It’s All About Food

The podcast explores the gap between Costa Rica’s celebrated green reputation and the more complicated reality on the ground, using two personal observations as entry points: noticing less organic food in stores than 20 years ago, and experiencing a water shutoff in San Isidro. It traces the history of organic agriculture in Costa Rica — how it boomed in the late 90s but was largely export-driven, leaving little for local consumers — and explains how agroecological farming and domestic markets are now quietly growing as alternatives. It confronts the uncomfortable fact that despite its environmental image, Costa Rica is one of the world’s heaviest pesticide users per hectare, driven by industrial pineapple and banana monocultures. The water crisis is unpacked through four layers: climate variability and El Niño, aging infrastructure, growing demand, and policy gaps. A livestock segment examines how cattle ranching drove massive deforestation historically, how it still occupies over a third of the country’s land, and how silvopastoral and low-carbon farming practices are trying to change that. Everything is tied together by showing that food systems, land use, and water security are deeply interconnected — and closes with practical things listeners can do, whether they’re in Costa Rica or not.

Lianna Levine Reisner, MSOD, is building a multicultural movement for health as President and Network Director of Plant Powered Metro New York, an organization she co-founded in 2019 to empower local communities to prevent and reverse chronic disease through evidence-based, plant-based nutrition. To address her family’s health challenges, Lianna had been searching for clear, evidence-based nutritional guidelines that made sense for her family. The writings of T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and his colleagues made a compelling case for whole food, plant-based nutrition, helping her to lose 20% of her body weight, reverse endometriosis and hormonal imbalances, and heavily reduce her allergies and skin issues, among many other benefits. Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center honored Lianna as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star in Food Policy in 2022. Lianna holds a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell, and she is a certified Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator through Main Street Vegan Academy. She is also a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. With a Master’s from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, Lianna previously worked as an independent coach and consultant serving UJA-Federation of New York, providing organizational change support to Jewish nonprofit organizations in the New York metropolitan area. She lives in the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her husband and three children.

In this episode of It’s All About Food, Caryn Hartglass reframes Thanksgiving leftovers as opportunities — to reduce food waste, save money, and create delicious plant-based meals. The episode covers U.S. food-waste context, a light history of the “doggie bag,” practical food-safety and storage tips, and dozens of creative leftover transformations (roasted veg, stuffing, potatoes, beans, sauces, and sweet sides). Listeners get mindset strategies for planning and preventing waste, simple sauce tricks to revive meals.