The Appropriate Omnivore with Aaron Zober

The Appropriate Omnivore host Aaron Zober loves all kinds of jerky. In a field dominated mainly by beef jerky, Aaron was excited when Brave Good Kind launched and focused on chicken. Prabal Chaudhri comes on his program to tell the story of founding Brave Good Kind. Prabal explains that his products differ not only in terms of protein type, but also by making bars and bites instead of typical jerky and meat sticks. He talks about how his daughter being born was an influence in terms of what he should feed her and feed himself. While Aaron and Prabal have different reasons for wanting more chicken snacks on the market, they both understand the importance of meat snacks using clean ingredients, free of items such as nitrites and MSG. Prabal then discusses the future of Brave Good Kind as well as what he sees for the future of meat snacks.

Aaron Zober welcomes on Dave Greening, chief executive and general manager of the Organic Meat Company to The Appropriate Omnivore. The Organic Meat Company is one of the first organic companies and one of the companies which inspired Aaron to first get into sustainable food, especially sustainable meat. Dave shares his experiences from having several generations in his family farming in Wisconsin to working for various food companies in Wisconsin to where he is now at OMC. OMC is one of the largest providers of organic pasture raised beef, poultry, pork, and dairy through its labels Organic Prairie and Organic Valley. In addition to being organic, they also have prided themselves on being grass fed, pasture raised, and regenerative. Dave talks about the how being organic, pasture raised, and regenerative all work together. He gets into what Organic Prairie is doing to become more regenerative and more overall sustainable in their practices. Plus Dave talks about what kind of future products they're looking at developing and what he sees as the overall future of regenerative and organic agriculture.

This week on The Appropriate Omnivore, host Aaron Zober welcomes Sam Binkley to the podcast. Sam discusses how her career path lead her to found Healthy on You, which sells organic spices all with names based on popular songs. Sam began with “No Woman No Spice”, a Jamaican jerk spice which was an ode to her Jamaican heritage. Healthy on You now has 20 different blends. Sam talks about the many ways music plays a role in her life. Aaron and Sam both get into how music is important while they cook. San then mentions what spices we can expect from Healthy on You in the future and other types of products her brand is planning on expanding into. Plus Sam shares the ways which Healthy on You goes beyond what other organic companies do as it focuses on very clean and simple ingredients.

This week on The Appropriate Omnivore podcast, Aaron Zober welcomes Anna Vocino of Eat Happy Kitchen. Anna is both an author with her cookbooks "Eat Happy" & "Eat Happy Too" and a CPG entrepreneur with her product line Eat Happy Kitchen. Anna shares her story of becoming an entrepreneur at a young age as she was raised by a single mother and needed money in her pocket for yummy food. Anna currently wears many other hats as well. She's also a voice over artist and standup comic. She jokes about being diagnosed with Celiac's disease for it was cool. Hating all of the gluten free options, she started making her own dishes and blogging about them. After hosting a podcast, she shifted her focus from gluten free to grain free. Anna discusses the origins of the recipes she created. Plus how both her Italian heritage and California influence played a major role in her cooking. Aaron also gets her to talk about her venture into CPG, what we can expect from Anna in the future with both more cookbooks and more products from Eat Happy Kitchen, and all the ways that a low carb/grain free diet has helped her live healthier and happier life.

For the second year in a row on The Appropriate Omnivore podcast, Aaron Zober follows his attending the annual Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim with a show recapping the highlights. No guests. Just Aaron talking about the takeaways he discovered in terms of natural food trends and new products. What's in and out in the sustainable food world? Are some trends a continuation from last years show? Are there new trends? And how does Aaron feel about all of this? Plus while no main interview, Aaron does play sound bites taken on the floor of Expo West with his favorite exhibitors saying what they thought of the show.

Aaron Zober devotes another podcast of The Appropriate Omnivore to his love of butter. The episode, it’s combined with his advocacy for raw dairy. Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) executive director Alexia Kulwiec joins him to discuss legalizing raw butter sales across state lines. Alexia talks about the petition filed by California dairy farmer Mark McAfee and the FTCLDF and where we go from the upheld ban issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals last year. Alexia then delves into why she sees raw butter as safe to sell across state lines as well as why all daw dairy should be legal on a national level. Aaron and Alexia converse in how we can make raw milk safe and the importance of keeping it legal. The podcast concludes with Alexia discussing further developments in law milk legislation in various states and if she sees us heading in the right or wrong direction in terms of legally obtaining raw milk.

The Appropriate Omnivore podcast host Aaron Zober says he can spread butter on any food he likes. For this episode, he brings on a guest who shares this sentiment. While working as a fine chef, Michael came up with the idea of a chef-to-shelf CPG business for flavored butter, which became known as Churn Foods. At the time, he didn't see any others being offered nationwide. While there are some flavored butters on the market now, none of them go for sustainable sourcing like Michael does with organic grass fed butter. He also sources relatively local in terms of getting butter from his home state of California. Michael delves into what it's like producing a gourmet butter as the market is changing and more people are consuming butter. What foods do the various flavored Churn butters pair well with? Can you savor the Churn flavors by themselves? And what can we expect for future flavors from Churn as well as products outside of butter and maybe even expansion beyond CPG? All of this and more as Aaron and Michael share their love of butter and other fine foods.

