This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer chats with Jeannette Beranger of the American Livestock Breed Conservancy and Chris Ritthaler of the Farmer Veteran Coalition. Tune in and hear how the ALBC helps set up veterans who are interested in taking up farming after serving for their country. Learn why heritage livestock appeals to these vets and how they adapt to life on the farm even if they have no background in agriculture. Also learn more about the unemployment epidemic that veterans in our country face and why the general public should learn more about what veterans actually did when they served. This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

"There's been a huge upsurge in interest in traditional breeds over the past few years."

--Jeanette Beranger of the American Livestock Breed Conservancy on Straight, No Chaser

"There are a few reasons you're seeing vets interested in heritage breeds. Because a lot of the vets don't have a background in agriculture, they are taking a real close look at their situation and financials and realizing they have to be smart. Heritage breeds fit a niche market and don't require a large level of infrastructure."

"The unemployment rate for veterans is significantly higher than the national average. The unemployment rate for vets in the post 9/11 era is over 10%."

"Less than 10% of the US has ever served in the military. There's a huge disconnect between the knowledge base of what a veteran does."

--Chris Ritthaler of the Farmer Veteran Coalition on Straight, No Chaser

This week We Dig Plants welcomes esteemed guest Mark Smallwood, who is the Executive Director of the prestigious Rodale Institute. Tune in for an extremely important and pertinent episode on issues from genetics to the 2012 Farm Bill. Did you know that according to the Farming Systems Trial, the longest-running side-by-side U.S. study comparing conventional chemical agriculture with organic methods, organic yields match conventional and outperform them in years of drought and environmental distress? Rodale has helped prove that and it gets better! Learn about Rodale Institute’s collaboration with the Farmer-Veterans Coalition that, through the GI Bill, is helping unemployed veterans learn new skills and position them for jobs in agriculture as well as Mark's vision for an agriculture-supported-community. This episode is sponsored by Fairway Market.

Freedom Fries Ain't Free! This week on Let's Get Real, Erica gets real about how war created foodiness; how foodiness created a nation of obese SUV driving potato people, who then needed oil for their SUVs (and now for their mobility scooters), and who now can’t pass the army physical fitness test because they’re too fat to fight. Tonight she is joined by special guest and First Gulf War veteran Corporal Chad Pagano to take us down the foodiness foxhole full of M.R.E.’s and, now, Marys. Hear him retell stories of food, hunger and everything in between in the military. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market

"They have portable field kitchens they would set up behind the lines. Generally depending on the tactical situation you could end up going there three times a day. As an infantry man you'd be lucky if you got in there once a day. The food was pretty bad for the most part."

--Corporal Chad Pagano on Let's Get Real