Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast: Recent Episodes
Quivira Coalition and Radio Cafe
Down to Earth is a podcast about regenerative agriculture, and it’s for everyone who eats. We invite you to meet the people shaping a healthier food system—farmers, ranchers, scientists, land managers, writers, and many others. Designing a future that draws on both tradition and innovation, they’re on a mission to change the paradigm so that the food we eat is healthy and long-term sustainable—for families and growers, for wildlife and water, for climate and planet. downtoearthradio.com
At last year's Regenerate conference, I attended a session about climate emotion, led by Addie Candib of American Farmland Trust, in which participants were asked two questions: What is one thing you have lost to climate change? and What helps you build resilience in yourself/your land/your world? The answers were profound and fascinating. So I decided to ask some of the participants in that session to speak with us on the podcast. Addie Candib introduces the podcast, and then we talk to: Jonathan Cox,Policy Manager with Painterland Sisters Organic Yogurt in Westfield, Pennsylvania Alex and Clare McKeon, Father and daughter ranchers in Oakdale, California Laura Paskus, Environmental writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico Adrienne Dorsey, Land steward from Durango, Colorado Craig Conley, Land steward in Northern New Mexico
In today's podcast we bring you an episode of the podcast Landed, from our friends at American Farmland Trust. It's called "We Need A Plan," and it's all about the issue of succession—addressing the question of what happens to our food-producing lands when the people who've been working them retire or pass on.
Beth Robinette is a fourth generation rancher in Eastern Washington State, where she and her family run a grassfed beef operation, the Lazy R Ranch, based on holistic management principles. She's co-founder of LINC Foods (Local Inland Northwest Cooperative), a local food hub based in Spokane Washington; and she runs the New Cowgirl Camp, an intensive ranching retreat for women.
Today we're sharing a conversation from the Down to Earth archive. We talk to Kevin Watt, who at the time was strategic advisor at TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, California, about the the practice and benefits of regenerative agriculture, how to incentivize it, and the dire long-term consequences of the degenerative practices of industrial agriculture—and the evolution toward new ways of thinking about productivity, healthy food, and thriving on a crowded planet. We recorded at the 2019 Regenerate conference, and the program posted in January 2020.
Anthropologist Ashanté Reese's new book explores Black community gatherings—and the nourishment, fellowship, and strength they cultivate. Reese is an anthropologist, author, and Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches and writes about food studies and food justice. Her new book is called: Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness. Reese looks at Black church gardens, family reunions, funerals, and activist spaces—in all of which food plays a powerful role. She shines a light on how food can play a role in everything from nourishing body and soul to building power and food sovereignty.
Mimi Casteel grew up on a vineyard in northwestern Oregon, where her family made wine as much for the passion as for the livelihood. She left home to study forestry and worked as a botanist for the forest service, but the pull of agriculture brought her back to the family farm, where she introduced regenerative practices and eventually started her own vineyard, Hope Well Wine. For Casteel, the practice of wine-making begins with the land—a complex ecosystem teeming with wildlife, cover crops, and livestock—all of which contribute to healthy soil. That soil is the basis for robustly healthy vines, which keep pests in balance without the use of chemicals, and keep the ground cool in the heat, warm in the cold, and resilient in the face of droughts and floods. Casteel is a scientist, a close observer of nature whose perspective pushes the limits of science, and an artist in the millennia-old tradition of wine-making. She's also a passionate advocate for regenerative agriculture and regional food systems.
Six college students are bicycling from Washington State to Washington, DC, stopping at farms, restaurants, truck stops, and classrooms along the way, and asking, "What is the future of food?" In this podcast we talk two of them, Augusta Halle and Molly Moore. Their plans are to make a portrait series and short documentary based on what they find.
Anthropologist Andrew Flachs's new book explores the food system through the lens of values like soil health, human health, biodiversity, and rural communities—not just profits and yields. In his new book, Feeding the World as if People Mattered: How Small Farms Produce Value Beyond Yields, he shows how we could, by expanding our accounting to include people and the biosphere, have a thriving food system that actually benefits life itself.
Bees live at the foundation of our food system—but they are imperiled by industrial agriculture. Sarah Red-Laird is helping to revive farm and ranch lands by cultivating healthy and diverse bee habitats. She teaches bee-friendly practices, including cover-cropping, no-till, and reduction of chemical use, which help farmers and ranchers to cultivate both abundant pollinators and healthy soil. Her work includes data collection, storytelling, teaching, doing bee-retreats (beetreats), and nature-based art.
Nate Chisholm is in a lifelong exploration of the savanna ecosystem—the landscape in which the first human societies evolved, and some of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Savannas are where we learned to hunt and gather. Ironically, as human beings developed technology, starting with stone tools, we altered these landscapes by over-hunting large animals, leading to degradation of the land and eventually the loss of most of the savannas themselves. According to Chisholm, the degradation of land through technology is the root of all our modern problems—but we can return to balance by restoring savanna landscapes, and restoring the savanna roots of our own psyches. Chisholm is a livestock grazer, with a background in forestry and ecologically based land management. He started two ranching businesses in the US and is currently living in Kenya and working on a book called Savanna.
Mary-Charlotte has bronchitis, so this week we will be joined by Kristina Britt, the new podcast host of Regeneration Rising, as she interviews Taylor Muglia, the former host and previous New Agrarian Program manager. (Regeneration Rising is the other Quivira Coalition podcast; you can find it here, or wherever you get your podcasts.) In this heartfelt episode, Taylor shares her unique journey into regenerative agriculture, her experiences running and eventually closing a small farm, and the emotional struggles and triumphs along the way. While we talk a lot about how to get started in regenerative agriculture, it is also important that we talk about the challenges of working in agriculture as well as what it's like to make hard decisions to shut down your operation. We hope this honest conversation highlights the importance of community, resilience, and adaptability.
Trevor Warmedahl's new book, Cheese Trekking: How Microbes, Landscapes, Livestock, and Human Cultures Shape Terroir, documents natural cheesemaking practices in traditional communities. Warmedahl is a cheesemaker, educator, and founder of the Sour Milk School, where he teaches natural methods of milk fermentation suitable for the home, farm, restaurant, or commercial operation. The book recounts his travels to Mongolia, India, Norway, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Georgia, and Spain, where he met cheesemakers using practices that go back generations and result in cheeses with flavor and "terroir" far beyond anything he'd ever encountered. And the pastoralists who make them have deep connections to their land and animals, and are doing a kind of agriculture that heals the land and promotes biodiversity.
Steve Glass is board chair of Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District, which is hosting the annual Land and Water Summit: March 4-6 of this year at the at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Albuquerque, New Mexico. This year's theme is "Reciprocity with Nature," and it's all about turning even the most arid cities into oases of stewardship where every drop that falls from the sky is used for to nourish the soil, wildlife, and people.
Charlie Shultz is back on Down to Earth to update us on the thriving greenhouse programs in Santa Fe—and the explosion of interest around the world. He teaches aquaponics and hydroponics at Santa Fe Community College, and is helping people around the world not only to learn to do indoor agriculture, but also to run successful businesses.
Joe Heinrich comes from a multi-generation Iowa farming family. As executive director of the non-profit Farm-to-Power, he's helping farmers to navigate the new world of renewable energy. Solar and wind developers are looking for land, which farmers have; farmers are looking for extra income steams, which energy can provide. But what happens to land with utility-scale energy installations? Some farmers are making sure that the panels are high enough off the ground that cattle can graze under them—and take advantage of the shade they provide. Others are grazing sheep under the panels, providing landscaping services and keeping the land healthy. Still others are growing crops. All of these are examples of agrovoltaics, or what Heinrich calls "double cropping"—harvesting food and energy at the same time.
Dr. Caitlin Youngquist started out wanting to be a veterinarian, but then discovered soil science and was so taken by it that she got a PhD, and has devoted her career to serving farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. A practitioner and promoter of regenerative agriculture, she has worked with Conservation Districts, non-profit orgs, Extension, and her own small business, Dirt Works Wyoming, a company that provides compost statewide. She uses science as a tool to solve on-the-ground problems, which range from crops and livestock issues to mental health, family dynamics, and food insecurity. She also guides hunting programs for women, is a volunteer firefighter. TIMELINE 2'22 how Caitlin discovered agriculture and soil science 3'33 the value of applied science for solving real problems 4'23 what is Extension 4'52 the non-elitist focus of extension, taking academic research to the people 6'54 how extension actually works 8'40 food insecurity and food deserts in an agricultural state, starting a food garden 11'30 making sure initiatives last beyond their founder 13'17 taking the holistic/social work perspective as an extension educator 14'39 people get isolated on their farms 16'31 the importance of letting go of a scarcity/competition mindset and sharing knowledge 18'28 difficulty making generational transition of management 20'12 the difficulty in calling for help with family conflicts 22'17 the difference between complicated and complex systems 24'59 analogies between soil health and community health 27'17 efficiency vs resiliency 29'37 the one nation that feeds itself has high biodiversity and regenerative ag 30'21 making sure local food is not an elite activity 32'40 becoming a hunter 34'21 why hunting is so powerful for women in particular 40'05 whether hunting supports species conservation 42'29 compost company Dirt Works Wyoming 44'14 agriculture and soil science as a great career for young people to consider 45'47 drcaitlinyoungquist.com
Montana filmmaker Daniel Glick decided to make a film about bison just because he loved the animals and wanted to be around them. He teamed up with Blackfeet filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald to co-direct the documentary, Bring them Home, narrated by Lily Gladstone. The film explores the history of bison on the North American continent and the Blackfeet nation in particular; the parallel genocides of native people and the animal that provided them with sustenance, both practical and spiritual; and the movement to bring surviving herds of bison back to their ancestral lands. In this podcast Ivan and Daniel talk about the process of making the film, the significance of bison, and the challenges—and moments of grace—in the decades-long grassroots efforts to return them.
TIMELINE 2'28 WHY bring home buffalo 4'54 bringing back a wild herd that was once with Blackfeet people to their ancestral land 5'42 do the buffalo know they're coming home? 6'35 how the film came to be, Daniel wanted to spend time with buffalo 7'54 the creation stories and the relationship between Blackfeet and buffalo 9'35 vision of buffalo returning to the land, but it wasn't easy to implement 11'27 Blackfeet people were forced into ranching and farming and individual land ownership and this conflicted with the return of the buffalo 13'31 the system imposed on Blackfeet people antithetical to wildlife and healthy ecosystems 14'59 the different kinds of colonialism 16'02 Buffalo keystone species and how that affects other species 17'23 bison make grasslands a carbon sink 19'29 New York Wildlife Conservation Society got involved 20'40 the importance of patience in this process and building relationships, trust, community-building 22'58 potential for the buffalo to heal generational trauma, physical and spiritual genocide 24'23 Ini days celebration and ceremony 26'23 the spiritual aspect of Bison and all animals, relatives 26'35 everyone benefits from finding their reconnection to the natural world 27'20 the moment where the buffalo were set free, what was that like 28'13 a lot of risk and uncertainty in finally releasing them 29'55 cattle ranchers fell in love with buffalo 31'06 domesticated vs wild animals and how wildness affects us 32'47 how they are being monitored 33'51 Blackfeet acquired a 28,000 acre grassland ranch for the buffalo 34'45 conversations with other tribes 36'32 PBS screening starting November 24 38'05 beautifully made and crafted film, narrated by Lily Gladstone 40'56 a narrative of hope in a time of tragedy and pain
Xochitl Torres Small grew up in Las Cruces, NM, and started her career as an attorney who has working in water and natural resources law. She served as U.S. Representative for New Mexico's 2nd congressional district (2019-20); she was Under Secretary for Rural Development (2021-23); and she served as United States deputy secretary of agriculture (2023-25). She brings her wide-ranging experience Executive Director of Quivira Coalition, and in our conversation she talks about her background, government service, and visions for regeneration and collaboration across the food system.
TIMELINE 2'32 how Xochitl got into agriculture 4'11 the decision to go into politics 5'55 the difference between serving in Congress and in an agency 9'00 working in rural development 10'29 figuring out how to actually get money to rural communities 11'59 finding solutions that were energy efficient in rural areas 13'48 are agencies working together on common problems? 17'47 understanding the practicality of nature based solutions within government 22'46 soil health and why it's so important, and how Quivira does the work. 27'37 succession issues 30'26 vision for large scale transition of agriculture from industrial to regenerative 33'29 recognizing that solutions are all land-specific 35'06 how do you create local and regional food systems when a state like NM is exporting over 90% of its agriculture and importing over 90% of its food 36'11 systems that maximize only for efficiency tend not to be resilient in times of disaster 40'28 spectrum from regenerative to big ag but with lots of adoption all along the way 43'30 we need to stop "othering" 44'11 the challenges of scaling 45'59 going from government to grassroots, hopes and goals
In today's podcast, we talk to Jennifer Sahn, editor of High Country News, and writers Rick Bass and Laureli Ivanoff, about HCN's September issue, a collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN). The issue covers a wide range of topics on Food and Power in the American West.
