There are approximately 12.35 million people employed in the restaurant and food service industry. Chances are good most of them, at one time or another, dreamed of owning a successful restaurant. This “Restaurateur Dream” leads us to ask:

Which is most important in determining the long-term viability of a restaurant: food, service or location?

The 1408th edition of the Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson features Erick and Brian Johnson, the father & son owners of the Erik's DeliCafe franchise restaurant chain that serves the South San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas.

Topics include how father Erik built a small sandwich shop into a successful restaurant business; how that restaurant grew into a family-owned franchise chain; and how son Brian is building out the Erik's DeliCafe chain throughout the region.

When the daughter’s pet dog passed on after many years of friendship, she became very sad and teared up. Hoping to ease her pain at the passing of her good friend, I said, “Honey, life is a succession of good dogs!”

Not too much longer, the daughter started pestering for a new dog. After an extended search, we were presented with a choice between two Cocker Spaniel puppies. One was black, the other was gold. As you might imagine, the wife wanted the black one, while the daughter wanted the gold one.

Hoping to avoid having two puppies underfoot, I suggested a compromise. “Why don’t we take the black one home and call her Goldie?”

It worked, and we had many good years of friendship with Goldie before she, too, passed on.

But the compromise of that moment did not address the question of the day, which is,

“Where should the family go to find its next good pet?”

The label on the meat package reads, “Product of USA.” But the meat in the package could have come from Australia, Brazil or China, and be from one animal or hundreds of animals. This leads us to ask:

Should government be forced to accommodate local food farms?

The 1406th edition of the Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson features Judith McGeary, Founder and CEO, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, for a conversation about the “Livestock Owned by Communities to Advance Local Foods Act” aka “Local Foods Act.”

Topics include how the consolidation of the nation’s food supply chain has resulted in the diminishment of food quality and selection; why government supports the consolidation of food into ever fewer sources; and how government might be forced to accommodate local food farms.