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
Tue, January 21, 2025
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 .
Tue, January 07, 2025
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's Director of Agriculture & Strategic Partnerships, and Ryan Taylor , Director Of Public Policy for the Dakotas and Montana and North Dakota cattle rancher, about how conservation of waterfowl habitat is a win-win for farmers and ranchers—as well as water, wildlife, communities, and climate. By promoting voluntary conservation efforts, they build long-term partnerships that aim for long-term resilience and farmer profitability.
Tue, December 17, 2024
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 farmers themselves, with benefits for land and water health, and often more autonomy and greater profitability.
Tue, December 03, 2024
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 Farm , which work as a partnership. The 1000 Farms Initiative is producing extremely detailed agricultural data from farms across North America — and giving the data away for free.
Tue, November 12, 2024
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 and water and fostering a healthy food system, is partnering with ranches across the US to help ranchers adopt virtual fencing systems. We talk to William Burnidge , deputy director of The Nature Conservancy’s Regenerative Grazing Lands strategy in North America, and Danna Camblin of Camblin Livestock , whose ranch has been successfully employing virtual fencing for the last few years.
Tue, October 29, 2024
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 species. They have completed the first year of the five-year BEAM project (Biologically Enhanced Agricultural Management) using cover-crops, no-till methods, and compost tea, with the goal of creating more self-sustaining, regenerative agricultural fields that provide food for the many wildlife species on the refuge, water conservation, and a model for regenerative practices for other agrarians in New Mexico and beyond.
Tue, October 15, 2024
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.
Mon, September 30, 2024
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 talks about the practices of regenerative agriculture from a multi-dimensional perspective––not only soil health, but also animal and farmer health, food processing that retains nutrients, healthy transportation, responsible retail, and more. The key is diversity, including a diversity of farms and farm sizes, brands, and retail outlets.
Tue, September 17, 2024
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 conferences and United Nations events. His new book is The Regenerative Agriculture Solution: A Revolutionary Approach to Building Soil, Creating Climate Resilience, and Supporting Human and Planetary Health, published by Chelsea Green Press . Leu is also a regenerative tropical fruit and cattle farmer in Australia, where he's been farming since the 1970s.
Tue, September 03, 2024
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.
Tue, August 20, 2024
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 , which ensures safe working conditions and fair wages.
Tue, August 06, 2024
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 outreach, organizing, education, and technical assistance to agrarians across Texas, with a focus on regenerative agriculture.
Tue, July 23, 2024
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.
Mon, July 08, 2024
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.
Wed, June 26, 2024
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.
Wed, June 12, 2024
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, and federal governments and agencies, private entities, and industry to restore landscapes after disasters like wildfires and floods, and to do planning, management, and disaster prevention. What sets her company's work apart is that they use a holistic approach that focuses not just on engineering solutions, but instead takes into account the entire landscape––including people. Favoring distributed, low tech solutions that communities can maintain over the long run, and working with the forces and flows of nature, they seek to foster resilient watersheds and landscapes, and to do so with the values of humility, respect, and cooperation. She uses and teaches consensus-based planning, a technique that involves deep listening and coming to agreement across differences of opinion and interests. And she works on legal and policy issues with tribal and state governments. With her partner and children, Suina also farms seven acres, using no-till, traditional practices to grow food for her family and community––including the wildlife that in turn fertilize the land.
Tue, May 28, 2024
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.
Sun, May 05, 2024
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 exchange and their seed catalog .
Mon, April 29, 2024
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.
Tue, April 16, 2024
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 Bison is a ranch that values biodiversity, wildlife, humane treatment of livestock––and healthy, nutritious meat.
Tue, April 02, 2024
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 overuse of chemicals and extractive grazing practices. He set out then and there to change the way he ranched, and without even having heard terms like "regenerative agriculture" and "rotational grazing" started down a path that made him one of the pioneers of American grassfed beef. Now a Global Savory Hub , White Oak Pastures is helping to educate others about restoring land with livestock. In his brilliant new book, A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food (which he authored with the help of the wonderful writer Amely Greeven ), Harris tells the story of converting from industrial to regenerative practices on his ranch and the many challenges and adventures opened up by his decision to treat his animals and land with the respect they deserve. Helping to create a market for grass-fed beef, getting into supermarket chains and educating consumers, building a work force, helping to revitalize his rural town, educating solar entrepreneurs––these are just some of the topics he covers with an inimitable combination of simplicity, humor, and deep, land-based intelligence.
Tue, March 19, 2024
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. Frerick's wonderfully readable new book, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry , published by Island Press, uncovers the havoc wrought by these barons in the sectors of hogs, grain, coffee, dairy, berries, animal slaughter, and groceries––some of whom are well known, while others are purposefully secretive. Their power is vast, and they stand in the way of a truly competitive, farmer-centric regenerative food system. And yet Frerick offers solutions and hope, and ways that each of us can participate.
Tue, March 05, 2024
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 new location each year, and in recent years the concerts have become festivals featuring locally grown food and a goal of zero waste, sustainability and food organizations from all over the country, and of course abundant live music.
