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…

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 …

Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman 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' eg…

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 …

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 …

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 off…

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. …

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, t…

TED 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 includ…

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 t…

Packaged Foods Exposed V Deconstructing Dinner revisits with our popular series - Packaged Foods Exposed. Launched in 2006, the series examines the largest manufacturers of processed foods in the country and takes an often overlooked and critical perspective of these powerful companies. When Deconstructing Dinner last aired this series, we featured…

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 relat…

An exclusive behind-the-scenes investigative report taking an in-depth look into alleged local food fraud. With the rapid rise in interest among North Americans to support locally produced food and with the premium people are willing to pay for that food, it leaves open an attractive opportunity for food-based businesses to take advantage of this n…

On this part 8 of our Conscientious Cooks series, we listen in on a really interesting panel discussion hosted in 2008 by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (or CUESA) located in San Francisco, California. The panel was themed around the concept of Climate Friendly Eating. Voices Gail Feenstra, food systems analyst, Univer…

Having now devoted four episodes to covering the closure of Canada's prison farms, this Part 5 of our coverage might mark a disappointing chapter for Canadians who have been hoping for a halt to the closures. While all six of these rehabilitative and job-training programs have been progressively dismantled over the past year, the August 9 removal o…

Deconstructing Dinner has recently been reflecting on the model of agriculture itself as the primary source through which most people on earth access their food. From our exploration of ethnobiology to recent topics on permaculture, it's clear that there are other models available, which, for some people are a substitute for agriculture, and for ot…

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. Th…

Much of the content of Deconstructing Dinner revolves primarily around the practice of agriculture; from examining the downsides and challenges of current agricultural systems to the opportunities and alternatives to those challenges. However, most of those alternatives that we examine are 'agri'cultural alternatives, and so from time to time it's …

Fermenting Revolution (First aired July 19, 2007) For many people, it would be quite welcoming advice to learn that drinking beer could save the world from perhaps an unpredictable changing climate, from pollution, from corporate-driven political agendas, from declining levels of happiness, from increasing levels of stress, from gender inequality, …

The second of a two-part feature on the City of Vancouver's multi-year process to approve backyard chickens. Because of the many similar debates underway within city councils across the country, this focus on Vancouver's efforts looks back over the past few years to track just how this process first began and how it evolved from there. Perhaps othe…

Margaret Atwood Joins Prison Farms Campaign As part of our ongoing coverage on the future of Canada's prison farms, we check in on the campaign where well-known Canadian author Margaret Atwood has now joined the fight. We'll listen in on the June 6 rally in Kingston, Ontario and the subsequent rally in Ottawa one week later. Updates on the campaign…

Over the past year, Deconstructing Dinner has spent an increasing amount of time focusing on the discussions that take place on food and farming within Canada's parliamentary committees. Today, we visit with a previously unexplored committee on the show - the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, where, in the past few months, the subject of …

As people throughout the Western world are increasingly seeking to reconnect with their food, there's a lot to be learned from the many peoples who have long maintained these dynamic relationships between their sustenance and the earth. Ethnobiologists research these very relationships through a scientific lens and it's a field of study bringing to…

Whole Foods Market Targeted by Organic Advocates The U.S.-based Organic Consumers Association is the largest of its kind in the United States – representing thousands of supporters of organic food. Over the past year, the organization has taken a strong stance against grocery giant Whole Foods Market, calling upon them to “walk their talk” and incr…

On May 8, 2010, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon the grounds of the Legislature of British Columbia in Victoria where one of the largest rallies of its kind was taking place. The rally was organized as part of the 2.5 week long "Get Out Migration" calling for the removal of open-net salmon farms along the B.C. coast. Between April 21 and May 8,…

Over the past month, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (the CFIA) has embarked on a concentrated effort in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, threatening area businesses with fines unless they remove their ungraded farm-fresh eggs from store shelves. Close to a dozen businesses that Deconstructing Dinner is aware of have received such …

Virginia farmer Joel Salatin has become one of the most well known names in the world of alternative farming after his notable presence in Michael Pollan's best-selling book The Omnivore's Dilemma and an important role as part of the popular documentary Food Inc. In February 2010, Joel was interviewed by Lauren Berlekamp of the Erie Wire. Joel spok…

This episode follows up on our March 25th broadcast on Bill C-474 - a bill that is calling for changes to the process through which genetically engineered seeds are approved in Canada. The bill was supported by many groups such as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the National Farmers Union and the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, and w…

This episode marks part III of our ongoing coverage on the future of Canada's rehabilitative prison farm program. Since July 2009, Deconstructing Dinner has been paying close attention to the 6 prison farms that have been operating across Canada. In February 2009 it was discovered that the farm program was scheduled to be phased out, however, the f…

Deconstructing Dinner has long been at the forefront of covering anything and everything to do with the presence of genetically engineered (GE) foods. The latest on the issue from Canada's capital is Bill C-474 - a bill introduced by Member of Paliament Alex Atamanenko. The bill was debated in the House of Commons for one-hour on March 17 and is ca…

We examine the latest setback in the ongoing struggle to maintain healthy honey bee populations around the world. Every winter honeybee farmers hope that come spring, their colonies will have survived so that their businesses can remain economically viable. And with Vancouver Island receiving Spring the earliest of any location in Canada, farmers t…

