chickens

It used to be eggs came two ways: brown and white. But today consumers have a larger choice: free-range, organic, cage free and “all natural.” We’ll talk about the burgeoning egg industry and the backyard hen movement with our guests: Cathy Hudson, who raises chickens in Howard County and is an activist for the backyard movement; Bud Wood, CEO of Murray McMurray's Hatchery in Webster City, IA; and Jesse Laflamme, whose Nellie’s Eggs sells cage-free eggs from 50 small, family farms.

Amid the rowhouses, graffiti and vacant lots of Baltimore, 10 farms have opened in recent years, growing vegetables and breeding　chickens, rabbits and goats. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration is relaxing the city's livestock regulations to try to encourage more urban farms, which provide fresh food and an enhanced quality of life to the city.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley's administration is proposing new regulations to reduce fertilizer and manure runoff pollution from farms. Although the farm lobby opposes the rules because of the cost, hog farmer Will Morrow (shown above) supports the regulations, because cheap food carries a high price tag downstream, to public health.

We take a look at the Maryland Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan. Allen’s Family Foods, a 92-year-old poultry business based in Delaware, declared bankruptcy in June, and was purchased by Harim Group, a poultry company based in Korea. We talk with a grower who worked with Allen’s about what that might mean. Tom talks with the editor and one of the contributors to Music at the Crossroads: Lives and Legacies of Baltimore Jazz. What are the benefits of providing low income housing specifically for artists?