TIMELINE 1'57 High Country News and FERN collaboration on "Food and Power in the West" issue 3'17 stories in the issue including meat packing and pecan growing 6'10 the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Lab at Cal Poly, Humboldt 7'52 what is the Food & Environment Reporting Network 10'12 RICK BASS 10'57 the definition of sustainability and why it's not 100% attainable 12'41 forest service is part of the department of agriculture but really shouldn't be 12'59 old growth forests are a huge carbon sink and guard against climate change 13'48 the cooling effect of forests 15'49 art inspired by old growth forests 18'07 the role of old growth forests in not only climate defense but also global security 20'43 the paradigm shift from seeing the forest as a set of commodities to seeing it as a complex ecosystem—and that saving it is actually better for people than the industrial perspective 21'49 art to help people feel more deeply 22'48 the Yaak Valley Forest Council and the campaign to save it 23'38 defending the forest with love rather than litigation 24'48 trying to reach climate champions in power 25'22 Bass has been living in the forest for nearly 40 years, where he has worked as both a writer and an activist 26'10 trying to have the area dedicated as a climate refuge and a series of climate refuges in the northern forests 27'13 no extinctions since the last ice age 29'04 being a hunter in Montana looking for deer and elk 30'27 preserving the Black Ram forest, see montanaproject.org for art and yaakvalley.org for science 31'22 the importance of contacting elected representatives 31'48 LORELI IVANOFF 32'27 The Joyful Responsibility of Cutting Fish 38'46 the deeper meaning of "subsistence" 41'22 overharvest eventually results in collapse 43'07 the problem with thinking of the earth as possessions, rather than gifts 44'31 you don't take more than you need 45'47 the sense of belonging and community 49'55 the need to talk about community when community is threatened 50'55 how the climate has changed since she started cutting fish 51'41 it's hard to dry fish now because of wetter summer weather, and other climate problems 55'27 the difficulty of trying to live close to nature when you're in the city
Philip Connors grew up on a farm in Minnesota, studied journalism, and got a job at the Wall Street Journal. But after the September 11 attacks and the death of his brother, he left New York behind and took a job as a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Following in the footsteps of other fire lookout writers, poets, and philosophers, like Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, and Jack Loeffler, he wrote his first book, Fire Season, in 2011. Since then he written three more books, the latest of which, The Mountain Knows the Mountain, incorporates poetry — particularly haiki — to engage both playful and profound ways of looking at the natural world and the state of our society.
In 1996, media mogul Ted Turner bought a New Mexico ranch that's bigger than many national parks. A new film, Preserved, details its history, conservation projects, and influence. Previously owned by Pennzoil, the ranch was badly degraded from overgrazing, forest clearcutting, coal mines, fossil fuel extraction, railroads, and a long-term lack of environmental stewardship. Turner's goal was to restore the land and its wildlife, while keeping the ranch profitable through livestock and tourism businesses.
The film Preserved explores the history and conservation activities of Vermejo Park Ranch, including preservation of bison, mountain lions, cutthroat trout, and many other species. Lesli Allison, Executive Director of the Western Landowners Alliance, is one of the speakers in the film, and on this podcast we talk about the ranch, its place in the larger ecosystem, and its influence on agriculture and conservation.
TIMELINE 3'46 conservation projects on Vermejo Park Ranch 6'13 land badly degraded, but bounced back through stewardship 7'12 protecting land as an ecosystem and living community rather than species by species 9'43 the field of "sensory ecology" 12'08 learning from mistakes, trial and error 14'54 tried to introduce black footed ferrets but failed 15'50 Bison production at the ranch 18'02 migration of wildlife in the larger landscape 20'45 relationships with neighbors 21'37 the boom-bust model of economics 22'42 the benefits of staying in one place and working on it 24'09 we need economic support for the care of land, not just extraction from it 26'21 habitat leasing rather than reductionist systems like carbon credits 27'51 "land is a living community to which we belong" Aldo Leopold...thinking about ourselves as good for nature 30'57 is it the environment vs industry? 32'53 looking at the system rather than villainizing people 34'55 the problem of inequality 35'21 many landowners inspired by Vermejo Park Ranch 36'54 land conservation for the rest of us 40'14 the limiting factor of time 40'48 what's happening at Western Landowners Alliance 41'37 the role of private lands in conservation 42'37 taking care of the land needs to be compensated and become part of our economic system 44'03 the importance of stewardship in restoring land...the land doesn't restore itself 45'41 the next generation of land stewards
Quinn Mendelson is Conservation Program Director of Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, a nonprofit that trains young adults to do conservation work in the "outdoor classroom" of New Mexico's landscapes. Not only do they learn skills like trail building, watershed restoration, and wildfire mitigation, but they also receive training that helps them to get jobs—as well as less quantifiable but just as important life skills like getting along with each other, finding their own authentic voices, and being in nature for long periods. The program has been going for three decades, and has led many of its alumni into fulfilling conservation careers.
TIMELINE
3'27 what the corps is all about 4'18 conservation skills, professional skills, life skills 5'52 example of a river project 6'59 so good for young people to have these outdoor opportunities 7'33 adjusting to outdoor work 9'30 people slowing down in the wilderness, and building self-confidence 11'31 paying living wages so the they can recruit from all demographics 13'50 bonding with people for life, and a tight alumni base, and those people work in every related field 15'43 the projects themselves, some using Bill Zeedyk techniques 18'13 showing the young people to see the big picture 18'46 creating a blueprint for post-fire restoration 19'52 coming back for additional years of work 21'12 relationship between the Corps and the surrounding communities 22'54 the connection between this work and regenerative agriculture 24'54 young people with an ag background, or wanting to get into ag through learning conservation work 26'10 learning about soil is central to all the work they do 27'36 as Corps alumni take their place in agency and roles of responsibility, this could change how policy is shaped 28'13 the way people are talking about fire now has evolved a lot in the last few decades 28'57 using beaver biomimicry 29'19 restoring firefly habitat in Chimayó, NM 31'06 people coming back to see the work they've done in future years 32'38 other similar corps all over the US 33'07 there are fewer than 100,000 young people doing this work; there should be millions 33'51 scholarships for higher education 34'20 dream job for a young person 35'32 this is part of Americorps 37'27 Quinn's work on therapeutic ranches 39'01 this is so much about hope for him and the org 40'43 potential careers 43'05 the need for an educated conservation workforce is and will continue to be great 44'37 what kinds of knowledge each generation is given 46'33 passing the torch to younger generations 48'02 working easily with partners, and providing labor for projects
What is "good meat"? Michele Thorne has a lot to say on the subject. She is executive director of The Good Meat Project, a non-profit whose mission is to foster a healthy and humane meat system that centers local production instead of industrial monopolies that damage ecosystems and consolidate wealth. With the core value of transparency, they offer free services to butchers, ranchers, eaters, and chefs, and produce journals and that feature stories about people across the good meat universe.
TIMELINE 3'51 what is good meat? 4'52 soil stewardship 5'12 the core value of transparency 5'55 the importance of consumer trust 7'32 there's a reason big food companies are not transparent 8'33 the connection between food and health outcomes 9'50 hard to know how much of the country's meat industry is "good" 12'42 "Product of the US" labeling issues 14'52 greenwashing and humane-washing 15'20 Farm Forward study on greenwashing 17'21 the benefits of buying local 20'36 how the Good Meat Project serves producers, chefs, butchers, consumers 21'43 free marketing courses for meat producers 22'26 "features" vs "benefits" 25'05 BACON program—Butcher and Chefs Opportunity Network 25'46 butchers and chefs are important links to the community 27'00 more Good Meat Project resources...goodmeatproject.org 29'43 Olympia Provisions 31'48 educating consumers on the nuances of meat--industrial ag vs small producers 32'53 the risks of taking livestock off the land 34'37 meat substitute brands spend big bucks to message that meat is bad 36'23 Game Theory and how it can be used in the good meat movement 38'35 thinking about tradeoffs 46'52 trusting in healthy meat even if you can't measure the outcome
Zachariah Ben is a sixth-generation farmer from Shiprock, New Mexico. He and his family founded Bidii Baby Foods. Using traditional Navajo food traditions, they provide healthy, nutritious, and locally-grown food to Navajo people, many of whom are living in food deserts. And, through entrepreneurship and traditional farming, they seek to heal generational trauma by fostering not only physical health but also spiritual connection to land and community––from surviving to thriving.
4'12 traditional Navajo farming principles 5'01 trauma healing 5'31 farming with the stars, singing, birth rituals as strategies for successful farming 8'05 sharing/trading seeds to keep biodiversity, human beings as seeds 10'35 the ritualistic culture at the root of healthy food 11'36 corn at the base of all their foods 12'50 traditional Navajo foods 16'07 taking care of elders 17'43 majority of the market for the baby food is their own people 19'05 resistance of commercialization 20'22 goal of investing across the community through their non-profit 22'53 developing a business on tribal trust land, with all its legal and regulatory issues 25'48 the insanity of bureaucracy and red tape 28'19 dealing with water, irrigation, water rights 30'15 difficulty of local leadership because they've dealt with hardship all their lives 31'08 what "bidii" means 33'53 they don't believe in a diet that subtracts food, but one that adds 35'07 a lot of people on the reservation don't have access to electricity and running water 37'25 Navajo nation junk food tax on the food that is the only affordable food for many 40'24 building up the next generations to be thriving, not just surviving--and healing 42'14 a healed self is a healed community 43'37 annihilating the monsters of anxiety and depression 46'55 Zach is a sand painter 48'59 now he sees the farm as the medium for his art 49'43 looking not for return on investment but return of impact 50'16 contact Bidii via social media
Gilles Stockton is author of the new book, Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change, published by University of New Mexico Press. A third generation cattle rancher, he raises beef cattle and sheep on a 5000-acre ranch in Grass Range, Montana. He’s also an international agriculture development specialist and an advocate for ranching and farming communities. The new book imparts a lifetime of wisdom and analysis of what happened to our agriculture system, why, and how we can create a system that gives power back to the farmers who are actually growing our food.
3’01 the book is an extension of his op-ed pieces 4’24 multi-generation ranch background 6’30 raises cattle and sheep, as well as hay 7’14 how Western ranching improves the land 7’46 overgrazing damaged the land; it developed from the collapse of homesteading 9’47 ranching the only sustainable model of large scale agriculture in the US 10’48 the decline of his town early 20th century, and the decline of farms in general 11’57 overproduction led first to subsidies, then to the elimination of small farms 13’37 200,000 farms produce 80% of our food. The rest are trying to survive in an industrial agriculture economic model that doesn’t really want them 14’48 how megafarms came into being in the 1980s–the decision not to enforce antitrust laws, leading to monopolies/cartels 16’57 the problem of externalities 18’11 the difference between competitive capitalism (free enterprise where buyer and seller have equal power) and cartel capitalism–which is more like old-style communism 20’33 cartels can raise prices indiscriminately 21’14 not enough slaughterhouses–system is too centralized 21’52 agriculture has never had a golden age–it’s always been difficult 22’48 farmer gets 15.9¢ out of consumer dollar 23’22 the system steals from the farmer and farm labor 24’25 the “illusion of economies of scale” 24’45 smaller farmers are better farmers 25’20 the role of the farmer has been squeezed out in the name of “efficiency”…then there’s no advocate for the land and animals 26’24 what’s lost when you don’t have the farmer on the ground…the land, the workers, the animals 27’20 corporate boards instead of farmers are making decisions about things they know nothing about 28’23 why monocrops systems are so un-resilient, especially during climate instability 29’39 the problem of the super wealthy buying farm land–looks like colonialism 30’11 the wealthy neighbors don’t understand how their elk sanctuary affects their ranching neighbors 32’02 rural people hate environmentalists more than they hate the corporations that are ruining them 32’36 the sense that their vote doesn’t count 33’32 “they don’t ask our opinion” 35’16 policy for the last 50 years has been anti-rural. Rural voters vote red, but they don’t do anything for rural people. But blue doesn’t either. 36’15 climate change is making things existential 36’46 there’s a movement for anti-trust enforcement, which is encouraging 37’54 we need to decentralize in order to have a healthier food system — what that could look like 38’35 about 1/3 of food in France is sold locally, unlike the US where it’s more like 3% 39’16 the US imports more food than it exports. So much for “feed the world” 39’47 the need for auction markets for all food commodities (instead of contract work) 40’46 we don’t need new anti-trust laws, just enforcement of the existing ones 43’04 Citizens United decision of 2010 was a huge gain for the wealthy and corporate power 44’15 revitalizing rural communities = revitalizing democracy 45’05 the importance of being organized around an idea and staying with it 47’04 the local foods movement is extremely important. But it’s very libertarian in its politics, which means that they don’t deal with the globalized competition, they just do their own thing and stay a part of the 3% of local food 48’33 the Farm Bill isn’t so much a farm bill as an ag business bill. The orgs doing good work need to organize with each other more 49’42 what gives him hope 50’35 what happens after Gilles, what is the plan for the next generation
Giles Stockton is author of the new book, Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change, published by University of New Mexico Press. A third generation cattle rancher, he raises beef cattle and sheep on a 5000-acre ranch in Grass Range, Montana. He’s also an international agriculture development specialist and an advocate for ranching and farming communities. The new book imparts a lifetime of wisdom and analysis of what happened to our agriculture system, why, and how we can create a system that gives power back to the farmers who are actually growing our food.
