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Exploring Ethnobiology III / Investigating Eggs Update

Deconstructing Dinner

Release Date: 09/13/2010

The Importance of Garlic to Small-Scale Farmers show art The Importance of Garlic to Small-Scale Farmers

Deconstructing Dinner

Across the US and Canada, there is an exciting emergence of a unique type of food festival – a festival for garlic! When looking at a map of where garlic festivals are emerging, it’s clear that garlic knows no geographic boundaries – it’s a food that grows well in most climates across the continent. This popularity of garlic festivals appears to be communicating an important story – a story of our longing to connect and celebrate with one another around food, a story of people wanting to make more flavorful dinners, and a story of a food that has become an incredibly important crop...

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Genetically Engineered Honey? show art Genetically Engineered Honey?

Deconstructing Dinner

Honey – one of the most natural foods. In the supermarket, honey is found labelled as coming from clover, buckwheat, alfalfa or maybe orange blossom. The label might just read ‘honey’ without any indication of its source of nectar. But is the nectar source even important to those of us wishing to become more conscientious eaters? As Deconstructing Dinner has discovered, there is a curiosity surrounding honey – a curiosity, which has rarely, if ever, been spoken…. until now! It turns out, in Canada, 80% of all the honey produced in the country is from the nectar of canola – yet,...

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How Organic is an 'Organic' Egg? show art How Organic is an 'Organic' Egg?

Deconstructing Dinner

Deconstructing Dinner's  sits down with Mark Kastel - the co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute - a populist farm policy research group based in Wisconsin. Mark and Jon discuss the changing face of organic food. Using eggs as an example - Mark explains how eaters can exercise a more discriminating awareness when purchasing 'organic' eggs.  Features:  Mark Kastel, Co-Founder,  (La Farge, WI)  

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Year-Round vs. Seasonal Eating  show art Year-Round vs. Seasonal Eating

Deconstructing Dinner

It's not uncommon for most of us eaters to view the system supplying us with food as being separate from us, but on this podcast, one of Canada's most recognized food policy analysts offers his perspectives which suggest otherwise. Instead, the food system has in many ways been designed to satisfy the demands that we make every day to eat the same food, year-round, regardless of season, geography or climate. It seems that we eaters, have become so accustomed to that fresh tomato slice on our sandwich, that glass of orange juice in the morning, or that salad of fresh greens, that these...

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Conventional vs. Organic Wheat  show art Conventional vs. Organic Wheat

Deconstructing Dinner

On this all-new podcast, Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman examines some of the key differences between conventional and organically produced wheat.  Features: Stephen Jones, Director, Washington State University Research Station (Mount Vernon, WA) Kevin Christenson, Owner, Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill (Burlington, WA) Sam Lucy, Farmer, Bluebird Grain Farms (Winthrop, WA) Roy Lawrence, Farmer, Kootenay Grain CSA (Creston, BC) Scott Mangold, Baker, Breadfarm (Edison, WA)

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A Farewell... For Now! (incl. Update on Eggs Investigation) show art A Farewell... For Now! (incl. Update on Eggs Investigation)

Deconstructing Dinner

This episode #193 marks the final broadcast of Deconstructing Dinner before we embark on a much-needed break. Producer & Host Jon Steinman speaks about the need to step away from producing new shows and what future might lie ahead. Jon also shares some reflections on the past 5 years of producing this weekly one-hour radio show and podcast, and offers suggestions to those involved in the responsible food movement - a movement which this show has helped track its evolution and certainly one that this show has in many ways been a part of. Also on the show - a brief update (regrettably...

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The Local Grain Revolution XII (Year 3 & Lopez Island Grain Project) show art The Local Grain Revolution XII (Year 3 & Lopez Island Grain Project)

Deconstructing Dinner

Since March 2008, Deconstructing Dinner has been tracking the evolution of the Kootenay Grain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in the interior of British Columbia. The project is Canada's first community supported agriculture project for grain and it's been quite a while since we've checked in with how it's evolved throughout it's third year. Also on this part 12 of the series, we learn about the many grain projects underway elsewhere in Canada and the United States, all of which have been inspired by this very Local Grain Revolution series! Specifically, we travel to Lopez Island,...

