Farm To Table Talk

  The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic this year -- and its enormous impact on our everyday lives – has already had dramatic consequences for the organic sector in 2020. As shoppers search for healthy, clean food to feed their at-home families, organic food is proving to be the food of choice for home. “Our normal lives have been brought to a screeching halt by the coronavirus\" says the CEO of the Organic Trade Association, Laura Batcha. Laura joins Farm To Table Talk having just wrapped up the first ever virtual annual meeting of the Association. The over 650 members connected by Zoom were assured that consumer\'s commitment to the Organic label has always resided at the intersection of health and safety, and is expected  to strengthen as the public gets through these unsettled times. www.ota.com

Sometimes in some ways \'silence is golden\' but especially in these times, breaking the norms of polite silence is essential.  Stepping up, speaking out and breaking the silence is a public petition that Marion Nestle has pushed throughout her career as author, blogger, professor and respected influencer of food policy.  She is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public health (emerita) at New York University, visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell and host of the Food Politics Blog.  Marion sees that the Covid pandemic crisis reveals issues such as the fate of today\'s packing plant workers that need to be engaged--breaking silence.  The price paid for speaking up may include occasionally being trolled on Twitter as @marionnestle experiences, but that\'s \"just politics\" to be endured for needed progress. www.foodpolitics.com

  The global pandemic crisis is an important reminder of just how essential are the farmers and workers at every stage, all the way from Farm to Table. Fortunately these \"essential\" members of the food system are also resilient, able to adjust quickly to difficult conditions. Their stories and examples of the food system\'s resilience are being shared on Civil Eats and in this episode of Farm To Table Talk, in a conversation with the visionary Founder and Editor in Chief of Civil Eats, Naomi Starkman. www.CivilEats.com

  Farmers want to do the best they can. That can mean much more than just better yields and better prices for their commodity to include social and environmental impacts.  It\'s not just altruistic to do the right things for the land, farm workers and the environment, since food manufacturers and retailers want to source from farms they can highlight to their own increasingly discerning customers. Woolf Farming has been going down this road for years and has recently found another way to step up their commitment by becoming a \"B Corp\".  B stands for social and environmental benefits. Stuart Woolf explains that adding the effort and expense of incorporating B Corp standards into their family company keeps them on the preferred supplier list for their own customers who are setting similar standards for themselves.  It\'s not just \"greenwashing\" as detractors  might claim, but for the Woolf\'s it is an earnest commitment to do the right thing and increase the odds that the farm will still be thriving 100 ye

Can organic farming be a solution to our toughest challenges?  The California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) contend that it is and they have research from over 300 scientific studies to back up that claim, in a \"Roadmap to an Organic California\". Rebekah Weber, Policy Director of CCOF says Organic systems sequester carbon, stimulate local economies and protect consumer health. Listen to the podcast conversation then: Read the Benefits Report online. Download a PDF of the Policy Report.      

  In these days some want to become farmers and some farmers are grateful if they can just stay afloat.  Yet over the long haul farmers are growers so they grow food and they often need to grow their own business either horizontally (with more land) or vertically moving upstream to the ultimate consumers. Matt Billings is a 4th generation almond farmer in Kern County California who has put their boat in the vertical stream.  They grow, process, market and export almonds.  Now they have created and are marketing an organic almond milk yogurt, AYO.  It\'s a big step for farmers and ranchers to move up stream, but for many it\'s the only way they are going to earn a better share of the consumers food dollar. When travel is again possible, Matt will take their  AYO almond milk yogurt and their farm story to retailers--wearing his old farm boots in case they overlook that while he is there to sell almond milk yogurt, he is a proud, authentic \'farm-to-spoon\' farmer. www.ayoyogurt.com  

The pandemic of 2020 portends a world of food insecurity, unless it leads to farming and food distribution innovations putting consumers in closer communications with a wider variety of new small-scale farmers to compliment re-focused  traditional agriculture. Coming from the crisis can be  \"gardens of eden\" reducing hunger and poverty with  just abundance of food and viable farmers. transforming communities as they support their own families and spark economic growth in rural America.  Heifer USA  a non-profit farm in the Oauachita Mountains of Arkansas, is providing hands on learning and accecess to livestock and horticulture experts to farmers in the Mid South and across the US to grow regenerative farming enterprises. Donna Kilpatrick is the Ranch Manager and Land Steward of Heifer Ranch. She explains how to pursue a regenerative mission and what\'s at stake when the world could run out of adequate farm land in 50 or 60 years. An important partner in solving today\'s marketing challenge for small scale