Bryan Hummel is a big-time water nerd. Specializing in nature-based solutions to watershed and land management issues, he has brought his expertise to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Air Force, industry, and agriculture. The key to preventing flooding, he says, is to restore degraded land so that the soil becomes like a sponge, absorbing water and recharging subterranean aquifers––and in the process preventing flooding and contributing to the success of farming and ranching businesses, which thrive with abundant water resources. His techniques include beaver and bison biomimicry and permaculture techniques that slow, spread, and sink water into the soil instead of letting it run off.
Doctor and professor of public health Wendy Johnson saw in her medical practice people who thrived against all odds, and those who suffered grave challenges due to environmental factors like toxicity, poverty, stress, loneliness, and isolation. Her new book, Kinship Medicine, explores the reality that 80% of our health is determined by factors outside of us—which are largely ignored by our industrialized medical system. What's missing is ecological thinking, and understanding ourselves as part of an environment—from our microbiome to our community, to our ecosystem.
Orion Kriegman and his friends started clearing a trashed vacant lot in Boston to create green space and grow food. City hall was not on their side at first, but with persistence and community effort they were able to secure that lot as permanent green space—and so The Boston Food Forest Coalition was born. A dozen more urban lots were acquired and put into Community Land Trust by the coalition, but the stewardship and management of each food forest belongs to the neighborhoods. These are spaces for food, community, shade, gardening, education, wildlife, kids, and more. With more food forests created every year, the Coalition is part of a web of urban ecosystems throughout the city that are little oases of greenery—and hope.
Montana rancher Amber Smith didn't grow up in agriculture, but ranching became her life's work. As a young adult Kristen Kipp left the family ranch in the Blackfeet but felt a deep longing to go back to her home and the work of raising livestock. Amber is the executive director of Women in Ranching, which was first a part of the Western Landowners Alliance and then later became an independent non-profit, and Kristen is a board member. They talk about raising families on the ranch, about discrimination against women and Native people in agriculture, and about leadership that challenges the dominant model––and is often more effective because it brings people together and gives them all their own voice.
Montana rancher Amber Smith didn't grow up in agriculture, but ranching became her life's work. As a young adult Kristen Kipp left the family ranch in the Blackfeet but felt a deep longing to go back to her home and the work of raising livestock. Amber is the executive director of Women in Ranching, which was first a part of the Western Landowners Alliance and then later became an independent non-profit, and Kristen is a board member. They talk about raising families on the ranch, about discrimination against women and Native people in agriculture, and about leadership that challenges the dominant model––and is often more effective because it brings people together and gives them all their own voice.
The Transition Movement is a worldwide network of people working locally to move away from fossil fuel-base infrastructure toward locally-based systems. Projects include community-owned renewable energy utilities, local food security projects and farmers markets, local currencies, conversions of lawns into edible landscapes, waste reduction, ecosystem restoration, social entrepreneurship—all things that cultivate resilient and healthy communities. Don Hall, long-time leader in the Transition Towns movement, with a background in permaculture and organic farming, is author of the new book, The Regeneration Handbook: Transform Yourself to Transform the World. In the podcast he talks about some of the many successful projects of the movement, as well as the stages of development inherent in movement-building and social change.
Eileen Napier and Stan Hayes of Ramstead Ranch teamed up around their common interests in organic gardening, permaculture, and healthy living. They started on two acres and sold eggs on the honor system, and then the project grew––they bought ranch land in the Pend Oreille Valley, in the northeastern corner of Washington State and soon expanded to 240 acres. Brining in business skills from their own experiences outside of agriculture, they've built a enterprise that employs twelve people and has a thriving online component, while still serving a predominantly local community.
Paul Rice started out as an anti-capitalist labor organizer, working with coffee farmers in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Over time he saw that what growers needed most was a fair price for their product––and so began his work as a Fair Trade advocate. He returned to the US to study business, and founded Fair Trade USA, where he was CEO for 26 years. Winner of many awards for social and ethical innovation, he’s author of the new book, Every Purchase Matters: How Fair Trade Farmers, Companies, and Consumers Are Changing the World.
Since the new administration took office, programs benefitting farmers have been slashed, frozen, paused, and canceled––and the effect is leaving agrarians in a tough position. Carolina Mueller, Associate Coalition Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition, and Leah Ricci, Interim Executive Director of Quivira Coalition join us on today's podcast to talk about what they're hearing from folks on the ground, what resources are available to help people navigate, and what ordinary citizens can do to make their voices heard.
Minni Jain and Philip Franses are co-founders of The Flow Partnership, and they are co-authors of the new book, The Language of Water: Ancient Techniques and Community Stories for a Water Secure Future. In this podcast they explore the process of helping communities around the world to restore streams and rivers, prevent flooding, and recover local water wisdom. For decades they have been working to help communities regenerate their landscapes, using traditional methods that can be implemented and maintained by the communities themselves. The book, recently published by by Synergetic Press, tells the stories of people around the world whose land and ways of life have been upended by colonialism and industrialization––and the processes by which they reclaim not only land health but also their own sense of agency, meaning, and story-telling about their place.
Bill Zeedyk restores landscapes—streams, wetlands, even rural roads—by using simple, low-tech tools and letting nature do most of the work. The result is healthy, lush desert ecosystems. Filmmaker Renea Roberts' recently released a five-part documentary series about his work, Thinking Like Water.
Since the 1930s, Ducks Unlimited has been protecting habitat for ducks and other migrating waterfowl, and has conserved over 18 million acres of wetlands and bird habitat in North America and beyond. Founded by hunters, the organization originally focused on duck breeding habitat in Canadian prairie lands. Over the decades their conservation work expanded to including the US, Mexico, and other parts of Latin America, and embraces both public and private lands. We talk with Billy Gascoigne is DU's Director of Agriculture & Strategic Partnerships, and Ryan Taylor, Director Of Public Policy for the Dakotas and Montana and North Dakota cattle rancher, about how conservation of waterfowl habitat is a win-win for farmers and ranchers—as well as water, wildlife, communities, and climate. By promoting voluntary conservation efforts, they build long-term partnerships that aim for long-term resilience and farmer profitability.
Adam Mason is Senior Manager of Farm Animal Welfare and Environmental Policy at the ASPCA, the American Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In our conversation he talks about their multi-pronged approach to getting animals out of buildings and into cruelty-free lives in which they can express their natural instincts and behaviors. Farmers who make the transition from industrial/conventional livestock practices to animal-friendly practices report better lives for the animals and the farmers themselves, with benefits for land and water health, and often more autonomy and greater profitability.
Entomologist, agroecologist, farmer, rancher, and beekeeper Dr. Jonathan Lundgren was a scientist with USDA Agricultural Research Service for 11 years. He left to undertake regenerative agriculture science studies that embraced a larger paradigm, looking at the interconnection of all the living beings on the farm and in the community, from the soil microbiome to the insects to the plants and animals — and the farmers. He's founder and director of the Ecdysis Foundation, and CEO of Blue Dasher Farm, which work as a partnership. The 1000 Farms Initiative is producing extremely detailed agricultural data from farms across North America — and giving the data away for free.
Virtual fencing is a new technology that employs GPS collars to keep animals in "virtual" pastures—so instead of using physical fences, the fence lines are drawn on a computer screen, and the collars direct the animals' movements through sound cues and mild electrical stimulation. This saves ranchers on labor and materials, allows more adaptive and flexible pasture management, and allows free range for wildlife. The Nature Conservancy, whose mission is to tackle climate change by protecting land and water and fostering a healthy food system, is partnering with ranches across the US to help ranchers adopt virtual fencing systems. We talk to William Burnidge, deputy director of The Nature Conservancy’s Regenerative Grazing Lands strategy in North America, and Danna Camblin of Camblin Livestock, whose ranch has been successfully employing virtual fencing for the last few years.
Don Boyd spent a year on the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, photographing, living, and finding a deep connection to land, water, and animals—including the many migrating birds that live part-time in this magical desert wetland on the Rio Grande. Boyd connected with David and Hui-Chun Johnson, and together they are working with a small team to restore 38 acres on the refuge that have been degraded by "conventional" agricultural practices and invasive plant species. They have completed the first year of the five-year BEAM project (Biologically Enhanced Agricultural Management) using cover-crops, no-till methods, and compost tea, with the goal of creating more self-sustaining, regenerative agricultural fields that provide food for the many wildlife species on the refuge, water conservation, and a model for regenerative practices for other agrarians in New Mexico and beyond.
Artist and science educator Robert Dash creates art from micro- and macroscopic photographs of food crops. His new book, Food Planet Future: The Art of Turning Food and Climate Perils into Possibilities, explores both the science of our food system and the role of art in finding a more healthy and loving way forward.
Hayley and Stephanie Painter grew up on a fourth-generation dairy farm in northern Pennsylvania, and while it was an idyllic childhood, the instability of milk prices continually threatened their family's livelihood. The sisters took it upon themselves to save the farm by creating a yogurt brand, Painterland Sisters, and in the space of two years have gotten their product into stores in all 50 states and are using milk not only from their own farm but from neighboring producers. Hayley Painter talks about the practices of regenerative agriculture from a multi-dimensional perspective––not only soil health, but also animal and farmer health, food processing that retains nutrients, healthy transportation, responsible retail, and more. The key is diversity, including a diversity of farms and farm sizes, brands, and retail outlets.
André Leu is co-founder and International Director of Regeneration International, an organization that promotes food, farming, and land use systems that regenerate and stabilize climate systems. He’s author of the books, Myths of Safe Pesticides and Poisoning our Children, and is co-author with Dr. Vandana Shiva of Biodiversity, Agroecology, and Regenerative Agriculture. He has a Doctorate of Science in agricultural and environmental systems and teaches at universities and speaks at numerous conferences and United Nations events. His new book is The Regenerative Agriculture Solution: A Revolutionary Approach to Building Soil, Creating Climate Resilience, and Supporting Human and Planetary Health, published by Chelsea Green Press. Leu is also a regenerative tropical fruit and cattle farmer in Australia, where he's been farming since the 1970s.
Environmental historian Sara Dant’s book Losing Eden traces the history of the American West from the time of elephants and camels to the near destruction of entire ecosystems—and the movement to bring nature and industry into balance.
Gwen Cameron grew up on Rancho Durazno, her family's peach farm. She was pursuing a career in journalism when her father asked her if she wanted to come back and take over the farm. She agreed and never looked back; now she's running a farm that uses regenerative principles to keep the land healthy for their 40 acres of peaches, cherries, apricots, plums, and melons. Her Mexican field workers come through a visa program, and together they are building their participation in the Fair Food Program, which ensures safe working conditions and fair wages.
P. Wade Ross's great grandfather was a runaway slave who bought land in Texas. His descendants founded Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization, a non-profit that helps Black farmers and ranchers to succeed in regenerative agriculture in the face the barriers of structural racism, trauma, imposter syndrome, and the many challenges that all farmers face. Founded by Ross's parents, W. Wade and Anita Ross, the non-profit, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, provides outreach, organizing, education, and technical assistance to agrarians across Texas, with a focus on regenerative agriculture.
Women have been invisible in agriculture for too long: not counted in the census, not taken seriously for their work and management achievements, excluded from access to capital and credit––and even farm equipment is not made for their bodies. We talk to Jules Salinas of Women Food and Agriculture Network, which is addressing these issues in ways ranging from political action to storytelling.
Doug Fine was an international journalist before he moved to New Mexico to start a polyculture farm and embrace a rural way of life. He's the author of six books, including four on hemp and cannabis, and his film American Hemp Farmer won Best New Mexico Documentary Feature at the 2024 Santa Fe Film Festival. He's a vociferous advocate for hemp as a source of nutrition, healing, clothing and industrial fiber, building material, energy source, and climate change solution.
