The Farm Report
by Heritage Radio Network
Join us for a special series of The Farm Report in collaboration with The National Young Farmers Coalition that's all about The Farm Bill. Tune in to hear from farmers, policymakers, organizers, and food advocates about all the ways the farm bill directly impacts our lives—whether we realize it or not. We’ll break down farm policy and talk to young farmers about what hangs in the balance for them as another Farm Bill gets made. Join our coalition to shift power and change policy for the next generation of growers and land stewards. The future of good food depends on it.
Episodes
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Farm Report: Live Panel Discussion with Young Farmers
The Farm Report: Live! In collaboration with HRN and the National Young Farmers Coalition, Following a screening of the documentary "Common Ground" Leigh Ollman moderates a spirited conversation about the future of farming with guests Michelle A.T Hughes, Chirs Nickell and Leah Penniman. Chris...
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Episode 5: Land Access Now!
Access to land is the number one challenge facing the next generation of farmers in the US. Centuries of discrimination and land theft have put this resource out of reach of farmers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Everyday in the US we lose 2,000 acres of viable farmland to...
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Episode 4: What’s the Future of Urban Agriculture?
Despite an increasing number of farmers growing food in cities urban agriculture wasn’t acknowledged in the farm bill until 2018. Lisa Held, journalist with Civil Eats and former Farm Report host provides the scoop on how the Farm Bill will impact the future of urban ag. Melissa Metrick and Wythe...
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Episode 3: Linking Farms and Food Access
The nutrition title was first included in the 1973 farm bill. It’s projected to make up 84% of total Farm Bill spending, with most of the funds going to SNAP. That’s because the program helps more than 40 million low-income individuals provide food for their families each month. Some of those...
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Episode 2: Climate and Water Action for the Next Generation
Farmers are now dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis on a daily basis. Experts predict weather events including droughts and flooding will only get worse. Young and beginning farmers, especially BIPOC farmers, are feeling those impacts the most. Are there opportunities to advance water...
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Episode 1: Why the Farm Bill Matters
Why should our next generation of farmers – and just about everyone who eats – care about the farm bill? Celize Christy, an Organizer at HEAL Food Alliance explains the basic details on what’s in the legislation, how it gets written, and how it impacts you. Then, Young Farmers’ Policy Campaigns...
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Announcing "The Farm Report: A Farm Bill for the Next Generation"
Join us for a special series of The Farm Report in collaboration with The National Young Farmers Coalition that's all about The Farm Bill. Tune in to hear from farmers, policymakers, organizers, and food advocates about all the ways the farm bill directly impacts our lives - whether we realize it...
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From Harvest to Vinegar
Humans have used fermentation to preserve crops and add flavor and health benefits to their diets for thousands of years. Since 2015, Sarah Conezio and Isaiah Billington have been putting their own stamp on that age-old tradition with Keepwell Vinegar. Together, they partner directly with small,...
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Butter and Meat—from the Same Cows
Whether they’ve grazed on grass their entire lives, been raised in an organic system, or lived on a conventional dairy farm, the vast majority of dairy cows get sold into the commodity beef system when they’re retired and get integrated into the same cheap meat supply. With Butter Meat Co, Jill...
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One Million Acres for the Future
America’s farmers are aging rapidly, and those looking to sell their land are finding no shortage of buyers. Billionaires, global corporations, investment firms, and developers are all buying up farmland for profit at a quick clip, driving up prices and making it nearly impossible for young and...
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Growing Biodynamic Botanicals for Skin Care
Adrien de Botin and his wife Carolina Prioglio are the husband-and-wife founders of Maison/Made, and to make the certified biodynamic skin-care products that they sell, they grow their own medicinal herbs on a family farm in Burgundy and have built a network of small farm suppliers around the...
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The (Regenerative) Chickpea Connection
Over the past decade, hummus has exploded in popularity in the U.S, but compared to the many brands that now line shelves at every supermarket, Little Sesame is doing things differently. The Washington D.C. fast casual restaurant, which now also sells its hummus at Whole Foods and other stores in...
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Cornucopia Institute and the State of Organic
While USDA-certified organic food still accounts for a small fraction of total U.S. food sales, it’s now big business. In 2020, data from the Organic Trade Association showed sales of organic food rose at a record rate to a new high of $56.4 billion, and as the industry has become more lucrative,...
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25 Years of Edible Education
When Alice Waters opened her trailblazing California restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971, she launched what would become a movement around truly seasonal cooking and eating that could support farmers, communities, and the environment. In 1995, Waters also started the Edible Schoolyard Project, a...
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The Future of the Global Food System
On September 23, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the first UN Food Systems Summit, with a goal of “setting the stage for global food systems transformation.” In this episode, Ruth Richardson, the executive director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food,...
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Zero-Waste, Organic EVOO—from Farm to Bottle
Extra virgin olive oil is a delicious, healthy, pantry staple. It can also be a luxury product for special dining experiences. However, most olive oil in the world is low quality and highly processed. What does producing a truly great extra virgin olive oil—from farm to bottle—actually involve?...
