May 3, 2004: Interview with Ron Khosla. (Duration 37:26, 8.5 MBytes)
 

Ron Khosla and his wife operate Huguenot Street Farm, a commercial vegetable farm, in New Paltz, NY. Since 1999 the Khoslas have farmed veganically, with pesticide standards higher than USDA Organic Certification and using cover crops as a substitute for animal manure and slaughterhouse by-products to provide nutrients for their plants. Since adopting these practices their farm has become one of the most efficient in the Northeastern United States, producing one of the highest ratios of tons of food harvested per man-hour of labor.

Khosla is also the founder of Certified Naturally Grown, a non-profit alternative eco-labeling program for small farms that grow using USDA Organic methods but are not a part of the USDA Certified Organic program.

 
April 26, 2004: Interview with Patrick Diehl. (Duration: 43:37, 9.7 MBytes)
 

Patrick Diehl, PhD, has been a social and environmental activist since the mid 1970s. In this interview, Diehl recounts his work with the anti-nuclear Livermore Action Group, his experiences as a war tax resister and his environmental and political activism since moving to Utah in 1998. There Diehl, and his partner Tori Woodard, founded the Escalante Wilderness Project as a watchdog over environmental conflicts stemming from livestock grazing in southern Utah, particularly in the nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Diehl highlights his organization’s activities, as well as those of his Green Party candidacy for Utah’s second congressional district in 2002.

We conclude the interview with a discussion of Diehl’s involvement with the Sierra Club. In November 2002, as an officer of the club’s Glen Canyon Group, Diehl opposed what he perceived as the club’s inadequate response to the impending US led invasion of Iraq. Diehl’s public protests in this regard led to his removal as an officer by the club’s national board in May 2003. Diehl speaks at length about his conflict with the Sierra Club and the systemic deficiencies he sees both with the club’s structure and with its means of internal communication.

 
April 19, 2004: Interview with Scott Silver. (Duration: 37:54, 8.6 MBytes)
 

Scott Silver is co-founder and Executive Director of Wild Wilderness, which since 1991 has sought to ensure that wilderness areas, roadless areas and other areas now substantially free of development will continue to provide outstanding opportunities for high-quality, non-motorized, recreation. As Wild Wilderness director, Silver has focused his efforts on educating the American public about changing attitudes in federal lands management philosophy that are leading toward greater “commercialization, privatization and motorization” of our nation’s public lands. In this interview Scott speaks at length about the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program and its primary booster, the American Recreation Coalition.

 
April 12, 2004: Interview with Richard Grossman.

(Duration: 46:44, 10.7 MBytes)
 

Richard Grossman, the man who sparked the modern anti-corporate movement, is a researcher and writer for the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), which he co-founded in 1994. From 1976 to 1985 Grossman was director of Environmentalists for Full Employment during which time he authored Energy, Jobs and the Economy and Fear at Work: Job Blackmail & the Environment. This interview was conducted primarily by show co-host Bill Huston.

 
March 22, 2004: Interview with Richard Schwartz.

(Duration: 34:09, 7.8 MBytes)
 

Richard H. Schwartz, PhD, is the author of three books: Judaism and Vegetarianism, Judaism and Global Survival, and Mathematics and Global Survival, and more than 100 articles that can be read on his website. In addition, he frequently speaks and contributes articles on environmental, health, and other current issues. He is professor emeritus of mathematics at the College of Staten Island, president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America, and coordinator of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians. Schwartz joins us for a discussion about vegetarianism in the practice of Judaism.

 
March 15, 2004: Interview with Dawn Moncrief. (Duration: 24:55, 5.6 MBytes)
 

Dawn Moncrief, the national coordinator for the Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM) (since renamed the “Farm Animal Rights Movement”), joins us in anticipation of the 20th annual observance of the Great American Meatout later in the week. In addition to a discussion about the history and scope of this event, Moncrief speaks about other FARM sponsored activities such as Gentle Thanksgiving, World Farm Animals Day, the Sabina Fund and the Global Hunger Alliance. She also describes the horrible effects of industrial egg, hog and dairy production on the animals which those industries exploit.

