Eat. Drink. Think.

Sixteen years after the first film was released, Food, Inc. 2 comes “back for seconds” to reveal how corporate consolidation has gone unchecked, leaving a highly efficient yet shockingly vulnerable food system dedicated to profit over people. In this episode, host Amy O’Neill Houck talks with producer Michael Pollan and co-director Melissa Robledo about how innovative farmers, food producers, workers’ rights activists, and prominent legislators are facing these companies head-on to create a more sustainable, equitable future. Food, Inc. 2 will be available for streaming beginning April 12, 2024.

Andi Murphy joins host Amy O’Neill Houck for a conversation about food in Native America. Andi is the creator, host, and producer of the “Toasted Sister Podcast,” an award-winning show that documents the Native American Food Movement. She’s also the senior producer of the “Native America Calling” radio program, a one-hour national radio show about Indigenous issues and topics where she produces and hosts a food focused show every month called “The Menu.” We get into a nuanced look at food sovereignty as well as an update on hot new restaurants, Indigenous chefs, and cookbooks.

In this episode, host Amy O’Neill Houck speaks with Elizabeth Whitlow, executive director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance, an organization working to create a new certification standard for food, textiles, and personal care ingredients. We unpack what exactly is “regenerative;” how it serves eaters, workers, animals, and the planet; and whose responsibility it is to create and maintain standards. 

We kick off 2024 with a conversation with Tracey Ryder, co-founder of Edible Communities. Host Amy O’Neill Houck interviews Tracey for an update on the nearly 80 publications in the network, and they talk about the role Edible Communities can and does play in telling the stories of what we all eat, and why that storytelling matters. Hear about what new magazines are coming to readers in 2024 and an update on Edible Communities’ foray into television production.Links:Ediblecommunities.comTraceyryder.comwww.linkedin.com/in/tracey-ryder-281b25171

In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think, host Amy O'Neill Houck speaks with Julia O’Malley about wild Alaska salmon.As a third-generation Alaskan, and a journalist, teacher, editor, and cook, Julia's work in newsrooms, classrooms, and kitchens explores Alaska’s culture, politics, climate, and food.This conversation builds on a recent article O’Malley wrote for Edible Communities titled “Alaska Runs on Salmon.” She delves into the five species of wild salmon fished in Alaska, what makes them unique, and what the challenges are that affect the fish and those who build their lives around them.Find show notes, other episodes, and more at ediblecommunities.com.RELEVANT LINKS:https://www.juliaomalley.com/https://www.instagram.com/jomalley17/https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295746142/the-whale-and-the-cupcake/

In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think, we speak with Twilight Greenaway and Reginaldo Haslett-Maroquin. Twilight is the executive editor of Civil Eats and is the author of a recent story that was done in partnership with Edible Communities. Reginaldo, or Regi, is featured in the story as he shares the history and vision for Tree-Range Farms, a Minnesota-based network of over forty farms stewarding land and raising chickens among trees and perennial crops using a method that supports both the land and the birds. Through this network, and as the founder of the nonprofit Regenerative Agriculture Alliance, he is focused on creating a collective governance structure to ensure the ecosystem’s social, economic and ecological criteria remain intact as it grows in scope and scale. Our discussion goes deeper into the topic of regenerative poultry production and both Twilight and Regi share their observations, hopes and vision for the future.Find show notes, other episodes, and more at ediblecommunities.com.RELEVANT LINKS:The Civil Eats Edible Communities Article: https://civileats.com/2023/08/16/this-network-of-regenerative-farmers-is-rethinking-chicken/Tree Range Farms: https://www.regenerationfarms.com/http://twilightgreenaway.com/https://www.instagram.com/twilightgreenaway/https://twitter.com/twyspyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/regenpoultry/

