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To mark 50 episodes on the podcast, I share my own evolving thoughts on food. I reflect on the state of agriculture and on what sustainability might mean in the food movement today.

My experience over the last half decade engaging with the food movement has been that debates are all too often reduced to soundbites on social media. Complex arguments are reduced to 280 characters on Twitter, angry posts on Facebook, and rants on YouTube. We're talking past each other. That's unhelpful.

By sharing my thoughts, I hope to encourage more honest, open and nuanced discussions with whoever is listening.

In this episode, I briefly discuss:

• The failed promises of industrial agriculture
• The winners and losers of our food system
• Food sustainability through different lenses
• Agriculture and humanity's relationship to nature
• The future of farming through Charles C. Mann's Prophets and Wizards
• The land sharing land sparing debate
• Funding: where does all the money flow?
• Agroecology and its critics
• The dilemmas of cell-based and plant-based meat

References (in chronological order):

• World Health Organisation (WHO) - Obesity and Overweight Fact Sheet
• Lappé, Francis M., Fowler, Carey and Collins, Joseph (1977) Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity
• White, Allen (2016) - 'Solving the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture: An Interview with Wes Jackson' In These Times Online
• Jackson, Wes & Berry, Wendell (2011) Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson
• Ritchie, Hannah (2021) 'Cutting down forests: what are the drivers of deforestation?' Our World In Data
• United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) (2021) 'Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss'
• Mann, Charles C. (2018) The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. Knopf publishing.
• Barretto, Alberto & Berndes, Göran & Sparovek, Gerd & Wirsenius, Stefan. (2013). Agricultural intensification in Brazil and its effects on land-use patterns: An analysis of the 1975–2006 period. Global change biology. 19(6). 10.1111/gcb.12174.
• Holt-Giménez, Eric & Shattuck, Annie & Altieri, Miguel & Herren, Hans & Gliessman, Steve. (2012) We Already Grow Enough Food for 10 Billion People … and Still Can't End Hunger. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 36. 595-598.
• Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & IPES-Food (2020) Money Flows: What is holding back investment in agroecological research for Africa? Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems
• De Schutter, Olivier & Vermeylen, Margot (2020) The share of agroecology in Belgian official development assistance: an opportunity missed
• Meier, M. S. et al. (2015) Environmental impacts of organic and conventional agricultural products – are differences captured by life cycle assessment? Journal of Environmental Management 149, 193–207
• Van der Werf, H.M.G., Knudsen, M.T. & Cederberg, C. (2020) Towards better representation of organic agriculture in life cycle assessment. Nature Sustainability 3, 419–425
• Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology (2015) Nyéléni, Mali. Via Campesina website
• IPES-Food (2016) From uniformity to diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversifed agroecological systems. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food systems.
• Levidow, Les (2016) Agroecological Innovation. International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).
• Cook, C.D., Hamerschlag, K., and Klein, K. (2016) Farming for the Future: Organic and Agroecological Solutions to Feed the World. Friends of the Earth.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) 1.02 billion hungry.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) The state of food insecurity in the world. Rome, Italy: Economic and Social DevelopmentDepartment Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Reganold, J., Wachter, J. (2016) Organic agriculture in the twenty-first century. Nature Plants 2, 15221
• Rodale Institute (2020) The Truth about Organic. Kutztown, PA.
• Galloway McLean, Kirsty & Castillo, Ameyali & Rubis, Jennifer. (2011). Indigenous Peoples, Marginalized Populations and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Traditional Knowledge
• Debal Deb (2009) “Valuing folk crop varieties for agroecology and food security”, Independent Science News (26 October 2009).
• United Nations (2015) United Nations General Assembly, Right to Food, UN Doc. A/70/287
• Philpott, Stacy & Lin, Brenda & Jha, Shalene & Brines, Shannon. (2008). A multi-scale assessment of hurricane impacts based on land-use and topographic features. Agric Ecosyst Environ. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 128. 12-20.
• Rosset, Peter & Sosa, Braulio & Jaime, Adilén & Avila, Rocio. (2011). The Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement of ANAP in Cuba: Social Process Methodology in the Construction of Sustainable Peasant Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. The Journal of peasant studies. 38. 161-91.
• Poux, X., Aubert, P.-M. (2018). An agroecological Europe in 2050: multifunctional agriculture for healthy eating. Findings from the Ten Years For Agroecology (TYFA) modelling exercise, Iddri-AScA, Study N°09/18, Paris, France
• Fairlie, Simon (2010) Meat: A Benign Extravagance. Permanent Publications, Hampshire, UK.
• Carrington, Damian (2019) '$1m a minute: the farming subsidies destroying the world - report' The Guardian.
• The Food and Land Use Coalition (2019) Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use. The Global Consultation Report of the Food and Land Use Coalition.

You might also like:

• FFS 000 - Why A Food Podcast?
• FFS 041 - On the Frontlines of Food
• FFS 033 - A Case for Eating Meat

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Guilt and shame are deeply present in our relationship with food. How do we harness these emotions for good?

When it comes to eating animals, can guilt and shame positively influence our behaviour or those of corporations to reduce our environmental foodprint?

We are joined by Dr. Jennifer Jacquet - Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU. Jennifer does interdisciplinary research on globalized environmental problems, including the wildlife trade, fisheries, and climate change. She is the author of the book "Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool" and the co-author of a recent study exploring the climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers.

We discuss:

• The difference between guilt and shame
• Research about what works and doesn't when shaming our food choices
• The Netflix documentary Seaspiracy: who we shame and how
• The role of private corporations and challenging conventions of responsibility

Links:

• Jennifer Jacquet (2015) - "Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool"
• Lazarus, O., McDermid, S. & Jacquet, J. (2021) The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers. Climatic Change 165, 30
• Seaspiracy (2021) A Netflix Documentary

You may also like:

• FFS 032 - The Last Acceptable Prejudice
• FFS 026 - We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 014 - Blue Is The New Green

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From its more humble origins to its modern-day status as a dominant yet destructive wonderbean, the story of soy concerns us all. Soy is much more than tofu or tempeh. It's a global commodity crop: the driving force of animal agriculture and a hidden fuel of growing importance for our cars. In this episode, we deep dive with Dr. Christine M. Du Bois into the history of soy and the vital role it continues to play in our lives. Christine M. Du Bois is a former co-manager of the Johns Hopkins Project on Soy. She is the author of The Story of Soy (2018) and Images of West Indian Immigrants in Mass Media: The Struggle for a Positive Ethnic Reputation (2004) and is the lead editor and coauthor of The World of Soy (2008). She has published poetry at BourgeonOnline.com. She lives in Pennsylvania. We discuss: * How we use the modern soybean: ubiquitous yet unseen * The bean's Manchurian origins * The rise of the 'Cinderella crop' * Mass deforestation, billionaire Blairo Maggi and the ‘United Republic of Soy’ * The role of China, geopolitics and the future of soy

Links: * The Story of Soy (2018)- Christine M. Du Bois * The World of Soy (2008) - Christine M. Du Bois, Chee-Beng Tan, Sidney Mintz (Eds.) * Rise of the 'wonder bean': from deforestation to your plate - The Guardian

You might also like: * FFS 039 - The Invisible ABCD Giants and the Financialisation of Food * FFS 027 - A World Without Chocolate * FFS 013 - How Plants Domesticated Humans

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The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has become Europe’s problem child. Vested interests behind one of the Union’s oldest policies threaten to derail Europe’s ambitious new climate, biodiversity and food strategies. In this episode, we deep dive into the controversial CAP - over €350 billion of taxpayer money spent on European farming - and discuss if there is still any hope in reforming a policy that continues to baffle and disappoint many of Europe’s citizens, farmers, and scientists. We are joined by conservation biologist Dr. Guy Pe’er from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany. We discuss: * What the CAP is, including a brief history * What is happening in the negotiations and why the stakes are so high * A detailed step-by-step scientific critique of the current proposal * Debunking common claims made by politicians that the CAP is more ambitious, provides stability and ensures food security * How the power of lobbying and conflicts of interest shape the CAP * Different paths forward for policy makers and individuals

Links: * 8 December 2020 - The EU Common Agricultural Policy and Sustainable Farming: A Statement by scientists * 3 March 2020 - Common Agricultural Policy reform: More than 3600 researchers call for science to be taken into consideration * November 5 2019 - NYT Investigation "The Money Farmers: How Oligarchs and Populists Milk the E.U. for Millions"

You may also like:

• FFS 044 - The Ground Zero Ingredient
• FFS 041 - On the Front Lines of Food

• FFS 028 - Money Well Spent? EU Farm Subsidies

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What is the future of protein, and of animal agriculture? Can we raise animals sustainably or should we move beyond meat?

