Humans have used fermentation to preserve crops and add flavor and health benefits to their diets for thousands of years. Since 2015, Sarah Conezio and Isaiah Billington have been putting their own stamp on that age-old tradition with Keepwell Vinegar. Together, they partner directly with small, organic farms to turn apples, ginger, and persimmons into specialty vinegars, farro into miso, and soybeans into soy sauce, bottling the Mid-Atlantic’s seasonal bounty. Home cooks and the best chefs...

Whether they’ve grazed on grass their entire lives, been raised in an organic system, or lived on a conventional dairy farm, the vast majority of dairy cows get sold into the commodity beef system when they’re retired and get integrated into the same cheap meat supply. With Butter Meat Co, Jill Gould is betting on a different model. By selling retired organic dairy cows directly in her local community in Western New York and online, she’s working to get struggling organic dairies higher...

America’s farmers are aging rapidly, and those looking to sell their land are finding no shortage of buyers. Billionaires, global corporations, investment firms, and developers are all buying up farmland for profit at a quick clip, driving up prices and making it nearly impossible for young and beginning farmers without accumulated wealth to afford their own acreage to plant and harvest. “Farmers Need Equitable Access to Land Now” is the message behind the National Young Farmers Coalition’s...

Adrien de Botin and his wife Carolina Prioglio are the husband-and-wife founders of Maison/Made, and to make the certified biodynamic skin-care products that they sell, they grow their own medicinal herbs on a family farm in Burgundy and have built a network of small farm suppliers around the world. In this episode, host Lisa Held talks to de Botin about the couple’s efforts—from the specifics of biodynamic practices and why they matter, to how biodynamic farming, a system focused on...

Over the past decade, hummus has exploded in popularity in the U.S, but compared to the many brands that now line shelves at every supermarket, Little Sesame is doing things differently. The Washington D.C. fast casual restaurant, which now also sells its hummus at Whole Foods and other stores in the region, gets all of its chickpeas from a single Montana farmer who is pushing the envelope on climate-friendly farming with his organic, regenerative practices. In this episode, host Lisa Held...

While USDA-certified organic food still accounts for a small fraction of total U.S. food sales, it’s now big business. In 2020, data from the Organic Trade Association showed sales of organic food rose at a record rate to a new high of $56.4 billion, and as the industry has become more lucrative, fraud and cheating have increased. The Cornucopia Institute is a non-profit watchdog organization that has been working to hold companies and the USDA accountable to organic’s original ideals around...

When Alice Waters opened her trailblazing California restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971, she launched what would become a movement around truly seasonal cooking and eating that could support farmers, communities, and the environment. In 1995, Waters also started the Edible Schoolyard Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching children about food and transforming the public education system. To mark the Edible Schoolyard Project’s 25th anniversary, in this episode, host Lisa Held...

On September 23, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the first UN Food Systems Summit, with a goal of “setting the stage for global food systems transformation.” In this episode, Ruth Richardson, the executive director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, talks to host Lisa Held about the significance of the Summit, some of the controversies surrounding it, and what she thinks global food systems transformation should look like—from a shift toward...

Extra virgin olive oil is a delicious, healthy, pantry staple. It can also be a luxury product for special dining experiences. However, most olive oil in the world is low quality and highly processed. What does producing a truly great extra virgin olive oil—from farm to bottle—actually involve? Armando Manni is the founder of Manni Organic Olive Oil in Tuscany, and his high-antioxidant, long-lasting, organic oils are used by some of the best chefs in the world. In this episode, host Lisa Held...

Cover crops are good for soil health, water quality, and climate resilience, and while more farmers are planting them compared to a decade ago, the number of covered acres is still miniscule compared to the amount of cropland that goes bare each winter. Now, a new analysis from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that in crucial Midwest states, increases in cover crop planting might be plateauing. In this episode, EWG director of spatial analysis Soren Rundquist joins host Lisa Held...

Lindsey Lusher Shute began working on the concept for GrownBy during her time at the National Young Farmers Coalition, because young farmers expressed a need for better technology that could help them sell their food. Now, after testing the platform during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic on her own farm in the Hudson Valley and several others, the app is up and running with 160 farms around the country. In this episode, Lusher Shute talks to host Lisa Held about how GrownBy works, a...

After observing how much the quality and variety of produce sold in grocery stores differed in neighborhoods across St. Louis, Tyrean Lewis started Heru Urban Farming to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to food apartheid communities. In this episode, he talks to host Lisa Held about growing the farm to four different plots in the city, how his family’s history in agriculture inspires and guides him, and bringing local young people onto the farm for job training and healing.

