Tag Archives: Agriculture

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Factory Farming of Animals, an Unsustainable Method of Food Production – August 21, 2022

Farming around the world, and in particular in the US, has increasingly become centralized as large factory farming. What are the environmental, social, and philosophical implications of this mode of agricultural production? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Factory farming carry significant challenges on environmental protection, on pricing and the centralization of wealth, and on social issues such as animal welfare and animal rights. We discuss agricultural policies and the environmental impacts including carbon emission, climate change and pollution.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Adaptation by Agriculture and Food system for the 21st century – December 27 , 2020

We spend the hour on good food politics, the food revolution, and the movements to build equitable and sustainable food systems. First, we’re joined by Will Allen author of Good Food Revolution. Hosted by Maria Armoudian [ dur: 25 mins. ]

  • Will Allen is the author of Good Food Revolution and the founder of the non-profit Growing Power.

Then, our guests have studied the food system and what it means to have an equitable and sustainable system. What are the problems in the system and what are the solutions? [ dur: 33 mins. ]

Raj Patel and Saru Jayaraman are contributors to The Nation magazine’s special issue, “The Future of Food: Setting the table for the next generation“.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Agriculture and Food system for the 21st century – December 1 , 2019

We spend the hour on good food politics, the food revolution, and the movements to build equitable and sustainable food systems. First, we’re joined by Will Allen author of Good Food Revolution. [ dur: 25 mins. ]

  • Will Allen is the author of Good Food Revolution and the founder of the non-profit Growing Power.

Then, our guests have studied the food system and what it means to have an equitable and sustainable system. What are the problems in the system and what are the solutions? [ dur: 33 mins. ]

Raj Patel and Saru Jayaraman are contributors to The Nation magazine’s special issue, “The Future of Food: Setting the table for the next generation“.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – GM foods promoted by US state department -/- Flourishing Conspiracy theories – June 9, 2019

Is the US State Department using its diplomatic efforts to push genetically modified foods into other countries? Our guest says yes. She traced US multi-pronged effort to persuade Mexico to allow genetically modified foods. [ dur: 22mins. ]

Then, guest host Sam Smith examines the flourishing of conspiracy theories. What are they? How dangerous are they? [ dur: 35mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Role of Food in History -/- Extractive industries and their economic and environmental affects – November 25, 2018

First, the role of food in history- as a weapon of war, of empire and of building societies. With Tom Standage. [ dur: 21 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Then, what is the relationship between minerals such as oil, diamonds and gold and conflict, authoritarianism and poverty? This week’s scholars have spent years studying how these so-called extractive industries, mining and drilling, impact people’s lives, their governance and the environment throughout the world. How can countries so rich in mineral wealth remain mired in so much poverty? [ dur: 33 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Water Crisis: reasons, effect on population and policy issues. – March 18, 2018

The world is facing a water crisis. In a new report the World Bank and the United Nations have reported that some 40 percent of the world’s population is effected by water scarcity, two billion people rely on unsafe water, and some 700 million people are at risk of being displaced by water scarcity. We spend the hour with four experts on water and water governance. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Robert Glennon is a Regents’ Professor and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy in the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. He is the author of the books Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters. and the report Shopping for Water: How the Market Can Mitigate Water Shortages in the American West.
  • Thomas A Perreault is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geography at Syracuse University. He is the editor of Water Justice and The Handbook of Political Ecology, and many book chapters and journal articles on mining, development and ecological issues in Latin America).
  • Aimee Craft is Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba, Canada. She is the author of Breathing Life Into the Stone Fort Treaty. She directs the Anishinaabe water law. project.
  • Madison Condon is Legal Fellow at Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. Her publications include The Integration of Environmental Law into International Investment Treaties and Trade Agreements: Negotiation Process and the Legalization of Commitments, Mixing and Transport in the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel, and Pesticide Risk Indicators: Unidentified Inert Ingredients Compromise Their Integrity and Utility.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Building Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems – November 26, 2017

We spend the hour on good food politics, the food revolution, and the movements to build equitable and sustainable food systems. First, we’re joined by Will Allen author of Good Food Revolution. [ dur: 25 mins. ]

  • Will Allen is the author of Good Food Revolution and the founder of the non-profit Growing Power.

