Are Farmers' Market Farmers Growing Everything They Sell?
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Farmers' markets are growing like weeds in California, with 719 certified statewide and more than 300 in LA, Orange and Ventura Counties. Participating farmers are supposed to sell fresh produce they grow themselves, sometimes without chemicals. However not everybody obeys the rules. With state and local agricultural agencies short of resources, some markets try to police themselves. We look at how that's working out and ask why farmers' markets are so popular in the first place. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, drought, economic speculation and climate change are threatening a worldwide food shortage, and the UN is warning about food riots like those of two years ago. We ask if a distribution system dominated by US agri-business needs to be overhauled.
Banner image of root vegetables at Santa Monica Farmers' Market: Muy Yum
Main Topic
Farmers' Markets: Do You Get What You Think You're Paying For? ()
KCRW producer Christian Bordal has been looking into the growing profusion of farmers' markets, why they're so popular and how customers can be sure they're getting the right kind of produce.
Guests:
- Christian Bordal: Producer, 'To the Point' and 'Which Way, LA?'
- Greta Dunlap: Manager, Beverly Hills and South Pasadena Farmers’ Markets
- John Edwards: Board President, Raw Inspiration
- David Karp: MarketWatch columnist, Los Angeles Times
Links:
Main Topic
Our Unsustainable Table: Another Global Food Crisis? ()
In 2008, a combination of natural events and economic conditions drove food prices so high that food riots erupted in many parts of the world. This year, there's concern that the same thing may be happening again. But the ravages of 2008 aren't yet over.
Guests:
- Raj Patel: former Fellow; Institute for Food and Development Policy
- Nancy Roman: Director of Public Policy, United Nations World Food Program
- Jonathan Bloom: Freelance journalist and food waste expert
- Mark Winne: former Executive Director, Hartford Food System
Links:
- World Food Program on rising food prices, world hunger
- Food and Agriculture Association the state of food insecurity today
- National Institutes of Health study on food waste
- Patel's 'Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System'
- Bloom's 'American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It)'
- Winne's 'Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin' Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture'
Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
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