Episodes

Successful agriculture requires a continuous supply of new ideas and technology for farmers of all types to meet the demands of global and local markets, profitably. Over 100,000 from the farm to table global supply chain are once again making their way to the Central Valley of California to experience the World\’s largest outdoor farm show, the World Ag Expo. Marketing Manager, Jennifer Fawkes, shares the what is to be found and learned from over 1,000 exhibits, food tents, seminars and more; i...

\”Green Washing\” is a better recognized term than \”Humane Washing\” but it\’s the same idea of claiming to be as good as your customers want to hear. Exaggerations or plain mistruths take liberty with the true facts of the matter. Farm Forward is one organization that is watching and calling out retailers and others in the food chains that they believe are making animal welfare claims that cannot be substantiated. Ben Goldsmith is the Co-founder and Chief Strategist of Farm Forward and organiz...

Food is changing. How will we eat? That’s the question posed in the Farm To Table Talk Clubhouse room to Troy Hooper a multi- business entrepreneur in the hospitality space with a consulting practice to build and scale emerging brands. Troy and Rodger Wasson are joined live in the Clubhouse room by a large group of members. Joining the conversation “on stage” are Chef Dr. Mike, a cardiologist, professional chef and author; Regenerative Livestock Manager, Ben Glassen; farming entrepreneur Cindy B...

Nothing less than the future of the world is the focus of the gathering in Glasgow Scotland, known as COP 26. The California Secretary of Agriculture, Karen Ross was there to share the progress and goals of agriculture in California and from there talks with Farm To Table Talk host, Rodger Wasson.

Beth Hoffman was living the good life: she had a successful career as a journalist and professor, a comfortable home in San Francisco, and plenty of close friends and family. Yet in her late 40s, she and her husband decided to leave the big city and move to his family ranch in Iowa—all for the dream of becoming a farmer, to put into practice everything she had learned over decades of reporting on food and agriculture. There was just one problem: money.Half of America\’s two million farms made le...

The Chefs’ Manifesto is a chef-led project that brings together 1000+ chefs from around the world to help deliver a sustainable food system. As chefs bridge the gap between farm and fork, the Chefs’ Manifesto empowers chefs with a framework tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This framework consists of simple, practical actions chefs can take and are grouped in key areas. Paul Newnham, the Global Coordinator for Chef\’s Manifesto, sees Chefs as the Conduit between food prod...

COVID disruptions again showed that instead of dependence on a few global meat conglomerates, States and Provinces need more small-scale slaughter and cut-and-wrap facilities — creating skilled jobs throughout rural communities. The Biden Administration\’s commitment to increase fairness in livestock and poultry markets, and USDA’s new short-term funding for local meat processing, are a start. Coupling those with systemic solutions proposed in Congress and Legislatures will create Meat Processin...

In our ideal world the best farming finds its way to the best restaurants. One of those journeys leads to Allora in Sacramento where the best things in life belong together, food and wine. Allora is the dream of a sommelier and a chef; husband and wife. Two partners who love Sacramento and are infatuated with Italy. Featuring over 250 wines, fresh pasta made daily, and a commitment to sustainable seafood, Allora is the best of where they are from, of what they have experienced, and what is yet t...

\”Experience is everything,\” says Gigi Berardi, Ph.D., author of Food Wise: A Whole Systems Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Food Choices, “We all eat, but we make different choices about what to eat and how.” Improving how we make these choices can mean the difference between continued frustration with what we put in our bodies and a more healthful, meaningful relationship with food and nourishment. Food “Wise” stands for: whole, informed, sustainable and experienced-based thinking. She invi...

Rewilding can regenerate our relationship with nature/soil, sequester carbon, increase biodiversity, nourish foods and heal our communities. Rewilding is happening in Nelson County, Virginia with 100% grass-fed and finished cattle, heritage & holistically foraged pigs, and 100% grass-fed sheep on the Timshel Wildland –a 400-acre regenerative, process-led, and emergent conservation wildland. The owner, Daniel Firth Griffith, is an author, emergent conservationist and director of the Rabinia Insti...

World leaders have committed to tackling global hunger, climate change and biodiversity loss at an historic UN Food Systems Summit. More than 150 countries made commitments to transform their food systems, while championing greater participation and equity, especially amongst farmers, women, youth and indigenous groups. What is this global food system and why does it matter? After a full day of hearing Presidents, Prime Ministers and UN officials express their vision, Farm To Table Talk visits w...

Everything is changing down on the farm, except for the laws. How do farmers and ranchers keep up while they diversify in to direct to consumer sales, wedding sites, field dinners, local meat processing, pesticide drift, agri-tourism, cottage food, food safety liability, NIMBY neighbors, run off, carbon credits, etc? The trusty local lawyer may not have all the answers. That\’s why Rachel Armstrong created Farm Commons.

Call it what you will, the climate is weird and getting more dangerous. Still reactive blanket prescriptions for changing the world\’s diets must take in to account that over 800,000 people are subsisting on incomes of $2 per day. In these areas the most serious threat is physical and cognitive stunting of up to 30% of the children due to poor diets; however, global regenerative agriculture can reduce Green House Gases and still improve diets with better utilization of nutrient dense animal sour...

The world can draw down all of our Carbon emissions if agriculture fully embraced regenerative agriculture. Soils must be regularly monitored by probing carbon levels because the more that is in the soil the less is in the atmosphere. These themes are promoted by the Chico Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems to reduce greenhouse gasses, restore soil resiliency, increase the sustainability of farms and ranches, and address food and water insecurity. The co founder of the Cen...

Global regenerative abundance is the goal and holistic management is the way to get there. It\’s an abstract perspective at first, but when coached to this vision by the Savory Institute\’s Global Network Coordinator, Abbey Smith we get the picture. The Savory Institute sets out to regenerate the world\’s grasslands and in that journey regenerates farms, ranches, regions, communities and individuals who are committed to protecting the Earth and its population from predicted climate and food disa...

To cook, farm or eat in a different way requires taking that first step. On Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Ben Glassen has taken first steps in regeneratively raising animals and providing them to consumers who are taking their own first steps, reaping the benefits of regenerative livestock production. Ben\’s approach includes leasing (or borrowing) land, mobile infrastructure and direct marketing. Customers choose to purchase meat raised regeneratively for the health value, ethics of the...

COVID-19 forced thousands of farmers, fishermen, butchers, and food suppliers to make incredible changes that they had never imagined. Fortunately, in the emerging food chain, suppliers of all sizes can compete in the digital world at the intersection of technology and food. Joseph Lee, Co-Founder and CPO of Freshline shares the story of how new ventures like theirs have stepped up to create these links that are revolutionizing the way food efficiently gets from boats and farms to tables all ove...

What does Social Science have to do with our food system? Professor Silvia Secchi a Social Scientist at the Public Policy Center at the University of Iowa believes it has a key role to play as is clear by her favorite quote from T. W Shultz, \”It is especially the social sciences -economics, sociology and political science -which, if prosecuted with vigor reveal answers which are unpalatable to special interests.\” Today that vigorous prosecution can address issues facing women farmers, polluted...

If food insecure populations can\’t make it to food markets, bring it to them. With this idea and a grant from the California Department of Agriculture for a Farmers Market Food Truck, this is a dream come true in West Sacramento. Sara Bernal is the program manager for the West Sacramento Urban Farm Program and now with a vehicle the size of a traditional U Haul moving truck low income communities are able to shop for farm fresh foods in their own neighborhoods. “With the seniors particularly bu...

Food waste presents its own serious crisis. As awareness has risen about the impact of climate change on our environment, we are learning the significant role that food waste plays. In America, 40% of the food supply, from farm to table, is wasted. This excess food ends up in landfills where it creates methane gas, a major contributor to the warming of our planet. Vegetables, fruit, milk, and other nutritious foods fill our landfills. At a time when there is so much hunger in our country, we are...

Before he became the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson envisioned a country of \’citizen farmers\’ who would be engaged in government. Jefferson would have been pleased with citizens like Iowa farmer Francis Thicke and Vermont farmer Dave Chapman who climb off their tractors to Zoom with the Secretary of Agriculture about needed policy infrastructure repairs to the USDA Organic program. A thousand farmer have already joined with them to give consumers assurance of Real Organ...

If more of us pledged our head to clearer thinking, our heart to greater loyalty, our hands to larger service and our health to better living it would be better for us, our clubs, our community, our country and our world. That\’s been the 4-H pledge for generations, although our \”world\” is a welcome additional beneficiary. 4-H is not just for farm kids with animals. In many states the vast majority of young people in 4-H Clubs are in cities with a wide range of projects that often have more in...

Louis Bromfield planted seeds of the food revolution and reminds us to \”Never forget that agriculture is the oldest of the honorable professions and that always the good farmer is the fundamental citizen of any community, state or nation.\” We are reintroduced to the wisdom and vision of Louis Bromfield in the recently published book, \”The Planter of Modern Life\” by the author Stephen Heyman. He was introduced to the Bromfield books of nearly 75 years ago by Pennsylvania grass farmers, John a...

On-farm agriculture operations have been excluded from federal labor law since 1935. California filled this gap by creating its own law in 1975, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (“ALRA”) that gave union organizers the right to physically access the farm property in order to solicit support for unionization. Growers challenged this regulation as a state-sponsored “taking” of their property rights, without the just compensation guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to th...