Episodes

For years, small livestock farmers and ranchers have been saying the same thing: access to processing is one of the biggest obstacles to getting locally raised meat to customers. In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima revisits two earlier conversations that show just how long this problem has persisted. In 2022, Carrie Edsall of Black Willow Pond Farm described what happened when a processing appointment she had booked more than a year in advance disappeared while finished pig...

Jack Algiere arrived at Stone Barns Center in 2003 as its very first employee, hired to build a greenhouse on a former Rockefeller cattle operation thirty miles north of Manhattan. More than two decades later, that greenhouse has never seen a chemical, the farm he built with chef Dan Barber and Blue Hill at Stone Barns has become one of the most influential in the country, and Jack has written his first book, Seeding Hope: What Plants Teach Us About Being Human, out now from Chelsea Green. In t...

Farmer Meg Despres of Biscuitwood Farm in Esperance, New York had a For Farmers Wish List that nobody had ever shopped. Not one item. So she left a comment on our Instagram asking a simple question: what can I do to make this list work for me? Here's what happened next. A few DMs, one small fix, a Tuesday morning letter, and a farm transformed almost overnight. Meg farms 50 acres in Schoharie County with a culinary focus: chef-quality vegetables, pastured eggs, black currant jam, and pierogi m...

Beef is expensive. Cattle prices are at historic highs. Ranchers are finally getting paid more for their animals. So why is the U.S. cattle herd still the smallest it’s been in 75 years? Why are giant meatpackers losing hundreds of millions of dollars and closing plants? And why are smaller ranchers still struggling to find somewhere to process their cattle? In this solo episode, Dana follows the beef supply chain from pasture to meat counter to understand a moment when almost every part of the...

What happens when a farm grows to the point where the farmers can no longer do everything themselves? Maria Zordan and Max Morningstar own MX Morningstar Farm in Claverack, New York, where they grow about 40 acres of certified organic vegetables and operate a year-round farm store. Their business also reaches far beyond the farm through wholesale accounts, restaurants, distributors, other farms and CSA customers. In this episode, Maria and Max take us inside the less visible work of building a...

We're told the food supply is safe. And often, it is. But safe is a bigger word than it sounds, and it rests on things most of us never see. This episode looks at three outbreaks unfolding right now: Cyclospora in the lettuce, a parasite so hard to detect that the case was built on interviews, not lab tests New World screwworm, a flesh-eating pest eradicated 60 years ago, now back in Texas H5N1 bird flu, which leapt from poultry into dairy cattle and now turns up in the milk supply Every re...

What if the future of food depends less on winning arguments and more on rebuilding trust? Maria Rodale has spent a lifetime at the heart of the organic movement, carrying forward the work of one of agriculture's most influential families. But in this conversation, she looks beyond labels and certifications to something deeper: the relationships, compassion, and storytelling that create lasting change. Together we explore why facts alone rarely change minds, how trust has become one of the mos...

What do elite athletes, gardeners, and small farmers have in common? According to UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich, more than you might think. Known to many as the first-ever UFC Welterweight Champion and the coach behind 12 MMA world champions, Pat has spent the last four decades researching a different kind of performance: the connection between soil health, nutrient density, and human health. In this conversation, we explore why healthy soil may be the foundation of healthy food, why Pat bel...

On June 25th, President Trump signed an executive order advancing regenerative agriculture. The same afternoon, the USDA quietly finalized a Regenerative Feedstock Rule that lets industrial corn claim the regenerative label to sell more ethanol. Sixty-eight percent of corn farmers already qualify, which means almost nothing has to change in the field. The word is doing the work. In this solo episode, Dana traces how a term that small farmers built with cover crops and real soil work got picke...

David Wise grew up on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota, where food followed the seasons and knowledge of the land was woven into daily life. Today, as the founder of Native Wise, he raises bison, harvests manoomin, or wild rice, and produces maple sugar, maple syrup, and honey. But his path to this work was anything but straightforward. In this episode, David joins host Dana DiPrima to talk about growing up Ojibwe, the knowledge passed through his family, his years working in fores...

What if the best bakery in town isn’t really in the bread business? Jonathan Bethony, founder of Seylou Bakery in Washington, D.C., has built one of the country’s most respected bakeries around a simple but profound idea: every loaf begins long before flour reaches the mixing bowl. It begins with healthy soil, thoughtful farmers, heritage grains, and relationships built on trust. In this episode, Jonathan shares an extraordinary personal journey that spans the Adirondacks, Senegal, Califor...

