Season 2 Recap: Lessons from our Visionary Leaders

For our final episode of Season 2, we take a look back at the stories we’ve shared over the past 15 episodes. Host Sarah Riedl sits down with episode creators Marita Bujold, Lisa Chou, and Eli Crain to discuss the lessons learned from listening to the leaders of Minnesota’s transition to a just food future. 

Featured Guests: Our MN350 Volunteers! 

Marita Bujold - Creator of The Headwaters Community Food and Water Bill 

Lisa Chou - Lead Organizer for MN350’s Food Systems Team

Eli Crain - Assistant Producer of Nourish by MN350

Transcript

Ep16: Season 2 Recap: Lessons from our Visionary Leaders_Transcript

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

episodes, guests, farmers, Minnesota, community, support, industrial food system

SPEAKERS

Sarah Riedl, Lisa Chou, Eli Crain, Marita Bujold

Sarah Riedl 

Hello and welcome to Nourish by MN350! My name is Sarah Riedl, and I'm excited to be your host for today. I am the Communications Manager for MN350, a climate justice organization working toward a just climate transition across Minnesota - which we recognize as the original homeland of the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples. Today, we have a special episode. This is our final episode of the season. So we wanted to take a look back at the powerful conversations we've had so far, to be reminded of all the great work happening in and around Minnesota, and to help us stay focused on action as we continue to confront the realities of the climate crisis. I am honored to be joined today by three food systems activists who have been pivotal in creating this season of Nourish by MN350. If you've been listening to the show for a while, you'll recognize their names and voices. Eli Crain, Lisa Chou and Marita Bujold.  Lisa, Eli, and Marita, it's great to be with you today. Thanks for doing this.

Marita Bujold: 

Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this episode. Very Grateful. 

Eli Crain 

Thanks for having us. I'm excited to be here. 

Lisa Chou: 

Happy to be here.

Sarah Riedl  

We are recording this in August 2021, at a time when the climate crisis seems to have made more local, national and world headlines than any previous time. new vocabulary such as heat dome has made its way into our conversations. Here in Minnesota smoke from distant wildfires has clouded our skies, and a historic drought challenges what we thought we knew about our food and water systems. And to top it all off, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has just released their newest report, which gives us just seven years to put an end to the extractive fossil fuel-based economy that has created the climate crisis. A little news to lighten the load, right? We are faced with an enormous task. And yet I'm optimistic because it feels like everyday people and government officials are finally getting the message and we are moving past denial of the problem and able to focus on the more important question, what can we do about it? Here on Nourish by MN350 we turn that question specifically towards food. The hard truth is that the way we've produced food in Minnesota for the past several decades, is one of the major drivers of the climate crisis. So what can we do about it? The answer to that question lies with the people who have been organizing their communities outside of the industrial food system for the past several decades, and in some cases, centuries. There are plenty of people who know how to fix this problem and are taking matters into their own hands and their own communities. Hearing their stories and seeing what is possible is what helps me stay grounded and optimistic about our ability to create the just and climate resilient food system we need across Minnesota.

Sarah Riedl

Eli, Lisa, and Marita I know you all share this passion for drawing out and amplifying these stories. But as food system activists, you also have your own stories to tell. And I'd like to start today by going around and talking about you and your work and how you came to be involved with MN350 and with this podcast. So, Eli, I'll start with you. Eli Crain is the Assistant Producer here at Nourish by MN350. Do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you first got involved in food systems and podcasting?

Eli Crain  

Sure, thank you, Sarah. I'm so fortunate to get to have jumped on to the podcast team here the nearly the beginning, but after, after, I think three episodes had been produced. A lot of work has already happened. And I know Sarah, you were such a driving force behind that and continue to be so I feel super lucky to get to be a part like jump onto the train. So I guess my involvement with food systems began while I was a student at the University of Minnesota. I'd always been interested in animals and nature and thought that I wanted to be involved in that by being a conservation biologist. And it turns out that I am not enough of an animal lover to do that. I worked with some people, and I was like, Oh, these are the people who want to work with animals every day. And like they really get it and love it. How am I going to play this love out and like something that I can be involved in? And I kind of stumbled into plant science. And then I found out how much the food system impacts animal welfare and soil health, and how we have access to nature and all of those things. And it just was like a big lightbulb moment for me of like, oh, okay, it's food systems. This is how I want to be involved with combating the climate crisis. And I love to eat so I mean, it just seemed like a perfect fit. What can I say? And then I actually started podcasting as part of an internship while I was in school as well, and when I found out that MN350 was having its own podcast based around food systems I was like, This is a perfect fit, like I can for sure contribute to this. So yeah, that's kind of how I got into food systems. And now that is my job. I work for a company here in the Twin Cities that we actually featured on one of our episodes, that is a focus on creating a cooperative, sort of style around sourcing local and humanely and regeneratively farmed meat and vegetables. 

