Many dream of moving to the country and some take the steps to make that dream a reality. Paula Whyman had a "crazy" idea to cultivate a small native meadow where wildlife could thrive. Then she set foot on 200 acres of old farmland atop a Virginia mountain and her dream became a reality. In BAD NATURALIST: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop, Paula Whyman explains how she cares for her mountain-sized ecological restoration challenge and discovered that it’s impossibl...
Jan 17, 2025•48 min
The biggest issue threatening the food system now is not climate change. It is the emerging policies to deport undocumented workers that make the wheels turn from fields to processing plants and retail. Gary Nabham is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational Southwest. He also is a keynote speaker at Eco Farm where he brings a different mess...
Jan 10, 2025•34 min
Regenerative is a 'thing'. More than just a farm to table buzz word there is real rebuilding and restoration taking place that ultimately improves the soil and improves nutrition. As the word gets out and consumer demand increases for rest0red soil and more nutritious foods, how can the consumer know whether they're getting the "real thing"? Regenified certification is stepping up to this job says Chief Marketing Officer Kristine Roots. Diestel Famiily Ranch turkeys are on that track explains He...
Jan 03, 2025•45 min
The only thing we should ask is: what is the right thing to do? That is what the Earth requires of us according to author/philosopher Wendell Berry. "We have the world to live in and the use of it to live from on the condition that we take care of it. And to take good care of it we have to know it and we have to know how to take care of it." We have to love it. Farm To Table Talk brings the wisdom of Wendell Berry back to us at the dawn of another New Year that has more than enough challenges fo...
Dec 26, 2024•42 min
What happens when women take the lead in tackling climate change through the food we grow and eat? Stephanie Anderson grew up on a ranch in western South Dakota and is the author of From the Ground Up. With a background in creative nonfiction, a deep understanding of regenerative agriculture, and years of exploring the intersections of equity and sustainability, Stephanie brings a fresh and thought-provoking perspective to our table. Movements start broad and grow in participation and focus crea...
Dec 20, 2024•50 min
Sunshine makes food farming possible in more ways than one. Emerging farmers can access land and landowners can add solar income through, Agrivoltaics an approach that combines solar energy production with agricultural practices — allowing for renewable energy generation alongside farming activities like crop production and livestock grazing. This dual-use approach brings significant benefits to the land, farmers, and the local community. Peter Schmitt is the Director of Project Development with...
Dec 12, 2024•42 min
Going it alone is a noble idea but for many solo ventures cooperation with others pays off. Cooperatives are a unique legal business form that facilitates people coming together to tackle challenges that are overwhelming or impossible for the individual. Kim Coontz is the Executive Director of the California Center for Cooperative Development. CCCD demonstrates the power of the self-help elements of cooperatives to help new farmers gain viability through cooperative purchasing, sales and product...
Dec 06, 2024•38 min
Change is coming to Agriculture, in policies and people. It's a time to be thankful for the USDA team who came to Washington four years ago to give their best to help farmers and time to welcome a new team coming to the Capitol ready to give their own best. Jeff Van Pevanage is the President and CEO of Columbia Grain. Marketing to and from foreign markets he remembers the effect of the trade war with China and sees implications of the announced unprecedented tariffs with our neighbors in Canada ...
Nov 28, 2024•29 min
Mitigating Climate Change will require implementing a data driven approach on every level of global food production. Agriculture-oriented satellite constellations are beginning to provide a critical perspective on the size and condition of nearly everything we grow to eat, nearly every where in the world. With Ukraine still in the news we are bringing back a previous conversation with Vera Petryk who spoke to us from her home in Kyev with optimism for Ukraine and an optimistic view of the future...
Nov 21, 2024•29 min
Agriculture will reverse the dangerous levels of greenhouse gases in the environment, if Ag follows a report prepared by leading scientists, reviewed by CAST (Center for Ag Science and Technology) and published by the US Farmers and Ranchers In Action. Dr.Marty Matlock, University of Arkansas and leading author of the repot explains how combining reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with increased carbon sequestration will achieve GHG-negative agriculture in five areas offering the most signif...
