Dr. Silvia Abel-Caines is a ruminant nutritionist who helps ensure cows are happy and healthy so that they can produce the most nutritious milk. Recently, Dr. Silvia had the opportunity to share her knowledge with an all-women dairy cooperative in Senegal. She found this experience to be incredibly exciting and rewarding. "Besides giving them the technical training on milk processing, I also told them what I have learned so far on the value of a good co-op with good marketing and good leadership."

Jerome McGeorge has been a part of Organic Valley's journey from the very beginning -- he even wrote, by hand, the fledgling cooperative's very first annual report in 1988. Today Jerome is a cherished friend and keeper of wisdom and wide perspective. In this episode, we revel in memory with Jerome, sharing stories of the beginning of organic agriculture and how things must continue to change as we move forward.

Rootstock Radio is starting off 2018 with a very special guest: George Siemon, Organic Valley's CEO. George, who was born into a family of businessmen and swore he'd never be one, has been playfully dubbed "The Reluctant CEO," but his passion for agriculture and cooperation serves CROPP Cooperative (maker of the Organic Valley brand) just as well as a background in business could. Today he discusses being a part of the fledgling organic movement 30 years ago and what organic means to him today.

Robyn O'Brien is an author, former food industry analyst, TEDx speaker and mother of four. She is also founder of the AllergyKids Foundation, an organization that aims to make clean and safe food affordable to all children.

Robyn's interest in ensuring good food for all children really began when her youngest child had an allergic reaction. In the aftermath of this reaction, Robyn started digging deep into research about children's health and the food they eat, and she unearthed some startling things. "This generation of kids has earned the title of 'Generation Rx', because 1 in 3 now has autism, allergies, ADHD or asthma," she says. "The health of our families is buckling. And the best thing we can do-the most important healthcare decision that anyone can make-is what you choose to put on the end of your fork."

Robyn knows the challenges in our current food system well, from a lack of sustainability, to aging farmer populations, to chemical toxicity on farms. She also sees organic food as a big part of the solution. "The reason organic is not a fad and it is not a trend, is because cancer is not a fad, autism is not a trend. Food allergies are not fads and consumers need to know where their food is coming from-and how it is made. Once they learn that, they choose organic," she says. "It is such a fundamental human right to be able to feed your family and the people that you love products that will not cause harm."

Margaret Krome of the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute is bringing farmers and fishermen together to support sustainable agriculture practices in the Midwest, which, in turn, will protect the fisheries in the Gulf. Stewardship of land in the upper Midwest directly affects the livelihoods of fishermen in the gulf, because poor farming practices dump excess nutrients into the streams and rivers that make their way to the ocean. Knowing this, Margaret wondered if she could take her work in supporting sustainable agriculture practices a step further. "What about creating a cultural relationship between these genuinely great conservation farmers in the upper Midwest and the end users of their water -- namely fishermen in the gulf who are dealing with the dead zone?"

Marjorie Kelly of The Democracy Collaborative is working to shift our economy toward shared ownership and control by exploring alternatives to capitalism. The root of the socio-economic problems in our country, as Marjorie sees it, is "this deep underlying architecture of ownership that is driving wealth inequality and is driving a lot of the problems in our economy." Her solution? A business model that supports communities. A company that retains its mission and agency and contributes positively to its community is what Marjorie calls a "living company," and there are a number of them in agriculture. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that food is the great equalizer. Everyone has to eat, after all. Check out this week's episode to learn more about what "living companies" are and how they are becoming viable alternatives to traditional capitalism.

"Our market system has been ripped out of any democratic boundaries," says Frances Moore Lappe. She says the top three wealthiest Americans now control more wealth than the bottom half of Americans combined. Frances believes this is because we have accepted materialism, selfishness and competition as the defining characteristics of being human, and ignored our capacity for empathy and cooperation. She cites a study showing that "when humans cooperate, our brains react as if we're eating chocolate -- it's that pleasurable," as evidence to the contrary. Today, we're pleased to share this episode with award-winning author and activist Frances Moore Lappe, whose latest book addresses the importance of reclaiming democracy and embracing cooperation.

Dr. Temple Grandin is a renowned animal welfare activist as well as a professor and author. She has a unique perspective into the minds of animals thanks to her autism, and because of her hard work, half of the cattle in the United States are handled in facilities Dr. Grandin designed. Through her efforts in animal welfare and involvement in writing standards for the livestock industry, Dr. Grandin has done away with a lot of the "vague" language these standards often contain, and she's working to eradicate the rest. "Animals that are afraid of people are less productive. That is known," she says. This is why it's not only the conscientious and right thing to treat animals humanely, it's also advantageous for business and production. "There's a whole lot of scientific research that shows that good stockmanship matters," she emphasizes. Listen in to hear from one of the preeminent voices in animal welfare today.

Anna Lappe, founder of Real Food Media and co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, would like to change the way our media represents the story of food. Real Food Media has been calling on media institutions to be very transparent about their sources and to follow strict codes of conduct about reporting on conflicts of interest. "Every year some of the biggest companies in the food and chemical ag sector spend hundreds of millions of dollars on shaping the story of food," says Anna. When corporations are the only ones telling the story of food in order to sell their products, it becomes a one-sided story that often leaves out important points, like whether it's actually good for our bodies or for our planet. Anna would like to see this discrepancy be more apparent to consumers. Ultimately, she wants to help people see these misleading strategies and "be able to then spot them out there in the world when they're happening in real time."

Harry MacCormack, co-founder of Oregon Tilth and current president of Ten Rivers Food Web, talks about how, and why, the first organic standards came to be.