Farm To Table Talk

Economies of scale will continue to push farming operations to get bigger over time. While big farms getting bigger is not likely to change, value added farming is a different matter. Another decline in net farm income is projected  according to the Spring 2024 Missouri Farm Income Outlook released by the University of Missouri’s Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center (RaFF). Projections from the report suggest that declining market receipts and lower crop prices play a role in the estimated $0.8 billion decrease in net farm income says  Scott Brown, interim director of the center.

The new ways of raising livestock and meat production are increasingly drawing from old ways when pastures were more prevalent than large metal confinement buildings. Brittany and Bill Sullivan own and operate Sullivan Farms, just outside of Fayette, MO. Their primary business is pork. All their pigs are raised and rotated on fresh regenerative pastures, and fed NON-GMO grain, along with organic milk. They believe a highly quality of life for animals insures terrific, nutritious food on our dinner tables. Selling to  restaurants, butcher shops, at the farmers markets, and grocery stores.they have discovered there is a market for livestock produced on pasture an that you don't have to be a giant CAFO, concentrated animal feeding operation.

www.sullivanfarmsmo.com

Although funding and knowledge is available to create better food systems, it is the active choice of doing nothing that is impeding progress. We keep educating the public on the problem and offer no solutions says Zack Wyatt, CEO and founder of the Carolina Farm Trust. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, he's now driving change to improve access to affordable, healthy foods. The first stage is to open a distribution and food production center in west Charlotte, an area known as a food desert. The project includes working with farmers to get food from the farm to the tables, partnering with local chefs in the community and helping to build urban farms. carolinafarm.org.

Cities keep growing but that doesn't mean we don't want to be around a farm. In fact when you can't live in the country then how about bringing the farm to the city?  That's what Clayton Garrett shares is happening in Houston and other cities. It may be surprising to farmers who have experienced mixed results when city folks move to the country and become their neighbors. Clayton Garrett is a farmer and founding partner of Meristem Communities,  a Houston based real estate development company exploring how healthy communities are developed and nourished,  often with farming in its midst. indigocommons.com

Many Farm To Table Talk listeners somehow got a version of the Barons podcast that had the right intro but with a different podcast.  We're sorry about that and  just in case here is the real interview with Austin Frerick. Rodger Wasson

Local agriculture has become an extraction economy and to change there will have to be change in who has power. Food system power is largely in the hands of 'Barons' according to Austin Frerick, the author of "Barons - Money, Power, and The Corruption Of America's Food Industry."   The case is made by examining powerful barons in grain, grocery, dairy, berry, coffee and meat industries. Domination is not a new story and it has been blunted in the past such as the reining in of the "Robber Barons" of the late 1800's. Solutions can be found again by actions such as resisting the 'southern model', institutions prioritizing local, resisting mergers and acquisitions and leadership from the USDA. @austinfrerick   austinfrerick.com

Knowing what we're really hungry for depends on becoming the authority in our own body, empowering us to eat what we love . Kim Shapira, M.S., R.D. is a renowned celebrity dietitian, nutritional therapist, and author holding a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and a Master's degree in Human Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition. In her new book, This Is What You're Really Hungry For: Six Simple Rules to Transform Your Relationship with Food to Become Your Healthiest Self, Shapira has developed six rules to change our relationship with food - breaking down the science to get our brain and our body on board; replacing fad diets that do not last with a sustainable method that encourages us to eat what we love; and empower us to be our own champions.

Houses of faith are becoming powerful agents and actors of improving food security in their own community in ways that go beyond charity. It is organizing the hungry and not just feeding the needy.The largest institution in the Black community, the Black church, replete with offerings to fill multiple needs., from the physical grounds, to classrooms, kitchens, to church vans and buses, to the land, and the people. Pastor Heber Brown III,  launched the Black Church Food Security Network (BCFSN) in 2014 with a garden at his own church, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore,  now they have 250 in the network. BCFN was founded  after he noticed a pattern of hospitalizations related to diet and other issues and was determined to change health outcomes for his congregation. What began with encouraging churches to start gardens on church premises, has since grown to include encouraging congregations to make institutional purchases from Black farmers, host farmers markets, preferably on Sundays after church, and arrange tours of Black farms.

www.BCFSN.org

Farmers have the support of customers who want to be a part of something sacred, noble, righteous and healing. Joel Salatin has experienced that first hand and has helped thousands of farmers all over the world discover it for themselves.  Although it is daunting to start farming and encourage a more viable local food system, it is happening because of those connections. Joel Salatin hears all about it and shares the excitement he's discovered at his farm, on the road speaking and in his latest of 16 books, Homestead Tsunami. In 2006 Another author, Michael Pollan, featured Joel in a key chapter of Omnivore's Dilemna titled All Flesh Is Grass.. When critics of the modern American food system are challenged to offer a better way the answer is often Joel Saltin's family's Polyface Farm. www.polyface.com

What it takes to start farming the right way could be a trip to North Dakota to hear from GabelBrown.  That was a key for Rachelle and Jordan Meyer who made the trip to a life changing field day. Back home in Minnesota they started applying what they learned and today with their seven chldren are making it work and sharing what they've learned with other aspiring farmers. They raise goats, custom graze, run stocker cattle, sell raw milk, grass fed beef, pastured pork and poultry. Beyond their own regenerative farm it is their goal to help farmers build their own dream farm and finally become profitable all while not having to sacrifice everything. Rachelle is also a business and mindset coach and founder of The Mindful Farmers focusing  on teaching farmers how to build a profitable farm, stop overworking, and finally feel in control. [email protected]

www.themindfulfarmers.com