Nourish by MN350

In this episode of Nourish by MN350, host Jeff Diamond explores the future of agriculture with Mhonpaj Lee, an organic farmer, real estate agent, and food advocate within the Hmong community in Minnesota. Mhonpaj and her mother run “Mhonpaj’s Garden," a family organic farm focused on instruction, collaboration, and community support. Mhonpaj talks about her family’s journey into the world of regenerative agriculture, as well as her own journey.

Mhonpaj shares her perspectives on the challenges faced by young farmers and farmers of color, as well as her reasons for hope. Part of the solution lies in programs such as Big River Farms, an incubator run by The Food Group that teaches organic farming to people from historically underrepresented communities, and food hubs such as The Good Acre, which connects local food producers to the Twin Cities food system. Mhonpaj believes replicating these types of programs with resources from the Headwaters Community Food and Water Bill (HF1332 / SF1580) should be a priority for our state legislators.

Full transcript available here.

In this episode of Nourish by MN350, host Eli Crain talks with Matt Maier, owner/founder of Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed, and Laura Schreiber of The Land Stewardship Project.

Matt founded Thousand Hills with the vision of rescuing the U.S. food system from collapse by implementing regenerative agriculture practices on family farms nationwide. Using practices that increase soil fertility, biodiversity, water retention, and soil carbon sequestration, Thousand Hills has a goal of converting 1,000,000 acres from extractive conventional ag practices to holistic regenerative grazing practices by 2025.

Laura is a policy organizer with The Land Stewardship Project, mobilizing around a collective vision that includes a just food and farm system, a healthy landscape, thriving small and mid-sized farms, just and prosperous communities, and a flourishing democracy. LSP is celebrating recent wins at the Capitol, including $5.35 million to get more soil-healthy farming practices onto the landscape - effectively taking soil health from non-existent to a top issue in the 2021 Minnesota legislative agenda.

This conversation with writer, producer, and host Eli Crain is redolent with information to aid farmers and eaters at all stages with how to take care of the land for better climate health.

A major problem with expanding regenerative agriculture in Minnesota is the lack of infrastructure to support farmers who want to opt-out of the industrial food chain. And despite a lot of buzzwords to make consumers think they’re buying a quality product, the truth is that finding food that meets our health and ethical standards is a challenge.

This episode of Nourish by MN350 was written, produced, and hosted by Food Systems activist Eli Crain. “An Irreplaceable Treasure” features Jack McCann of TC Farm, whose cooperative-style food group connects local producers directly to consumers who value transparency in their food system. Elizabeth O'Sullivan of Auntie Annie’s Fields shares how working in partnership with TC Farm allows her to produce food in a way that reflects her values and still focuses on what she loves about the job: tending to the land and the animals she treasures.

This week on Nourish by MN350, volunteer host and architect of the Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill (HF1332/SF1580), Marita Bujold, welcomes two members of the Red Lake Nation, Robert Blake and David Manuel.

Robert is the founder and director of Solar Bear and Native Sun Community Power.*

David Manuel co-directs the tribe’s food sovereignty initiative.

Together with their community, they are pursuing local energy and food sovereignty as a pathway to climate resiliency and freedom from the extractive fossil fuel and industrial food economies imposed by colonization.

Armed with a fierce commitment to care for Turtle Island (earth) and guided by traditional native wisdom, this community is collaborating with other tribal communities to create a promising, healing and enduring future.

Our listeners cannot fail to be inspired by the courageous leadership and transformative, local energy and food economy being shaped by Robert, David and our brothers and sisters of the Red Lake Nation.

*Solar Bear is the first native-owned solar installation company. Native Sun Community Power

is a native run, non-profit organized to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and a just transition through education, workforce training and demonstration.

Learn how the economy created by the Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill. (HF1332/SF1580) will yield abundant sources of food, clean water, capture carbon and nurture the health and well being of all communities.

https://www.justfoodandwater.org/video-just-food-and-water

Take heart. By following the proven leaders, our communities can create the resilient food economy we need for living sustainably.

https://justfoodandwater.org/video-leadership-defined

Read a one page description of the economic resiliency program

CTA join MN350 Action’s campaign

Listen to MN350 Nourish podcast MN350action.org/podcasts

In this episode, we focus on the foodservice industry and the impact that the choices of restaurant owners can have on our food system and our communities. Host Jeff Diamond speaks with Dean Engelmann, co-owner of Wise Acre Eatery, and Arie Peisert, owner of Northern Fires Pizza, both located in Minneapolis. Dean discusses his path towards rediscovering his roots in farming and using his farm to help source his Eatery, and Arie talks about his journey to the Minnesota local food scene, which started in San Francisco through the Alice Waters restaurant tree and included a stop in Rome. Both discuss the value of sourcing through local, sustainable farms, the benefits of agriculture focused on healthy soils, how food waste impacts the food system and the importance of fair treatment of employees in the industry.

A full transcript is available here.

This week on Nourish by MN350, volunteer host and architect of the Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill (HF1332/SF1580), Marita Bujold, welcomes Lori Stern, the executive director of Midwest Organic Sustainable Educations Service (MOSES Organic) and the former owner and chef of Cow & Quince restaurant in New Glarus, Wisconsin and Stefan Meyers, General Project Coordinator of the Finland Food Chain in Finland, Minnesota.