 
March 15, 2004: Interview with Dave Louthan. (Duration: 15:34, 3.5 MBytes)
 

Former slaughterhouse worker Dave Louthan returns for an update on Mad Cow disease in the United States. In this second interview Dave reports on his recent testimony before the California legislature and expresses his views about BSE testing by entities other than the USDA. Dave also speaks about the USDA’s proposed changes in its testing program and about the ongoing controversy over whether the Mad Cow he slaughtered the previous December was actually a downer.

 
March 8, 2004: Interview with Carol Moon. (Duration: 35:37, 8.1 MBytes)
 

Carol Moon, a humane educator with Farm Sanctuary, speaks about her journey to veganism and animal advocacy; obtaining her master’s degree in humane education and her activity as a humane educator in New York City schools. She concludes with an overview of Farm Sanctuary campaigns opposing the production of veal, opposing the marketing and slaughter of downed animals, and opposing cruel practices in the production of foie gras (duck liver paté).

 
March 1, 2004: Interview with Keith Akers. (Duration: 42:26, 9.6 MBytes)
 

Keith Akers is a well-known figure in the vegetarian community, having served as president of the Vegetarian Society of DC and the Vegetarian Society of Colorado, as well as having been an officer of the International Vegetarian Union. In this interview Akers speaks about his early interest in religion and philosophy, his journey to embracing a vegetarian and then vegan diet, and about his two books.

Akers’s first book, A Vegetarian Sourcebook (1983), was the first book to point out and give emphasis to the three major areas of concern (human health, ecology, ethics) for the modern vegetarian movement, and the first book to give any substantial emphasis to environmental consequences of animal agriculture. In our interview Keith speaks at length about such consequences, and notes the failure of the contemporary vegetarian movement in reaching out to people concerned about the environment.

We then move on to a discussion of Akers’s second book, The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity (2000). Akers speaks about the basic teachings of Jesus: simple living and nonviolence, and argues that these teachings included vegetarianism. Akers also touches upon the events that transformed this religion into mainstream, contemporary Christianity which has, for the most part, abandoned these principles.

 
February 23, 2004: Interview with Dave Louthan and Dr. Michael Greger.

(Duration: 43:55, 10 MBytes)
 

Dave Louthan gained notoriety, not only as the slaughterhouse worker who killed the first animal in the United States diagnosed with Mad Cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE), but also for his contradicting the USDA’s claim that the animal was a downer. In this gripping interview Dave recounts the experience of killing the Mad Cow in December 2003 and the tension at the slaughter facility when USDA personnel arrived on the scene later that month. Dave’s insights on slaughterhouse practices will give even the most devoted beef lover reason to reconsider the place of beef in their diet.

Our second guest, Dr. Michael Greger, a nationally known expert on Mad Cow disease, answers questions about the relative safety of dairy and various beef products. We conclude the interview with a discussion of research suggesting that many Alzheimer’s victims may actually be afflicted with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), increasingly suspected of resulting, in some instances, from the consumption of BSE infected meat.

 
February 16, 2004: Interview with Matt Kelly. (Duration: 38:42, 8.8 MBytes)
 

Matt Kelly, co-founder of the Berkshire Vegetarian Network and chair of the Berkshire Hills Chapter of EarthSave International, recounts his adventures as a volunteer crew member with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on a 2-month voyage in 2003 attempting to thwart the efforts of the Japanese whaling fleet off the coast of Antarctica.

 
February 9, 2004: Interview with Christopher B. Bedford.

(Duration: 51:51, 11.8 MBytes)
 

Chris Bedford is a filmmaker and, at the time of our interview, national campaign coordinator, Farm Animal & Sustainable Agriculture Programs, The Humane Society of the United States. We discuss Bedford’s career as an advocacy filmmaker, his environmental activism and his work in Iowa with HSUS opposing industrial hog production (CAFOs).

 
November 27, 2003: Interview with Gary L. Francione.

(Duration: 55:16, 12.5 MBytes)
 

Gary Francione is professor of law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Distinguished Scholar of Law and Philosophy at the Rutgers University School of Law. Professor Francione taught the first course on animal rights and the law in an American law school in 1989. His books include Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? (2000), Animals, Property, and the Law (1995), and Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement (1996). More information about Francione’s work can be found on the website of the Animal Rights Law Project. In this interview Francione gives his views on the contemporary treatment of animals and on the failings of the animal rights movement in America. This interview was conducted by Bill Huston before Mike Hudak joined the show as co-host.