In this episode, we start by announcing the Vancouver Co-operative Radio Spring Member Drive! This is one of the times of the year where we especially encourage you, our supporters, to please make a donation (whatever you can afford) to the Animal Voices show at Vancouver Co-op Radio. No donation is too small, and we greatly appreciate your financial support, as we do rely on your donations to keep the Animal Voices program running on the air. Please go to the Vancouver Co-operative Radio website to renew your membership, take out a new membership, or make a donation. And remember, if you are in Canada, your monetary contributions are tax deductible! We are also offering a chance to win some great gifts to all those who donate to the show from now until April 15th, so please do give during this time period and you’ll be entered in our draw to win a selection of great prize packages, including vegan cookbooks, restaurant gift certificates, and more! Tune in for more details.

Also, Alison presents her review of the 2011 Seattle Vegfest, put on annually by the Vegetarians of Washington, which she attended last weekend. Listen up to hear her thoughts on the latest vegan food substitute products and the public outreach this type of event does for the mainstream masses in this age of vegan-themed television shows now on Oprah, Ellen and Martha Stewart!

How to Eat Veg at Omni Restaurants

If you’ve always wondered how on earth you can eat compassionately outside of your home when, say, you have no vegetarian restaurants to eat at in your town, or your friends are always taking you to meat places to eat, well, there are ways to tactfully and smartly tackle this encumbering situation. We present tips and suggestions on how to approach this, hope you will be able to take some of our suggestions and use them to your advantage!

Dr. Sydney Cameron on the Declining Bumble Bee Population

For our feature interview, we have Professor Sydney Cameron on the show, who is an Entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Cameron led a recent three-year study of 382 sites in 40 states that confirmed that four previously abundant species of the bumble bee are close to disappearing in the U.S. and that the agriculturally important bees are being affected worldwide. In fact, her findings reported that the U.S. bumble bee population has declined a staggering 96%, which could mean disastrous consequences.

Dr. Cameron explains to us the details of this little known subject, and why it’s important to understand the threats that the bees face today, at the hands of us human beings.

In this news story about the declining bumble bee issue, Dr. Cameron’s findings are featured:

Download this episode. (starts 2 mins 13 secs in)

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