www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/100208.htmOn September 29, 2008, four candidates running in the 2008 federal election debated in Ottawa on the topic of Agriculture. CPAC (Cable Public Affairs Channel) provided live coverage of the event hosted by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. Moderated by Hugh Maynard, the debate featured Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Gerry Ritz; Liberal Agriculture critic, Wayne Easter; the NDPïs MP Tony Martin; and Green Party candidate Kate Storey. Voices Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Foods / MP Battlefords-Lloydminster - Conservative Party of Canada (Brightsand Lake, SK) - Gerry Ritz was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997, and re-elected Member of Parliament for Battlefords-Lloydminster in 2000, 2004 and 2006. Wayne Easter, MP Malpeque, Liberal Party of Canada (North Wilitshire, PEI) - Wayne Easter is the Liberal Party's critic on Agriculture and Agri-Food. He represents the riding of Malpeque which is the central part of Prince Edward Island. He was first elected as the MP in 1993 and has been relected ever since Tony Martin, MP Sault Ste. Marie, New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) - Tony Martin was first elected Member of Parliament for the Riding of Sault Ste. Marie on June 28th, 2004. As M.P., Tony serves as the critic for FedNor, Human Resources Development, Social Development and Policy, and Child Care. Kate Storey, Candidate Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette, Green Party of Canada (Grandview, MB) - Kate Storey ran as the GPC candidate for Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette in the 2006 federal election. That year she was elected to the Green Party federal council and to the Shadow Cabinet. Kate serves as party critic for Sustainable Agriculture and Prairie issues.

www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/092508.htm Listen to a few broadcasts of Deconstructing Dinner, and choosing food may suddenly become an intimidating adventure. Of course there are alternatives to the industrial food system. Enter the co-operative model of operating a business. Long an example in Canada of how people can assume control over our needs and resources, co-operatives is the focus of this ongoing series. How does a co-operative differ from a traditional business? A co-operative is owned and democratically controlled by the people who use the services or by those working within the co-op. A co-op is operated for the benefit of members and members have a say in decisions affecting the co-op. Part VThe Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana, Illinois is a very promising and inspiring sign that communities can indeed come together and build or expand upon their very own co-operative grocery store. The urban area of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois has a population of around 200,000, but up until recently did not have a natural food store easily accessible to the public. There was however, an underground food co-operative in the basement of a church operating for over 30 years. In late August 2008, the Common Ground Food Co-op surfaced and it now sits above ground in a brand new building. At a time where the economy in the United States is being hit hard and loans are a hard thing to come by, the Common Ground Co-op implemented an innovative financing model that sought close to half of its financial support from members themselves. Certainly a sign of a supportive community wishing to take greater control over their local food supply. Guests Jacqueline Hannah, General Manager - Common Ground Food Co-op (Urbana, IL) - Jacqueline has worked in retail and service management for over fifteen years and after my her first job working for a corporate bookstore chain, she has worked exclusively for independently owned shops. She pursued joining the co-op staff because she wanted to work somewhere that was truly in line with her ideals; where community always came before profit and where it was believed that fiscally sustainable business is not only possible when putting people and the planet first, but that its actually the way to thrive. Clint Popetz, Board Chair - Common Ground Food Co-op (Urbana, IL) - Clint has been involved with the co-op since 2000, and has previously served as a Tuesday night coreworker, an outreach liaison at the farmerïs market, a store operations coordinator, a facilitator for coordinator meetings, and a bread baker. Through his role as board chair he hopes to help build a strong and stable future for the co-op, helping to increase the level of empowerment and accountability within our organization in order to create a co-op that can achieve its goals of spreading the joy of good food and cooperation to a larger and more diverse community.

www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/091808.htmThis year marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Food and human rights are not oftened placed together in the same dialogue, however, Article 25 of the Declaration states: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food..." One concept that originates from the idea of a "right to food" is that of food sovereignty; whereby people have the right to determine what foods are available to them. The right to food and food sovereignty are undermined every day both here and abroad. The recent spike in the global food crisis is a clear indicator of this. Looking at food through a human rights lens was the subject of a dialogue that took place on August 29, 2008 at the United Nations in New York City. Titled "The Human Right to Food and the Global Food Crisis", the event was sponsored by The Office of the High Commisioner for Human Rights, the Department of Public Information, the NGO Committee on Human Rights and the Permanent Missions of Cuba and Malawi. Voices Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, United Nations (New York, NY) - Since being appointed in March 2008, De Schutter has been reporting to the General Assembly of the United Nations and the Human Rights Council. He is a specialist in human rights and works for the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and the College of Europe in Poland. He's currently a Visiting Professor at Columbia University in New York. Flavio Valente, Secretary General, FIAN International (Rome, Italy) - FIAN (FoodFirst Information Action Network), is an international human rights organization that for more than 20 years has advocated for the realization of the right to food. FIAN is represented in over 50 countries and has consultative status to the United Nations. Their headquarters are in Heidelberg, Germany. Joia Mukharjee, Policy Director, Partners in Health (Boston, MA) - PIH was founded in 1987 to deliver health care to the residents of the mountainous Central Plateau of Haiti. In the 20 years since then, they have expanded into many more sites in the country and have launched initiatives in Peru, Lesotho, Russia, Rwanda, Guatemala and Malawi. Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Policy Director, ActionAID USA (Washington D.C.) - ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency whose aim is to fight poverty worldwide. Formed in 1972, they have helped over 13 million of the world's poorest and most disadvantaged people in 42 countries. The International headquarters are in Johannesburg South Africa. Sanjay Reddy, Assistant Professor of Economics, Barnard College at Columbia University (New York, NY) - Reddy also teaches in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where he teaches courses on world poverty and on development economics.

