Agriculture can be a tough business. To quote Will Rogers, "The farmer has to be an optimist, or he wouldn't still be a farmer." On this week's show, we meet three optimists who are revitalizing rural lands and redefining what it means to be a farmer.

We begin with Matthew Raiford, who has been spreading the good word of his Gullah Geechee heritage through his book, Bress N' Nyam. Matthew originally swore he would never return to his family farm, but in breaking that vow, he discovered a way to connect with seven generations of family.

Then we speak with Will Harris of White Oak Pastures in Georgia. While Will fully embraced taking over his family's farm, he completely changed the way it was run – returning to a system his great-grandfather used more than a century ago. We discuss this change and his book, A Bold Return to Giving a Damn.

We also sit down with New Orleans' native son, Richard McCarthy – founder of the Crescent City Farmers Market and former executive director of Slow Food USA. Now we can add "author" to Richard's accomplishments, with the publication of Kuni – A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection. Richard shares the revolutionary ideas and practices his co-author Tsuyoshi Sekihara is using to save rural areas that were abandoned in postwar Japan.

For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.