Heartland Stories Radio

Theresa's guest today is Sarah Minnick, chef and co-owner of Lovely's Fifty Fifty, a pizzeria and ice cream shop in Portland, Oregon. Sarah has one of the most refreshing, liberating takes on pizza, using only organic home-made tomato sauce as well as fairy-tale toppings like cornflower blossoms and fenugreek greens. Tune in to learn more about:

- Sarah's story of becoming a restaurant owner

- The socially correct pizza

- Why she sources her ingredients from farmers markets and organic farmers

- How they are surviving the COVID-19 pandemic

If you are in Portland, Oregon, go visit Lovely's Fifty Fifty and enjoy some of their amazing pizzas.

Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author and food justice activist. She co-funded Soul Fire Farm in 2010 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim the ancestral connection to the land. As co-Executive Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs, including farmer trainings for Black and Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for people living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. She is also the author of the 2018 published book "Farming While Black". Tune in to learn more about:

- How the Soul Fire Farm is adapting to the pandemics (not only COVID-19, but also anti-Black policy violence, wildfires)

- How the whole Soul Fire Farm team figured out how to move their in-person, hands-on practice to the web

- The fight to build equity in access to land, sustenance, and power in the food system

- About policy and labor laws and the new comprehensive bill to address the history of discrimination in federal agricultural policy: The Justice of Black Farmers Act

- How small resilient food systems can feed the world

- What inspires and sustains her to keep doing this work

Visit www.soulfirefarm.org to learn more about their work.

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, Executive Director for the Children's Environmental Health Network (CEHN), leader in the field of children's health, and proud mom of four, has served as a key spokesperson for children's health vulnerabilities and the need for their protection. Tune in to learn more about:

- The Children's Environmental Health Network and its push for the effective implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act, a pesticide reform bill that improved the protection of children (1996).

- Why scientific research is still needed in the area of children's health.

- Our dependency on the "chemical economy".

- How the public can positively influence lawmakers and products.

- Childhood cancer and the Cancer Free Economy Network.

- Why messaging about climate change should be a priority.

To learn more about the Children's Environmental Health Network visit: www.chen.org.

Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter M.D., M.P.H. is a family physician boarded in holistic integrative medicine. She is also a community health advocate and the co-founder of Black Oaks Center for Renewable Sustainable Living and Health Food Hub, a 500+ community supported agriculture project in Chicago. Black Oaks Center assists communities in reducing their carbon footprint and fossil fuel use through education and training that includes teaching permaculture. Tune in to learn more about:

- About the Black Oaks Center , its history and its mission to facilitate community resiliency

- How the Healthy Food Hub brings affordable, high-quality, nutritious and culturally acceptable foods to communities in Chicago & Southland

- Her own approach to COVID-19

- About gardening, regenerative agriculture and permaculture

In her own words, Dr. Wright-Carter is reminding us beautifully that "The highest healing work is when a community can be healed, not just an individual...."

To learn more about the Black Oaks Center go to www.blackoakscenter.org.

Kevin Mahalko is the Board President of the Wisconsin non-profit organization GrassWorks, a grassroots membership organization that provides leadership and education to farmers and consumers for the advancement of managed grass-based agriculture. With 45 cows on the 300 acre family farm, Kevin is all heart and soul when it comes to the health of his cows and the quality of his 100 percent grass-fed milk.

Tune in to learn more about:

- His personal journey into grazing

- Why grazing is important not only for cows but also for our health and the environment

- The cow's complex digestion system

- The economics of small dairy farmers

To learn more about grass-based agriculture go to www.GrassWorks.org.

Jen Salinetti is co-owner and operator of Woven Roots Farm, a regenerative farm and CSA in Massachusetts, that grows vegetables, herbs, and flowers using traditional farming practices. For over 15 years, Jen has offered workshops and courses that develop relationships to the land, build skills of resilience and promote regenerative growing practices on the farm and in the local school system. Tune in to learn more about:

- The history of Woven Roots Farm and her own path of becoming a farmer

- The role of the farm in the community

- Why farming is an act of social justice

- The Solidarity and Sustainability Program created with BRIDGE (Berkshire Resources for Integration of Diverse Groups through Education)

For more information and to learn more about Woven Roots Farm go to www.wovenrootsfarm.com.

Theresa's guest today is Dr. Joan Dye Gussow, Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, nutritionist, writer, and gardener. She was one of the first experts to advocate, as early as the 1970's, that we "eat locally, think globally." As a nonagenarian, she is still teaching, gardening and cooking her own food. Tune in to learn more about:

- The breakdown of our food system during COVID-19

- Ultra processed food - 60% of food that Americans are eating

- How to empower people with information

- How the current pandemic is changing our food behaviors

- Her own garden

In 2010, Gussow told The New York Times, "You can't be optimistic about the state of the world — what you can be is open-minded. You're going to look for solutions, and you're going to make your own life mean something. You can no longer think that accumulating money or the biggest house is the answer."

Theresa's guest today is Dr. Charles Benbrook, who leads the management team carrying out the Heartland Study, a long-term clinical study that is assessing the impacts of herbicide exposures across the Midwest on birth outcomes and children's development. Tune in to learn more about:

- The history of Roundup

- His work on the Roundup non-Hodgkin lymphoma litigation, including the Lee Johnson case

- The Heartland Study

- The Dietary Risk Index - a tool for tracking pesticides in food

To follow Dr. Benbrook's work, visit his website: https://hygeia-analytics.com/. If you would like to support the Heartland Study, go to: https://heartlandstudy.salsalabs.org/donate/index.html.

Theresa's guest today is Dr. Kathleen Merrigan, Professor in the School of Sustainability, Executive Director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University as well as former Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Tune in to learn more about:

- The 3 legged stool of sustainability.

- The difference between regenerative and organic.

- The Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems and its ongoing research.

- Challenges faced by our rural communities.

- Lessons learnt from the current pandemic.

After growing up on a small dairy farm without running water and electricity and milking cows by hand, Dr. Ikerd initially supported the industrial food system, just to realize years later that it was having a severe impact on our environment, health and economy.

Dr. Ikerd is hopeful that the way we farm can change. "We changed it in the past and we can change it in the future. We can fundamentally transform and change our whole food system."

In this episode, Dr. Ikerd talks about:

- Lessons learnt from the past, especially the 1980s farm crisis and the current lessons we are learning from the COVID-19 pandemic.

- The industrial food system operating as an assembly line.

- Food insecurity and how sustainable, regenerative agriculture can change rural communities.

Dr. Ikerd emphasizes, "The only way that we can actually deal with the problems and we can create a healthy sustainable food system is to fundamentally change the system".

For more information about Dr. Ikerd's work, visit his homepage at www.johnikerd.com.