PODCAST · society
Farm To Table Talk
by Rodger Wasson
Is it best that our food is Local and Organic or Big and Conventional? Our view is “Both, and..” We don’t come to the table with a bias, except that good farming like good food comes in all shapes and sizes. Farm to Table Talk explores issues and the growing interest in the story of how and where the food on our tables is produced, processed and marketed. The host, Rodger Wasson is a food and agriculture veteran. Although he was the first of his family to leave the grain and livestock farm after five generations farming in America, he’s continually worked for and with farmers though-out America and around the world. From directly managing commodity boards and councils to presently building the strategic consultancy, Idea Farming Inc., the Farm to Table Talk podcast has been created to satisfy the curiosity of today’s engaged consumers.
Episodes
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Consumers Want To Know – Andrew deCoriolis
Some say consumers don’t know enough about farming to have informed opinions on farming methods. Andrew deCoriolis, Executive Director of Farm Forward says that’s not true–Consumers do know how they want animals treated. Farm Forward is generally opposed to “factory farms” and is especially…
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Farm Teach Resilience – Kara Tupy
Kara Tupy and her family live near Chico, California on their Hidden Springs Family Ranch. In the aftermath of the worst wild fire in California’s history that destroyed the near by town of Paradise, Kara was insprired to create Farm Teach, a nonprofit that offers paid regenerative farming...
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Silent Spring, Seasons, Years – Elizabeth Hilborn
Some messages are worth hearing again such as this re-released classic from July 2023 with Elizabeth Hilborn. Over 60 years ago Rachel Carson warned of “Silent Spring (s)” to come from the harms of indiscriminate use of pesticides. Since then the threatening big picture has broadened to position...
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Wendell Berry – 1934 – 2026 R.I.P.
The only thing we should ask is: what is the right thing to do? That is what the Earth requires of us according to author/philosopher Wendell Berry. “We have the world to live in and the use of it to live from on the condition that we take care of it. And to take good care of it we have to know…
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Church Farms To Table – Pastor Heber Brown III
What began with encouraging churches to start gardens on church premises, has since grown to include encouraging congregations to make institutional purchases from Black farmers, host farmers markets, preferably on Sundays after church, and arrange tours of Black farms.
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Conservation Conversation – Bruce Knight
Bruce Knight describes himself as a “lifelong conservationist” following his father’s advice to “leave the land better than you found it,” He shares his journey from farming in South Dakota to leading the Natural Resources Conservation Service during the Bush administration to his role with...
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Global Views Local Use – Nick Ohrtman
Seeing the whole world every day can give food companies, farmers and consumers knowledge of crop issues, food supply now and in the future. Rodger interviews Nick Ohrtman from Earth Daily, a remote sensing analytics company, on the Farm to Table Talk podcast. Nick explains that Earth Daily has a...
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Holistic & Realistic – Allan Savory
Some conversations deserve a second hearing . In this episode we’re bringing back one of those conversations, Allan Savory. The cause of climate change is not animals or fossil fuel. It is how we manage all resources and we can start with grasslands of the world. Allan Savory, the founder of the...
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Farm To Table Journey – Rodger Wasson
Farm to table can be a journey that matters. This podcast appreciates the listeners who have downloaded over a million episodes and for the often inspiring guests who have generously shared the story of their journeys, from farm to table. Over the years of producing this podcast, I have been…
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Farms Fixing Earth’s Greenhouse – Marty Matlock
With current global, political and societal crises, the urgent need to fight climate change is being pushed to the edges. It’s not happening with Farm To Table Talk as we re-visit a podcast classic and the claim that Agriculture will reverse the dangerous levels of greenhouse gases in the...
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Locally Grown, Hospital Served- Santana Diaz, UC Davis Health
Sourcing food locally is an important frontier for the food system, from Farmers Markets, to Farm to Fork restaurants, schools, hospitals and more. Santana Diaz is the Execuctive Chef and Director of Culinary Operations at UC Davis Health in Sacramento, where it is a priority to source as much…
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Save Our Bacon….Crates? – Rodger Wasson
California voters approved Proposition 12 by a decisive 63% margin, establishing minimum space requirements for farm animals and restricting the sale of pork, eggs, and veal produced from animals confined in spaces smaller than those standards. For pork producers, the law effectively prohibits the...
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Food Is A National Security Issue – U.S.A. Representative Jim Costa
Food is a national security issue and passing an updated farm bill is of critical importance to both farmers and consumers, especially the food insecure. Rodger Wasson visits with Congressman Jim Costa, a leading member of the House of Representatives Agriculture committee, who voted for…
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Coffee Trail To Table – Andrew Salisbury
Coffee is good for us! Especially when it connects regenerative growing practices that stretch from indigenous tribes to our barista or home brewed for the cup to start every day. Andrew Salisbury found proof of the health benefits of coffee from the Vanderbilt University Institute of Coffee...
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Regenenerative Georgia Generalist – Will Harris
Regenerative means understanding the cycles of nature and operating within those cycles of nature, producing a bounty that is true profit created from sunlight, microbial life in the soil and rain water, generating more than was there. Will Harris practices what he preaches on his family's White...
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Strait Restricts Harvests In Transit -Peter Friedmann
Disruptions in shipping lanes such as in the Strait of Hormuz creates havoc in food supply and demand. This episode of Farm to Table Talk features Peter Friedmann from the Agriculture Transportation Coalition discussing the complex global supply chain challenges in moving agricultural products…
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You Can’t Dream Big Enough – Orion Samuelson (1935 -2026)
You can’t dream big enough was a challenge often heard from the widely acknowledged voice of Agriculture, Orion Samuelson. Just after graduating from college the host of Farm To Table Talk, Rodger Wasson had the good fortune to host a Radio Farm Show in Normal, Illinois and subsequently become...
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Growing Wise – Natalie Bogwalker
Natalie Bogwalker, c0-author of The New Natural Food Garden, discuses her journey from living in a log cabin to selling her business Wild Abundance and focusing on gardening education. She shared insights about her new book, which features beautiful photography and practical gardening advice, and...
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Genetic Modification – Felipe Ricachenevsky
Getting enough iron from the food we eat is something most of us take for granted, but about 2 billion people worldwide have an iron deficiency, the Number 1 nutritional deficiency globally. An international research team led by scientists in Brazil have come up with a way to boost iron content…
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Southern Farm To Tables – Chef Chris Rainosek
In May of 2014 The Noble South opened its doors and began crafting a restaurant based on a fresh farm-to-table approach. With a clear vision of incorporating the highest quality seasonal ingredients with style, The Noble South leans into relationships with local farms that use organic practices,...
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Farm Bill Moves – Representative Mike Thompson
A new farm bill has passed out of the House Agriculture Committee to be considered by Congress. If successful it will be the first Farm Bill passed since 2018. Commodity programs, crop insurance and foreign market development are increased but nutrition programs are not. SNAP cuts from recent...
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Homestead Preservation – Jeremy and Stacey Hill
In this episode of Farm to Table Talk, Rodger interviewed Jeremy and Stacey Hill about their homesteading practices and food preservation techniques. The Hills, who operate Gooseberry Bridge Farm in Missouri, shared their journey from suburban gardening to homesteading a 12-acre farm with dairy...
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Flash: Trump Tariffs Illegal – Congressman Jim Costa
The United States Supreme Court by a vote of 6 to 3 has struck down President Trump’s tariffs, to the relief of most farmers who have experienced severe financial losses and rising costs of farm inputs. The 2025 tariffs, imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IIEPA)…
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Robotic Agriculture – Jaisimha Rao
The future of agriculture will utilize the development and application of robotic technology. Jaisimha Rao explains a robotic machine that uses AI and cameras to distinguish between crops and weeds, then sprays herbicides specifically on weeds. There is potential of humanoid robots in…
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USDA Invests in Rural Infrastructure- Chris Roach
At a time when America’s meat industry faces increasing consolidation, fragile supply chains, and the closure of rural processing facilities, Better For Butchery’s acquisition of the Princeton Kentucky plant represents a rare, forward-looking investment in independent meat infrastructure. Backed…
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Food 2030 – Ozan Ozaskinli
2030 will be here before you know it with a new world for food. .Ozan Ozaskinli is a Food Futurist and manufacturing strategist who's asking questions about the future of what we eat and how we'll produce it. He's led transformation projects across 17 industries, spent 20+ years at firms like…
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Speak Out For Change – US Senator Adam Schiff
For the first time in 30 years America’s top Agriculture state, California, finally has a member on the Agriculture Committee of the US Senate, Senator Adam Schiff. Speaking to over a thousand farmers at Eco Farm, Senator Schiff called on farmers and consumers to engage and to make their voices...
