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Alternative Radio for December 10, 2007
1:02 PM - 2:00 PM
[Program Website]
Today's Highlight: The Cornification of Food
The elephant inside our food system and even beyond is corn. Its presence is pervasive and dominant. It is an integral part of industrialized agriculture and the industrialized food chain. Processed food relies heavily on corn. Take a look at any wrapper or can and see for yourself. Cows fatten up on corn. It contributes to obesity in humans. And growing it? Not so good. It consumes prodigious amounts of fossil fuel energy. And corn turns out to be a major reason why farmers in Mexico go broke and migrate to the U.S. Under NAFTA, American taxpayer subsidized corn is dumped in Mexico at below market prices. Mexican farmers can't compete. More than two million of them have been thrown off the land
Michael Pollan, professor of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, is a contributing writer to the "New York Times Magazine." He is the author of "The Botany of Desire." His "The Omnivore's Dilemma" was selected as one of the ten best books of 2006 by the "New York Times."
Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International.
Established in 1986, AR is dedicated to the founding principles of public broadcasting, which urge that programming serve as "a forum for controversy and debate," be diverse and "provide a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard." The project is entirely independent, sustained solely by individuals who buy transcripts and tapes of programs.
Its "headquarters" is situated to correspond with its position in the mainstream mass media: down an alley, behind a house, on top of a garage in Boulder, Colorado. From this rarefied location, AR's programs manage to reach over 125 radio stations and millions of listeners. AR is part of the non-profit Institute for Social and Cultural Change.
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