Sarah Riedl  

And that was a fantastic episode. You're talking about the episode with TC Farm, right? Jack McCann from TC Farm and Elizabeth Rhodes from Auntie Annies. 

Eli Crain 

Yeah, so that's one of the episodes I worked on. And then we also did an episode with 1000 Hills Lifetime Grazed with Matt Meyer. And Laura Schreiber, who's a policy organizer at the Land Stewardship Project, which is also an incredible organization. Doing some some really awesome policy work around and educational work around creating a sustainable food system. And I was also involved with the farmers and coops episode, which featured the Twin Cities Co Op partners. So that was Josh Resnik and Jack Hedin from Featherstone Farm, which is like one of the very biggest local farms here producing mixed vegetables that are in all of our coops and some of our grocery stores here in Minnesota. So it was really cool to get to talk to people who are who are not just like, who are who are impacting lots of people with their work. So that that felt really fortunate. And I got to do a little bit of editing just and content producing first some other really cool episodes around foodways with Lisa and about Marita’s Headwaters Bill. So it's been a wild ride. I feel very fortunate to have gotten to talk to such movers and shakers.

Sarah Riedl 

And since you've been involved in so many episodes, you know, I'm sure I can hardly ask you to choose a favorite like picking a favorite child. Right. But is there anything that stands out like one thing that stands out? In particular, from all the interviews you've done? Yeah, and the interviews you’ve listened to? 

Eli Crain

Yeah, oh my gosh, oh, I think the thing that stands out to me the most is that every single person that I spoke to be that who is a farmer actively farming or who is a business owner working to make sure a business stays afloat and is off the ground this working in sustainable foods. Just how much passion and dedication and hard work and how many obstacles there are two, just doing this work. And even just getting people to really like to sit up and listen, pay attention. Like, it just takes a monumental amount of passion and dedication and an effort to do all those things. And I will say that another kind of less about the actual content of the episodes. And maybe a funny thing on our end, there are some obstacles that we have to go through. We had a we had a monumental chicken incident of some kind that delayed one episode from getting produced. And then my computer crashed while we were recording that episode 45 minutes in, so we had to go through and redo the whole thing. And so it's another thing is that generosity of people working in this space to like give their time. You know, give space and like really show up. I mean every person I've ever contacted for This podcast has been like yes, I will show up, I will be there. I'm really excited about it. 

Sarah Riedl 

That is really great to hear, Eli. And thank you for being one of those people who just gives these monumental amounts of passion to the work, because we've all gotten to learn things from the stories that you have brought to the show. We are lucky to have you here on the team. 

Eli Crain

I'm happy to be here. 

Sarah Riedl 

And Marita, as an MN350 volunteer, you've been both guest and host here on Nourish. But you are also the architect of the Headwaters Community Food and Water bill. MN350 is leading the campaign behind the Headwaters Bill because it would provide the money and infrastructure to establish the regenerative, inclusive local food economy we need to meet the challenges of climate change, just like we say at the start of every episode. So Marita, can you share a little bit more about yourself, the many hats you wear, and how you got involved in climate justice and food justice.

