Farm To Table Talk

Mitigating Climate Change will require implementing a data driven approach on every level of global food production. Agriculture-oriented satellite constellations are beginning to provide a critical perspective on the size and condition of nearly everything we grow to eat, nearly every where in the world.  With Ukraine still in the news we are bringing back a previous conversation with Vera Petryk who spoke to us from her home in Kyev with optimism for Ukraine and an optimistic view of the future of food on our ‘Blue Dot’.

Agriculture will reverse the dangerous levels of greenhouse gases in the environment, if Ag follows a report prepared by leading scientists, reviewed by  CAST (Center for Ag Science and Technology) and published by the US Farmers and Ranchers In Action. Dr.Marty Matlock, University of Arkansas and leading author of the repot explains how combining reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions  with increased carbon sequestration will achieve GHG-negative agriculture in five areas offering the most significant opportunities to offset Ag’s roughly 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions:  soil carbon management, nitrogen fertilizer management, animal production and management, crop yield gap, and efficient energy use.

https://youtu.be/HwCR5_N8D8Y

CAST: @CASTAgScience on all social media networks.

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To protect public health, the FDA’s Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program tests FDA-regulated foods shipped in interstate commerce to determine whether they comply with pesticide tolerances, or maximum residue levels, set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If the FDA finds that the amount of pesticide residue on a food is over the tolerance, or when a pesticide is found and there is no tolerance established, the FDA can take action. Sara McGrath, PhD, is a chemist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Human Foods Program. She is in the Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation where she focuses on monitoring chemical contaminants in foods broadly, with a focus on pesticides.

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..

High tariffs have been promoted in the 2024 election season as a a way to deal with global adversaries and even a way to pay for reducing taxes. What would highter tariffs mean to consumers, farmers and the food/farm economy?  What should we think of ideas like this? Missouri farmer  Blake Hurst sums it up with a view that is being widely shared: “It’s bonkers!

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.

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.