Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast

Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast

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

Landscape restoration: letting nature do the work

Landscape restoration: letting nature do the work

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.

Jan 21, • 48:37

Ducks, cows, and resilience: Benefiting farmlands by protecting waterfowl habitat

Ducks, cows, and resilience: Benefiting farmlands by protecting waterfowl habitat

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'

Jan 7, • 52:34

Animal welfare is good for everyone—including farmers

Animal welfare is good for everyone—including farmers

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

Dec 17, 2024 • 51:55

1000 Farms Initiative: A new paradigm of science in service of farmers

1000 Farms Initiative: A new paradigm of science in service of farmers

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 Fa

Dec 3, 2024 • 48:56

Virtual fencing—new technology that benefits both ranching and land conservation

Virtual fencing—new technology that benefits both ranching and land conservation

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

Nov 12, 2024 • 46:22

Regenerating a desert wetland oasis

Regenerating a desert wetland oasis

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 spe

Oct 29, 2024 • 44:48

The awe-inspiring beauty hidden in our food

The awe-inspiring beauty hidden in our food

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.

Oct 15, 2024 • 46:16

Painterland Sisters Yogurt: Regeneration at every step from farmer to consumer

Painterland Sisters Yogurt: Regeneration at every step from farmer to consumer

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 t

Sep 30, 2024 • 48:12

Agave, mesquite, and a carbon drawdown game-changer

Agave, mesquite, and a carbon drawdown game-changer

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 co

Sep 17, 2024 • 47:32

Commerce, the destruction of nature, and the uphill path to sustainability

Commerce, the destruction of nature, and the uphill path to sustainability

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.

Sep 3, 2024 • 1:01:30

Colorado peaches: delicious for the eaters, fair for the workers

Colorado peaches: delicious for the eaters, fair for the workers

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

Aug 20, 2024 • 41:48

Black farmers regenerating land in the face of historical and current racism

Black farmers regenerating land in the face of historical and current racism

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

Aug 6, 2024 • 53:44

Empowering women in agriculture

Empowering women in 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.

Jul 23, 2024 • 52:00

The wild adventures of a New Mexico hemp farmer

The wild adventures of a New Mexico hemp farmer

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.

Jul 8, 2024 • 55:53

Sarah Wentzel-Fisher on working lands, community, science, and more

Sarah Wentzel-Fisher on working lands, community, science, and more

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.

Jun 26, 2024 • 51:58

Pueblo values + engineering expertise = resilient landscapes

Pueblo values + engineering expertise = resilient landscapes

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, a

Jun 12, 2024 • 1:03:08

Documentary digs deep into grazing science — and society

Documentary digs deep into grazing science — and society

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.

May 28, 2024 • 46:50

Saving seeds, saving ecosystems

Saving seeds, saving ecosystems

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

May 5, 2024 • 40:12

Investing in regenerative ag

Investing in regenerative ag

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.

Apr 29, 2024 • 45:06

From suburban Chicago to rural Montana: the journey of a bison rancher

From suburban Chicago to rural Montana: the journey of a bison rancher

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.

Apr 16, 2024 • 47:33

A matter of conscience

A matter of conscience

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

Apr 2, 2024 • 1:00:41

The robber barons of today's food corporations

The robber barons of today's food corporations

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. F

Mar 19, 2024 • 1:07:07

Farm Aid: Food, festivity, and fighting for farmers

Farm Aid: Food, festivity, and fighting for farmers

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

Mar 5, 2024 • 43:58

Healthy fish snacks––what cod be better?

Healthy fish snacks––what cod be better?

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

Feb 20, 2024 • 48:30

The Carbon Credit Conundrum

The Carbon Credit Conundrum

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

Feb 6, 2024 • 36:43

At The Table: Chefs advocating for a better food system

At The Table: Chefs advocating for a better food system

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.

Jan 22, 2024 • 43:11

The six-legged livestock: Bees

The six-legged livestock: Bees

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

Jan 9, 2024 • 31:58

Bonus episode: Ask Me Anything!

Bonus episode: Ask Me Anything!

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.

Dec 18, 2023 • 55:30

Photographing grasslands: beauty, community, life

Photographing grasslands: beauty, community, life

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.

Dec 12, 2023 • 43:56

Land, sheep, and the inefficiency of being too efficient

Land, sheep, and the inefficiency of being too efficient

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.

Nov 29, 2023 • 1:01:39

Transforming 40 million acres of lawns into thriving ecosystems

Transforming 40 million acres of lawns into thriving ecosystems

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.

Nov 13, 2023 • 48:18

Sheep and goats for healthy land, thriving businesses, and fire reduction

Sheep and goats for healthy land, thriving businesses, and fire reduction

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.