To feed a growing world population, we need protein. For many, protein means meat. As our reliance on animal products grows, so does its destructive impact on the natural world. Mass deforestation, biodiversity loss, and significant greenhouse gas emissions of livestock put our dietary habits into the spotlight.

In this panel discussion, I am joined by Nathalie Rolland (Cellulaire Agriculture France & ProVeg), Andrew deCoriolis (Farm Forward) and Patrick Holden (Sustainable Food Trust).

We discuss:

• The current COVID-19 context and its impacts on food systems
• How sustainable are plant-based alternatives to meat?
• What is “Better meat” and where can we find it?
• Cellular agriculture: meat without slaughter?
• What could the future of food look like in 2050?

This episode is a recording of the live webinar “Protein in the 21st Century”, organised by The SASI Co., a global sustainability agency.

Links:

• Watch the full replay of the webinar on Facebook
• Watch the full replay of the webinar on The SASI Co. website
• Sustainable Food Trust website
• Farm Forward Website
• DefaultVeg Website
• Agriculture Cellulaire France Website
• ProVeg International Website

You might also like:

• FFS 031 - Farmers Facing Brexit
• FFS 022 - The Bird is the Word
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking beyond the hype with New Harvest

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Everything begins with a seed. Seeds are both a story of loss and a story of hope in our food system.

On the one hand, we are rapidly losing seed diversity, and with it, perhaps the single best weapon agriculture has to withstand an increasingly volatile climate. When we lose biodiversity, we lose our ability to be resilient. What (or who) is causing this loss?

On the other, seeds are central to resistance and hope. From seed saving, sharing and storing to embracing indigenous farming practices and knowledge, seeds are central to food justice and resilience of our food system to a changing climate.

"Every seed is both a simple pocketful of genes, and a multi-multi-dimensional and complex “packetful” of stories’. - Mark Schapiro

We talk about:

• What losing seed diversity means, and who is driving it
• How climate change has put industrial agriculture on trial
• Agricultural subsidies and climate equity
• Stories of resistance and seed saving: from Aleppo to Kansas
• How hopes of genetic engineering are outpaced by climate volatility
• The belated recognition of indigenous practices and knowledge in building a resilient agriculture

Mark Schapiro is an award-winning investigative journalist specializing in the environment. His most recent book, Seeds of Resistance: The Fight to Save Our Food Supply, investigates the search for seeds to respond to climate disruptions, the battle with agri-chemical companies to control them, and the global movement underway to save them.

Previous books include CARBON SHOCK: A Tale of Risk & Calculus on the Frontlines of the Disrupted Global Economy, an investigation into the hidden costs and consequences of climate change; and EXPOSED: the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power, on the public health and economic impacts of the U.S. retreat from toxic chemical protections. He is also a Lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and conducts trainings in science and environmental journalism in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Links:

• Mark Schapiro on Twitter
• Mark Schapiro - Seeds of Resistance: The Fight to Save Our Food Supply

You might also like:

• FFS 016 - The Most Important Room in the World
• FFS 026 - We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 041 - On the Frontlines of Food

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2019 was the year of climate strikes. Animal rights activists, emboldened by a new wave of mass civil disobedience, are determined to end industrial animal agriculture.

Millions of ordinary people took to the streets in 2019. They put their bodies on the line, engaging in mass civil disobedience to demand climate action.

In an era where food is produced in factory farms with an immeasurable scale of suffering and destruction, what role should animal rights activists play in the transition towards a just food system?

In this episode, we talk with Jeff Sebo (New York University), Nico Stubler (Direct Action Everywhere) and Kerri Waters (Animal Rebellion) about the history, strategies and actions of animal rights activists.

We discuss:

• The origins of civil disobedience in the animal rights movement
• The different types of action and activism
• Strategies and tactics: who to target and why
• The stakes today: animal liberation as domestic terrorism? 60 years in prison?
• The dangers of rationalising inaction
• The new kids on the block: Extinction Rebellion and Animal Rebellion
• An inclusive approach: how to bring farmers on board

Jeff Sebo is the Director of the Animal Studies M.A. Program at New York University. He teaches Animal Studies and Environmental Studies and works primarily in moral, social, and political philosophy with an emphasis on bioethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. He is the co-author of Animals, and the Environment: An ethical approach and author of the forthcoming book Why Animals Matter for Climate Change.

Nico Stubler is an animal rights activist and organiser with the New York chapter of Direct Action Everywhere. He is passionate about animal liberation, decolonialism, racial and gender equity, and the natural world and through his activism is committed to tear down institutionalized oppression and structural inequity and organizing to replace these systems with just and sustainable alternatives.

Kerri Waters is an animal rights activist and the editorial coordinator, soon to be political strategy coordinator of Animal Rebellion. She is also a freelance translator and English language teacher.

Links:

• Meet the Activists Risking Prison to Film VR in Factory Farms - Wired
• Extinction Rebellion arrests near 1,300 after Billingsgate protest - The Guardian
• Beware! Rebellion really can transform your life - Medium

You might also like:

• FFS 040 - Factory Farmed Superbugs
• FFS 036 - Chicken Nugget Capitalism
• FFS 015 - From A To Veganism

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To transcend infighting in the food movement, finding our common ground is as important as targeting our common enemy.

The food movement is amazingly diverse. From personal health and animal rights to protecting worker’s rights and precious ecosystems, our why’s for wanting to radically transform our food system widely differ. So do our tactics and our strategies.

That diversity may just be the food movement's greatest strength, yet it also risks being its biggest weakness.

Infighting is as invasive as it is destructive. The ‘circling fire squad’ - where people with common enemies choose to shoot one another instead - is deeply counterproductive.

To transcend infighting, finding our common ground is as important as targeting our common enemy.

Tom Newmark - co-founder of The Carbon Underground - sees an answer in Regenerative Agriculture - and a focus on soil as our common ground.

Tom and I discuss:

• What led him to regenerative agriculture and why its focus on outcomes rather than practices is transformative
• How common ground exists between seemingly insurmountable visions in the environmental food movement
• The differences that do matter: the case for remaining vigilant not only against the expansion of factory farms, but also against the new discourses of 'sustainable intensification' and 'Climate-Smart' Agriculture

Links:

• "The Story of Soil Is the Story of All of Us” - Tom Newmark & Annie Leonard
• “A Call to Arms to Fight Factory Farms” - Matteo De Vos
• The Carbon Underground website
• Chico Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems
• Tom Newmark’s blog/journal at Finca Luna Nueva
• Greenpeace 1-minute video
• Greenpeace Agricultural vision “Less is More” report

You might also like:

• FFS 024 - The Soilution: Saving our soil, saving ourselves
• FFS 025 - Breaking Bread with Paleo
• FFS 037 - The Dirty History of Soil

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The continued expansion of industrial-scale chemical-intensive agriculture around the world relies on one central powerful myth: only industrial agriculture can feed the world.

Timothy A. Wise - author of Eating Tomorrow - joins us to discuss why, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, governments continue to invest in a model of farming that is devouring the natural resources on which future food production depends. By choosing the path of industrial agriculture today, we are, quite literally, “eating our collective tomorrows”.

Tim and I discuss:

• Who actually “feeds the world”
• Who (or what) industrial agriculture feeds
• The failing Green Revolution in Africa: feeding corporations, not the hungry
• Alternative local agroecological solutions in Malawi and Mozambique nourishing people and planet
• How agroecology, not hybrid seeds, builds lasting resilience against floods and drought, the ‘evil twins of climate change’:
• Global trade and market failure: NAFTA devastating biodiversity and Mexican farmer livelihoods
• India’s National Food Security Act: the most ambitious anti-hunger program in the world and why the US opposes it

Timothy A. Wise directs the Land and Food Rights Program at Small Planet Institute. He is a Research Fellow in the Globalization Program at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute. With a background as an economic journalist and an international development practitioner, Wise’s research and writing have covered U.S. farm policies, trade and agricultural development, agricultural biodiversity, food prices and biofuels, and Mexico’s maize economy under the threat of genetically modified maize. He is also the former Executive Director of Grassroots International and a writer and editor at Dollars & Sensemagazine, and co-author of Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular Resistance in Mexico,The Promise and the Perils of Agricultural Trade Liberalization: Lessons from Latin America, and A Survey of Sustainable Development: Social and Economic Dimensions.

