Farm To Table Talk

COVID-19 has exacerbated food insecurity and laid bare systemic inequalities that contribute to hunger. One in six Americans—54 million—are food insecure, with the largest increases seen in communities of color. For a country that wastes 30-40 percent of its food supply, how can we understand this rate of food insecurity? Katie Martin is Executive Director of the Foodshare Institute for Hunger Research & Solutions and author of Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger. On Farm To Table Talk Katie distills over 25 years of expertise developing creative solutions to hunger for tackling food insecurity.  Pervasive food insecurity is not due to a lack of food: it is a matter of access and power.  Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger  shares a new vision of food banks and pantries as empowering community hubs where clients receive more than food, including job training and connection to community resources.    

It might be appealing to imagine all food going straight from \'Old McDonald\'s Farm\" to our tables, but it\'s not realistic.  Because of seasons, climates, soils, water (quality and availabilty) research and grower education, most harvested crops need to be cleaned, cooked, canned, frozen or dried to move on up the food chain to tables around the world. In California alone, the companies that do these essential tasks employ over 750,000 workers with  several million family members and thousands of dependent local businesses--directly adding $25.2 billion to the economy.  This link in the chain is represented by the California Food Producers.  As CEO and President of the association, Rob Neenan with staff and committees is engaged in promoting and defending policy and public opinion that effects processing food distribution and sales.  Those policies today extend from new issues like the pandemic to long term issues related to water--where new groundwater regulations may result in millions of acres being fal

A lot of people want to farm and some farmers want to change the way they farm.  Emily Newman is helping those folks in her role as Program Manager for Rodale Institute\'s Organic Crop Consulting Service. They provide  one-on-one mentorship and assistance to farmers looking to transition to organic. Consultants meet farmers where they are—each plan is individualized for best outcome for that particular farmer, no agenda or pressure.In under two years of operation, they already have over 150 farmer clients and over 50,000 acres in transition.A lot of people want to farm and some farmers want to change the way they farm.  Emily Newman is helping those folks in her role as Program Manager for Rodale Institute\'s Organic Crop Consulting Service. They provide  one-on-one mentorship and assistance to farmers looking to transition to organic. Consultants meet farmers where they are—each plan is individualized for best outcome for that particular farmer, no agenda or pressure.In under two years of operation, they alr

  Sisters JoBeth Evans and Maggie Davidson have been farming since they were old enough to feed the cows but just recently  (officially) went in business with their parents to form Williams Angus Beef. The girls grew up, graduated from college, got jobs, married farmers, had two kids each and are now reconnecting with their parents. They are practicing a basic premise of  sustainability:  keeping farming a live for generations to come. JoBeth and Maggie explain why this is important, how they are doing it and how other farmers can make this possible for their children and grandchildren. www.WilliamsAngusBeef.com

Food fraud and political tensions have heavily impacted Australian farmers exporting products to international markets. Traceability and provenance are essential to fighting food fraud and opening new export markets for  farmers, producers, processors and consumers who deserve to know they’re getting exactly what they purchased. Fourth generation Black Angus beef farmer, Rob Mackenzie, has been getting his hands dirty, working to strengthen Australia’s supply-chain visibility by implementing Aglive’s  paddock-to-plate platform.  Paul Ryan the Managing Director of AgLive and Rob Mackenzie join Farm To Table Talk to explain how new technology fights food fraud with stories in smart labels that traces provenance and production practices from the table back to the farm. www.australianangusbeef.com.au  www.aglive.com

  Consumers, Restaurants, Supermarkets and Farmers are finding common ground on animal production and marketing animal products. Here it can be argued that \"the egg came first.\" Josh Balk leads the Humane Society of the United States’ work in shifting the egg industry from predominantly cage production to cage-free housing instead. He’s successfully worked with virtually every major food company—including McDonald’s, IHOP, Denny’s, Kroger, Nestle, etc.—to enact a policy to switch to exclusively using cage-free eggs. He’s also waged successful ballot measures and legislative campaigns passing numerous state laws to ban the confinement of laying hens in cages and ensuring that all eggs sold in the state would be cage-free. When this work began, less than 5% of laying hens were cage-free. Now it’s up to ~30% cage-free representing nearly 90 million hens. Lessons being learned about this shift have implications for the future, up and down the food chain. @joshbalk www.humanesociety.org

  Scientific advances are credited (or blamed) for food system progress (or problems) depending on food philosophies and perspectives.  Yet new knowledge  that comes from new scientific findings can lead to more sustainable systems that reduce waste, limit production of green house gases and feed more hungry people world wide.  Some of the necessary research for these advances will come from government agencies and most of it will come from companies who seek to profit, and to do the right thing. The Chief Business Officer with Biotalis, Diego Angelo is adamant that nature provides the key to solving the food waste (30%) problem.  www.biotalys.com    