Marita Bujold 

Well, thank you. This is always the hardest part for me because I'm never quite sure where to begin. I feel as though growing up in Duluth, within a five minute walk of Lake Superior had a really huge influence on me. Because I grew up drawing and painting, and the lake was always an inspiration. As was the beautiful landscape and the majesty of that powerful lake. There's something about connecting with nature that can just it's it's overwhelming and powerful in a way that - it's irresistible. So I think that was fundamental in helping me connect to the idea that the landscapes we live in and the nature that we all rely on is Important to protect. But I've done activism in a number of areas over my lifetime. And that includes public education, and community organizing. I'm a member of a faith community, I've produced a number of events that have helped us to understand who we are and enjoy our community. But at one point in my, in everything I decided, you know, I needed to get a degree, an extra degree, a Master of Arts and leadership, because I was doing a lot of leadership work. And when you do a master's degree, you have to write a thesis. So I decided to study the dynamics of the global food system. I had been reading books by Vandana Shiva, and she's just a powerhouse working for decades to try and change our food system globally. So I studied those dynamics and wrote a thesis. And what you discover is that we have a food system that is publicly funded, global in its scale, that is entirely unsustainable. But there's another food system that actually feeds most of the world. That is based in indigenous knowledge, local seeds that have been around in some cases for 1000s of years. That is sustainable by design in practice, and we're not supporting that food system. We're actually marginalizing the people that know how to grow our food, partner with nature in order to live their lives, and their abundant food systems that we can count on. Our public money is actually funding through the farm bill, and all of the policy that creates a system that is creating the very peril that we face today. So every conversation I had after I did that thesis was about the food system, people would say, Well, if we're going to have the food system we need, we're going to need a different Farm Bill. And I thought, well, why not write one, right, the food system bill that we actually need, that will recognize the proven leaders, put the money where we need it to be, so that we can actually support the kind of indigenous food systems that have always sustained life on the planet and that help us recover the health of our ecosystems as we do that.

Sarah

So that’s how the Headwaters Bill was born - as an alternative to the Farm Bill. And now, through the episodes that you’ve put together, you’ve introduced us to several real-world examples of what this piece of legislation would create in Minnesota, and what our food economy might look like if we funded it through the Headwaters Bill. Do you want to just give us a list, real quick, of the episodes you’ve hosted and the guests you’ve spoken with?

Marita

I hosted 3 episodes. The first is called For Bees and For People. In that episode, I hosted Chef Lachelle Cunningham who is the founder of The Healthy Roots Institute, and beekeeper Erin Rupp who is also the founder of Pollinate Minnesota. The second episode is called Place Based Food and it features Laurie Stern who is the Executive Director of Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Services, commonly known as MOSES Organic, and Stefan Meyers who is the General Project Coordinator of the Finland Food Chain in Finland, Minnesota. And in the Spring, Nourish aired the third episode which is called A Healthing Path. I invited two members of the Red Lake tribe to introduce our listeners to the food and energy sovereignty plan organized by tribal leaders. The guests were Robert Blake who is the founder and director of Solar Bear and Native Sun Community Power, and David Manual who codirects the tribe’s food sovereignty initiative. 

Sarah

That’s an impressive list. And we’ll dive into those in a little more detail later in the episode. Before we do that though, I want to toss it over to Lisa. Lisa, you are the Lead Organizer for the MN350 Food Systems Team. Let’s hear from you: can you tell us a little bit more about what moved you to get involved in the climate and food justice movement?

Sarah Riedl 

And then finally we are joined by Lisa Chou. Lisa, you are the lead organizer for mn 350s Food Systems team, even though you now live in Chicago, we miss you. But luckily, zoom is a very useful tool. Can you tell us a little bit more about what moved you to get involved in the climate and food justice world?

Lisa Chou  

Yeah, happy to be here. So I'd say my two favorite things in the world are solving problems and fixing things, and food. And like at a young age, I heard about food science. And I thought that was like the perfect marriage of those two things where I could solve problems about food through food science. And so my backgrounds in food science, and I've worked with food companies. But the more we've learned about climate issues, the more I see that the food industry isn't solving these problems fast enough, or in the most just ways. And so like I've volunteered with different organizations in my communities for as long as I can remember, and I was really involved in student organizations, but I really got hooked on MN350 because it was so well established, so full of other skilled motivated volunteers who are also passionate about it. And I really felt like the solutions we chose to focus on, because there's so many you could, but the solutions we choose to focus on are the most strategic, the most impactful, and like the most just once. And so it really feels satisfying to be around so many other people who are like, who love the organization and want to solve these problems together. But it's also led with justice, too. So that's kind of what got me involved in climate and food justice.