Links:

• Timothy A. Wise (2019) Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food(The New Press)
• Small Planet Institute Website
• NY Book Launch - Eating Tomorrow (Youtube)
• Shiva, Vandana (1993) “Monocultures of the Mind”. Trumpeter: 10, 4.
• Anna Lappé & Food MythBusters – Do we really need industrial agriculture to feed the world? (YouTube)

You might also like:

• FFS 039 – The Invisible ABCD Giants and the Financialisation of Food
• FFS 036 – Chicken Nugget Capitalism
• FFS 034 – Wizards and Prophets

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We are on the cusp of a post-antibiotic era. The golden age of miracle drugs may be coming to an end.

To understand why, award-winning author Maryn McKenna joins us on the show to discuss the long intertwined history of antibiotics and industrial animal agriculture.

We discuss:

• What antibiotic resistance is and why it’s ‘the greatest slow-brewing health crisis of our time’
• Why bacteria are winning and why Big Pharma are dragging their feet
• The birth of antibiotics and how it enabled industrial livestock production
• Why chicken lies at the centre of the story of antibiotics and industrial meat
• A bizarre footnote in the story of antibiotics called “Acronizing”
• The fight to ban the use of growth promoting antibiotics
• The legislative battles ahead in fighting preventive use of antibiotics
• Beyond the doom and gloom: different models of antibiotic-free animal agriculture from around the world
• Wider lessons for the food movement from the story of antibiotics

Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist who specializes in public health, global health and food policy. She is a columnist for WIRED, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University. Her latest book “BIg Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats” (also published internationally under the title Plucked) received the 2018 Science in Society Award and was named a best book of 2017 by Amazon, Smithsonian, Science News, Wired, Civil Eats and other publications. She writes for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Mother Jones, Newsweek, NPR, Smithsonian,S cientific American, Slate, The Atlantic, Nature, and The Guardian, among other publications.

Links:

• Maryn McKenna website, Twitter
• Maryn McKenna – ‘Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats’
• TED Talk: Maryn McKenna ‘What do we do when antibiotics don’t work anymore?’
• Resistance– 2014 Documentary on antibiotic resistance, starring Maryn McKenna

You May also like:

• FFS 036 – Chicken Nugget Capitalism
• FFS 026 – We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 022 – The Bird is the Word

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Four grain trading giants - collectively known as the ABCDs - dominate international grain trade in our global food system. Knowing who they are and what they do is vital to understand the whys and hows of our modern food supply.

A key branch of ABCD power and influence are their financial subsidiaries. Financialisation in the food system today has widespread and alarming implications. Local food movements, farmers and consumers must take heed of these global forces, or risk being crowded out by private interests pursuing profit over people and planet.

Dr. Jennifer Clapp joins us to discuss:

• Who the ABCDs are, where and how they operate, and why they dominate
• Recent ABCD mergers and acquisitions and the impact of Trump’s trade war with China
• The merging of food & finance: the financialisation of futures markets
• How financial speculation helped fuel the 2008 food price crisis
• Why financial investors moved en masse to acquire farmland
• ABCD involvement in the financialisation of the food system
• How to regulate invisible giants and the financialisation of food

Dr. Clapp is a Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustianability and Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She has published widely on the global governance of problems that arise at the intersection of the global economy, the environment, and food security. Her current research focuses on the implications of financial markets and transnational corporations for food system sustainability. Her most recent books include Speculative Harvests: Financialization, Food, and Agriculture (with S. Ryan Isakson, Fernwood Press, 2018), Food, 2nd Edition (Polity, 2016), Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid (Cornell University Press, 2012), and Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (co-edited with Doris Fuchs, MIT Press, 2009).

Links:

• Speculative Harvests: Financialization, Food, and Agriculture (2018) – Jennifer Clapp & S. Ryan Isakson
• Food. 2nd Edition (2016) – Jennifer Clapp
• Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid (2012) – Jennifer Clapp
• Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance– Jennifer Clapp & Doris Fuchs (Eds.) (2009)
• ‘Cereal Secrets: The World’s Largest Grain Traders and Global Agriculture’ Oxfam (2012) – Jennifer Clapp, David Burch & Sophia Murphy

You May Also Like:

• FFS 035 – Chicken Nugget Capitalism
• FFS 026 – We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 020 – Optimising the Food Economy with Blockchain

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The global fertiliser market is a $200 billion industry. But who does it serve?

Produced in large-scale, centralised facilities in developed countries, conventional fertilisers are neither cheap nor reliably accessible for rural smallholder farmers in emerging markets in Africa and India.

Safi Organics in Kenya has a vision to decentralise and downsize fertiliser production. Using recycled waste from local farms, carbon-negative organic biochar fertilisers empower farmers by making their farms more resilient with lower costs, higher yields and better soils.

We talk to co-founder Samuel Rigu about:

• His childhood memories of growing up on a farm in Kenya
• The conventional model of fertiliser production and use
• The crippling costs and logistical challenges of fertiliser use in Kenya
• Decentralising fertiliser use
• Carbon-negative, organic biochar fertiliser
• The role of fertiliser in facing the reality of climate change
• A vision of empowering smallholder farmers for lasting food security

Links:

• Safi Organics Website, Twitter, Instagram
• “How Climate Change is fuelling innovation in Kenya” – Smithsonian
• “The EU finally provides legal framework for organic and recycled fertilisers”– EURACTIV
• Thought For Food website
• The Original Foodies: A Documentary Series

You may also like:

• FFS 020 – Optimising the Food Economy with Blockchain
• FFS 017 – When Farming Goes Vertical
• FFS 006 – The Sustainable Food Entrepreneur

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When we stop treating dirt like dirt, when we accept it’s neither ‘dirt cheap’ nor ‘dirt poor’, we will come to realise it is the most precious resource we have. Treat dirt, or soil, the way you want to be treated.

In this episode, David R. Montgomery joins us to talk about how soil has shaped the course of civilisations. From the Classical Greeks and the Romans to the Maya civilisation – the story of soil and its mistreatment has been central to explaining why civilisations collapse.

The plow – the tool that defines farming - is the number one culprit. Some argue it has been more destructive than the sword.

David is a Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, he is a MacArthur Fellow, and author of King of Fish: The Thousand-year Run of Salmon; The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood; Dirt: The Erosions of Civilizations; The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health (which he co-authored with Anne Biklé); and Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life.

We cover:

• A crash course on soil, soil formation, erosion and degradation
• The myth that ancient civilisations lived and farmed in harmony with nature
• The central role of soil in the fall of ancient Greece and Rome
• The plow: more destructive than the sword?
• Soil erosion and colonialism, slavery and empire
• Soil and climate change
• Soilutions: the promise of conservation agriculture

Links:

• David Montgomery’s Website and Twitter
• Dirt: The Erosion of Civilisation– David R. Montgomery
• The Rocks don’t Lie: A Geologist investigates Noah’s Flood - David R. Montgomery
• The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health - David R. Montgomery & Anna Biklé
• Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life- David R. Montgomery

You might also like:

• FFS 034 – Wizards and Prophets
• FFS 024 – The Soilution: Saving our soils, saving ourselves
• FFS 011 – Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future

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The end of Capitalism is nigh. Or we should certainly hope so.

Raj Patel makes a convincing case for the urgent need to think beyond capitalism if we are to move towards a zero-carbon economy. “Let us recognise that the system itself is dooming us and that we need to think outside it rather than within it” – Raj Patel.

If this sounds revolutionary, that’s precisely the point.

Raj and I discuss:

• Why we shouldn’t call this era the “Anthropocene”
• What Capitalism actually is
• The frontiers of Capitalism and the search for the next best “cheap thing”
• The Chicken McNugget: the symbol of modern capitalism
• The Market Approach: Carbon pricing, Natural Capital, and voting with your fork
• Thinking beyond Capitalism: a Theory of Change to get us to a zero-carbon economy

Links:

• Raj Patel’s Website and Twitter
• Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System– Raj Patel
• The Value of Nothing– Raj Patel
• A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature and the Future of the Planet– Raj Patel & Jason W. Moore
• The Secret Ingredient Podcast– Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy
• La Via Campesina Website
• Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Agrarian Farming in California– Julie Guthman
• The New Food Activism: Opposition, Creation and Collective Action– Alison Alkon & Julie Guthman
• A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat– Eric Holt-Gimenez

You May Also Like:

• A Landmark declaration supporting the battles that matter most in Food– Matteo De Vos
• FFS 034 – Wizards and Prophets
• FFS 033 – A Case for Eating Meat

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Monsanto has been found guilty in the world’s first-ever court case over claims its Roundup herbicide causes cancer. It faces thousands of similar lawsuits. Is this Monsanto’s (Bayer AG) tobacco moment?