Lori and Stefan live in very different landscapes, but their stories reveal a shared understanding of the value communities find in working in partnership with nature to cultivate, harvest and preserve the bounty she offers.

In her role as chef and owner of Cow & Quince, Lori developed a seasonal menu in a kitchen designed to also preserve summer’s bounty and forged relationships with local farmers-relationships that continue to inform her role today directing MOSES Organic.

In northeastern Minnesota, partnership with nature presents a different set of challenges and opportunities. Stefan and colleagues operating the Finland Food Chain are creating a dynamic economy guided by local ecological knowledge and designed to maintain ecosystem health to cultivate food and to harvest the bounty of the local habitat.

As the conversation unfolds, questions emerge about the leadership we will need to create and maintain a just, sustainable food economy and how our experiences during the pandemic could provoke the systemic change we need.

Tune in for an enlightening conversation.

Learn how the economy created by the Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill. (HF1332/SF1580) will yield abundant sources of food, clean water, capture carbon and nurture the health and well-being of all communities.

https://www.justfoodandwater.org/video-just-food-and-water

Read a one-page description of the economic resiliency program

Listen to MN350 Nourish podcast MN350action.org/podcasts

CTA join MN350 Action’s campaign

Note: this is an updated version of an episode released in April 2021.

In this episode of Nourish by MN350, host Lisa Chou talks about food waste with Danielle Piraino, Produce Programs Coordinator from The Food Group, and Patrick Smith, a former collective member with Sisters Camelot. Both guests talk about why we produce so much extra food in the first place, the challenges of rescuing “wasted” food from farms and warehouses, and how food waste can be one of the solutions to food insecurity and a path toward strengthening our community and building a more just and equitable food system.

Stay tuned to the end to hear a bonus update from The Food Group’s Executive Director and how they’ve adapted their services to our second year of the pandemic and ways for you to support their work.

Full transcript available here.

Host Eli Crain talks with Josh Resnik the CEO of Twin Cities Co-op Partners and Jack Hedin, founder of Featherstone Farm about how the relationship between consumers, farmers, and Co-op grocery stores offers challenges and opportunities for providing sustainable, regional, and affordable food. In this information-packed episode, Jack and Josh discuss the tension between sustainability, affordability, and equity in our food system from farm to fork.

Full episode transcript available here.

This week on Nourish by MN350 volunteer host and author of the Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill, Marita Bujold, welcomes LaChelle Cunningham and Erin Rupp for a conversation that reveals the connection between the essential labor of bees and the racially-just, resilient food economy we need to nurture health and well-being of all our communities.

LaChelle is a chef, educator, and the founder of the Healthy Roots Institute who began her culinary career by launching Chelle’s Kitchen in 2012 and soon after was recognized for her creativity and social justice work as the founding Executive Chef of the Breaking Bread Café in North Minneapolis. In 2018, LaChelle began building the Healthy Roots Institute with a mission to focus on healing and social justice through food education, culinary arts, and entrepreneurship.

Erin is an educator, beekeeper and founded Pollinate Minnesota in 2015 to connect community members of all ages to the science, policy and media story of pollinator decline. Throughout the conversation, a common thread emerges: the direct link between the health of pollinators and the health of our communities, and the crucial need to create a robust, just food economy designed to nurture and maintain that connection. This is the economy created by the Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill. MN350 Action is actively promoting this bill as a strategic climate solution.*

Listeners will not want to miss this compelling conversation with LaChelle and Erin-two remarkable leaders whose stories reveal invaluable insights that we need understand to create the just, resilient food economy we need to care for bees and people.

* MN350 Action is excited to announce that the House Select Committee on Racial Justice Report to the Legislature recommends supporting the economic resiliency program created by the Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill. (Environmental Justice. p.43)

Full episode transcript available here.

This week on Nourish by MN350, volunteer host Rory Coleman discusses the Headwaters Community Food and Water Bill with fellow Food Systems volunteer and author of the bill, Marita Bujold. They are joined by MN350’s very own Sam Grant, who discusses MN350’s campaign to support the bill, as well as MN350’s mission to address climate justice in the food system, transportation and divestment from fossil fuels. The Headwaters Bill is a visionary piece of legislation that will create and maintain a decentralized food web economy across the state: a source-to-table model that's actually designed to meet the demands of food, water and climate. This wide-ranging conversation explains the many ways in which the publicly-funded industrial food system fails our communities - extractive of the earth, and destroying the health of ecosystems and communities - especially communities of color. Marita and Sam offer examples of North Minneapolis community members and organizations whose work has shifted food policy, and given people access to land and healthy food. Together, they put forth a vision in which, through investment in rural and urban communities, it is possible to create a food system that can sequester carbon as well as a point of connection and healing across Minnesotan communities.

Organizations Mentioned in this episode

Northside Fresh

Appetite for Change

Breaking Bread Cafe

North Minneapolis Farmers Market

Homegrown Minneapolis Food Council

Finland Food Chain

Full episode transcript available here.