© 2026 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

‘Never Out Of Season’ Highlights Menace Of Monocultures

'Never Out of Season' by author and biologist Rob Dunn explores the modern food system.
Courtesy Rob Dunn
'Never Out of Season' by author and biologist Rob Dunn explores the modern food system.
'Never Out of Season' by author and biologist Rob Dunn explores the modern food system.
Credit Courtesy Rob Dunn
/
Courtesy Rob Dunn
'Never Out of Season' by author and biologist Rob Dunn explores the modern food system.

The banana is always in season and always available at the grocery store. A new book explores how the prevalence of the popular fruit is a model for the dangers of a food system that is increasingly dependent on fewer food staples.

“Never Out Of Season” (Little, Brown, and Company/2017) by biologist Rob Dunn, a professor in the department of applied ecology at North Carolina State University, walks readers through the precarious corporate food system and explains how diversity is crucial to crop survival.

Frank Stasio speaks with Dunn about how reduced species variety puts the entire ecosystem at risk, and how everyday citizens can help bolster ecological diversity.More information about Rob Dunn's Great Pumpkin ProjecthereA conversation with biologist, professor and writer Rob Dunn about his new book, 'Never Out Of Season'.

  This is a rebroadcast. The original air date was March 10, 2017.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio

Laura Pellicer is a producer with The State of Things (hyperlink), a show that explores North Carolina through conversation. Laura was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, a city she considers arrestingly beautiful, if not a little dysfunctional. She worked as a researcher for CBC Montreal and also contributed to their programming as an investigative journalist, social media reporter, and special projects planner. Her work has been nominated for two Canadian RTDNA Awards. Laura loves looking into how cities work, pursuing stories about indigenous rights, and finding fresh voices to share with listeners. Laura is enamored with her new home in North Carolina—notably the lush forests, and the waves where she plans on moonlighting as a mediocre surfer.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.