Flipping the Table

Food is Medicine is a growing movement that recognizes healthy food as a powerful tool for preventing, managing, and even reversing chronic disease. Food is Medicine goes beyond treating illness and includes addressing the underlying conditions that shape health—from nutrition insecurity and healthcare access to the strength of local and regional food systems. 

Dr. Marion Nestle's 2002 book, Food Politics was instrumental in awakening the nation to the disfunction in America's food policy and its food system. She reflects on her path to food policy and shares her thinking about what she sees is important today for those seeking change

A former farmworker himself, gifted artist Narsiso Martinez, paints farmworker portraits on flattened produce boxes, which now hang in museums, galleries and homes. Narsiso is lifting up men and women that most people never see or hear, but upon whom our very lives depend.

In February 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order defining glyphosate as critical to national security. This created a firestorm among the mostly mother-powered stream of the MAHA movement insisting HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., eliminate risky or toxic chemicals from agriculture and food ingredients. Kelly Ryerson as a nationally recognized MAHA member, often seen lobbying Congress, shares her perspective on the current battle with the Administration.

It is rare for business-oriented folks to commit their lives to policy work. But the cofounders of Land Core are doing just that. With business backgrounds they understood how federal farm policy needed to change in order to create healthy and resilient agriculture. They are creating tools and farm bill programs that offer a brighter future by weaving bipartisan support for good soil policy.

Flipping the Table Co-host Coco Sanabria engages Mary Purdy, Sara Keough and Stephan van Vliet to answer the question can meat heal both our bodies & the environment? They share the emerging nutrient density science & how regeneratively raised meat supports human health while restoring ecosystems

The relationship between sheep & humans stretches back 12,000 years. These docile and productive animals provide delicious meat & high-quality fiber. Robert Irwin, Dylan Boeken and Sallie Calhoun share why lamb matters, how thoughtful grazing sustains ecosystems & how their industry can reduce toxic waste and us of herbicides, while it reduces fire danger

Chef Sara Jenkins of New York City fame shares her journey to open & run her convivial restaurant Nina June in the small town of Rockport, Maine

Technology is a powerful ally in advancing regenerative agriculture. Learn from CEO, Tom Richards, about Harvest Path, a new tool designed to help producers track practices, impacts, & financial results in order to support relationships with shoppers & wholesale buyers who value regeneration

Today's ag financing system traps most farmers & ranchers in debt. Zach Ducheneaux, rancher & former Administrator of USDA's Farm Services Agency, has a better approach allowing farmers & ranchers more time to grow & prosper. Learn about it in his conversation with Mark Squire, owner of Tara Firma Farms & CFO of Good Earth Natural Foods

Kathy Webster of TomKat Ranch Education Foundation discusses the value and importance of direct ranch to consumer sales with Carrie Richards of Richards Regenerative and Jason Walker of StarWalker Organic Farms. Learn how you can erode the power of the American meat oligopoly when you shop.

If you are confused by all the labels on meat packaging, listen to Andy Naja-Riese, Carrie Balkcom & Elizabeth Whitlow unpack the meanings behind the array of labels. Learn how your choices online, in the store, or farmers markets impact the land, animals, rural families and economies

Chicken is the most consumed meat in America, yet 99.9% is raised in factories that are hard on the birds & rural communities. Hear from two ranchers freeing their birds from confinement to create better tasting, healthier & humanely raised poultry while progressing toward a regenerative system

Wade Crowfoot leads California's Natural Resources Agency, which has been implementing a groundbreaking set of policies designed to end the 60-year-old conflict among agricultural and environmental interests in order to achieve an impressive set of ecological and rural economic goals 

Author & wild-farm advocate Dan Imhoff explores the challenge of embracing coexistence with predators when raising livestock in conversation with Montana ranchers Becky Weed & Malou Anderson Ramirez

Kat Taylor, Co-founder and Board Chair of Beneficial State Bank and Emma Ractliffe, Chief Investment Officer, World Within, share their innovative approaches to investing in the revitalization of rural enterprises, those central to the regenerative revolution underway.

Anna Claussen, Ash Hanson and Matt Jorgensen are three innovative social entrepreneurs we met at the Old Salt Festival, who work at the intersection of art, culture and enterprise. They tell their stories of how they are uplifting the creativity of rural people and communities.

A shocking sea change in food and agriculture policy is underway in Washington DC. Policies that were improving human health through better nutrition, rural economies, small and mid-scale growers have been decimated. Trade and immigration policies are harming the largest farms. The future looks bleak to many. But Maine's veteran of the House Ag Committee, Chellie Pingree shares her honest thoughts on what may lay ahead and how we can maintain the course toward a healthy, resilient and just food and farming system.

