Real Organic Podcast

#139: Tom Willey is a longtime, organic vegetable farmer in Central California who has participated in recent trials seeking to minimize tillage in organic row crop production.  His thoughts on the reliance of of Haber-Bosch nitrogen, the overuse of compost, and intentionally moving towards the use of chemicals in organic leads to some lively conversation with Dave. Tom Willey has run TD Will...

#138: Decades ago, Dennesse Willey left her career as a nurse to join her husband Tom on their organic vegetable farm in California. As the farm's sales and marketing  lead, Dennesse witnessed many changes in both retail sales and distribution in an increasingly-consolidated food system. Dennesse Willey has run TD Willey Farms with her husband Tom in Madera, CA since the mid-1980s. She is rec...

#137: Bryan O'Hara has been learning about, tweaking trials, and sharing his observations on how to grow organic vegetables in a no-till system for over a decade. Last fall he sat down with Dave to share his thoughts on whether these practices  can be used at scale, using compost as a nutrient vs as a mulch, cover cropping, and many other nuanced thoughts that contribute to the greater no-til...

#136: Jeff Moyer of the Rodale Institute recalls the intended meaning behind the origin of the term "regenerative" as envisioned by Bob Rodale, and explores what's both exciting and concerning as a new context emerges for regenerative agriculture today. Jeff Moyer is the former CEO, Director, and Farm Manager of the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. He is internationally-known for his deep knowled...

#135: Organic farmer and former NOSB member Steve Ela talks about managing his fruit-focused operation with diverse market strategies, crop rotations, and biological controls for orchard pests. He also speaks about the difficult mission of achieving carbon neutrality on the farm,Steve Ela is a longtime farmer in Western Colorado, where his family grows 55 varieties of organic fruit trees and parti...

#134: Hannah Smith-Brubaker,  aReal Organic Project farmer and the Executive Director of Pennsylvania-based  sustainable agriculture organization PASA, shares what her peers are learning as they ramp up efforts to collect data from on-farm organic trials and experiments. Hannah Smith-Brubaker married into the farm family at Village Acres  farm, a highly-diversified, organic operatio...

#133: Retired Minnesota berry farmer and founder of the International Organic Inspectors Association Jim Riddle discusses his time on the National Organic Standards Board, including observing the culture of a revolving door of corporate lobbyists. Jim Riddle is the founder of Blue Fruit Farm, an organic blueberry farm in Minnesota, as well as the Winona Farmers Market and the International Organic...

132: Longtime organic farmer Dru Rivers speaks to the crowd at the 2023 EcoFarm Conference about the future of food, and the important role activism plays in farming. Dru Rivers is an original founding farmer at Full Belly Farm in California and has played an important role in both the EcoFarm Conference and CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) since their beginnings.  https://fullbellyfarm...

#131: Farmer Mark Kimball and his wife, author Kristin Kimball, almost everything that's been in their heads recently, as their journey at their year-round, CSA-model farm in Essex, New York continues to evolve. Dave caught up with the Kimballs at the NOFA New Hampshire Conference last February, where they all discussed the future of food production, late-stage capitalism, and the organic movement...

#130: Peter Donovan of the Soil Carbon Coalition shares his thoughts on the true value of carbon sequestration in agricultural settings, and how it differs from the ideas being pushed by industrial players who stand to benefit from carbon credits and offsets. Peter Donovan has a long history working in agriculture, specifically managing livestock, pastures,  and soil. He has authored numerous arti...

#129: Zach Cannady of Prema Farm joins Dave to discuss the inspiration he found working as a produce manager that led him to start his own farm, dedicated to growing crops that his community was asking for and could not find locally. Dave and Zach dive deep into conversation about Prema's composting and cover cropping practices, as well as the use of simple, human-powered farm tools that allow the...

#128: In the second half of our interview with Dr. Dave Mortensen, we hear about the events that  led to his resignation from the National Organic Standards Board, as well his thoughts around the off-base claims of "environmental consciousness" being presented today by Big Ag companies. Dave Mortensen heads the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems department at the University of New Hampshire....

#127: Longtime researcher and plant ecologist Dave Mortensen brings to light the increased use of herbicides and pesticides in modern agriculture. Through our nation's dedication to monocropping practices and planting fence row to fence row, we have eliminated natural defense systems in the majority of our fields, which cannot be solved through conciliatory cover cropping programs. Dave Mortensen...

