Greenhorns Radio

Charlie Johnson is the director of the Community Integration for Training and Employment (CITE) program at Toledo GROW’s Botanical Garden in Toledo, OH. He developed the program to employ adjudicated youth in urban agriculture, helping them to gain the skills they need to get jobs when they finish the program. For the past 10 years, Charlie has been involved in implementing an urban agriculture training center, introduced small chickens and small livestock to Toledo, and helped start dozens of community gardens. This program has been sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.

“What better way to deal with vacant lots than to turn them into gardens and teach people how to grow? [9:10]

Charlie Johnson on Greenhorns Radio

Heather Retberg and her husband Phil first met as young children in Mexico, where their fathers were missionaries. Led through many twists and turns by their faith and values, they now have children of their own and live on a small, diversified, grass-based farm in Penobscot, ME. The farm is conserved under the Blue Hill Heritage Trust’s Farmland Forever program and is a Maine Farmland Trust ‘Forever Farm’. Heather home-schools their three children, Alexander, Benjamin, and Carolyn. When the state Department of Agriculture began re-defining small-scale farms according to federal rules for processing chickens and selling raw milk, threatening the family’s livelihood, a community farm and food rights advocate was born! She is now looked to by farmers across the state and country as a leader in the fight for local control of local food systems. This program has been sponsored by The International Culinary Center.

“When going back makes sense, you’re going forward!”

Severine von Tscharner Fleming on Greenhorns Radio

Neil Bertrando lives with his family in Reno, NV on the edge of the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada mountains on a 1.3 acre homestead. He is passionate about promoting and developing the synergies between resource production and regenerative land management. He is trained in Keyline Design and Permaculture, recently became a registered teacher with the Permaculture Research Institute, and studied Biology (BS) and Environmental Science (MS) in University. His passions are people, water, soil, and plants. To engage these passions he runs RT Permaculture–a consulting, design, and education business–and partners with Loping Coyote Farms–a local micro nursery and farming enterprise. He also collaborates with Permaculture Northern Nevada (a local community group), Urban Roots to implement an agroecology and Permaculture education program and Nevada Bugs and Butterflies which opened Northern Nevada’s first public butterfly house last year. Neil is excited about collaboration and has been honored to work with several groups over the past year including Mindful Generations, Holzer AgroEcology, Dryland Solutions, The Quivira Coalition, ABC Acres, Locavore Farm, Perennial Solutions, Owen Hablutzel, Cosmic Goat Creamery, and PRI Tipuana Farm in a wide range of climates and settings. This program has been sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.

“That’s my larger goal, to really just get to know people, building on those relationships, and being as honest and truthful and generous as possible. [21:30]

“We all really have the same goal, which is to create a positive impact on the land within our communities.” [26:30]

Neil Bertrando on Greenhorns Radio

Cari Rincker is the owner of Rincker Law, PLLC, a national general practice law firm concentrating in food and agriculture law. She is licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington D.C. She is currently the Chair of the American Bar Association’s General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division’s Agriculture Law Committee and serves on the New York State Bar Association’s Agriculture & Rural Issues Committee. She is a prolific writer and blogger on a myriad of food and agriculture law topics and has been recognized as an author of a Top 100 Blawg from the American Bar Association.
Cari’s passion for agriculture issues is deeply rooted. She grew up on a seedstock Simmental cattle operation in Shelbyville, Illinois where she spent significant time working on her family’s farm. Cari went on to receive her Associate in Agriculture Science from Lake Land College and Bachelors of Science from Texas A & M University, where she had a successful career livestock judging at the collegiate level. Afterwards, Cari went back home to the University of Illinois to complete her Masters of Science in Ruminant Nutrition. Due to her passion for agriculture law and policy, Cari decided to complete her Juris Doctor from Pace University, School of Law, in White Plains, New York. At Pace, Cari completed certificates in both Environmental Law and International Law.

Cari continues to have her boots planted firmly in agriculture -she enjoys judging livestock shows around the country and is the co-owner of Rincker Cattle Co., a SimAngus operation in Shelbyville, Illinois. She is the Past-President and Founding Member of New York Agri-Women, a Director for the New York Simmental Association, and Past-Secretary of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Young Producers’ Council. Cari is a recognized leader in the agriculture industry and the recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Award from Texas A & M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Lake Land College, the Vision Award from American Agri-Women and has been twice selected by the livestock industry as the “Best Agriculture Lawyer” in the Best of the Barns Competition. This program has been sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.

Robin is the Coordinator and lead instructor for the Sustainable Agriculture Program at Central Carolina Community College. In this capacity, she has developed and taught an organic farmer education and training curriculum and worked directly with aspiring and beginning farmers since 1999. Thanks to our sponsor, Heritage Foods USA.