  From farms to citizens of the world of the world inflammation causes disease and makes health impossible. Global transformation will need recognition that farming is medicine for the health of all life and of earth itself.  That\'s a theme for a KeyNote presentation at EcoFarm by Dr. Rupa Marya: physician, writer, musician, mother, farmer\'s wife and Associate Professor of Medicine at UC San Francisco. Her forthcoming book, authored with Raj Patel, is \"Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the anatomy of Injustice.\" In addition to her extensive engagement in support of indigenous communities, she is the lead singer and composer of a globe circling band, Rupa and the April Fishes.  info@eco-farm.org

Every five years the US Government develops and publishes \"Dietary Guidelines For Americans\".  The Guidelines for 2020 - 20225 have now been  released by the two responsible agencies, USDA and HHS.  New approaches have been taken to identify diet patterns for various life stages.  The report follows the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines Committee of experts, except for two areas. The Committee recommended that \"added sugar\" limits should be reduced from 10% to 6% and that if men drink alcohol it should be limited to no more than one drink per day as it is currently for women and not two drinks as has been the guidance for men. Chair of the Committee, Dr. Barbara Schneeman (UC Davis, USDA, FDA) explains the process, the findings and significance of the new guidelines.  MyPlate.org

\"To make a living is not to make a killing. It\'s to have enough.\" says Wendell Berry  in many ways, in scores of books over the years. As we consider the future of the world we need to reflect on the counsel of Wendell Berry who reminds us that the world will take care of us if we take care of it; knowing and loving it. If there was a poet laureate for agriculture, it should be Wendell Berry. A few years ago the renowned Bill Moyers was successful in interviewing Wendell and he agreed we could share that conversation as a Farm To Table Talk podcast. As a capstone to a challenging year and a message that fits the holidays, we bring back this conversation of Wendell Berry and Bill Moyers that originally aired on October 4, 2014 as a production of the Schumann Media Center and Mannes production.  www.BerryCenter.org. The people who produced the original show are acknowledged here. Produced & Directed by ELENA MANNES; Editor DONNA MARINO; Director of Photography PETER NELSON; Art Direction DALE ROBBINS; Sound

  Covid pandemic demonstrated enormous problems in the food system with food being destroyed while people were going hungry.  If we want to revitalize the food system and rural America we have to bring people back. And to do that we need to have work that people can do.  @MarionNestle says it can be done and the new team taking shape at the USDA must take the lead in making it happen.

  Some of the world\'s largest protests are taking place in support of farmers in India.  Whether in Delhi, San Francisco or Paris people have gone to the streets to show solidarity with the small farmers in India who are losing essential government support. To generate global awareness of the farmers\' fate,  Sikhs in California have brought tractors, trucks, friends and their voices to public rallies that have filled the Bay Bridge and circled government buildings. The Executive Director of the Jakara Movement, Deep Singh shares the reasons and methods being used to enlist the public to the cause.  Deep\'s family is from Punjab and he was raised in the Central Valley of California. Educated at UCLA and Johns Hopkins University, Deep\'s commitment and passion to social, racial, and class justice has helped shape his view of the world.  #Farmer Protests  will  find news and events from all over the world.  www.jakara.org

  When once again safe to travel through farm country, the bounty of the food system  will be evident.  So are the perils resulting from misdirected political power.  Tom Philpott, author, podcaster and Mother Jones reporter wrote Perilous Bounty to draw attention to the promise and the peril of farm policy and practices that are often not good for farms or consumers. However an encouraging sign appeared just after the podcast conversation when Rep. David Scott became the first black Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee who (as Tom has reported) recognizes the urgencies of addressing climate change: “With each wildfire, hurricane, or flood more devastating than the last, it is incumbent upon us to ensure food security for future generations...The threat of climate change is a present and growing danger, and we must promote sustainable agriculture solutions that are economically viable, ecologically just, and support the social fabric of our rural communities.” David Scott hope.https://www.motherjon

  Masked or not, face to face marketing can\'t be beat; because  wherever you are in the food chain it is best to have direct contact with customers.  Erin Sastre and Tyler Towne are literally doing that for Planters Peanuts as they drive a giant peanut thousands of miles back and forth across the country. On a bright Fall morning we find them in front of the Zoo where families come to see them and their Peanut Mobile.  They find the \"Peanutters\" , safely masked, and offering nut packs, information and friendliness to everyone who accidentally found them or had heard they were in town from local media or their website, PlantersNUTmobile.com.  Although 2020 has been beyond challenging for  direct contact between farmers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, restaurants and consumers. Safely done, it is important and these Peanutters share that magic with Farm To Table Talk. @PlantersNutmobile.com