Oct 30, 2023 • 46:37

Words of wisdom from a holistic veterinarian and regenerative dairy farmer

Words of wisdom from a holistic veterinarian and regenerative dairy farmer

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.

Oct 17, 2023 • 51:11

Funneling federal ag money to the people who most need it

Funneling federal ag money to the people who most need it

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.

Oct 3, 2023 • 49:00

How to have family business meetings that are productive––and short

How to have family business meetings that are productive––and short

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.

Sep 19, 2023 • 49:31

Weathering global change on an Oregon sheep ranch

Weathering global change on an Oregon sheep ranch

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 Wes

Sep 5, 2023 • 1:09:25

From mountaintops to farm fields: Landscape scale restoration

From mountaintops to farm fields: Landscape scale restoration

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 stre

Aug 21, 2023 • 1:08:56

A food forest on an eighth of an acre

A food forest on an eighth of an acre

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, beekee

Aug 7, 2023 • 58:44

From corporation to regeneration––a family's journey

From corporation to regeneration––a family's journey

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

Jul 24, 2023 • 51:20

Healing the trauma of Black land loss through regenerative rice production

Healing the trauma of Black land loss through regenerative rice production

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 int

Jul 11, 2023 • 42:52

Cultivating oysters for ocean health, human health, and economic development

Cultivating oysters for ocean health, human health, and economic development

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

Jun 28, 2023 • 53:27

From urban journalist to country farmer

From urban journalist to country farmer

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.

Jun 6, 2023 • 57:50

Establishing an earth-friendly meat business

Establishing an earth-friendly meat business

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.

May 22, 2023 • 54:04

Taking it to the street––healthy food entrepreneurship

Taking it to the street––healthy food entrepreneurship

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.

May 7, 2023 • 39:50

Herding animals for land––and human––health

Herding animals for land––and human––health

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.

Apr 24, 2023 • 52:24

Hydroponics, aquaponics, and sovereignty

Hydroponics, aquaponics, and sovereignty

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.

Apr 11, 2023 • 53:41

Systems thinking: Coordinating after, during, and before disasters

Systems thinking: Coordinating after, during, and before disasters

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?

Mar 28, 2023 • 1:01:15

Technology-assisted regeneration

Technology-assisted regeneration

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

Mar 14, 2023 • 58:28

Wolves in the West: Finding common ground

Wolves in the West: Finding common ground

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

Feb 28, 2023 • 45:11

De-commodifying land: Challenging your inner capitalist

De-commodifying land: Challenging your inner capitalist

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 diff

Feb 13, 2023 • 54:41

Healing Grounds: The enduring cultures of regenerative agriculture

Healing Grounds: The enduring cultures of regenerative agriculture

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 poi

Jan 30, 2023 • 1:05:53

Innovative approaches to regeneration on a California ranch

Innovative approaches to regeneration on a California ranch

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.

Jan 17, 2023 • 50:52

Giant bison, mammoths, and eagles

Giant bison, mammoths, and eagles

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

Dec 15, 2022 • 1:50:54

Sustainable development, climate mitigation, and biochar

Sustainable development, climate mitigation, and biochar

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 th

Nov 30, 2022 • 53:25

Bringing dead land back to life

Bringing dead land back to life

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 communitie

Nov 15, 2022 • 33:32

Desert wisdom: sustaining Southwest agriculture using old ways––and new

Desert wisdom: sustaining Southwest agriculture using old ways––and new

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

Nov 1, 2022 • 50:53

A vibrant pecan oasis in the desert

A vibrant pecan oasis in the desert

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 herbici

Oct 18, 2022 • 47:01

The food-housing nexus

The food-housing nexus

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?

Oct 1, 2022 • 51:10

Leveling the growing field

Leveling the growing field

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 g

Sep 20, 2022 • 38:38

Big Team Farms––a new economic model?

Big Team Farms––a new economic model?

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.

Sep 6, 2022 • 1:03:29

The USDA goes after a small sheep farm

The USDA goes after a small sheep farm

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

Aug 23, 2022 • 35:03

Making your tax dollars work after fires and floods

Making your tax dollars work after fires and floods

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 e

Aug 7, 2022 • 37:31

Place, Power, And Purpose

Place, Power, And Purpose

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 indigenou

Jul 26, 2022 • 53:28

What's good for the farm is good for the planet

What's good for the farm is good for the planet

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

Jul 12, 2022 • 41:29

What is Your Foodprint?

What is Your Foodprint?

