data from the Department of Labor has found that despite decades of struggle, California's farmworkers continue to live in poverty without adequate access to education and health care. Since 1990, socio-economic factors have barely budged. So what can be done to improve the lives of farm workers? Join us at 10 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests:
Al Rojas, farm labor activist

Guilebaldo Nunez, owner of Nunez Farms

Judith Redmond, co-owner of Full Belly Farm and secretary on the board of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers

Gerardo Reyes, farmworker and staff member of the Coalition of Imokalee Workers

Click to Listen: What is it like to work on a farm today?

Why are Americans wasting so much food?

On the next Your Call, we'll speak with Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of its Food (And What We Can Do About It). Every day, Americans waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl--while one in seven Americans go hungry. He says current rates of waste and population growth can't coexist for much longer. It's already turning into a serious environmental hazard, so what can we do about it? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest:
Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of its Food (And What We Can Do About It)

Click to Listen: Why are Americans wasting so much food?

How do people overcome abuse and neglect from childhood?

On the next Your Call, we'll speak with Liz Murray, author of Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, & My Journey From Homeless to Harvard. Growing up the daughter of drug addicts, Murray was often so hungry that she resorted to eating chapstick and toothpaste. She worked her way to a Harvard education and now serves undernourished children. What is it like to be a hungry child in America? Join us at 11 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. How do people overcome their own abuse to help others? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Liz Murray, author of Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, & My Journey From Homeless to Harvard

Click to Listen: How do people overcome abuse and neglect from childhood?

How does our food system reflect our society and our history?

On the next Your Call we'll talk to the authors of Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. With climate change, population growth, genetically modified organisms, market globalization, and corporate consolidation--what is happening to our food systems? And to us? Is the modern agricultural machine that feeds the world also destroying it? Join us live at 11 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. Could local food systems be a solution to global food crises? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Andrew Rimas, a journalist and the managing editor at the Improper Bostonian magazine

Evan Fraser, adjunct professor of geography at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds in the UK with a focus on farming, climate change and the environment

Click to Listen: How does our food system reflect our society and our history?

How can we ensure food safety without threatening small organic farmers?

On the next Your Call, we'll look at just what "food safety" means to Congress and the FDA. Senate Bill 510 would create stricter and more extensively enforced rules for produce growers. How would that bill affect small family farms and organic growers? Join us live at 11 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. The period for public comment on the bill ends in July. How do you want your food grown and handled? It's Your Call, with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest:
Dale Coke--organic farmer, Coke Farms
Jo Ann Baumgartner--director of the Wild Farm Alliance
Ken Kimes--organic farmer, New Natives Organic Sprouts

Click to Listen: How can we ensure food safety without threatening small organic farmers?

Can We Take the Factory Out of the Farm?

How are factory farms affecting the economy and the environment? On the next Your Call, we continue our Agenda for a New Economy series with David Kirby, author of the new book, Animal Factory. He digs into the world of industrial livestock and concludes that it's threatening human health and our environment. So what will it take to say no to feed lots and factory farms and support a sustainable alternative? Join us live at 11 or email feedback@yourcallradio.org. What are the costs for us and the animals? It's Your Call with me, Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guest:
David Kirby, investigative journalist and author of Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment.

Click to Listen: Can We Take the Factory Out of the Farm?

Your Call 070109 What happens when rural and urban collide?

What happens when rural and urban collide? On the next Your Call we'll speak with Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. Carpenter bought a dilapidated house next to a vacant lot in West Oakland and converted the open space into an urban homestead with chickens, goats, rabbits, pigs, two turkeys named Harold and Maude and a vegetable garden, all in a neighborhood without a supermarket. We'll take your emails at feedback@yourcallradio.org and your questions live at 11 a.m. Could a city really feed itself? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest:
Novella Carpenter in San Francisco
Author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer and proprietor of Ghost Town Farm, an urban farm in West Oakland

Click to Listen: What happens when rural and urban collide?

Your Call 032609 Why do we still eat meat?