The American agricultural system was built based on the enslavement of African people, and since emancipation, systematic discrimination against Black people within agriculture has persisted. In 1920, close to 1 million Black farmers made up about 14 percent of America’s farmers. In 2017, less than 50,000 Black farmers remained, making up just over 1 percent. In this episode, Dania Davy joins host Lisa Held to talk about the impacts of land loss, her work helping Black farmers and families...

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people began buying more local food directly from small farms in their communities, and some farmers scrambled to meet increased demand. A year later, as planting kicks off for the 2021 season, they’re asking: What now? Will customers keep coming back? Will they go back to old grocery habits? In this episode, host Lisa Held talks to farmer Becky Fullam—of Old Ford Farm in New York’s Hudson Valley—about what the past year has been like and why she’s...

From massive venture capital-funded vertical farms and rooftop CSA operations to community gardens and windowsill pots, what does growing food in cities look like? And, more importantly, why are people doing it? That’s the focus of Fields, a new podcast on Heritage Radio Network. In this episode, Lisa Held interviews Melissa Metrick and Wythe Marschall, the hosts of Fields, about how they got interested in urban agriculture and the kinds of stories they’re digging into as they explore urban...

Organic Valley is America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers, representing more than 1,800 farmers in 34 US States, most in dairy. You’ve likely seen their milk, yogurt, and cheeses at the grocery store. This month, the company released its 2021 Impact Report. In this episode, Nicole Rakobitsch, Organic Valley’s director of sustainability, joins host Lisa Held to talk about some of the environmental initiatives and metrics in that report—from renewable energy projects to carbon farming.

President Joe Biden took office 21 days ago, and the White House is already making moves that will affect food and agriculture. Plus, the shift in Congress means it’s also a new chapter for food and farm legislation. In this episode, Eric Deeble—policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)— joins host Lisa Held to talk about what’s ahead. They discuss address racial equity, climate action via conservation programs, and much more.

The Pasa conference is one of the year's most popular events for sustainable and organic farmers—in Pennsylvania and beyond. As it kicks off (digitally), executive director Hannah Smith-Brubaker talks to host Lisa Held about the important topics represented this year and how the state of Pennsylvania is supporting agriculture in unique, forward-thinking ways.

Most capital invested in agriculture in the U.S. flows to large, commodity farms. For smaller operations that don’t fit the conventional mold, it can be difficult—if not impossible—to get a loan. Steward aims to change that by connecting online investors to small- and mid-size sustainable farms. In this episode, founder and CEO Dan Miller talks to host Lisa Held about how the company is serving farmers and funding the production of better, environmentally-friendly crops, from vegetables grown...

Forecasts point to the market for plant- and cell-based meat alternatives exploding over the next decade, largely because of the sustainability claims companies make when marketing these food products. But while it’s true that diets that include more plants and fewer animal products (especially beef) have climate benefits, burgers and nuggets engineered and processed to mimic meat have different environmental impacts than a bowl of rice and beans. And there’s been very little research so far...

Centralized, uber-efficient, industrialized agriculture is often presented as necessary to “feed the world.” In his new book, Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, veteran food, agriculture, and climate journalist Tom Philpott argues the opposite: that “industrial agriculture, as currently practiced, threatens the food security of everyone who now relies on it for sustenance.” In this episode, he talks to host Lisa Held about his reporting on the...

Producing food requires land. As a result, forests are often razed to make space for crops or animals, creating environmental tradeoffs. But what if there were a middle ground between forest and farmland? In this episode, host Lisa Held explores the concept of agroforestry with Jacob Grace, a program manager at the Savanna Institute based in Madison, Wisconsin. They discuss varied agroforestry practices like alley cropping and silvopasture, potential environmental benefits such as carbon...

Vital Farms started on a Texas farm with 20 chickens. This year, the pasture-raised egg company went public. In between, the company bucked the typical model of scaling up in animal agriculture by building a network of small farms that all keep their hens outside on pasture, rather than building bigger, more concentrated, confined farms. In this episode, CEO Russell Diez-Canseco talks to host Lisa Held about what that approach looks like, from contract farming to “conscious capitalism.”

When it comes to election day, political pundits love to discuss which way “farmers” are going to vote. In the case of this election, the prevailing idea is that most farmers—especially commodity growers in the Midwest—will vote for President Trump. Many will. But farmers are a diverse group with diverse political opinions. In this episode, Ohio farmer and political organizer John Russell offers one unique perspective from the field. Russell is working with a super PAC called Rural Vote to...