One Bite is Everything

David Wise grew up on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota, where food followed the seasons and knowledge of the land was woven into daily life. Today, as the founder of Native Wise, he raises bison, harvests manoomin, or wild rice, and produces maple sugar, maple syrup, and honey. But his path to this work was anything but straightforward. In this episode, David joins host Dana DiPrima to tal...

What if the best bakery in town isn’t really in the bread business? Jonathan Bethony, founder of Seylou Bakery in Washington, D.C., has built one of the country’s most respected bakeries around a simple but profound idea: every loaf begins long before flour reaches the mixing bowl. It begins with healthy soil, thoughtful farmers, heritage grains, and relationships built on trust. In this episode,...

We often think of a farm as a place that grows food. But a small farm does so much more than that. It holds up a local economy, circulating dollars in a way no chain store can. It creates belonging, the feeling of being known by the person who grows your food. It carries the identity of a family and a town. And it quietly supports the mental health and the very future of the place it calls home. I...

What does the USDA actually do? Who does it serve? And why does it seem like some farmers receive support automatically while others struggle to access even basic resources? In this episode of One Bite Is Everything , Dana DiPrima takes listeners through a practical USDA 101. From its origins as Abraham Lincoln's "people's department" to its modern role overseeing everything from SNAP and school l...

What happens when people step out of the grocery store and onto a working farm? In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana sits down with chef and educator Gary Podesto of Climate Farm School, an organization that brings people directly to farms to learn about food systems, soil health, climate resilience, and regenerative agriculture. Through immersive, week-long experiences on farms around...

What happens when food assistance programs lose funding? For millions of children and families, the effects can be immediate. Fewer meals. More strain on household budgets. More difficult choices between food, housing, healthcare, and transportation. In this episode of One Bite is Everything , Dana welcomes back Rachel Sabella, Director of No Kid Hungry New York, to discuss how recent and proposed...

What does it actually take to create a truly great restaurant experience — not just once, but every single night? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , Dana sits down with Chef Chris Stam of Alchemy on Martha's Vineyard to talk about the invisible systems, relationships, and standards behind great food. Chris’s path took him from culinary school outside Boston to some of the most intense kit...

What do small farmers actually need? After reviewing nearly 900 farmer grant applications through the For Farmers Movement — along with 45 new project submissions from the Friend of a Farmer Choice Awards — a very different picture of American farming begins to emerge. One you might not expect. In this solo episode of One Bite is Everything , Dana pulls back the curtain on the hidden infrastructur...

Show Notes What does it actually take to become a farmer today if you didn’t grow up on a farm, inherit land, or have a roadmap? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , Dana sits down with first-generation goat farmer Emma Smalley to talk about the reality of building a farm from scratch in modern America. Emma’s path into farming started with a Craigslist ad and an aging goat farmer named Rog...

Inside the hidden systems, rules, economics, and realities shaping America’s farmers markets. Most people think they understand farmers markets. You show up. You buy produce, eggs, cheese, meat, flowers, or honey from a farmer. You support local food. Done. But behind every stand is an entire system most consumers never see. In this episode, Dana sits down with Catt Fields White for a fascinating...

What does “best available” actually mean when it comes to food? In this conversation, Dana sits down with Sam Sifton of The New York Times to unpack how we got here. Not just what we eat, but why we eat the way we do, and how much of that is shaped by systems most of us never see. Sam has spent more than two decades helping shape how Americans cook, think about ingredients, and make decisions in t...

In honor of Earth Day, this episode takes a closer look at something often missing from the environmental conversation: the role farmers actually play. We tend to hear about agriculture in broad strokes—greenhouse gas emissions, water use, soil erosion. And those concerns are real. But agriculture is not one thing. It varies widely depending on how it’s done, and that difference matters more than...

There are about 2 million farms in the United States. Every year, a significant number of the farmers running them are approaching retirement age with no clear plan for what happens to their land when they're done. Farmland doesn't just disappear when a farmer retires. It gets sold, subdivided, converted, or absorbed into larger operations. And in a lot of cases, that means the end of a working fa...

