Few things are more important to our survival than food, but access to fresh, healthy food has become a luxury for many on the planet, and the food many of us eat contains more meat and sugar than at any point in human history. This history is the subject of a new book by New York Times columnist and cookbook author Mark Bittman called “Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food from Sustainable to Suicidal.” Bittman joins Host Steve Curwood at an online Living on Earth Book Club event to talk about the origins of our industrial agricultural system and how we can strive for a better future.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently dismissed the Juliana v. United States case, in which youth sought to hold the federal government accountable for not doing enough to address climate change. Pat Parenteau of the Vermont Law School joins Host Bobby Bascomb to discuss the tough decision the judges faced and what could be next for the youth climate case which has already been before the US Supreme Court twice on procedural matters.

The Osa Peninsula, a remote area on Costa Rica’s southern border, harbors 2.5% of the entire planet's biodiversity in a vanishingly small fraction of Earth’s total surface area. Hilary Brumberg is a researcher with the NGO Osa Conservation and sent us this audio postcard.

This week looking beyond the headlines, Host Steve Curwood and Environmental Health News editor Peter Dykstra discuss wintertime “zombie fires” in the Arctic and a new study showing elevated levels of PFAS chemicals in American mothers’ breast milk. They then revisit the discovery of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes ecosystem on June 1st, 1988.

President Joe Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill presents a rare opportunity to pass climate-related legislation through Congress. But it won’t be easy. Harvard economist Joe Aldy advised President Obama on energy and the environment and joins Host Steve Curwood to explain how parts of infrastructure legislation could improve climate protection, and the political hurdles of getting it passed.

Back in 2015 a group of young people sued the United States for failing to protect the climate and therefore their rights to a livable future, but the case was eventually dismissed. Now the Juliana v. United States youth plaintiffs have gone back to a lower court where a judge has ordered them into mediation with the Biden Justice Dept. on this matter. Young people recently won a similar case in Germany, and the European Court for Human Rights is fast-tracking a climate case brought by youth in Portugal. Host Steve Curwood gets an update from Pat Parenteau, a professor at the Vermont Law School.