Ali Ghiorse, Christine Caruso and Vetiveah Immanuel, leaders in the in the movement for food justice in Connecticut, share their perspectives on what is working and what is still needed to make healthy affordable food available to all in a state with an incredible wealth gap.

Episode 2 of 4 of Old Salt Festival conversations features Dr. Stephan van Vliet, among the planet's leaders studying the impact of regenerative agriculture on nutrient density in meat.At the festival he shared the latest findings that confirm good ecological stewardship of pastures leads to meat that provides many more phytonutrients than meat from feed lots and animal factories. Phytonutrients are natural chemical compounds found in plants that support health by enhancing immune function, reducing inflammation, and protecting against chronic diseases.

E1 of 4 features Cate Havstad-Casad, founder of the Range Revolution, the heirloom quality leather goods company, Sheldon Atwood, CEO of Western Ranchlands Corporation and Taylor Ophus, land steward at Mannix Ranch. They were three of the inspiring attendees of the 2025 Old Salt Festival in Montana, a June gathering of nearly 3000 ranchers, artisans, chefs, advocates and musicians dedicated to promoting land stewardship, regional food, rural communities and regenerative ranching

Feeding the world without killing it is easily said, but hard to do. Figuring it out is as important as producing energy without fossil fuel. Author Michael Grunwald has his views on how and I have mine. We seek to end the polarized views that dominate the cultural discussion on the challenge and find common ground among the so-called regenerative, organic, and industrial approaches.

GenZ, those in their 20s, are the future of the good food movement. They are clearly critical to the future of food. Flipping the Table's new co-host Coco Sanabria engages 3 of the 4 ROC Summer GenZ Team to explore their values around food and agriculture, their reasons for wanting to work on food systems with Roots of Change and the college food experience.

Stuart Woolf, among California's largest farmers and Executive Chairman of Woolf Farming Company, has a vision for the heart of California's Great Central Valley. And agave, the hearty cousin of the tasty asparagus plant, is central to that vision. We talk of Stuart's interesting journey, his family's regenerative practices and his fascination with and enthusiasm for agave's resilience in a drying valley and its distilled spirits that could create a whole new industry in the Golden State. 

Six participants from the 20-year dialogue between aggies and enviros, known as the California Roundtable on Ag & Environment describe what it did, how it did it and why is made their lives as leaders and the state better.

After 15 years on the federal food and agriculture policy beat, perhaps no other American of her generation has a better perspective on what might or might not happen under the new Administration. RFK Jr and the MAHA movement are having an impact. What could it all mean?

The author, musician, homestead farmer, and host of the Full Expression podcast Dan Imhoff flips the table on Michael Dimock to explore the origins of Michael's interest in and career path within the good food movement.

Diana Donlon has cultivated, mentored and inspired a growing community of regenerative agriculture activists through her leadership of SoilCentric. She reveals how she remains optimistic despite the challenges ahead.

Are tariffs good for American Agriculture? It is a very important question given the new administration's pledge to add tariffs to imported goods. Hear a large-scale, no-till, commodity soy bean farmer, describe his experience and knowledge about the impact of tariffs on the nation's farmers. A special broadcast provided by Rodger Wasson from his show Farm to Table Talk.

Animal right activists placed the terribly written anti CAFO Measure J on the November 2024 Sonoma County ballot. It threatens the future of this small and mid-scale farming community and others like it across the nation. Professional Ducati motorcycle racer, organic dairy woman and Covergirl model Shelina Moreda is co leading a campaign to stop this misdirected measure while still keeping the dialogue open with her opponents.

Cole Mannix's family has ranched in the Black Foot Valley of Montana since 1882. Even with thousands of acres and hundreds of cattle, the return on investment is bleak. Learn how his family and four other ranches have come together to create the Old Salt Co-op and beef brand with two restaurants, online sales and an annual ranch event all in order to ensure these agrarian families thrive rather than just survive.

Today Michael talks with Lisa Hamilton, a great chronicler of uncommon agrarians, and the author of the new book, The Hungry Season. Agrarians are those who live from working in agriculture. With only 2.2 million agrarians are less than 1% of the US population. These few feed our nation and much of the world. An even smaller percentage of those few farm or ranch outside the mainstream, the conventional commodity system.

Nutritionist and leader of the Dairy Council of California, Amy DeLisio, and 6th generation organic dairy farmer from Humboldt County, Cody Nicholson Stratton, dialogue with Michael around the opportunities and challenges related to nutrition and the environment faced by California's gargantuan dairy industry.

If you are hearing the news lately you know the campuses, now educating Gen Z, are rocked by angry students on both sides of the war in Israel. This is an energized group and may indicate a sea change in the level and type of activism in the country in the years ahead. In this episode we'll learn from three members of "Gen Z" if they believe the passions of their generation could also be felt intensely in efforts to change our food and farming system.