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Exploring Ethnobiology IV (The Immaterial Components of Food Sovereignty / Comparing 17th/18th Century Cereal Grain Productivity Among Iroquois and Europeans) show art Exploring Ethnobiology IV (The Immaterial Components of Food Sovereignty / Comparing 17th/18th Century Cereal Grain Productivity Among Iroquois and Europeans)

Deconstructing Dinner

Exploring Ethnobiology is a new series Deconstructing Dinner has been airing since June. Through a scientific lens, ethnobiology examines the relationships between humans and their surrounding plants, animals and ecosystems. With seemingly more and more people becoming interested in developing closer relationships with our surroundings (our food, the earth), there's much we can all learn from ethnobiologists, and in particular, from the symbiotic human-earth relationships that so many peoples around the world have long maintained. Food sovereignty is also a subject that permeates much of what...

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TED Talks on Food w/Jamie Oliver, Carolyn Steel & Christien Meindertsma show art TED Talks on Food w/Jamie Oliver, Carolyn Steel & Christien Meindertsma

Deconstructing Dinner

has become an incredibly popular series of conferences featuring inspiring speakers from around the world. TED is a small non-profit devoted to what they call - "Ideas Worth Spreading." Starting out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment & Design, TED has since broadened its scope to include two annual conferences in California, a global conference in the UK and many on-line resources where more than 700 TEDTalks are now available. TED believes in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. With a number...

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Produce to the People show art Produce to the People

Deconstructing Dinner

Deconstructing Dinner has long been exploring the many ways through which farmers, businesses, organizations and communities are accessing food using new and innovative models. On today's broadcast we hear more of those examples shared as part of the March 2010 panel - Produce to the People, hosted by the San Francisco based CUESA. The Produce to the People panel examined a few inspiring models for getting fresh, local food to residents in the San Francisco Bay area of California and featured Grayson James of Petaluma Bounty, Melanine Cheng of FarmsReach and Christine Cherdboonmuang of the...

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More Episodes

Exploring Ethnobiology III
In May 2010, Deconstructing Dinner travelled to Vancouver Island where two international conferences on ethnobiology were being hosted. Ethnobiology examines the relationships between humans and their surrounding plants, animals and ecosystems. Today, more and more people are expressing an interest to develop closer relationships with the earth. This leaves much to be learned from the research of ethnobiologists, and in particular, from the symbiotic human-earth relationships that so many peoples around the world have long maintained.

On this part III of the series, we listen to two presentations that share research into the relationships between indigenous peoples and marine life in what is now called British Columbia and Alaska.

Investigating Eggs Update
Also on the show - an update from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to our September 2 investigative report on alleged local food fraud.

Guests/Voices

Severn Cullis-Suzuki, masters in ethnobotany, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Haida Gwaii, BC) - Similar to her father David Suzuki, Severn has devoted herself to increasing awareness on fundamental ecological concerns. Born and raised in Vancouver, at the age of 9, Severn founded the Environmental Childrens Organization. In 1992 at the age of 12, she attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro where she received praise for a speech she delivered. She went on to graduate from Yale Univeristy in 2002, hosted a television series on Discovery Channel, and was eventually led to study ethnobotany under Nancy Turner. Her focus of research led her to Northern Vancouver Island - home to the Kwakwaka-wakw people. It was there that Severn studied the keystone species Zostera marina - also known as eelgrass - or to the Kwakwaka-wakw (ts'ats'ayem).

Josh Wisniewski, PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK) - Josh received his BA and MA in anthropology from the University of Alaska Anchorage. His research explores the complex sets of relations between Iñupiaq and Yup'ik societies and marine mammals through time and the ontological premises shaping local and traditional ecological knowledge. Josh's research has recently been focused in Shishmaref, Alaska, where he has worked with Iñupiaq hunters and elders exploring and documenting ecological knowledge of bearded seals and historic and contemporary hunting practices.

Nancy Turner, distinguished professor, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Victoria, BC) - Born in Berkeley, California, Nancy moved to Victoria at the age of 5 and she lives there today as a Distinguished Professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. She earned a PhD in Ethnobotany in 1974 from the University of British Columbia when she studied three contemporary indigenous groups of the Pacific Northwest (the Haida, Bella Coola and Lillooet). Nancy's major research has demonstrated the role of plant resources in past and present aboriginal cultures and languages as being an integral component of traditional knowledge systems. Nancy has also played an important role in helping demonstrate how traditional management of plant resources has shaped the landscapes and habitats of western Canada. In 1999 Nancy received the Order of British Columbia and in 2009 received the Order of Canada. She's authored numerous books including, among others, Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples, Food Plants of Interior First Peoples, Plants of Haida Gwaii and The Earth's Blanket - Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living.

James Rogowsky, specialist, egg products, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) (Winnipeg, MB) - The CFIA is the arm of Health Canada in charge of safeguarding food, animals and plants.