www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/091108.htmSince the Local Grain Revoltuion series first aired in March 2008, a lot has transpired as a result of that broadcast. The Nelson-Creston grain community supported agriculture (CSA) project has been mentioned in the House of Commons; it was a feature in a May issue of The Globe an Mail; and people from across North America have become inspired to seek out locally grown grain. On this exciting part II of the series, Host Jon Steinman travels along with the first CSA tour, where members and farmers met for the first time. Members were given the opportunity to see the grain that would soon become their bread, cakes or pasta. So long as the will and effort of a community chooses to make it happen, this broadcast captures just how easily we can all work together to resurrect local food systems. Voices Matt Lowe, Climate Change Campaigner, West Kootenay EcoSociety (Nelson, BC) - The West Kootenay EcoSociety promotes ecologically and socially sound communities while protecting species and ecosystems in the Southern Columbia Mountains ecoregion. Matt is the co-founder of the grain CSA. Roy Lawrence, Farmer, Lawrence Farm (Creston, BC) - Roy is a third-generation farmer. He has long farmed using conventional methods but sees the CSA as an opportunity to transition to growing naturally. Keith Huscroft, Farmer, Huscroft Farm (Lister, BC) - Keith is a fourth-generation farmer. His great-grandparents were the first white settlers in the Creston Valley and his farm has been in operation for about 100 years. Keith takes all measures to ensure no inputs are required on his farm. He uses mixed farming practices and fertilizes using only animal and green manures. He is one of a shrinking number of farmers farming with horses instead of fossil-fuel dependent technologies. Tammy Hardwick, Manager, Creston & District Museum (Creston, BC) - Much of Creston's history is rooted in agriculture, however, much of this history is now found indoors at the Creston museum.

www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/090408.htmThe diversity in the varieties of crops being grown in Canada has dwindled significantly. Virtually all of the fruits, vegetables, grains, livestock and pretty much every ingredient found on grocery store shelves, is of a variety that has purely been bred for profit. At no time has the importance of maintaining diversity or flavour ever been a concern for the powerful industrial food system that has taken hold of the North American diet. This series will explore what risks accompany the loss of such diversity while on the other hand, expose the many farmers and organizations preserving Canada's heritage varieties of food and protecting our food supply from the control of multinational interests. Part I On Part I, we resurrect Red Fife Wheat, perhaps the most important wheat variety to Canadians. Red Fife fed Canadians for 40 years, yet disappeared as more export-oriented varieties and hybrids took its place. But Red Fife is making a comeback, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency doesn't like it. Is this a chance for the people of Canada to reclaim control over our cultural heritage and challenge the industrial food system? Sharon Rempel thinks so. We also learn more about heirloom (heritage) vegetables. Growing heirlooms is an exciting way to try new and unusual tastes, shapes and colours. But more than that it is an effort to maintain the genetic diversity of our food crops. Many varieties have disappeared forever and there is interest in keeping these older varieties in circulation. Heirlooms, unlike some hybrids, are not grown for their ability to withstand shipping and chemicals or their uniform look at market. They are grown for taste. Audio recorded by Marinko Jareb (St. Catharines) and Andrea Langlois (Victoria) Guests Sharon Rempel - Agronomist, Grassroot Solutions, (Victoria, BC) - Sharon's expertise lies in organic production, seed conservation, 'on farm' wheat breeding and heritage crops. Sharon was the founder of "Seedy Saturdays" - community seed exchanges held each year across the country. Sharon is the Director of the Heritage Wheat Project. Her most recent project was Canada's first ever Bread and Wheat Festival, held in Victoria on October 27, 2007. Linda Crago, Farmer, Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm (Wellandport, ON) - At Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm, Linda's specialty and passion is Heirloom vegetables. Linda offers a tremendous selection of heirloom tomato transplants (over 200 varieties), heirloom pepper and eggplant transplants and more. She operates a CSA program, supplies restaurants, and offers mail order across Canada. Linda grows more than 1000 varieties of veggies on an intensively planted piece of land, and does so organically. Music Phil Vernon - Musician, Ãthm Music (Salt Spring Island, BC) - The broadcast marks the radio debut of "Red Fife Wheat" - a new song recorded just days before this broadcast first aired. The creator of the song is Phil Vernon, a musician based on Salt Spring Island, BC. Phil has lent his musical farming talents to the program on a number of previous occasions. Note: This recording is only a demo.

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