In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think., we talk with Alicia Kennedy, an acclaimed journalist and author of the new book, No Meat Required: the Cultural History & Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating. We discuss how the book examines what it has meant to be vegetarian throughout the last several generations. From religious asceticism, via hippy counterculture, punk and post punk, all the way to the media’s current obsession with lab-grown meat replacements, we touch on the intersections of climate, politics, and food justice along with the very real need to have something nourishing, healthy, and delicious to eat each day.Find show notes, other episodes, and more at ediblecommunities.com.Links:https://alicia-kennedy.com/https://www.aliciakennedy.news/http://www.beacon.org/No-Meat-Required-P1938.aspxhttps://www.instagram.com/aliciadkennedy/  

In this episode of Eat.Drink. Think, we talk with Lisa Held, senior staff reporter with Civil Eats, about two agricultural innovations that are at once ancient and modern: agroforestry and biochar. We unpack the techniques and talk about both the promise and challenge they hold for farmers adapting to the climate crisis.Lisa wrote two articles: “Biochar’s Big, Carbon-Rich Moment,” and “Can Farming with Trees Save the Food System,” as part of a partnership between Civil Eats and Edible Communities which uses journalism to bring to light emerging challenges and opportunities in sustainable food systems.This episode is brought to you by American Farmland Trust, the founder of the 15th annual America's Farmers Market Celebration (AFMC). Each summer, AFMC brings together thousands of supporters nationwide to celebrate local food, agriculture and community. Support your favorite farmer's market as it competes for state, regional and national awards. Voting runs from June 19th to September 18th at markets.farmland.org.Find show notes, other episodes, and more at ediblecommunities.com.Links:https://civileats.com/author/lheld/https://lisaelaineheld.com/https://twitter.com/lisaelainehhttps://www.ediblecommunities.com/edible-stories/agroforestry-can-farming-with-trees-save-the-food-system/https://www.ediblecommunities.com/edible-stories/biochars-potential-to-combat-climate-change/

In this episode, host Amy O’Neill Houck speaks with Paloma Lopez, a self-described Impact Food Entrepreneur, sustainability consultant, and the CEO and co-founder of Future Fit Foods—a food startup based in Longmont, Colorado. We talk about a rethink of the supply chain as a value chain, a shift in food production focus towards circularity, and a redefinition of what convenience means now and in the future, all while finding joy in nourishing our bodies and minds.This episode is brought to you by American Farmland Trust, the founder of the 15th annual America's Farmers Market Celebration. Each summer, AFMC brings together thousands of supporters nationwide to celebrate local food, agriculture, and community. Support your favorite farmers market as it competes for state, regional and national awards. Voting runs from June 19 through September 18 at markets.farmland.org.Get the show notes at ediblecommunities.com.Relevant Links:https://www.startengine.com/offering/timeplasthttps://www.futurefitfoods.com/post/my-road-to-future-fit-foodshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/palomalopez/https://www.futurefitfoods.com/about-us

No Farms. No Food. A catchy tagline, but also an undeniable truth. American farmland not only grows our food, it is the foundation of rural communities, providing jobs, recreational opportunities and a connection to the land.Purchasing your food directly from farmers, ranchers and other food producers at farmers’ markets has a huge impact on the economic viability of farming. Studies have shown that for every dollar spent at a farmers’ market, the producer receives around 90 cents, as opposed to 15-17 cents on the dollar when they sell to a wholesaler. In this episode, produced in partnership with American Farmland Trust, our host Gibson Thomas talks with two farmers’ market managers from very different parts of the U.S. about how their markets and other programs help farmers connect directly with consumers, as well as provide other support.They are joined by American Farmland Trust’s New York Policy Manager to talk about the organization’s work with farmers’ markets in her area, as well as AFT’s programs that support farmers’ markets throughout the country.With the 2023 Farm Bill top of mind right now for everyone in the agricultural sector, all three guests weigh in on what matters most to them in this important piece of legislation—and how listeners can help. This episode was produced in partnership with American Farmland Trust. This summer, American Farmland Trust and the Farmers Market Coalition are giving away $15,000 in prizes (and more!) to the nation’s favorite farmers markets. Voting starts June 19, 2023 and runs through September 18, 2023! Make sure your favorite market is listed, and spread the word in your community!Get the show notes at EdibleCommunities.com.Relevant Links:Farmland.orgMarkets.Farmland.orgAKFoodPolicyCouncil.orgAgriculturalInstitute.org Farm to Institution NY StateAFT’s Farm Bill Policy Platform2023 Farm Bill

