Sustainable Dish Podcast

“Not everyone agrees about how to reform the food system and restore the nation’s health, but one message often rises above the din: We need to get back in the kitchen. From celebrity chefs to home cooks, lots of people seem to have the feeling that our country has lost its way and that returning to the dinner table will get us back to healthy kids and strong families. It’s an alluring message.”

This is the conundrum that Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It explores through a granular look at how many of us navigate the daily task of keeping ourselves fed. 

Authors Sarah Bowen, Joslyn Brenton, and Sinnikka Elliot -- a trio of sociology professors from universities across the US -- conducted a variety of interviews between February 2012 and March 2013 with female primary caregivers to learn more about how eating plays out in their households. 

Then, between April and December 2013, the authors took an immersive approach and entrenched themselves with the nine families. This included the morning rush, supermarket trips, meal prep, family dinners, and visits to government support offices. The stories unfold from the vantage point of the women in the family, who more often than not shoulder the burden of shopping, meal planning, cooking, and accommodating their families’ divergent dietary preferences. 

From Greely Janson, wife and mother in a middle-class family who finds herself torn between feeding her family the highest quality foods and allowing her daughter to have a “normal” childhood experience, to the Washingtons, an intergenerational family living in a hotel and struggling to make ends meet.

Divided into seven sections, the book explores how common foodie-centric phrases with good intentions often leave consumers across the socio-economic range battling a relentless cycle of pressure, guilt, shame, surrender, and hope. Most of these phrases will be familiar to you like, “You are what you eat,” “The family that eats together, stays together,” and “Know what’s on your plate.” 

The intimate look at the way these phrases impact each of the nine featured families will have you questioning your perceptions of what makes for “good food policy.” The tales also highlight how the latest food trends often have an impact on so much more than just what’s in your grocery cart, including notions of self-worth, success, and what it means to be a good parent.

In the show, we dig into some of the biggest themes addressed in the book, the author’s personal takeaways from their immersive research, and a few solutions that might offer more ubiquitous and meaningful success than simply telling consumers to cook more meals at home.

This episode was generously sponsored by my favorite electrolyte drink mix, LMNT. I personally drink 2 per day and recommend to my clients, athletes, or anyone following a low-carb diet or undergoing a stressful period to pay attention to their electrolytes. LMNT is the perfect combination of sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Visit this website for a free sample pack, just pay shipping!

In today's episode of The Sustainable Dish, I chat with Ede Fox, aka The Black Carnivore.

We talk about how she reclaimed her health with a carnivore or meat-based diet and her creation of an inclusive space for black people and people of color to learn about the carnivore diet, health, and nutrition. We dive into the underlying injustices of a meat-free or less meat diet, how food justice includes access to nutrient-dense foods like meat, and what we can do to help encourage more people to advocate for a meat-inclusive diet.

If you're curious about the carnivore diet and how it can be an effective therapy, how diet recommendations for a particular region of people often don't acknowledge systemic injustice of those regions, or how you can get explore the carnivore diet and get involved with the Black Carnivore community, give this episode a listen.

Find Ede online on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and The Black Carnivore Podcast, and if you're new to carnivore, check out her coaching services here.

This episode was generously sponsored by my favorite electrolyte drink mix, LMNT. I personally drink 2 per day and recommend to my clients, athletes, or anyone following a low-carb diet or undergoing a stressful period to pay attention to their electrolytes. LMNT is the perfect combination of sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Visit this website for a free sample pack, just pay shipping!

My co-producer of Sacred Cow, James Connolly, chats with Benjamin Lorr, author of the #1 Best Seller, "The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket."

They discuss our current food system in the context of his latest book. What began as an interest in the unique success of Trader Joe's evolved into an immersion into the trucking industry and why they call their job "sharecropping on wheels," what it takes to bring a product to shelves, the abuse within fishing industries, how our status has tentacles in our consumption of material goods, the foods we eat, and the information we learn, and more.

It's a conversation that just might change your perspective towards your grocery shopping experience and question your consumption.

Be sure to check out Benjamin on his website and read his books "The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket" and "Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga."

