Mary Kimball is the Executive Director for the Center for Land-Based Learning, where they strive to inspire, educate, and cultivate future generations of farmers, agricultural leaders and natural resource stewards. She started working there in 1998, and has led its growth since that time; in 1998, there was one program and 30 high school students. Today, Land-Based Learning runs five different model programs that serve thousands of high school students and adults each year in 28 Counties. This i...
Jan 31, 2018•39 min
Eliza Maclean talks veterinary practices & raising livestock at Cane Creek Farm
Jan 24, 2018•37 min
Paul Haldeman, a retired military officer and life-long syrup-maker, and Deanna Nelson, a lawyer by trade, are rural neighbors in Rodman, New York, and partners in their business, Zoar Tapatree Co.. With a combined 250-acres of property and approximately 10,000 sugar maples, Haldeman and Nelson have set out to make the most amazing syrup possible--and convince consumers that there is a world of flavor they've been missing. Focused on minimal processing and capturing the daily nuances of terroir,...
Jan 17, 2018•17 min
Roger Johnson has been President of The National Farmers Union since 2009. Prior, he was a third-generation family farmer from Turtle Lake, ND, where he also served as North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner since 1996. NFU was founded by ten local farmers in 1902 as the Farmers Educational Cooperative Union of America in Point, Texas. After its founding, NFU advocated for increased co-operative rights, fair market access for farmers, direct election of senators and voting rights for women. These ...
Jan 10, 2018•41 min
Architect Javier Ponce is the founder of the Smart Floating Farms project (SFF) and currently a registered architect in Barcelona, Spain Javier graduated from Monterrey Institute of Technology in México and holds a Master's degree in Advanced Architecture from UPC University in Barcelona. Between 2007-2009 Javier worked for british architect Norman Foster in London, where he was exposed to different scales and types of projects worldwide. On his return to Barcelona, Javier founded his own design...
Jan 03, 2018•18 min
Bullock Farms is a family owned and operated 100 acre farm located in beautiful central New Jersey with gently rolling hills, green pastures and open farmland. Brett Bullock and his sister are the sixth generation of farmers at Bullock Farms in Cream Ridge, NJ, which was founded in 1860. Brett grew up on the farm and then went to college at University of Vermont, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Plant and Soil Sciences. He then spent some years as a self-professed ski bum before starting w...
Dec 20, 2017•39 min
Jack Algiere is the farm director at Stone Barns Center. Jack graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in horticulture and has been actively farming since the early 1990s. His lifetime of experience in organic, biodynamic and ecological systems brings a broad diversity of experience in greenhouses, orchards, fields and pastures. Jack oversees the diverse farming operations, multispecies pastured livestock, grains, field crops, greenhouse, fruit, flowers and compost in a four-s...
Dec 13, 2017•38 min
Daniel De Carvalho is the Global Director of Corporate Communications of Zaluvida, the makers of Mootral, a new natural feed supplement for cows. Zaluvida, a biotech company that tackles health challenges ranging from antibiotic resistance to livestock emissions, claims to instantly reduce cow methane emissions by at least 30%. The powdery supplement, which is compressed into pellets and mixed into cattle feed streams, is made of two basic ingredients, garlic and citrus extracts. Zaluvida’s team...
Dec 06, 2017•39 min
When he’s not networking with hemp researchers and growers, or briefing legislators like Senator Mitch McConnell about the multi-billion-dollar boost that federal legalization of hemp would give to the economy, hemp industry consultant Josh Hendrix of CV Sciences can usually be found conducting interviews with the media as part of his mission to educate young and old about the many benefits to be derived from one of Man’s oldest agricultural crops: hemp. Josh Hendrix is a member of the Technical...
Nov 29, 2017•41 min
Pamela Rickenbach co-founded Blue Star Equiculture in 2009 with friends in Philadelphia wanting to create a permanent home for retired carriage horses. With many years experience working alongside first nations people in sharing their messages to the world with National Geographic senior editor and author Harvey Arden, Pamela wanted to include indigenous native people's wisdom in developing a holistic and culturally sensitive approach to restoring our connection to our "working" equine friends. ...
Nov 22, 2017•40 min
After attending the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a B.A. in Political Science, John went back to his roots and spent time living in Italy where he worked at a variety of farms and homesteads. While overseas, John realized agriculture was extremely important to him and he wanted to continue the lifestyle within the United States. Upon his return John spent two years working at local farms within central New Jersey where he improved his skills and techniques for growing organically. Hav...
