598 - Incredible Edible (Local Food, Environmental NGOs, GM Labels)

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Episode #598 - Incredible Edible (Local Food, Environmental NGOs, GM Labels)

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⌚ Sat 7 April 2012  ☻Pam Warhurst, Britta Riley, Charles Margulis, Johnathan Latham, Jenny Pell

Download Hour1 Download Hour2This week we compare the output of the agribusiness industry with locally grown food. In our first hour Pam Warhurst, a founder of the "Incredible Edible" movement, focuses on growing local food as a way to grow community. After pieces on why US doesn't label GM foods and on how large environmental NGOs work with big business, we conclude with news of a 7 acre food forest in Seattle.

We start our first hour with the soundtrack of a short video on "Incredible Edible Todmorden", about the town in Yorkshire, England which is aiming to produce all its own vegetables within a decade.

We continue with a longer talk to transition Bath by Pam Warhurst, one of the founders of "Incredible Edible Todmorden". As she explains, quite apart from its intrinsic value, growing local food works as a method to bring communities together. She notes that, for example, the Bengali comunity in Todmorden have brought some expert food growing skills to the table. She encourages the audience to get planting, whether or not they feel they have legal permission. She details progress in Todmorden and underlines the political as well as practical sides of her work.

Our second hour opens with Britta Riley giving a TedX presentation on "WindowFarms", and the 14,000 strong community of open source hackers and growers who are collaboratively R&DIY-ing technology to improve the options for growing on window sills worldwide.

Next we hear an interview with Johnathan Latham on corporate greenwashing. He reports that many large environmental NGOs are headed by the CEOs of large multinationals, and that many have become effective partners to multinationals, and are busy greenwashing for profit. Noting Latham's reflection that one way or another, most of the world's environmental problems can be traced back to food, we hear an interview with Charles Margulis, Communications and Food Program Director at the Center for Environmental Health. He goes over the history of GM regulation (or lack thereof) in US, and notes that most US consumers are still unaware that they consume GM foods on a daily basis, and that some may have serious health effects.

We conclude with a short interview with Jenny Pell, designer of Seattle's recently approved Beacon Food Forest, a 7 acre area which will be growing fruit and nuts in the years to come.
Thanks to Transition Bath for the Incredible Edible video
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Source archive: Incredible Edible Todmorden (4 min) Pam Warhurst How can we grow more food locally - Part 1 (9 min) Pam Warhurst How can we grow more food locally - Part 2 (10 min) Pam Warhurst How can we grow more food locally - Part 3 (10 min) Pam Warhurst How can we grow more food locally - Part 4 (9 min) Pam Warhurst How can we grow more food locally - Part 5 (9 min) Pam Warhurst TedX Talk on "WindowFarms" (4 min) Britta Riley Sea Change Radio on Labeling of GM (30 min) Charles Margulis Living on Earth: Seattle's Urban Food Forest (7 min) Jenny Pell

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