Sarah Wentzel-Fisher is executive director of Quivira Coalition. A native of South Dakota, she came to her work in agriculture and leadership via a circuitous path that included the creative arts, writing, community and regional planning, collective problem-solving. In this podcast we discuss everything from the purpose of scientific inquiry in regenerative agriculture, to Quivira's history and current programs, to her own work in farming.
Phoebe Suina grew up on Cochiti and San Felipe Pueblos in New Mexico, where she learned about land, water, and cultural values and practices from her extended family and community. With advanced degrees in engineering and management from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, she returned to New Mexico to found High Water Mark, a Native American, woman-owned project management and environmental consulting company with a specialty in water resources. She works with local, state, and federal governments and agencies, private entities, and industry to restore landscapes after disasters like wildfires and floods, and to do planning, management, and disaster prevention. What sets her company's work apart is that they use a holistic approach that focuses not just on engineering solutions, but instead takes into account the entire landscape––including people. Favoring distributed, low tech solutions that communities can maintain over the long run, and working with the forces and flows of nature, they seek to foster resilient watersheds and landscapes, and to do so with the values of humility, respect, and cooperation. She uses and teaches consensus-based planning, a technique that involves deep listening and coming to agreement across differences of opinion and interests. And she works on legal and policy issues with tribal and state governments. With her partner and children, Suina also farms seven acres, using no-till, traditional practices to grow food for her family and community––including the wildlife that in turn fertilize the land.
A decade ago, filmmaker Peter Byck assembled a group of scientists who were looking at agriculture from a whole-system perspective to study regenerative and conventional grazing side by side. The result is an extraordinary new documentary, Roots So Deep You Can See the Devil Down There. It's a fascinating and enormously entertaining journey into the world of family ranchers.
Seed Savers Exchange is a small non-profit that's making a big difference. For a half century, they've been saving seeds, getting them out into gardens, telling their stories––and cultivating biodiversity that has been badly diminished with the rise of corporate agriculture and seed production. Located in Decorah, Iowa, Seed Savers has a large farm where they cultivate genetic diversity, including vegetables, flowers, fruits, and even heritage livestock. You can get and share seeds through their exchange and their seed catalog.
Dirt Capital Partners takes a "slow money" perspective on investing, helping farmers get land access and regenerate not only the soil but also their communities. Their goal is to not only transform how agriculture is done in the US, but how investing itself is done, by focusing on the real impact of investment, and the good––or harm––that it does to ecosystems and communities.
Matt Skoglund grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, went to law school, and for ten years worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council doing policy work to protect bison in Yellowstone. Always happy in the outdoors and with an interest in both hunting and conservation, he started a bison ranch in 2018 near Bozeman, Montana. North Bridger Bisonis a ranch that values biodiversity, wildlife, humane treatment of livestock––and healthy, nutritious meat.
Will Harris's ranch, White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, has been in the Harris family for over 150 years. His ancestors had a polyculture farm, but when industrial tools came to ranching, his father, and then Will, went all in––corporate ranching allowed their family to make a good living. But one day, in a life-changing moment of clarity, Harris saw that the animals were suffering from the moment they left his ranch until their brutal deaths, and that the land itself was suffering from an overuse of chemicals and extractive grazing practices. He set out then and there to change the way he ranched, and without even having heard terms like "regenerative agriculture" and "rotational grazing" started down a path that made him one of the pioneers of American grassfed beef. Now a Global Savory Hub, White Oak Pastures is helping to educate others about restoring land with livestock. In his brilliant new book, A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food (which he authored with the help of the wonderful writer Amely Greeven), Harris tells the story of converting from industrial to regenerative practices on his ranch and the many challenges and adventures opened up by his decision to treat his animals and land with the respect they deserve. Helping to create a market for grass-fed beef, getting into supermarket chains and educating consumers, building a work force, helping to revitalize his rural town, educating solar entrepreneurs––these are just some of the topics he covers with an inimitable combination of simplicity, humor, and deep, land-based intelligence.
Austin Frerick grew up in Iowa, which in his youth had a robust regional food system that offered abundant produce and meat from family farms. But because of one "baron"––that's the name Frerick calls the men whose monopolistic corporations profoundly reshape markets and communities––rural areas were hollowed out, farmers were driven off their farms and into factories or other professions, and the quality of life had declined precipitously, from toxic pollution to low wages, to unhealthy food.
Frerick's wonderfully readable new book, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, published by Island Press, uncovers the havoc wrought by these barons in the sectors of hogs, grain, coffee, dairy, berries, animal slaughter, and groceries––some of whom are well known, while others are purposefully secretive. Their power is vast, and they stand in the way of a truly competitive, farmer-centric regenerative food system. And yet Frerick offers solutions and hope, and ways that each of us can participate.
In 1985 Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young organized a concert to benefit farmers and spread awareness of the crisis U.S. farmers were facing. The concert raised $7 million and spread awareness across the country. Since then Farm Aid has become a force advocating for farmers, promoting healthy, farm-grown food, providing a hotline and resource network, and giving a voice for policy change that benefits family farms over corporate conglomerates. They continue to produce a concert in a new location each year, and in recent years the concerts have become festivals featuring locally grown food and a goal of zero waste, sustainability and food organizations from all over the country, and of course abundant live music.
Nick Mendoza grew up in a cattle ranching family in New Mexico, but when he moved to San Diego he fell in love with the ocean and got hooked on fish and marine science. Taking the lessons from regenerative cattle production to the oceans, he studied Environmental and Marine Resources at Stanford University, and earned a graduate degree in graduate degree in Sustainable Aquaculture. But eventually he veered away from a career in science when he realized that he could make more of a difference by actually doing science-informed fish production. He founded Neptune Snacks, which produces four types of fish jerky––with more products on the way. Balancing transparency, science, health, sustainability, and flavor, he's part of a new generation of entrepreneurs working to transform the food system from the inside.
Carbon credits were designed as a market mechanism to incentivize projects that sequester carbon and reduce carbon emissions. The idea is to pay people who are doing climate friendly projects, and sell credits to emitters. But do they work? Is there independent verification that carbon is really being sequestered? What does it mean when people are being paid for projects they would have been doing anyway? And who's really profiting? Ecosystem scientist Jane Zelikova, director of the Soil Carbon Solutions Center at Colorado State University, guides us through these questions and more.
Katherine Miller, author of At The Table: The Chef's Guide To Advocacy, began her work toward a healthier food system with a deep background in political advocacy. She trains chefs to use their position as influencers to make change on issues like healthy and regenerative food sourcing, food waste, sustainability, fair wages, anti-sexism and -racism, and better mental health––in ways that engage the community and work with their already busy schedules.
Beehives take up little space on the land, but, like other livestock, bees need space to roam, and they need a varied diet. Beekeeper Melanie Kirby is a "landless farmer," who sets up her beehives on farms and ranches, where the bees can thrive and the agrarians can take advantage of their pollination services. In fact pollination services have become essential to American agriculture, as monocrop farms don't provide sufficient habitat for pollinators to thrive, so beekeepers actually ship bees by the pallet seasonally to sites when trees and other crops are in bloom. In 2008 the income from pollination services exceeded the price of honey, which shifted the business model for beekeepers, especially at the large scale. Among the many challenges for beekeepers are pesticide use, which threaten bees and in turn the foods that rely on them. Kirby is involved in helping to create pollinator protection policies to spread awareness and safeguard these essential constituents of the food system.
Anica Wong is Quivira Coalition's communications director and she had the idea for an "ask me anything" episode with Down to Earth host Mary-Charlotte Domandi ... and here it is! Listeners asked questions and we answered as best we could, in a wide-ranging discussion about everything from to Anica's urban farm to our favorite podcasts to Plato's Republic. We reference many episodes, books, people, and fun stuff, so see the timeline below for links.
Photographer Sally Thomson's gorgeous new book of photographs and texts, Homeground, is a deep exploration of rangelands in the Southwest––landscapes, livestock, water, wildlife, and the stewards who keep the land thriving. With her deep background in landscape architecture, conservation, and land use planning, Thomson photographs in ways that reveal a deep understanding and love for the land in all its richness and diversity.
Elena Miller Ter-Kuile is a sixth-generation farmer living in southern Colorado. At Cactus Hill Farm she and her father raise sheep for wool, grass-fed meat and organic grain and hay, and are in the process of restoring their family’s damaged land.
Erik Ohlsen author of The Regenerative Landscaper, is helping people, municipalities, companies, and farms create thriving landscapes at every scale––and cultivate native plants, wildlife, and food. His new book, The Regenerative Landscaper: Design and Build Landscapes That Repair the Environment, deeply explores the theory and hands-on practice of repairing damaged land and finding ecological balance––no matter how small or large the project.
Cole Bush is a shepherdess, entrepreneur, and educator. Founder of Shepherdess Land & Livestock and Grazing School of the West, she uses a "flerd" (flock-herd) of sheep and goats to restore landscapes and prevent fire. She's also bringing along a generation of new shepherds, and is cultivating entrepreneurial businesses that spring from this work, such as meat, hides, and wool.
Dr. Hubert Karreman started out as a soil scientist and then fell in love with dairy cows. He became a veterinarian and a regenerative dairy farmer, following a path of respect and reverence for life. He specializes in holistic and organic methods including homeopathy and plant medicine. He and his wife Suzanne own Reverence Farms, a pasture-based, diversified regenerative farm that includes dairy cows, sheep, pigs, and hens.
The Biden administration has made a great commitment to building sustainable and healthy food systems. But how to get the money from the government to folks on the land who need it but aren't skilled bureaucrats? Dave Carter Director of Regional Technical Assistance Coordination for the Flower Hill Institute, explains.
Joe and Jenn Wheeling talk about how to avoid the pitfalls of a family ranch business––ego, speechifying, wasted time––and arrive at consensus decisions with the full support of each family member.
When wool processing suddenly moved overseas, Jeanne Carver and her family were left without a market for their products. Through determination and creativity, she turned a setback into a regenerative success story. They pivoted their business to a local/regional model, selling lamb to restaurants and developing an artisan-based apparel and yarn business––and eventually selling to international clothing brands. Now Carver runs Shaniko Wool Company, which comprises multiple ranches across the Western US and produces in accordance with the Responsible Wool Standard. Because of its regenerative practices, Shaniko is generating income as part of the growing market for ecosystem services and sequestered carbon.
How do you restore an entire forest, or mountain, or watershed? The key is...collaboration. Jan-Willem Jansens has been restoring landscapes in New Mexico for three decades. Owner of Ecotone Landscape Planning, he is part of a network that works to restore land that has been damaged by generations of mismanagement. Using low-tech methods, they restore soil, ground and surface water, trees, and habitat––for the benefit of large-scale landscapes, including forests and watersheds, wetlands and streams, farm and ranch lands, and human communities. As he describes in the podcast, this is the work of decades, and involves not only executing the projects themselves, but also navigating bureaucracies, organizations, landowners, culture, and history.
Roxanne Swentzell was a young mother on a small piece of land at Santa Clara Pueblo when she was introduced to permaculture design principles––which dovetailed with indigenous patters of thinking and land use. She turned her yard from hard, sun-scorched earth into an agroforest that provides food, wood, fiber and habitat. She founded the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, which focuses on teaching principles and practices of desert gardening, composting, seed saving, animal husbandry, beekeeping, building, and maintaining cultural knowledge--based on principles of integrity, love, reciprocity, communication, work, and consideration.
Lorenzo Dominguez was a successful marketing and corporate communications executive in New York City. But during the pandemic he and his wife made the decision to change their lives in order to find a more nature-based and connected way of life. They bought 350 acres in northern New Mexico, called it Chelenzo Farms, and are working to restore the land, grow both market produce and desert plants, and above all to connect with neighbors and regenerative agriculture and restoration practitioners in order to foster research, education, and community.
Konda Mason is co-founder and president of Jubilee Justice, a non-profit dedicated to regenerative agriculture, racial justice, cooperative practices, and healing the wounds of Black American land loss and racism. They are in the fourth year of a rice-growing program, the system of rice intensification (SRI), a dry-land technique for growing rice that's healthy for land and consumers and efficient and productive for farmers. They have built a mill and are actively working toward a vertically integrated business model to provide domestic, regeneratively produced rice varieties.
Oysters are delicious and nutritious. They are also a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer, which means that they provide habitat for all kinds of other species, and they filter and clean the water around them, cycle nutrients, and even remove pollutants. Native to many parts of the world, Atlantic oysters are a species found from Louisiana to Maine.
Rick Karney is a shellfish biologist and Director Emeritus of Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group. Alex Friedman is owner of Snows Point oyster farm.
Beth Hoffman was a college professor and agriculture journalist for years before she and her husband picked up and moved from San Francisco to his family's farm in Iowa. In her book Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America, she recounts the story of transitioning the farm from commodity corn and soybean cropping to grass-finished cattle and produce––and the challenges they faced along the way, from fencing to finances.