Nov 18, 2017•41 min
Dena Hoff, Vice President of the National Family Farm Coalition, has farmed most of her life and has raised sheep, cattle, alfalfa, sweet corn, edible dry beans, and other crops on her farm in Glendive, Montana, since 1979. She is an active member of her rural community, serving on the Water Commission and the local food cooperative, as well as Montana-based Northern Plains Resource Council. She represents NPRC to the Western Organization of Resource Councils and to the NFFC. With Doug, she disc...
Oct 18, 2017•38 min
Jackie Allenbrand started the PHARM Dog USA program in 2005. PHARM stands for: Pets Helping Agriculture in Rural Missouri. She and her husband used dogs on their own farm to work the cattle and wondered if a dog could be trained for further farm use. After meeting a farmer with a partial leg amputation and talking with him about his dog she decided to pursue the idea of training dogs for farmers dealing with an illness or injury. Since developing the program the group has placed several dogs wit...
Oct 12, 2017•39 min
Jesse Laflamme, CEO of Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs, took over the family business from his parents, Gerry and Carol. He has raised the bar even higher with his with his commitment to small-scale farming, organic foods, humane treatment of animals, and conservation. Jesse and his wife Sandra love having their children help out at the farm in Monroe, NH. In the podcast, Jesse addresses egg labeling confusion and explains the differences between free range, cage free, organic and pasture raised e...
Oct 04, 2017•38 min
Wes King has worked on sustainability and food policy issues for nearly ten years. He staffs NSAC’s Marketing, Food Systems and Rural Development Committee. Before joining NSAC, Wes spent the previous six years at NSAC member organization, Illinois Stewardship Alliance, working on food access, farmers markets and working-lands conservation policy; and leading efforts to create a more risk and scale appropriate regulatory environment for farms and local food businesses. Prior to that he worked fo...
Sep 27, 2017•36 min
Melissa Miller is the education director of the Beginning Farmer Institute at the National Farmers Union. She is responsible for the planning, development, promotion and delivery of youth and adult educational and leadership programs and events. As NFU’s Education Director Melissa is passionate about giving all producers the educational resources they need to succeed, including women and beginning producers. Prior to NFU Melissa managed Common Good City Farm, an urban farm in downtown Washington...
Sep 20, 2017•40 min
Phil and Juany Noble own and operate Sage Mountain Farm, where they are an active part of the organic food revolution that is sweeping across the country. Starting with a small garden, they ended up having some extra produce; not wanting to let anything go to waste they decided to sell it at the local farmer's market. When locals asked for more and more produce, they decided to become regulars at the market and thus Sage Mountain Farm was born. All of their fruits and vegetables are grown on the...
Sep 13, 2017•39 min
How do you make cheese? This was the question Bob and Ricki Carroll asked back in the 70’s before there was such a thing as home cheese making. Intent on becoming more self-reliant, the newlyweds welcomed two dairy goats Mary-Lou, and Dinah to their backyard farm in Ashfield Massachusetts, and began searching far and wide for supplies, ingredients and resources. Working with what little they could find, they began to experiment. Thus began the cheese making journey of a lifetime! Cheesemaking Ma...
Sep 06, 2017•39 min
An Indiana native, Anne Hazelett is currently the Assistant to the USDA Secretary for Rural Development. She has worked on agriculture and rural issues for over fifteen years. Working in both the U.S. House and Senate, Hazelett has most recently served as Republican Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry where she was an advisor on many issues impacting rural America from Farm Bill programs to broadband and child nutrition. In addition to her public service...
Aug 30, 2017•39 min
NFU President Roger Johnson was elected National Farmers Union’s 14th president during the organization’s 107th anniversary convention in 2009. A third-generation family farmer from Turtle Lake, N.D., Johnson previously served as North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner, a position he was first elected to in 1996. Johnson grew up in Farmers Union, participating in the organization’s youth programs, serving as a county president and chairman of the board of a local Farmers Union cooperative. As pres...