Sarah Riedl 

I love that you have kind of a secret identity, your background and your work in food science, and then and then during volunteer hours, you're here working for justice on the other end of the equation. So what episodes have you worked on? Can you tell us a little bit about the guests you met.

Lisa Chou  

Yeah, I've worked on three different episodes. The first one I worked on was A Cup that overflows, which is our episode about food waste. And that featured Patrick Smith from Sisters' Camelot and Danielle Piraino, from The Food Group. And that was a really good discussion about the different strategies that these community organizations use to rescue food and get that food to the most in need. Or having as comprehensive of a program as The Food Group has, where they not only grow food and teach people how to grow that food or have a food bank and distribute really large quantities of food, or a mobile market too, so that was a really cool episode. And the second episode I helped with was our food service or food or kind of like restaurant focused episode called Conductors In the Symphony, and that featured Arie Peisert from Northern Fires Pizza and Dean Engelmann, from Wiseacre. And I think that one was kind of a cool look behind the scenes of what a restaurant is, because I feel like so few people understand how decisions are made in a restaurant setting or the challenges that restaurant owners or cooks can have in supporting a local food system. So that was a really cool one, especially because Arie was starting his own new restaurant really recently, but was kind of approaching it from a really transparent strategy where he was posting all of the places he sources his food from. And of course, Dean Engelmann from Wiseacre has his own farm. And he's the farmer so they know exactly where almost all of their food is coming from. And it's really local. So that was a cool one. And then the most recent episode I helped with was the one where we were focusing sort of on farm succession, but it kind of morphed into a whole lot more things, and a little bit about real estate. And that one was called In Transition that featured Mhonpaj Lee, and she also has such a comprehensive approach to creating the solutions we need. Because she started out as a, she started out with a whole lot of different things. But now she's a real estate agent and a farmer, all at the same time, and somehow, both full time. So she's doing so many things at once. And really seeing how the system isn't built for minorities or people who are English second language, or people who are getting started. It's really just built for the people who are already in the system, trying to get bigger, but not really for people who are wanting to enter the system, which is kind of related to that topic of farm succession and how we'll have all this farmland available as so many farmers are reaching retirement age.but really no great training systems set up to get those farmers on that land, to help them navigate real estate to get on that land. And all that, so Mhonpaj was a really good leader to speak on those.

Sarah Riedl

Yeah, that was a fantastic conversation. Mhonpaj is really just a powerhouse. It's amazing to me to hear all of the different things that she had to learn, like the different aspects she had to learn in order to fill the gaps that she could see, just, you know, trying to get into farming. And that was a fantastic episode, I highly recommend everyone listen to it. So Lisa, is there anything specific from these episodes that you've worked on that kind of really stood out for you and made a mark?

Lisa Chou 

Yeah I think all three of these sets of organizations and leaders are just doing so much. Like The Food Group has a really comprehensive approach by having a food bank and incubator farm a mobile market, all under their organizational platform. And Wiseacre is both a restaurant and a farm. And Mhonpaj is a real estate agent and a farmer and so it's amazing how much they do. And they're like the true innovators that like our system should be following and listening to for these solutions. And I think but also being so comprehensive. I think that those are the best structures to reflect what the community needs, because our communities don't just need one thing, they need lots of different things. And having these varieties of structures under one organization kind of paves the way for really being ready to adapt to the different needs of a community as time goes on, or as our climate continues to change. And so like I think just all of them are just doing so much, and they're just great leaders to be listening to, and sharing. 

(Break)

Hello, my name is Barb Norblom and I had the pleasure of talking with Michael Chaney, DeVon Nolan, and Hindolo Pokwawa for the episode “Architects of Our Own Destinies.” I learned so much from each of them in that hour, but let me summarize by saying that when you put your passion into action, wonderful things can grow. Each of them talked about growing food in their communities, bringing people together to teach, learn, and ultimately to show how a local food economy is the way of the future — or more accurately, the way of the past. We can learn so much from indigenous peoples from all over the world: Michael, DeVon, and Hindolo are shining examples of how to move away from our current extractive, divisive, harmful food system to one that is rich and flourishing from the ground up. 

