Jeanne Carver is the award-winning founder and president of Shaniko Wool Company and current owner of Imperial Stock Ranch (est 1871) in Oregon. For over 20 years, she has been connecting the origins of food to fiber while strengthening local, regional, and domestic supply chains. Her mission began in 1999 when she and her husband Dan focused on selling environmentally friendly products. Jeanne now focuses on improving the wool, fossil fuel, and carbon emissions that come from her ranch, and has overseen the expansion of RWS certified American wool throughout the market. This includes the Ralph Lauren America Winter Olympic uniform program in 2018 and 2022.

Thanks to her work in taking American wool to global third-party standards and leading the measurement initiative, she has been awarded the American Sheep Industry Association’s 2023 Innovation Award. She was also chosen by the Textile Exchange to be the voice of Responsible Animal Fibers globally in the film they recently released. 

Jeanne's efforts have contributed significantly to the US Textile Industry and will potentially bring a new income stream to mid-size and smaller family ranches. This episode covers Jeanne’s journey as a rancher, scaling an ethically responsible business as CEO of Shaniko Wool Company, and the measurable data used to protect her sheep and the health of the soils and grasslands.

Topics Discussed

• Seeing the Earth Win and the legacy of Imperial Stock Ranch

• Loss of Salmon in Buck Hollow Creek & Buck Hollow Watershed Project

• The Power of Concerted Collaborative Conservation Efforts

• Free Enterprise Economy

• The Purpose of Grazing Animals

• The Power of Story in Stewardship & Heritage

• Working with Ralph Lauren on the Opening Ceremony USA Uniforms for Sochi 2014

• Third-party Certified Benchmarks

• Patagonia Responsible Wool Standard (RWS)

• Bringing Organic Cotton to Market

• Wool as a Miracle Fiber

• Scaling the Supply of Responsibly Sourced Wool in the USA

• Annual Audit Expense

• The Consequences of Separating Product from Place

• The New Nativa™ Regen-Shaniko Wool Program

• The Carbon Initiative with Dr. John Talbot with Oregon State University

• Winning the American Sheep Industry Association’s 2023 Innovation Award.

Episode Resources:

Use our promo code: TGD10 - for $10 off an order of $50 or more (expires June 15th. Limit to one use per customer) at https://www.trueleafmarket.com/

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🌻 About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

Grown up in East Tennessee with deep roots like Mary Kingsley, Jonathan McRay shares his day-to-day as he works in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. With an MA in Conflict Transformation and Restorative Justice, Jonathan has worked with Vine and Fig, Speakers Collective of Soul Fire Farm, and the Cambium Collective. He founded Silver Run Forest Farm along with his partner Cornelius Deppe, where he grows plants and is committed to cleansing the pollutants from our souls, society, and soil. An advocate of land care, transformative racial justice, and renewable energy sources, Jonathan sits down with Mary and Emma to discuss how his love of trees started it all, restorative justice, and collective land trusts.

Topics Discussed

• Appalachian tradition of "planting by the signs"

• How a Childhood in Central Appalachia Fostered a Love of Land

• The Riparian Nursery

• Collective Land Trusts and Decommodification of Farm Land

• Restorative Justice, its Critiques, and How to Practice It

• Questions to Ask Ourselves; What's Happened Here, Whose Responsibility is it to Make it Right, Who Needs to Participate to Bring Healing, and What are the Root Causes?

• Food Sovereignty and Ecological Restoration,

• Storytelling through Plants & Honoring Their Indigenous Partners

• Uprooting Racism in the Food System Trainings

• Land Ownership and Food System's White Supremacist Roots

• Supporting Black Farmers

• Mariame Kaba's Hope & James Hal Cone's Whose Earth Is It Anyway?

• The False Idea of Human Supremacy over Nature

• Jonathan's Native Plant Nursery & Folk School

• Agroforestry

• Watershed Health

Episode Resources:

Order their seeds today from superseeds.com and use our promo code: GOODDIRT15 for 15% off your entire order!