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Why Cover Crops Are Unlikely to Deliver Climate Benefits Anytime Soon
Cover crops are good for soil health, water quality, and climate resilience, and while more farmers are planting them compared to a decade ago, the number of covered acres is still miniscule compared to the amount of cropland that goes bare each winter. Now, a new analysis from the Environmental...
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A Local Food App Created For and by Farmers
Lindsey Lusher Shute began working on the concept for GrownBy during her time at the National Young Farmers Coalition, because young farmers expressed a need for better technology that could help them sell their food. Now, after testing the platform during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic on…
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Urban Farming in St. Louis
After observing how much the quality and variety of produce sold in grocery stores differed in neighborhoods across St. Louis, Tyrean Lewis started Heru Urban Farming to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to food apartheid communities. In this episode, he talks to host Lisa Held about growing the...
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Fighting for Black Farmers’ Land
The American agricultural system was built based on the enslavement of African people, and since emancipation, systematic discrimination against Black people within agriculture has persisted. In 1920, close to 1 million Black farmers made up about 14 percent of America’s farmers. In 2017, less…
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Small Farms and the Post-Pandemic Unknown
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people began buying more local food directly from small farms in their communities, and some farmers scrambled to meet increased demand. A year later, as planting kicks off for the 2021 season, they’re asking: What now? Will customers keep coming back?...
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Untold Stories of Urban Farming
From massive venture capital-funded vertical farms and rooftop CSA operations to community gardens and windowsill pots, what does growing food in cities look like? And, more importantly, why are people doing it? That’s the focus of Fields, a new podcast on Heritage Radio Network. In this episode,...
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An Organic Dairy Coop's Climate Plans
Organic Valley is America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers, representing more than 1,800 farmers in 34 US States, most in dairy. You’ve likely seen their milk, yogurt, and cheeses at the grocery store. This month, the company released its 2021 Impact Report. In this episode, Nicole...
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A Sustainable Food and Farm Policy Forecast for 2021 (and Beyond)
President Joe Biden took office 21 days ago, and the White House is already making moves that will affect food and agriculture. Plus, the shift in Congress means it’s also a new chapter for food and farm legislation. In this episode, Eric Deeble—policy director for the National Sustainable...
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Inside Pasa Sustainable Agriculture
The Pasa conference is one of the year's most popular events for sustainable and organic farmers—in Pennsylvania and beyond. As it kicks off (digitally), executive director Hannah Smith-Brubaker talks to host Lisa Held about the important topics represented this year and how the state of...
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Investing in a Sustainable Food Future
Most capital invested in agriculture in the U.S. flows to large, commodity farms. For smaller operations that don’t fit the conventional mold, it can be difficult—if not impossible—to get a loan. Steward aims to change that by connecting online investors to small- and mid-size sustainable farms.…
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Are Alt Meats Better for the Planet?
Forecasts point to the market for plant- and cell-based meat alternatives exploding over the next decade, largely because of the sustainability claims companies make when marketing these food products. But while it’s true that diets that include more plants and fewer animal products (especially...
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Perilous Bounty
Centralized, uber-efficient, industrialized agriculture is often presented as necessary to “feed the world.” In his new book, Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, veteran food, agriculture, and climate journalist Tom Philpott argues the opposite…
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Agroforestry 101
Producing food requires land. As a result, forests are often razed to make space for crops or animals, creating environmental tradeoffs. But what if there were a middle ground between forest and farmland? In this episode, host Lisa Held explores the concept of agroforestry with Jacob Grace, a...
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A Small Farm IPO?
Vital Farms started on a Texas farm with 20 chickens. This year, the pasture-raised egg company went public. In between, the company bucked the typical model of scaling up in animal agriculture by building a network of small farms that all keep their hens outside on pasture, rather than building...
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Rural Vote: Dispatch from the Campaign Trail
When it comes to election day, political pundits love to discuss which way “farmers” are going to vote. In the case of this election, the prevailing idea is that most farmers—especially commodity growers in the Midwest—will vote for President Trump. Many will. But farmers are a diverse group with...
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Presenting Jupiter's Almanac: Welcome to Gilliard Farms
This week The Farm Report is proud to present Jupiter's Almanac. On this inaugural episode, host Matthew Raiford introduces himself, along with his family history and the history of his farm. These lineages go hand in hand, dating back nearly 150 years ago when Matthew’s great-great-great...
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Growing Produce—and Food Sovereignty—in Black Communities
Reverend Dr. Heber Brown, a Baltimore pastor, community organizer, and beginner farmer, started the Black Church Food Security Network in the wake of the city’s Freddie Gray uprisings in 2015. Since then, he’s been connecting farmers and faith communities in an effort to empower more Black...
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Organic Agriculture: Past, Present, and Future
J.I. Rodale wrote “healthy soil = healthy food = healthy people” on a blackboard in 1942, and that has been the mantra at the Rodale Institute, created in 1947, ever since. In this sitdown at Rodale’s research farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, host Lisa Held talks to CEO Jeff Moyer about how that...
