117. A Return to Regenerative: The Story of White Oak Pastures Farm with Jenni Harris

Nov 11, 2022

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Today our guest is Jenni Harris, daughter of Will Harris and 5th generation Harris family member at White Oak Pastures. In the mid-90s, her father Will Harris recognized the problems in late 20th-century agriculture and decided to take his whole operation back to the days of his great-grandfather. He gave up chemical inputs and animal confinement farming and began implementing regenerative farming before it was even a word. White Oak pasture-raises 10 species of livestock, eggs, organic vegetables, and honey on almost 5,000 acres of land and does it in what they call a “radically traditional way.” Jenni is here to talk to us about White Oak Pastures and how they have continued to evolve as an online source for high-quality meat while maintaining not only a commitment to land stewardship and sustainability but to their rural community as well.

Topics Discussed:

The story of White Oak Pastures
Jenni's early knowledge that she was gay and her journey away from her hometown
The transition of the farm back to more traditional practices
How the farm changed over the years in order to achieve resilience
The challenge for conventional farmers to change to a different model
The challenges for the grass-fed beef industry for American farmers
Meat production as a contributor to climate change
Sacred Cow by Diana Rodgers - it's not the cow, it's the how!
Epic Provisions, owned by General Mills measuring soil assessments to demonstrate the livestock as a regenerative product
Carbon emissions in the Impossible Burger
White Oak Pastures Rural Revival
The value of knowing your farmer

Connect with White Oak Pastures:

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Original music by John Kingsley. The Good Dirt podcast is edited and engineered by Aleksandra van der Westhuizen and produced by Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

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