In this special episode of American Thought Leaders, I visited the Food Independence Summit, an annual event dedicated to homesteading, sustainable living, and reclaiming food autonomy, in Walnut Creek, Ohio. The 2025 summit, with a theme of “Seed to Spoon,” took place in mid-June earlier this year in the heart of Ohio’s Amish country.

Homesteaders, farmers, gardeners, educators, and healthy food advocates spent two days together participating in hands-on workshops, listening to keynote presentations, and networking with like-minded people.

For many Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of supply chains, including the food supply chain. The summit’s focus was on learning how to grow, preserve, and prepare homegrown food.

While at the summit, I spoke with organizer John Miller to learn about the philosophy behind this growing homesteading and self-sufficiency movement. I also spoke with renowned farmer Joel Salatin about what new trends he’s seeing.

I even got some hands-on practice pressure-canning beef tacos with the help of Sarah Thrush, a canning expert and social media influencer.

“There’s a lot of reasons people can, but one of them is so they can decide what goes in the jar, like if you have health concerns, or if you want to know what your food is sourced from, or you just like your chili recipe and you want it in bulk,” Thrush said. “It’s like the ultimate meal prep.”

I also spoke to physician Julian Douwes, who flew to Ohio all the way from Germany. Dr. Douwes is the director at Clinicum St. Georg in Bad Aibling, Germany, where they developed the first known cure for Lyme disease. Many people in the Ohio Amish community suffer from Lyme disease. Miller himself was cured from an awful case of the disease through this therapy, called whole-body hyperthermia.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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