Deconstructing Dinner

The Livestock Lost series examines the farming and business of meat, dairy and egg production. It explores the known and unknown dangers of meat production and what people can do to source alternatives to what many would refer to as a cultural staple of the North American diet. Part III explores the interrelation between meat production and safe water supplies.

The Livestock Lost series examines the farming and business of meat, dairy and egg production. It explores the known and unknown dangers of meat production and what people can do to source alternatives to what many would refer to as a cultural staple of the North American diet. Part II looks at one community's experience with regulations on meat processing that made sale of local meat illegal.

A new project in British Columbia is encouraging an alternative model of preserving agricultural land in light of rising costs of land. A farm that becomes a part of the Community Farms Program of BC is collectively owned in public trust, long-term leases are assigned for local food production, and farmers are housed on the land. Agricultural activities are small-scale and intensive, and are carried out by a group of people working collaboratively or cooperatively.

This second installment of the Cross-Canada Trike tour begins in the home of Deconstructing Dinner - Nelson, BC. Of greatest interest on this episode is the story of Darrick Hahn himself. Hahn grew up on a conventional dairy farm and like many young Canadians growing up on farms, Hahn left his rural community as a teenager and migrated into the city. Having most recently lived in Vancouver for the past two years, he came to recognize that the city life was far too removed from the earth and he is now heading back to the farm.

On this second episode of the Backyard Chickens series, we listen in on five Bucky Buckaw episodes: Breeds, Cleanliness, Poop, Pre-Manufactured Chicken Coops and the Economics of Commercial Backyard Chickening.

Meet heritage seed saver Dan Jason of Salt Spring Seeds. Jason is exalted as a Canadian food security hero and icon in Gardens of Destiny - the recently released film by Vancouver filmmaker Jocelyn Demers. Well-known sustainability and food security thinkers Guy Dauncey and Herb Barbolet lend their thoughts on why Jason's work is so important.

Host Jon Steinman speaks with Rebecca Kneen of Crannóg Ales - Canada's only Certified Organic farmhouse microbrewery. Kneen published a manual on small-scale organic hop growing and she is extremely excited at the attention the manual has received since the global hops shortage hit home. We also learn more on the philosophies of biodynamic agriculture and the important presence of microorganisms in a post-carbon world.

Meet Bucky Buckaw - a backyard-chicken expert and Host of Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast. Also meet Christoph Martens - a subversive backyard chickener who raises chickens within the city limits of Nelson, British Columbia. While City Bylaw #2333 prohibits the raising of poultry, Martens won't let such an environmentally irresponsible bylaw get in the way of his path to greater self-sufficiency.

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians believes water is the greatest ecological and human rights crisis of our time. Deconstructing Dinner recorded her speech in March 2008. We also hear from Farmer Percy Schmeiser and an exclusive interview recorded only moments after Monsanto paid him for the damages their genetically engineered canola inflicted upon his farm.

In this episode of Deconstructing Dinner, we explore the creation of a market for local grain using a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. We also hear from a grade 4 student sharing some shocking information with his classmates on factory animal farms.