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Food Chain Radio News
Food Chain Radio Michael Olson
Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Sowing Cannabis normalica
What will we reap when we sow Cannabis normalica?
Guest: Erik Altieri, Communications Director, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
We have not seen “normal” since the United States outlawed the plant genus Cannabis in 1937, and then sealed the deal by talking the world’s other governments into signing the Single Convention Treaty of 1961.
In doing so, the United States made a plant that was thoroughly normal throughout the world into a plant that was not only abnormal, but also illegal, thus leaving the entire world in a state of “reefer madness.”
But wait, that plant the United States made illegal throughout the world is now a legal recreation– at least sort of– in two states, a medicine in 20 states, and was declared to be less-dangerous-than-booze by the former Choom Ganger now President Barack Obama…
No matter how we look at Cannabis, it appears as though the plant is now on its way to becoming normal, in the country that made it abnormal. This very interesting state of affairs leads us to ask…
What will we reap when we sow Cannabis normalica?
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Food Chain Radio News
Food Chain Radio Host Michael Olson
Urban Farming Agriculturalist
OF AUTISM, ANIMAL WELFARE & DR. TEMPLE GRANDIN
How should we treat the animals we are to eat?
Guest: Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University
This from the book of Genesis:
And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
And so he did, and so here we are, with all this dominion business to manage. Given the videos taken at animal processing facilities, its pretty easy to see we have not been doing a very good job with our dominion management, at least with respect to the animals we eat. What to do?
Dr. Temple Grandin does not read things in the normal sort of way. She is autistic, and comprehends in pictures instead of words. This ability allows her to see animal behavior, decode that behavior, and use that understanding of behavior to modify how we handle the animals we are to eat.
Dr. Grandin’s ability to see and comprehend animal behavior, together with the backing of some very big businesses, has allowed her to change how we treat the animals we are to eat, for the betterment of all concerned. And so we turn to her and ask…
How should we treat the animals we are to eat?
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Food Chain Radio News
Food Chain Radio Host Michael Olson
Urban Farming Agriculturalist
EATING DISORDERLY
Can one bring an eating disorder back into order?
Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Esalen from the Lotus Collaborative
Some of us eat to live. Others live to eat. The rest of us have lost control of eating.
In fact, many people throughout the developed world now suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their life. These disorders include anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, or disorders not otherwise specified.
Contrary to what some might think, eating disorders are not a fad or lifestyle choice; they are real, complex, and devastating conditions that have very serious consequences for one’s health and productivity. The extent to which we in the developed world suffer from eating disorders leads us to ask…
To what extent do we suffer from eating disorders? Who is most vulnerable to losing control of their eating? How does one address a loved who has an eating disorder? How are eating disorders treated? And…
Can one bring an eating disorder back into order?
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Food Chain Radio News
Food Chain Radio Host Michael Olson
Urban Farming Agriculturalist
SOIL, FOOD AND FAITH
Can soil and food feed one’s faith?
Guest: Fred Bahnson, Director of the Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative, and author of Soil and Sacrament
Some time ago, I hosted an edition of the Food Chain Radio program from a federal prison. The focus of the program was the prison’s horticulture program.
In touring the grounds with the warden, I quickly recognized the prison contained two kinds of inmates: those who were not part of the horticulture program and those who were.
Those who were not, pumped iron on the prison’s cement-covered exercise yard; those who were, built up the prison’s soil and tended its plants.
The difference was in the eyes.
Those who were not part of the horticulture program had the look of one totally present, as one would be if one were a predator or prey in nature. Eat or be eaten.
Those who were part of the horticulture program had the look of someone not totally there, as if they had somehow tunneled out and escaped. Free!
In his Soil and Sacrament, Fred Bahnson claims, “Our yearning for real food is inextricably bound up in our spiritual desire to be fed.” This thought leads us to ask…
Why does religious literature often feature the metaphor of farm and garden?
How does the growth of soil inspire the growth of faith?
Can soil, food, and faith strengthen community?
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Guest - AlexSmith
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