Then, our guests have studied the food system and what it means to have an equitable and sustainable system. What are the problems in the system and what are the solutions? [ dur: 33 mins. ]

  • Saru Jayaraman is Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley . She is the co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) which has more than 18,000 worker members, 200 employer partners, and several thousand consumer members in a dozen states nationwide. She is the author of Behind the Kitchen Door and her latest Forked: A New Standard for American Dining.
  • Raj Patel is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, The Value of Nothing – a New York Times and international best-seller – and his latest, co-written with Jason W. Moore, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things. He co-hosts the fortnightly food politics podcast The Secret Ingredient .

Raj Patel and Saru Jayaraman are contributors to The Nation magazine’s special issue, “The Future of Food: Setting the table for the next generation“.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle- Study on effects of consumerism -/- humanity affected by history of science and religion – May 1st, 2016

2 Comments

First, how most of what we buy and consume helps create wars, prop up dictatorships and systems of oppression, and some ways to start changing this. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Leif Wenar is Chair of Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. He is the author of “Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence and the Rules That Run the World“. Leif Wenar website

Then, how might Big History change our thinking about the role of humanity in the history of the earth and the convergence of science and religion. [ dur: 30 mins. ]

  • Jonathan Markley is Associate Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton. He is part of the Big History movement and has been featured in many television episodes related to it. Big History Project website

Find book authored by our guest scholars on this Book Shelf .

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Will Allen’s Food Revolution-/-Homelessness in America- November 29th, 2015

First, Will Allen talks about the Good Food Revolution, a movement dedicated to equitable and sustainable food, and creating just world, one food secure community at a time. [ dur: 26 mins. ]

  • Will Allen, author, founder of Growing Power. He is the author of The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, the economic crisis are pushing more people into homelessness, an already pervasive epidemic in America. Why are so many people without homes? And what can be done about it? [ dur: 32 mins. ]

  • Sam Tsemberis, Professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, Founder & Executive Director of Pathway to Housing. Author of Housing First Manual: The Pathways Model to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness and Addiction
  • James Baumohl, Professor at Bryn Mawr College, Graduate school of social work and social research. Author of Homelessness In America
  • Kim Hopper, Professor of Medical Anthropology & research scientist at Nathan S. Kline institute of Psychiatric Research of Colombia University. She is co-author of Private Lives/Public Spaces: Homeless Adults on the Streets of New York City and author of Reckoning with Homelessness

Find book/publication authored by our guest scholars Book Shelf .

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-History Of Food As Weapon-/-South China Sea Territorial Claims-November 8th, 2015

First we discuss with Tom Standage, the role of food in history- as a weapon of war, of empire and of building societies.[ dur: 21 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Tom Standage is a journalist and author of The Edible History of Humanity.

Then, on the Scholar’s circle panel, China’s territorial claims and its development of the South China Sea has raised the concerns of other countries that also claim territories in the same region – the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunie. The situation was complicated further when US naval ships began patrolling the region around one of China’s man made islands. China’s naval chief warned that a minor incident could result in war. What exactly is brewing in the South China Sea? What does it mean for the region and for China US relations? [ dur: 37 mins. ]

  • Pradeep Taneja is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne. He is the co-editor  of The European Union and China: Interests and Dilemmas.
  • Stephen Noakes is a lecturer of Chinese Politics, jointly appointed to Politics and International Relations and Asian Studies at the University of Auckland. ​He is coauthor of Support for Civil Society in China in Creating Democratic Value: Evaluating Efforts to Promote Democracy Abroad.
  • Daniel Lynch is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the author of After the Propaganda State: Media, Politics, and Thought in Reformed China and Rising China and Asian Democratization: Socialization to “Global Culture” in the Political Transformations of Thailand, China, and Taiwan
  • Professor Leszek Buszynski is a lecturer at Australia National University. He is the author of Asia Pacific Security – Values and Identity​.​ He co-edited The South China Sea Maritime Dispute: Political, Legal and Regional Perspectives and his latest publication Negotiating with North Korea: The Six Party Talks and the Nuclear Issue.

Find book/publication authored by our guest scholars Book Shelf .

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