Nov 14, 2024•42 min
To protect public health, the FDA’s Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program tests FDA-regulated foods shipped in interstate commerce to determine whether they comply with pesticide tolerances, or maximum residue levels, set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If the FDA finds that the amount of pesticide residue on a food is over the tolerance, or when a pesticide is found and there is no tolerance established, the FDA can take action. Sara McGrath, PhD, is a chemist at the U.S. Food and ...
Nov 08, 2024•23 min
Climate change has become a partisan issue but really has not gotten as much attention as it needs. Rob Jackson is the Chair of the Global Carbon Project, a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy, and a professor of earth science at Stanford University. His book "The Clear Blue Sky" shows a bipartsan path hat can make needed change in decades rather than centuries. www.tintotheclearbluesky.com
Oct 30, 2024•42 min
What role will more tariffs, immigration restrictions and food policies have on our food system. Farmer and former Missouri Farm Bureau President, Blake Hurst joins Farm to Table Talk to explore the policies that will effect our food and farming globally and locally..
Oct 24, 2024•49 min
Craft Beef is successful so how about Craft Beef? Jeff and Kara Smith are the co-founders of Colorado Craft Beef, a company rooted in a multi-generational ranching legacy. Over the years, they’ve built a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer beef company that not only provides high-quality beef products but also connects people with agriculture, dispels common myths, and promotes pride in how we feed our families. Jeff Smith challenges old industry standards to generate new mindsets and valu...
Oct 18, 2024•46 min
Happiness can be found on the way from farm to table where we break bread together. Ezekiwee Anderson discovered happiness baking very special bread that led to Rize Up Sourdough. Rize Up's story began as a home-based quarantine sourdough project that quickly turned into a micro bakery. Within a year, Rize Up out grew Azikiwee’s backyard ovens. Overcome with a need to make a difference and hopefully inspire young Black bakers to think outside the traditional he shows how to be the change we seek...
Oct 10, 2024•39 min
The Farm Bill is largely a Food Bill with over 80% of the programs in the area of public nutrition. The previous $867 billion Farm Bill was passed in 2018 but on September 30, 2024 it expired. The nation's farmers and consumers need a bipartisan solution says Adam Warthesoen, Organic Valley's Vice President of Government Affairs. To bring the farm story to the public and to celebrate National Farmers Day October 11, Organic Valley is bringing a firsthand farm experience to viewers live from smal...
Oct 04, 2024•32 min
An indigenous way of being may be just what the world needs - starting with an indigenous view of food. Decolonizing our diets will lead to an expansive palate that creates a relationship with traditional, seasonal, everyday foods. Karuk tribe member Sara Calvosa Olson is a food writer and editor living in the Bay Area with her husband and two sons. Her work dwells at the intersection of storytelling, Indigenous food systems, security, sovereignty, reconnection, and recipe development. ChimiNu'a...
Sep 26, 2024•50 min
Roundup is a herbicide that has been controversial and the subject of lawsuits against Monsanto and now Bayer. Are we "headed to the last roundup" as go the lyrics to an ancient cowboy tune by Gene Autry? Missouri farmer Blake Hurst is the author of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about this prodcut that has saved armers from excessive tillage or back breaking hand hoeing of the past. He joins Farm To Table Talk while driving in his John Deere Combine to a field ready to harvest.
Sep 19, 2024•34 min
Cats and dogs should watch out for hungry immigrants according to recent political propaganda. Truth is that immigration is a necessity in the country and not a reason to keep our pets locked indoors. Farm To Table Talk returns with this podcast from earlier this year to remind us that immigration is essential for a functioning food system According to Steve Hubbard of the American Immigration Council, the H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program allows U.S. employers that face a shortage of do...
Sep 15, 2024•47 min
Tricia Kovacs, Associate Deputy Administrator, AMS Help is needed and is at hand to build resilient local & regional food systems through the US Department of Agriculture. Tricia Kovacs is the Deputy Administrator of Transportation and Marketing programs rolling out to communities in every state. Learn about USDA local food programs discussed in the podcast: Regional Food Business Centers Program (Agricultural Marketing Service) Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (Agricultural Mar...
