Farm To Table Talk

Climate change has become a partisan issue but really has not gotten as much attention as it needs.  Rob Jackson is the Chair of the Global Carbon Project, a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy, and a professor of earth science at Stanford University. His book "The Clear Blue Sky" shows a bipartsan path hat can make needed change in decades rather than centuries. www.tintotheclearbluesky.com

What role will more tariffs, immigration restrictions and food policies have on our food system.  Farmer and former Missouri Farm Bureau President, Blake Hurst joins Farm to Table Talk to explore the policies that will effect our food and farming globally and locally..

Craft Beef is successful so how about Craft Beef? Jeff and Kara Smith are the co-founders of Colorado Craft Beef, a company rooted in a multi-generational ranching legacy. Over the years, they’ve built a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer beef company that not only provides high-quality beef products but also connects people with agriculture, dispels common myths, and promotes pride in how we feed our families.  Jeff Smith challenges old industry standards to generate new mindsets and value-added partnerships from ranch to table. www.coloradocraftbeef.com

Happiness can be found on the way  from farm to table where we break bread together. Ezekiwee Anderson discovered happiness baking very special bread that led to Rize Up Sourdough.  Rize Up's story began as a home-based quarantine sourdough project that quickly turned into a micro bakery. Within a year, Rize Up out grew Azikiwee’s backyard ovens. Overcome with a need to make a difference and hopefully inspire young Black bakers to think outside the traditional he shows how to be the change we seek -- sharing the love of delicious, thoughtfully baked bread. The Rize Up story is featured in a National Geographic produced film streaming on Hulu, "World Eats Bread". Rizeupsourdough.com

The Farm Bill is largely a Food Bill with over 80% of the programs in the area of public nutrition.  The previous $867 billion Farm Bill was passed in 2018 but on September 30, 2024 it expired. The nation's farmers and consumers need a bipartisan solution says Adam Warthesoen, Organic Valley's Vice President of Government Affairs.  To bring the farm story to the public and to celebrate National Farmers Day October 11, Organic Valley is bringing a firsthand farm experience to viewers live from small organic family farms, coast to coast, all day long. Anyone can join. Join Organic Valley farmers live from the field as we celebrate the hard work, dedication, and commitment to protecting where your food comes from! Farmer-member Tyler Webb livestreaming from the field in celebration of National Farmers Day.  

An indigenous way of being may be just what the world needs - starting with an indigenous view of food. Decolonizing our diets will lead to an expansive palate that creates a relationship with traditional, seasonal, everyday foods. Karuk tribe member Sara Calvosa Olson is a food writer and editor living in the Bay Area with her husband and two sons. Her work dwells at the intersection of storytelling, Indigenous food systems, security, sovereignty, reconnection, and recipe development. ChimiNu'am is her book of Native California foodways for the contemporary kitchen. akihsara.com,  @thefrybreadriot.

Roundup is a herbicide that has been controversial and the subject of lawsuits against Monsanto and now Bayer. Are we "headed to the last roundup" as go the lyrics to an ancient cowboy tune by Gene Autry?  Missouri farmer Blake Hurst is the author of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about this prodcut that has saved armers from excessive tillage or back breaking hand hoeing of the past. He joins Farm To Table Talk while driving in his John Deere Combine to a field ready to harvest.  

Cats and dogs should watch out for hungry immigrants according to recent political propaganda. Truth is that immigration is a necessity in the country and not a reason to keep our pets locked indoors. Farm To Table Talk returns with this podcast from earlier this year to remind us that immigration is essential for a functioning food system According to Steve Hubbard of the American Immigration Council, the H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program allows U.S. employers that face a shortage of domestic workers to hire foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.  Foreign help is being sought from over two-thirds of the counties in the U.S. www.american immigration council.org

  Tricia Kovacs,  Associate Deputy Administrator, AMS Help is needed and is at hand to build resilient local & regional food systems through the US Department of Agriculture. Tricia Kovacs is the Deputy Administrator of Transportation and Marketing programs rolling out to  communities in every state. Learn about USDA local food programs discussed in the podcast: Regional Food Business Centers Program (Agricultural Marketing Service) Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (Agricultural Marketing Service) Local Agriculture Market Program (Agricultural Marketing Service) The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program (Food and Nutrition Service) Sign up to receive the “From the Ground Up” newsletter Learn about USDA AMS Grants and Opportunities View the Local and Regional Food Systems Resource Guide Learn about USDA careers: AMS Career Opportunities USAJobs (USDA) See other ways to stay connected: USDA AMS Linked In USDA AMS Insta

The proclaimed Farm To Fork Capital of America is Sacramento, California where the signature event of the Farm to Fork Festival is the Tower Bridge Dinner. Over 1,000 are on the Bridge to prepare, serve and enjoy a delicious locally grown and sourced dinner by top chefs and  Northern California’s top farmers. The event is sponsored by Visit Sacramento and Farm To Table Talk's Rodger Wasson is on the Bridge at the dinner with Visit Sacramento's CEO, Mike Testa and two of the featured Chefs: Brock MacDonald of Beast & Bounty and Cecil Rhoodes II of Nash and Proper. The 2024 Tower Bridge Dinner was a solid start to the Annual Farm To Fork Festival and perhaps an invitation to other parts of the country to challenge Sacramento for the title of Farm To Fork Capital. www.Visitsacramento.com https://www.farmtofork.com/events/the-tower-bridge-dinner/

