Talk to Me About Food

In this audio blog post I muse about how functional ingredients are being added to foods and beverages to enhance short-term cognitive skills, keeping in mind that Homo Sapiens has been consuming "brain food"  for a very long time.

Blog post musings about bioengineered bee-less honey, and other look-alike, taste-alike substitute food products.

Hunting and gathering is in our DNA. Very few of us in America subsist on doing either one these days. Major disruptions raise the profile of both activities. COVID 19 has not only reduced income for tens of millions of Americans it has also led to shortages of staple foods. An increase in the number headlines and of books published on growing your own food and foraging suggests that some of us want to take food self-reliance to the individual level. 

 I explored the idea of growing of your own food last year in a dedicated Talk to Me About Food episode. In that story I looked at examples of a food forest, or forest garden, where humans plan out, plant and harvest from perennial food sources like fruits, nuts, edible greens, and mushrooms. 

I was also intrigued by the idea of foraging in the wild; of harvesting what life produces on its own and leaves us for the taking, season after season, year after year.

I recently reached out to two expert foragers who forage very different ecosystems. Twila Cassadore lives in Arizona. Sam Thayer is in Wisconsin. They share with me how they got into foraging, what they get out of it – which goes beyond better taste, higher nutritive density, and cost -- and how many of us can also benefit from harvesting what nature sows.

Regenerative agriculture is practiced on a very small percentage of total farm and ranchland in the U.S., maybe 3-5%. This figure is growing by the day because it is a sustainable approach to growing and raising food that also mitigates some of the effects of climate change.

This is Part 2 of a two-part story. It looks at how and why food grown using regenerative agriculture practices tastes better and can be better for you, then delves into the challenges and opportunities around upending the current model of agriculture and the food system it supports.

First, Allen Williams and Gabe Brown, farmers/ranchers and consultants with Understanding Ag talk about the importance of biologically active soil in improving both the taste profile and nutrient density of food.

Suzan Erem, director of Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, and Jack Algiere, farm director at Stone Barns Center paint a  picture of the challenges farmers face in making the switch, as well as possible ways to provide incentives to embrace regenerative farming: providing access to affordable land and more equitable ways of sharing equity and profits.

Rebecca Chesney of IDEO, a global design firm, talks about the surprising level of collaboration and commitment from food makers and distributors to enabling regenerative agriculture by building and/or evolving both physical and information infrastructure.

I talk with Monica Rocchino, co-owner of The Local Butcher Shop, a custom butchery in Berkeley, CA that buys directly from local farmers and ranchers who grow and raise food sustainably. More of her suppliers are calling themselves “soil farmers” and more of her customers are asking about regenerative agriculture.

Finally, I share my thoughts on what each one of us, as consumers and eaters, can do to help create a market for foods grown using regenerative agriculture practices. This touches on where, how, and what we buy.

Antonio Vivaldi violin concerti courtesy of John Harrison Music

In this blog post I muse about lentils, chickpeas, and beans (the magical fruit) on the heels of World Pulses Day, a day set aside by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to sing the praises of pulses.

Audio blog post musings about the rise of large-scale indoor farming and what we might miss by not growing stuff in the rich soil of a  good vegetable patch. 

Regenerative agriculture is practiced on a very small percentage of total farm and ranch land in the U.S., maybe 3-5%. This figure is growing by the day because it is a sustainable approach to growing and raising food that also mitigates some of the effects of climate change.

This is Part 1 of a two-part story. It seeks to define what regenerative agriculture is, how it’s different from conventional agriculture, and why we should care. Part II will delve into the challenges and opportunities around upending the current model of agriculture and the food system it supports, including our role as consumers in this system.

Matt Ridenour, Senior Portfolio Lead at IDEO, a global design company, helps me set the stage by sharing an overview of the Rockefeller Foundation's Food System Vision Prize and the emergence of regenerative agriculture as a major theme. 

Jack Algiere, farm director at Stone Barns Center, gives us a snapshot of what happens on their land. Stone Barns is one the pioneers in the regenerative agriculture movement.

Then, I try to define more broadly what is regenerative agriculture. On one level, it is a set of principles and practices. Gabe Brown and Allen Williams, farmers, ranchers, and consulting educators at Understanding Ag lay out their approach.

Regenerative agriculture is also an ethos; a value system that advocates for a more equitable relationship across the food chain. Rebecca Chesney, who leads much of IDEO’s work on redesigning the food system, and Linyee Yuan, Founder and Editor at MOLD, a platform exploring the future of food, expand on this shift in philosophy.

 Finally, Allen Johnson helps me look at why we should care about considering this alternative but disruptive approach to growing and raising food. The starting point is a dire picture of soil health and fertility, and the resulting environmental challenges. On top of that, the inequalities in the food system that flows from conventional agriculture are reason enough, for some, to embrace a reimagined system underpinned by regenerative agriculture.

Sounds courtesy of diegolarat freesound.org
Image courtesy of Gabe Brown of Brown's Ranch near Bismarck, ND

Audio blog post sparked by perusing a new book called "Digital Food - From Paddock to Platform."  I muse about how food factors into the digital world of photo sharing, online video content, and meal sharing apps.

1 in 7 humans is involved in growing or getting food to the rest of us. Should and will the other 6 do more to help mankind do so sustainably? The UN thinks so.

Audio blog post about how we are, out of necessity, exploring the fringes of what we've considered edible; on land, and at  sea.