Aug 23, 2017•39 min
Pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, birds and other animals bring us one in every three bites of food we eat. Pollinators form the underpinnings of healthy and sustainable ecosystems that support a multitude of wildlife. For years, pollinator populations have been in decline and this decline is attributed most severely to a loss in feeding and nesting habitats. In addition, environmental degradation, the misuse of chemicals, pests and disease, and now climate change are all contributing to s...
Aug 16, 2017•39 min
Bill Tomson has been an agriculture reporter for 22 years. He graduated from Central Michigan University and started his career as a correspondent for Knight Ridder in Sao Paulo, Brazil, reporting on soybeans, corn and wheat production. Bill also covered the automobile and telecommunications sectors there. Since then, Bill has covered ag for Dow Jones, Politico and now Agri-Pulse in Washington DC. Bill currently focuses on trade issues for Agri-Pulse, where he recently broke the story on the det...
Aug 09, 2017•43 min
Jonathan White, the son of a math professor and an editor, fell in love with cheese when, as a twenty-one year old engineer, he had been shipped off to London to manage a project, where his local grocery had no less than forty types of cheese! (This was in 1977, when his US supermarket stocked three colors of the same cheese!) Twelve years later, after falling in love and marrying a young modern dancer named Nina, he moved with his wife and infant to the woodlands north of New York City. Nina ha...
Aug 06, 2017•40 min
Tinicum CSA is a partnership between Bucks County native John Crooke and Minnesota native Stefan Streit, who met each other in 2012, while they were both working as CSA apprentices at Sisters Hill Farm in Stanfordville, NY. John grew up sharing the chores with his brothers on his parents’ dairy farm. His interest in vegetable farming began at Cornell University, where he co-managed the student farm at Dilmun Hill. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Paraguay, where he worked for three ye...
Jul 26, 2017•49 min
Rob Larew, VP of Public Policy and Communications at the National Farmers Union, talks about NFU’s position on biofuels and Renewable Fuel Standards, as well as the farm economy, rural development, and health care. The National Farmers Union has been working since 1902 to protect and enhance the economic well-being and quality of life for family farmers, ranchers and rural communities through advocating grassroots-driven policy positions adopted by its membership. The U.S. Environmental Protecti...
Jul 23, 2017•52 min
JOHN WESLEY BOYD, JR. is the founder and President of the National Black Farmers Association, which he started in 1995. He is a fourth-generation black farmer from Baskerville, Virginia near the town of South Hill, Virginia. He has been chronicled by national media organizations including a Person of the Week profile on ABC World News Tonight, The Washington Post, and Roll Call newspaper which is influential on Capitol Hill. He owns and operates a 300-acre farm where he grows soybean, corn and w...
Jul 16, 2017•53 min
Scott Henry is the Business Development Manager for LongView Farms and is responsible for business growth, process management, and the implementation of precision technology. He is a 27 year old, 4th generation farmer, currently working alongside his parents and the rest of the crew at LongView Farms. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business, International Agriculture, and Finance from Iowa State University. Prior to joining the LongView Farms team, Scott worked for Summit ...
Jul 09, 2017•52 min
BOB GARVER is the founder of Wicked Joe Organic Coffees and is a globally recognized coffee expert and barista Judge. It was while in the service, based in Turkey, that he learned the power of flavorful coffee as the bridge to conversations. He brought his new-found admiration for the powerful bean back to America. On leaving the service he started a coffee shop in Santa Cruz, California. Moving his family to Maine, with his coffee – Wicked Joe was born. WICKED JOE COFFEE is Located in Topsham, ...
Jul 02, 2017•52 min
JIM GOODMAN and his wife Rebecca operate Northwood Farm, a certified organic dairy farm that provides fresh milk to a local cheese producer. They also market beef directly from the farm and at the Dane County Farmers' Market in Madison, WI. Their cows are raised according to organic standards and are predomiantly grass-fed. Jim is also a frequent contributor to National Family Farm Coalition. On april 30th, he wrote: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) must be replaced with a transpa...
Jun 25, 2017•52 min
GAY GORDON-BYREN is Executive Director of The Repair Association at repair.org. She was born into a computer geek household and grew up around computer parts and designs. She wanted nothing to do with computers as a kid, but wanted to be a figure skater like Peggy Fleming or an opera singer, but didn’t have the right stuff. REPAIR.ORG believes that every time a farm equipment manufacturer inserts a computerized part into their product – they seem to take that as an opportunity to monopolize repa...
Jun 18, 2017•52 min