Tue, February 20, 2024
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 actually doing science-informed fish production. He founded Neptune Snacks , which produces four types of fish jerky––with more products on the way. Balancing transparency, science, health, sustainability, and flavor, he's part of a new generation of entrepreneurs working to transform the food system from the inside.
Tue, February 06, 2024
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 Solutions Center at Colorado State University, guides us through these questions and more.
Mon, January 22, 2024
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.
Tue, January 09, 2024
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 by the pallet seasonally to sites when trees and other crops are in bloom. In 2008 the income from pollination services exceeded the price of honey, which shifted the business model for beekeepers, especially at the large scale. Among the many challenges for beekeepers are pesticide use, which threaten bees and in turn the foods that rely on them. Kirby is involved in helping to create pollinator protection policies to spread awareness and safeguard these essential constituents of the food system.
Mon, December 18, 2023
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.
Tue, December 12, 2023
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.
Wed, November 29, 2023
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.
Mon, November 13, 2023
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.
Mon, October 30, 2023
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.
Tue, October 17, 2023
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.
Tue, October 03, 2023
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.
Tue, September 19, 2023
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.
Tue, September 05, 2023
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 Western US and produces in accordance with the Responsible Wool Standard. Because of its regenerative practices, Shaniko is generating income as part of the growing market for ecosystem services and sequestered carbon.
Mon, August 21, 2023
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 streams, farm and ranch lands, and human communities. As he describes in the podcast, this is the work of decades, and involves not only executing the projects themselves, but also navigating bureaucracies, organizations, landowners, culture, and history.
Mon, August 07, 2023
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, beekeeping, building, and maintaining cultural knowledge--based on principles of integrity, love, reciprocity, communication, work, and consideration.
Mon, July 24, 2023
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 order to foster research, education, and community.
Tue, July 11, 2023
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 integrated business model to provide domestic, regeneratively produced rice varieties.
Wed, June 28, 2023
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 farm.
Tue, June 06, 2023
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.
Mon, May 22, 2023
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.
Sun, May 07, 2023
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.
Mon, April 24, 2023
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.
Tue, April 11, 2023
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.
Tue, March 28, 2023
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?
Tue, March 14, 2023
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 improve their productive capacity and the health of land, water, and wildlife––allowing agrarians to grow food both more ecologically and more profitably.
Tue, February 28, 2023
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 more.
Mon, February 13, 2023
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 different tools to do it––so that land ends up owned and managed by Native American tribes and people of color. They're also educating investors who want to contribute to a healthy food/land system not to expect high returns on their investment, but rather to use their wealth to shift land and power back to its original inhabitants and to food producers practicing good land stewardship.
Mon, January 30, 2023
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 point toward more sustainable and regenerative ways of producing food and of living with one another.
Tue, January 17, 2023
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.
Thu, December 15, 2022
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 mammoths, massive eagles and condors, ground sloths and dire wolves––all of whom were here when human beings first arrived tens of thousands of years ago––and how people affected their environment and its animals, from the first migrating bands to the wildly destructive European colonizers.
Wed, November 30, 2022
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 the way, Crespi and his colleagues came across biochar, a substance made from burning bio waste (like sawdust and crop husks) and that has been used in the Amazon for millennia. As a soil amendment, biochar can bring dead soil back to life, improve crop yields, and decrease water use. It can also be used in industrial products and plastics. And its production can provide an energy source in communities looking to develop clean energy and regenerative agriculture.
Tue, November 15, 2022
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 communities. The result was a living, lush, and sustainable ecosystem that produced more food with less land in agricultural production.
Tue, November 01, 2022
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 security at the University of Arizona, he’s the author of many books; his latest is Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized in Our Food System . He’s an agrarian and ethnobotanist and is winner of numerous accolades, including a MacArthur fellowship and many literary, environmental, food, and arts awards.
Tue, October 18, 2022
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 herbicides, pesticides, and even chemical fertilizers.
Sat, October 01, 2022
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?
Tue, September 20, 2022
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 growers who are forced to compete against giant corporations. She talks about the movement for a more fair and regenerative Farm Bill in 2023––and beyond.
Tue, September 06, 2022
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.
Tue, August 23, 2022
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 sheep had ever had BSE––the Faillaces fought back...with grim and dramatic consequences. Linda's book, Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm , tells the story...well, most of it. The real reason for the USDA's attack on their farm was revealed a decade later, as she recounts in today's podcast. Still, Linda Faillace remains an optimist, and she and her husband have continued to make cheese and teach cheese making and culinary arts. She has a lot to say about the growing power of the ever-growing local food movement.
Sun, August 07, 2022
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 easy task. We discuss the needs, the daunting bureaucracies, and the short and longer term goals for restoring land and protecting communities.
Tue, July 26, 2022
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 indigenous perspectives, and that can help everyone from farmers to urban gardeners play a role in the revitalization of this keystone species.
