In today’s episode, Jay discusses the soybean industry, and of soybean’s use throughout of food system. Is livestock actually eating all of our grain, or may there be something else afoot in this industry?

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References can be found at this link.

In the first episode of the "Farting Up a Storm" series, Jay & Ashlee seek to push back on four untruths that livestock industry opponents claim to be true. We use peer-reviewed research, meta-analyses and pure common sense to help the listener become more informed about the livestock industry, ecology, soil and more.

The 4 Untruths of Livestock Production Systems:

1. Livestock will never be carbon neutral because they emit greenhouse gases
2. Livestock production on pasture cannot sequester carbon.
3. A large portion of arable crops grown are consumed by livestock
4. If we switch to a plant-based diet, we can take huge amounts of land out of production

Unfortunately, our recording equipment malfunctioned during the recording of this podcast. We did our best to edit out the audio issues, but we ask you to overlook the audio static in this podcast. The juice is worth the squeeze.

PSA: If any words, acronyms, definitions and/or descriptions escape your understanding, we ask you to pause the podcast and look up what they are. The path towards wisdom is slow and deliberate.

References can be found at this link.

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In today's episode, Jay & Ashlee speak with Brian Herbel who is based in the Bitterroot valley of Montana. He earned his master's degree in Anthropology & Archaeology, and currently owns and operates Rabbitbrush Archeological Services. https://www.rbasmontana.com/

In addition, Brian, along with his partner Jen, operate Verdure Pastures, a niche-market farm in Victor, MT Instagram: @verdure_pastures

Topics Covered: Fashion companies pretending they know how farmers should practice their craft, Lithic technologies, projectile point design, Clovis points, Folsom points, seriation dating, Indigenous elders making jokes of you in native tongue, what humans did with canoes and some stars, Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, 1980 Mount Saint Helens eruption and ash deposition across the West, late-onset musicians, near-death experience in climbing, developing markets for your farm, Mangalitsa pigs, niche-market farming, value-added products, division of labor in farming with your partner, finding 10,000 year old archaeological sites next to unexploded white phosphorous grenades, burnout in farming.

Grazed & Confused - Report from Food Climate Research Network

Charlie Larson is a Molecular Biologist here in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. He has spent 25 years researching host pathogen interactions. He was formerly the President of the Bitterroot Water Forum (now known as the Bitterroot Water Partnership) and spent 3 years on the board of directors.

Topics Covered: Salmon Fishing in BC, Alexandra Morton & saving wild salmon fisheries, the inland estuary of Puget Sound, the nitty gritty of bacterial life, pathogenic bacteria & host response, bacterial communication, sensory perception of Angler Fish and dogs, genetically modified bacteria and the production of industrial and consumer goods, Nitrogen-fixing endophytic bacteria and their relationship with plants, antibiotic usage and downstream effects, glyphosate toxicity, pathogenic bacteria mutating from glyphosate application, the Bacillus genus and Anthrax

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Jay & Ashlee speak with Roger Moore. Roger is a retired Staff Scientist who worked at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Hamilton, Montana. He has a PhD in Organic Chemistry, with a focus on synthetic chemistry and prion diseases.

Topics Covered: Prion Diseases, Peak oil & implications for our future, At-home gardening as a silent protest, Haber-Bosch & industrial nitrogen fixation, nitrogen fixation & soil organic matter (SOM), glyphosate toxicity, shikimate pathway & the production of aromatic amino acids, how to calculate your crops' Nitrogen requirements, how to dissociate yourself with Big Ag, closing the loop on the carbon & nitrogen cycle on farm.

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Papers Referenced:

Fan et al. 2017 - doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2017.09.015

Zhan et al. 2018 - doi:10.1007/s00253-018-9035-0

Singh et al. 2020 - doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207519

Reddy et al. 2004 - https://doi.org/10.1021/jf049605v

Serra et al. 2013 - doi: 10.1093/jxb/ert119

Glyphosate Contamination in our Food

How to calculate Nitrogen requirements for your crops

Today's interview is with Lily Keene, Lily is a young farmer trying to navigate the start of her career in order to determine the kind of farming she'd like to pursue. She currently works at our Fern Co., our USDA organic vegetable farm.

Connect with us: website or Instagram

Support our show by visiting our Patreon page

Connect with us: website or Instagram

Support our show by visiting our Patreon page

Topics covered:

"Success is not conditional upon stress."

Frost hits our farm on the eve of summer solstice

How to cook and prepare hakurei, kale and garlic scapes

Don't cook your lettuce

1. Spring time weather
2. Risk of hail, excessive rain, frost and heat.
3. Oh boy is Spring busy on the farm
4. Thinking about fall storage crops
5. Life cycle of alliums: garlic, onion & leek
6. Current seasonal produce in Montana
7. How to get an earlier harvest in Spring at home or on farm
8. When to plant warm-season crops outside in Montana
9. What can be planted in early summer?
10. Hey Farmers, are early season warm-weather crops worth it? Benefits and drawbacks
11. Buy seeds from reputable suppliers
12. Open-pollinated vs. F-1 hybrid seeds
13. Where do OP seeds and F-1 hybrids fit into a sustainable agricultural industry