Being successful at farming is hard enough without a Pandemic.  Now on top of the regular challenges of planning, planting, growing, watering, harvesting and marketing crops, farmers today have to take extra steps to keep their family and workforce safe from the Covid-19 virus.  Aaron Barcellos, partner in the family farm, A-Bar Ag Enterprise, knows that in addition to providing gloves, masks, staggered schedules and equipment modifications for protective barriers, the farm team still must  be safe both at the farm and in their time away from the farm so they don\'t catch and spread the virus. Cropping plans have also been disrupted as exports have dried up and food service has almost disappeared.  Through all of this it is more important than ever to acknowledge food security and to care about how and where are food is grown.

 What are we really hungry for? In Hungry, Eve Turow-Paul guides us through today’s global food and lifestyle culture and looks at the connections between top trends, how we find well-being, the impacts of the Digital Age and the  COVID-19 Pandemic. How isthe Digital Age redefining people’s needs and desires? How does “foodie” culture, along with other lifestyle trends, provide an answer to our rising rates of stress, loneliness, anxiety, and depression? Why do so many wish they were farmers? An author, mother and thought leader on the food system, Eve Turow-Paul explains these trends and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to food, people and culture in her new book, Hungry and with Farm To Table Talk. www.eveturowpaul.com  

\"Left a good job in the City\" is a familiar refrain to listeners of Farm To Table Talk. When a Pediatrician in Chicago moves to Vermont to start a grass fed beef farm, it\'s a new verse to that song. Dr. Sheila Patinkin, runs a Wagyu cattle farm in Vermont where she sells to Michelin star restaurants, local steakhouses, pubs and ski resorts and – increasingly due to the pandemic demolishing most of those businesses – directly to the consumer via her year old online platform. She is a former doctor with a background in genetics who has spent a decade plus dedicated to growing and bettering the Wagyu beef cattle breed in the US.  Her journey transcends medicine to running a 1790s Vermont Farm, focusing on genetics and the new frontier of high end marbling and selling Wagyu to breeders, restaurants and direct to consumers (with maple syrup on the side). Wagyu is an old breed of cattle and being raised by a new breed of E Farmers.  Max Patinkin in San Francisco joins his Mom, Dr. Sheila Pantinkin in  Vermont to

The pandemic of 2020 has led to the closing of most restaurants, except for carry out and delivery. We do what we have to do, but we miss our favorite restaurants. Like most other restaurants Farm To Fork Restauant, Mulvaneys B&L had to close their doors and lay off their staff. Unlike most restaurants they almost immediately started looking for ways they could get back to what they do best, supporting local farmers and making meals for the public— especially for the needy, senior shut ins and school age kids who were missing meals because their school closed. Along with other like-minded leading Chefs they decided to get back in the kitchen and prepare meals for those most in need -- creating \"Family Meal\", a chef-driven initiative to mobilize restaurants as micro-commissaries to create meals for people in need. In a depressed restaurant industry, their action is encouraging. To share how they are again making family meals and making a difference in their community, we have table talk with Chef Patrick Mul

          \'This aint normal\' is frequently said today and was the title of a 2011 book by the all-american farmer philosopher, Joel Salatin.  It has led to the most popular question in the world today \"when will we get back to normal?\'  When it comes to our food system the answer is \"maybe never\" and that could be best. Joel Salatin, his family and team at Polyface Farm in Virginia are creating a new normal for themselves and their farmer partners.  When their restaurant customers were forced to close in response to the Corona Virus pandemic, they created a local farm drive thru venture. Consumers place orders on line and then drive thru to pick up the locally produced animal protein and produce. Sales have skyrocketed as up to 300 cars line up to pick up customers\' prepaid orders. Joel Salatin sees this as a huge opportunity for farmers and consumers all over the country. It aint normal now but there can be better normals ahead. www.polfacefarms.com  

  Food trends continue, even as consumers respond to crises like a global pandemic by skipping meetings,  grocery delivery and carry out.  According to Suzy Badarucco, the President of global food forecaster, Culinary Tides, food and drink trends have been in a \"slide\" that began even before the Corona virus outbreak. Fires, mass shootings, floods, impeachment, trade wars, etc. have created a level of fear and anxiety that causes us to crave foods that calms and grounds us. Additionally the predictable economic recession dampens demand for premium products, until good times return.  Yet in these times, foods with a good farmer story calms and permits consumers to be a hero by rewarding responsible farming practices with their purchases. www.culinarytides.com