Veteran investigative journalist Carey Gillam walks us through, step-by-step, the Monsanto trial that shocked the world.

We cover:

• Who Dewayne “Lee” Johnson is and why he sued Monsanto
• What happened during the trial: the jury selection, the plaintiff and defendant’s arguments, the jury’s verdict
• What’s next: the implications, the appeals, and other trials

Links:

• US Right To Know website
• Carey Gillam on Twitter
• Carey Gillam – ‘One man’s suffering exposed Monsanto’s secrets to the world’– The Guardian
• ‘A shock court verdict against Monsanto’s Roundup’ The Economist

You may also like:

• FFS 026 – We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 013 – How Plants Domesticated Humans
• FFS 009 – Stop Generalising GMOs

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Are you a Wizard or a Prophet? Two largely forgotten 20th century thinkers – Norman Borlaug and William Vogt – continue to shape our competing visions of the future of our planet. In this episode, we talk to Charles C. Mann, award-winning author of The Wizard and the Prophet, about these remarkable scientists and their lasting influence. Borlaug – the Wizard – is a Nobel-winning scientist who kickstarted the agricultural ‘Green Revolution’, while Vogt – the Prophet – laid the foundations for the modern environmental movement. The path we choose to solve our environmental dilemmas hinges on how we understand and frame the problems we face. Is innovation and technology the solution that will push us beyond our predicaments to overcome earth’s natural boundaries, or is the answer to scale back and respect the ecological limits of our planet? Charles and I discuss: * Who the Prophets and Wizards are, what they believe in and what they’ve achieved, and how they envision the future * Who the contemporary Prophets and Wizards are that continue to shape public debate * How these competing visions dictate debates in agriculture, water scarcity, energy, and climate change * The politics and power dynamics behind the visions of Prophets and Wizards * What’s at stake if we choose one path over another * A sobering (and rather terrifying) alternative third vision

Links: * Chalres C. Mann ‘Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People?’ The Atlantic * Charles C. Mann ‘The Wizard and the Prophet’ * William Vogt ‘The Road to Survival’ * Noel Vietmeyer 'Our Daily Bread; The Essential Norman Borlaug'

You May Also like: * FFS 013 – How Plants Domesticated Humans * FFS 011 - Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future * FFS 009 – Stop Generalising GMOs

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What role can livestock play in a sustainable food system? In Meat: A Benign Extravagance, Simon Fairlie lays out a convincing case as to why eating meat and dairy is part of a holistic and sensible agricultural system. In this episode, we discuss: * Why widely quoted figures on livestock’s impact on the environment are misleading: from feed conversion ratios to water use to greenhouse gas emissions. * How a ‘default livestock diet’ makes ecological sense * The uncertainties and potential shortcomings of veganic farming * An (uncomfortable) reality: truly sustainable agriculture calls for the ruralising of society

Links: * Simon Fairlie's book Meat – A Benign Extravagance * Simon Fairlie’s recent articles on Resilience.org * ‘If you want to save the world, veganism isn’t the answer’ The Guardian

You might also like: * FFS 032 – The Last Acceptable Prejudice * FFS 029 – Carbon Neutral Restaurants * FFS 021 – My Beef With Veganism

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The urban-rural divide is more pronounced than ever. The 'last acceptable prejudice' - that against rural people and places - is not only real, it is destructive.
As in our politics, the debates around food and sustainability are increasingly polarised. Conventional agriculture is pitted against organic agriculture, vegans face-off against carnivores, urban city-dwellers clash with countrymen and women. How do we bridge these divides?

In this episode, we talk to Ash Bruxvoort about their story growing up as the daughter of a conventional farmer and a sustainable agriculture advocate.

Ash Bruxvoort is a writer and program coordinator at Women, Food and Agriculture Network. They grew up on a family farm outside of Des Moines, Iowa, where their father produces corn and soybeans. Their writing and work focuses on empowering women and gender non-conforming people to tell their stories about the urban-rural divide.

We discuss:

• How the urban-rural divide shapes how we see politics and debates around sustainable agriculture
• Ash’s take, as a daughter of a conventional farmer, on sustainable agriculture
• How we address ‘the last acceptable prejudice’ : the prejudice against rural places and people (Wendell Berry)

Links:

• Women, Food and Agriculture Network
• Wendell Berry: The Unsettling of America
• Letters to a Young Farmer – Stone Barns Cener for Food and Agriculture

You may also like:

• FFS 025 – Breaking bread with Paleo
• FFS 021 – My Beef with Veganism
• FFS 018 – Talking Sustainability with Rob Greenfield

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In this episode, we talk to Patrick Holden about the hopes and fears of British farming after Brexit.
Patrick is a pioneer of the modern sustainable food movement. He is the Founding Director and current Chief Executive of the Sustainable Food Trust, an organization dedicated to accelerating the transition to more sustainable food and farming systems. Previously, he has been the founding chairman of British Organic Farmers in 1982, and the former Director of the Soil Association, where he played a key role in the development of organic standards and the market for organic foods for nearly 20 years. Patrick is also a farmer, and runs the longest established organic dairy farm in Wales, and wrote the world’s first draft of the organic dairy standards in the 80s.

In this episode, Patrick and I discuss:

• The mood in British agriculture towards Brexit
• The UK government’s Brexit plan for agriculture
• Brexit: an opportunity for a decisive shift towards sustainable agriculture?
• Brexit’s impact on subsidies, trade deals, EU migrant farmworkers, animal welfare and abattoirs
• What Brexit can teach the EU about agriculture

Links:

• Sustainable Food Trust Website
• DEFRA Health and Harmony consultation paper
• Sustainable Food Trust Response to DEFRA paper
• The Guardian: ‘UK has nearly 800 livestock mega farms, investigation reveals’

You may also like:

• FFS 028 - Money Well Spent? Farm Subsidies in the EU
• FFS 024 – The Soilution: saving our soil, saving ourselves
• FFS 011 – Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future

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Shifting mindsets at the grassroots level lies at the heart of The Art of Living’s approach to sustainable agriculture.
An epidemic of farmer suicides has claimed over 300,000 lives in India since 1995. By investing in social capital, The Art of Living focuses on bringing back self-esteem and self-confidence in rural communities.

Farmers practice yoga, breathing exercises and meditation for stress-relief and personal development - investing in themselves to become productive and proactive advocates for change. Livelihoods are transformed by taking charge and ownership of the challenges faced.

This episode was recorded live at The Art of Living International Center in Bengaluru, India during the visit of students from HEC Paris. Himanshu Kelra, Director of Institutional Relations of the Center, explains The Art of Living’s approach to building social capital. The talk covers:

• A brief history of international development aid models in India
• Boreholes crops, depleted aquifers and the tragedy of the commons
• The Art of Living’s river rejuvenation projects
• How to build trust, engage and empower rural communities
• How to measure the impact of changing mindsets

Links:

• The Art of Living – Website
• The Art of Living – Projects in India
• The Art of Living – Water projects

You May Also Like:

• FFS 026 - We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 024 - The Soilution: Saving our Soils, Saving Ourselves
• FFS 011 - Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future

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Restaurants around the world are taking action against Climate Change by going carbon neutral.
A new generation of chefs – the modern-day ambassadors of the food movement – have a vision: radically transform the restaurant industry by turning sustainability into a culinary virtue.

By sourcing differently, cooking creatively, and eliminating the by-products of their restaurant operations, carbon neutral restaurants are pioneering the sustainable dining movement.

In this episode, we talk with ZeroFoodprint and two critically-acclaimed restaurants Amass and The Perennial leading the carbon neutral restaurant movement.

We discuss:

• What it means and what it takes for a restaurant to go carbon neutral
• How The Perennial supports Carbon Farming to combat climate change
• How Amass Restaurant is eliminating its waste by turning food scraps into culinary gold
• How carbon neutrality affects your dining experience and what you’ll find on a carbon neutral menu
• How carbon neutrality can find ways to scale and conquer the fast food industry

We interview:

• Elizabeth Singleton – former Executive Director of ZeroFoodprint
• Matthew Orlando – Head Chef and Owner of Amass Restaurant
• Karen Leibowitz – Co-owner of The Perennial

ZeroFoodprint works with restaurants to help them understand and drive down their foodprint by taking action on operational efficiency, ingredients, and carbon offsets. It works with restaurants all around the world including Noma, Mission Chinese Food, Pistola y Corazón, Amass and The Perennial.

Amass opened in Copenhagen in 2013 by Matthew Orlando, former chef de cuisine of Noma. The world-famous New Nordic restaurant is radically rethinking the use of by-products in all of its operations.