Corporate meat producers tout their "efficiency" but actually wreak havoc on the environment, local communities, and the animals themselves. Cole Mannix works with the Old Salt Co-op, which is pioneering vertically integrated models for regenerative, sustainable, and humane meat production––including meat processing, direct to consumer and retail sales, and restaurants––and all the while focusing on landscape health, fair labor practices, and community building.
Tina Garcia-Shams is executive director of the Street Food Institute in Albuquerque, NM. The program teaches entrepreneurship, food preparation, accounting, marketing, and everything else students need to open a local food truck or catering business. And it's been so successful that it's spreading to other parts of the state and the country, and attracting students from all over.
Traditional pastoral cultures have been living in harmony with animals and land for millennia––and they persist to this day, though with serious challenges. Ilse Köhler-Rollefson's new book, Hoofprints on the Land: How Traditional Herding and Grazing Can Restore the Soil and Bring Animal Agriculture Back in Balance with the Earth, shines a light on what they can teach us.
Hydroponic agriculture systems use water––not soil––to grow crops, and yet they use water with exceptional efficiency and can produce abundantly all year round. When coupled with fish farming, the result is a nearly closed-loop system––aquaponics––in which the plants filter the water for the fish, and the fish provide fertilizer for the plants.
Many federal, state, and local agencies, as well as non-profits and community groups, carry the responsibility of helping people and fixing infrastructure after a disaster, and some of them also work to try to prevent or mitigate disasters before they happen. But how to they coordinate with each other, and how do they really meet the needs on the ground...and what are the sticky points?
Industrial agriculture imposes a simplified production model onto complex ecosystems––with dire consequences. In the new book, The Great Regeneration: Ecological Agriculture, Open-Source Technology, and a Radical Vision of Hope, co-authors Dorn Cox and Courtney White explore the place where complex technologies and complex ecosystems meet. With today's digital networks, sensors, and computational power, agrarians and land managers can now engage with a far larger community than ever before, and improve their productive capacity and the health of land, water, and wildlife––allowing agrarians to grow food both more ecologically and more profitably.
After being driven almost to extinction, wolves are back in some of their natural habitat. A new podcast, Working Wild University, explores how ranchers, conservationists, and others are coming together to find paths toward peaceful co-habitation. We talk to podcast co-host, Jared Beaver, about the presence of wolves on Western landscapes, and explore the economics of ranching, the importance of working lands for wildlife, the conflicts of values at the working land/wild land interface, and much more.
The price of land keeps going up across the country as wealthy investors buy farmland and people move out of cities. This puts untenable pressure on farmers and land stewards who are producing healthy food and maintaining biodiversity, land health, and water cycles. But what can be done against the seemingly intractable laws of supply and demand? Neil Thapar, co-director of Minnow,and Mariela Cedeño, partner at Manzanita Capital, are working to de-commodify land, and they're using a lot of different tools to do it––so that land ends up owned and managed by Native American tribes and people of color. They're also educating investors who want to contribute to a healthy food/land system not to expect high returns on their investment, but rather to use their wealth to shift land and power back to its original inhabitants and to food producers practicing good land stewardship.
Liz Carlisle's new book, Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming, is a fascinating exploration of food, agriculture, and cultural traditions of the North American, Mesoamerican, African, and Asian diasporas that have survived against all odds in the United States. Despite brutal social and political oppression, these communities have preserved soil-friendly polyculture techniques and cultural practices, like reciprocity and community participation, which point toward more sustainable and regenerative ways of producing food and of living with one another.
TomKat Ranch manager Mark Biaggi talks about dealing with winter floods, summer droughts, and degraded landscapes––and the process of continual experimentation that leads to dramatic regeneration of damaged land.
66 million years ago an asteroid struck earth, causing the fifth mass extinction of species on earth. With the dinosaurs gone, new species proliferated all over the planet. Now we're in the sixth extinction––this time caused by people. But when did it start? And what happened on on this continent in particular? Dan Flores' new book, Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals & People in America, explores the deep history of the North American continent, which was once populated by giant bison and mammoths, massive eagles and condors, ground sloths and dire wolves––all of whom were here when human beings first arrived tens of thousands of years ago––and how people affected their environment and its animals, from the first migrating bands to the wildly destructive European colonizers.
66 million years ago an asteroid struck earth, causing the fifth mass extinction of species on earth. With the dinosaurs gone, new species proliferated all over the planet. Now we're in the sixth extinction––this time caused by people. But when did it start? Dan Flores' new book, Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals & People in America, explores the deep history of the North American continent, which was once populated by giant bison and mammoths, massive eagles and condors, ground sloths and dire wolves––all of which were here when human beings first arrived tens of thousands of years ago––and how people affected their environment and its animals, from the first migrating bands to the wildly destructive European colonizers.
Brando Crespi has devoted decades to sustainable development as co-founder and Executive Chair at Pro Natura International and Global Biochar. His holistic approach to sustainable development could be called regenerative––instead of telling poor and exploited people what they should do, it's about recognizing and cultivating local leadership, helping them form a community vision for their future, providing the assistance necessary to achieve that vision, and then getting out of the way.
Along the way, Crespi and his colleagues came across biochar, a substance made from burning bio waste (like sawdust and crop husks) and that has been used in the Amazon for millennia. As a soil amendment, biochar can bring dead soil back to life, improve crop yields, and decrease water use. It can also be used in industrial products and plastics. And its production can provide an energy source in communities looking to develop clean energy and regenerative agriculture.
John D. Liu started his career as a journalist and cameraman, covering politics, economics, and culture. In 1995, he began documenting the Loess Plateau in China, a massive landscape that had been destroyed by poor agriculture practices over the course of centuries. He watched and filmed as the landscape––and the people––came back to vibrant life over decades, through an intensive process that involved soil science, engineering, hydrological restoration, and the participation of local communities. The result was a living, lush, and sustainable ecosystem that produced more food with less land in agricultural production.
Gary Paul Nabhan, known by many as the "father of the local food movement," is a prolific author, scientist, and activist for a healthy and truly regenerative food system that respects the land and its plants and animals; the people grow food, process, and serve the food and their communities; and to all the rest of us who eat and want our food to nourish us. He's an ecumenical Franciscan brother whose service is devoted to food equity and justice.
W.K., Kellogg endowed chair for food and water security at the University of Arizona, he’s the author of many books; his latest is Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized in Our Food System. He’s an agrarian and ethnobotanist and is winner of numerous accolades, including a MacArthur fellowship and many literary, environmental, food, and arts awards.
Coley Burgess grew up on a conventional farm, then studied mathematics and electrical engineering...and he brought his scientific rigor and curiosity to a 20-acre pecan farm that he and his family bought in southern New Mexico. The ground was bare and turned to mud––and then cracked, dry earth––after he irrigated. But a series of happy accidents, including the purchase of a milk cow for his daughter's digestive health, led to his growing grass and cover crops and eventually letting go of herbicides, pesticides, and even chemical fertilizers.
Professor Phillip Warsaw's work is all about the interconnectedness of the systems that keep our lives going––food, housing, transportation, health care. In his research in Milwaukee he discovered that in Black and Latino neighborhoods housing was significantly more expensive if it was near grocery stores, but the same wasn't true in more affluent White neighborhoods. Why? And does this mean that better food access leads to gentrification?
Professor Phillip Warsaw's work is all about the interconnectedness of the systems that keep our lives going––food, housing, transportation, health care. In his research in Milwaukee he discovered that in Black and Latino neighborhoods housing was significantly more expensive if it was near grocery stores, but the same wasn't true in more affluent White neighborhoods. Why? And does this mean that better food access leads to gentrification?
If you're a small or mid-size farmer, it's nearly impossible to compete against giant food conglomerates. But fairer policy could help smaller farms to prosper, provide healthy food and thriving communities, and keep more profits for food producers––rather than executives and stockholders.Sarah Carden is a policy advocate with Farm Action, a group working to democratize the food system in the U.S. She's also a vegetable farmer, who knows first hand what the barriers are for small and mid-size growers who are forced to compete against giant corporations. She talks about the movement for a more fair and regenerative Farm Bill in 2023––and beyond.
Both big ag and small family farms have their problems...but what's the alternative? We talk with agricultural journalist Sarah Mock about the some possible models.
Linda and Larry Faillace spent years at the University of Nottingham in England, where Linda became an expert in Mad Cow Disease (BSE). Upon return to the U.S., they imported sheep from Europe, with USDA approval, and began a cheese making business in Vermont, with their three children active participants in the enterprise.
But a few years later, the USDA came after them, claiming that their sheep might carry BSE, and told them to surrender their sheep. Because they had science on their side––no sheep had ever had BSE––the Faillaces fought back...with grim and dramatic consequences. Linda's book, Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm , tells the story...well, most of it. The real reason for the USDA's attack on their farm was revealed a decade later, as she recounts in today's podcast.
Still, Linda Faillace remains an optimist, and she and her husband have continued to make cheese and teach cheese making and culinary arts. She has a lot to say about the growing power of the ever-growing local food movement.
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM-3), a native of Las Vegas, NM, deeply understands the challenges and strengths of rural people in northern New Mexico. She's been working to bring money to those whose property and livelihoods have been damaged by the recent wildfires and floods, and to build resilience––heathy soil and water practices––to provide more fire, flood, and drought resistance in the future.
But getting federal money, and then distributing it to those who need it, is not an easy task. We discuss the needs, the daunting bureaucracies, and the short and longer term goals for restoring land and protecting communities.
Bees date back over 10,000 years on the American continent and are vital to the health of almost every bite of food we eat, but today they face threats from industrialization and habitat fragmentation. Melanie Kirby is a decades-long beekeeper, a scientist, a member of Tortugas Pueblo, and extension educator for the land-grant program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Her diverse background gives a perspective on bees and pollinators that brings together Western and indigenous perspectives, and that can help everyone from farmers to urban gardeners play a role in the revitalization of this keystone species.
During Carol Ekarius's early years in Colorado, the Buffalo Creek Fire burned just under 12,000 acres — and at the time was considered a huge, catastrophic fire. Now fires in the west are consuming hundreds of thousands of acres, and doing inestimable damage to property, livelihoods, and ecosystems. A long-time farmer-rancher, Ekarius has been involved in fire management and mitigation and watershed restoration. She has written nine books for small-scale agrarians, and worked with organizations focused on watershed restoration and sustainable agriculture.Carol Ekarius has worked in both large- and small-scale farming, and has written many books for hobby farmers. She talks about the daunting challenges ahead—and gives us some reasons for hope.
We all know the term carbon "footprint." Well, Foodprint takes this idea and broadens it to apply to our food system; they explore how the foods we eat affect not only carbon emissions, but a whole range of things, like livestock and wildlife, soils and water, communities and human health.
Foodprint is a project of the GRACE Communications Foundation, and in today's episode we talk to its director Jerusha Klemperer, who is also producer and host of their podcast, "What You're Eating," and Urvashi Rangan, Chief Resident Scientist at GRACE and co-chair of Funders for Regenerative Agriculture.
Ryland Engelhart came from a family of vegans and vegetarians and knew early on that he wanted to devote his life to the health of the planet. Once he began to see that there is no food –– no life at all –– without the death of animals, he revised his perspective and at 35 ate his first hamburger. (It went well.) This perspective grew into a deeper understanding of the role of soil as the source of all life, and as the best answer to the question of how to reverse climate change, and he started the non-profit Kiss the Ground and set out to make a film by the same name. Seven years later, the film broke all records for movies about soil; seen by over six million people and translated into 26 languages, it has helped catalyze the regenerative agriculture movement.
Most of the American Midwest was once a vast savanna, an open grassland with abundant trees and wildlife. As the land was converted to agriculture many of the trees were lost, and with them went countless benefits to the landscape, to air and water, soil health, and wildlife. The practice of agroforestry allows farmers to return those benefits to their land –– and provides profit opportunities and increased carbon sequestration. We talk to Keefe Keeley, executive director of the Savanna Institute about how farmers can get started using trees to their advantage.
In New Mexico and across the West wildfires are burning through wildlands, farms, ranches, and communities. Lesli Allison, executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance, has many years of experience in prescribed burn management—and like many New Mexcians she's directly affected by the fires. She helps us to understand how we got to the volatile situation we're in, where "controlled" fires so easily go out of control, and the critical importance of prioritizing good land management if we want to keep our ecosystems and our communities safe and in balance.
Aria McLauchlan and Harley Cross, co-founders of Land Core, have been working for years on food and farming policy that promotes regenerative practices. In this podcast we talk about the Farm Bill––a trillion dollar piece of legislation which most people know little about, but which deeply affects all of our lives. It plays a huge role in how farming is done––and could help to make a shift toward regenerative practices and the many benefits that flow from them.