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COVID-19 and Local Food: Challenges and Opportunities
Despite challenges like shuttered farmers' markets and restaurants, a shortage of meat processors, and the scramble to move sales online, small and mid-size farmers have demonstrated real resilience during COVID-19, even as other parts of the food system shut down. In a recent online panel…
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Urban Farming in Atlanta, Patch by Patch
Jamila Norman had a vision to “just find green patches of land in the city and turn them into farms”—and she made it a reality. In this episode, Norman talks to host Lisa Held about how, today, she packs maximum vegetable production into Patchwork City Farms’ 1.2 acres in Atlanta, Georgia, how…
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How to Be a "Restaurant Farm" in 2020
Chefs in Baltimore and Washington D.C. have always been Karma Farm’s best, and primary, customers. So what happens when restaurants shut down? In this episode, host Lisa Held talks to farmer Jon Shaw about how his diversified vegetable farm in Maryland has been affected by COVID-19 and about the...
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Presenting Behind the Label with American Humane
This week we're presenting the first episode of Behind the Label with American Humane, a new series from Heritage Radio Network. Behind the Label with American Humane takes listeners from the grocery store aisle to the farm – explaining what it means for broiler chickens at Springer Mountain…
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Linking Local Farms and Food Insecure Families
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment—and therefore food insecurity—has skyrocketed. At the same time, farmers that sell their food at farmers markets have faced multiple economic challenges, as they lost sales to restaurants and some markets shut down in the name of social distancing. Amy...
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"Glocal" Food and Community in Newark
The Occupy Wall Street movement introduced Tobias Fox to different ways of thinking about the world and what he wanted to do with his life. He took that inspiration and started growing food in community gardens in Newark, New Jersey. Today, his organization, Newark Science and Sustainability…
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A Good Egg
Most eggs in the United States today come from farms that crowd hundreds of thousands of laying hens indoors. Handsome Brook Farms does things differently. In this episode, CEO Jordan Czeizler talks to host Lisa Held about how the company built a network of small, organic, farms producing...
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Chicago's Top Butcher Talks Local Meat
Since the pandemic hit, the industrial meat system has been upended. That's made things interesting for small livestock producers selling into local markets. In this episode, Publican Quality Meats head butcher Rob Levitt talks to host Lisa Held about how his shop and the farmers he works with…
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From Teaching Students to Feeding Families
When schools in Birmingham, Alabama shut down, Jones Valley Teaching Farms’ executive director Amanda Storey had to figure out how to best utilize the organization’s seven teaching farms. In this episode, Storey talks to host Lisa Held about how the team pivoted to produce even more food to be...
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How Mike's Organic Is Connecting Farmers to Home Cooks
In Connecticut, Mike's Organic Market sources fresh food from small farms to sell to local eaters. Now, in the face of COVID-19, founder Mike Geller is ramping up delivery options and CSA boxes to get more fresh food to people at home and support farmers. In this episode, Geller talks to host…
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Yes, Even Chocolate Starts on a Farm
The pandemic drags on, so this is the episode in which we talk about one of the few things that really helps: chocolate. The Farm Report's 2020 season is focused on how farmers and others in the food system are adapting to the new reality of COVID-19. In this episode, Tim McCollum, CEO of Beyond...
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BrightFarms Is Growing (Greens) During COVID-19
At its five hydroponic greenhouse farms, BrightFarms grows a lot of “salad.” And while the coronavirus pandemic has hurt many farm businesses, it has increased demand for the company’s leafy greens. “We wake up with a sense of purpose,” says founder Paul Lightfoot. In a conversation with host…
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A Growing Pandemic: Farmers and Markets in NYC
New York is now considered the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, but GrowNYC has kept Greenmarkets open while adjusting operations to continue to serve the city’s residents and farmers. In this episode, GrowNYC’s director of farmer assistance, Christopher Wayne, talks to host Lisa…
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A Growing Pandemic: Ark Foods' Veggie Tales
“We view the vegetable as our North Star,” says Noah Robbins, founder of Ark Foods. But lately, that star has been leading them in more unpredictable directions. In this episode, Robbins and Ark Foods COO Eduardo Mestre talk to host Lisa Held about how their business—which includes farming...
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A Growing Pandemic: Impacts on the Mid-Atlantic Food System
In this episode, recorded at an empty Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore, host Lisa Held talks to chef, restaurateur, and local food advocate Spike Gjerde. They discuss how the shuttering of restaurants like his is affecting farmers, food workers, and many others across the robust regional food…
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A Neighborhood Farm’s Next Chapter
Emma Jagoz started Moon Valley Farm in the suburbs outside of Baltimore, MD because she wanted a cheaper source of fresh, organic vegetables for her family. Starting with a garden, she bartered for small plots of land and grew the farm until it spanned 15 acres in different locales, with 250 CSA...
About this show
Join us for a special series of The Farm Report in collaboration with The National Young Farmers Coalition that's all about The Farm Bill. Tune in to hear from farmers, policymakers, organizers, and food advocates about all the ways the farm bill directly impacts our lives—whether we realize it or not. We’ll break down farm policy and talk to young farmers about what hangs in the balance for them as another Farm Bill gets made. Join our coalition to shift power and change policy for the next generation of growers and land stewards. The future of good food depends on it.
Hosted by
Heritage Radio Network