Food and Farm

Drawing on more than two decades of research in the emerging field of anthrozoology, the new science of human–animal relations, Hal Herzog offers surprising answers to questions related to the moral conundrums we face day in and day out regarding the creatures with whom we share our world in his book "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight About Animals."

Don't blame the farmers for DST - we really don't like it any more than you do!

For a couple of years now, the pork industry in the US has struggled with a condition called PEDv or Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus which has brought high mortality rates to pre-weaning weight piglets. Researchers like Jason Woodworth at Kansas State University are examining the presence of the virus in animal feed, to improve biosecurity measures and attempt to save pigs' lives.

Investigations are underway to determine the source of the E.coli outbreak that has shuttered Chipotle restaurants in Washington State and Oregon. We spoke with Dr. Michael Doyle at the center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia to learn more about how these investigations are conducted.

This weekend we fall back – don’t forget to change your clocks – but why? Daylight savings time is highly misunderstood. Author Michael Downing helps us sort through the myths and mysteries. Spoiler Alert: It wasn't done to help farmers and ranchers!

Subway fast food chain has been swept up in the rising tide of restaurant groups that are seeking to completely eliminate the sourcing of meat that comes from an animal that – for any reason – has ever received antibiotics.Nebraska farmer Anne Burkholder, who blogs as Feedyard Foodie, penned a stinging reaction to the decision, pointing out that such a plan leaves little options for producers with sick animals.

Stink bugs have migrated into the Ohio Valley and University of Kentucky entomologist Lee Townsend says that now is the time to try to control them so that they don’t find a comfy place in your home to overwinter ad increase their numbers.

It's time to face the reality of herbicide-resistant weed strains. Dr. Aaron Hager from the University of Illinois joins us on Food and Farm

Reducing the occurrence of combine fires is the goal of Dr. Dan Humburg and his associates at SDSU.

Dairy cows at the University of Kentucky will soon be enjoying more luxurious accommodations. UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment recently broke ground at the Coldstream Dairy Research Farm and began building a new home for the herd with comfort and ease of living in mind.

Tommee Clark is a passionate spokesperson for agriculture and an active member of CommonGround Kentucky. She recently opened her Sunny Acres Farm to journalists and bloggers for a closer look at where food comes from.

Hardly a week goes by without a screaming headline about how the risks of cancer and other diseases are raised by eating, drinking (or not eating or drinking) one food or another. Andrew Porterfield is a science writer who would like to see a little more accuracy in the discussion.

The National Teach Ag Campaign is an initiative to bring attention to the career of agricultural education, get students thinking about a possible career in agricultural education, and support current agriculture teachers in their careers. Ellen Thomson is National Teach Ag Campaign Coordinator for the National Association of Agriculture educators.

The North American International Livestock Exposition has been at the center of controversy of late, with some fears expressed about the future of the show. Clifford "Rip" Rippetoe, the president and CEO of the Kentucky State Fair Board says the show must go on. He and the new Executive Director of Expositions for the Kentucky State Fair Board join us on this Food and Farm.

In areas where cattle don’t have access to natural shade in the summer, producers are seeking innovative ways to help their animals beat the heat. Dr. Joe Darrington is a veterinarian and Extension Livestock Environment Associate at South Dakota State University’s Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering Department. We talked about portable and permanent shade structures for cattle.

An anti-GMO activist organization called U.S. Right to Know has filed Freedom of Information requests with some 40 professors, scientists and science writers with ties to public universities in an attempt to discredit their work in biotechnology.Dr. Kevin Folta from the University of Florida says that selected information from the thousands of emails turned over to the group has begun to surface. We spoke with Folta to try and gain some much-needed context.

Mark Essig, pig guy joins us on Food and Farm to talk about his new book, Lesser Beasts: A Snout to Tail History of the Humble Pig.

Fran Drescher of the '90's TV show "The Nanny" took to Twitter the other day to do some GMO bashing. Julie Gunlock and I pose the question "Should we take our nutritional advice from entertainers?"

Hot Dog! Bruce Kraig, author of Man Bites Dog joins us on Food and Farm to talk about... well, what do you think?

Soybean and corn growers have some very unique issues in regard to the recent rainy conditions in the east and midwest. Dr. Carrie Knott from the University of Kentucky discusses soybeans.

Soybean and corn growers have some very unique issues in regard to the recent rainy conditions in the east and midwest. Ohio State's Dr. Peter Thomison talks with me about corn.

Pork producer Lori Stevermer has a very simple question for Chipotle - What do you have against U.S. pig farmers? Lori and I talk about the burrito chain's recent decision to source their pork from the United Kingdom, which domestic producers are finding a little hard to swallow.

Livestock producers, specifically cattlemen, have had plenty of challenges of late. One that presents some production problems, but perhaps is not discussed as much, is ergot alkaloid infection. To learn more about it, we talked with Russ Daly, a South Dakota State University Extension veterinarian.

Most of this year's soybeans are in the ground by now and if all is going well farmers are starting to see lush green foliage carpeting their fields. Unfortunately, there may occasionally be a patch of yellow or brown popping up, which signals problems, ominously called soybean sudden death syndrome.