Jessica Chiartas is a PhD soil bio-geochemist who's working to catalyze the transition from "conventional" to regenerative agriculture. She’s a postdoctoral researcher at the Innovation Institute for Food and Health at UC Davis and fellow with Food Shot Global, and is UC Davis partner for the California Farm Demonstration Network. She’s lead Soil Scientist at Kiss the Ground, and the founder of Soil Life Services and a new project called Soil Life.
On this podcast we talk about her work with Regen1, a California-based organization whose goal is to "transition one million acres in northern California to regenerative by 2025 and build an adaptive framework that scales worldwide." Jessica explains the complexity and challenges of doing this work.
Amanita Thorp Berto is owner of Horned Locust Remediation, and she uses a flock of goats and sheep to do landscaping projects. In gardens, parks, photovoltaic installations, and many other places, goats take the place of toxic herbicides and pesticides and of course machines like lawnmowers. They love to eat plants that cause allergies in people––even poison ivy––and they easily go to places machines can't reach. And in the process, they leave the land more fertile and resilient, as they mimic the natural processes of animal/land interaction.
In the late 1990s, members of Santa Ana Pueblo embarked on a long-term project to restore their land, which had been damaged over the last century by multiple forces, including overgrazing, hunting, logging, and habitat fragmentation. Glenn Tenorio is former governor of Santa Ana Pueblo; he currently works with the pueblos’s Department of Natural Resources as a water resources specialist, and he’s also a farmer. He talks about the decisions the pueblo made to bring in outsiders like conservation scientist Dan Ginter, who for over a decade has been the range program manager. They talk about the goals and methods of the program––especially finding not only balance but synergy between wild land and agriculture––and the deep satisfaction in seeing the revival of pronghorn antelope, mountain lions, wild turkeys, deer, and elk populations, as well as native landscapes and watersheds.
Karl Thidemann is co-founder of Soil4Climate, a non-profit that advocates for regenerative agriculture, with a focus on grazing and the restoration of grasslands. In this podcast he makes the case, supported by extensive scientific research, that the restoration of grasslands can provide a multi win-win––for the climate, biodiversity, soil health, good nutrition, farmer profitability, the water cycle, rural communities, anti-desertification, and maintaining traditional agrarian practices worldwide. He also challenges vegan narratives about food and climate, and, with a poem and a song, reminds us that the arts are an important part of the change toward a greener, healthier world.
Zach Weiss has seen land so degraded that even weeds couldn't grow...and helped transform it into healthy, living landscapes by changing the flow of water and letting nature do most of the work. Protégé ofAustrian farmer Sepp Holzer, he works all over the world helping agrarians to restore natural flows on their land, increasing water for crops and livestock, but also for wildlife and downstream water users. The implications for agriculture, wildlife, and climate are huge.
The title of Pamela Tanner Boll's new film, To Which We Belong, comes from a quotation by the author Aldo Leopold, early 20th conservationist and environmentalist whose work has inspired generations of ecologists, agrarians, and nature lovers. Leopold wrote, "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
In the film Boll features nine agricultural projects in the US and abroad that are using regenerative techniques to restore soil, water, wildlife, families, and communities––and to bring about a paradigm shift from an extractive/industrial mindset to a more nature-based approach.
Eva Stricker is director of the Carbon Ranch Initiative for the Quivira coalition and a Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico Department of Biology. One of her projects is the scientific study of compost––with the goals of helping farmers and ranchers heal and improve their land, increase their profitability, and sequester carbon. Emily Cornell, owner/manager of Sol Ranch, a cow-calf and grassfed beef operation in northeastern New Mexico, is a participant in the program, and talks about how targeted applications of compost can help larger landscapes. And Zach Withers, co-owner and operator at Polk's Folly Farm near Albuquerque is the compost-maker; he shares his experience of restoring a highly degraded piece of land, using hogs, food waste, and wood mulch. Together they're developing a greater understanding of how compost can be used most efficiently and effectively.
Matt Draper and Minor Morgan started North Valley Organics on two plots of land in Albuquerque, and have made a commitment to the People-Planet-Profit model for their business. Working with diversity and resilience as core principles, they want farm work to be something that not only produces healthy, nutrient-dense food, but also provides a long term sustainable and joyful living for the people doing it—and the communities around them.
About a decade ago Tijinder and Juliana Ciano took over Reunity Resources' land from a centenarian veteran, and they've continued to honor his mission of feeding the community. Their work includes vegetable farming and a farm stand and food truck, soil and compost programs, the founding of a biodiesel program, educational programs, food donations, and community organizing. They're part of the Quivira Coalition's Carbon Ranch Initiative and have been working together on developing a model for rural communities in New Mexico to create compost systems to reduce landfill waste and to produce high qu
Reunity Resources,compost,food waste,community agriculture,vegetable farming,regenerative agriculture,Ten Who Made A Difference,
ality soil amendments for agriculture.
This week Juliana and Tijinder were honored with an award from the Santa Fe New Mexican as one of the "Ten Who Made a Difference."
In today's podcast we look at the synergistic collaboration between a soil scientist and a pecan farmer.
Southern New Mexico is not an ideal landscape for pecans, which grow best in warm, wet climates. But the industry is here, and Josh Bowman has determined to grow a healthy and abundant crop by focusing on the soil. Using cover crops and grazing animals, he's been able to increase the life and organic matter in the soil, and to produce a greater yield and a higher quality nut—while using less water.
David Johnson was a contractor who at mid-life decided to change careers and became a microbiologist, specializing in the soil microbiome. He collaborates with farmers like Bowman to increase the quality—and quantity—of the soil with an eye not only to improved health and profits for the farmer, but also to climate change mitigation as carbon is sequestered in ever-healthier soils. Johnson and his wife Hui-Chun Su developed the Johnson-Su bioreactor, a composting system that yields a potent, microbe-rich compost that is a soil-friendly and cost-effective alternative to synthetic fertilizers.
Renard Turner and his wife Chinette founded the Vanguard Ranch Natural Gourmet in Gordonsville, Virginia, 25 years ago, and through creative entrepreneurship and wise land management and animal husbandry practices have built a value-added business model that works on a relatively small scale.
Their ideas about sustainability and regeneration on a global scale inform their daily practices. And they are also encouraging African American people of the next generation to think about leaving the big cities and buy land for farming and homesteading.
Latashia Redhouse is director of the American Indian Foods program at the Intertribal Agriculture Council, where she supports food producers across the country to get their food to consumers in the US and beyond—while encouraging traditional and regenerative agriculture practices.
William deBuys is a prolific author of books documenting people's relationship to the earth—which is too often destructive. In his new book, The Trail to Kanjiroba: Rediscovering Earth in an Age of Loss, he writes of an expedition to Nepal that he made with a group of doctors and other medical professionals, led by American Zen Buddhist Roshi Joan Halifax, and reflects on what it means to care for an ailing earth as doctors care for patients.
James Rebanks is the author of the newly-released book Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey, which recently won the 2021 Wainwright prize for UK Nature writing, and best-seller The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape.
His books explore the experience of being a farmer from a millennia-old farming tradition that was almost lost to "improvement." Wonderfully written and highly readable, these accounts of his life in the Lake District of Cumbria, England, give us a lived sense of the promise of industrialism, the genuine short-term gains, the nuances of what went wrong and why...and the reality that there are no clear heroes and villains, but rather it's a truly complex system that has to be managed for land and human health if we want to survive.
Sandra Postel has devoted her life to studying the world's freshwater systems, and they're not looking so great right now. Through a combination of over-allocation, over-engineering, over-use, and climate change, we'll be in trouble if we don't address the problem soon—in fact, we're in trouble now. But the solutions are there, and already in place on a small scale, and they involve working with nature rather than against it to restore the natural flows and stay in balance.
Many of us were taught that microbes—and bacteria in particular—were dangerous pathogens, and the safest thing human beings could do was create a sterile, bacteria-free environment. But in fact microbes are absolutely essential to human health, the health of the soil, and to pretty much all life on earth.
Dr. Emeran Mayer is a gastroenterologist, executive director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, and the director of the UCLA Microbiome Center. And he’s author of the new book, The Gut-Immune Connection. We talk about how the human microbiome functions, how it's stressed by the standard American diet (SAD) and lifestyle—and the deep interconnections between the human gut and the destruction of the soil microbiome by intensive chemical agriculture. And yes, there are good solutions—if we have the knowledge and will to make them happen.
Reese Baker has been designing permaculture landscapes for many years, and with his family has turned his home on a quarter-acre lot in Santa Fe, NM into a teeming oasis of life, complete with wetlands, a pond, trees, and food and flower gardens—not to mention bats, pollinators, fungi, soil life, and other friendly creatures. His vision for Santa Fe is to make it a pilot city for large scale water conservation, capturing each drop of rain to grow gardens and trees, and lessening the pressure on municipal water systems while increasing local food production.
Gordon Tooley and his wife Margaret Yancey started Tooley's Trees in Truchas, New Mexico, in the early 1990s. They grow and sell rare and heirloom trees that are well adapted to the semi-arid climate of the region. But just as important as the business is the history of these fruit trees and the genetic preservation of varieties that have very specific characteristics and uses--and the way of life that cultivates a deep relationship with the wildlife, soil, water, and even air in their particular place. We talk about what it means to choose a slower pace of life that favors close observation and low-tech tools over instant gratification.
This interview is part the Good Earth series, a project supported by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture Healthy Soils Initiative and led by photographer Esha Chiocchio. It features a set of eight videos on soil stewards in New Mexico. Please check out the short videos here.
Steve Wood is an apple grower and cider maker in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and he's been working on the family orchard since he was a child. Dubbed the Godfather of the hard cider industry in the US, he's one of the New England's leading voices on Integrated Pest Management—a way of keeping creatures of all kinds from destroying the trees and their fruit while minimizing harm to the ecosystem.
Dr. Robin Hadlock Seeley grew up in Maine and has dedicated her life as a scientist to the preservation of coastal ecosystems—in particular a form of seaweed called rockweed. Severine von Tscharner Fleming is a farmer and activist whose farm is on the Maine coast where rockweed is being harvested by the ton and shipped all over the world. What is the function of rockweed in ecosystems, and what would sustainable harvesting—as opposed to extractive mining—of rockweed look like?
Jesse Smith was studying design when he was asked, how can you make something that gets better than age? Intrigued by the question of how to design stuff that won't end up being thrown in the trash, he found his way to agricultural systems, cultured foods, and a community-based way of life. As director of stewardship at the White Buffalo Land Trust, which recently bought the Jalama Canyon Ranch near Santa Barbara, California, he is working with a team to bring back a degraded landscape using grazing animals, agroforestry, and healthy soil practices, and creating an agricultural, educational, and economic model for regenerative local food systems.
Carrie Balkcom grew up on a cattle ranch in Florida. In 2003 she returned to her roots when she became the executive director of the American Grassfed Association at its founding--and she's been there ever since. AGA certifies pasture-raised livestock--and not just beef--and they help producers develop and sustain regenerative practices for the sake of the animals, the land, and the consumer.
Nicolette Hahn Niman never thought that she would have anything positive to say about animal agriculture. An environmental lawyer and a committed vegetarian who had seen the horrors of industrial livestock production up close, her life changed when she married a rancher and began to perceive the complexities of both animal and crop production. She's author of the book, Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat, and we talk about the new and updated edition of the book, in which she makes the case that well-raised livestock can be part of the climate solution--and that good meat can improve human health.
Omar de Kok-Mercado Scientist with background in Agro-ecology, Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry, and he’s at Iowa State University working on a project that integrates prairie strips into row-crop agriculture. By working with farmers to plant strips of land—"prairie strips—with native prairie vegetation, he and his team are working to bring back healthy soil, wildlife, corridors, a healthy water cycle, and innumerable potential benefits to land that is currently being cultivated in ways that are not sustainable in the long run.
Beth Robinette is a fourth generation rancher in Eastern Washington State, where she and her family run a grassfed beef operation, the Lazy R Ranch, based on holistic management principles. She’s co-founder of LINC Foods (Local Inland Northwest Cooperative), a local food hub based in Spokane Washington; and she runs the New Cowgirl Camp, an intensive ranching retreat for women, and New Rancher Camp, which is for both men and women.
Lucille Contreras discovered her Lipan Apache roots as a young adult. After working in IT for many years, she founded the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project as a way of bringing together the Lipan diaspora, cultivating healthy land and food, rescuing the language, and honoring the co-existence of people and buffalo on their native lands.
Kristina Long is founder and CEO of Sea Forest, a kelp farming company in British Columbia, Canada. We talk about everything kelp--sustainable farming and harvesting, uses of kelp, the business model, and the community.
