Show Notes
It's no secret that conventional farming is wreaking havoc on America's farmland, but is it really economically possible to convert conventional row crop farms to a regenerative approach that heals our planet? And how can the concept of an agrarian help foster stronger ties between rural farming communities and the cities they feed?
In this first episode, we dig into the answer with someone who's done it: Josh Payne of Rusted Plowshare Farm [https://www.rustedplowshare.com/] shares the story of how he and his sister Larin transformed their grandfather's corn and soy row crop operation into regenerative pastureland complete with sheep and cattle, microgreens, and over 30 acres of chestnuts.
In this episode, we cover:
- What it means to be an Agrarian
- How they transformed their farm from conventional row crops to regenerative
- Caring for each other through disagreement
- The concept of the "hinterland," and how to create stronger ties between urban and farming communities
- Keys to establishing regenerative pastureland
- And much more...
Learn more about Josh, Larin, and their farm here [https://www.rustedplowshare.com/].
Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller [https://open.spotify.com/artist/0WvWTz5TPYOuoZ77e2iIX8?si=UNVJVNZxR32olf9WOfbf3A], who also wrote our theme song.
More from Agrarian Futures
This week we go to Germany to learn about a cooperative called Kulturland who has been working on solving the farming land access problem for over a decade. Kulturland raises money from everyday people and uses that capital to buy farms, take them off the speculative market, and provides farmers with a secure lease. In return, the farmer commits to farming organically and keeping the farm open to the community.
If we're serious about building a better food system, we have to start with land.
We often talk about how the food system is broken, but what would it look like to build one that is better?
Hi everyone - Emma here. We're deep in prep for our new miniseries on Agrarian Futures where we will be exploring the potential for a better food system rooted in cooperative principles.
Our guest today Will Potter's new book, Little Red Barns [https://www.willpotter.com/littleredbarns], started as a tale about censorship in journalism around industrial agriculture, but became something much bigger: a 10 year investigation look at how factory farming, an ages old mythos of family farms, and the rise of authoritarian politics have all worked in tandem to produce social, economic, and ecological disaster.