“The focus of the degree is to be an entrepreneurial program. The people who designed were first-time farmers, and they knew what they were lacking.” [7:00]

Owen Hablutzel is a consultant, educator, and group-facilitator performing international work with a range of clientele to radically amplify practical whole systems design, thinking, and management for increasing land health, at multiple scales. Living, working, and learning across multi-cultural contexts (North Africa, Australia, Mexico, Middle-East, Canada, Zimbabwe, and most of the western United States), Owen brings a diverse constellation of experiences and training to his work with broad-acre and regional systems. This work integrates bio-physical applications (Keyline, Permaculture, and Holistic Management) with Social technologies (participatory process facilitation), and with a wider spectrum of practical, flexible, leading-edge solutions (social-ecological systems science) beyond sustainability. Whether with farms, ranches, classrooms, non-profits, NGOs, government agencies/ministries, or other land-managing/policy groups, the core work remains empowering people and communities to enact transformations toward robust land health, adaptive capacity, and resilience through stewardship. Owen is a Certified Educator with Holistic Management International, holds a Masters in Eastern Philosophy (the original systems thinking & ‘science of the whole’) from St. John’s College in New Mexico, and serves passionately as a director of the Permaculture Research Institute, USA. This program has been sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.

“You don’t really understand a system until you understand what’s going on at at least 3 different scales and how those things are interacting.” [20:00]

—Owen Hablutzel on Greenhorns Radio

Easy Bean Farm is owned and managed by Michael Jacobs, his wife Malena Arner Handeen, daughter Hazel (13), and son Arlo (10). He began managine the 120 acres of prairie, grove, pasture and cropland in the fall of 1996 after working as a furniture maker in St. Paul. In their first two seasons they sold produce mainly through farmers’ markets with the goal of learning enough about growing food to begin selling produce to restaurants, food co-ops, and through their (now) 280 member C.S.A. While Michael spends most of his time working in the fields, Minnesota’s cold winters also provide him with time away from the soil to explore other areas of interest. When not cutting firewood and restoring his old house, he can often be found in his woodshop designing and building custom made furniture and cabinets. Sometimes, if you’re sneaky, you can even catch him writing or baking bagels.

“If you’re someone who likes to make change, the number of people in a rural community that you have to convince is very small.” [13:00]

“Our community can’t survive if we keep consolidating farmland.” [17:50]

—Michael Jacobs Greenhorns Radio

Mike Kwasniewski is in his third year of farming in his hometown of Beverly, West Virginia. Coming back home after studying philosophy at Gonzaga University and working at a couple of diary farms on the West Coast, he and his mother, Pam Kwasniewski, began The Charm Farm with an emphasis on pasture-based meat production. Headquartered on the forty acres he grew up on, the farm also includes 220 acres of river bottom farmland while another 200 is rented for cattle and hay production. Along with livestock, the farm also raises produce, fruit, field crops, potatoes and eggs. In November 2012, Mike began a whole diet CSA, with on-farm pickups every week. The farm also supplies restaurants and retail stores, as well as the local farmers market. This program is sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.

“Land is cheap and there’s plenty available!” [10:50]

— Mike Kwasniewski on Greenhorns Radio

Rio Grande Community Farm is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that farms in Albuquerque on public land (the Los Poblanos Fields Open Space in the North Valley) since 1997. The farm grows Certified Organic fruit and vegetable crops (primarily annuals), as well as grows 25% or more of our acreage in wildlife habitat/feed such as corn, sorghum, sunflowers, and an abundance of other flowers and grains. We have a 2-acre community garden which offers neighbors and school groups a place to learn about and grow their own food, and we offer education programs such as farm camps and farm tours. Our most popular program is the annual Albuquerque Maize Maze which is 7 acres of corn and other cover crops cut in a maze pattern with an educational theme, that thousands of Burquenos attend during the fall season. We value the property’s status as Open Space land and are proud to participate in wildlife habitat preservation as well as offering accessible hands-in-the-dirt opportunities. This program has been brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.

“The whole network of farmers around the whole Rio Grande corridor are really connected with donating to food banks.” [17:00]

— Jamie Phillips on Greenhorns Radio

Tammy Horn was born in Harlan County, KY, on March 21, 1968. Her parents taught history and English; both maternal and paternal grandparents kept bees on their properties in eastern KY. All of these interests coalesce in my research and vision for a world in which there is, to quote J.R.R. Tolkien, “hope without guarantees.”When she was ten, her parents moved to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The stark Badlands and their nuanced shadows continue to serve as her aesthetic ideal when writing. Tammy received a B.A. from Berea College, an M.A. from Ft. Hays State, and finished a Ph.D. in Modernism at the University of Alabama in 1997. This was the same year that her grandfather introduced me to his bees. The real education began. For three years, Tammy taught at the University of West Alabama, returning to KY to help her grandfather with his bees. In 2000, Tammy stayed in KY to teach at Eastern Kentucky University and in 2002, transferred to teach at Berea College. In 2005, Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped A Nation was published by the University Press of Kentucky. In 2006, Tammy was named the NEH Chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College. Tammy’s research from that year has resulted in a pilot project focusing on the relationship between coal mine reclamation sites and honey bees. Hear Tammy on KY Life! This program has been brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.

“We’re losing 1 in every 3 beehives every year across the nation…and that’s because we haven’t regulated pesticide use at all.” [16:30]

“2013 will go down in history as the year when honey production will be at its lowest.” [21:30]

— Tammy Horn on Greenhorns Radio