Sep 12, 2024•36 min
The proclaimed Farm To Fork Capital of America is Sacramento, California where the signature event of the Farm to Fork Festival is the Tower Bridge Dinner. Over 1,000 are on the Bridge to prepare, serve and enjoy a delicious locally grown and sourced dinner by top chefs and Northern California’s top farmers. The event is sponsored by Visit Sacramento and Farm To Table Talk's Rodger Wasson is on the Bridge at the dinner with Visit Sacramento's CEO, Mike Testa and two of the featured Chefs: Brock ...
Sep 09, 2024
A future filled with with vibrant rural and urban small farms is good for the farmers, their customers and their community. Small farms help build human capacity, revitalize communities, supply regional food systems, and foster ecological resilience in a changing world. Since 2001, the Cornell Small Farms Program has fostered programs that support and encourage the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms. Cornell Small Farm Program's Eric Frenay is able to walk the talk as a small farmer...
Sep 05, 2024•53 min
In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania exclusive heritage chickens are being grown on family farms to the highest animal welfare standards- freely roaming pastures at a slower pace. Mike Charles is a 6th generation farmer and the founder and CEO of LaBelle Patrimoine. This Whole Foods Market All-Star Supplier of the Year and the Compassion in World Farming’s Good Chicken Award winner just earned the USDA’s regeneratively raised status and is certified to a Global Animal Partnership’s Step 4 (no other...
Aug 29, 2024•36 min
Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is a labeling law that requires retailers, such as full-line grocery stores, supermarkets and club warehouse stores, to notify their customers of the source of certain foods; including muscle cut and ground meats: lamb, goat, and chicken; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts; and ginseng. Dr. Alexandria Fischer is with the Research and Rulemaking Branch of the USDA's Agriculutural Ma...
Aug 22, 2024•30 min
Even when summer is over, the season peak flavor and nutrition in tomatoes is available all year long in cans or jars. Lycopene, the antioxidant compound that makes tomatoes red, is even more available in tomatoes that have been turned in to tomato products and has been shown to be protective for diseases from cardiovasular to cancers. What if it is more than just the lycopene in the tomatoes that make a difference. That is the question being pursued at the The Ohio State University by Dr. Jessi...
Aug 16, 2024•48 min
Just when our public discourse seems hopelessly divided, we can find hope in the discovery of common ground. Farm To Table brings back this promising message that was first published last winter but feels even more timely today than then. Josh and Rebecca Tickell are film-makers who bring us the story of regeneration that will repair the degeneration humans have caused the earth. That message is the documentary film, Common Ground, the highly anticipated sequel to Kiss the Ground which touched o...
Aug 08, 2024•53 min
In food purchase priorities, somethings change a lot and some barely change at all. When it comes to food purchases the top considerations are still taste, price, health and convenience. What's new and rising on the list is "Environmental Sustainability", now an important consideration for about 30% of the population. These findings are in the Annual Food & Health Survey of IFIC the Internaional Food Information Council. Kris Solid, RD is the Research Senior Director for IFIC. To fill gaps i...
Aug 01, 2024•50 min
Immigration is essential for a functioning food system that otherwise suffers from growing labor shortages on farms, packing houses, processors and kitchens. The H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program allows U.S. employers that face a shortage of domestic workers to hire foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs. An American Immigration Council analysis, “The Expanding Role of H-2A Workers in U. S. Agriculture” reveals significant demand across the country with labor being...
Jul 26, 2024•49 min
What we eat today and tomorrow is linkng through restaurants and institutions under the direction of Chefs who are learning the importance of knowing the farm source and sharing that knowledge with customers. With over 6,000 students, Chef Kirk Bachmann is President Provost of Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, the largest culinary institution in the U.S.. (https://www.escoffier.edu) (https://www.escoffier.edu)
Jul 19, 2024•51 min
Progress in regenerative produce production is not just in our own back yards, but can come from other countries, such as Guatemala. Responding to extreme weather and desires for delicious, affordable foods that are grown regeneratively are having an impact all over the world. Answers are found not only in local farmers markets, but also in supermarkets and suppliers who comb the globe to find the right sources that are faming, packing and shipping the right way. Christopher Safieh is the Head o...
Jul 12, 2024•37 min
