Sustainable Dish Podcast

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!

Ben is a UK farmer. I spoke with Ben about his life, his experience as a gay farmer, & what he's doing to tell the positive story of how LGTBQ+ people can live a happy, productive life in farming. He started AgRespect, an organization to help others feel comfortable with their sexual orientation in rural communities. This past year, I lost my brother Evan, a member of the LGTBQ+ community, so this was an especially emotional interview for me.

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 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!

Regenerative agriculture has a lot of promise when it comes to improving the way we grow food, rehabilitating our environment, and reconnecting consumers and agriculture. But there’s one piece of the equation that isn’t talked about as often: funding regenerative agriculture.

 

Asking farmers to adopt new practices sounds like a straightforward proposition but the upfront costs can be a non-starter for some farmers. Just the decision to adopt a cover cropping program on several thousands of acres of corn and soy can come with a hefty price tag in terms of purchasing the seed, new equipment like a no-till drill, and acquiring the educational savvy to do it all right. Cover cropping requires knowing what crops to plant, when to plant them, and when to terminate.

 

What makes this even more challenging is that many conventional banks and financial programs aren’t well equipped to understand regenerative agriculture. As a result, farmers often struggle to obtain financing to adopt new practices from traditional lenders. At the same time, farmers are some of the best risk managers out there, constantly reacting to unpredictable weather and uncertain future markets. 

 

In this episode of the podcast, we talk with David LeZaks, a senior fellow at the Croatan Institute, about his work in regenerative agriculture finance. Croatan Institute is an independent, nonprofit research institute whose mission is to harness the power of investment for social good and ecological resilience by working at the critical nexus where sustainability, finance, and economic development intersect.

 

Fortunately, some investors are taking a more altruistic approach to how they invest their cash. Sometimes referred to as impact investment, more and more investors are only investing money where the project matches a specific set of goals or values like environmental rehabilitation or local food.

 

A new regenerative ag-dedicated venture capital investment firm called Soilworks recently launched and acquired grazing management software service PastureMap as its first investment, for example. 

David talks about some of his recent work identifying barriers for small and medium-scale livestock producers due to Covid-19 in an effort to identify key pain points where investment is needed. He was also involved in producing the Soil Wealth report, which surveyed the landscape to identify existing investment vehicles for regenerative agriculture and opportunities to expand them.

 

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 you...

In this episode of the podcast, we talk with David LeZaks, a senior fellow at the Croatan Institute, about his work in regenerative agriculture finance. Croatan Institute is an independent, nonprofit research institute whose mission is to harness the power of investment for social good and ecological resilience by working at the critical nexus where sustainability, finance, and economic development intersect.

In today’s episode of the Sustainable Dish Podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Adegbola Adesogan, a Professor of Ruminant Nutrition at the University of Florida, to talk about his research and the many roles that livestock play in a nutritious, ethical, and sustainable food system.

 

Dr. Adesogan’s work in developing communities focuses on improving livestock production and educating the public of the importance of animal products in a nutritious diet.

 

His work shows that improving the nutrition of one person helps mend the fabric of society and that is greatly influenced by the inclusion and productivity of livestock.

 

When we improve livestock, folks can afford more meat, milk, and eggs in their diet.

 

With more meat, milk, and eggs in their diet, they improve the nutrition of their children.

 

When the diets of children are improved, the children’s growth, development, and disease-resistance improves.

 

When these children are healthy, they perform better in school, which can have huge implications on their future, their families, and extended families.

 

It’s quite amazing and we dive into it all.

 

Learn more about Dr. Adesogan and his work with Feed the Future here.

 

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!

In today's episode of the Sustainable Dish Podcast, I'm joined by Dr. Adegbola Adesogan, a Professor of Ruminant Nutrition at the University of Florida, to talk about his research and the many roles that livestock play in a nutritious, ethical, and sustainable food system, especially for women and children.

My guest on this episode is Dr. Sylvia Karpagam, who is an Indian Public Health doctor, writer, researcher, and advocate of the right to health and the right to food, particularly in the marginalized communities in India. In this episode, we talk about:

* Causes of malnutrition in India, including the political and cultural denial of nutritious animal foods to members of their communities.

* How 80% of India actually eats animal foods and it’s a dangerous myth that it is a vegetarian country.

* How the EAT-Lancet group and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are propagating (and profiting from) this myth at the expense of the country.

* Role of dominant social classes and how they influence cultural foods, traditional eating, and food policies.

* The protein restrictions in school children’s diets and how it affects them as they grow.

* How most of India’s beef is raised by small pastoralists on small parcels of land.

* How eating beef has resulted in lynching and murder and likely skewed nutrition survey results.

* And her current research and how we can support better science.

We reference her Right to Food Campaign, and discuss these articles:

Despite Nutrition Benefits, Most BJP States Keep Eggs out of Mid-Day Meals

Akshaya Patra imposing vegetarian food mono culture on children

Taboos around serving eggs in mid-day meals need to go

India is Not a ‘Vegetarian Country’ Like the EAT-Lancet Report Would Have Us Believe

The Meaning of India’s ‘Beef Lynchings’

Sylvia can be found at:

Blog – https://drsylviakarpagam.wordpress.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/sakie339

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!

My guest on this episode is Dr. Sylvia Karpagam, who is an Indian Public Health doctor, writer, researcher, and advocate of the right to health and the right to food, particularly in the marginalized communities in India. In this episode, we talk about the myth that India is a vegetarian country and the consequences of the demonization of animal foods.

​”No cow, no grass, no birds,” says Marshall Johnson, Vice President of the National Audubon Society and Executive Director of Audubon Dakota and Audubon Conservation Ranching.

 

In this episode, we discuss Marshall’s calling to birds and the prairies, the great influence of our indigenous populations on our past, present, and future grasslands, how birds are a strong indicator of the health of an ecosystem, and how we, as conservationists, along with well-managed cattle can call on our nation’s history to restore our soils.

 

Marshall describes the vital ecosystem services that ranchers provide as they raise food for consumers. He reminds us that when we shop, we often don’t pay for these services: currently, when we buy beef or poultry from a ranch, we’re only paying for the bottom line cost of production. But what ranchers give us, and their surrounding ecosystem, is so much more.

 

This is why Marshall and his team created a market-based Conservation Ranching Program that rewards ranchers and educates consumers to support them as they work to restore and preserve bird habitat on ranches and grasslands. This win-win initiative is growing rapidly and now enrolls more than 2,000,000 acres across 60 ranches.

 

We’ve discussed bird-friendly beef before with Blue Nest Beef and in this episode, we mention that you can visit the Audubon Society to learn more about conservation ranching and where you can find a bird-friendly ranch near you.

 

We could have chatted for hours about his work, but I look forward to continuing to follow Marshall and welcome him back to the show and blog again soon!