Sarah Riedl

Welcome back, everybody. That was a clip by Barb Norblom. Another of our podcast volunteers here at MN350 shared about her experience hosting an episode about urban agriculture called Architects of our own Destinies, which was first released in January of this year. This podcast, we cover a lot of ground, literally and figuratively, right? After all, the industrial food system that we are all familiar with contributes about 26% of Minnesota, Minnesota greenhouse gas emissions. But that food system is so much more than just the food we eat. It includes transportation, processing, and storage. It includes animals and the food we grow for them. It includes water use, and water quality, soil and its health. It includes safe and fair working conditions and a living wage for everyone involved. So when we talk about a local, just resilient food economy, there are almost an infinite number of facets that we could get into. And we've had an array of guests that reflect that. And their work and messages often overlap. For example, I'm thinking about our first episode this season, called a Cup that Overflows. Lisa, you hosted this one for us, where Danielle Piraino from The Food Group and Patrick Smith from Sisters' Camelot talked about how part of their work involves collecting food from grocery stores and other places where it's slated to be thrown away, and they redistribute it to people in need. And I can tie that to our last episode of this season called In Transition, where Mhonpaj Lee describes how she and other farmers had truckloads of organic produce that they had to dump at the compost site, because there was nowhere to sell or donate it. And Naime Dhore, the founder of Somali American Farmers Association, and a guest on our episode, a community way of doing things back in season one. Naima described a similar experience at the end of the day at a farmers market. More often than not, when I make these connections, it makes me think about the Headwaters community food and water bill and how the funding it provides could, for instance, be used to maintain an integrated delivery system so that food doesn't get wasted in situations like this. And so that people like Danielle and Patrick, and Mhonpaj, and the people they work with could count on a living wage, and healthcare, and also not have to rely on philanthropy to do their work. Because in the interest of transparency, a lot of the funding for these Community Food Systems ends up coming from company companies like Cargill. This is a bit tangential. But going back to this idea of connections, I'm wondering, Lisa, if you have discovered any similar connections in the episodes that you've hosted and worked on? 

Lisa Chou 

Yeah, definitely, I think one thing that I see across the guests I've talked to, and really just all the guests we've talked to, is that they're all fighting like uphill battles and persisting and a system that just doesn't support them. And potentially increasingly doesn't support them, as policies just continue to support big Ag and other established groups. But they're doing so much. And in fighting these uphill battles, besides all the additional benefits they're creating for their communities, they just create so much with so little and with so many barriers, and they just have so much to teach us about all the solutions we can focus on. And so often we talk about the efficiency of like industrial Ag and big farming, and that's just like this really strong messaging point that they always promote. But it's kind of like a fallacy, because there's all these negative aspects that they don't talk about. But I think these leaders, leaders I talked to, are really like the true kind of innovation or efficiency or, like abundance creators and also what we mean by regenerative. They're taking what they have in the limited support, and limited funding or learning things along the way. And just like creating so much, and really building in equity into everything they're doing so I really see that they're just like fighting an uphill battle and if we did support them through a statewide program with the Headwaters Bill, like I can only imagine how much better and quickly these great solutions that they're creating would spread. 

Sarah Riedl  

I also find myself sometimes going through daily life, and being reminded of something a guest said, for example, back in February, we aired the episode -  Eli's episode - about Farmers and Co-ops, Creating a Regional Food System with Josh Resnick from Twin Cities Co-op Partners and Jack Hedin from Featherstone Farm. And I remember Jack talking about how water can be a farmer's number one enemy, because in order to reliably supply larger stores, you have to get the right amount of water at the right time. And then there has to be like the right amount of drying in between. And that was like a paradigm shift for me. So I'm used to thinking that crops need water, water is good, right? And now when I'm in my yard, debating whether or not I should water my vegetable gardens, I think about Jack, and producers like him, and I wonder what impact the summer's drought has had on them. And like whether or not I'll be seeing any Featherstone Farm produce on my next shopping trip to the coop. And so I'm wondering for any of you experienced that too? Have you learned something or heard something from one of our guests that just kind of kept pinging you day after day?

