The Food Chain

Stephanie Rocha, Owner, Nest Box Farm, San Martin, CA

It is a fact!  Cities grow best, where farms grow best, and that is why some of the nation’s biggest cities are planted on some of the nation’s best farmland.  This leads us to ask: 

 

Can farms survive their cities?

 

Topics include how cities rezone land to maximize revenue; how farmers fight to survive against the pressure for cities to grow; and what the future might hold for what city people will have to eat. 

 

A few decades ago California’s Santa Clara Valley was called “The Valley of Hearts Delight” for the spectacular abundance of its tree fruit farms.  Todxxday it is called “Silicon Valley” for the abundance of its digital technology companies. 

This transition from growing low value food to manufacturing high value digital information systems sets up a competition for resources between city and farm.

Consider this:  A single-family valley home in the valley recently sold for $4 million dollars.  Well, it did have 4 bedrooms!

Given the money this sale generated, and the property tax money it will generate in the future, this sale is exactly what the city fathers and mothers want to see more of.  How to make that happen?

What Santa Clara County is trying to do, is what most cities do when they need to more money – rezone the agriculture lands on the fringes of the metropolitan area into commercial and manufacturing… thus chasing out the rural folks and replacing them with big money folks. 

This never ending competition between city and farm leads us to ask: 

Can farms survive their cities?

 

Michael Olson hosts Joe Oglivy, Author of Tin Can Coast for a conversation about the commercialization of California's marine life:

It is an ocean current that flows south along the coast from Canada to Baja, and it brought to the people who would come to live along this coast unbelievable living treasures to plunder.  And plunder they did!  And so today we pause to ask:

 

Do you think we can learn how to preserve the fish in our sea?

Michael Olson hosts. Dr. Keith Kantor, Trichologist and Author What Matters

Diabetes costs the United States $640 billion a year.  What if we could take a pill, lose the weight, then put all that diabetes money into the bank. 

Topics include how prescription GLP-1s work to help people lose weight; whether GLP-1s might be an effective way for the U.S. to reduce the number of its obese and the cost of its diabetes; and a look at the potential side-effects of using GLP-1s.

 

Consider some very big numbers:  42.7% of those who live in the United States are obese, and 15% have diabetes.

The diabetes number grows, because there is a very strong correlation between body mass index and propensity to develop diabetes. 

According to the Center for Disease Control, the total estimated cost of diagnosed diabetes was $640 billion per year in medical costs and lost productivity.

That is nearly two-thirds of a trillion dollars per year – Gone!

In 2005, GLP-1s hit the market, and the weight began peeling off the body politic. The cost for this prescription medication starts at around $39 per month, which given the cost of diabetes, would seem to be a very good deal.

But then the hair started falling out, the muscles weakened, and the gut complained.   Given the strange side-effects, some began to ask:

Are GLP-1s too good to be true?

 

#1423 Michael Olson host Virginia Shaffer, Host of Lady Oyster Blog and Author, Oyster Society: Adventures with the Shellfishly Motivated

I remember the moment I was induced to slurp down a freshly-shucked oyster.  That so many of us remember that moment leads us to ask:   

What is it about the oyster that leads us to become its cultists?

Topics include a look at the history of the U.S. oyster business; a “taste” of different oyster varieties; and how the oyster spawned its cult of people.

Function Drinking - Beyond Alcohol

Michael Olson with Autumn Shelton, Formulator and CEO of the start-up functional drink company TruBond.

Topics include the growing trend of functional foods; the functions targeted in the formulating of TruBond drinks; and the process of taking TruBond from concept, to packaged product, to the marketplace.

The idea is to turn away from highly stimulative drinks during the day, and the alcohol that follows at the end of the day, and turn instead to beverages formulated to provide clarity, focus and energy throughout the day.  This leads us to ask:

Can beverages be formulated to optimize the body’s daily functions?

The 1422^nd edition of the Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Autumn Shelton, Formulator and CEO of the start-up functional drink company TruBond.

Topics include the growing trend of functional foods; the functions targeted in the formulating of TruBond drinks; and the process of taking TruBond from concept, to packaged product, to the marketplace.

When exploring the islands of Tahiti with Captain James Cook, botanist Sir Joseph Banks identified a carbohydrate-rich tropical fruit that, when cooked over an open fire, tasted like freshly-baked bread. Banks recommended that King George III adopt this energy-rich breadfruit as a food staple for the English plantations of the Caribbean.

During a subsequent voyage to transport breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the Caribbean, Captain William Bly lost his ship, the Bounty, to mutineers, who tossed the prescious breadfruit trees over the side, along with Captain Bly, and then they disappeared into the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Today, breadfruit is getting a fresh look by the culinary world as a gluten-free, high-fiber, and environmentally-friendly alternative to refined flours.  In fact, researchers at the University of British Columbia claim breadfruit is poised to become the next global superfood. 

A former chemistry professor and her team have combined their efforts to continue the mission of bringing tropical breadfruit to the world via their Amasar line of breadfruit baking mixes.  Their efforts lead us to ask:

Are we ready for bread made from breadfruit?

Along the Food Chain with Michael Olson and ...

Mandy Harper, Founder, CEO & Executive Chef, Wholesome Bakery  ///

At the Natural Products Expo its easy to see what is the latest trend in food.

The last time I attended the Expo, which was a few years ago, the dominant trend among the 4,000 vendors was soy.  It seemed like most every vendor of natural foods was infusing their natural foods with soy. 

This year it seemed that very few of the manufacturers of natural food products were adding soy.  Gone!!!

This year it seemed most all the manufacturers were adding protein ­– This with pea protein… that with hemp protein… and over there, whey protein…

But as I cruised the exhibition halls, Wholesome Bakery of San Francisco caught my attention with a line of smartly packaged cookies.  What caught my eye was Wholesome’s positioning statement: 

“What we leave out matters as much as we put in.”