Why do we still eat meat? On the next Your Call we speak with Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food. Each year somewhere on the order of 50 billion animals are killed each year for food. 60% of grain in the U.S. is used to feed cows and sheep and chickens and pigs and goats for slaughter. Fecal run-off spoils the rivers and the great supply chain that mixes beef from across the country and around the world is leading to outbreaks of salmonella and e coli, not to emotion the everyday diseases of meat consumption arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure and cancer. Yet very few Americans are vegetarian and few are convinced to stop eating meat when confronted by this data. Why? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson in San Francisco
Athor of The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food. He will appear at the VegNews Speaker Series @ Millenium in San Francisco on Tuesday, March 31, from 7-9 PM.

Click to Listen: Why do we still eat meat?

Your Call 021609 Is the FDA looking out for us?

What will it take to ensure the Food and Drug Administration adequately regulates our food system? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the FDA's food regulatory policies. The recent salmonella outbreak tied to the Peanut Corporation has killed eight and sickened more than 500 people across the country. How safe is our food system? What is the FDA doing to protect us? Is the agency on our side, or is it too close to food corporations? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Jaydee Hanson, a policy analyst on cloning with Center for Food Safety

William Hubbard, former Associate Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration

Click to Listen: Is the FDA looking out for us?

Your Call 122508 How do we save seeds?

What's the best way to go about preserving seeds and crop diversity? On the next Your Call, we'll replay a conversation we had about seeds and the Global Seed Vault. The vault was designed to protect the seeds that are essential to food production, but critics say the only way to truly preserve seeds in their natural form is to involve farmers. How can we guarantee that the food we eat today will be available for future generations? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Brewster Kneen, farmer, scholar, and publisher of the Ram's Horn, a monthly journal of food systems analysis

Claire Hope Cummings, author of Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds

Click to Listen: How do we save seeds?

Your Call 070808 Victory Gardens

Could planting a garden help save the world? On the next Your Call we'll talk about the pleasures and politics of tending and harvesting your own food right here in the center of our cities. We'll discuss the Civic Center Garden project, where volunteers are transforming a patch of city owned dirt and grass into "a living quilt of plants and people." Is growing your own fruits and vegetables something more than just a healthy hobby? Is there a better use for that small patch of land than a nice green lawn? It's locally grown, organic, and practically free on the next Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Willow Rosenthal is the founder of City Slicker Farms

John Bela, Civic Center Victory Garden Coordinator

Dajuana Turner, Summer intern at City Slicker Farms

Click to Listen: Victory Gardens

Your Call 032708 How will this summer's aerial spraying impact people in the Bay Area?

How concerned should we be about this summer's aerial spraying in the Bay Area? On the next Your Call, we'll discuss the state's controversial $75 million plan to spray pesticides over 12 Bay Area counties to help destroy the light brown apple moth. The state says the moth must be eradicated to avert billions of dollars in crop losses. Critics say the chemicals haven't been tested. Four bills have been introduced in the state legislature to slow or prohibit the spraying. What do you think of the plan? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Dr. James Carey, professor of entomology at the University of California at Davis.

Daniel Harder, executive director of UCSC's arboretum. He conducted a study in New Zealand in January focused on the country's two major agricultural regions, which haven't been treated with moth-controlling pesticides since the mid-1990s.

Caroline Cox, Research Director at Center for Environmental Health based in Oakland

Click to Listen: How will this summer's aerial spraying impact people in the Bay Area?

Your Call 101707 A conversation with Indian activist Vandana Shiva

What are the important issues affecting India’s farmers today? On the next Your Call, we’ll have a conversation with Indian activist and physicist Dr. Vandana Shiva. One in six people on earth live in India and more than half of the country's population of 1.1 billion depend on agriculture for their living. What are the main ecological and political issues affecting India today? Why have Shiva's projects combating GMOs and monocrops been so effective? And what advice does she have for environmentalists here in the U.S.? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Update: Vandana Shiva will be speaking at 3:25 at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Oakland, at 685 14th St. near the 12th St. BART at the Business Ethics Network conference. For tickets and information call Anne at 503-478-0892.

Guest:
Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author.

Click to Listen: A conversation with Indian activist Vandana Shiva