Mark Nelson is an environmental engineer, author, and farmer at Synergia Ranch, in Santa Fe, NM. He's co-author of the book, Life Under Glass : Crucial lessons in planetary stewardship from Biosphere 2, and he's in a new documentary about Biosphere 2, Spaceship Earth.
Starrlight Augustine is a scientist manager of the organic farm at Synergia Ranch. We talk about the experience and lessons of Biosphere 2, and their methods of farming in New Mexico.
Rachael and James Stewart were both personal trainers in Phoenix, Arizona, eating a high-protein diet. When the pandemic hit, they decided to make some big changes. Stu (James) sold a classic car and they bought some land in southeastern Arizona, where they are in the first phase of starting a ranch for goats, sheep, and heritage poultry--Southwest Black Ranchers.
Stu is African American, Rachael is Filipina-Mexican, and their children are loving their life outdoors and with the animals.
Deborah Madison put vegetarian gourmet cooking on the map—and yet she's not a vegetarian. She learned to cook at the San Francisco Zen Center and the restaurant Chez Panisse, and then co-founded Greens Restaurant in San Francisco in 1979. She’s a chef and is author of over a dozen books on food and cooking; her latest is a memoir called, An Onion in My Pocket: My Life with Vegetables.
Joe Maxwell is President of the Family Farm Action Alliance, formerly a state legislator Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, and is retired from the Army National Guard. He's also a family farmer, and has witnessed the shift from a functional capitalism to one that favors large monopolies at the expense of farmers, consumers, and the earth itself. He knows—from multiple perspectives—that consumer demand alone is not enough to make the shift toward a healthy food system. He lays out the problems—and some ways forward—as we look to a new presidential administration.
Camas Davis is executive director of the Good Meat Project and founder of the
Portland Meat Collective. A decade ago, after she apprenticed as a butcher in southwestern France, she returned to her home in Oregon to find that there was a lack of education among consumers about meat—where it comes from, what parts of the animal they're eating, what's behind variations in flavor—and so she started the Portland Meat Collective, which educates consumers to understand and prepare meat.
Davis is the author of the book, Killing It: An Education.
Jovan Sage is a farmer, chef, community organizer, entrepreneur, herbalist, doula, and wellness coach. Drawing on the knowledge of her West African and Indigenous ancestors, she is deeply engaged in healing on many levels--the soil, the body, communities caught up in the global pandemic, race relations--through deeply reciprocal relationships with the land and one another.
Find out more about her work at Alchemist Jovan and Sage's Larder.
Filmmaker Sanjay Rawal's new documentary, Gather, explores how Native Americans across the U.S. are rediscovering their food traditions--and building on them in the context of present-day realities. We meet a world-class chef who returned to his roots and opened a Native cuisine-based restaurant in an old gas station; a young Lakota woman from a buffalo ranch who is combining her love of science and of her own culture; and a group of young men from Pacific salmon country who are reclaiming their fishing traditions within a worldwide indigenous context.
Gather screened at the Regenerate conference, and it’s available for streaming on iTunes, Amazon, and Vimeo-on-Demand.
LaKisha Odom is Scientific Program Director (Soil Health) at The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. A non-profit organization funded by the Farm Bill, FFAR is helping to fund the scientific research behind healthy soil practices so that more farmers can make the transition to regenerative agriculture and long-term sustainability and resilience.
Dr. Vandana Shiva is an environmental leader, scientist, and activist. Author of over 20 books, she’s founder and leader of Navdanya, a non-governmental organization and movement that promotes biodiversity, organic farming, the rights of farmers, and seed saving. Her latest book is, Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth, published by Synergetic Press.
She's delivering the keynote address at the Regenerate Conference.
Roberto Meza was a multi-media artist and MIT graduate student when he went encountered some health challenges. He found that eating healthy greens restored his health and spirit so powerfully that he started apprenticing with a farmer and then moved to Colorado to start Emerald Gardens, a greenhouse-based farm that delivers microgreens to customers in the Denver area—and which brings a focus to issues of food sovereignty, equity, and building a robust local food system.
A-Dae Romero Briones is director of the Native Agriculture and Food Systems initiative at First Nations Development Institute. We talk about programs across the country that are helping native people build healthier food systems and to strengthen the traditions that have kept these systems alive even during the most devastating periods of colonization.
Zach Ducheneaux is a third generation family rancher on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, and he’s Executive Director Intertribal Agriculture Council. We spend the hour talking about how the current financing system for agriculture doesn't work for the people growing the food—especially in Indian country, where discrimination is still the norm—and how innovative new financing structures can provide a real alternative.
Zach will be be speaking at Regenerate 2020.
Judith Schwartz is the author of several books, including Cows Save the Planet and Water in Plain Sight. Her new book, The Reindeer Chronicles: And Other Inspiring Stories of Working with Nature to Heal the Earth, is a riveting series of reports from all over the globe about people who are restoring landscapes and dealing with deeply entrenched conflicts that are exacerbated by their degraded ecosystems. She takes us to China, the Middle East, New Mexico, Mali, Hawaii, Spain, Norway, and other places where people are working with each other and working with nature--rather than against it. The results are extraordinary: healthy land, clean water, economic prosperity, and even climate change mitigation.
The "Radical Center" concept says that food producers and conservationists have far more in common than not—and the Audubon Society's Conservation Ranching program is a prime example of this idea in action. Working in collaboration with prairie grassland ranchers, the Audubon Society is helping them to accommodate grassland birds, with the result that the land gets healthier, grazing animals benefit, and birds thrive. And they're driving "market-based conservation," in which consumers can choose certified bird-friendly meat.
We talk to Marshall Johnson, Vice President of the National Audubon Society and Executive Director of Audubon Dakota and Audubon Conservation Ranching, who reminds us, "what's good for the bird is good for the herd."
Vanessa García Polanco is from a farming family that emigrated to the US when she was a teenager. Now she works with the National Young Farmers Coalition advocating for policies that help young farmers, new farmers, and farmers of color--who are often ignored, as infrastructures tend to serve larger commodity producers--especially during the global pandemic.
Jason Baldes is Tribal Buffalo Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation. An Eastern Shoshone native, his people called themselves gweechoon deka, the Buffalo Eaters. But when the buffalo were killed by the US government, their way of life was badly damaged.
Now Baldes is helping to restore buffalo to native lands and public lands as wild animals, and in so doing engaging the people to restore their relationship to them--as food, cultural icon, and keystone species on the landscape.
When the "green revolution" offered the promise of better agriculture through chemical-intensive farming, J.I. Rodale was skeptical. He started an organic farm and then an institute to study how farming could improve the land and human health.
Now the Rodale Institute is doing agriculture research not only in their home farm in Pennsylvania, but also at new research centers in Iowa, California, and Georgia. We talk to Rodale's Diana Martin about the past and future of their research, about the impact of Covid-19 on both consumers and farmers, and about the resources available to those wishing to transition to organic/regenerative farming and food.
Hopi farmers were practicing regenerative agriculture before it was named. Working with the soil, the weather, the water cycle, seeds, and cultural practices, they fed themselves in the dry land of northern Arizona for millennia. Now the industrial food system has challenged their way of living and farming. We talk to traditional Hopi farmer Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson; he's a research associate with the Native American Agriculture Fund and has a doctorate in natural resources management.
Cliven Bundy is a rancher who's refused for decades to pay his grazing fees for public lands. But where did his ideas about public lands come from? We talk to author Betsy Gaines Quammen about her new book, American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God and Public Lands in the West.
Lake Powell and Lake Mead are two massive man-made lakes and they're reservoirs for water used all over the West--for agriculture, residences, industry, electricity, and wildlife. And they're running low on water--we're taking out more than they're being replenished. Brian Richter, president of Sustainable Waters, and author of the book, Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability, talks about the roots of the problem, and what we can do about it.
The Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic has touched all parts of our lives--including the food system. While farms are considered essential businesses, farmers and farm workers are facing huge challenges, including getting food where it needs to go in a changing world, dealing with illness and unemployment, and much more. Rachel Armstrong is founder and executive director of Farm Commons, and she walks us through the many problems--and some solutions--in today's food system.
Gregory Horner is co-author of a series called, Profiles in Land and Management. He tells us about places all over the country where grazing is being used to improve land health--which may come as a surprise to many who have seen the land degradation caused by overgrazing. But when it's done properly, public agencies are seeing the return of native plants and wildlife--and they're saving money by letting animals do the work.
Grant and Dawn Breitkreutz converted from "conventional" agriculture to a regenerative system involving holistic management of livestock, cover cropping, and soil-health techniques. Over the last fifteen years they have seen their farm thrive, their own health improve, and their land become more lush, resilient, and hospitable to wildlife. They tell their story, with its challenges and learning experiences.
Stanley Crawford is a farmer—he's owner of El Bosque Garlic farm in Dixon, New Mexico. And he's a writer—he's author of more than a dozen books of fiction and non fiction. His latest book, The Garlic Papers: A Small Garlic Farm in the Age of Global Vampires, is a fascinating portrait of a quiet life on a small farm, and at the same time about the legal battles between small new Mexico garlic farmers and a gigantic Chinese garlic conglomerate—and the surprising role of the US Commerce Department. It's also the subject of an episode ("Garlic Breath") of a Netflix series called Rotten, which is about the dark side of our food system.
Ronnie Cummins grew up in a toxic part of Texas so toxic that there are no longer enough classmates to have a high school reunion. He became a human rights activist, and then a food and farming activist. In his new book, Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal, he looks at how the food system contributes to climate disruption, and how that can be turned around so that food, health, climate, and communities are improved by healthy agriculture practices.
Kelsey Ducheneaux is natural resources director with the Intertribal Agriculture Council in Eagle Butte, SD--and she's a fourth generation regenerative beef cattle rancher. We talk about the strengths and traditions of native food producers, the many challenges of producing food in the current financial system, and the ways that agriculture can heal land and people.
Brennan Washington worked in information technology and gardened with his wife just for fun and relaxation. When they moved to Georgia, they produced so much food that they got involved with farmers markets and CSAs--and started seeing the problems as well as the strengths of these outlets. Washington now works with Southern SARE, where he goes all over the Southern US and the Caribbean, talking to farmers and sharing knowledge to promote sustainable and profitable agricultural practices, as well as cultural sensitivity and understanding.
Darren Doherty is a farm planner in Australia who works worldwide, and he's founder of Regrarians, which promotes and teaches the principles of regenerative agriculture. We talk about the bush fires, the land management problems that contributed to their severity, the loss Aboriginal land management practices--and the opportunities that rise from the ashes.
A wide-ranging conversation with Kevin Watt of TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, California, about the hazards of degenerative agriculture around the world, and the evolution toward new ways of thinking about productivity, healthy food, and not just surviving but thriving on a crowded planet.
Kate Zeigleris a geologist/hydrologist who works with farmers and ranchers in New Mexico and Colorado to provide scientific data about their wells and water table. We talk about the importance of not only data collection but also building trust and community decision-making for future sustainability on arid agricultural lands.
African Americans in agriculture have endured generations of discrimination and deceit that have resulted in the loss of countless families' land and livelihoods. Attorney Jillian Hishaw helps farmers protect themselves, their families, and their property--through understanding the laws that affect them and doing smart long-term planning.
According to Colorado hemp growers Ed Berg and Scott Perez, hemp is an extraordinary plant with many uses: It can feed people and animals, heal medical conditions, make cloth and rope, produce biodegradable plastics, sequester carbon, and remove toxins from soil. So what's in the way of its widespread use--and how can small producers survive when it becomes a major commodity crop?
Paul Neubauer worked on his uncle's farm before he went to college, and developed a passion that led him to a life in agriculture. To build his skills he went through the Quivira Coalitions apprenticeship program, and now works for Vilicus Farms in Montana. He reflects on the challenges and rewards of working in agriculture, being both a mentor and a student, and the many kinds of skills——practical and personal——that it takes to build a thriving operation.
Diana Rodgers is a nutritionist and real food dietician. She’s the author of several books and is working on a new book and documentary film project, Sacred Cow. She hosts the Sustainable Dish podcast, and she lives and works on an organic farm in Massachusetts.
Dr. Robert Fetsch grew up on a dairy farm in Texas, and saw first hand the stresses of rural life. He now works with farm and ranch families with disabilities and helps them manage their stress, anger, depression, and suicidal thinking. He is co-project director of the Colorado Agrability project, Professor in the College of Health and Human Sciences Department at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Nicole Mastersis an agro-ecologist and educator in regenerative agriculture. She's founder of Integrity Soils, and author of the new book, For the Love of Soil.
We talk to Meriwether Hardie, chief of staff at Bio-Logical Capital, a Denver-based company that's looking at ways to transition to economically and ecologically healthy agriculture practices.
