The Farm Report

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. In this episode, founder and CEO Dan Miller talks to host Lisa Held about how the company is serving fa...

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 beef) have climate benefits, burgers and nuggets engineered and processed to mimic meat have different e...

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: that “industrial agriculture, as currently practiced, threatens the food security of everyone who now rel...

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 program manager at the Savanna Institute based in Madison, Wisconsin. They discuss varied agroforestry pra...

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 bigger, more concentrated, confined farms. In this episode, CEO Russell Diez-Canseco talks to host Lisa...

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 diverse political opinions. In this episode, Ohio farmer and political organizer John Russell offers o...

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 grandfather, Jupiter Gilliard, bought Gilliard Farms. Matthew and his partner Jovan Sage share what the land i...

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 communities to grow their own food on church-owned land. Five years later, in the midst of another pivotal mo...

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 history contributed to evolving ideas around organic and regenerative agriculture, the Institute’s most...

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 produced by the James Beard Foundation and Civil Eats , host Lisa Held spoke with farmers and leaders around...

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 the farm has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the Black Lives Matter movement has led to...

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 farm’s other innovative attributes, like vegetables grown using organic practices in healthy soil outsi...

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 Farms, and all animals, to be raised humanely. Dr. Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of American Humane, th...

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 Crone has worked on multiple initiatives that help connect food insecure families that receive federal f...

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, works on urban agriculture, renewable energy, nutrition and wellness, and much more—to help create self-s...

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 pasture-raised eggs, many of them owned by Amish and Menonnite farmers. They also get into why egg prices soar...

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 have adjusted to increasing demand for sustainable meat since COVID-19.  Image courtesy of Clayton Hauk....

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 distributed to families in the surrounding communities, and how they’re figuring out innovative ways to...

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 Lisa Held about how farmers in his area are faring and whether an increased interest in buying local food...

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 Good , joins host Lisa Held to talk about how his company works directly with cacao growers in Madagasc...

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 Lisa Held, he talks about keeping the farms running and employees safe in the face of COVID-19 and about h...

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 Held about how the organization has been getting fresh food to New Yorkers throughout the crisis, implemen...

“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 speciality vegetables like shishitos and selling veggie bowls to retailers like Costco—has been affected by...

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 system. The Farm Report is powered by Simplecast . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Cali...

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 members and top chefs in Baltimore and Washington, DC among its customers. Now, she’s moved the operati...