The Perennial is a restaurant in San Fransisco pioneering the sustainable dining movement. By supporting and sourcing from carbon farming initiatives, The Perennial highlights how regenerative agriculture and sustainable dining can become part of the solution to climate change.

Links:

• ZeroFoodprint Website, Twitter, Facebook
• Amass Restaurant Website, Instagram , Twitter , Facebook
• The Perennial Website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

You May also like:

• FFS 024 – The Soilution: saving our soil, saving ourselves
• FFS 022 – The Bird is the Word
• FFS 017 – When Farms go Vertical

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Farm subsidies are central to agricultural policy. But do farmers need them?
In this episode, we discuss the ins and outs of the EU Common Agricultural Policy with Dr. Alan Matthews, Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy at Trinity College, Dublin.

We discuss:

• The origins of the EU Common Agricultural Policy
• Hectare-based subsidies: how larger farms receive larger subsidies
• Subsidies: a barrier or incentive for sustainable farming?
• Agricultural lobbying in the EU
• A silver lining of Brexit
• A way forward for farming in Europe

Links:

• Follow Dr. Alan Matthews on Twitter
• EU CAP Reform Website
• Harriet Bradley: ‘CAP 2020: A poor vintage?’

You may also like:

• FFS 026 – We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 023 – COP 23: Is Meat Finally On The Table?
• FFS 002 – The Carbon Food Tax

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Is chocolate going ‘extinct’? Are we heading towards a ‘world without chocolate’?

In this episode, we explore what lies behind these recent media headlines that suggest chocolate may not survive climate change. To find answers, we deep dive into the world of chocolate with Simran Sethi.

Simran Sethi is a journalist focused on food, sustainability and social change. She is the best-selling author of Bread, Wine and Chocolate: The Slow Loss of the Foods We Love, a fellow at the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) and the creator and host of The Slow Melt: an award-winning podcast about chocolate.

We discuss:

• What chocolate actually is: how its grown and processed, and by who
• Chocolate in the spotlight: going "extinct", or not quite?
• Costly northern appetites: mass deforestation and biodiversity loss
• A real and present threat: farmer livelihoods, low prices and the cruel irony of oversupply
• Consumer consciousness: how we can take positive action

Links:

• Simran Sethi Website, Twitter, Instagram
• Simran Sethi (2015) Bread, Wine and Chocolate: The Slow Loss of the Foods We Love
• The Slow Melt: a Podcast about Chocolate
• Scott, M. (2016) ‘Climate and Chocolate’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Barclay, E. (2015) ‘Why the world might be running out of Cocoa Farmers’ NPR
• Barclay, E. (2015) ‘These Ivory Coast Cacao Farmers Had Never Tasted Chocolate’ NPR

You may also like:

• FFS 024 - The Soilution: Saving our soil, saving ourselves
• FFS 016 - The Most Important Room in the World
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking Beyond the Hype with New Harvest

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Over the past decade, Monsanto has become a pop cultural bogeyman. Surrounded by controversy, cover-ups, and conspiracies, the agricultural giant is for many the face of corporate evil.

At the same time, the company continues to deliver commercial success. Reporting record sales, the world’s largest seed company shows no signs of slowing down.

In this episode, we talk with Carey Gillam, veteran investigative journalist and author of Whitewash: The story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science. A former senior correspondent for Reuters, Carey has spent over 20 years covering the agricultural industry and big food business. Today, she continues her work as the research director for consumer advocacy group US Right to Know.

We discuss:

• The origins: how Monsanto came to be the agricultural giant it is today
• Monsanto’s lucrative business model: patented GMO-seeds & ‘Round-up’ weed-killer
• Monsanto, farmers and the Green Revolution
• The GMO controversy
• The rise, dominance (and eventual fall?) of Glyphosate: a controversial pesticide in our food, water, air and bodies
• The ‘Monsanto Papers’: decades of deception come to light
• The EU and Monsanto: head to head
• The Bayer-Monsanto merger: another twist
• Our role as consumers: more than spectators to a horror show?

Links:

• Carey Gillam Website and Twitter
• Carey Gillam (2017) Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science
• Consumer Advocacy group US Right to Know
• Carey Gillam Presentation at the EU Parliament Hearing on Glyphosate 2017
• New York Times ‘Monsanto’s Roundup faces European Politics and U.S. Lawsuits’
• EU Observer: 'German vote swings EU decision on 5-year glyphosate renewal'

You might also like:

• FFS 024 – The Soilution: Saving our soils, saving ourselves
• FFS 016 – The Most Important Room in the World
• FFS 009 – Stop Generalising GMOs

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This week, we talk with Natalie Pukasemvarangkoon about the Paleo diet.

Natalie has experimented with pretty much every diet in the book. She’s been a carnivore, a pescatarian, a vegetarian, and a vegan for a solid 3 years. She’s tried the 80/10/10 diet, raw till four, the HCLF diet, and yes, the Paleo diet.

Natalie is the founder of the Paleo Collective - an umbrella for the Paleo lifestyle: providing Paleo-friendly caterings, personal chef services, they host pop-up dinners and provide corporate talks and demos to educate people on the diet and lifestyle. They also run a blog with recipes and health tips related to the Paleo diet.

In this episode, we discuss what the Paleo diet is, and why its Natalie’s diet of choice. We explore:

• How to pronounce Paleo – the little things matter!
• How to eat Paleo: why eating grains and beans are a big no-no, why gluten is sin, and how choosing quality meat is essential
• What the gut microbiome is, how gluten can affect the gut, and how it influences our health and mood
• The common cause: why the rift between vegans and paleo obscures important values these diets or lifestyles have in common

Links:

• The Paleo Collective Website and Instagram
• The Paleo Diet - Loren Cordain
• Paleo Collective blogpost: 5 reasons why you should eat grass-fed over grain-fed meats
• Gut: The Inside Story of our Body’s Most Underrated Organ – Giulia Enders

You might also like:

• FFS 021: My Beef with Veganism
• FFS 015: From A to Veganism
• FFS 013: How Plants Domesticated Humans

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In the Age of People, the plow was, and remains, one of the most destructive inventions. In his new book Growing A Revolution, award-winning author David R. Montgomery calls on farmers to ditch the plow, bring back cover crops, and grow for diversity.

Such an agricultural revolution puts soil health at the center of farming. It transforms agriculture from a destructive practice that is very much part of the problem to a major solution that combats climate change.

In this episode, we talk to David and discuss:

• What soil is, and why farming depends above all on healthy soils
• What conservation agriculture is and why it works better, including:
  • why tilling your land is not a good idea
  • why an overdependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides turns plants into ‘botanical couch potatoes’
  • Why monocrops are vulnerable to pests, disease, and climate change
• How labels such as organic or conventional are missing the point
• How farming can shift from a carbon-emitting activity to a carbon-storing activity
• What obstacles still remain to making conservation farming the norm

“The debate over the future of agriculture is misrepresented when cast as the simple choice between organic methods and AgroTech approaches like GMOs. It really comes down to the philosophical rift between agricultural practices based on enhancing nutrient cycling and soil health versus those that mine soil fertility and attempt to replace or compensate for degraded soil health with technology and commercial products” David R. Montgomery

Links:

• Growing A Revolution: Bringing our soil back to life
• Growing a Revolution excerpt: 'Giving the Plow the Boot in the Era of Climate Change'
• Dig2Grow: David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé's website
• David R. Montgomery & Anne Biklé on Twitter

You might also like:

• FFS 013 - How Plants Domesticated Humans
• FFS 011 - Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future
• FFS 003 - The OurField Cereal Co-op Movement

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As the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) comes to a close in Bonn, Switzerland, where do we stand on our climate commitments? What issues are on the table, and which have been swept under the rug? How are we tackling what many consider to be one of the biggest elephants in the room – the role of livestock and global overconsumption of meat and dairy products?

In this episode, we welcome back Mark Pershin on the podcast, founder and CEO of Less Meat Less Heat, an organization committed to shifting societal attitudes towards meat consumption to curtail agriculture’s damaging impact on the environment.

Mark and I discuss:

• Why so little progress has been made in reaching agreements on agriculture and food in UN Climate Change Conferences
• How a coalition is forming that aims to put the overconsumption of meat on the negotiating table and the role of livestock in climate change front and centre of policy debates
• Why grassroots movements and individual actions remain vital in the fight against climate change

Links:

• Less Meat Less Heat website
• Climatarian Diet Challenge
• "Grazed and confused" – Food Climate Research Network
• Climate Agriculture unmasked -- indigenous organized
• Put Climate on Pause coalition website
• Clean Air Coalition
• Boycott of US Fossil Fuel Presentation at COP23

You may also like:

• FFS 000 - Why a Food Podcast
• FFS 001 - The Climatarian Diet
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking Beyond the Hype with New Harvest

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This year for Thanksgiving, Americans will consume 46 million turkeys. Factory farming has never been more 'efficient'. This same year, the US has consumed 9 billion chickens. Worldwide, we managed to eat 50 billion. How does this system function? What makes it so effective and profitable?

