61. The Real Price of Food w/ Greg Reese

In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we sit down with Greg Reese, first-generation farmer and farm manager at Fox Point Farms - a working agrihood community in Encinitas, California. Greg didn't grow up on a farm. He grew up in the suburbs, stumbled into organic food through a farm-to-table restaurant job in his mid-twenties, and spent the next decade piecing together an education from backyard gardens, WWOOFing trips to Costa Rica, rainwater harvesting work, school gardens, indigenous land partnerships, and small urban farms. That winding, mentor-rich path eventually led him to the farm he manages now: a two-and-a-half-acre regenerative operation embedded in a 250-home community, with a restaurant, market, brewery, and apothecary all on site.Tune in to learn more about:The moment Greg realized organic food tasted and felt different, and what that curiosity unlockedThe difference between gardening and farming, and how scale, markets, and business thinking change everythingWhat an agrihood is, why the concept resonates deeply, and how Fox Point Farms came to beWhy cutting out the supply chain middleman is one of the most powerful things a small farmer can doThe true cost of food: land, labor, water, machinery, government subsidies, and why "cheap" conventional produce is only cheap on the surfaceWhy Americans spend less of their income on food than almost any other developed nation, and what that says about our prioritiesThe race to the bottom on food prices, and why Greg refuses to participateGreg's step-by-step advice for anyone who wants to get started in farmingHow agritourism (farm dinners, animal encounters, U-picks, school visits) is becoming essential to the small farm business modelConnect + Learn More:Follow Greg’s Instagram: @farmergreg_officialCheck out Fox Point Farms: @foxpointfarmsWebsite: foxpointfarms.com Connect with Hannah: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@hannahkeitel ⁠⁠⁠