In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think., host Amy O’Neill Houck is speaking with Chloe Sorvino, who leads food and agriculture coverage for Forbes magazine. Nearly a decade of reporting at Forbes has brought her to In-N-Out Burger’s secret test kitchen, drought-ridden farms in California’s Central Valley, burnt-out national forests logged by a timber billionaire, and a century-old slaughterhouse business in Omaha.In her new book Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat, Sorvino shares research on the consolidation and power of the meat industry and the backroom dealings behind it while talking with experts and those affected firsthand by working in and living near feedlots and slaughterhouses. In our discussion she shares some of the backstory behind these experiences and we talk about the connections between meat production, industrial agriculture, and the climate crisis, and she makes the case for urgent systematic change.Get the show notes at EdibleCommunities.com.Relevant Links:Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Raw-Deal/Chloe-Sorvino/9781982172046Chloe’s work at Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/Twitter: https://twitter.com/chloesorvinoAuthor website: https://www.chloesorvino.com/

In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think., host Amy O'Neill Houck is speaking with Tamar Haspel, columnist, author, and co-host of the Climavores podcast. She talks about her experience with first-hand food which includes raising chickens, pigs and oysters and foraging for mushrooms. We also weigh the cost of food both locally and commercially, the best way to get healthy food on tables (spoiler alert, it is not just access), and how policy is not the only way. Individual, daily choices can make an impact on our climate.This episode is brought to you by American Farmland Trust, a national nonprofit working to protect agricultural land, promote environmentally sound farming practices, and keep farmers and ranchers on the land. Learn more and get your No Farms, No Food bumper sticker at farmland.org.Get the show notes at EdibleCommunities.com.

In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think. host Amy O'Neill Houck is speaking with Sana Javeri Kadri, founder and CEO of Diaspora Co., a direct trade, single-origin spice company dedicated to building a better spice.  Sana began Diaspora Co, a company which has upended the supply chain of the centuries-old spice trade, at the wise and energetic age of 23—just a few years and a pandemic ago, in 2017. She began, after months of sourcing work and research, with just one spice: turmeric.Diaspora sources direct from farmers and sells direct to consumers in order to pay farmers, on average six times the commodity price for spices. Get the show notes at EdibleCommunities.com.

Consumers make food buying choices that empower small scale producers to do what they love, well. Empowered small scale producers necessarily produce and harvest their foods in the most sustainable ways because only via environmentally friendly practices can they foster the long term health of the food system. Land is better tended. Communities are better supported. Changes to a better the food system can be made possible from a feedback loop of better choices and better (and broader) outcomes.In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think., host Amy O'Neill Houck is talking with Jack Hamrick, co-founder and CEO of online specialty foods marketplace, Foraged, where he seeks to create a feedback loop for sustainable change in our food system.Get the show notes at EdibleCommunities.com.

In her new memoir, Slow Cooked, Dr. Nestle says, “I still believe that studying food is an exceptionally effective and accessible way to get at the most vexing societal problems that affect all of us. Food is about taste and pleasure, but it is also about nutrition, health, community and culture. I am hard-pressed to think of a problem in society that cannot be understood more deeply by examining the role of food.”In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think., host Amy O'Neill Houck is talking with Marion Nestle about her memoir and reflecting on 50 years of change, and lack thereof, in the food system.Get the show notes at EdibleCommunities.com.

We’re talking fermentation with Sandor Ellix Katz and Julia Skinner. Julia is a food historian, writer, and author of Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures and Communities. She's also the founder of Root, Atlanta’s fermentation and food history company, and her work is regularly featured in local, national, and international publications as well as in her own weekly food newsletter. She has a PhD in Library Science, cares for two wildlife habitats, and is a visual artist. Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. He is the author of five books: Wild Fermentation; The Art of Fermentation; The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved; Fermentation as Metaphor; and his latest, Fermentation Journeys. Sandor's books, along with the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, the New York Times calls him “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.”