This episode was generously sponsored by my favorite electrolyte drink mix, LMNT. I personally drink 2 per day and recommend to my clients, athletes, or anyone following a low-carb diet or undergoing a stressful period to pay attention to their electrolytes. LMNT is the perfect combination of sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

This episode is brought to you by Blue Nest Beef. There’s a lot of choices for “better” beef out there and the folks at Blue Nest Beef are grassfed pioneers who’ve perfected all the steps it takes to make better beef even better. Not only is their beef delicious, but it comes exclusively from American ranchers who have been certified by the National Audubon Society as ranchers who are regenerating our land and bird habitats. If you’re looking for better beef, visit their website here and use the discount code “2BUYBLUENEST” for 15% off your first order!

This episode was also generously sponsored by my favorite electrolyte drink mix, LMNT. I personally drink 2 per day and recommend to my clients, athletes, or anyone following a low-carb diet or undergoing a stressful period to pay attention to their electrolytes. LMNT is the perfect combination of sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

We often hear from farmers and ranchers after they've realized their dream operation, but rarely do we hear from them in those first steps, in the infancy of making their dream a reality.

In today's episode of the Sustainable Dish Podcast, I chat with Rachael and James Stewart about their journey from fitness trainers to farmers in Douglas, Arizona.

What began as a means to invest at the onset of the pandemic, blossomed into a plan to develop Southwest Black Ranchers, a food distributor that ships directly to families and restaurants, with two goals: feed 1,000 people every month and increase Black representation in agriculture.

We discuss how their dream began, their backgrounds in fitness, why real meat is healthier and more accessible than fake meat, their learning experiences thus far, and their plans for the future. We also talk about how many farmers that we see or hear about don't often share the hard work, money, and sacrifice that has helped many farmers get started and how we can create more realistic conversations about the grit and dedication to taking a farming dream to reality.

Rachael tells of her experience raising animals with 4-H as a teen and how she's applying the resourcefulness of the farmers she's learning from in Food for Mzansi.

James "Stu" shares his experience as a professional bodybuilder and his plans to host fitness retreats on their farm, his complete immersion into farm life, and how their kids and family is adapting to rural life.

They're currently raising funds on GoFundMe to support their mission to support nature and increase health and diversity in farming through Southwest Black Farmers. Check out their campaign here and follow them on their website, Instagram, or Facebook.

This conversation is inspiring for anyone on the fence about starting their own food operation and/or working to increase representation in agriculture. Be sure to give it a listen!

This episode was generously sponsored by my favorite electrolyte drink mix, LMNT. I personally drink 2 per day and recommend to my clients, athletes, or anyone following a low-carb diet or undergoing a stressful period to pay attention to their electrolytes. LMNT is the perfect combination of sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

There is a lot of talk about restoring ecosystems through agriculture to address a long list of issues like climate change, the loss of wildlife habitat, water quality, and historically low farm incomes. But what does that effort really look like? Unless you earn a degree in ecosystem sciences, most of us are only equipped with basic high school biology, giving us a limited understanding of some of these concepts.

In this episode, Steve Apfelbaum, the senior ecologist at Applied Ecological Services (AES), an ecological sciences and restoration firm in the US tells us about his work that focuses on ecosystem restoration and land management, putting back into the land what was taken from the land like healthy soil as well as plant and animal communities.

This episode is brought to you by Blue Nest Beef. There’s a lot of choices for “better” beef out there and the folks at Blue Nest Beef are grassfed pioneers who’ve perfected all the steps it takes to make better beef even better. Not only is their beef delicious, but it comes exclusively from American ranchers who have been certified by the National Audubon Society as ranchers who are regenerating our land and bird habitats. If you’re looking for better beef, visit their website here and use the discount code “2BUYBLUENEST” for 15% off your first order!

Farming is hard, but for folks who have a burning desire to farm, Nicole Scott, livestock manager at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, says, "Go for it!"

In today's episode of the Sustainable Dish Podcast, my co-host, Lauren Stine, chats with Nicole about her journey from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., to her education at Cornell University to her many farming experiences that led her to become Glynwood's livestock manager.

They discuss the ever-changing tasks of being a farmer, why aspiring farmers should rethink starting their farm with goats, and how we (as allies and members of the BIPOC community) can diversify our food system and work to overcome racial injustice in life and in agriculture.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone thinking about starting to farm, farmers or food producers who can relate to the therapeutic experience of letting out an energized yell in the middle of an empty pasture, or anyone thinking of adding goats to their livestock operation.