Graeme Handteaches Holistic Management in Australia and around the world, and he helps people restore native perennial grasses--and make a profit--with livestock. He shares his stories and secrets, some of which will surprise you!
Joel Benson studied Holistic Management, but he didn’t have any land to farm. So he turned the principles toward what he was doing: first his own business, and then the town of Buena Vista, Colorado, where he was mayor for eight years. The results were striking – a thriving business, and a dramatic reduction in corruption.
Rodrigo Sierra Corona is Grassland Ecologist and Stewardship Director at the Santa Lucia Conservancyin Carmel, California. His mandate is the conserve and regenerate the land, foster native species, and monitor the health of the land. Guess what's one of his main tools: Cows. Because they're a domesticated species they can be used in a targeted way and easily moved. We talk about the challenges, successes, and hopes for conservation on this mixed-use land.
Kate Greenberg has a broad background in regenerative agriculture. She serves as board chair of the Quivira Coalition, she worked with the National Young Farmers Coalition, and has extensive experience in farming and natural resources management. She was recently appointed Commissioner of Agriculture for the state of Colorado. We talk about the challenges facing the state, and ways to put the idea of the Radical Center into practice in government.
Richard Teague is Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University. He shares with us his deep understanding of the science of holistic management, soil science, and the psychology of changing over to new practices and paradigms.
Ed Roberson is conservation director at the Palmer Land Trust, and he's host of the Mountain and Prairie podcast. We talk about some of the problems surrounding water in the West--and some new approaches to balancing urban and agricultural water needs.
Emmanuel Karisa Bayawas an orphan in rural Kenya by the time he was nine years old. His mother had taught him to farm, and after going into another profession, he was called to return to the land. He found himself helping other orphans and poor children, and founding the Magarini Children Centre and Organic Demonstration Farm, where he practices and teaches organic and regenerative food production as well as conflict resolution
There's an unspoken assumption that renewable energy will seamlessly replace fossil fuels. But what if that's not the case? We talk to Dr. Jason Bradford, author of the new report, The Future is Rural: Food System Adaptations to the Great Simplification from the Post Carbon Institute. He makes the case that the post-carbon society will be simpler and more local--and he gives us some guidelines to preparing for that future.
Aria McLauchlan and Harley Cross are co-founders of Land Core, a non-profit dedicated to bringing about policies and programs that lead to healthy soil.
Keri Brandt Off and Janine Fitzgerald are professors of sociology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and they're both ranchers. They've coined the term "zombie agriculture" to describe a food system that raises food from dead soil--it looks like it's alive but doesn't have the life or history or interactive communities on the level of either soil or interpersonal relatedness. Can we keep it from eating our brains?
Leah Penniman fell in love with farming when she was a teenager, became a farmer and food justice advocate, and with her husband founded Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. The farm provides food in for those with limited access to fresh produce, and it's a center for teaching and learning about farming and African/indigenous heritage for people of color. Leah's new book, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, is a profound and wide-ranging exploration of everything from the practical details of how to start a farm to the rich history of African-heritage farming and healing traditions.
We talk with investigative journalist and author Carey Gillam about her book, Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science.
Ben Goldfarb is a "beaver believer." He’s author of the new book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. We talk about the historical role of beavers in the ecosystems of the entire North American continent, how they were nearly wiped out, and why many communities are brining them back—and with them lusher wetlands and healthier rivers.
Glenn Elzinga is a rancher on mostly public lands in the Idaho Rocky Mountains. He's also a forester, and his wife is a botanist...and together they have developed a practice of cattle grazing called "inherding" that is very healthy for the cattle because of the diversity of plants they eat; that restores streams and creeks to the point that beaver have returned; and that allows native plants and wildlife--including sage grouse and wolves--to flourish on the land. It's labor-intensive and yet economically viable. Listen to find out how they do it.
Animals—and people—have instincts that will guide them to eat a very healthy diet if given half a chance. But we also have cultural practices, marketing, dubious government guidelines, degradation of food supplies, and many other impediments to healthy eating. Fred Provenza explores all this and more in his book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom. In this podcast we discuss how wild animals, livestock, and people can find their way through the morass of ever-shifting dietary trends to a vibrantly healthy diet—and a regenerative food system.
The science of farm and rangeland is often incomprehensible to the people on the land. We talk to On Pasture magazine founder Kathy Voth, whose mission is to make science accessible to people who need it--and to help keep them from being bamboozled by the latest agriculture fads.
Today's program is from the Radio Cafe archives. David Johnson is a senior research scientist and molecular biologist at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. We talk about the process of restoring soil, and how farmers, ranchers, and land managers can be incentivized to engage in healthy soil practices.
Gavin Van Horn is author of the new book, The Way of Coyote: Shared Journeys of the Urban Wild. As we read the book we walk with him along streets, rivers, and lakes, and learn a slower and softer way of seeing – even in the bustling city – that includes the wildlife with which we share our world.
Reginaldo Haslett Marroquín of the Main Street Project in Northfield, Minnesota, talks about a new model for a healthy and regenerative poultry industry -- and how it can be accomplished with modest investments of land and capital. One of the main challenges of envisioning a healthy food system is how it can work at a large scale, and not just for niche markets. Here you'll hear how it can be done -- and how this model can also provide a model for other types of meat production that's healthy for land, workers, and consumers.
Main Street Project
Website: mainstreetproject.org
IG: @main_street_project
FB: Main Street Project
T: @main_street
Quivira Coalition
Website: quiviracoalition.org
IG: @quiviracoalition
FB: Quivira Coalition
T: QuiviraAgRanch
Show notes:
0:09 Engaging food issues and low wage workers
1:46 Designing for low wage workers means non-discrimination for all
4:37 Livestock is central to regenerating land
5:33 Guatemala and indigenous practices
6:25 Managing energy is the basis of food production
7:09 Regenerative poultry means thinking like a chicken
10:17 Extra meat on industrial broilers costs society
12:22 Day in the life of a chicken
14:51 Down to the the dirt -- the chicken ecosystem
20:31 Poultry-Centered Regenerative Agriculture
20:40 Eliminating unnecessary work
24:58 Returning energy to the system and the ecosystem
26:35 Regenerative agriculture at scale
28:59 Replicating and perpetuating the work around the world
32:34 Regenerative agricultural alliance
34:41 Practicalities of regenerative poultry systems
45:14 Transform the poultry industry, transform other food industries
48:53 The Mainstreet Project
This is the second in our series of interviews from the Regenerate 2018 conference in Albuquerque. We talk Jonathan and Kaylyn Cobb, co-owners Green Fields Farm in Rogers, Texas, who tell us the story of almost selling the farm but then coming in contact with regenerative principles and changing not only their way of working the land but of understanding and seeing it. The result has been a happier way of life, healthier soil, and increased profitability.
What does it take for a retail brand to make a commitment to sourcing meat from ranchers who are regenerating the land? We talk to Gina Asoudegan, vice president of mission and innovation at Applegate Natural and Organic Meats, and Katie Forrest, cofounder of EPIC Provisions about how they work with producers, and how the mission of a small food company can influence -- for the better -- the large companies that own them.
Sallie Calhoun is president of the Globetrotter Foundation, owner of the Paicines Ranch, and founder of the #NoRegrets Initiative. She came to ranching from electrical engineering and high-tech entrepreneurship, and has devoted her life to sustainable agriculture–and both investing and teaching others about investing in a healthy food system. She also works to empower women in ranching and agricultural communities.
Since the end of the civil war, White Oak Pastures has been in the Harris family, but their farming practices have ranged from 19th century subsistence farming to post-war industrial agriculture — and now larger scale regenerative farming. Will Harris has created a closed-loop, no-waste farm, whose goals include providing healthy food raised in a healthy manner, humane animal welfare practices, and revitalization of the rural community where they’re rooted.
How do adversaries find common ground? How do they work together to find common goals an interests? Food from the Radical Center: Healing our Land and Communities by Gary Paul Nabhan is about food and land conservation, but its lessons have the potential to bring together many people in our polarized nation. Nabhan is a writer, seed conservationist, and MacArthur genius grant recipient; he’s endowed chair in sustainable agriculture at University of Arizona, and he’s a long time activist for environmental protection and healthy agriculture that benefits both rural and urban communities.
Dr. Hisham Moharram founded The Good Tree Farm and Good Tree Farm, Inc. as an expression of his Muslim faith. He explains how to keep a farm profitable, regenerate the land, feed communities that don’t have good access to healthy food, and provide entrepreneurship opportunities for young people.
Christine Su is CEO and co-founder of Pasturemap, a tool that helps ranchers increase productivity on their rangelands. We talk about the synergies among soil health, grass abundance, profitability, carbon sequestration, and intergenerational--and inter-regional--information sharing.
Nicole Masters is an agroecologist who teaches, writes about, and consults on regenerative agriculture and soil regeneration. With projects in both the US and her home, New Zealand, she has worked on nearly a million acres of crop lands and range lands to improve soil and help producers reap the many benefits of doing so -- healthier food, healthier farm work, less pollution, lower costs for farmers, and carbon sequestration, to name a few.
She will be speaking at the Quivira Coalition Conference this fall.
Bill McDorman, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance in Ketchum, Idaho, and co-founder of the Seed School, has been saving seeds for over three decades. He explains the dangers of the massive biodiversity loss that's happened in the last fifty years, and how seed saving can move us toward a well-adapted local agriculture.
Jo Robinson is an investigative journalist whose book Eating on the Wild Side is all about the deep history of the human diet -- and how we can find nutritious food even in the plastic jungle of industrial agriculture and retail. She spoke at a Quivira Coalition conference several years ago.
In Gunnison, Colorado, there is an innovative collaboration to conserve the Gunnison Sage Grouse, a threatened--but not endangered--species native to this part of the Southwest. By building simple rock structures, using the techniques of land restoration pioneer Bill Zeedyk, they have been able to build up habitat for the sage grouse, and at the same time provide increased forage for cattle.
We talk to Nathan Seward Terrestrial Biologist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Brett Redden of Redden Ranches in Gunnison, Colorado.
Andrew deCoriolis is with Farm Forward, an organization dedicated to animal welfare for farm animals. We discuss the poultry industry, and the near-disappearance of the many healthy breeds of chickens and turkeys that once populated all farms in the US. Now virtually all poultry are unhealthy, grotesque animals that live miserable lives and provide little nutrition or flavor. We also discuss the role of consumers, companies, farmers, and lawmakers to provide solutions to this currently unsustainable situation.
Faithlands is an initiative of the Agrarian Trust that brings together religious traditions and regenerative agriculture. Today we talk to Severine von Tscharner Fleming, organizer in the young farmers movement, and Sam Chamelin, founding pastor of the Keep and Till and the St. Mark's United Church of Christ in Hempstead Maryland.
Caroline Fraser just won the Pulitzer Prize for biography for her new book, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. For those who read the Little House books, you’ll remember the tales of a loving family on the American frontier. What’s behind the scenes is the extraordinary destruction wrought by settlers—both to the native inhabitants of the land and to the land itself, resulting in drought, crop failure, insect infestations, and ultimately the Dust Bowl.
This riveting biography offers a deep look at a family of smart, courageous, and loving people caught up in a bigger historical process.
Author and sustainability ecologist Tony Juniper talks about his book, What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? How Money Really Does Grow on Trees. He explains the value of natural ecosystems in a variety of economic contexts, from food systems to oceans.
Doug Crabtree and Anna Jones Crabtree are the owners of Vilicus Farms in Havre, Montana. The 6800-acre organic farm is as far from industrial agriculture as you can get -- they grow as many as 20 different crops every year, without any farm chemicals, and with a focus on building soil, stewarding the land stewardship, and co-existing with wildlife. They are also part of a movement of organic farmers in Montana who are working toward a larger scale sustainable vision of a sustainable economic marketplace for everyone in the food system, from farmers to consumers.
Professor of geography at the University of California, Berkeley, Nathan Sayre is author of the book, The Politics of Scale: A History of Rangeland Science.
Judith Schwartz is author of the book Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth. We talk about ecosystems, and biodiversity, and soil, and climate change mitigation, and alternatives to the current industrial food model.
Chris Jagger is a vegetable farmer in Oregon, and he's founder of the Living Soils Symposium, an annual gathering of farmers and people interested in regenerative agriculture. He talks about the many challenges of farming, including the economic pressure on small and medium-sized growers, and the rewards of growing healthy food and living in a community committed to restoring and maintaining healthy landscapes.
Lesli Allison, executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance, talks about the complex relationships among conservationists, ranchers, farmers, land managers--and wildlife, water, and earth. Challenges that have previously seemed insurmountable are now being met, as environmental crises escalate and people on all sides build relationships and trust.