On this episode, we talk to our friend and previous podcast guest Daniel Griffith, a farmer, father, author, poet, and food systems visionary. We wanted to talk to Daniel again to share his experience applying for the USDA’s Climate-Smart Commodity Program grant, and ultimately being denied. We discuss the problems of titanic multinational agribusiness corporations that were granted funding, and we talk about the importance of grass-roots small-scale organizations defining regenerative agriculture in local contexts. We talk about how the solutions to our agricultural woes will not come from the top — that small, human-scale farms hold the key to a healthy food system. We discuss the problems of carbon fundamentalism in our understanding of food system transformation, the precarities of our current system, and the importance of self-determination, diversity, equity, and locality moving foreword. Additionally, we talk about the problems that small-scale farmers face and how the system sets them up for failure. We also discuss Commons Provisions, a step in Daniel’s greater vision towards a food system where people can access hyper-local meats from small-scale regenerative farmers without over-extending the land and the farmers themselves.

Pre-order Daniel’s new book, Dark Cloud Country, and support the Kickstarter Campaign to publish it by clicking here, and buy his book Wild Like Flowers. Follow Daniel on Instagram here and his farm here.

Editing: Jake Marquez

Music: “Broken Together” by Sofa Surfers ft. Mani Obeya

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