We often think of a farm as a place that grows food. But a small farm does so much more than that. It holds up a local economy, circulating dollars in a way no chain store can. It creates belonging, the feeling of being known by the person who grows your food. It carries the identity of a family and a town. And it quietly supports the mental health and the very future of the place it calls home. In this quick episode, we explore how small farms fortify our communities, drawing on res...

What does the USDA actually do? Who does it serve? And why does it seem like some farmers receive support automatically while others struggle to access even basic resources? In this episode of One Bite Is Everything, Dana DiPrima takes listeners through a practical USDA 101. From its origins as Abraham Lincoln's "people's department" to its modern role overseeing everything from SNAP and school lunches to crop insurance, conservation programs, and rural development, this episode explores one ...

What happens when people step out of the grocery store and onto a working farm? In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana sits down with chef and educator Gary Podesto of Climate Farm School, an organization that brings people directly to farms to learn about food systems, soil health, climate resilience, and regenerative agriculture. Through immersive, week-long experiences on farms around the world, participants gain a deeper understanding of where food comes from and the people respons...

What happens when food assistance programs lose funding? For millions of children and families, the effects can be immediate. Fewer meals. More strain on household budgets. More difficult choices between food, housing, healthcare, and transportation. In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana welcomes back Rachel Sabella, Director of No Kid Hungry New York, to discuss how recent and proposed funding cuts could impact children, families, schools, and communities. Together, they explore why...

What does it actually take to create a truly great restaurant experience — not just once, but every single night? In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana sits down with Chef Chris Stam of Alchemy on Martha's Vineyard to talk about the invisible systems, relationships, and standards behind great food. Chris’s path took him from culinary school outside Boston to some of the most intense kitchens in the country, including Spice Market and the restaurant groups of Jean-Georges Vongerichten...

What do small farmers actually need? After reviewing nearly 900 farmer grant applications through the For Farmers Movement — along with 45 new project submissions from the Friend of a Farmer Choice Awards — a very different picture of American farming begins to emerge. One you might not expect. In this solo episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana pulls back the curtain on the hidden infrastructure quietly holding small farms together and explores what farmers are actually asking for help with....

Show Notes What does it actually take to become a farmer today if you didn’t grow up on a farm, inherit land, or have a roadmap? In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana sits down with first-generation goat farmer Emma Smalley to talk about the reality of building a farm from scratch in modern America. Emma’s path into farming started with a Craigslist ad and an aging goat farmer named Roger who needed help caring for his herd. What followed was mentorship, loss, land searches, commutin...

Inside the hidden systems, rules, economics, and realities shaping America’s farmers markets. Most people think they understand farmers markets. You show up. You buy produce, eggs, cheese, meat, flowers, or honey from a farmer. You support local food. Done. But behind every stand is an entire system most consumers never see. In this episode, Dana sits down with Catt Fields White for a fascinating conversation about what’s really happening behind the scenes at farmers markets across Amer...

What does “best available” actually mean when it comes to food? In this conversation, Dana sits down with Sam Sifton of The New York Times to unpack how we got here. Not just what we eat, but why we eat the way we do, and how much of that is shaped by systems most of us never see. Sam has spent more than two decades helping shape how Americans cook, think about ingredients, and make decisions in their kitchens. Through his work at The New York Times and his role building New York Times Coo...

In honor of Earth Day, this episode takes a closer look at something often missing from the environmental conversation: the role farmers actually play. We tend to hear about agriculture in broad strokes—greenhouse gas emissions, water use, soil erosion. And those concerns are real. But agriculture is not one thing. It varies widely depending on how it’s done, and that difference matters more than most people realize. Drawing from nearly 300 farm projects funded through the For Farmers Movement...

There are about 2 million farms in the United States. Every year, a significant number of the farmers running them are approaching retirement age with no clear plan for what happens to their land when they're done. Farmland doesn't just disappear when a farmer retires. It gets sold, subdivided, converted, or absorbed into larger operations. And in a lot of cases, that means the end of a working farm, a community food source, and sometimes four generations of family work. In this episode, Dana s...

What would American food look like if the story had not been interrupted? That's the question at the center of this conversation with Chef Sean Sherman — an Ogala Lakota chef who grew up on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and has spent his career restoring the indigenous food knowledge that colonization, displacement, and forced assimilation nearly erased. Sean is the founder of the Indigenous Food Lab and the award-winning restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis. His latest book, Turtle Isla...

How do we produce meat in a way that works for farmers, animals, the land, and the people who eat it? Right now, that conversation happens in extremes. On one side: a highly industrialized system designed for efficiency and low prices. On the other: a growing movement toward regenerative agriculture and animal welfare. Somewhere in the middle is a complicated reality that rarely makes it into the headlines. Robby Sansom lives in that middle. He's the co-founder of Force of Nature, a company bui...