What would American food look like if the story had not been interrupted? That's the question at the center of this conversation with Chef Sean Sherman — an Ogala Lakota chef who grew up on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and has spent his career restoring the indigenous food knowledge that colonization, displacement, and forced assimilation nearly erased. Sean is the founder of the Indigen...

How do we produce meat in a way that works for farmers, animals, the land, and the people who eat it? Right now, that conversation happens in extremes. On one side: a highly industrialized system designed for efficiency and low prices. On the other: a growing movement toward regenerative agriculture and animal welfare. Somewhere in the middle is a complicated reality that rarely makes it into the...

What does it actually take to make local food work — not just in theory, but in real life? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , host Dana DiPrima speaks with Jeanne Blasberg, a former Boston-based author who made a dramatic life pivot: purchasing a 500-acre farm outside Madison, Wisconsin and working to build a regenerative agricultural system connected directly to a fast-casual restaurant...

What if the most important laboratory in agriculture isn’t a university… but a farmer’s field? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , Dana DiPrima talks with farmer and writer Adam Kuznia about the experiments happening quietly across American farmland. Adam manages a farm in northern Minnesota and writes the newsletter Farming Full-Time , where he explores the realities of modern agriculture...

On Martha’s Vineyard, farmer Jo Douglas is quietly building one of the most creative small-scale food systems in the country. Her farm, Fork to Pork , begins with a problem that defines the modern food system: nearly 40 percent of food produced is never eaten . Instead of letting that food become waste (and greenhouse gas emissions), Jo collects hundreds of gallons of surplus ingredients each day...

What happens when a family farm grows far beyond its backyard beginnings? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , host Dana DiPrima speaks with Brittney Miller, second-generation owner of Manchester Farms in South Carolina, a farm that began more than 55 years ago on a picnic table and now raises millions of quail each year. Scaling agriculture often means losing the intimacy that once defined...

Let’s start with what’s simple: food is health. In this episode of One Bite is Everything , Dana DiPrima speaks with Carter Williams, systems engineer turned agricultural investor and contributor to the Food Is Health Substack. Carter introduces a framework that reframes the conversation: System A — biologically aligned, nutrient-dense food rooted in nature. System B — industrial agriculture built...

What does American farming feel like right now? Not from a policy brief or an out of touch news headline. But from inside the daily lives of small farmers. After reviewing nearly 400 grant applications and more than one hundred farmer wish lists, a clear pattern emerges: the strain on small farms is rarely dramatic. It is steady. And personal. And it is often invisible until it’s too late. In this...

What if the future of food isn’t about fixing the industrial system—but building a parallel one? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , host Dana DiPrima is joined by David Fisher , a botanist, former USDA-funded potato breeder, and environmental scientist who has spent decades studying plants, sustainability, and food systems. David challenges some of the most common assumptions about agricu...

This week, let’s back it up for a minute. It’s easy to get left behind in conversations about food and farming. Easy to feel like you don’t belong. But food is yours. It’s essential. And you should have more power, more knowledge, and more levers to pull to make sure your food is good. At the center of this podcast is a simple truth: Food is not JUST food. If you care about health, community, the...

In this second part of my conversation with Dave Fischer of Fischer Farms, we move beyond headlines and into the systems shaping what ends up on our plates. If you haven’t listened to the first part of the convo yet, I recommend you go back and listen at some point. That episode lays the groundwork with a deep dive into beef supply chains, methane narratives, soil biology, and the pressure small f...

What’s really happening with beef right now? Why do prices feel volatile, headlines feel confusing, and farmers feel squeezed, even as demand stays strong? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , I’m joined by Dave Fischer , founder of Fischer Farms , for a wide-ranging and deeply honest conversation about the modern beef system and the quiet forces shaping what ends up on our plates. Dave bri...