In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Local Foods Specialist Molly Kirkham talks with Erin Austin of Abundant Montana. Abundant Montana is a nonprofit that helps create a more resilient and reliable food system by developing educational campaigns about local foods, providing digital marketing and promotion assistance, and fostering business-to-business connections for Montana food and farming businesses. 

Erin and Molly talk about Abundant Montana’s recent online producer-buyer “meet-up event,” Abundant Connections. Molly and Erin discuss the need Abundant Montana saw that led to creating the event, the event’s format, what went well, who connected at the event, and what the future looks like for Abundant Connections. 

This podcast is part of the “Farm to School Technical Assistance-Cooperative Agreement, Bringing the Farm to School through New Connections” project. In this project, NCAT is collaborating with producer organizations to expand producer-focused training and technical assistance using NCAT’s widely adaptable Bringing the Farm to School curriculum, which helps local producers engage in the child nutrition programs market.

Related ATTRA Resources:

Episode 288. Using the Abundant Montana Local Food Directory as a Marketing Strategy

Business and Marketing

Local Food Systems

Other Resources:

Bringing the Farm to School

AERO

Abundant Montana

Contact Molly Kirkham at [email protected]  

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You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

This episode of Voices from the Field is part of our Soil-to-Skin podcast series, in which NCAT Carbon Farm Planners Allison Agee and Danielle Duni explore the relationships between soil health, fiber production, and market solutions. 

It is part of NCAT’s Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership with Colorado State University, Carbon Cycle Institute, Fibershed, Seed2Shirt, and New York Textile Lab. The Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership is funded by USDA’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities.  

Today, Allison and Danielle talk with Laura Sansone from New York Textile Lab about the intersection of fiber growers and designers.

Related ATTRA Resources:

Episode 356. Soil to Skin: Tameka Peoples of Seed2Shirt Shares Her Journey

Episode 355. Soil to Skin: Rebecca Burgess of Fibershed on Building Community

Episode 330. Meet NCAT: Carbon Farm Planner Allison Cooley-Agee of Montana 

Episode 331. Meet NCAT: Danielle Duni, Carbon Farm Planner for Woolgrowers in Wyoming 

Other Resources:

Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership

Seed2Shirt

Fibershed

New York Textile Lab

Contact Allison Cooley-Agee and Danielle Duni at [email protected] and [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

Episode 356. Soil-to-Skin: Tameka Peoples of Seed2Shirt

This episode of Voices from the Field continues our Soil-to-Skin podcast series, in which NCAT Carbon Farm Planners Allison Cooley-Agee and Danielle Duni explore the relationships between soil health, fiber production, and market solutions. 

It is part of NCAT’s Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership with Colorado State University, Carbon Cycle Institute, Fibershed, Seed2Shirt, and New York Textile Lab. The Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership is funded by USDA’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities.  

Today, Allison and Danielle talk with Tameka Peoples of Seed2Shirt as she walks us through her journey to source a T-shirt made by a black company that included cotton sourced from African or African American farmers and how that journey led her to develop a global cotton merchant company.

Related ATTRA Resources:

Episode 355. Soil to Skin: Rebecca Burgess of Fibershed on Building Community

Episode 330. Meet NCAT: Carbon Farm Planner Allison Cooley-Agee of Montana 

Episode 331. Meet NCAT: Danielle Duni, Carbon Farm Planner for Woolgrowers in Wyoming 

Other Resources:

Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership

Seed2Shirt

Fibershed

New York Textile Lab

Contact Allison Cooley-Agee and Danielle Duni at [email protected] and [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

This episode of Voices from the Field begins our “Soil to Skin” podcast series, in which NCAT Carbon Farm Planners Allison Cooley-Agee and Danielle Duni explore the relationships between soil health, fiber production, and market solutions. 

The series is part of NCAT’s Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership with Colorado State University, Carbon Cycle Institute, Fibershed, Seed2Shirt, and New York Textile Lab. The Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership is funded by USDA’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities.  

Allison and Danielle talk about the project with Rebecca Burgess, the Executive Director of Fibershed, about building community around grower-to-grower networks to help producers become “economically, ecologically, and socially successful.”

Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Fiber

·        Tips for Marketing Sheep and Goat Products: Fiber

·        Climate Beneficial Practices

Additional Resources:

·        Fibershed

·        Carbon Cycle Institute

·        Seed2Shirt

·        New York Textile Lab

·        Colorado State University College of Agricultural Sciences

Contact Allison Cooley-Agee and Danielle Duni at [email protected] and [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Tyler Jenkins talks with Richard Udale and Anne Fanatico in an enlightening conversation about the world of poultry breeding, genetics, and the rich history of the chicken. Richard and Anne, both renowned experts in the field, discuss the evolution of various chicken breeds and their unique traits, along with the intricate science behind selective breeding.

 Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Poultry

·        Eggs

·        Growing Your Range Poultry Business: An Entrepreneur's Toolbox  

Other Resources:

·        American Pastured Poultry Association

·        American Poultry Association

·        Heritage Poultry Breeders

Contact Tyler Jenkins at [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Tracy Mumma talks with her husband, David Sturman, and daughter, Lina Sturman, about using draft horses on the farm. They discuss some of the jobs horses can do, including logging and agritourism, and some of the different hitches that can help make effective use of horsepower. They also cover some important considerations for anyone considering using draft horses on the farm, based on decades of shared experience using draft horses in Montana.

Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Draft Animal Power for Farming 

·        Episode 333. Draft Animals 101 

·        Episode 334. Teaming Up with Oxen

Additional Resources:

·        Small Farmer’s Journal

·        Draft Animal Power Network

Contact Tracy Mumma at [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Darron Gaus joins Peggy Sechrist, a pioneer in the organic beef industry in Texas and a long-time Holistic Management International educator. 

Darron, who is based in Victoria, Texas, co-leads a working group with Peggy in Texas as part of NCAT’s Soil for Water Southern SARE project. That project includes some great conversations with members of the working group – a four-state team of producers, scientists, and universities trying to key in on some of the barriers keeping more operations from adopting regenerative grazing methods.  

Today’s conversation is between Peggy and Jenny Pluhar, Executive Director of the Texas Grazing Land Coalition, and ranch manager for Taylor Ranches in the panhandle of Texas. She is also the co-author of the book Texas Range Plants. Jenny details her work with the Texas Grazing Land Coalition and the new project the coalition is working on, called “Principles Before Practices.”  

Related ATTRA Resources: 

·        Livestock 

·        Climate Solutions 

·        Soil 

Related NCAT Resources: 

·        Soil for Water  

Other Resources: 

·        AG Proud 

·        Texas Grazing Land Coalition

·        Texas Grazing Land Coalition Facebook page

·        U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef 

·        Texas Range Plants 

Contact Darron Gaus at [email protected]. 

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast. 

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other
resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. 

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Gabriella Soto-Velez talks with author and farmer Dani Baker. Since her retirement from another career and subsequent inspiration from an Extension class on permaculture, Dani has become well known for her takes on creating “resilient edible landscapes.” She and Gabriella discuss the benefits that come from realizing that nature knows what it is doing.

Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Permaculture

·        Climate Change and Perennial Fruit and Nut Production: Investing in Resilience in Uncertain Times

·        Weekly Wednesday Workshop: Permaculture 101

Other Resources:

·        Home-Scale Forest Garden with Dani Baker preview

·        The Home-Scale Forest Garden: How to Plan, Plant, and Tend a Resilient Edible Landscape

·        Cross Island Farms

Contact Gabriella Soto-Velez at [email protected].          

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Northeast Coordinator and Agriculture Specialist Chris Lent talks to Matt Steiman, the Farm Energy and Livestock Manager at Dickinson College Organic Farm in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about the farm’s new biodigester. 

A farm-based biodigester can turn cow manure and food waste into natural gas to produce electricity for the farm to use and to sell to the utility grid. 

Matt and Chris discuss Matt’s research over the past 14 years on turning waste streams into biofuels and how that research led to the new biodigester’s design and its installation at the farm.  

The discussion covers the unusual scale of the project, which was designed to manage the manure from 150 dairy cows and up to three tons of food waste daily. The project is meant to demonstrate to mid-sized farms across Pennsylvania and elsewhere that it is possible to manage waste streams in an environmentally sound way by
transforming them into a source of carbon-neutral energy.  

Related ATTRA Resources: 

·        Biodiesel Use, Handling, and Fuel Quality 

·        Micro-Scale Biogas Production: A Beginners Guide 

·        Anaerobic Digestion of Animal Waters: Factors to Consider 

Other Resources: 

·        Biogas – Dickinson College Organic Farm 

·        Dickinson College YouTube Channel 

·        USDA Rural Energy for America Program Renewable Energy Systems & Energy
Efficiency Improvement Guaranteed Loans & Grants 

·        USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) On-Farm Energy Initiative 

Contact Chris Lent at [email protected].          

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted,
practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other
resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Gabriella Soto-Velez talks with Nate Olive, the owner of Ridge to Reef Farm on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. 

Nate talks about the innovative market- diversification strategies that have contributed to his farming success and the challenges and opportunities of the St. Croix market. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 

·        ATTRA Internship Hub 

·        Subtropical Soil Health Initiative 

·        Cover Crops for Hot and Humid Areas 

Other Resources: 

·        Ridge to Reef Farm 

Contact Gabriella Soto-Velez at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted,
practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other
resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.