#126: Dave sits down with therapist Dick Schwartz, the founder of Internal Family Systems, to discuss how acknowledging and caring for the various "parts" within ourselves and others can serve us as individuals, business leaders, and social activists. Dick Schwartz is a well-known psychotherapist who founded Internal Family Systems in the 1980s, a treatment approach based upon the concept that hum...

#125: Hans Herren and Barbara Gemmill-Herren join Dave to share their takeaways on the state of the global food system today. Through their extensive work in organic agriculture,  pollination, and the use of biocontrols (managing pests and disease with other living organisms instead of chemicals) they see that our world and food system never benefit from the use of biocides.   Hans Herren has serv...

#124: Steffen Reese, CEO of Naturland, the EU's most-prominent add-on food label and certifier, sat down with Dave last fall after announcing Naturland's partnership with Real Organic Project to  discuss the spread and preservation of organic agriculture across the globe.   Steffen Reese is the CEO of Naturland, a well-known add-on organic and fair trade food label located in Germany that certifie...

#123: Kellee James of Mercaris Data Services sits down with Dave Chapman to discuss what her company sees today as they track pricing and performance in organic food and agriculture.   Kellee James founded and runs Mercaris Data Services, a research company that tracks organic commodity prices and performance analytics.https://mercaris.com/To watch a video version of this podcast with access to th...

#122: After 25 years of trials and experimentation, Scott Park shares his long view on the challenges and upsides of organic no till practices in vegetable production. Scott Park, along with his wife Ulla, son Brian, and daughter-in-law Jamie, grows 1700 acres of organic mixed vegetable and grain crops in Meridian, CA:https://parkfarmingorganics.com/To watch a video version of this podcast with ac...

#121:  Dave Chapman spends an afternoon touring Pinnacle Organics with California vegetable farmer Phil Foster who explains the successes, failures, and still-unknown results of the organic no-till agriculture trials taking place on his farm. Pinnacle, along with a handful of other well-known CA veg farms, has been experimenting with no-till practices under the guidance of Chico State and UC Davis...

#120:  Miguel Altieri brings the concepts of Agroecology as a global movement that preserves traditional peasant knowledge and promotes a food system that works outside of the industrial system that dominates the US, to his conversation with Dave Chapman, as they explore the similarities and differences between the Organic Movement and the Agroecological Movement.  Dr. Miguel Altieri is a PhD ento...

#119:  Longtime farmer, gardener, and researcher Helen Atthowe joins Dave to discuss the findings that led to her new book: "The Ecological Farm: A Minimalist No-Till, So-Spray, Selective-Weeding, Grow-Your-Own-Fertilizer System for Organic Agriculture." By focusing on creating habitat plantings for beneficial insects, Helen learned how to implement living mulches, re-seeding cover crops, and orga...

#118:  A look back with celebrated Vermont farmer Jake Guest to the beginnings of the organic movement. Jake, an early mentor of our host Dave Chapman,  speaks of his beginnings as a student protester at Dartmouth and as a US Army enlistee - and how that all influenced his decision to grow food.  Jake Guest is a (now-retired) farmer and founder of Killdeer Farm in Vermont's Upper Valley, which bor...

#117:  Policy expert and organic advocate Alan Lewis (of Natural Grocers) shares his observations on the rise of the regenerative agriculture movement and what motivates different players to adopt different viewpoints about how to best move forward in our globalized food system. Alan Lewis is the VP of Government Affairs, Stakeholder Relations, and Organic Compliance at Natural Grocers. His 2019 t...

#116: Lifelong organic farmer Ben Dobson joins Dave Chapman for a deep look into the double-sided coin of tillage, the rise of the regenerative agriculture movement, and the powerful hold the corn and soy model has on our nation's food and farming systems. Ben Dobson is a lifelong organic farmer and longtime organic farm manager who now manages the agricultural research institute, Hudson Carbon, i...

#115: European Parliament member Sarah Wiener, who sits on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, compares organic policies and markets in Europe with those in the US. The drive to reduce pesticide usage and increase organic acreage in the EU faces an easier path forward without an obstinate Secretary of Agriculture like Tom Vilsack to contend with.  Sarah Wiener is a German-Austrian...