Food, Politics and Philip Glass – An Eclectic West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, we’ll hear about a long-lost piece of music written half a century ago by Phillip Glass. We also hear an excerpt from the latest episode of Us & Them about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the country’s food supply.

The dust continues to settle from Tuesday’s primary election in West Virginia. As Dave Mistich reports, many of the big races have a declared winner, but a handful others have yet to be decided.

The coronavirus has highlighted many of our societies vulnerabilities — and that includes the systems we use to get food from the farm to the table.  

Lately, the pandemic has forced U.S. farmers to face the unthinkable. In some places, they’ve had to plow under perfectly good vegetables after schools and restaurants shut down and their market vanished. Livestock producers have had to euthanize hogs and chickens. They couldn’t get the meat to consumers when workers got sick and packing plants shut down. 

As we enter into the growing season, U.S. farmers will rely on migrant workers, who come for jobs they sorely need. But this year, some will come wearing face masks, worried they may take the virus home to their families.  

Trey Kay — host of WVPB’s program Us &Them — has been thinking about how the pandemic has impacted the way Americans get their food.

Philip Glass’ “Music In Eight Parts” was lost for 50 years, but the journey from the discovery to a new recording is not a simple tale. Eclectopia host Jim Lange interviewed Micheal Riesman, director of the Philip Glass Ensemble.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning