The Stories Behind Our Food | An Equal Exchange Podcast

Dreaming about quitting your day job? Food blogger and photographer Chelsea Colbath decided to pursue her passion for food full time. She joined us to talk about Baked Greens, her food-focused blog and photography business. A participant in Equal Exchange's organizing work, she's engaged in exploring the importance of community and what it means to be an engaged citizen staying authentic in a world dominated by corporations. Chelsea also shared some of the fun sides of her work -- includ...

Did you know that pasture-raised beef can be carbon-negative? Neither did we! Charley Cummings, the founder and CEO of Walden Local Meat, started his business to help New England farmers bring their best cuts right to customers’ doors. His model shows that regenerative agriculture can benefit animal welfare, local economies and the environment, all at the same time. To kick off the second season of The Stories Behind Our Food, we traveled to snowy Billerica, MA to record this episode and...

Where do you go to find the most unusual spices? Former chef Ethan Frisch travels all over the world. More specifically, he seeks out farmers who are growing herbs and seasonings of exceptional quality, and through his company, Burlap & Barrel, he helps them connect with a global market. This month on The Stories Behind Our Food, Ethan joined us for a conversation about fair trade and the entrepreneurial spirit.You’ll hear how modern technology can allow a farmer in Vietnam to help a farm...

This month Shirley Sherrod joined us on The Stories Behind Our Food to talk about the half century she’s spent seeking justice for Black farmers. New Communities Inc. in Georgia was the first community land trust in the United States. Weathering discrimination, drought and outright sabotage, this organization has worked nonstop to build a better life for farmers. As the members of New Communities celebrate their 50th anniversary this year on land once owned by the largest slaveholder in the s...

It seems like there's so many choices when we're shopping for wine. It's easy to get dazzled, confused ... or intimidated. Join our guest Molly Madden, founder of RedHen Collective, who says it's time to take the elitism out of wine culture.RedHen is a cooperative feminist wine import and distribution company that's challenging the status quo. Right now, wine industry undermines its most valuable stakeholders: farmers, women, and people of color. Learn about how RedHen Collective is forging d...

Composting seems simple. Just throw your food scraps in a bin and let them decompose, right? It turns out there’s a lot more to it. We went to an expert, Igor Kharitonenkov, the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Boston-based pick-up service Bootstrap Compost, to answer all our questions about what happens to our food once we’re done with it. Listen in as Igor explains the scientific difference between landfill and compost, reveals some of the most disgusting things he’s fou...

Want to hear some activist war stories? After Rob Everts dropped out of college in 1975, he helped organize consumer boycotts of Gallo wine, Purina Dog Chow and Folgers coffee, building people power. Rob joins us on The Stories Behind Our Food to share some of what he’s learned in the last few decades from his mentors and from the young activists who inspire him today. Rob believes that there are still meaningful steps that average people can take -- beyond likes and clicks and "vote wit...

Bad news -- independent family farms are going extinct. Corporations control everything from seeds to supply and prices while chipping away at regulations that inform and protect consumers. It has left the independent food economy especially farmers, devoid of oxygen. How can we change the rules of the game? In this episode, join Joe Maxwell, executive director of the Organization for Competitive Markets as he explains how Big Food hurts American farmers, workers, and shoppers. We discus...

Lots of us like to fantasize about what a career in chocolate might be like. In this episode, Dary Goodrich gets real with us about his job as Chocolate Products Manager. Learn about the process for developing delicious new bars, like the intense 92% cacao Total Eclipse Dark Chocolate, and about the challenge of sourcing cacao from small-scale farmers in West Africa for the first time.

Cristina Liberati's job is to support farmers who are working to improve their crops and make their co-ops as stable as possible. She visits farmer cooperatives in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, coordinating projects funded by the US Agency for International Development. We talked with Cristina about what her routine is like on the day-to-day, how a co-op business can be kind of like a family, and how farmers can learn from each other!