Educasting Study Guide on Food, Sustainability, and Society
Healing Harvest: Agricultural Innovators Plan Seeds of Renewal
Introduction: Zenobia Barlow of the Center for Ecoliteracy
Track 1: Program Synopsis
As the general public becomes more aware of the troubling economic, health, safety, and environmental problems caused by the modern American food system, a new generation of innovative farmers is stepping up to the plate to turn our food system back onto a sustainable track. Entrepreneurs across the country are taking business risks based on their convictions that our food system can and should be more community-based, with food grown largely in one’s own locale in ways that protect the earth and its resources as well as human health.Host Mark Sommer talks with several of these pioneering agricultural entrepreneurs who are using alternative growing techniques that are effective, productive, and financially sustainable. Moreover, they are growing food that is safer, healthier, and more nutritious. Guests in this program include Joel Salatin, an innovative organic farmer in Virginia; Walter Robb, president of the Whole Foods organic supermarket chain; John Jeavons, a bio-intensive farmer/teacher in California; Joan Gussow, a well-known food author and retired Columbia University professor; and Mary Keehn, a gourmet goat cheese producer in Northern California.
Track 2: Joel Salatin
Owner and farmer of Poly Face Farm, located in Virginia
Guest Bio:
Joel Salatin is one of America’s premier grass farmers, having learned after his family bought Polyface farm, in Swoope, Virginia, in 1961 -- when he was a young boy. His speaking and writing reflects dirt-under-the-fingernails experience punctuated with mischievous humor. He passionately defends small farms and local food systems –- and the mission of his farm is to develop agricultural prototypes that are environmentally, economically and emotionally enhancing.
www.polyfacefarms.com
Track 3: Walter Robb
President of the Whole Foods organic supermarket chain
Guest Bio:
Walter Robb is the Co-President and chief operating officer of the multi-store Whole Foods Market. The Stanford graduate started in Mill Valley, California, ran 17 stores in the region and served on the board of directors of the Organic Trade Association. Whole Foods Market is a mission-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers.
http://www.organic-center.org/about.board.php?action=detail&bios_id=13
Track 4: John Jeavons
Ecology Action
Guest Bio:
John Heavens executive director of Ecology Action, is the pioneering creator of bio-intensive sustainable mini-farming and author of it’ textbook How to Grow More Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Van Imagine. The Yale graduate has also written or edited more than 30 other publications and advises biointensive projects on five continents as well the U.S.
www.growbiointensive.org
Track 5: Joan Dye Gussow
Author and retired professor of nutrition at Columbia University
Guest Bio:
Joan Dye Gussow professor emeritus and former head of the nutrition education department at Columbia, invented a course called Nutritional Ecology. Then she shared its contents in her latest book, This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader, about eating well year-round from an average lot in the suburbs of Piermont, N.Y. The acclaimed nutritionist chairs the board of Just Food, advises the “Soul Food” project in Harlem and serves on the board of the Sustainability Fund.
http://www.reapfoodgroup.org/FFTF2005/index.htm
Track 6: Mary Keehn
Entrepreneurial owner of Cypress Grove Chevre, a gourmet goat cheese company in Northern California
Guest Bio:
Mary Keehn is a renowned cheese maker and founder of the medal-winning goat cheese company Cypress Grove Chevre in Humboldt County, California. Wanting a source of healthful milk for her children, she began raising Alpine goats in the 1970s. But as her goat stock continued to improve, she was faced with an unexpected consequence: surplus milk from 50 goats! So she began dabbling with cheese-making, made the move from kitchen hobbyist to entrepreneur. Today, renowned for its innovative range of fresh, aged and ripened cheeses — many invented by Mary Keehn — Cypress Grove is a leader in the domestic goat cheese market.
http://www.cypressgrovechevre.com
Closing: Zenobia Barlow