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 Urvash

Jun 28, 2022 • 47:22

Kiss the Ground: A project born of devotion to the earth

Kiss the Ground: A project born of devotion to the earth

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

Jun 7, 2022 • 54:26

Food, forests, and farms

Food, forests, and farms

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 Institut

May 24, 2022 • 52:18

Western Wildfires

Western Wildfires

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 w

May 10, 2022 • 48:59

The path to positive food policy

The path to positive food policy

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.

Apr 25, 2022 • 48:17

Making the regenerative transition

Making the regenerative transition

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 Reg

Apr 12, 2022 • 1:01:38

Restoring landscapes...with goats

Restoring landscapes...with goats

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 t

Mar 29, 2022 • 36:19

Rebuilding resilience on native land

Rebuilding resilience on native land

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

Mar 15, 2022 • 26:48

The Sequestration Solution: Soil

The Sequestration Solution: Soil

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 worldwi

Feb 22, 2022 • 59:14

Restore the water cycle, revive the planet

Restore the water cycle, revive the planet

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 of Austrian 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.

Feb 8, 2022 • 42:12

This earth to which we belong

This earth to which we belong

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 t

Jan 25, 2022 • 36:59

Science meets compost

Science meets compost

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, a

Jan 11, 2022 • 45:42

Cultivating the People-Planet-Profit model on an urban farm

Cultivating the People-Planet-Profit model on an urban farm

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.

Dec 15, 2021 • 41:53

Planetary regeneration on a community scale

Planetary regeneration on a community scale

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 rur

Nov 30, 2021 • 57:01

Growing pecans in the desert?

Growing pecans in the desert?

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

Nov 16, 2021 • 49:34

Got goat?

Got goat?

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

Nov 2, 2021 • 47:48

Tribal food renaissance

Tribal food renaissance

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.

Oct 19, 2021 • 29:45

From despair to care

From despair to care

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.

Oct 4, 2021 • 42:14

Stepping back from the abyss

Stepping back from the abyss

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

Sep 21, 2021 • 57:10

Restoring the global water cycle

Restoring the global water cycle

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.

Sep 7, 2021 • 50:54

How—and why—to be good to your microbes

How—and why—to be good to your microbes

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 aut

Aug 24, 2021 • 40:17

Lush and abundant biodiversity—in a desert city

Lush and abundant biodiversity—in a desert city

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

Aug 10, 2021 • 54:32

The deep history of apples

The deep history of apples

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 particula

Jul 28, 2021 • 44:04

Pests, pathogens, and porcupines

Pests, pathogens, and porcupines

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.

Jul 13, 2021 • 43:50

Rockweed: underwater forest or industrial commodity?

Rockweed: underwater forest or industrial commodity?

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?

Jun 30, 2021 • 36:31

Designing systems that improve as they age

Designing systems that improve as they age

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 gra

Jun 16, 2021 • 55:55

Into the Pasture: Grassfed Goes Mainstream

Into the Pasture: Grassfed Goes Mainstream

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.

Jun 1, 2021 • 38:09

Busting myths about beef

Busting myths about beef

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 whic

May 18, 2021 • 1:00:07

Transforming the American Prairie, one strip at a time

Transforming the American Prairie, one strip at a time

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 a

May 5, 2021 • 46:57

Welcome to Cowgirl Camp!

Welcome to Cowgirl Camp!

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.

Apr 20, 2021 • 45:01

Lipan Apache: Bringing back the buffalo in Texas

Lipan Apache: Bringing back the buffalo in Texas

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.

Apr 6, 2021 • 43:13

Regenerative production of...seaweed

Regenerative production of...seaweed

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.

Mar 16, 2021 • 38:52

Biosphere 2: farming while sealed off from the world

Biosphere 2: farming while sealed off from the world

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.

Mar 2, 2021 • 51:00

Starting a ranch--from the ground up

Starting a ranch--from the ground up

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.

Feb 16, 2021 • 38:59

Acclaimed chef Deborah Madison on her new food memoir

Acclaimed chef Deborah Madison on her new food memoir

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.

Feb 2, 2021 • 40:28

It's the policy, stupid

It's the policy, stupid

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—an

Jan 19, 2021 • 44:52

From journalist to butcher

From journalist to butcher

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 au

Jan 5, 2021 • 39:04

Deep resilience: healing through herbal medicine, farming, and ancestral memory

Deep resilience: healing through herbal medicine, farming, and ancestral memory

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.

Dec 15, 2020 • 40:34

Renewing Native American Food Traditions

Renewing Native American Food Traditions

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

Dec 1, 2020 • 27:39

Funding the science of regenerative ag

Funding the science of regenerative ag

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.

Nov 17, 2020 • 45:13

Reclaiming the Commons

Reclaiming the Commons

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.

Nov 3, 2020 • 1:03:17

From art to agriculture: Emerald Gardens

From art to agriculture: Emerald Gardens

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.