In this episode, we’ll be speaking with Emily Payne. Emily is a writer covering the intersection of food, agriculture, climate, and health. She focuses on regenerative food systems and profiles farmers in transition to more sustainable practices. She’s served as editor of the global sustainable food nonprofit Food Tank since 2015 and worked with a series of ag-tech startup companies, focusing on how to build technologies that better meet farmers' needs. Her work has appeared in Food Tank, Edible Communities, The Counter, AgFunder News, AG DAILY, Mad Agriculture, Thomson Reuters Foundation, the New York City Food Policy Center, and more. She is based in Denver, Colorado.Emily contributed to the fifth in a series of pieces produced by Edible Communities for publication in Edible magazines across the US and Canada and at ediblecommunities.com. The piece is titled, “Is Plastic Waste the Cost of Eating,” and it was written in collaboration with Food Tank’s founder, Danielle Nierenberg. The piece takes a dive into the piles of what we as consumers do and don’t know about the materials—often single use materials—that wrap and contain almost all the food we eat. We’ll take a look—from the perspective of packaging—at where the buck stops when it comes to the challenges of being a human who eats on a planet in environmental crisis.

In this episode, we’ll be speaking with Danielle Nierenberg. Danielle is the President of Food Tank, which she co-founded with Bernard Pollack in 2013 to build a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. She's the recipient of the 2020 Julia Child Award.Danielle contributed to the fourth in a series of pieces produced by Edible Communities for publication in Edible magazines across the US and Canada and at ediblecommunities.com. The piece, by Elena Seely, content director for FoodTank is titled, “In Labels We Trust: how food certification labels, seals, and standards can help eaters make better choices.” It’s an explainer and guide, leading us into a fuller understanding of how to read food labels not just on packages, but on produce, meat, and poultry in order to eat in a way that supports the safety of the growers and producers of our food, our health and safety as eaters, and the health of the planet.

In this episode, we’ll begin by speaking with Twilight Greenaway, senior editor at Civil Eats, and then have a conversation with Frances Moore Lappe, author of the 50th anniversary edition of Diet for a Small Planet, and her daughter and contributor, Anna Lappé. Both conversations take different looks at what we eat, how we eat, and the climate crisis.   Twilight Greenaway is the senior editor at Civil Eats and its former managing editor. Her articles about food and farming have appeared in The New York Times, NPR.org, The Guardian, TakePart, Modern Farmer, Gastronomica, and Grist.   Frances Moore Lappé has authored 20 books, including Diet for a Small Planet and in 2017 she co-authored with Adam Eichen, Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want. Frances co-founded Small Planet Institute and is the recipient of 20 honorary degrees and the Right Livelihood Award, often called the “Alternative Nobel.”   Frances’s daughter, Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author and a renowned advocate for sustainability and justice along the food chain. Anna is the co-author or author of three books on food, farming, and sustainability and the contributing author to thirteen more, including Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. With her mother, she helped curate the recipe section of the 50th anniversary of Diet for a Small Planet. Read the show notes and more at the Edible Communities website.

In this episode of Eat, Drink, Think we’re digging into the important issue of Hunger. Unfortunately, it’s more timely than ever. Last year saw the first uptick in food insecurity in America in years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our guests are: Ben Perkins, CEO of Wholesome Wave, a national nonprofit working to increase access to healthy food for all. Before joining Wholesome Wave, Ben held leadership roles with the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. He’s also an ordained minister with a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School.  Leanne Brown, author of the cookbook Good & Cheap: Eat Well on $4 a Day. The book began as her Master’s thesis project in food studies at NYU. She wrote it to help people on a tight budget, especially SNAP recipients. She has always offered the book as a free PDF and it’s been downloaded more than 15 million times.  Mark Winne is a food activist who’s worked on issues related to hunger and nutrition for 50 years. He’s an author and a Senior Advisor to the Food Policy Networks Project at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future. His most recent book, Food Town USA, explores seven often-overlooked American cities that are now leading the food movement.