Conscientious Cooks VII (Sooke Harbour House) The Sooke Harbour House is a 28-room inn in Sooke, British Columbia which has been owned and operated by Frederique and Sinclair Philip since 1979. The inn is home to a restaurant that has led the way in Canada (if not North America) in the practice of sourcing local and wild-crafted foods. The restaura…

Author Marc David lends his voice to the show and together we explore a new way of seeing nutrition where our body's ability to digest and metabolize food is not just determined by the scientific breakdown of the food itself but by our level of relaxation, the quality of the food, our awareness when we're eating, the rhythms with which we eat throu…

The Seaweed Lady In mid-February, Deconstructing Dinner visited southern Vancouver Island, and in particular the community of Sooke, which is home to an active and well-connected food community. One of those foodies is Diane Bernard who is more commonly known as "The Seaweed Lady". Diane is the founder of Outer Coast Seaweeds - a producer of seawee…

For regular listeners of Deconstructing Dinner, the connections between the food we eat and our rapidly changing climate are clear and well understood. But beyond the many stories covered on the show that address the connections, has been a relatively slow uptake among the general public, the media, and policy-makers of this new reality... a realit…

Farming in the City XIII (Backyard Chickens X) In November 2009, a panel discussion on urban agriculture was hosted by Backyard Bounty and the University of Guelph. The event was called Opportunities for Action: An Urban Agriculture Symposium and Deconstructing Dinner partner station CFRU recorded the panel. This episode hears from two of the panel…

In July 2009, Deconstructing Dinner aired a one-hour feature on the now in-process closure of Canada's prison farm system. That episode came only months after it was discovered in February 2009 that Corrections Service Canada alongside Public Safety Canada had already planned the closure of the 150-year old program. With six farms having been opera…

The Speerville Flour Mill is a locally-owned and operated business in New Brunswick that has for over 25 years been supplying the Atlantic Provinces of Canada with local, organically grown grains and foods. The mill supports dozens of organic grain farmers in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. One of those farmers is Andrew Kernoh…

On February 23, 2006, Deconstructing Dinner aired a one-hour feature titled "A Dinner Date With the Olympics". The episode was produced alongside the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. The show focused its attention on two of the Games major sponsors (Coca-Cola and McDonald's). When we think of the Olympic Games, the athletes, the events, we think of h…

Campaign for New Farmers Our food system faces many crises, among which is the steady increase in the average age of the North American farmer. As farms have gotten bigger and bigger and as the business of farming proves less and less attractive, young farmers have become quite an anomaly. Canada's National Farmers Union (NFU) has maintained a stro…

On today's final broadcast of 2009 (or first of 2010 depending when you listen!), Deconstructing Dinner shares audio recordings from the National Farmers Union's (NFU) recent annual convention hosted in Ottawa - November 25-27. The NFU has lent their voice to Deconstructing Dinner on well over a dozen occasions and we've always appreciated their pa…

This episode is truly in the spirit of "deconstructing" our food and features a talk delivered by Andrew Smith - a writer and lecturer on food and culinary history. His latest book is Eating History - 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine. The diet of the modern American wasn't always as corporate, conglomerated, and corn-rich as it i…

Deconstructing Dinner continues with our ongoing coverage on the controversial subject of GMOs - genetically modified organisms. As part of our past coverage we've spent time looking at how dialogue on GMOs makes its way through the Government of Canada, whether it be the regulatory process itself, or debates heard from Canada's House of Commons. O…

In October 2008, Deconstructing Dinner had the pleasure of spending time on Cortes Island, British Columbia with a group of young enthusiastic adults who had just spent 8 months learning the intricacies of growing food using organic and permaculture principles. Cortes Island is located in the Straight of Georgia and can be accessed by a series of f…

In January 2009, the Agroinnovations Podcast featured Deconstructing Dinner. Agroinnovations touches many of the subjects covered on Deconstructing Dinner but further offers unique perspectives and subjects worth exploring. The Agroinnovations Podcast is based in Albequerque, New Mexico and is hosted weekly by Frank Aragona. They have produced 70 e…

We travel to the State of California where 50% of all fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in Canada and the United States are produced. Beyond fresh produce, California is also a major producer of dairy, olives and nuts, and the list of foods goes on. But how secure is this reliance we all have on Californian food? Certainly for most Canadians and…

Dan Barber - A Perfect Expression of Nature (Conscientious Cooks VI) However we try to look at it, agriculture itself - as it's existed for 10,000 years, will always be a departure from acquiring our food as nature intended. By extension, agricultural and food production methods will always be debated on their merits of balancing natural systems wi…

Sustainable Agriculture at Fleming College (Deconstructing Dinner in our Schools IV) Deconstructing Dinner is excited to share with our listeners an amazing new agriculture program for new farmers being offered at Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario. The proposed curriculum touches on many of the areas of focus that Deconstructing Dinner has shared…

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated non-industrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets. Dr. Price's research demonstrated that humans …

In October 2009, Deconstructing Dinner descended upon the Halifax Farmers' Market. Founded in 1750, it is the oldest continuously running farmers' market in North America. The first market vendors were Acadian - the original European immigrants to the land. In 1983, the vendors launched what is now a self financed cooperatively governed group of lo…