Oct 20, 2020 • 50:41

First nations food and agriculture

First nations food and agriculture

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.

Oct 6, 2020 • 42:56

Making ag finance work for farmers, not just for bankers

Making ag finance work for farmers, not just for bankers

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.

Sep 22, 2020 • 1:07:45

The Reindeer Chronicles: Stories of restoration from around the planet

The Reindeer Chronicles: Stories of restoration from around the planet

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 p

Sep 8, 2020 • 1:00:20

For the birds: Audubon's conservation ranching work

For the birds: Audubon's conservation ranching work

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

Aug 25, 2020 • 56:20

The risks and rewards facing young farmers

The risks and rewards facing young farmers

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.

Aug 11, 2020 • 30:43

Bringing Buffalo back home

Bringing Buffalo back home

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.

Jul 28, 2020 • 44:43

The Rodale Institute

The Rodale Institute

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 i

Jul 14, 2020 • 52:40

Hopi farming: a 2000-year-long agriculture experiment

Hopi farming: a 2000-year-long agriculture experiment

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.

Jun 23, 2020 • 36:31

American Zion: Religion and rebellion on Western public lands

American Zion: Religion and rebellion on Western public lands

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.

Jun 9, 2020 • 45:07

Why the biggest reservoirs in the west are running low--and what to do about it

Why the biggest reservoirs in the west are running low--and what to do about it

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.

May 27, 2020 • 1:01:40

Food, farmers, and the virus

Food, farmers, and the virus

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.

May 12, 2020 • 39:54

Restoring public lands through grazing

Restoring public lands through grazing

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.

Apr 28, 2020 • 56:39

Health, profit, and beauty on the farm in Minnesota

Health, profit, and beauty on the farm in Minnesota

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.

Apr 14, 2020 • 55:22

A small New Mexico garlic farmer takes on a Chinese ag giant

A small New Mexico garlic farmer takes on a Chinese ag giant

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.

Mar 31, 2020 • 37:40

A holistic vision for a healthy food system and climate: Grassroots Rising

A holistic vision for a healthy food system and climate: Grassroots Rising

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.

Mar 17, 2020 • 55:54

Growing food in Indian Country

Growing food in Indian Country

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.

Mar 3, 2020 • 1:00:05

Organic and sustainable agriculture in the Southern US

Organic and sustainable agriculture in the Southern US

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 wel

Feb 18, 2020 • 56:06

Farming and fire in Australia today

Farming and fire in Australia today

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.

Feb 4, 2020 • 52:38

Regenerative vs. degenerative agriculture

Regenerative vs. degenerative agriculture

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.

Jan 21, 2020 • 51:35

Radio Cafe, Quivira Coalition

Radio Cafe, Quivira Coalition

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.

Jan 6, 2020 • 45:18

Know the law...save the farm

Know the law...save the farm

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.

Dec 22, 2019 • 34:58

Hemp: Growing into the future

Hemp: Growing into the future

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?

Dec 10, 2019 • 54:15

From apprentice to foreman

From apprentice to foreman

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.

Nov 26, 2019 • 38:53

where does it fit into a healthy eating and a healthy planet?

where does it fit into a healthy eating and a healthy planet?

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.

Nov 12, 2019 • 40:50

How to deal with mental and physical challenges--on the farm and beyond

How to deal with mental and physical challenges--on the farm and beyond

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.

Oct 29, 2019 • 1:01:13

For the love of soil

For the love of soil

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.

Oct 15, 2019 • 50:51

Making the business case for regenerative agriculture

Making the business case for regenerative agriculture

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.

Sep 24, 2019 • 39:20

How to regenerate land with livestock

How to regenerate land with livestock

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!

Sep 10, 2019 • 51:27

Holistic management: it’s not just for land

Holistic management: it’s not just for land

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.

Aug 27, 2019 • 38:02

Conservation Cattle on the California Coast

Conservation Cattle on the California Coast

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.

Aug 13, 2019 • 45:10

Kate Greenberg, Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture

Kate Greenberg, Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture

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.

Jul 30, 2019 • 39:50

The Science of Holistic Grazing

The Science of Holistic Grazing

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.

Jul 16, 2019 • 46:17

Innovative approaches to water in the West

Innovative approaches to water in the West

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.

Jun 29, 2019 • 47:16

A organic farmer in Kenya

A organic farmer in Kenya

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

Jun 18, 2019 • 36:37

Envisioning a post-carbon food system

Envisioning a post-carbon food system

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.

Jun 4, 2019 • 46:27

Incentivizing healthy soils through sensible policy

Incentivizing healthy soils through sensible policy

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.

May 21, 2019 • 51:29

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