Flipping the Table

California has declared that species diversity is a major environmental goal. After 150 years of intensive agriculture, achieving that goal is a challenge. But there is a great example underway on the Sacramento River where endangered salmon are being saved by proactive rice farmers. The Nigiri Project reveals an approach that has implications for crop and livestock operations across the state and the nation.

We need more farmers and many of them must be women, Black, Indigenous and other people of color in order to sustain the nation’s food abundance and heal the wounds of the nation’s persistent racism. After a 35-year farming career, Leonard Diggs, a Black farmer from California’s Great Central Valley, is fully engaged in supporting the emergence of that healing generation of new farmers.

Food justice and climate change demand an end to good waste. Food Forward in Los Angeles is the most impressive food recovery program we’ve ever seen. Founder Rick Nahmias shares the story of how he and his team have delivered over 1 billion servings of food to 150,000 people per day.

Flipping the Table is a production of Roots of Change, a program of the Public Health Institute. Roots of Change has been a major catalyst in the growth and power-building of the good food movement. It was launched in 2002 and this episode features a conversation with 4 individuals who have been deeply involved in its founding and evolution and offer perspectives on what has worked and what has not.

After talking about the day’s farm tour on the Oxnard plain of Ventura County to educate CalPolySLO engineering students working to keep drinking water cool for farmer workers in hot fields, Maureen and Michael explore how to solve the many complex challenges faced by farmers in a time of intense political polarization, climate change and escalating prices.

You have probably heard how challenging it is to keep a farm or ranch alive in today’s industrial food system. Low prices, high barriers to market entry and climate impacts are killing off the family ranches that are the primary sources of meat. Big corporations are capturing the vast majority of the wealth and impoverishing rural communities. Hear about one attempt to turn the tide in one of the most rural regions of California, which is home to many good people and beautiful ranches seeking more direct relationship to urban eaters.

Perhaps no one has spoken so clearly about the problem of capitalism and its impact on our food system as Woody Tasch. He is the founder of the Slow Money Institute and the movement it supports. Hear about his latest written statement, A Call to Farms and the Beet Coin initiative launching on September 11, 2022.

Resilience requires access to local food. One model of how to sustain and promote local farms is Sonoma County Farm Trails. Launched in 1973, it is the nation’s first community-based organization with such a mission. Carmen Snyder, executive director, shares its story and about its upcoming event: the Gravenstein Apple Fair.

Craig shares his dramatic life journey from the JFK White House to a farm near UC Davis, the challenge of loving a complex father and how his farm brought healing inside and with the Vietnamese people.

Guido Frosini and Sarah Silva, members of the Bay Area Ranchers Cooperative, tell us what production and processing challenges they face and how they are solving these challenges even amidst global warming. 

CA movement leaders describe the $3.3 billion Resilient Food and Farm bond and budget request.

One of Dan’s most challenging and interesting interviews with the renown animal welfare advocate and gifted autistic. Dr. Grandin has transformed livestock handling.

Michael and Tom discuss California’s immense water problems and potential solutions. S3 E1 sets the stage for a great season of how CA is solving 21st century food system challenges.

Naima shares her path, her poetry and vision for a food system and society that is healed, just and regenerative. An inspiring end to Season II!

Dan Imhoff dialogues with Eliot Coleman, Maine’s Four Season Farm founder, author and organic farming pioneer. Eliot shares what plants want, what growers around the world can teach, and how small farms can make money.

Author, educator, recovering Buddhist and model for a life well lived, Deborah shares her stores of a culinary and farm-centered cook’s life, all from her memoir An Onion In My Pocket.

Writer and activist Dan Imhoff speaks with farmer, poet and seminal writer Wendell Berry about the “oversimplification” of agriculture and all the resulting challenges.

Celebrity chef & farmer Duskie Estes, rancher Kathy Webster and farmer Sarah Silva launched the Bay Area Ranchers Cooperative (BAR C) to support local livestock producers providing safe, healthy meat to a growing market.

Writer, farmer, activist Dan Imhoff wets our appetite for six conversations he recorded with the pioneers of regenerative and organic agriculture in the early 2000s. The Imhoff Archives will run once per month over the next 6 months.

The new leader of the nation’s largest and most impactful food policy council shares her lived experience and vision for LA’s food future.

The future of a healthy and regenerative meat source is visible by looking at Morris Grassfed. A 30-journey to build a network of mutually beneficial relationships that are good for people, animals and the planet!

Native peoples are rebirthing their food traditions to heal the impacts of the modern American diet and political and economic oppression.  Sanjay’s new film captures three inspiring stories of reclaimed food sovereignty.

The soil is a powerful tool for combatting climate change. Through her nonprofit, Soil Centric, Donlon builds support and pathways for everyone to join the campaign to build soil and capture carbon to create a healthier future.

The leader of the Center for Ecolitercy provides a picture of their work to transform school meals and how they’ve adapted in the time of COVID.

We unpack the role of white fragility, its relationship to shame, numbness and rage and ways to “keep ourselves on the hook” as participants in the healing of the nation’s deepest wound.

This is a follow up to Michael’s fall 2019 dialogue with Erin regarding her work to rally American food and agriculture to become climate heroes. He joins Rodger Wasson his colleague for the new podcast series “Beyond Your Table: From the Real Dirt to Common Ground.” We explore the important question: can Erin rally the industry given the complexities and challenges upon us?