The Southeast Climate Workshop is developing strategies to assist producers with adapting to extreme weather through long-term climate studies and crop planning. Dr. Brenda Ortiz is an Extension Specialist & Associate Professor of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences at Auburn University and works with the Southeast Climate Extension Project.

Early on, farmers and ranchers were quick to try and apply Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV’s, commonly referred to as drones) to their operations as an efficient and effective way to perform daily tasks, like scouting crops or checking fencelines.That’s now all up in the air as the Federal Aviation Administration and individual states try and sort out what is and what isn’t safe and acceptable use.The National Agricultural Law Center's Rusty Rumley joins me on Food and Farm.

The United States Department of Agriculture this week announced the availability of a new web-based application that provides real-time monitoring of rainfall, snowmelt, stream flow and seismic events that could pose potential threats to dam safety. It’s called DamWatch and NRCS Cheif Jason Weller explains it.

It sure is a good thing American Pharoah can’t read.Otherwise, he might have believed all the headlines leading up to the Belmont Stakes about how difficult it is to win a Triple Crown in contemporary thoroughbred racing. Chauncey Morris talks with us about the potential economic benefits to the t-bred industry.

Some headway is being made in the battle against White-Nose Syndrome in bats. Biologist Greg Turner and I talk about why ag needs these solutions to work.

"These are the good old days..." Historian Rachel Laudan and I discuss culinary modernism and her book "Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History."

We talk with Dr. Jennifer Thomas, author of Almost Anorexic, about when food and diet become an obsession.

The White House is all a-buzz about it's National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. We get Dr. Gene Robinson's take on it. Robinson heads Honey Bee Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Roy Burris, based at the UK Research and Education Center in Princeton, continues to champion soy hulls as a highly digestible fiber for inclusion in the diets of both beef and dairy cattle.

Paul Rozin is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He's done a lot of study on why we eat what we eat

The citrus industry is struggling with a devastating disease called citrus greening. We talk with Dr. Jude Grosser about research being done to find a solution on Food and Farm, brought to you by Feedstuffs FoodLink and Feedstuffs FoodLink - Connecting Farm to Fork on America's Web Radio

Gluten, fat, sugar, salt - they all get a pretty bad rap that Dr. Alan Levinovitz doesn't think is entirely deserved. We talk about his new book, The Gluten Lie and other myths about what you eat.

Chipotle claimed they were nixing biotech foods from there menu. They're not, completely. Dr. Ruth McDonald talks with us about fallacy of their PR-driven move.

Which came first, the chicken or human civilization? Andrew Lawler and I discuss his book "Why did the chicken cross the world: the epic saga of the bird that powers civilization."

“Beepocalypse!” Well, maybe not. A paper from the Competitive Enterprise Institute suggests many neonic and colony collapse disorder claims just don't hold up. We'll hear from the paper's author, Angela Logomasini of the Competitive Enterprise Institute

Alison Bernstein went to a Food Babe book signing and did the unthinkable - she asked a question.

The University of Kentucky is entering into a partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center to attempt to address the problem of food insecurity. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was introduced by Dr. Nancy Cox, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at a news conference on the UK campus to make the announcement.

A group called Only Organic, representing some of the largest organic food companies in the country recently posted a video on their web site and on YouTube called “New MacDonald.” As you might imagine, the video vilifies conventional agriculture – Old MacDonald, depicting it as solely profit driven and environmentally destructive. It incorporates all the unfounded claims about conventional ag while extolling the undocumented virtues of alternative food production.Blogger Amanda Zaluckyj spearheads a group called Team Ag, which is petitioning Only Organic to take down the video which, in Team Ag’s terms, is “…nothing more than a fear-mongering attack ad on hard working farm families.”

When California voters in 2008 passed Proposition 2 requiring more room for housing layer hens, it seems there was no science behind it and very little thought given to the long-term ramifications of the legislation. Now, California’s chickens have come home to roost, as it were, in the form of shortages and outrageous egg prices.A new study of commercial scale layer housing alternatives may allow future decision-making to be done in a more systematic fashion.Poultry Extension Specialist Dr. Darrin Karcher of Michigan State University was one of the researchers involved in the study.

Dr. Kevin Folta from the University of Florida received a Freedom of Information request for his personal emails. Right to Know or Desire to Harass? Listen to our conversation on Food and Farm and decide for yourself.

Amy Wathen handles the social media side of Pink Tractor, an internet and publishing arm of the farm equipment publication Fastline geared to women in Agriculture.

California's new egg law has producers scrambling. Maro Ibarburu at the Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University talks about the new report, "The California Situation"

Florida State Climatologist Dr. David Zierden discusses what's happening with this year's El Nino weather pattern and how it might affect your spring planting

Along with Amy Vincent at USDA, Dr. Phil Gauger at Iowa State has published some new research showing that nasal sprays for pigs may be more effective in some key respects than standard vaccine injections in the treatment of swine flu. Dr. Gauger joins us for this segment of Food and Farm.

Dr. Keith Belk and Dr. Paul Morley at Colorado State are launching a series of projects to track antibiotic resistance in livestock and poultry. Dr. Belk and I discuss the plans and our mutual dislike of the term "Superbugs" on this installment of Food and Farm.

Dr. Jim Cooper joins us on Food and Farm to talk about his new book "Food Myths Debunked: Why our Food is Safe."