Flipping the Table

Food is Medicine is a growing movement that recognizes healthy food as a powerful tool for preventing, managing, and even reversing chronic disease. Food is Medicine goes beyond treating illness and includes addressing the underlying conditions that shape health—from nutrition insecurity and healthcare access to the strength of local and regional food systems.

Wade Crowfoot leads California's Natural Resources Agency, which has been implementing a groundbreaking set of policies designed to end the 60-year-old conflict among agricultural and environmental interests in order to achieve an impressive set of ecological and rural economic goals

Kat Taylor, Co-founder and Board Chair of Beneficial State Bank and Emma Ractliffe, Chief Investment Officer, World Within, share their innovative approaches to investing in the revitalization of rural enterprises, those central to the regenerative revolution underway.

A shocking sea change in food and agriculture policy is underway in Washington DC. Policies that were improving human health through better nutrition, rural economies, small and mid-scale growers have been decimated. Trade and immigration policies are harming the largest farms. The future looks bleak to many. But Maine's veteran of the House Ag Committee, Chellie Pingree shares her honest thoughts on what may lay ahead and how we can maintain the course toward a healthy, resilient and just food and farming system.

Episode 2 of 4 of Old Salt Festival conversations features Dr. Stephan van Vliet, among the planet's leaders studying the impact of regenerative agriculture on nutrient density in meat.At the festival he shared the latest findings that confirm good ecological stewardship of pastures leads to meat that provides many more phytonutrients than meat from feed lots and animal factories. Phytonutrients are natural chemical compounds found in plants that support health by enhancing immune function, reducing inflammation, and protecting against chronic diseases.

Feeding the world without killing it is easily said, but hard to do. Figuring it out is as important as producing energy without fossil fuel. Author Michael Grunwald has his views on how and I have mine. We seek to end the polarized views that dominate the cultural discussion on the challenge and find common ground among the so-called regenerative, organic, and industrial approaches.

Stuart Woolf, among California's largest farmers and Executive Chairman of Woolf Farming Company, has a vision for the heart of California's Great Central Valley. And agave, the hearty cousin of the tasty asparagus plant, is central to that vision. We talk of Stuart's interesting journey, his family's regenerative practices and his fascination with and enthusiasm for agave's resilience in a drying valley and its distilled spirits that could create a whole new industry in the Golden State.

After 15 years on the federal food and agriculture policy beat, perhaps no other American of her generation has a better perspective on what might or might not happen under the new Administration. RFK Jr and the MAHA movement are having an impact. What could it all mean?