Global warming, Covid-19 and the murder of Black people is impacting the minds of humans planet wide. What can we do to deal with the stress and great fears before us? Britt offers hope and a path.

A dialogue on how sensations within the body and feelings allow those divided by race and privilege to find paths to healing the deep and historical national wounds that hobble us all.

Chef Duskie Estes and Melita Love of Farm to Pantry share benefits of gleaning to feed the hungry and end food waste

A man on a mission to teach the art and advocate for a regenerative agriculture

Based in the Bronx, New York. Baldor may be the most innovative food service distributor on the East Coast. You’ll hear about their impressive food waste reduction programs and adaptation of their business during the pandemic.

Jim, a leader of the United Food & Commerical Workers Union, talks about how COVID and the current political dynamics may offer a better future for those who move the food from farm to table. 

Allen Katz, a pioneer in the craft distilling world and the Slow Food movement shares his uplifting stories about how his work has brought pleasure and conviviality, while highlighting the small grain farmers of upstate New York.

An uplifting conversation re a healthier future for our kids

Michael’s brief download as second week of shelter in place order begins

With nearly 40 years of activism toward right relationship to nature and our fellow humans, few people in American have more perspective on change movements and the moment in which we live than Dave Henson, Executive Director of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center.

From real dirt to common ground, Michael & Rodger engage farmers on the cutting edge who deliver the world’s best produce that meets the needs of our challenging time.

The Glynwood Center’s dynamic leader shares her strategy for creating viable regional food and farming economies.

Hubris born of human ingenuity has unleashed myriad unintended consequences that now threaten life as we know it. Britt & Michael explore how her insightful work offers an antidote to the deadly hubris that ail our species.

Darryl and Melissa Burnett built a thriving restaurant business designed to maximize neighborly intimacy in an age of fast food, large dinning rooms and mass marketing

Balancing and sowing agreement among divergent forces, while still making change requires skill. Hear from a leader doing it.

Chef Hoffman shares his unique culinary journey, including how he catalyzed farm to table in the Big Apple.

Host Michael Reid Dimock and Producer Patrick Sexton look back on a great year of conversations about food, farming and the future. With snippets from memorable moments, we hear what they took away from six of the 27 guests featured in season 1.

Erin has immense faith in business and seeks to make ag the center of our economy and farmers the climate heroes of our time. We hope she can!

Like Greta Thunberg, Elise is doing her part to save the planet. She came to California to learn about the food movement. It’s a great episode if you want to know more about Roots of Change’s work.

The dynamic couple behind the iconic San Francisco restaurant Mission Chinese share the story of how they came to collaborate with the State of California on a program that will make it easy for restaurant patrons to support farms and ranches that capture carbon in their soil.

A tax on sugary beverages could make food justice for all much more achievable. But Big Soda’s money in politics makes passing the tax very hard. We think Dr. Scorza’s approach is the only path to victory.

Native son of the Heartland Rodger Wasson, host of the Farm to Table Talk podcast, and Michael discuss their alternate paths, but common love of agriculture and food. Includes an interesting contrast in their views of a recent viral video from the traditional ag industry on its role in solving climate change.

LA FPC is a leader in the nation. Its success comes from great leaders and community inclusion to set agendas and making community voices heard. It’s an inspiring story and model for any community seeking health and justice.

Chris Sayer shares the pleasures and perils of farming in Ventura County, including climate resilience, cannabis production, the cost and benefit of CA’s regulations

Michael shares his history within Slow Food’s leadership and some of his peak experiences during those years. He ends with some assessments about Slow Food’s strengths and weaknesses and his hopes for the US organization.

Denisa Livingston, Dine leader from New Mexico tribal lands, shares groundbreaking victory in taxing soda and junk food to help heal her people ravaged by Type II Diabetes. It’s a brief and uplifting conversation!

Two veteran chapter leaders, Marissa La Brecque and Jennifer Breckner, share the highs and lows of movement leadership at the local level.

Chefs Duskie Estes and Anthony Myint join a live audience of Millennials to talk about the challenges, opportunities and future of the Bay Area’s culinary scene.

In its 30th year of existence, the Slow Food movement’s main man, shares his story and that of the movement he shepherds globally.

Big take away from the Leaders’ Summit

Kat is out to transform critical sectors of society: agriculture, democracy, finance & philanthropy.

Rice and wine: how California’s rice and winegrape growers are cultivating a beautiful ecological blend

Rap legend Eligh shares his food and art journey.

Description: There’s a crisis in the Bay Area’s restaurant scene. Join noted chefs, Anthony Myint and Duskie Estes, in conversation with Michael to explore how we might maintain our culinary Mecca. July 12th at Manny’s.

LA’s food movement ROCks! Clare Fox and Joann Lo, leaders of the LA Food Policy Council, reveal why!

Author of "Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land"

Reviewing the presidential candidates’ commitment to healthy food and farming

Her journey and broad away of work

Anna’s constructive critique of philanthropy and the food movement

Michael’s musing on the merging of progressive movements and the pace of change

Going deeper as we taste through his wines

Defining natural wine

A riff on the first 23 episodes and their driving tour of California agriculture

Food movement’s strengths and weaknesses

Navina’s journey and HEAL’s work

Michael’s dilemma re fighting bad actors and helping to reunify a polarized nation

Slow Money’s Results and Woody’s new book