WHAT'S UP WITH OUR FOOD?: Safety and Nutrition vs. Cheap Vittles

America is the most obese nation on earth, consuming tons more fat, sugar and starches than the fresh fruits, vegetables and organic meats necessary to sustain good health and long life. Worse, many of those critical foods are unavailable to a huge percentage of urban and rural dwellers who must either travel miles for access to fresh foods or spend far in excess of their budgets just to balance their diets.

Minnesota is among the worst of the nation's states in obesity and unhealthy eating habits, no thanks to the heavy marketing of fast foods and the price differential between unhealthy commodities produced by polluting feedlots and the fresh produce and clean meats from sustainable organic farming practices.

How can we change our addictive consumption of unhealthy sugars and fats and produce and consume the nutrition-bearing foods necessary for early childhood development and learning behavior? How can we bring healthy organic food prices in line with cheap commodities and the genetically modified and antibiotic-infused meats and crops now poring off the industrial farms of Minnesota, despite state laws prohibiting corporate farming?

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN query organic farmers, sustainable food systems advocates and analysts about the state of nutrition and the impact of producing, processing, marketing and consumption of 21st-Century foods.

GUESTS:

• ATINA DIFFLEY - Organic Farmer; Founder, Gardens of Eagan

• SARAH CLAASSEN - Program Organizer, Community-based Food Systems, Land Stewardship Project

• TOM TAYLOR - Rural Food Systems Organizer, Land Stewardship Project; former staff, Organic Consumers Association

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