Tag: agriculture/Archives

Swords to Plowshares

Photo of Matt McCueWhile in Iraq, former U.S. Army Sergeant Matthew McCue witnessed the power and peace-making potential of agriculture. When he returned to the States he worked with the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, and now works at the French Garden Farm near Sebastopol. Says McCue: “I still want to make the world a better place. I think i can do more good with a shovel than with an M-16.” McCue worked with the Farmer-Veteran Coalition and the French Garden Farm in Sebastopol CA, This story was originally produced for the SpeakeasyDC Storycast.

Aired on PRI Hear & Now; by producer Alix Blair, “Swords to Plowshares” (0:00 mp3):

HV053- Ranchers

Sheep shearing, Jerry Iverson painingHearing Voices from NPR®
053 Ranchers: Life, Death, Land, and Livestock
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-02-09 (Originally: 2009-03-18)

“Ranchers” (52:00 mp3):

Cattle and sheep, wool and meat:

“Counting Sheep” (28:00) Barrett Golding

Our host documents a year on a Roxanne Linderman’s Montana sheep ranch, raising, lambing, herding, shearing, and selling sheep.

Click thru our audio-viz gallery of sheep-shearer Jerry Iverson’s ranch paintings.

“Garland Hirschi’s Cows” (10:00 excerpt) Phillip Bimstien

Composer Phillip Bimstien made music with the voice of his neighbor, a Rockville, Utah cattleman, in “Garland Hirschi’s Cows,” (Starkland 1997).

“Lili’s Farm” (4:00 excerpt)

Lili Olsen, 3-years-old, takes us around her New Hampshire farm, recorded by Jason Rayles.

“Holding His Ground” (5:43) Jesikah Maria Ross

The late Attilio Genasci, interviewed for this story at age 97, held onto his California alpine-valley cattle ranch. Produced for the Nature Conservancy’s Stories from Heart of the Land and Saving the Sierra.

Hi Lonesome

UPDATE: Another of Aubrey’s film’s “See You Then” made the Nikon Top 10:

Original post (video links now 404s):
The Nikon Festival asks folk to video document “Your Day, in 140 seconds or less”. Fellow MT-an and fine photographer Audrey Hall has this entry:

“Hi Lonesome”


Audrey’s film features my friend, rancher John Hoiland, star of this NPR piece, “John & Nippy” (5:08):



Pam Fraser’s Flickr set for her neighbor JohnH.

HV038- Let’s Eat

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
038 Let’s Eat— For Thanksgiving
Host— Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airdates— 11/19/2008 – 11/26/2008

Let’s Eat (53:00 mp3):

A Thanksgiving audio feast. We binge on fattening stories, then purge with a documentary on refusing food:

Joe Frank describes a typically twisted family “Thanksgiving Dinner” (from his program “Pilgrim“).


detail of painting “First Thanksgiving” by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (1863-1930)
courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

Scott Carrier tours a “Turkey Ranch,” following the gobbler from farmyard to frozen food.


photo by Harry M. Rhoads (1880-1975)
courtesy Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

Dean Olscher of The Next Big Thing goes “Chowhounding in St. Paul,” searching for Hmong food, with cellphone assistance from the Chowhound, Jim Leff.


Sarah J. Hale, Editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, led a campaign through
the 1850s-1860s to establish Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday

And Annie Cheney offers a touching document of her eating disorder, “Concerning Breakfast” from Jay Allison’s Life Stories series.

Library of Congress- Thanksgiving in American Memory
US Census Bureau- Thanksgiving Day, 2007