A future filled with with vibrant rural and urban small farms is good for the farmers, their customers and their community. Small farms help build human capacity, revitalize communities, supply regional food systems, and foster ecological resilience in a changing world. Since 2001, the Cornell Small Farms Program has fostered programs that support and encourage the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms. Cornell Small Farm Program's Eric Frenay is able to walk the talk as a small farmer herself who sees the challenges and  real progress.  www.smallfarms.cornell.edu

In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania exclusive heritage chickens are being grown on family farms to the highest animal welfare standards- freely roaming pastures at a slower pace. Mike Charles is a 6th generation farmer and the founder and CEO of LaBelle Patrimoine.   This Whole Foods Market All-Star Supplier of the Year  and the Compassion in World Farming’s Good Chicken Award winner just earned the USDA’s regeneratively raised status and is certified to a Global Animal Partnership’s Step 4 (no other poultry operation has a higher rating). www.labelle-patrimoine.com

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is a labeling law that requires retailers, such as full-line grocery stores, supermarkets and club warehouse stores, to notify their customers of the source of certain foods; including muscle cut and ground meats: lamb, goat, and chicken; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts; and ginseng.   Dr. Alexandria Fischer is with the Research and Rulemaking Branch of the USDA's Agriculutural Marketing Service that administers COOL@usda.gov . www.ams.usda.gov    

Even when summer is over, the season peak flavor and nutrition in tomatoes is available all year long in cans or jars.  Lycopene, the antioxidant compound that makes tomatoes red, is even more available in tomatoes that have been turned in to tomato products and has been shown to be protective for diseases from cardiovasular to cancers. What if it is more than just the lycopene in the tomatoes that make a difference. That is the question being pursued at the The Ohio State University by Dr. Jessica Coooperstone's Lab where positive  protections have been found from tomatoes with or without lycopene.  Just when it seems that the tomato story can't get any better, we learn about the role "Alpha Tomatine" and the potential of making a great product better.  Jessica Cooperstone is Associate Professor in the department of Horticulture and Crop Science and the department of Food Science & Technology . www. CooperstoneLab.com

In food purchase priorities, somethings change a lot and some barely change at all.  When it comes to food purchases the top considerations are still taste, price, health and convenience.  What's new and rising on the list is "Environmental Sustainability",  now an important consideration for about 30% of the population.  These findings are in the Annual Food & Health Survey of IFIC the Internaional Food Information Council. Kris Solid, RD is the Research Senior Director for IFIC.  To fill gaps in consumer knowledge about food it's important to identifiy current perceptions, beliefs and behavious.  www.foodinsight.org

Immigration is essential for a functioning food system that otherwise suffers from growing labor shortages on farms, packing houses, processors and kitchens. The H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program allows U.S. employers that face a shortage of domestic workers to hire foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.  An American Immigration Council analysis, “The Expanding Role of H-2A Workers in U. S. Agriculture” reveals significant demand across the country with labor being sought from two thirds (2/3) of all counties in the U.S. Steve Hubbard, the Senior Data Scientist at the American Immigration says “Instead of vilifying migrant workers, we should champion and protect them for their vital support to America's food production. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org

What we eat today and tomorrow is linkng through restaurants and institutions under the direction of Chefs who are learning the importance of knowing the farm source and sharing that knowledge with customers. With over 6,000 students, Chef Kirk Bachmann is President Provost  of Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, the largest culinary institution in the U.S.. (https://www.escoffier.edu)   (https://www.escoffier.edu)

Progress in regenerative produce production is not just in our own back yards, but can come from other countries, such as Guatemala. Responding to extreme weather and desires for delicious, affordable foods that are grown regeneratively are having an impact all over the world.  Answers are found not only in local farmers markets, but also in supermarkets and suppliers who comb the globe to find the right sources that are faming, packing and shipping the right way. Christopher Safieh is the Head of Growth at Guatemala based UniSpice, a world leader in growing, packing and shipping produce to global customers. www.unispice.com

Solutions to our farming futures may reside on a spectrum that ranges from wide open to strategically controlled. Jake Felser of Freight Farms shared an important  perspective on how controlled environment farming can check several boxes when he first joined the Farm To Table Talk in 2022..  www.freightfarms.com

Attention is a moral act so we shouldn't just do what we think nature wants --"attend to Earth". Try as we might, you won't be the savior of the world but you can do what you are here to do. This will take some down the road to regeneration (mob, mow and move), or beyond.  Daniel Firth Griffith has a 400 acre rewilding project in central Virginia and has published "Stagline", a book about transition from regneration on to a Kenetic rewilding from cropland to pastures, to forests and plates. www.wildtimshel.com