It all comes down to one word: genetics.

Since the 1950s, heritage breeds of poultry, or standard-bred poultry, have been gradually replaced by an army of uniform hybrid birds. Bred to grow as large as possible and as quickly as possible, hybrids are exceptionally profitable for Big Agriculture, and have come to dominate the global poultry industry.

In this episode, I talk with Andrew DeCoriolis from Farm Forward and Frank R. Reese Jr., owner of the Good Shepherd Poultry Farm, about the need to preserve heritage breeds. We explore:

• How animal welfare, the livelihoods of farmers and the environment are best protected when the genetic diversity of these birds is preserved.
• How free-range, pasture-raised and organic meat movements are counterproductive if we fail to win the battle of genetics.
• How supporting heritage poultry this Thanksgiving is one of the strongest and most effective ways to boycott factory farming and support sustainable agriculture.

Farm Forward is a US-based non-profit that implements innovative strategies to promote conscientious food choices, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture. Farm Forward is helping Frank Reese share his knowledge with the next generation of farmers by launching the Good Shepherd Poultry Institute (GSPI).

Frank Reese is a fourth-generation Kansas farmer with more than 60 years of experience breeding and raising heritage poultry. An award-winning master breeder and American Poultry Association (APA) judge, Frank owns and operates one of the few successful heritage poultry farms in America, the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, which has garnered praise from Martha Stewart, celebrity chef Mario Batali, the New York Times, and is featured centrally in the documentary film Eating Animals, which recently premiered at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival.

Links:

• Farm Forward Website
• Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch
• Good Shepherd Poultry Institute
• American Poultry Association
• Heritage Foods USA
• Buying Poultry (rating poultry products website)
• Eating Animals Documentary Teaser trailer
• USDA Poultry statistics

You may also like:

• FFS 021 – My Beef with Veganism
• FFS 011 – Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future
• FFS 008 – Edible Insects: the diet of tomorrow?

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In this episode, I talk about my beef with Veganism. I explain why, after a 30-day vegan challenge, I remain a sceptical vegetarian. I talk about:

• How Vegan-endorsed health hypes and food fads create their own ethical dilemmas which vegans need to confront
• How the ‘Go Vegan, save the planet’ discourse is unhelpful for the movement, and factually questionable.
• How Veganism needs to move away from a self-understanding as the movement, and instead embrace its place as a movement among many (imperfect) dietary movements that support a move away from factory farming and industrial food production

Links:

• UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (2013) ‘Tackling climate change through livestock’
• Springman, A., Godfray, C.J., Rayner, M., Scarborough, P. (2016) ‘Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change’ Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences Vol. 113, No. 15
• Blythman, J. (2016) ‘Can hipsters stomach the unpalatable truth about avocado toast?’ The Guardian (Opinion)
• Gray, Margaret (2013) Labor and the Locavore: The Making of a Comprehensive Food Ethic. University of California Press.
• Lawrence, Felicity (2011) ‘Spain’s salad growers are modern-day slaves, say charities’ The Guardian
• World Economic Forum (2016) ‘What would happen if everyone in the world suddenly stopped eating meat?’
• Fairlie, Simon (2010) Meat: A benign extravagance. Chelsea Green Publishing.
• Southan, Rhys (2011) Book Review: Meat: A benign extravagance
• Morbiot, George (2010) ‘I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly’ The Guardian (Opinion)

You may also like:

• Article: ‘What Vegans can learn from Trump’
• FFS 015 - From A to Veganism
• FFS 008 - Edible Insects: the diet of tomorrow?
• FFS 001 - The Climatarian Diet

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Like the combustion engine, the telephone, and the Internet before it, blockchain has the potential to transform how human society functions. What would such a transformation look like in the food industry?

In this episode, we talk with Blockchain theorist Melanie Swan about what is possible. We explore:

• What 'Blockchain' is
• How Blockchain is transforming Big Food businesses
  • redefining operational efficiency and the transparency of supply chains
• How Blockchain can empower consumers
  • Farm-to-fork transparency: instant verification of where your food comes from
  • Holding Big Food accountable through real-time financial interest tracking of the businesses supplying your food
  • Ensuring end-user data ownership

• How Blockchain optimises the sharing economy

  • Community coins: local currencies enabling a peer-based local economy for sharing resources
  • ‘The Uber for microgreens’: real-time on-demand peer sharing of overproduced local products with your neighbours

• How Blockchain can help in the fight against world hunger, malnutrition, and food waste

Links:

• The Institute for Blockchain Studies
• Broader Perspective - Melanie Swan's blog
• Forbes - 'IBM Forges Blockchain Collaboration with Nestlé and Walmart in Global Food Safety'
• Banking on Bitcoin - Netflix Documentary

You may also like:

• FFS 017 - When Farms Go Vertical
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking Beyond the Hype with New Harvest
• FFS 011 - Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future

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Since 2015, more than 150 cities around the globe have come together to rethink the way we feed our cities. As signatories to the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, they share a commitment to developing sustainable food systems that are inclusive, resilient, safe and diverse. The city of Valencia, the 2017 World Sustainable Food Capital, is leading by example.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The history and vision of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact
• The role of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in helping to realise this mission
• Why Valencia is the 2017 World Sustainable Food Capital
• Why cities truly matter in the fight for sustainable food and food justice

We interview:

• Guido Santini - United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO)
• Dorothee Fischer - International Press and Communications Manager - Valencia World Sustainable Food Capital 2017
• Vincente Domingo - Commissioner of Valencia World Sustainable Food Capital

Links:

• Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Website
• Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Text
• UN FAO Food for the Cities Programme
• Valencia World Sustainable Food Capital 2017 Website
• United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025

You might also like:

• FFS 017 - When Farms go Vertical
• FFS 011 - Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future
• FFS 005 - Learn by Doing: a 100-Mile Diet in Paris

For #HortAttack Valencia Campaign Visuals, visit the For Food's Sake website episode post FFS 019 - World Sustainable Food Capital

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Rob Greenfield is an adventurist and environmental activist that has made it his life’s purpose to lead by example in living a truly sustainable lifestyle. Rob has completely transformed the way he lives over the last half decade. He continuously challenges himself and others by taking sustainable living to the extreme. From off-the-grid tiny houses to dumpster diving, Rob has managed to reach hundreds of thousands of people around the world, spreading his message of positive change.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Rob’s journey began
• Food waste and dumpster diving
• Rob as the ‘Trash man’ in New York City
• The Green Riders: Good deeds on bikes
• How individuals can make a tangible difference
• Rob’s advice: get started with ‘micro-challenges’
• Rob’s next big challenge: One year of producing all the food he eats with his own two hands

Links:

• Rob Greenfield Website, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube
• Rob Greenfield TEDx: Be the Change in a Messed Up World

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As cities and populations grow, and the space to feed them shrinks, one proposed solution is to farm upwards rather than outwards, indoors instead of outdoors, in urban spaces as opposed to rural ones. Vertical farming is no longer science fiction; investors are pouring in to support promising companies offering innovative solutions.

In this episode, I talk to Claire Gusko, growth manager at INFARM - a Berlin-based indoor urban farming company - about their approach to vertical farming and the role that indoor vertical farms can play in helping to build the cities of tomorrow.

We discuss:

• What indoor farming and vertical farming is
• Why the industry is seeing investment soar
• What is unique about INFARM, their value proposition and vision
• How consumer concerns about price, energy efficiency, and ‘unnatural’ farming are being addressed
• Why local farmers and vertical urban farming can and must co-exist

Links:

• INFARM Website, Facebook, and Twitter
• Vertical Farming: Is this the answer to the world's food shortage? - The independent
• Vertical Farming may not feed the world, but could empower cities - Humanosphere
• World's largest vertical farm grows without soil, sunlight or water in Newark - The Guardian

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In this week’s special episode, I had the honour of speaking with Dr. Cary Fowler, the “father” of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

Cary has been working to preserve crop diversity for over four decades, he is the former Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and has been described by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as an “inspirational symbol of peace and food security for the entire humanity”. His work is a true inspiration for agriculturalists, archivists and environmentalists across the globe.

