At the Iowa Farm Table Podcast

So much of the food we eat is grown, processed, and prepared by people we rarely see. Many of them are immigrants and refugees. In this episode, we hear from Iowans whose lives and work are deeply woven into the fabric of our food system and explore what it means to search for safety, stability, and opportunity in a country that sends mixed messages. Thanks for listening to the At the Iowa Farm Ta...

Listen Now | What does it mean to add value on the farm and why does it matter? In this episode, we explore how Iowa farmers are going beyond raw products to create products that feed their communities, build resilience, and keep more food dollars close to home. This kind of work is getting a boost from the Choose Iowa Value-Added Grant Program , which recently awarded $463,000 to farmers and food...

Listen Now | In 2012, Rob Faux was bringing water out to the hens on his organic farm in northeast Iowa when a plane flew over and sprayed pesticides on him, his partner, and his farm. Not once, but twelve times. The experience of that day and the weeks and months after it led him to become who he is today: an advocate for pesticide control and regulation. In today’s episode of At the Iowa Farm Ta...

This week, we explore the innovative world of Iowa’s food hubs —those central engines that aggregate, coordinate, and distribute locally grown food to schools, hospitals, retailers, and consumers. Iowa's Hub to Hub network, galvanized by federally funded programs like Local Food for Schools (LFS) and Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA), streamlined the journey from farm to table. Now federal f...

School lunch is about so much more than tater tots and chocolate milk. In this episode, you’ll discover how local food in schools not only improves nutrition for kids, but also fuels Iowa’s economy, supports independent farmers, and strengthens rural communities. You’ll hear what made the now-defunded Local Food for Schools (LFS) program so successful and why proposed legislation like SF 525 threa...

The Iowa Food System Coalition had a great idea: to start a podcast featuring our amazing partners (there are more than 40 of them!) and to dive into the topics we care about. So here it is—the first episode, explaining a little bit about why Iowa is so important when we think about farming in America and how we can improve agriculture here and elsewhere. Please share widely and let us know your t...