Educasting Study Guide on Food, Sustainability, and Society
Foreword
What do innovative entrepreneurs, the obesity epidemic among children, women, school lunch, immigrants, and hogs all have in common? They are all parts of the big picture that is the vast American food system. This Educasting series, hosted by Mark Sommer, details the history that has given rise to the food system we have today with all of its problems and possibilities. Through the course of six programs, Sommer talks with innovative problem solvers, advocates, farmers, and entrepreneurs who are working to tackle some of the most pressing food issues of our day and in the course of their struggles, are growing hope from the ground up.
In Savoring Swine: the Economics and Politics of Pork, meat production is discussed. Guests discuss what meat production in America looks like today compared to fifty years ago. How did we get to where we are? What are we depending on to maintain the system that has become the status quo? Is it healthy for people eating the meat, the animals that become the meat, or the earth that must sustain both of our existences? In response to rising criticism about the way animals are raised for meat in this country, farmers are stepping up to find ways to produce meat that are good for animals, humans, earth – in ways that allow them to make a living and eaters to purchase the meat.
Who is the invisible hand in our food system? Many would argue that historically, it has been women. In the Tractor Seat: Women Farmers Take the Steering Wheel shows us that not only have women always played a partnering role in working the land and raising animals alongside their husbands, they are now becoming owners of the land and are choosing farming in increasing numbers. Guests discuss the roles women have played and are currently stepping into on the farm. Some maintain that women have a special relationship with the land that they work and that this bond is part of the impetus behind the special niche women are carving out for themselves in the market. What is this niche, and is it a sign of a new direction for the way our food is grown, distributed, and purchased in this country?
Women aren’t the only ones becoming more visible in American agriculture. New immigrants are playing an increasingly important role in farming while the older generation of European-descended farmers declines, as the next program, A Hunger to Farm: Immigrant Farmers in America, uncovers. As a nation comprised of immigrants, it is actually the norm for newcomers to be a part of agriculture and for the tastes of their countries of origin to be adopted widely here. This program shows who the latest wave of immigrants are and what new flavors and foods they are brining with them to America as they cultivate the ground in their new home. The obstacles that they face and the solutions that may help are also discussed.
From women and immigrants in farming, this series moves into another topic that we may not easily connect with life on the farm: school lunch. For most of us, school lunch is a far cry from what we’d call tasty. And many people are also becoming concerned that nutrition is another conspicuously absent component of school lunch. In Eat Your Peas: Launching the School Lunch Revolution, advocates for children and lunch ask pose some tough questions: why is unhealthy, prepackaged junk food good enough to feed the future of our country? Tracing the beginnings of school lunch from an issue of national security during the World War II era to its present day from, guests on this program talk about why school lunch has devolved over the last half century and what we can do to turn it back into a healthy meal…and maybe even a yummy one.
When we think of food, we tend to think of what we’re eating here and now; the furthest future thought for some of us is whether or not the spicy sauce will give us heartburn later in the evening. But as many of the programs in this series show, the food we eat and how it got to our plates helps to shape the kind of physical environment we have to live in as well as the human health. Building on the previous program, Oversized and Undernourished: the Expanding Epidemic of Childhood Obesity details one long-term consequence of our food production and consumption patterns. Emerging family, cultural, marketing, and policy trends are all factors that affect the food system and the choices that we have to make at the grocery store. Guests discuss some of the roots of this emerging chronic health issue that is no longer just a concern for individuals, but for everyone in our society – and they offer their insights on what can be done to stop and even reverse the expansion of our children’s waistlines.
This series on reforming the American food system closes on a high note with Healing Harvest: Agricultural Innovators Plant Seeds of Renewal, highlighting the efforts of creative and innovative people who are continuing the legacy of American entrepreneurship. As the public’s concern over our runaway food system is growing, many farmers are taking calculated risks to show that change is possible. These food entrepreneurs show us that we can have our broccoli and eat it too: food produced locally in harmony with nature is not a thing of the past; it is the growing hope for the future. Guests talk about their growing methods, the economics of organics, and their visions for how far their convictions can take our food system.
This series is from A World of Possibilities, a production of the Mainstream Media Project. A World of Possibilities is an award-winning radio show featuring leading policy analysts and social innovators from around the world addressing key global issues. The purpose is to offer listeners a new perspective and deeper understanding of some of the most critical national and international issues of our time; it has also proven to be a very useful awareness-raising tool for the important work being done by nonprofits. This series on the food system was birthed out of a public education campaign called “We Reap What We Sow,” which combines the radio show with Mainstream Media Project’s Educasting tool. Educasting combines a series of radio shows with interactive study guides and online resources created for selected audiences to enhance learning about the issues covered on the show and to assist with long-term movement building.
The goal of this series of shows is to stimulate a national conversation that will deepen the public’s understanding of selected food, farming and society issues, offering an impetus to take action. The ultimate outcome for this project is a political environment more conducive to long-term, broad-scale policy changes and shifts in personal behavior that reflect healthy lifestyles and sustainable food systems for the American public. The guests interviewed for this A World of Possibilities series include highly regarded journalists and authors, professors, farmers, advocates and entrepreneurs whose new ideas are helping to create change in agriculture. For more information on the guests, please see the Biography section.