Hurricane Irene destroyed many farms in New York and Seth Jacobs of Slack Hallow Farm calls into this week's episode of The Farm Report with Erin Fairbanks to discuss the challenges farmers are faced with in the aftermath. Find out why tragedy for one farmer could bode well for another and how those affected by the storm are recovering. From livestock loss to chemical contamination, natural disasters do not take kindly to our small farmers. Right now is an ESPECIALLY good time to support your local farmers and visit the farmers market. To donate to those affected, visit GrowNYC.org. This episode was sponsored by NOFA's Locavore Challenge..

This week The Farm Report is pleased to welcome Jesse LaFlamme, head of Pete And Gerry's Organic Eggs, the first Certified Humane egg farm in the country. Pete and Gerry’s is proving commercial farming and organic, humane, sustainable farming are not mutually exclusive. Pete and Gerry’s has realized consistent growth without becoming a factory farm. Jesse recruits small family farms as egg producers, keeping family farmers in business and protecting valuable open space. He combines state-of-the-art husbandry and farming technology with streamlined and efficient processing to make Pete and Gerry’s cost competitive with much larger operations. Those efficiencies also allow him to share those margins with his producers. Jesse is one of the new breed of 21st Century farmers who understands that the world needs commercial farms to feed its inhabitants, but needs to do it without degrading the environment and exploiting livestock. This episode is sponsored The Barterhouse.

"[Farmers] just want to be farmers, it sounds basic, but in today's big agriculture that is hard to do." -Jesse LaFlamme, head of Pete & Gerry's Organic Eggs on The Farm Report

On a very important episode of The Naturalist, Carol A. Butler leads a discussion on nuclear energy - a topic on everybody's mind right now after the disaster in Fukushima, Japan. . Tune in as Carol & Bernie teach us more about nuclear energy plants and how radiation fallout affects food as well as people. Find out more about how meltdowns happen, the preventative measures taken to avoid problems and the state of nuclear energy across the world. This episode was sponsored by www.FairwayMarket.com