Back in 2006, Kim Severson wrote an article for the New York Times Dining section about the emergence of cooking shows on satellite radio (think the Food Network but with aural porn replacing the gratuitous visuals). Never a bunch to miss out on the party, the sustainable food community quickly followed suit. Over the last few years, radio programs spouting the gospel of “good food” have spread like sourdough bubbles across the airwaves and Internet. Here are some of the shows worth tuning in to – and this one “goes to 11!”
CHECK OUT THE FULL LIST AT the MOTHER NATURE NETWORK and then share your favorite shows below.
On Monday morning, NPR aired a segment on the Supplimental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka food stamps). Starting from a photograph of a store accepting SNAP from a listener in middle-class Teaneck, NJ. What’s the world coming to, the segment suggests, when middle class neighborhoods need government assistance to buy food?
I grew up in a generally middle class neighborhood in the North West Bronx, and all of the bodegas (that’s a corner store, for you non-New Yorkers) accepted food stamps and EBT cards. According to the radio program, for stores, it’s pretty easy to apply. Despite the fact that there must have been enough demand to necessitate our more-ample-than-usual selection of markets to accept all this government scrip, we made free and easy fun of government food hand outs. I remember “government cheese” being synonymous with anything processed, cheap and nasty. It was synonymous with lunch room food, another domain of the USDA’s nutrition programs, and with being poor, a category that many of my elementary school friends were a part of, though at the time it seemed they weren’t aware.
Liz Schwartz is a member of the planning committee for the Tuv Ha’Aretz CSA in Portland, Oregon. She also co-hosts The Portland Yiddish Hour, a weekly radio show on Portland’s community radio station, KBOO 90.7 FM.
A couple of weeks ago I did a show about Jews, food and ethics, which is now available online at kboo.fm. I interviewed Rabbi Arthur Waskow, one of the main proponents of the eco-kashrut movement, and I also spoke with Rabbi Morris Allen, founder of the Hekhsher Tzedek Initiative, a new ethical certification body that will be evaluating food products with regard to their treatment of workers, animals and the environment. I also spoke with two of Portland’s Jewish organic farmers, including the partner farmer for our chapter of Tuv Ha’Aretz.
Every Saturday at 11am PST, the Los Angeles radio station KCRW broadcasts Evan Kleiman’s Good Food program. Those who observe shabbat, or who want to listen to the program from outside the LA area, can download the audio afterwards here or subscribe to a regular podcast here.
Kleiman founded Slow Food Los Angeles and she has interviewed several figures connected to environmental issues and the slow food movement, including of of the movement’s leading lights, Michael Pollan. Good Food has also broadcast several past programs discussing Jewish food issues. Let’s hope there are more soon!
Blogger Jonathan Bloom ofwastedfood.com spoke on NPR on Yesterday. He talked about the amount of food American families waste every week, the lack of research in this area, and how to cut down on waste. You can listen to the segment, which aired on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show, below.
A farmer, an educator and an activist, Michael Ableman is also a photographer and a writer. His three books include his latest, Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it, for which Ableman traveled North America chronicling the passion and prowess of the new generation of American farmers. He currently farms in British Columbia with his wife and two sons, and will be joining us as a presenter at the Hazon Food Conference in December, 2008. (Click here to find out more and register for Hazon’s Food Conference.)
I talked to Ableman about his hopes for the sustainable agriculture movement, his many hats, and Judaism’s connection to the cycle of the seasons.
Hazon’s friends Devora Kimelman-Block, founder of Kol Foods (a kosher, organic, grass-fed meat company) and Rabbi Morris Allen, Director of Hekhsher Tzedek, joined American University Radio to discussthe situation at Agriprocessors and explore the questions:
“If food meets the strict rules elaborated in religious texts, does it matter how food arrives at our plates? And where do workers’ rights and other ethical considerations factor into kosher food production?”
On the same page, you can also find a segment featuring Jennifer 8 Lee, author of the Fortune Cookie Chronicles which was reviewed on The Jew & The Carrot.
We *love* the song “Pesach Dub” by Ori Salzberg. Mixing audio from old school Manischewitz ads for matzos and gefilte fish (in jars!) with new school beats, it’s the best thing to happen to matzos since matzos pizza.
Click on the arrow below to listen – sing along!
“There’s nothing that quite hits the spot so | Your family will like it a lot so. | When they’re set to eat, just give them the treat: Manischewitz, American matzo!
This month is New Voices magazine’s Radio Issue. (Check below for free subscription info.) In the “Best Jewish Podcasts” article is an amazing little bubbe who’s grandson podcasts her cooking to the world…just adorable…
Bubbe, of Feed Me Bubbe
In a shining example of nerddom gone right, sweet grandson Avram hosts a brilliant and wholesome series on his bubbe’s cooking. An irregularly published video podcast, the show features the charming and hilarious Bubbe making classic Ashkenazi comfort food: kasha varnishkes, borsht, tzimmes, kugel, and the rest. The recipes are simple to follow. There is also a Yiddish word of the day, spoken in Bubbe’s Boston accent.
Way back in April, I attended and sang in Northampton, MA, at one of the many ‘Step it Up’ rallies going on across the country, and across the world, to bring attention to the realities of climate change. The sound system was powered by veggie oil from my van’s engine running through an inverter, and a good time was had by all. You can see my van, the ‘Veggie Voyager’, near the top right of the photo. Ironically, the weather was perfect! Here is a broadcast from WAMC radio that sums up the event pretty nicely.
Nigel Savage and Anna Stevenson on public radio, discussing Jews and food, keeping kosher (including kosher bacon?) and the challenges and opportunities that come with the choices we have about what to eat.
Bubbe, of Feed Me Bubbe
Way back in April, I attended and sang in Northampton, MA, at one of the many ‘Step it Up’ rallies going on across the country, and across the world, to bring attention to the realities of climate change. The sound system was powered by veggie oil from my van’s engine running through an inverter, and a good time was had by all. You can see my van, the 