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Something Good – Carolyn Givens
There is something good about local farms supporting schools, distributingCSA (Community Supported Agriculture), hosting a market at the farm and selling organic produce at area Farmers Markets. A farming program that delivers goodness in all these ways is aptly named Something Good Organics....
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Wasted Potential – Jocelyn Boiteau and Prabhu Pingali
Each year, about 32% of the food produced across the world is lost or wasted. Tackling food loss and waste has been on the global agenda for decades, with policymakers citing it as a contributing factor to issues like food insecurity and environmental degradation. Despite this attention, food…
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2026 Farm Crisis? – Ray Yeung
Farmers across America are beginning to worry that 2026 is bringing a Farm Crisis comparable to the early 1980's when Willie Nelson launched Farm Aid to draw attention and support to the plight of farmers. Ray Yeung has been farming for over 40 years in northern California and although recently...
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Dark Matter Nutrition – Laszlow Barabasi
While nutrition science knows about 150 well-documented nutrients, there are approximately 135,000 additional molecules in foods that have health impacts but are not tracked in nutritional databases. Laszlow Barabasi, a physicist and network medicine researcher at Northeastern University and...
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Sowing & Reaping EcoFarm – Nancy Matsumoto
Rebuilding our regenerative supply chain is a priority focus of Eco Farm, where a panel of women lead the way in sharing what they're doing to make a difference. Led by "Reaping What She Sows" author Nancy Matsumoto, the keynote EcoFarm panel reveals how transparency and equity in the food system...
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Farmer’s Tweve Billion Dollar Bailout – Blake Hurst
Farmers are supoosed to share $12 billion dollars to make up for lost markets, higher costs and lower prices due to President' Trump's global trade war. The Wall Street Journal editorial said President Trump said he was "delighted to give American Farmers $12 Billion" in economic Assistance. The...
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Back At The Future – Rodger Wasson Clubhouse
Food innovators, farmers, chefs and foodies have been looking ahead for years, so in this Farm to Table Talk Podcast we go back to a conversation in Coubhoure that was looking ahead to now. Future episodes will be back to now and looking ahead tomorrow. Food is changing. How will we eat? That’s…
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Backyard Hobby Farm to Nationwide – Brittney Miller
A backyard hobby that started over 40 years ago has grown into a nationally recognized, family-owned business that produces more than 80,000 quail weekly, raisied responsibly, without antibiotics or hormones, and shipping premium products to chefs, retailers, and home cooks across the country....
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Table to Farm Chef Family – Steve and Candice MacLean
Steve and Candice MacLean, who grew up in New Jersey but have no farming background, transitioned from urban to rural farming after Steve's experience as a chef working with a farm. Inspired by sustainable farming practices, they decided to purchase a farm in the northwestern corner of New…
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It’s the Food – Scott Faber
Extreme steps taken to make food look more appealing, last longer and be addictively delicious is detrimental to our health. State Legislatures from West Virginia to California are not waiting for federal solutions. CA Asssembly-member Jesse Gabriel says "our public schools should not be serving...
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Allergic, Intolerant or Diet – Dylan McDonnell
In addition to wanting to know where their food comes from and where it's grown, thirty three million Americans have a diagnosed food allergy. Fifty million have an intolerance that is not technically allergic but certain foods disagree with them in some way. For a variety of reasons over seventy...
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Farmers, Families and SNAP – Gus Schumacher
When debates over SNAP funding heat up, it’s worth remembering leaders like Gus Schumacher ---the late USDA Under Secretary who championed farm-to-family connections and bipartisan solutions. This Farm To Table talk episode revisits his insights on SNAP innovation, nutrition incentives and…
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Real Rural Life – Jim Ennis
Real rural life today ranges from hope to nostalgic ideals to real world crisis that directly affect farmers and ranchers, their famiies, their communities and ultimately all of us. The rate of suicide in rural communities is 50 % higher than the rate in non-rural communities. And with farmers…
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Saké’s Napa Valley – Matt Bell
Hot Springs, Arkansas will soon be known as the Napa Valley of Saké if Matt Bell has his way. Saké rice grown in Central Arkansas supplies Origami Sake, the fastest growing US saké brand and the only US brewer to win a Gold Medal at the Tokyo Saké Challenge 2025. Origami is also the largest...