Tue, July 12, 2022
During Carol Ekariu s'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 focused on watershed restoration and sustainable agriculture. Carol Ekarius has worked in both large- and small-scale farming, and has written many books for hobby farmers. She talks about the daunting challenges ahead—and gives us some reasons for hope.
Tue, June 28, 2022
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 Urvashi Rangan , Chief Resident Scientist at GRACE and co-chair of Funders for Regenerative Agriculture .
Tue, June 07, 2022
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 the non-profit Kiss the Ground and set out to make a film by the same name. Seven years later, the film broke all records for movies about soil; seen by over six million people and translated into 26 languages, it has helped catalyze the regenerative agriculture movement.
Tue, May 24, 2022
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 Institute about how farmers can get started using trees to their advantage.
Tue, May 10, 2022
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 we want to keep our ecosystems and our communities safe and in balance.
Mon, April 25, 2022
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.
Tue, April 12, 2022
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 Regen1 , a California-based organization whose goal is to "transition one million acres in northern California to regenerative by 2025 and build an adaptive framework that scales worldwide." Jessica explains the complexity and challenges of doing this work.
Tue, March 29, 2022
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 the natural processes of animal/land interaction.
Tue, March 15, 2022
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 scientist Dan Ginter , who for over a decade has been the range program manager. They talk about the goals and methods of the program––especially finding not only balance but synergy between wild land and agriculture––and the deep satisfaction in seeing the revival of pronghorn antelope, mountain lions, wild turkeys, deer, and elk populations, as well as native landscapes and watersheds.
Tue, February 22, 2022
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 worldwide. He also challenges vegan narratives about food and climate, and, with a poem and a song, reminds us that the arts are an important part of the change toward a greener, healthier world.
Tue, February 08, 2022
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.
Tue, January 25, 2022
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 that are using regenerative techniques to restore soil, water, wildlife, families, and communities––and to bring about a paradigm shift from an extractive/industrial mindset to a more nature-based approach.
Tue, January 11, 2022
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, and talks about how targeted applications of compost can help larger landscapes. And Zach Withers , co-owner and operator at Polk's Folly Farm near Albuquerque is the compost-maker; he shares his experience of restoring a highly degraded piece of land, using hogs, food waste, and wood mulch. Together they're developing a greater understanding of how compost can be used most efficiently and effectively.
Wed, December 15, 2021
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.
Tue, November 30, 2021
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 rural communities in New Mexico to create compost systems to reduce landfill waste and to produce high qu Reunity Resources,compost,food waste,community agriculture,vegetable farming,regenerative agriculture,Ten Who Made A Difference, ality soil amendments for agriculture. This week Juliana and Tijinder were honored with an award from the Santa Fe New Mexican as one of the "Ten Who Made a Difference."
Tue, November 16, 2021
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 water. David Johnson was a contractor who at mid-life decided to change careers and became a microbiologist, specializing in the soil microbiome. He collaborates with farmers like Bowman to increase the quality—and quantity—of the soil with an eye not only to improved health and profits for the farmer, but also to climate change mitigation as carbon is sequestered in ever-healthier soils. Johnson and his wife Hui-Chun Su developed the Johnson-Su bioreactor, a composting system that yields a potent, microbe-rich compost that is a soil-friendly and cost-effective alternative to synthetic fertilizers.
Tue, November 02, 2021
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 cities and buy land for farming and homesteading.
Tue, October 19, 2021
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.
Mon, October 04, 2021
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.
Tue, September 21, 2021
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 of the promise of industrialism, the genuine short-term gains, the nuances of what went wrong and why...and the reality that there are no clear heroes and villains, but rather it's a truly complex system that has to be managed for land and human health if we want to survive.
Tue, September 07, 2021
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.
Tue, August 24, 2021
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 author of the new book, The Gut-Immune Connection . We talk about how the human microbiome functions, how it's stressed by the standard American diet (SAD) and lifestyle—and the deep interconnections between the human gut and the destruction of the soil microbiome by intensive chemical agriculture. And yes, there are good solutions—if we have the knowledge and will to make them happen.
Tue, August 10, 2021
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 municipal water systems while increasing local food production.
Wed, July 28, 2021
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 particular place. We talk about what it means to choose a slower pace of life that favors close observation and low-tech tools over instant gratification. This interview is part the Good Earth series , a project supported by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture Healthy Soils Initiative and led by photographer Esha Chiocchio. It features a set of eight videos on soil stewards in New Mexico. Please check out the short videos here .
Tue, July 13, 2021
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.
Wed, June 30, 2021
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?
Wed, June 16, 2021
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 grazing animals, agroforestry, and healthy soil practices, and creating an agricultural, educational, and economic model for regenerative local food systems.
Tue, June 01, 2021
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.
Tue, May 18, 2021
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 which she makes the case that well-raised livestock can be part of the climate solution--and that good meat can improve human health.
Wed, May 05, 2021
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 are not sustainable in the long run.
Tue, April 20, 2021
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.
Tue, April 06, 2021
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.
Tue, March 16, 2021
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.
Tue, March 02, 2021
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.
Tue, February 16, 2021
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.
Tue, February 02, 2021
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.
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