Patt Morrison for Tuesday, November 22, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

1:06 – 1:58:30: OPEN

 

2:06 – 2:30

Why Americans waste so much food and what to do about it this Thanksgiving

Food is on many Americans’ minds this week as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, but just as the holiday brings spectacular amounts of food, it also brings spectacular amounts of waste. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption—approximately 1.3 billion tons—is lost or wasted each year. That’s about 222 million tons of food wasted by developed countries like the United States—and that’s nearly as much as the total amount of food produced in sub-Saharan Africa. What big forces perpetuate all that waste? And what are the small ways individuals can cut back, especially during the holidays?

 

Guests:

Jonathan Bloom, creator of WastedFood.com and author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It)

 

2:30 – 2:39

Brother can you spare a dime: how many people will go hungry this Thanksgiving?

Many of the food banks throughout Southern California are expecting record numbers of people in need this Thanksgiving. The problem is there may not be enough food, because donations are down, way down.  E.J. Jackson, owner of Jackson Limousine Service in South Los Angeles, has been giving away turkeys for 28 years and has never seen donations as low as they are this year. He says he had pallets of food this time last year, but now “there’s nothing here.” Jackson wants “L.A. to step up and help these people.” A spokesperson for the Midnight Mission says no matter how tight things are, they will not cut back in spite of a 20-percent drop in donations. The L.A. Food Bank has seen a 50-percent drop in donations. How can these charitable organizations continue to serve with a severe shortage of donations and a growing number of people in need? Will there be enough food for Thanksgiving? How can you help?

 

Guests:

Michael Flood, President/CEO, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

Mai Lee, community and government relations director, Midnight Mission

 

UNCONFIRMED

E.J. Jackson, owner, Jackson Limousine Service

 

2:41:30 – 2:58:30

Black politics in the 21^st Century

Renowned political science professor and author Michael C. Dawson has been conducting studies on race in America since 2005. Backed by a lifetime of scholarship and activism, his recent research examines the modern African American experience in many aspects of life, including political ideology, racial identity and poverty - and dispels some of the dissonance between the reality of modern American race relations and the post-racial fantasy projected post-hurricane Katrina and the election of America’s first black President, Barack Obama. Dawson’s newest book, Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics, presents this research in a clear-eyed and insightful voice that helps elucidate the future of black politics in the new millennium. What is the state of African-American politics and can our society really ever think of itself as “post-racial?”

 

Guests:

Michael Dawson, author of Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press); John D. MacArthur professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago