Converting from industrial to regenerative agriculture: White Oak Pastures
Since the end of the civil war, White Oak Pastures has been in the Harris family, but their farming practices have ranged from 19th century subsistence farming to post-war industrial agriculture — and now larger scale regenerative farming. Will Harris has created a closed-loop, no-waste farm, whose goals include providing healthy food raised in a healthy manner, humane animal welfare practices, and revitalization of the rural community where they’re rooted.
More Episodes
Episode 141 – Establishing an earth-friendly meat business
Corporate meat producers tout their “efficiency” but actually wreak havoc on the environment, local communities, and the animals themselves. Cole Mannix is all about building resilient ecological and economic systems with the goal of long-term stability and prosperity.
Episode 140 – Taking it to the street––healthy food entrepreneurship
Tina Garcia-Shams is teaching every aspect of food truck entrepreneurship at the Street Food Institute, and their graduates are thriving––and serving healthy, local fare.
Episode 139 – Herding animals for land–and human–health
Traditional pastoral cultures have been living in harmony with animals and land for millennia––and they persist to this day, though with serious challenges. Ilse Köhler-Rollefson‘s new book shines a light on what they can teach us.
Episode 138 – Hydroponics, aquaponics, and sovereignty
Charlie Shultz is teaching students how to grow fish and plants in in mutually beneficial systems, as well as healthy, nutrient-dense greenhouse crops––all year round. It’s all about sustainable, local, healthy, and economically thriving food systems.
Episode 137 – Systems thinking: Coordinating after, during, and before disasters
Many entities, public and private, are working to help agrarians whose livelihoods are disrupted. But what do they do, how do they coordinate…and what are the sticky points?
Episode 136 – Technology-assisted regeneration—a new vision for ecological agriculture
Industrial agriculture imposes a simplified production model onto complex ecosystems––with dire consequences. A new book show how technology is now able to capture nature’s intricacies––and help agrarians to grow food more ecologically and more profitably.
Episode 135 – Wolves in the West: Finding common ground
After being driven almost to extinction, wolves are back in some of their natural habitat. A new podcast explores how ranchers, conservationists, and others are coming together to find paths toward peaceful co-habitation.
Episode 134 – De-commodifying land: Challenging your inner capitalist
As land prices and development pressures rise, agrarians and land stewards have a hard time buying and staying on land. Neil Thapar and Mariela Cedeño talk about strategies to convert land from a commodity to what it really is––habitat, ecosystems, and where we grow our food.
Episode 133 – Healing Grounds: The enduring cultures of regenerative agriculture
In her new book Liz Carlisle explores rich food traditions from the Americas, Asia, and Africa that have survived and thrived in the U.S.—and how they are helping to restore land and climate, and bring about a more just and humane world.
Episode 132 – Innovative approaches to regeneration on a California ranch
TomKat Ranch manager Mark Biaggi talks about dealing with winter floods, summer droughts, and degraded landscapes––and the process of continual experimentation that leads to dramatic regeneration of damaged land.
Episode 131 – Giant bison, mammoths, and eagles: a deep history of the American continent
The land and its creatures looked very different when the first people arrived on this continent. Dan Flores‘ book Wild New World traces human impact up to the present––and the choices we’re looking at now.
Episode 130 – Sustainable development, climate mitigation, and biochar
For decades Brando Crespi has been working in communities damaged by extractive industries. He makes the case that biochar can and should be part of a global strategy do reverse climate change and grow more food with less water.
Episode 129 – Bringing dead land back to life: a filmmaker’s perspective
In 1995 John Liu began documenting the Loess Plateau in China, a landscape ruined by poor agriculture practices. Over decades he documented its return to vibrant life, and filmed many other restoration projects worldwide.
Episode 128 – Sustaining Southwest Agriculture
Gary Paul Nabhan knows how to grow food that’s healthy and profitable––even during times of drought and climate disruption.
Episode 127 – A vibrant pecan oasis in the desert
Coley Burgess didn’t intend to do regenerative agriculture, but a series of happy accidents led him down a path toward healthier trees, a herd of animals, virtually no chemical or tractor use––and a more enjoyable life for himself and his family.
Episode 126 – The food-housing nexus
Professor Phil Warsaw noticed that in urban Black and Latino neighborhoods the price of housing near grocery stores was higher––but the same wasn’t true in more affluent White neighborhoods. Why? And how can planners balance food access and gentrification?