News & Public Affairs
WNMF wins Water Wise award
02/04/13 Jon ButtsSustainable Living and Alternative Health Listen to this entire show:
Tags: agriculture, farming, gardening, urban farming IFAS, water
On today’s WMNF 88.5 FM Sustainable Living program we started with a short interview about the upcoming (February 9th) Urban Small to Large Farm Conference that takes place at the Pinellas County Extension Service, on 12520 Ulmerton Rd in Largo. Robert Kluson, the Sarasota Vegetable Extension Agent, filled us in on the details. He'll be teaching Chickens 101 at Saturday's conference. We spent the remainder of the show talking with a couple of WMNF volunteers, Paul & Gail Carroll that were ins...
Be the first to commentHealth & pasture based farms
01/07/13 Jon ButtsSustainable Living and Alternative Health Listen to this entire show:
Tags: agriculture, farming, gardening, diet
To start today’s program we had the director of the Sumter County UF IFAS Extension Service Susan Kelly. She also the Coordinator for this year’s AGRItunity Small farms Conference in Bushnell (a little North of Tampa off I-75). This very affordable 1 day conference and has over 20 different classes to pick from. It’s coming up Saturday January 26. http://www.sumter.ifas.ufl.edu or 352-793-2728.
Next up we had the co-founder of the Weston A. Price Found...
1 commentsPolitics meets the State Fair: Governor and Cabinet meet in Tampa on opening day listen
02/09/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Governor Rick Scott, Rick Scott, Cabinet, Pam Bondi, agriculture, auto insurance, fraud, Florida State Fair
Governor Rick Scott got to have some fun in Tampa at the opening day of the Florida State Fair today where he held a Cabinet meeting. Aside from tours and eating fried food, Scott also got kudos from Tampa Bay area locals.
At the cabinet meeting a group of about 50 Floridians wore shirts advertising their coalition: Put the Brakes on Accident Fraud. Austin Curry was one of many advocates waving signs thanking the Governor and Cabinet for their efforts to stop the loss of 1 billion dollar...
Be the first to commentInsects: the next threat to national security? listen
11/17/11 Josh HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: terrorism, agriculture, agricultural, food, FDA, USDA
The Department of Homeland Security has been trying to tighten borders in the name of national security. Airplane passengers and undocumented immigrants have spurred much of the national debate, but there is also concern that food imports should be monitored more closely.
Wednesday in Tampa industry specialists from the agriculture and food industry, law enforcement, the military and emergency management took a course o...
Be the first to commentSmall farms under threat from the FDA in "Farmageddon" listen
08/12/11 Josh HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Farmageddon, agriculture, FDA, USDA, food, farming, farms, Organic food, Organic, organic farming, organic gardening
Federal and state laws can create hurdles for small farmers, who face raids and arrests for such things as selling raw milk to customers. A new film, called Farmageddon, documents the struggles of independent farmers. Hundreds of people attended sold out screenings in Tampa.
Many viewers were shocked to find that all over the United States, federal food regulators are shutting down businesses, throwing fresh food in the garbage, and raiding families’ homes; ...
2 commentsFlorida has no reporting requirements for controversial pesticide methyl iodide listen
05/13/11 Kelly BenjaminWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: methyl iodide, Arysta Lifescience, pesticides, agriculture, farmworkers, public health, EPA
Methyl iodide is a controversial pesticide that has been approved for use in agricultural fields in Florida and California despite vocal opposition linking it to cancer and other ailments. Today is the last day the Environmental Protection Agency will take public comment on use of the chemical. But finding out where and how much methyl iodide is being used in Florida is a difficult task.
The EPA's public comment period on methyl iodide comes at the request of EarthJustice, a law firm wor...
5 commentsSustainable Living: Capitalism
06/01/09 Jon ButtsRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Friday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Sustainable living, farming, agriculture
Our very special guest on the Sustainable Living program was John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri, College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Sciences. John is the author of the books Sustainable Capitalism - A Matter of Common Sense, Small Farms are Real Farms, Sustaining People Through Agriculture, plus more books, papers and related media on the topic of sustainable economies and agriculture.
He addressed the question of sustainabl...
Be the first to commentSustainable Living: Urban permaculture and velomobiles
04/20/09 Jon ButtsRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Friday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Sustainable living, farming, agriculture, Velomobile
We started the program with David Eggleston from Midland Texas; he is founder of Petal Yourself Healthy & Velomobile USA. David talked about his effort in Texas to get folks out of their cars and on bikes. He then gave our listeners a good description of a common pedal-power vehicle in Europe, the Velomobile.
Our special guest in the studio was Jim Kovaleski, a local permaculture expert. Jim described some of the tools he uses on his urban garden in New Port Richey. His bicycle wagon and...
1 commentsSustainable Living: Fruits we can grow
02/23/09 Jon ButtsRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Friday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Sustainable living, farming, agriculture
Our special guest today was Paul Zmoda, a local fruit expert and owner of Flatwoods Farm in Riverview. We talked about our recent freezes in the area; and what, when and where to plant perennial fruit trees, vines, and bushes. Water and nutrient requirements were also part of the discussion.
Debbie Butts, a lifelong horticulturist, also joined the program sharing her knowledge of native edibles and invasive plants.
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