It’s Valentine’s Day on The Appropriate Omnivore, so Aaron brings on Moksha Chocolate co-founder Michael Caines to talk about the amazing food associated with this holiday. Moksha Chocolate is made in Colorado from the farm collective they own Peru. Michael discusses the sustainability of his farm and how it operates as a collective. Moksha has many different types of chocolate. This is includes their CBD chocolates. Michael explains what’s wonderful about CBD and how it differs from cannabis. Another popular chocolate of Moksha is their white chocolate, but this isn’t the typical processed white chocolate you’re used to seeing at the checkout line in supermarkets. Michael gets into how the Moksha white chocolate uses real ingredients. Plus Michael recommends which Moksha’s offerings are the best to get your loved one for Valentine’s Day.

The Weston A. Price Foundation's 2012 Wise Traditions conference is now less than a week away. The final Wise Traditions speaker in the series is Dr. Deborah Gordon, MD. Dr. Deborah began with a career in conventional medicine, but became disappointed with a number of the ways the field functions. A big one being the lack of emphasis on nutrition. She also became heavily influenced by the Weston A. Price Foundation and the books by Gary Taubes. Dr. Deborah now practices integrative medicine and has a number of areas of focus, such as the benefits of high fat/low carb diets, obesity, and diabetes.

Nakisa Nowroozi makes her return to the Appropriate Omnivore podcast to discuss her new brand Luv Maman Superfood. Luv Maman sells organic sprouted nuts and seed spreads, including ones with mixed ghee. Nakisa gets into how the word superfood is often misused while explaining what she defines as a real superfood. Mislabeled superfoods are why she started making her own. Nakisa and host Aaron Zober find they share many of the same views when it comes to what real, healthy food is. They go through a whole variety of food topics in this episode, including sprouted foods, ghee, the GAPS diet, natural sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and gluten free products. Nakisa mentions what products we can expect from Luv Maman in the future, including keto products different than what we're used to seeing on the market.

Super Bowl Sunday is coming up this weekend. Appropriate Omnivore host Aaron Zober loves this holiday both due to it being the big game for his favorite sport plus a time when he can serve all of his favorite sustainable snack foods. This year's Super Bowl episode focuses on crackers with Donn Kelly, co-founder of The Dr. in the Kitchen, maker of Flackers flax seed crackers. Donn co-founded the company with Dr. Alison Levitt M.D. as she did integrative medicine and had clients on the side. The focus of Flackers is gluten free crackers made with sprouted seeds. Flackers also recently launched a line made with the ancient grain fonio. Donn talks about the process of making a great tasting cracker and the importance of Flackers' various certifications. Plus Donn gets into what products we can expect from Flackers in the future. And Don and Aaron discuss what to pair Flackers with at your Super Bowl parties this Sunday.

The Appropriate Omnivore kicks off its new season in 2023, talking about what else? Locally sourced meat. Aaron welcomes Nick Wallace, co-founder of 99 Counties, to the program. 99 Counties delivers local and sustainable beef, pork, and poultry to the front doors of people living in the midwest. Nick tells his story of overcoming serious health issues as he had a father who worked with farmers in the organic industry and learned about the Weston A. Price Foundation. This led Nick to do local farming using traditional grazing methods and starting 99 Counties. 99 Counties sees regenerative agriculture as the key to solving many of our problems. Nick explains how he defines regenerative agriculture. Aaron then asks Nick about where we can see 99 Counties expanding as a far as both territories and other products, including produce, prepared foods, and honey.

This week on The Appropriate Omnivore, Aaron talks to Joshua Rood; co-founder, CEO, and managing director of Dr. Hops. Dr. Hops is an organic beverage in the ever growing market of hard kombucha. Aaron and Joshua delve into who high alcohol kombucha is targeted toward and the benefits of it. Joshua explains the sourcing of all of their ingredients and the transparency of what goes into Dr. Hops. Joshua then talks about the different flavors of Dr. Hops with Aaron suggesting some ideas for future flavors. Joshua then brings up some other possible beverages we could expect from Dr. Hops. All this plus Joshua lets know exactly who this Dr. Hops is!

Having been a guest on The Appropriate Omnivore podcast 10 years ago, Aaron Zober welcomes back Chris Kerston. When Chris was previously on the show, he had been working on a farm. Chris now works for the Savory Institute heading their Land to Market program. Chris talks about how he originally got into got into agriculture and then regenerative agriculture. He next explains how Land to Market works in terms of certifying products with Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) for being regenerative. In addition to meat products, Land to Mark has also given EOV to apparel made from grass fed leather. Chris explains what's needed for crop products to be certified by Land to Market and why many aren't. Aaron and Chris share in how they're both devoted to products on the consumer level and how working with the marketplace is needed to push the message of regenerative agriculture.

For Aaron's latest podcast, he welcomes on Hart Dairy marketing manager Mandy Schulz. Hart Dairy is another brand he discovered at the Natural Products Expo West last month. Being a new company, they exhibited for the first time at the show. Mandy explains to Aaron everything that Hart Dairy has to offer in terms of how they do dairy right. Hart Dairy is a farm in the ever expanding arena of regenerative agriculture. They also have their cows grazing outside on the grass 365 days a year. Additionally, Hart Dairy is non-GMO and humane certified. Mandy tells Aaron the details about all of them and makes him extremely pleased at how they're raising the bar for dairy standards.