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The nation’s food banks are under a lot of pressure these days. They are caught between food prices going up and levels of government aid that are either flat or falling.

In a couple of weeks, the New Hampshire Food Bank will unveil its latest effort to feed those in need. It is a full service kitchen that will let the Food Bank build on a new stream of donations – fresh food.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Jon Greenberg has more.

Today on Word of Mouth, we test the boundaries between science and sci-fi with physicist Michio Kaku, we sample new music by M83 and Last Shadow Puppets, and we hear about a drug being created inside goats. We also take a look at the trend of product customization and personalization.

(Image by Torley)

A time traveler from the past may think we were pulling his leg if we told him that in the year 2008, humans can actually manufacture drugs inside a goat, then harvest the medicine from the goat's milk.

But it’s no joke - researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have teamed up with a company in Massachusetts to expand the way farm animals can be used as pharmaceutical factories. Science reporter Kerry Grens at public radio station WHYY in Philadelphia recently reported on this, and joined Word of Mouth's Virginia Prescott with the scoop.

Professor Ina Dobrinski and her lab technician Mark Modelski have found a way to short-cut the conventional method of goat cloning and make the process more efficient.
Courtesy of WHYY



Listen to Kerry Grens' story that aired on WHYY

Have you ever gone to a shoe store and couldn’t find a single pair of shoes you liked? Either the color was wrong, or the design just wasn’t your style?

As we consumers get more finicky, companies are trying to give us exactly what we want - letting us call the shots. In the "pimp my ride" era, you can now pimp your sneakers too, as well as all kinds of mass-produced products.

One person who’s watching this ongoing trend is Kim Hastreiter, editor of the New York-based fashion magazine Paper. She joined Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott from her office in New York to talk about our new ability to customize just about anything from handbags to hamburgers, cars to furniture.

The design issue of Paper is on newsstands now. Click here for a peek inside.