The Farm Report

Access to land is the number one challenge facing the next generation of farmers in the US. Centuries of discrimination and land theft have put this resource out of reach of farmers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Everyday in the US we lose 2,000 acres of viable farmland to development. With millions of acres on the verge of changing hands, the Farm Bill is our best chance to ensure this land transitions eq...

Despite an increasing number of farmers growing food in cities urban agriculture wasn’t acknowledged in the farm bill until 2018. Lisa Held, journalist with Civil Eats and former Farm Report host provides the scoop on how the Farm Bill will impact the future of urban ag.

Melissa Metrick and Wythe Marschall, co-hosts of HRN’s Fields podcast, give us some perspective on urban land-access challenges and what’s happening on the...

The nutrition title was first included in the 1973 farm bill. It’s projected to make up 84% of total Farm Bill spending, with most of the funds going to SNAP. That’s because the program helps more than 40 million low-income individuals provide food for their families each month. Some of those people are farmers. In this episode, we talk to Mark Nicholson, Senior Director of Policy at the Fair Food Network to dig into how t...

Farmers are now dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis on a daily basis. Experts predict weather events including droughts and flooding will only get worse. Young and beginning farmers, especially BIPOC farmers, are feeling those impacts the most. Are there opportunities to advance water and climate action and justice through the 2024 Farm Bill? We interview Abi Fain, Chief Legal and Policy Officer at the Intertrib...

Why should our next generation of farmers – and just about everyone who eats – care about the farm bill? Celize Christy, an Organizer at HEAL Food Alliance explains the basic details on what’s in the legislation, how it gets written, and how it impacts you. Then, Young Farmers’ Policy Campaigns Co-Director Vanessa Garcia Polanco lays out the path forward in terms of the most important issues this time around. And we talk t...

Join us for a special series of The Farm Report in collaboration with The National Young Farmers Coalition that's all about The Farm Bill. 

Tune in to hear from farmers, policymakers, organizers, and food advocates about all the ways the farm bill directly impacts our lives - whether we realize it or not. We’ll break down farm policy and talk to young farmers about what hangs in the balance for them as another Farm Bill get...

Humans have used fermentation to preserve crops and add flavor and health benefits to their diets for thousands of years. Since 2015, Sarah Conezio and Isaiah Billington have been putting their own stamp on that age-old tradition with Keepwell Vinegar. Together, they partner directly with small, organic farms to turn apples, ginger, and persimmons into specialty vinegars, farro into miso, and soybeans into soy sauce, bottl...

Whether they’ve grazed on grass their entire lives, been raised in an organic system, or lived on a conventional dairy farm, the vast majority of dairy cows get sold into the commodity beef system when they’re retired and get integrated into the same cheap meat supply. With Butter Meat Co, Jill Gould is betting on a different model. By selling retired organic dairy cows directly in her local community in Western New York a...

America’s farmers are aging rapidly, and those looking to sell their land are finding no shortage of buyers. Billionaires, global corporations, investment firms, and developers are all buying up farmland for profit at a quick clip, driving up prices and making it nearly impossible for young and beginning farmers without accumulated wealth to afford their own acreage to plant and harvest. “Farmers Need Equitable Access to L...

Adrien de Botin and his wife Carolina Prioglio are the husband-and-wife founders of Maison/Made, and to make the certified biodynamic skin-care products that they sell, they grow their own medicinal herbs on a family farm in Burgundy and have built a network of small farm suppliers around the world. In this episode, host Lisa Held talks to de Botin about the couple’s efforts—from the specifics of biodynamic practices and w...

Over the past decade, hummus has exploded in popularity in the U.S, but compared to the many brands that now line shelves at every supermarket, Little Sesame is doing things differently. The Washington D.C. fast casual restaurant, which now also sells its hummus at Whole Foods and other stores in the region, gets all of its chickpeas from a single Montana farmer who is pushing the envelope on climate-friendly farming with ...

While USDA-certified organic food still accounts for a small fraction of total U.S. food sales, it’s now big business. In 2020, data from the Organic Trade Association showed sales of organic food rose at a record rate to a new high of $56.4 billion, and as the industry has become more lucrative, fraud and cheating have increased. The Cornucopia Institute is a non-profit watchdog organization that has been working to hold ...

When Alice Waters opened her trailblazing California restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971, she launched what would become a movement around truly seasonal cooking and eating that could support farmers, communities, and the environment. In 1995, Waters also started the Edible Schoolyard Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching children about food and transforming the public education system. To mark the Edible Sch...

On September 23, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the first UN Food Systems Summit, with a goal of “setting the stage for global food systems transformation.” In this episode, Ruth Richardson, the executive director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, talks to host Lisa Held about the significance of the Summit, some of the controversies surrounding it, and what she thinks global ...

Extra virgin olive oil is a delicious, healthy, pantry staple. It can also be a luxury product for special dining experiences. However, most olive oil in the world is low quality and highly processed. What does producing a truly great extra virgin olive oil—from farm to bottle—actually involve? Armando Manni is the founder of Manni Organic Olive Oil in Tuscany, and his high-antioxidant, long-lasting, organic oils are used ...

Cover crops are good for soil health, water quality, and climate resilience, and while more farmers are planting them compared to a decade ago, the number of covered acres is still miniscule compared to the amount of cropland that goes bare each winter. Now, a new analysis from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that in crucial Midwest states, increases in cover crop planting might be plateauing. In this episode, ...

Lindsey Lusher Shute began working on the concept for GrownBy during her time at the National Young Farmers Coalition, because young farmers expressed a need for better technology that could help them sell their food. Now, after testing the platform during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic on her own farm in the Hudson Valley and several others, the app is up and running with 160 farms around the country. In this episode...

After observing how much the quality and variety of produce sold in grocery stores differed in neighborhoods across St. Louis, Tyrean Lewis started Heru Urban Farming to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to food apartheid communities. In this episode, he talks to host Lisa Held about growing the farm to four different plots in the city, how his family’s history in agriculture inspires and guides him, and bringing local you...

The American agricultural system was built based on the enslavement of African people, and since emancipation, systematic discrimination against Black people within agriculture has persisted. In 1920, close to 1 million Black farmers made up about 14 percent of America’s farmers. In 2017, less than 50,000 Black farmers remained, making up just over 1 percent. In this episode, Dania Davy joins host Lisa Held to talk about t...