Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast

Amanita Thorp Berto is owner of Horned Locust Remediation, and she uses a flock of goats and sheep to do landscaping projects. In gardens, parks, photovoltaic installations, and many other places, goats take the place of toxic herbicides and pesticides and of course machines like lawnmowers. They love to eat plants that cause allergies in people––even poison ivy––and they easily go to places machines can't reach. And in the process, they leave the land more fertile and resilient, as they mimic the natural processes of animal/land interaction.

In the late 1990s, members of Santa Ana Pueblo embarked on a long-term project to restore their land, which had been damaged over the last century by multiple forces, including overgrazing, hunting, logging, and habitat fragmentation. Glenn Tenorio is former governor of Santa Ana Pueblo; he currently works with the pueblos’s Department of Natural Resources as a water resources specialist, and he’s also a farmer. He talks about the decisions the pueblo made to bring in outsiders like conservation scientist Dan Ginter, who for over a decade has been the range program manager. They talk about the goals and methods of the program––especially finding not only balance but synergy between wild land and agriculture––and the deep satisfaction in seeing the revival of pronghorn antelope, mountain lions, wild turkeys, deer, and elk populations, as well as native landscapes and watersheds.

Karl Thidemann is co-founder of Soil4Climate, a non-profit that advocates for regenerative agriculture, with a focus on grazing and the restoration of grasslands. In this podcast he makes the case, supported by extensive scientific research, that the restoration of grasslands can provide a multi win-win––for the climate, biodiversity, soil health, good nutrition, farmer profitability, the water cycle, rural communities, anti-desertification, and maintaining traditional agrarian practices worldwide. He also challenges vegan narratives about food and climate, and, with a poem and a song, reminds us that the arts are an important part of the change toward a greener, healthier world.

Zach Weiss has seen land so degraded that even weeds couldn't grow...and helped transform it into healthy, living landscapes by changing the flow of water and letting nature do most of the work. Protégé of Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer, he works all over the world helping agrarians to restore natural flows on their land, increasing water for crops and livestock, but also for wildlife and downstream water users. The implications for agriculture, wildlife, and climate are huge.  

The title of Pamela Tanner Boll's new film, To Which We Belong, comes from a quotation by the author Aldo Leopold, early 20th conservationist and environmentalist whose work has inspired generations of ecologists, agrarians, and nature lovers. Leopold wrote, "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."In the film Boll features nine agricultural projects in the US and abroad that are using regenerative techniques to restore soil, water, wildlife, families, and communities––and to bring about a paradigm shift from an extractive/industrial mindset to a more nature-based approach.   

Eva Stricker is director of the Carbon Ranch Initiative for the Quivira coalition and a Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico Department of Biology. One of her projects is the scientific study of compost––with the goals of helping farmers and ranchers heal and improve their land, increase their profitability, and sequester carbon. Emily Cornell, owner/manager of Sol Ranch, a cow-calf and grassfed beef operation in northeastern New Mexico, is a participant in the program, and talks about how targeted applications of compost can help larger landscapes. And Zach Withers, co-owner and operator at Polk's Folly Farm near Albuquerque is the compost-maker; he shares his experience of restoring a highly degraded piece of land, using hogs, food waste, and wood mulch. Together they're developing a greater understanding of how compost can be used most efficiently and effectively.

Matt Draper and Minor Morgan started North Valley Organics on two plots of land in Albuquerque, and have made a commitment to the People-Planet-Profit model for their business. Working with diversity and resilience as core principles, they want farm work to be something that not only produces healthy, nutrient-dense food, but also provides a long term sustainable and joyful living for the people doing it—and the communities around them.

About a decade ago Tijinder and Juliana Ciano took over Reunity Resources' land from a centenarian veteran, and they've continued to honor his mission of feeding the community. Their work includes vegetable farming and a farm stand and food truck, soil and compost programs, the founding of a biodiesel program, educational programs, food donations, and community organizing. They're part of the Quivira Coalition's Carbon Ranch Initiative and have been working together on developing a model for rural communities in New Mexico to create compost systems to reduce landfill waste and to produce high qu Reunity Resources,compost,food waste,community agriculture,vegetable farming,regenerative agriculture,Ten Who Made A Difference, ality soil amendments for agriculture.  This week Juliana and Tijinder were honored with an award from the Santa Fe New Mexican as one of the "Ten Who Made a Difference."

In today's podcast we look at the synergistic collaboration between a soil scientist and a pecan farmer. Southern New Mexico is not an ideal landscape for pecans, which grow best in warm, wet climates. But the industry is here, and Josh Bowman has determined to grow a healthy and abundant crop by focusing on the soil. Using cover crops and grazing animals, he's been able to increase the life and organic matter in the soil, and to produce a greater yield and a higher quality nut—while using less water. David Johnson was a contractor who at mid-life decided to change careers and became a microbiologist, specializing in the soil microbiome. He collaborates with farmers like Bowman to increase the quality—and quantity—of the soil with an eye not only to improved health and profits for the farmer, but also to climate change mitigation as carbon is sequestered in ever-healthier soils. Johnson and his wife Hui-Chun Su developed the Johnson-Su bioreactor, a composting system that yields a potent, microbe-rich compost that is a soil-friendly and cost-effective alternative to synthetic fertilizers.

Renard Turner and his wife Chinette founded the Vanguard Ranch Natural Gourmet in Gordonsville, Virginia, 25 years ago, and through creative entrepreneurship and wise land management and animal husbandry practices have built a value-added business model that works on a relatively small scale. Their ideas about sustainability and regeneration on a global scale inform their daily practices. And they are also encouraging African American people of the next generation to think about leaving the big cities and buy land for farming and homesteading.