The Farm Report

This week on The Farm Report , co-hosts Challey Comer and Maria Rojas are joined by Sarah Gray Miller, the Editor-In-Chief of Modern Farmer , to discuss an article from the magazine's most recent issue titled " The High Cost of Cheap Labor ." New immigration orders will greatly impact the food world, and this piece is an in-depth look at the facts and history of farm workers in the U.S., as well a...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by "Gangsta Gardener" Ron Finley an environmentalist & entrepreneur Nell Newman. Ron Finley is a creative phenomenon: a gangsta horticulturalist, with a strong vision for community gardening and the eventual creation of "a school of nourishment and change." Nicknamed the “Gangsta Gardener” and the “Renegade Gardener”, Ron Finley plan...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks welcomes John Flahavan, the sixth-generation CEO of Flahavan's Irish Oats. The first family connection to the Flahavan’s name can be traced back to about 1785 when Thomas Dunn took over the mill. Dunn was the great-great-great-grandfather of John Flahavan who is the Managing Director of the company today. After the break, we're joined by Meryl Wil...

This week on The Farm Report , Erin and Challey are joined by Greg Wade and Will Travis. Greg Wade is the Head Baker at Publican Quality Bread in Chicago, IL where he collaborates with chefs de cuisine, farmers and retail owners to develop breads. As Publican Quality Bread’s Head Baker, Greg oversees the bread program for all of One Off Hospitality Group, with a focus on whole grains and fermentat...

What does it mean to be a small scale olive oil producer in 2017? Lorenzo Caponetti joins us from Italy to talk about his family's vineyards, the challenges of organic production and why American chef's like Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern and Untitled at the Whitney can't get enough of his oils. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/...

Did you know 80% of the flowers you buy are grown abroad? Local flower expert Molly Culver joins Erin to discuss the do's and don'ts of your Valentine's day bouquet buying. Yes, locally-grown flowers DO grow in February, even in the Northeast. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

This week's episode of The Farm Report is focused on immigration and agriculture. Guest host Challey Comer is joined by Maria Rojas from GrowNYC and Mary Jo Dudley from the Cornell Farmworker Program. While there are many aspects of immigration to discuss, today's conversation is focused on community aspects of the issue. We learn about farmworker communities, employment experiences, and regulatio...

This week's episode of The Farm Report focuses on women as advocates for agriculture. Erin Fairbanks and Challey Comer are joined by Cindy Gieger. Cindy farms with her family in Jeffersonville, NY where they manage a 75-cow dairy. Her family has farmed in the region for years and Cindy has been an important connector of diverse groups within the farming community of her region. These local relatio...

This week on  The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Ben Machin of Redstart Natural Resource Management in Vermont, which provides forest management, invasive species management, ecosystem restoration, and land use consulting services to landowners and property managers. Prior to joining Redstart Forestry in 2001, Ben was employed as a firefighter/smokejumper with the USDA Forest Ser...

On the season premiere of The Farm Report , Erin Fairbanks introduces her new co-host, Challey Comer! Challey is a sustainability manager for Blue Apron, and has devoted her career to research, development and promotion of the agriculture industry. Tune in to hear them discuss their small town upbringings, Challey's background in engineering and farming, what the presidential transition means for...

On an all new episode of The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Jim Campbell – Scotsman, Virginia farmer, and the CEO of New Country Organics, a leading producer of certified organic, soy-free feed and livestock minerals in the eastern United States. Recently, the company announced its acquisition of a nearly century-old Lubbock, Texas feed mill and facility, in order to expand the acc...

This week on The Farm Report, host Erin Fairbanks is joined by John Wilkes, a former farmer from the English county of Shropshire, who has consulted and written for various publications including the UK’s Farmers Guardian newspaper and The Sheep Site. Tune in to hear them discuss the proposed agricultural policies of the major party presidential candidates, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), wom...

This week on The Farm Report, host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Ronny and Beth Drennan of Broadbent Country Hams. The Broadbent family started curing hams and bacon commercially in Cadiz, Kentucky, in 1920. In 1999 the Broadbent family sold the business to Ronny and Beth Drennan. The Drennans, who were in the furniture business, had always heard of Broadbent Hams and saw an opportunity. It took s...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Charles Rosen of Ironbound Farm and Sabine Hrechdakian of Wassail to talk cider! Tune in to hear them touch on restoration agriculture, stewardship, apple varieties, and more! After the break, this week’s EscapeMaker segment features Brian Facquet of Prohibition Distillery in historic Roscoe, NY, where you can fish like you’re in Mont...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Luke Holden, founder and CEO of Luke's Lobster, and Eric Knight, a fisherman who Luke's Lobster has purchased from in the past. Luke Holden grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine—a third-generation lobsterman who started learning the trade at age 13. When he moved to New York to pursue a career in investment banking, he was remiss to find t...

This week on The Farm Report, host Erin Fairbanks is joined in the studio by Alon Shepon, a sustainability expert in the Weizmann Institute of Science. Shepon was part of a research team that spent five years studying and measuring five main sources of protein (dairy, beef, poultry, pork and eggs) to calculate the environmental costs per calorie and per gram. The findings, which were recently publ...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by the team from the Zia Green Chile Company . Green Chile is extremely deep rooted in the state, economy, and culture of the state of New Mexico. It brings over $400 Million annually to the state's local economy, according to the governor's office. At Zia Green Chile Company, all of the chiles are sourced directly from Hatch Valley, New...

On the season premiere of The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Nate Hodge, co-founder of Raaka Chocolate, and filmmaker Tim Shephard. The two are working on a documentary film project called Setting the Bar, which examines rare varieties of cacao in Peru. The film follows these passionate people who have dedicated their life to a better tasting and more sustainable chocolate bar. The...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Holly Chute, the Executive Chef for the Georgia Departments of Agriculture and Economic Development. In this role, Holly represents the state’s largest economic sector, while serving as a liaison between Georgia’s farmers/commodity producers and the food Service Industry. She is one of the most visible faces of the popular Georgia Gro...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks welcomes Dr. Calvin Lamborn to the studio. As a young breeder, with a PhD. in plant breeding, and a keen curiosity, Dr. Lamborn crossed a rogue garden pea with a snow pea. By chance, he observed an off type pea "rogue" which had thicker pod wall flesh than normal. Calvin’s first thought was that this thicker pod flesh would improve the quality of...

This week, The Farm Report moves to its new time slot (1o a.m. on Thursdays!), and host Erin Fairbanks is joined in the studio by Viraj Puri, the co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens , an urban agriculture company founded in Brooklyn, New York, that grows produce year-round in rooftop greenhouses. Gotham Greens is a worldwide pioneer in the field of urban agriculture and a leading regional producer...

This week on The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Dave Simonds and Sarah Gardner, the director and producer, respectively, of the new film Forgotten Farms . New England’s dairy farmers remain the backbone of the region's agriculture but fight for survival in an age of baby greens and artisan cheese. In our enthusiasm for the new food movement, many of us have forgotten that 75 years...

On this week's special edition of The Farm Report , host Erin Fairbanks is joined in the studio by Health-Ade Kombucha co-founder Daina Trout. Tune in to hear them discuss the evolution of the company, Trout's plans for the future, and a live on-air tasting of a selection of Health-Ade flavors. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/priva...

Today on the Farm Report, two chocolate experts call in to tell Erin all about what gives chocolate the "fine" label. Pam Williams and Dan Pearson founded Ecole Chocolat and Marañón Chocolate, respectively. Both of today's guests helped found the Fine Chocolate Industry Association and its recent initiative the Heirloom Cacao Preservation, which seeks to save pure cacao beans from extinction. Pear...