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Messed Our Nest – Art Cullen
Iowa has been under stress 50 years as the economy changed fundamentally from diverse independent farmers and business and a union to concentrated cooperative agriculture and Walmart, Dollar General and no union. Art Cullen won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for exposing what corporate agriculture was...
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Flu Flew In – Maurice Pitesky, DVM
Animals have been domesticated for 10,000 years and the current outbreak of avian flu is the largest and most complex animal disease outbreak in history, with serious risks beyond poultry. Avian influenza risk especially rises when waterfowl migrate in the fall, Maurice Pitesky, University of...
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Closed Loop Local Food – Leslie Person Ryan
How long can a community last if there were no open roads or grocery stores? During the tragic California fire caused mudslides of 2018, the town of Summerland was cut off from the rest of the world and the food supply chain. The devastating effects of the tragedy and the consequences of no…
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Feeding a Divided Country – Gilles Stockton
There is a growing rural urban divide and it is effecting our food system locally, globally and nationally, especially in this climate change era. Gilles Stockton is the owner and manager of a sheep and cattle ranch in Montana and an expert in livestock production, livestock marketing, and…
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Sacramento Farm To School at Terra Madre – Kelsey Nederveld, Alice Waters
Sacramento School District's Central Kitchen is revolutionizing the way to feed over 40,000 students with scratch made, nutritious, local foods. Kelsey Nederveld, is the Director of Nutrition Services at Sacramento City Unified School District, was instrumental in building and designing the...
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MAHA Make America Healthy Again Report – Professor Jerold Mande
The MAHA Commission Report to President Trump, outlines the administration's strategy to "Make Our Children Healthy Again". Professor Jerold Mande, CEO of Nourish Science and Rodger Wasson, host of Farm To Table Talk podcast, review the report and discuss what it is in it and what is missing....
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Best Farm Questions – Bill Moyers
Farm to Table Talk is about good conversations and no one was better at facilitating conversation than Bill Moyers who has passed away at the age of 91. A journalist, minister, Peace Corps and Great Society leader, Bill Moyers also showed his interest and support of farmers, such as his…
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Debunked By Nature – Mollie Englehart
When vegan chef Mollie Englehart finally became a farmer, she had the big idea to create a farm where nothing had to die. Animals would live out their days munching grass, with no blood on her hands--straight out of her vegan chef playbook. Mollie built her successful LA Vegan restaurants on that...
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More People, Worse Climate, Less Food – Richard Sexton
Climate change, population growth, demand for animal products, pest resistance to traditional treatments and misguided policies lead to food shortages and escalating food prices. In 2023, 733 million people faced hunger and 2.3 billion were moderately or severely food insecure. Policies to…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Is it best that our food is Local and Organic or Big and Conventional? Our view is “Both, and..” We don’t come to the table with a bias, except that good farming like good food comes in all shapes and sizes. Farm to Table Talk explores issues and the growing interest in the story of how and where the food on our tables is produced, processed and marketed. The host, Rodger Wasson is a food and agriculture veteran. Although he was the first of his family to leave the grain and livestock farm after five generations farming in America, he’s continually worked for and with farmers though-out America and around the world. From directly managing commodity boards and councils to presently building the strategic consultancy, Idea Farming Inc., the Farm to Table Talk podcast has been created to satisfy the curiosity of today’s engaged consumers.
HOSTED BY
Rodger Wasson
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Farm To Table Talk have?
Farm To Table Talk currently has 300 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Farm To Table Talk about?
Is it best that our food is Local and Organic or Big and Conventional? Our view is “Both, and..” We don’t come to the table with a bias, except that good farming like good food comes in all shapes and sizes. Farm to Table Talk explores issues and the growing interest in the story of how and where...
How often does Farm To Table Talk release new episodes?
Farm To Table Talk publishes regularly with 300 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Farm To Table Talk?
You can listen to Farm To Table Talk on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Farm To Table Talk?
Farm To Table Talk is created and hosted by Rodger Wasson.
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