Farm To Table Talk

Agriculture will reverse the dangerous levels of green house gases in the environment, if Ag follows a report prepared by leading scientists, reviewed by CAST (Center for Ag Science and Technology) and published by the US Farmers and Ranchers In Action. Dr.Marty Matlock, University of Arkansas and leading author of the repot explains how combining reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with increased carbon sequestration will achieve GHG-negative agriculture in five areas offering the most significant opportunities to offset Ag's roughly 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions: soil carbon management, nitrogen fertilizer management, animal production and management, crop yield gap, and efficient energy use. https://youtu.be/HwCR5_N8D8Y CAST: @CASTAgScience on all social media networks. USFRA: YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X.

To protect public health, the FDA’s Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program tests FDA-regulated foods shipped in interstate commerce to determine whether they comply with pesticide tolerances, or maximum residue levels, set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If the FDA finds that the amount of pesticide residue on a food is over the tolerance, or when a pesticide is found and there is no tolerance established, the FDA can take action. Sara McGrath, PhD, is a chemist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Human Foods Program. She is in the Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation where she focuses on monitoring chemical contaminants in foods broadly, with a focus on pesticides. To learn more about the FDA’s work to monitor the food supply for safe levels of pesticides, visit Pesticides. You can find the FDA Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program’s annual reports and accompanying data here: Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Reports and Data.

Climate change has become a partisan issue but really has not gotten as much attention as it needs in the current election. It's time for us and those we vote for to take an informed stand for our climate. Rob Jackson is the Chair of the Global Carbon Project, a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy, and a professor of earth science at Stanford University. His book "The Clear Blue Sky" shows a bipartsan path hat can make needed change in decades rather than centuries. www.tintotheclearbluesky.com

Time is up and we need to choose who we support and consider what they support. Will they do what they say and is that good or bad? Among the big issues at stake are the future of our food and farms. Farmer and former Missouri Farm Bureau President, Blake Hurst joins Farm to Table Talk host Rodger Wasson to explore the issues that will effect our food system globally and locally that should be considered when our votes are cast. Screenshot

High tariffs have been promoted in the 2024 election season as a a way to deal with global adversaries and even a way to pay for reducing taxes. What would highter tariffs mean to consumers, farmers and the food/farm economy? What should we think of ideas like this? Missouri farmer Blake Hurst sums it up with a view that is being widely shared: "It's bonkers!

Craft Beef is successful so how about Craft Beef? Jeff and Kara Smith are the co-founders of Colorado Craft Beef, a company rooted in a multi-generational ranching legacy. Over the years, they’ve built a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer beef company that not only provides high-quality beef products but also connects people with agriculture, dispels common myths, and promotes pride in how we feed our families. Jeff Smith challenges old industry standards to generate new mindsets and value-added partnerships from ranch to table. www.coloradocraftbeef.com

Happiness can be found on the way from farm to table where we break bread together. Ezekiwee Anderson discovered happiness baking very special bread that led to Rize Up Sourdough. Rize Up's story began as a home-based quarantine sourdough project that quickly turned into a micro bakery. Within a year, Rize Up out grew Azikiwee’s backyard ovens. Overcome with a need to make a difference and hopefully inspire young Black bakers to think outside the traditional he shows how to be the change we seek -- sharing the love of delicious, thoughtfully baked bread. The Rize Up story is featured in a National Geographic produced film streaming on Hulu, "World Eats Bread". Rizeupsourdough.com

The Farm Bill is largely a Food Bill with over 80% of the programs in the area of public nutrition. The previous $867 billion Farm Bill was passed in 2018 but on September 30, 2024 it expired. The nation's farmers and consumers need a bipartisan solution says Adam Warthesoen, Organic Valley's Vice President of Government Affairs. To bring the farm story to the public and to celebrate National Farmers Day October 11, Organic Valley is bringing a firsthand farm experience to viewers live from small organic family farms, coast to coast, all day long. Anyone can join. Join Organic Valley farmers live from the field as we celebrate the hard work, dedication, and commitment to protecting where your food comes from! Farmer-member Tyler Webb livestreaming from the field in celebration of National Farmers Day.

An indigenous way of being may be just what the world needs - starting with an indigenous view of food. Decolonizing our diets will lead to an expansive palate that creates a relationship with traditional, seasonal, everyday foods. Karuk tribe member Sara Calvosa Olson is a food writer and editor living in the Bay Area with her husband and two sons. Her work dwells at the intersection of storytelling, Indigenous food systems, security, sovereignty, reconnection, and recipe development. ChimiNu'am is her book of Native California foodways for the contemporary kitchen. akihsara.com, @thefrybreadriot.

Roundup is a herbicide that has been controversial and the subject of lawsuits against Monsanto and now Bayer. Are we "headed to the last roundup" as go the lyrics to an ancient cowboy tune by Gene Autry? Missouri farmer Blake Hurst is the author of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about this prodcut that has saved armers from excessive tillage or back breaking hand hoeing of the past. He joins Farm To Table Talk while driving in his John Deere Combine to a field ready to harvest.

