What Doesn't Kill You

Professor Sylvia Secchi from University of Iowa joins to talk about how ethanol is a giant giveaway to the ag industry, purporting to be a partial solution to fossil fuel impacts. Instead, the excessive cultivation of corn is having disastrous impacts on soil and water... and guess what? It's anything but fuel efficient. How did we get here??? Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Journalist Keith Schneider examines a spate of cancer diagnoses in farm country in Minnesota. On one short stretch of a road in Berne Minnesota, shared by four farming families, 12 people developed cancer, and seven of them died. What linked these people in disease is the contamination of their drinking water with excess nitrates, the chemicals used to encourage bumper crops of corn, soy, and other crops. It has yet to be definitively proven, but the science shows excessive nitrate in drinking water is increasingly connected to cancer clusters such as this one in Minnesota. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Organic food purchasers buy organic and pay the extra for a reason. New regulations being proposed by some members of congress would make it much easier for corporate food businesses to use that premium label to sell product that doesn't actually meet the real benchmarks of organic. Tom Chapman, CEO of the Organic Trade Association, and others have introduced the new Continuous Improvement and Accountability in Organic Standards to counteract these efforts to dilute the organic label. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

The National Family Farm Coalition is advocating for the Farmland For Farmers Act introduced by Senator Cory Booker in July of this year. Agricultural land needs to stay accessible to actual farmers, rather than offer an opportunity to corporate entities to capitalize on high land prices, at the same time driving those prices into a stratosphere no mere mortal can possibly attain. Our food security depends on measures like this. Tune in to see how this fits into the Farm Bill, and its chances at passage. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Western states are home to herds of grazing beasts, and to keep them in the right place, thousands of miles of fencing is required. Conservation Northwest Associate Director Jay Kehne advocates a different path: shock collars for cattle. The cattle stay put, but other wildlife (think deer, elk, and other ruminants) can run free instead of fouling the fence. A big win for wildlife, and for a rancher's bottom line. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Award winning journalist and author, and favorite guest, Tom Philpott returns to talk all things Farm Bill. What will change, what is new, and what is, sigh, same old, same old? Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Every day a new article describes the prevalence of PFAS in our water, land, food, and bodies. David Cwiertny, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and in Chemistry at the University of Iowa, takes us through the impacts, the options for remediation, and what to expect from regulatory bodies in the wake of increased knowledge on the ubiquity of "forever" chemicals. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Iowa State University Water Quality expert Chris Jones, @riverraccoon, just published a damning indictment of the governing officials of Iowa and Big Ag in overseeing the disastrous consequences of our profit over people driven agricultural model. Learn how the Department of Natural Resources and a host of other agencies collude in allowing agriculture to extract maximum payment from taxpayers, even as they flush ever increasing quantities of pollutants into the water system. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Tom Philpott, author of Perilous Bounty, was prescient in his 2020 book in a lengthy description of the 1862 floods that inundated Central Valley in a once in a century flood. Now Central Valley is facing an even more catastropic scenario as climate disruption adds fuel to an already volatile area now packed with dairy farms, oil wells, and massive swaths of land planted to almonds, pistachios, tomatoes, and cotton. What will ensue with the predicted flooding caused by potential rapid snowmelt is a desperate scenario indeed. Read Tom's latest piece here. Read an excerpt from his book here. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Vermont farmer Erik Andrus is practicing an ancient form of agro-ecology from Japan. Learn how the old informs the new as Erik describes his approach and how it works. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Bryce Oates, a regular contributor to Civil Eats, Daily Yonder and other pubs has launched a newsletter that comes from a rural perspective. In this episode we talk about the new WOTUS controversy, and all the bluster and drama that plays out in a rule that essentially regulates nothing, but some would like us to believe our food supply is at risk from protecting water supplies. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Science writer and author Maryn McKenna is back to talk about her newest piece for Wired where she considers the implications of Avian flu moving to new territory and infecting new mammals, though not yet infecting people to any great degree. What does this say about our methods for raising animals in confinement, and how do we check the spread of this pathogen and others like it? Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Sherri Dugger, Executive Director of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, joins What Doesn't Kill You to discuss a recent meeting in Washington with advocacy groups urging the USDA and Congress to fund actual farms, rather than subsidizing commodities for animal feed and ethanol. Learn how SRAP helps communities organize against CAFO's, and how they transition farmers from the CAFO model of pork production. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Vicky Bond, President of the Humane League, joins to discuss their campaign to transition the egg industry to cage free. Who is walking the walk and who talks the talk but doesn't walk? Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Chloe Sorvino, journalist and author of Raw Deal, returns to talk about alt meat and where it's headed. Is it really better? Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Journalist Christina Cooke joins to discuss her lead off piece in a five part series on worker safety in animal agriculture called Injured and Invisible. Today we discuss the plight of workers who have been long left out of OSHA safety regs extended to every other industry. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Forbes's food writer Chloe Sorvino brings the business in her new book about the corruption of the meat industry. Exploitation, price fixing, pollution and bribery all get a turn in the barrel. Should be a fun discussion between a couple of real meat heads! Photo Courtesy of Nick Rice. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

BlueTriton has gobbled up a lot of water companies, including Nestle's water division. They say they are addressing the kinds of problems we saw in Flint. But what exactly does that mean, and what should consumers expect from a giant water company that makes its profit from selling bottled water? Chief sustainability officer Ed Ferguson will try to show us what role his company plays in maintaining water quality and supply. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Civil Eats reporter and former host of the Farm Report, Lisa Held, was at the conference and can give listeners an informed recap of this long overdue conference. From root causes of hunger, to expanding the role of government in nutrition science, and much more, this conference was based on 5 Pillars of action proposed by the Biden Administration. Learning what those goals are and the proposals to achieve them can help us all understand why America lags in public health, and inform who we vote for in the future. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

On October 11, the Supreme Court heard a case that will have major implications for animal welfare standards nationwide. The case was brought forward by National Pork Producers Council against the state of California, citing unfair trade practices. Prop 12 guaranteed a better standard of living for pigs, veal calves and egg birds. NPPC et al. says otherwise. Hog farmer Ron Mardesen joins to discuss. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member! What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.