Matt Skoglund grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, went to law school, and for ten years worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council doing policy work to protect bison in Yellowstone. Always happy in the outdoors and with an interest in both

A matter of conscience: Will Harris on regenerating an industrial ranch

22 days ago 1h

Will Harris's ranch, White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, has been in the Harris family for over 150 years. His ancestors had a polyculture farm, but when industrial tools came to ranching, his father, and then Will, went all in––corporate

The robber barons of today's food corporations

Mar 19th, 2024 1h 7m

Austin Frerick grew up in Iowa, which in his youth had a robust regional food system that offered abundant produce and meat from family farms. But because of one "baron"––that's the name Frerick calls the men whose monopolistic corporations pro

Farm Aid: Food, festivity, and fighting for farmers

Mar 5th, 2024 43m 58s

In 1985 Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young organized a concert to benefit farmers and spread awareness of the crisis U.S. farmers were facing. The concert raised $7 million and spread awareness across the country. Since then Farm Ai

Healthy fish snacks––what cod be better?

Feb 20th, 2024 48m 30s

Nick Mendoza grew up in a cattle ranching family in New Mexico, but when he moved to San Diego he fell in love with the ocean and got hooked on fish and marine science. Taking the lessons from regenerative cattle production to the oceans, he st

The Carbon Credit Conundrum

Feb 6th, 2024 36m 43s

Carbon credits were designed as a market mechanism to incentivize projects that sequester carbon and reduce carbon emissions. The idea is to pay people who are doing climate friendly projects, and sell credits to emitters. But do they work? Is

At The Table: Chefs advocating for a better food system

Jan 22nd, 2024 43m 11s

Katherine Miller, author of At The Table: The Chef's Guide To Advocacy, began her work toward a healthier food system with a deep background in political advocacy. She trains chefs to use their position as influencers to make change on issues l

The six-legged livestock: Bees

Jan 9th, 2024 31m 58s

Beehives take up little space on the land, but, like other livestock, bees need space to roam, and they need a varied diet. Beekeeper Melanie Kirby is a "landless farmer," who sets up her beehives on farms and ranches, where the bees can thrive

Bonus episode: Ask Me Anything!

Dec 18th, 2023 55m 30s

Anica Wong is Quivira Coalition's communications director and she had the idea for an "ask me anything" episode with Down to Earth host Mary-Charlotte Domandi ... and here it is! Listeners asked questions and we answered as best we could, in a

Photographing grasslands: beauty, community, life

Dec 12th, 2023 43m 56s

Photographer Sally Thomson's gorgeous new book of photographs and texts, Homeground, is a deep exploration of rangelands in the Southwest––landscapes, livestock, water, wildlife, and the stewards who keep the land thriving. With her deep backgr

Land, sheep, and the inefficiency of being too efficient

Nov 29th, 2023 1h 1m

Elena Miller Ter-Kuile is a sixth-generation farmer living in southern Colorado. At Cactus Hill Farm she and her father raise sheep for wool, grass-fed meat and organic grain and hay, and are in the process of restoring their family’s damaged l

Transforming 40 million acres of lawns into thriving ecosystems

Nov 13th, 2023 48m 18s

Erik Ohlsen author of The Regenerative Landscaper, is helping people, municipalities, companies, and farms create thriving landscapes at every scale––and cultivate native plants, wildlife, and food. His new book, The Regenerative Landscaper:

Sheep and goats for healthy land, thriving businesses, and fire reduction

Oct 30th, 2023 46m 37s

Cole Bush is a shepherdess, entrepreneur, and educator. Founder of Shepherdess Land & Livestock and Grazing School of the West, she uses a "flerd" (flock-herd) of sheep and goats to restore landscapes and prevent fire. She's also bringing along

Words of wisdom from a holistic veterinarian and regenerative dairy farmer

Oct 17th, 2023 51m 11s

Dr. Hubert Karreman started out as a soil scientist and then fell in love with dairy cows. He became a veterinarian and a regenerative dairy farmer, following a path of respect and reverence for life. He specializes in holistic and organic meth

Funneling federal ag money to the people who most need it

Oct 3rd, 2023 49m

The Biden administration has made a great commitment to building sustainable and healthy food systems. But how to get the money from the government to folks on the land who need it but aren't skilled bureaucrats? Dave Carter Director of Region

How to have family business meetings that are productive––and short

Sep 19th, 2023 49m 31s

Joe and Jenn Wheeling talk about how to avoid the pitfalls of a family ranch business––ego, speechifying, wasted time––and arrive at consensus decisions with the full support of each family member.

Weathering global change on an Oregon sheep ranch

Sep 5th, 2023 1h 9m

When wool processing suddenly moved overseas, Jeanne Carver and her family were left without a market for their products. Through determination and creativity, she turned a setback into a regenerative success story. They pivoted their business

From mountaintops to farm fields: Landscape scale restoration

Aug 21st, 2023 1h 8m

How do you restore an entire forest, or mountain, or watershed? The key is...collaboration. Jan-Willem Jansens has been restoring landscapes in New Mexico for three decades. Owner of Ecotone Landscape Planning, he is part of a network that work

A food forest on an eighth of an acre

Aug 7th, 2023 58m 44s

Roxanne Swentzell was a young mother on a small piece of land at Santa Clara Pueblo when she was introduced to permaculture design principles––which dovetailed with indigenous patters of thinking and land use. She turned her yard from hard, sun

From corporation to regeneration––a family's journey

Jul 24th, 2023 51m 20s

Lorenzo Dominguez was a successful marketing and corporate communications executive in New York City. But during the pandemic he and his wife made the decision to change their lives in order to find a more nature-based and connected way of life

Healing the trauma of Black land loss through regenerative rice production

Jul 11th, 2023 42m 52s

Konda Mason is co-founder and president of Jubilee Justice, a non-profit dedicated to regenerative agriculture, racial justice, cooperative practices, and healing the wounds of Black American land loss and racism. They are in the fourth year of

Cultivating oysters for ocean health, human health, and economic development

Jun 28th, 2023 53m 27s

Oysters are delicious and nutritious. They are also a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer, which means that they provide habitat for all kinds of other species, and they filter and clean the water around them, cycle nutrients, and even r

From urban journalist to country farmer

Jun 6th, 2023 57m 50s

Beth Hoffman was a college professor and agriculture journalist for years before she and her husband picked up and moved from San Francisco to his family's farm in Iowa. In her book Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America

Establishing an earth-friendly meat business

May 22nd, 2023 54m 4s

Corporate meat producers tout their "efficiency" but actually wreak havoc on the environment, local communities, and the animals themselves. Cole Mannix works with the Old Salt Co-op, which is pioneering vertically integrated models for regener

Taking it to the street––healthy food entrepreneurship

May 7th, 2023 39m 50s

Tina Garcia-Shams is executive director of the Street Food Institute in Albuquerque, NM. The program teaches entrepreneurship, food preparation, accounting, marketing, and everything else students need to open a local food truck or catering bus