Rootstock Radio

The cost of living in an area which grows potatoes in vast quantities isn't just about money. Amy says that the people who live in the area of the RDO fields are being sprayed with pesticides by helicopter every week. Some people in the area are getting ill, the water is being contaminated throughout the United States, livestock is being affected and other crops (including organic crops) are also being hit with at least 35 different pesticides which are found on potatoes. Additionally, the growing of these potatoes requires over 13 billion gallons of water per year.

Most recently, Frances participated in Democracy Spring, a movement committed to taking money out of politics and putting more people in politics, enforcing voter rights, and the Supreme Court understanding that the right to speak must be driven by a meaningful right to be heard. "Hunger," she says, "is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy." No one is hungry by choice, "hunger is the symptom of powerlessness," and powerlessness is the opposite of democracy.

Community GroundWorks aims to build the farm business in such a way that actually could end up being a somewhat of a social enterprise mostly through urban farming. They have over 300 community gardens and a five-acre organic farm in the Madison, Wisconsin, area and throughout Dane County. Ellen, through urban farming, is proving everyone can farm organically and sustain their own food needs on a small scale. In addition to teaching urban farming, Ellen teaches at risk youths how to garden and farm at the Goodman Youth Farm. She says by "teaching children how to eat and grow real food" she hopes they will go home to their parents and tell them that this is what they want.

Rootstock Radio: The Science of Grass

Rootstock Radio: Permaculture & Activism with Author Starhawk

Fred describes Haberman as playing the role of the "modern storyteller" because "a great story can truly change the world." And this world-changing philosophy applies especially to the stories of brands in the good food movement. More recently, Fred developed a hydroponic facility called Urban Organics in the old Hamm's brewery in Minneapolis. Urban Organics raises tilapia alongside chard, kale, basil, cilantro and parsley. In their closed-loop system, fish provide nutrients for the plants to grow while the roots of the plants provide clean water for the fish. This model of agriculture uses less than 2% of the water used by traditional farms.

Barry says that his two books "Pig Tales" and "Tomatoland" are "rooted in this notion of commodity agriculture." And that, although our current agriculture industry leaves much to be desired, "there is something we can all do. And we can start doing it the next time we go to the supermarket." Barry's solution? Vote with your dollars. Choose the pasture-raised pork and the organic tomatoes. Be the change.

Rootstock Radio: The Love, and Business, of Agriculture

Katherine's impressive experience in the organic sector stems from what she describes as a "compulsive need to work in nonprofits." She has been involved not only in the food movement, but in issues of peace, social justice, and alternative energy too. Today, she describes the Sustainable Food Trade Association as "a learning community of businesses who are sharing their best practices, their challenges, their initiatives and innovations to help each other really become sustainable business models." In this, they are doing crucial and amazing work.

Dylan is a recent graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. He is passionate about organic food and agriculture as well as involving his own generation in the revitalization of our food system. While in school, Dylan worked with Occidental College to change the food options offered in their cafeterias, he was also involved in the college's participation in the Real Food Challenge, a movement that aims to shift university food budgets away from industrial farms and junk food and towards local, fair, ecologically sound and humane food sources.

Not only is Vince Hundt invested in bio-diversity and farming the way his ancestors did â￿￿prior to pesticides, herbicides and antibioticsâ￿￿ they are also invested in the practice of grass-based agriculture and rotational grazing. Vince explains that the adoption of rotational grazing practices in the mainstream agriculture sector could very well be the catalyst to dramatic environmental overhaul, from mitigating harmful algal blooms in our waters, to neutralizing carbon emissions in the entire United States.

Kari Hamerschlag of Friends of the Earth talks about her work in making the food served at restaurants healthier and more sustainable. She says, "In order to move forward and to shift production practices on the ground and give consumers healthy, sustainable, humane food, we really need to focus on the market where people are getting their food." And this, she adds, is exactly what Friends of the Earth is doing right now.

Rootstock Radio: The Lasting Impact of "Greenhouse to Kitchen"

Farm to School is more than just getting local foods into the cafeteria. Anupama Joshi, executive director of the National Farm to School Network shares what else goes into this important program, from the cafeteria to the classroom to the school garden!

When Charlene and her husband Scott began farming organically it wasn't always easy, but using pesticides and antibiotics didn't sit quite right with the family. Today the Stollers have a thriving organic dairy that has won accolades at the county, state, and national levels. Charlene and Scott like to call their path to organic agriculture a simple, commonsense act of "connecting the dots."