This week, let’s back it up for a minute.

It’s easy to get left behind in conversations about food and farming. Easy to feel like you don’t belong. But food is yours. It’s essential. And you should have more power, more knowledge, and more levers to pull to make sure your food is good.

At the center of this podcast is a simple truth:

Food is not JUST food.

If you care about health, community, the environment, or the economy, this episode is for you.

This episode breaks down how food functions as one of the most powerful systems in our daily lives and why so many people arrive here from different directions. It also offers answers to some of the biggest questions we’re facing right now: our health, our climate, whether local economies are working, whether communities are thriving, and yes, where farmers fit into all of it. (They drive every one of these outcomes.)

Each of these is a valid entry point. And they all lead to the same place: Food is one of the most immediate, practical ways regular people like you and me can influence bigger outcomes.

Topics covered:

1. How ultra-processed foods became dominant and how the food system now drives chronic disease
2. Why farmers anchor rural communities far beyond producing food
3. How agriculture can either degrade land or rebuild it depending on practices
4. Why “cheap food” is a myth and where the real costs actually land
5. How relationships and consistency matter more than convenience in building resilient food systems

You’ll also hear a moment from early in the podcast, six years ago, that reframed farming entirely: “We are not in the farming business. We are in the healthcare business.”

This is a systems episode.

Food can be the problem or the answer. And however you arrive here, it’s a place to start.

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👏 The OBIE Team

Dana DiPrima, host & producer

Sonia Dhillon, co-producer & editor

Russell Chapa, sound engineer & original music

One Bite is Everything was selected to join Heritage Radio Network, home to the most influential voices in food.