We discuss:

• What crop diversity means and why it’s the most important natural resource on Earth
• Why sustaining crop diversity and saving seeds are vital as we brace for climate change
• The history and role of seed banks and why they are under threat
• How the Global Crop Diversity Trust is spearheading global efforts to protect seed banks
• Why the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the most important room in the world
• Cary’s final words of wisdom

Links:

• Cary Fowler (2016) Seeds on Ice: Svalbard and the Global Seed Vault
• Cary Fowler (1990) Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity
• Cary Fowler TED Talk: One seed at a time, protecting the future of food
• GoPro Cause Documentary ’Forever Securing World Food Supply with Crop Trust’
• Seeds of Time Documentary

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From 10-dollar plant-based smoothies in trendy Californian cafés to Vegan helmets in the Israeli Defense Force, Veganism is as diverse as it is topical. What is Veganism really all about, where has it come from and where is it heading? Is it a religion, a social movement, or an ideology?

This week I talk with Nina Gheihman, a sociologist at Harvard. Nina is currently pursuing her PhD, focusing on a comparative study of veganism as a cultural practice in the US, France, and Israel. She is also the President of the Harvard Vegan society, as well as the Program Director of the Ivy League Vegan Conference, and is the founder of the community advocacy group Boston Plant-Based Millennials.

In this episode, we explore Veganism in all its forms and all its wonders. We discuss how Veganism has evolved and transformed over time, how its adapting to different cultural contexts around the world, and how its grappling with a growing popularity that has it moving, slowly but surely, towards the mainstream.

We’ll talk about:

• Defining Veganism: a loaded, slippery term
• The roots of Vegetarianism and Veganism in Eastern and Western philosophies
• Is Veganism a religion?
• The formation of the first vegetarian society in the 19th century: a tragic mistake?
• The ideological tenets of Veganism (animal rights, health and plant-based diets, saving the environment) and its move towards the mainstream
• Skeptical vegans and practical vegans: will only impending doom shift the tide towards Veganism?
• How veganism is evolving differently across different cultures:
• • Veganism in America: the decoupling of animal rights and plant-based diets
  • Veganism in the Israeli Defense Force
  • Veganism, animal rights and cultural heritage in France

• Is Veganism elitist? Is it only for the select few in the Western world that can afford it?

• Veganism in the developing world
• The future of Veganism: What’s next?
• A message to millennials from Nina

Links

• Melanie Joy (2011) Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism
• Melanie Joy TEDx Talk: Beyond Carnism and Towards Rational Authentic Food Choices
• Tristram Stuart (2008) The Bloodless Revolution: A History of Vegetarianism
• Gary Yourofsky (Vegan activist) - Official Youtube Channel
• Pierre Bourdieu (1987) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
• Steinfeld, H., et al., (2006) Livestock’s long shadow. Environmental Issues and Options, FAO, Rome.
• WHO (2015) Carcinogenicity of the consumption of red meat and processed meat, Q&A session

Nina's work

• On Nina's dissertation: see Veganism: An Elegant Solution to a Host of Global Problems? and her talk at the Global Food + 2017 conference
• Ivy League Vegan Conference website
• Tepperman & Gheihman (2013) Habits of Inequality

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Feeding future generations simply won’t work without addressing the food we get from our oceans. Oceans serve as our main source of animal protein, with over 2.6 billion people depending on it every day.

How we’ll be able to continue sourcing from our oceans however is the million-dollar question. Overfishing has plundered our oceans, pushing fish stocks and other marine life to the brink of collapse.

Seafood farming—also known as aquaculture— is one alternative. It’s the fastest growing food production system in the world. Yet it continues to be shunned by some as part of the problem, not the solution.

In this episode, I talk with Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz about how sustainable, smart practices in aquaculture – adopted by local businesses around the world – provides the most promising solution to meeting the demands of a growing word population.

Mike and Amy are the Founder and Managing Partners of Aqua-spark, a global investment fund that supports sustainable aquaculture businesses around the world.

Links:

• Aqua-spark Website, Twitter, Facebook
• Mike Velings TED Talk: The case for fish farming
• Love the Wild fish company
• The Fish Site
• The World Fish Center
• Fishing for a Future

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Have the crops of today bent us to their will? Is corn king? Does our agricultural system still make sense, and can it in its current form cater to the needs of future generations?

Are we smarter than a potato?

In this episode, we explore how certain crops such as wheat, rice, potato, maize (corn) and soy have come to dominate our landscapes, labour, economic policy and health. We look at the transition from a hunter gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural system 12,000 years ago and observe the fascinating co-evolution of plants and human beings.

Links:

• Lee & Devore (1966) Man the Hunter (birth of Original Affluent Society theory)
• Jared Diamond (1987) ‘The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race’
• Yuval Noah Harari (2014) ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’
• Michael Pollan ‘When a crop becomes King ’New York Times
• Masanobu Fukuoka (1975) – One Straw Revolution

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A.k.a. Lab-grown meat or in vitro meat, there is a lot of hype surrounding cultured meat today. I talk with Erin Kim, Communications Director at New Harvest, about the future prospects of cultured meat.

New Harvest is a non-profit research institute in the United States that funds and conducts open, public, collaborative research in the field of cellular agriculture. They're all about reinventing the way we make animal products - without animals.

Erin started out at as a volunteer at New Harvest in 2014, whilst she was pursuing a law degree at the University of Alberta, specialising in environmental law.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The definitions and terminology of cultured meat and cellular agriculture
• The origins, milestones and long road ahead for cultured meat
• The benefits of cultured meat and it’s amazing potential
• Managing expectations on cultured meat: The enormous media hype vs. the facts on the ground
• The problems of scaling, funding, and framing the debate around cultured meat
• What we can do to support the cultured meat movement

Links:

• New Harvest website
• New Harvest twitter
• Perfect Day: Animal-free dairy products
• Memphis Meats Cultured Meat business

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Humans have been producing food using the same paradigm for 10,000 years. But the burden of a growing population and the impacts of an industrial approach to farming threaten the entire enterprise. The Land Institute is working on a solution.

In this episode, we talk with Fred Lutzi, President of The Land Institute, about their unique approach to transforming current destructive agricultural practices.

The Land Institute is a science-based research organization based in Kansas, US, that is developing perennial crops as an alternative to current unsustainable practices in agriculture. Instead of relying on and tweaking extractive industrial systems, the institute focuses on perennial grains grown using regenerative agricultural practices. “Agriculture must understand and mimic sustaining natural systems if we hope to feed a growing world population”.

In the episode we discuss:

• What Fred thinks are the major problems of agriculture today
• What the Land Institute means by transforming agriculture by developing a ‘Natural Systems Agriculture’
• What perennial crops are, what they promise, and how they differ from annual crops
• The Land Institute’s Kernza® wheatgrass crop and the road to commercialization
• Why perennial crops are currently not the norm: what’s holding us back?
• What Fred thinks we can all do as consumers to work towards a common goal
• A pilgrimage to the beer of the future: Long Root Ale – a Kernza®-based beer by Patagonia Provisions

Links

• The Land Institute website
• More about Perennial plants
• Great video about Long Root Ale - A Kernza®-based beer by Patagonia Provisions
• The Land Institute's global research partners

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This week, I discuss my thoughts on tackling food waste together with Merit 360. Merit 360 is a year-long World merit program bringing 360 young individuals together to develop a set of action plans to help tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

I share my views on SDG #12 : Responsible Consumption and Production. More specifically, how do we tackle crippling global food waste and food losses and how can we incentivise lasting sustainable consumption habits?

The episode also touches upon :

• The current famine crisis in East Africa affecting up to 20 million people
• My visit to Mozambique and the local solutions I found addressing local food problems
• My ideas of how we can move forward to address some of these issues

This episode is part of For Food’s Sake’s Learn By Doing project in which we practice what we preach in sustainability by taking action on concrete issues.

Links

Donate

• Red Cross East Africa crisis appeal

• World Vision East Africa appeal

• Support my Fundraising page for Merit 360

Aline Okello - mobile software supporting farmers to combat climate change

• The Guardian - ‘App for all seasons could dampen effects of climate change in Mozambique’

On large-scale agricultural projects in Africa

• FoodTank ‘What Value are value chains for Small-scale farmers in East Africa’?

Debating pros and cons of the Cerrado Savannah agricultural transformation in Brazil

• The Economist - ‘The miracle of the Cerrado’ boosting Brazil’s agricultural economy
• WWF - How the Cerrado’s unique biodiversity and vital ecosystem is threatened by Soybean production
• Scientific American - 'Hunger for Meat Plows up Brazil’s Cerrado Plains'

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Are ‘GMOs’ good or bad? Are they safe to eat? Are they symbolic of what is wrong with our food system? According to plant geneticist Pamela Ronald, such generalisations make little scientific sense and do nothing to advance discussions on sustainable agriculture.