Tim Johnson CEO of California Rice Commission shares how rice growers are modeling the future of agriculture by delivering a fabulous array of ecosystem services, wealth creation and delicious, healthy food for California and the world.

Alegria De La Cruz has a history of creating spaces and moments for farmworkers and other historically marginalized brown and black people to fairly and wisely engage the powers that be: employers, judges and policy makers.

As 30-year-old Native American rancher, mother and nonprofit leader, Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott reflects the power of the millennial generation born between 1981 and 1996. Indigenous knowledge, the future of food and her role in the film Common Ground are deeply explored in this episode.

A 5th generation commodity crop farmer from Indiana, the Heartland of America, Rick Clark had an awakening during a one-inch rain event in 2007 that washed topsoil from his fields. That moment spawned a ten-year journey during which Rick created rich healthy soil that captures carbon and holds water, diversified his crops and increased his profits. This success placed him at the center of the film Common Ground. As the film says, Rick "cracked the code" of large-scale regenerative farming.

Farm boy and entrepreneur Jim Kleinschmit started a company called Other Half Processing to ensure that the hides and other byproducts from cattle and bison production are fully utilized. When USDA began its funding campaign to promote regenerative agriculture, he hatched an idea that has bloomed into a $35 million project to build lucrative markets in Europe and beyond for hides and more livestock byproducts.

After decades of economic decline around the Harris family's farm, Will experienced an epiphany that led to a journey to what we now call regenerative agriculture. His story is about a pioneer's perseverance, love for animals, the land and a community. His example could transform rural America.

Josh and Rebecca Tickell produced and directed the newly released film, Common Ground. It is a compelling look at the expanding acceptance of regenerative agriculture as an antidote to many of the challenges faced by farmers, ranchers, consumers and policy makers. Josh and Rebecca share about why they included a powerful diversity of voices and perspectives to compelling convey their hopes for regenerative agriculture. They describe it as a love letter to all our children as well as a call to the nation's farmers to embrace regenerative agriculture as the future.

Hear how Loren Poncia, a former Monsanto sales rep, became a model regenerative rancher. He and his wife faced the omnivore's dilemma to transform the family dairy into a multimillion dollar iconic grassfed organic meat brand.

For the 100th Episode of Flipping the Table, Michael shares his perception of the advances being made by those seeking a healthier, resilient and just food system. He makes the case for remaining optimistic about our future.

Grassfed, grass finished, pasture raised are all terms you see on meat and dairy packages these days. But what do they actually mean? Can they be trusted? Michael dives into this question with Carrie Balkcom the executive director of the American Grassfed Association. AGA is the nation's singular independent certification program that confirms livestock are fed only their natural diet for their entire lives.

Spencer Smith is a self-described soil nerd who has raised livestock his whole life. He believes California is a great place to produce grass-fed beef. His goal as a consultant is to help livestock producers optimize the health of their land in order to ecologically, humanely and profitably manage businesses that deliver healthy food for humans.

Since 2016, California has provided $30 million in matching funds to attract nearly the same amount from the USDA in order to provide SNAP families with matching dollars to support their purchase of healthy fresh and organic produce. Minni Forman, Valeria Velazques Duenas and Shawn Harrison, who manage nutrition incentive programs in their communities, share their work and the impact of both CNIP and the Market Match promotion of incentives offered at over 200 farmers markets and farms stands in California.

In the national effort to reanimate local and regional meat supply chains serving primarily organic and regenerative ranchers, the key is a what is known as a "cut and wrap facility." These are where animal carcasses are skillfully cut into steaks, chops and roasts and ground into burger and hot dogs sought by shoppers, restaurants and cafeteria food providers. Cream Co, founded by Cliff Pollard, fills this vital niche on the nation's west coast.

California has declared that species diversity is a major environmental goal. After 150 years of intensive agriculture, achieving that goal is a challenge. But there is a great example underway on the Sacramento River where endangered salmon are being saved by proactive rice farmers. The Nigiri Project reveals an approach that has implications for crop and livestock operations across the state and the nation.

We need more farmers and many of them must be women, Black, Indigenous and other people of color in order to sustain the nation's food abundance and heal the wounds of the nation's persistent racism. After a 35-year farming career, Leonard Diggs, a Black farmer from California's Great Central Valley, is fully engaged in supporting the emergence of that healing generation of new farmers.

Food justice and climate change demand an end to good waste. Food Forward in Los Angeles is the most impressive food recovery program we've ever seen. Founder Rick Nahmias shares the story of how he and his team have delivered over 1 billion servings of food to 150,000 people per day.