Equal Time with Carl Etnier & Traven

May 14, 2012

The 12-year-old Vermont Farm-to-School program works in 200 schools to build more local markets for its farmers while improving children's nutrition and giving kids a lifelong love of good, fresh food. 

Abbie Nelson, Director of Vermont's Farm-to-School program, (Food Education Every Day), and Agriculture Education Coordinator at NOFA Vermont , came to the show directly from testing a recipe from the Camel's Hump Middle School for three-potato salad with roasted roots and maple balsamic vinagrette. (We'll post the recipe soon.) Five students who competed in Vermont's Junior Iron Chef event developed the recipe and prepared the food--one of many consequences of teaching local food and agriculture in the curriculum. 

Nelson is bringing the national Farm to Cafeteria conference to Burlington August 2-5. 

Mollie Silver, South Burlington Farm-to-School Coordinator and cafeteria support staff, described how a bean salad with vegetables became the in-demand item in a school cafeteria and other stories from the front lines of working with kids and food.

Carl Etnier and Meg Brook hosted.

Smart Business Wednesday: Vermont Interactive Technologies and VBSR Conference Preview

May 9, 2012

Linda Brownell, regional manger for Vermont Interactive Technologies (formerly Vermont Interactive Television), on how statewide videoconferences are changing the way we talk to each other. 

Daniel Barlow, lobbyist for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, with a wrap-up of some of the issues the business group was advocating for in the legislature. 

 Andrea Cohen, VBSR executive director, previewing the organization's spring conference, with the theme Creating Pathways for Vermont's Next Business Generation. 

Carl Etnier hosted.

State Senator Anthony Pollina discussed issues that came up at the end of the legislative session.

Former Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin, on her new book, The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family. The book advocates family-friendly policies like paid sick leave, paid maternity and paternity leave, affordable child care, and early childhood education. Kunin explained why these policies help not only women, but also men and businesses, and make the US more competitive. 

Carl Etnier and Meg Brook hosted.

May 2, 2012

Vermont Farmstead Cheese is a dairy farm and a cheese-making dairy, using all the farm's milk and milk from other Vermont dairy farms. Kyle Thygesen, chief financial officer, explained how their business model offers a possibility for more sustainable dairy production in Vermont. 

Dan Barlow, lobbyist for VBSR, gave an update from the State House on the renewable electricity bill and noted the financial disclosure that showed Bruce Lisman had spent $200,000 of his own money on politically related media buys. The common question is, what is Lisman out to get with his money?

Becky Cohen, director of VBSR's intern program, explained how they match paid interns with Vermont businesses, and what the program offers both to the interns and the businesses. 

Carl Etnier hosted.

May 1, 2012

The Vermont Workers Center organized a May Day rally in Montpelier with a total of 35 groups, around the themes of universal healthcare, education, housing, childcare, workers' rights, women's rights, disability rights, migrant justice and a healthy environment and livable planet.

The broadcast combined on-the-street interviews from the rally, recorded in the hour before airtime, with live interviews with participants in the rally.

Meg Brook and Carl Etnier hosted.

April 25, 2012

Live broadcast from the State House. Guests:

Rep. Sarah Edwards, P/D-Brattleboro, looking back on her ten years in the House, including energy issues.

Sen. Vince Illuzzi, R-Orleans&Essex, on issues related to the proposed merger of CVPS and GMP.

Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, on energy issues.

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morrisville, and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, D-Windsor, on issues facing leadership.

Host: Carl Etnier

April 23, 2012

Senator Anthony Pollina discussed budget challenges, corporate influence on issues, where money comes from, and how what's fair depends on your perspective.

Dan Balon, Director of Diversity and Equity for the Burlington School District, talked about diversity in Burlington and around our state. He shares learning from a task force report and ideas for supporting educators, students, and communities as they find ways to support all.

Host: Meg Brook.

Melissa Bourque and Mary Gerish discuss the organizing and issues leading up to the May 1st Put People First March & Rally: One Movement for People & the Planet initiated by the Vermont Workers' Center. They explain the strategy and human rights framework uniting labor groups, disability rights, environmental, Occupy, and many other organizations, connecting a broad range of social, economic, health care, environmental, worker, immigrant and disability justice struggles into one huge march and rally.

Jeremy Brecher explains the significance of the Occupy movement's mobilization for May Day 2012.  May Day will be a global event that presents an opportunity to create a self-awareness of the global 99% and its ability to act collectively. Wisconsin and Occupy Wall Street represent the first stirrings of American workers joining a global movement, entering a whole period of intensified class conflict in which working people see and act on their common interests through a great variety of activities, including strikes, general strikes, occupations, and militant confrontations.
While the Occupy movement has focused on issues of economic injustice, it is also increasingly addressing the existential threat of catastrophic climate change, and the necessity of converting the world’s economy to a climate-safe basis. Brecher expalins that May Day can be an opportunity to draw the environmental and labor movements together to represent the common global interest in creating work for all reconstructing the global economy to protect rather than destroy the Earth.

March 12, 2012

Kathy St. Marie, childcare worker in North Troy, on the bill to allow childcare workers as a group to negotiate with the state on issues related to childcare.

Andrea Stander, executive director of Rural Vermont, on the GMO labeling bill. 

Carl Etnier and Anthony Pollina host.