  The story of a place has to include the story of it\'s food: what was grown and what they ate. Taking that to heart, the owner Chef of Bulrush Restaurant in St. Louis, Rob Connoly, is finding a delicious way to share the story of a special place with special food traditions from the Ozarks.  Rob is establishing the Ozark foodway by resurrecting ingredients, practices and recipes of the past. He’s doing so through foraging, hunting, farming and creating extensive partnerships with organizations including the Seed Savers Exchange, Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis Archivist Association, and the Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office. Guests dining at his restaurant have an opportunity to try unique cuisine often from before the Civil War with ingredients such as paw paws, cattails and acorns.  New technologies accompany the old ingredients with video stories of each course provided to guests before dinner through QR code links. Dinner with Chef Rob Connoly is half story, half food and all good! 

  Climate change effects will go way beyond receding coasts and shrinking farm  regions to to include the quality of air that plants need to produce nutritious foods. When carbon levels in the air increase, the nutrition from foods will decline by up to 30%, severely impacting human health.  Dr. Kristie Ebi  is the Founding Director of CHanGe, the Center for Health and The Global Environment at the University of Washington. She works to highlight the role of health and wellbeing in climate action and to facilitate climate resilience in the health sector.  So far the public worries about \"carbon\" have been it\'s effect on creating a green house around the earth but the increased levels of carbon in the air that we and our crops breathe matters too. Our table talk leads us to understand that \"feeding the world\" is much more than just sufficient calories when nutrient content is depleted. http://fgobalchange.uw.edu

  Well educated young women who could do anything are choosing to farm, and to lead.  Equal gender opportunities do abound in agriculture, including the opportunity to give leadership to controversial issues like climate change. Krysten  Mensonides and Lynne Wheeler both graduated from universities and had career choices before they decided farming was their future. Now that future includes joining with their fellow dairy farmers  in Washington state to achieve carbon neutrality (or better) on their farms by 2050.  The dairy industry currently accounts for 2% of total Green House Gas emissions in the US.  They share their journey back to the farm and on to the front lines of farmers addressing climate change. #mensonidesdairy  #coldstreamfarm www.wadairy.org  

For better or worse there has been substantial deregulation happening in the US Capitol, now including genetic engineering (GMO/GE).  Greg Jaffe is the Biotech Director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). They believe that GE products deemed safe through an independent science-based assessment have a place in our food system and have long advocated for USDA to revise its regulations to establish a streamlined and efficient regulatory process. However, they have also called for such a system to remain science-based and to address real potential risks posed by GE plants (such as preventing the development of resistant weeds or pests). A new USDA Rule falls far short as it \"eliminates any independent, science-based regulatory review by allowing developers to self-determine their products to be exempt from oversight\".  CSPI and others are calling on USDA to revisit these provisions and, until they do, \"calling on all GE plant developers to commit to requesting USDA confirm any self-determ

      Agriculture may be 10,000 years old but it\'s a new world. Farmers and Ranchers are facing the new challenges  with new technologies and new philosophies, enpowering the big and the small. This comes at a time when consumer interest in how their food is produced has never been higher--a fact not missed by food manufacturers, retailers and chefs. Deborah Wilson and Kristine MacRae join Farm To Table Talk host Rodger Wasson to explore that new world. In addition to being a rancher, Deborah Wilson of TrustBix leads a Canadian verification program supporting Cow Calf, feedlot/backgrounder, packer/processor, Retail (McDonalds) and certified Canadian sustainable grain fed beef for sale in China, utilizing Block chain. Kristine MacRae of West Sky Technology helps ranchers track cattle life cycle, monetize public land grazing practices, work with small meat processors and engages customers and sales partners through a virtual hub. www.ncba.org/https://grsbeef.org/; www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/raising-beef

The North American food system has succeeded in producing an abundance of commodities at relatively low cost, but it is failing in other ways that matter. Showing how law and policy should make needed changes is the purpose of \"the Blueprint for a National Food Strategy\".  This work in progress is a collaborative project between the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School and Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic.  Some of the project\'s recommendations have already been accepted in Canada and  will be considered in the next US Farm Bill.  Harvard Law Professor Emily M. Broad Lieb, Director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic, focuses her scholarship, teaching, and practice on finding solutions to some of today’s biggest food law issues, aiming to increase access to healthy foods, eliminate food waste, and support sustainable food production and local and regional food systems.Professor Broad Lieb shares her journey from Harvard Law to rural Mississippi and back as food system su