This episode was generously sponsored by my favorite electrolyte drink mix, LMNT. I personally drink 2 per day and recommend to my clients, athletes, or anyone following a low-carb diet or undergoing a stressful period to pay attention to their electrolytes. LMNT is the perfect combination of sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

Have you thought about starting a farm?

If so, this episode with Annemarie Sullivan of @sullifarmandkitchen is for you.

Annemarie is a 23-year-old regenerative farmer in Northeast Texas.

What bloomed out of a deep love for nutrition and food, she started farming in 2016 with a few Nigerian Dwarf Goats, opened Sullifarm & Kitchen in 2018, and is now regenerating over 50 acres of land.

My co-host, Lauren Stine, @whitehoofacres and Annemarie discuss the ins and outs of bootstrapping a small farm, sustaining a profitable, yet regenerative operation, and the many challenges she and other beginner farmers experience in the early years.

From financing to species selection to farming as a young female, Lauren and Annemarie cover many important topics for any aspiring farmer.

Be sure to check out Annemarie and Sullifarm & Kitchen and give this episode a listen.

This episode is brought to you by Blue Nest Beef. There’s a lot of choices for “better” beef out there and the folks at Blue Nest Beef are grassfed pioneers who’ve perfected all the steps it takes to make better beef even better. Not only is their beef delicious, but it comes exclusively from American ranchers who have been certified by the National Audubon Society as ranchers who are regenerating our land and bird habitats. If you’re looking for better beef, visit their website here and use the discount code “2BUYBLUENEST” for 15% off your first order!

Thanks, and enjoy the show!

Ben is a farmer in the UK and came out as a young adult to his family, who were all incredibly supportive. I spoke with Ben about his life, his experience as a gay farmer, and what he's doing to tell the positive story of how LGTBQ+ people can live a happy, productive life in farming. He is a beam of light, and I highly encourage you to give his feed a follow. He also started AgRespect, an organization to help others feel comfortable with their sexual orientation in rural communities. This past year, I lost my brother Evan on Valentine's Day. He was a member of the LGTBQ+ community, so this was an especially emotional interview for me.

Follow Ben on Instagram and be sure to check out AgRespect to learn what they're doing and how to get involved.

This episode is brought to you by Blue Nest Beef. There's a lot of choices for "better" beef out there and the folks at Blue Nest Beef are grassfed pioneers who've perfected all the steps it takes to make better beef even better. Not only is their beef delicious, but it comes exclusively from American ranchers who have been certified by the National Audubon Society as ranchers who are regenerating our land and bird habitats. If you're looking for better beef, visit their website here and use the discount code "2BUYBLUENEST" for 15% off your first order!

Thanks, and enjoy the show!

The colonization and industrialization of our food system have wreaked havoc on our environment and health, but what's often untold about this system is the trauma Indigenous communities experienced throughout the history of this extractive expansion.

In this episode of the Sustainable Dish Podcast, I sit down with Sanjay Rawal, the director of the new film, Gather, "an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide."

We discuss his journey into filmmaking (his first film, Food Chains, about migrant agricultural labor in the U.S., is a must-see), how he, as a non-native, fostered a deep sense of collaboration with the First Nations Development Institute in efforts to genuinely portray the native characters in the film, why Indigenous land stewardship holds the solutions to the restoration and regeneration our soils need, and how the development of our connections to the land and the foods that make us who we are can not only restore food sovereignty, but also our health, culture, environment, and more.

Gather is a beautiful film and a collection of stories infused with history, reclamation, and hope. It's also a portrait showing us solutions that have always been here: Indigenous land stewardship, or what we non-natives are now calling regenerative agriculture.

To learn more about and watch Gather, visit the website and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

To make an impact to support the First Nations Development Institute, visit their website here.

This was a joy to record! I hope you enjoy it, too!

This episode is brought to you by Blue Nest Beef. There's a lot of choices for "better" beef out there and the folks at Blue Nest Beef are grassfed pioneers who've perfected all the steps it takes to make better beef even better. Not only is their beef delicious, but it comes exclusively from American ranchers who have been certified by the National Audubon Society as ranchers who are regenerating our land and bird habitats. If you're looking for better beef, visit their website here and use the discount code "2BUYBLUENEST" for 15% off your first order!

Thanks, and enjoy the show!