Cats and dogs should watch out for hungry immigrants according to recent political propaganda. Truth is that immigration is a necessity in the country and not a reason to keep our pets locked indoors. Farm To Table Talk returns with this podcast from earlier this year to remind us that immigration is essential for a functioning food system According to Steve Hubbard of the American Immigration Council, the H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program allows U.S. employers that face a shortage of domestic workers to hire foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs. Foreign help is being sought from over two-thirds of the counties in the U.S. www.american immigration council.org

Tricia Kovacs, Associate Deputy Administrator, AMS Help is needed and is at hand to build resilient local & regional food systems through the US Department of Agriculture. Tricia Kovacs is the Deputy Administrator of Transportation and Marketing programs rolling out to communities in every state. Learn about USDA local food programs discussed in the podcast: Regional Food Business Centers Program (Agricultural Marketing Service) Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (Agricultural Marketing Service) Local Agriculture Market Program (Agricultural Marketing Service) The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program (Food and Nutrition Service) Sign up to receive the “From the Ground Up” newsletter Learn about USDA AMS Grants and Opportunities View the Local and Regional Food Systems Resource Guide Learn about USDA careers: AMS Career Opportunities USAJobs (USDA) See other ways to stay connected: USDA AMS Linked In USDA AMS Instagram USDA Facebook To help provide schools with local foods, in addition to the FNS program at the link above, AMS established the Local Food for Schools Program Cooperative Agreement Program to strengthen the food system for schools by helping to build a fair, competitive, and resilient local food chain, and expand local and regional markets with an emphasis on purchasing from historically underserved producers and processors.

The proclaimed Farm To Fork Capital of America is Sacramento, California where the signature event of the Farm to Fork Festival is the Tower Bridge Dinner. Over 1,000 are on the Bridge to prepare, serve and enjoy a delicious locally grown and sourced dinner by some of the country’s top chefs and Northern California’s top farmers. The event is sponsored by Visit Sacramento and Farm To Table Talk's Rodger Wasson is on the Bridge at the dinner with Visit Sacramento's CEO, Mike Testa and two of the featured Chefs: Brock MacDonald of Beast & Beauty and Ceil Rhoodes II of Nash and Proper. The 2024 Tower Bridge Dinner was a terrific start to the Annual Farm To Fork Festival and perhaps an invitation to other parts of the country to challenge Sacramento for the title of Farm To Fork Capital. www.Visitsacramento.com https://www.farmtofork.com/events/the-tower-bridge-dinner/

A future filled with with vibrant rural and urban small farms is good for the farmers, their customers and their community. Small farms help build human capacity, revitalize communities, supply regional food systems, and foster ecological resilience in a changing world. Since 2001, the Cornell Small Farms Program has fostered programs that support and encourage the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms. Cornell Small Farm Program's Eric Frenay is able to walk the talk as a small farmer herself who sees the challenges and real progress. www.smallfarms.cornell.edu

In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania exclusive heritage chickens are being grown on family farms to the highest animal welfare standards- freely roaming pastures at a slower pace. Mike Charles is a 6th generation farmer and the founder and CEO of LaBelle Patrimoine. This Whole Foods Market All-Star Supplier of the Year and the Compassion in World Farming’s Good Chicken Award winner just earned the USDA’s regeneratively raised status and is certified to a Global Animal Partnership’s Step 4 (no other poultry operation has a higher rating). www.labelle-patrimoine.com

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is a labeling law that requires retailers, such as full-line grocery stores, supermarkets and club warehouse stores, to notify their customers of the source of certain foods; including muscle cut and ground meats: lamb, goat, and chicken; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts; and ginseng. Dr. Alexandria Fischer is with the Research and Rulemaking Branch of the USDA's Agriculutural Marketing Service that administers COOL@usda.gov . www.ams.usda.gov

Even when summer is over, the season peak flavor and nutrition in tomatoes is available all year long in cans or jars. Lycopene, the antioxidant compound that makes tomatoes red, is even more available in tomatoes that have been turned in to tomato products and has been shown to be protective for diseases from cardiovasular to cancers. What if it is more than just the lycopene in the tomatoes that make a difference. That is the question being pursued at the The Ohio State University by Dr. Jessica Coooperstone's Lab where positive protections have been found from tomatoes with or without lycopene. Just when it seems that the tomato story can't get any better, we learn about the role "Alpha Tomatine" and the potential of making a great product better. Jessica Cooperstone is Associate Professor in the department of Horticulture and Crop Science and the department of Food Science & Technology . www. CooperstoneLab.com

Just when our public discourse seems hopelessly divided, we can find hope in the discovery of common ground. Farm To Table brings back this promising message that was first published last winter but feels even more timely today than then. Josh and Rebecca Tickell are film-makers who bring us the story of regeneration that will repair the degeneration humans have caused the earth. That message is the documentary film, Common Ground, the highly anticipated sequel to Kiss the Ground which touched over 1 billion people globally and helped inspire the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to put $20 billion toward soil health. By fusing journalistic expose’ with deeply personal stories from people on the front lines of the food movement. The film Common Ground shows the power that farmers and eaters have to save a broken food system. Josh Tickell joins the Farm To Table Talk table to talk about alternative “regenerative” models of agriculture that will balance the climate, save our health and stabilize America’s economy – before it’s too late. In the 2024 election its encouraging to see candidates like Tim Walz boasting of their farm roots. Let's push for finding our common ground.

In food purchase priorities, somethings change a lot and some barely change at all. When it comes to food purchases the top considerations are still taste, price, health and convenience. What's new and rising on the list is "Environmental Sustainability", now an important consideration for about 30% of the population. These findings are in the Annual Food & Health Survey of IFIC the Internaional Food Information Council. Kris Solid, RD is the Research Senior Director for IFIC. To fill gaps in consumer knowledge about food it's important to identifiy current perceptions, beliefs and behavious. www.foodinsight.org

Immigration is essential for a functioning food system that otherwise suffers from growing labor shortages on farms, packing houses, processors and kitchens. The H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program allows U.S. employers that face a shortage of domestic workers to hire foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs. An American Immigration Council analysis, “The Expanding Role of H-2A Workers in U. S. Agriculture” reveals significant demand across the country with labor being sought from two thirds (2/3) of all counties in the U.S. Steve Hubbard, the Senior Data Scientist at the American Immigration says “Instead of vilifying migrant workers, we should champion and protect them for their vital support to America's food production. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org