Elizabeth Royte

Elizabeth Royte, a contributing reporter for the Food & Environment Reporting Network, talks about the potential impact of fracking on our food supply. Her article “Fracking Our Food Supply” appears in the December 17th issue of The Nation magazine, and it is the first in-depth look at the topic, and how cattle are allegedly falling ill and dying when exposed to fracking fluids across the Midwest.

Wherever humans go, they leave trash behind. The average American throws away over 1,130 pounds of waste per year. On this week’s Please Explain, we continue our series How to Save the World, looking at how we dispose of garbage, how recycling and composting and smaller packaging can cut down on the amount of garbage people throw away around the world, and how garbage can be used as a renewable, green energy source. Joining us are Nickolas J. Themelis, Director, Earth Engineering Center, and professor in the School of Engineering at Columbia University, and Elizabeth Royte, author of Garbage Land and Bottlemania.