The real dirt to common ground is found \"Beyond Your Table\".  It\'s a new podcast launched at the 2020 World Ag Expo in Tulare CA. Leading voices in the agriculture and food space found common ground  on the future of agriculture from diverse perspectives. Podcasters and co-hosts, Michael R. Dimock of Flipping the Table and the advocacy group Roots of Change and Rodger Wasson of Farm to Table Talk  engaged two of California’s most important farmers in a roundtable dialogue. Don Cameron President of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture and VP and General Manager of TerraNova Ranch joined Judith Redmond, Co Owner and Co Founder of Capay Valley\'s Full Belly Farms. Don is a diversified large-scale grower, producing  25 conventional, organic and biotech field crops on over 9,000 acres in Fresno County.  Full Belly Farms produces over 80 crops on 400 organically certified acres. Since global and domestic challenges appear larger than ever to farmers and ranchers with battles over trade, falling pri

Today when many large food companies claim to be committed to sustainability and climate friendly regenerative agriculture, skeptics are quick to question. Is it real or is it \"greenwashing\"?  A little on-line research or even better, a strategic conversation with the person responsible for corporate sustainability programs can answer those questions.  Kelloggs has answers and their Senior Director of Global Sustainability Amy Senter explains the extensive range and progress of Kellogg\'s sustainability initiatives. Kellogg\'s\' Origins projects are helping more than 300,000 farmers implement sustainable agriculture practices, including more than 20,000 smallholders and 10,000 women farmers. \'Origins\' projects in the U.S. are advancing practices across 250,000 acres to protect soil health, including crop rotation and cover crops.  Table Talk guest Amy Senter serves as co-chair to the US Ag Systems focused Midwest Row Crop Collaborative and she also co-chairs the World Business Council for Sustainable Deve

Joel Salatin, calls himself a \"Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson.  Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate. \"He is also one of the most popular guests on Farm to Table Talk where  wide-ranging conversations include nitty-gritty how-to for profitable regenerative farming as well as cultural philosophy like orthodoxy vs. heresy.  Weather, markets and politics have been somewhat depressing so it seemed a perfect time to reach in to our Farm To Table Talk archives to re-publish an up-lifting, common-sense conversation we had a few years ago with Joel Salatin. He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia.   \"When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentor

What\'s new down on the farm? Hemp.  Farmers are trying to grow industrial hemp all over instead of food crops that have been providing insufficient returns.  Consumers are starting to notice this strange new crop as they drive down country roads. Industrial hemp is not recreational marijuana; it\'s the non-intoxicating low-THC, oilseed and fiber variety of Cannabis, with no use as a recreational drug. As of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp is no longer a controlled substance, but growers must follow the regulations and processes required in their state. Kris Corter, the Managing Director of HempWave explains the phenomenal \'green rush\' to hemp production that is taking place on America\'s farms.  This Table Talk touches on what hemp means to farmers, consumers and this brand new industry. hempwave.com

There are some great tastes you just can\'t grow locally. Take coffee for example.  At the Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasting and Coffee shop in Sacramento, Coffee Farmer Juan Luis Barrios has come from his farm in Guatemala to see see what Edie and Andy\'s  customers think of his coffee.  The next stop on his trip will be Scandinavia the other major area their coffees are enjoyed.  (By the way, his coffee is delicious.) Juan Luis takes us through the steps to produce coffee in a sustainable fashion that works for the farmer, the workers, the roasters and those of us who just can\'t think of getting our caffeine in any other way. After listening to this podcast we recommend downloading the Audible Original audio book \"Caffeine\" by Michael Pollan for a full appreciation of the addiction we love and would have a hard time living without.\"  www.chocolatefishcoffee.com    

Farming progress can mean climate progress as processing tomato growers are proving in California. Since the tomato growers shifted almost totally to buried drip irrigation, water use  became more efficient,  yields increased, fertilizer was more precisely applied through the drip system, and, surprisingly the emission of one of the most potent green house gases, nitrous oxide, was virtually eliminated.  Of the three primary green house gases, carbon and methane are best known, but nitrous oxide will stay in the atmosphere for 300 years.  Agriculture  produces 7% of all green house gases but 70% of all nitrous oxide comes from agriculture.  To combat climate change green house gas emissions must be assessed, mitigated and reversed where possible.   To explain how progress is being made, Dr. Will Horwath, the Chairman and Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry of the Department of Land air and Waster Resources of UC Davis visits Farm To Table Talk.