This week, we talk ‘GMOs’ with Pamela Ronald from the University of California Davis. Pam and her colleagues have received a number of awards for their work on submergence-tolerant rice. She’s also very well known for her pragmatic but unique approach to sustainable agriculture that brings together genetic engineering and organic farming.

We discuss:

• The issues with defining and discussing GMOs in a generalist sense
• Some of the criticisms associated with the topic, the misconceptions and misinformation
• The role genetic engineering may play in helping to forge disease-resistant, climate-change-resilient crops
• The millions of farmers planting seeds carrying a gene Pam and her collaborators isolated.
• Sustainable agriculture: combining genetic engineering with organic farming

Links:

• The Case for Engineering our Food - Pamela Ronald TED Talk
• Pam's Book- Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food
• Recent overview of GMOs - McKay Jenkins (2017) Food Fight: GMOs and the Future of the American Diet
• Washington Post interviews Mckay Jenkins: 'We're having the wrong arguments about GMOs'
• Bill & Melinda Gates weigh in: GMOs combatting starvation in Africa

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This week, we discuss the exciting world of edible insects with Robert Nathan Allen (RNA) from Little Herds.

Little Herds is an educational non-profit based in Austin, Texas teaching and spreading awareness about edible insects as a resource efficient, economically viable, nutritious and delicious food for us to eat, and as feed for the animal products that we consume.

We discuss the enormous potential of edible insects: how incorporating them into Western diets and food systems could help us meet the current and future nutritional and environmental demands and needs of a growing world population.

In this episode, you’ll hear all about:

• what edible insects are
• RNA’s love story with bugs
• The historical and cultural significance of edible insects across societies and cultures
• Western taboos towards insects and how we can overcome them
• first impressions and how they taste as I try them live on air!
• the nutritional benefits of edible insects compared to other livestock
• the resource efficiency of edible insects (feed conversion ratio, land and water use)
• the ethical argument for eating insects
• insects as feed for the livestock we eat
• criticisms and concerns about edible insects
• RNA’s tips, tricks and suggestions about edible insects

Links:

• RNA’s Little Herds Website
• The insects I ate from Jimini's Edible insects company
• UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 2013 ‘Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security’
• UC Davis Study. Lundy & Parrella (2015) 'Crickets are not a Free Lunch: Protein Capture from Scalable Organic Side-Streams via High-Density Populations of Acheta domesticus'

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This week, I talk with Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, assistant professor of entomology at the University of Maryland in the United States, and project director for the Bee Informed Partnership. A former acting Chief Apiarist in Pennsylvania, Dr. vanEngelsdorp is widely known for his influential work with bees on a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder.

In this episode, we discuss the wonderful world of bees and why bees matter.

We explore:

• The historical significance of bees and our evolving relationship with them
• What bees really are, what they do, and a few misconceptions surrounding bees
• Why bees matter for sustainability and why we can’t live without them
• The mystery of Colony Collapse Disorder
• What we can all do to directly support bees

Links

• ‘A plea for bees’ Dennis vanEngelsdorp TED Talk
• Bee informed Partnership – a collaboration of leading research labs and universities to better understand honey bee declines in the US.
• US Geological Society, Sam Droege Solitary Bee pictures, Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
• ‘The first 21 days of a bee’s life’ Anand Varma - TED Timelapse
• The Xerces Society - international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.
• Pollinator Partnership -promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research

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This week I talk with Iemke Postma. A young entrepreneur in food sustainability, Iemke has set up organisations and businesses in permaculture and mushroom cultivation. He is currently Operations and Project Manager at Florim, a business growing plants, fruits and vegetables in hydroponic greenhouses for local hotels and restaurants in Cape Verde. He’s also setting up his mushroom business in Cape Verde called Cabo Melo.

In this episode, we’ll be talking about his journey in food sustainability. We’ll be covering his path from an ‘ultra skater’ looking to optimise his nutritional intake to starting a business in mushroom cultivation in Cape Verde. We'll touch upon:

• What permaculture is and how it works
• Permaculture in Northern Thailand and ‘permablitzing’ in the Netherlands
• His time living in a cabin in the woods in Ireland working for a Seed Saving organisation
• The weird and wonderful world of mushrooms, how he got involved, and how he ended up in Cape Verde
• Iemke’s tips and tricks for growing mushrooms & living more sustainably

Links:

• The Urban Farmer Curtis Stone (YouTube)
• Rotterzwam Mushroom Growkit
• The Blue Economy - Gunter Pauli
• Mycelium Running - Paul Stamets
• The One Straw Revolution - Masanobu Fukuoka
• World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)

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This week – as part of the new Learn by Doing initiative– I took on J.B. Mackinnon's 100-mile diet challenge. James Mackinnon was last week’s guest on the For Food’s Sake podcast, Episode 4: The 100-Mile Diet.

In this episode, I reflect on my week long adventure of eating a truly local winter diet in Paris.

In the 15-minute mini podcast, you’ll discover:

• The challenges of eating local: the setbacks, the frustrations…is it really practical for urban dwellers?

• The rewards of eating local: the wonderful people, the tastes… is it worth the effort after all?

• Tips & tricks of eating more sustainably: what can you do?

Links:

• Local food producers near you through the Food Assembly

• FFS 004 - The 100-mile diet

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This week, I talk to Canadian best-selling author James Mackinnon about eating local and the local food movement.

James has won more than a dozen national and international writing awards in categories ranging from essays, to science writing, to travelogue. His latest book, The Once and Future World, is a national bestseller in Canada and won the US Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. He’s also a contributor to the New Yorker on consumer issues and ecology, has publications in National Geographic and Reader’s Digest, and also works in the field of interactive documentaries.

In this episode, we discuss his best-selling book The 100-mile Diet, which he co-authored, and which is widely recognized as a catalyst of the local foods movement.

We’ll explore:

• What exactly a local diet is
• The many reasons for choosing to eat local
• The challenges and misconceptions surrounding local diets
• How the local food movement has transformed in the last decade
• The prospects for local diets and the locavore movement in the future.

As part of my new project – Learn by Doing – I will be adopting the 100-mile diet as part of a 7-day challenge. In the coming days and weeks, I'll be sharing my experience, tips & tricks on eating a local diet in mini-podcasts, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the For Food's Sake website.

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Ourfield: Forty people on a one-year journey of co-farming a field of heritage grains, with a British farmer called John.

Future Farm Lab's latest collaboration in creating #OurField has got everyone excited. #OurField is about reconnecting with farmers, living the farmers journey, and sharing his / her risks. By co-investing in a farm, you help call the shots on what is grown and how it's grown, bearing the farmer's risks but also possibly reaping the rewards.

In this episode, I discuss the project with Phoebe Tickell, a scientist and social entrepreneur from Future Farm Lab. Phoebe is passionate about creating opportunities of transformation for people, society and planet. She is fascinated by technology and how best we can get technology and science to best serve humanity. She is launching her very own podcast and network around this topic at Tech For Humanity.

Some of the topics we discuss in this episode:

• What heritage grains are and why we need them
• The origins and inspiration for #OurField
• The often misunderstood realities of modern-day farming
• The dilemmas and challenges of 'going organic' for farmers
• A step-by-step, in-depth walk-through of the #OurField journey

As part of my new project - Learn by Doing - I have personally invested in the #OurField initiative. I'll be one of the lucky 40 investors on a one-year journey of co-farming a field of heritage grains with John the farmer. Join me in the coming months as I document, blog and release mini-podcasts on my journey with #OurField.

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Taxing food with high carbon emissions seems like a rational, reasonable, and feasible step that governments should take. It seems like the logical thing to do. Raise the price, lower the demand. Tax food, reduce climate change. Or does it?

I talk with Dr. Ariane Kehlbacher from the University of Reading about introducing a carbon food tax to combat the negative effects our diets can have on the environment. 

We first discuss the theory behind the tax, before delving into the issues that surround and complicate the initiative. It's not just what gets taxed, but who. 

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I chat with Mark Pershin - CEO of Less Meat Less Heat - about how a Climatarian diet can reduce your carbon footprint and combat climate change. 

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So why am I launching a podcast about food and sustainability? Glad you asked. I think we need more down-to-earth, genuine dialogues about the food on our plates. In this introduction, I outline why I'm curious and keen to learn more about the food issues of our time. I argue that grounded conversations with individuals working directly to tackle these issues is the best way how. Click play to find out all about the upcoming topics and issues.