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🌻 About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

Mom of three girls and sustainable coffee shop owner Olivia Youngs is making waves in the coffee world one cup at a time. Simple Coffee Co. opened their doors in November of 2019 and since then, they’ve diverted more than 100k plastic/paper cups from landfill and saved countless tons of carbon. Instead of traditional paper cups, all of their to-go beverages are served in reusable glass jars. Customers can re-use the jar at all locations for a $1 discount per jar (the same price they pay at check out). Join us as we discuss the pursuit of slow living and sustainability in business and in life with this busy mom, writer and entrepreneur.

Topics discussed

• Olivia introduces herself, her background and early attraction to the coffee shop culture and the concept of the Paper-Cup Free Cafe

• Discussion of the term Zero -Waste 

• Olivia's journey into minimalism, slow fashion and sustainability ethics as a blogger

• Rana Plaza collapse 2013

• Her move to CO and the opening of the first coffee shop

• IMBY, an early slow fashion company

• BAR 9, a coffee shop in LA

• The cultural assumption of single use as normal

• Starbucks as the beginning of the coffee shop movement in the US 

• Discussion of the term Zero-Waste

• Where is Olivia with slow fashion now? 

• Giving ourselves and each other grace is slow living lifestyle decisions

• Terracycle and the possibility of community supported recycling in the shop

• Olivia's tiny living experience

• "Horror Vacui" and the concept of never enough time 

• Olivia's view of slow living

• What would Olivia do with a day alone?

• Circling back to the coffee culture discussion, the "Third Space" concept

Connect with Olivia:

• Website: Simple Coffee Co.

• Instagram: @liv__youngs

Order their seeds today from superseeds.com and use our promo code: GOODDIRT15 for 15% off your entire order!

About Lady Farmer:

• Our Website

• @weareladyfarmer on Instagram

• Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC

• Leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you!

• Email us at [email protected]

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.

Our guest today is Marianna Sparks, founder of Property Pro's, a property stewardship company with a mission to foster sustainability in the building industry. Marianna speaks to us today about the difference between demolition and deconstruction. We explore the staggering amounts of waste created by construction demolition every day, and how careful deconstruction offers a sustainable alternative to reuse megatons of building materials.

Driven by a desire to facilitate positive change, Marianna is constantly expanding her knowledge of environmental initiatives such as Circularity and Climate Justice. She leverages this knowledge to implement strategies for greater impact in creating more sustainability in a highly wasteful sector of our economy. Her role at Property Pro’s is multi-faceted with valuation, innovation, collaboration, research, participation in trade organizations, problem solving, content and report creation, education, and customer relations at the forefront.

Topics Discussed 

Connect with Marianna:

Order their seeds today from superseeds.com and use our promo code: GOODDIRT15 for 15% off your entire order!

About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.

In the second installment of this bonus series on sustainable weddings, Mary and Emma discuss the challenges of planning their family celebration without the excessive waste that is typical in the industry. With Emma’s big day coming up in just one month, Mary and Emma chat about their process and let us in on what they are thinking about in regards to sustainability and a wedding!

Topics Discussed

This episode is Sponsored by True Leaf Market:

Use our promo code: TGD10 - for $10 off an order of $50 or more (expires June 15th. Limit to one use per customer) at https://www.trueleafmarket.com/

About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered as medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.

Internationally acclaimed landscape designer, activist and bestselling author of The Garden Awakening and her newly released title We are the Ark, Mary Reynolds discusses her efforts to restore the earth through her global ARK campaign, (Acts of Restorative Kindness). She launched her career by achieving a gold medal for garden design at the Chelsea flower show in 2002, the story of which was made into a 2016 movie called “Dare to be Wild”. She later founded the global movement “We are the ARK”, an organization advocating for more wild spaces and to raise awareness of our current extinction event.

Topics Discussed

Connect with Mary:

Order their seeds today from superseeds.com and use our promo code: GOODDIRT15 for 15% off your entire order!

About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.

"Food as Medicine. Food as Culture. Food for our Future." is the slogan of Three Part Harmony Farm (TPH) owned and operated by Gail Taylor in northeast Washington, D.C. 

Three Part Harmony Farm is a diversified vegetable operation using agroecology and sustainable growing methods. They prioritize growing real food for real people. Since 2012 they have cared for a 2-acre plot of land in northeast DC owned by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The DC site has been in production since 2012 and has 64 permanent beds (1/2 acre of production) using a no-till system. The farm has been an important source of learning local food for the community and learning for aspiring farmers of color in the DMV, especially Black farmers.

Taylor is a member of the Black Dirt Farm Collective (BDFC), a group of farmers, academics, organizers, builders, and food entrepreneurs who own 24.5 acres in Brandywine, MD. The land is being developed to increase their offerings of food and black agrarian educational opportunities to individuals and organizations that wish to reconnect with their roots as Afro-descendant agrarian people. The collective created a written curriculum as a companion guide to their signature Afroecology training program which they use during Afroecology Encounters.

Topics discussed:

Connect with Gail:

About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.

Our guest on this episode is the host of Generation Anthropocene, a science podcast that explores planetary change. So, what is the Anthropocene? "The Anthropocene is a statement: Humanity is a geologic force, reshaping the earth’s surface. We are on par with ice ages and tectonic plates. But who, or what, is really in control? What are the limits of our power as a species, or as a society? How did we get here, and what are the forces that will shape this humbling and awe-inspiring new geologic age?” (genanhtro.com)

Michael Osborne is an academic and a digital content producer. As a graduate student at Stanford in 2012, he created Generation Anthropocene with fellow student Miles Traer as a response to the environmental crisis. Michael is both passionate and knowledgable, and brings a new and refreshing perspective to the topic of climate change.

This was one of those zoomed out conversations where we got to talk about some really big questions with a really smart guy. So what is the Anthropocene, and what does it have to do with The Good Dirt? Tune in to this fun and fascinating episode to find out!

Topics Discussed

Connect with Michael:

• Michael's Website

About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered as medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.

The school supply industry is filling our oceans and landfills with megatons of TRASH and consumers CAN choose to refuse, thanks to the paradigm shifting innovations of people like these two creative and passionate entrepreneurs. This was another great conversation where our guests really tell it like it is.

Heather Itzla and Nikki Kozlowski came together over their grave concern about plastic pollution. After many years of clean-ups, data collection and public education, they came to understand the scale of the problem. The amount of plastic produced annually outweighs all of humanity, and is now firmly documented in our air, soil, and water. Before they teamed up, Nikki was working to educate consumers on the massive amounts of waste coming from the restaurant industry. Heather, being a parent, and frustrated with the annual back-to-school prescription of cheap, disposable plastic supplies, had crowdfunded and stocked each classroom with plastic-free school supplies. The next step was to come together as co-founders of Wisdom Supply Co (B-Corp certified) to design Plastic-Free, Vinyl-Free + Spiral-Free School + Office supplies..." because the mass production of products creating permanent waste is outdated, shortsighted, and reckless." The more Wisdom Supply Co. grows, the more waste is prevented, and the more young minds are opened to an empowering new way of thinking about how everyday products are designed, and the absurdity of wasting / polluting the resources all life on earth depends on.

This Episode is Sponsored by Ettitude

Topics Discussed:

Connect with Heather and Wisdom Supply Co.:

• Website: www.wisdomsupplyco.com

About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered as medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.

In the first of this bonus series on sustainable weddings, Mary and Emma discuss the challenges of planning their family celebration without the excessive waste that is typical in the industry. With Emma’s big day coming up in a couple of months, Mary and Emma find themselves confronting the logistics behind their sustainable, low-waste goals for this event. 

Topics Discussed

This episode is Sponsored by True Leaf Market:

Use our promo code: TGD10 - for $10 off an order of $50 or more (expires June 15th. Limit to one use per customer) at https://www.trueleafmarket.com/

About Lady Farmer:

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered as medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.