Lisa Chou  

I can share one. And this was something Mhonpaj had shared actually during our pre interview, and I missed getting it included in the general like the final discussion. So this is like a snippet nobody will have heard unless I'm sharing it here. And it was when she was talking about what insurance is available to farmers. She's a diversified vegetable farmer. She's not just growing a field of corn or a field of soy. And there's a lot of other farmers like her who are the ones who are coming to our farmers markets. But one barrier she mentioned is how there aren't the same structures of insurance for farmers like that. And when she said that, I mean it kind of makes sense. Like of course it's easier to calculate the value of a field of corn rather than a field of 20 different vegetables all planted in succession, and sold in different ways. So, but now I think every time I think of a drought or even too much rain or flood, or anything like that, I think of just how are the systems not building the right safety nets to support the people who are feeding the most people helped to support the farmers who are feeding most people because Sure, we have probably great crop insurance for farmers growing corn, corn and soy, but ultimately that's just going to be fed to animals and We should really be effectively ensuring or prioritizing insurance and crop insurance for farmers. We're feeding people and feeding us really diverse diets of really cool culturally appropriate vegetables or organic produce or just like all of this delicious, beautiful produce. And so I think that's something I've thought about more and makes me want to learn more about it. And just learning about what safety nets there are aren't for the farmers doing the cutting edge, or cutting edge but diversified work that's better for our land. 

Eli Crain 

Listening back to some of our episodes. It seems like not only are they connected as in like, it's a network of people. It's like you bring up one name. Another person is like, oh, I've worked with them. I know what they've done. It's that they're all connected by this like thread of it's I hesitate to say the word spirituality but it's almost like this, like really deep rooted connection to like, the earth. Talking to Elizabeth Rhodes from Auntie Annie's fields is that like, they talk about this like generosity of nature and like giving back to it as a way of framing this context of, of food systems and of growing food and like our food system being part of and like human beings being a part of nature, and that whole system that we have to sort of re engage with when we talk about food and the food system. And the idea of community, like, I think several of our episode names involve the word community. And, and that, you know, I think is what links a lot of this work is this idea of like, creating a patchwork of resilient, local, small, or medium sized growers and businesses that are not dependent on each other, but interdependent, in a way that I think that our industrial food system is not, it's super vertically integrated. And we saw so many issues like with COVID, where any part of that supply chain gets a chink in it, and we don't have food in our grocery stores. And that kind of I think, is this idea that a lot of our guests have put forward, especially the ones that are working on things like food waste and food recovery of like, there is abundance, and we just have a broken system about dispersing that abundance. So I think that's what's been so cool about all these episodes is the community and the idea that there is an abundance and solutions, and that there's a lot of people who are really passionate about making that happen. 

Sarah Riedl 

I think you’ve identified a couple of big themes there, and just want to add one more, and that is stewardship. You mention almost a spirituality and connection with the land, that sense of honoring the land and giving back to it, and of being in community not just with other human beings, but with the ecosystems that sustain us. I think that all ties into the idea of stewardship, as well, which is how Jessika Greendeer of Dream of Wild Health described that connection in that same episode you mentioned with Francis Bettelyoun.

You know, I don’t know about you, but for me, these themes have started to come back to me on an almost daily basis. Every week when I plan meals and I go grocery shopping, I now take into account: how much of our food this week can I get from sources that understand these values like community and stewardship. It’s a whole new calculus.

Eli Crain 

Yeah, I think the voting with our dollars idea and also voting with our votes, I think it's those two ideas that are running parallel to each other and equally as important, which is like sometimes, you know, at the grocery store, even I go oh my God, really that much for eggs? Ah shoot, and then it's like, okay, but I know the background, like what I'm paying for, and I want to support that. And over and over and over again in our episodes, farmers have talked about, like Jack Hedin, I don't know why everyone is named Jack, but Jack Hedin and Jack McCann talked about like, paying for the food that we like to eat and supporting the livelihoods of farmers and not putting it all on their, their backs have like they have to sacrifice their entire lives to make this food affordable, it's like, well, we have to make a system that makes them affordable. And like the food that you know, is subsidized, that's cheap, is affordable, because we're paying for it in other ways. And that was another thread, I think through a lot of these episodes, talking with farmers. And with Josh Resnick, talking about affordability, and then creating programs to like, subsidize and, and incorporating EBT into their, into their Co-Op. And all of those things are like it's this idea of, we need to step up who can afford to pay for the true value of food. And then we also need to be advocating for systems like this. Like Laura Schreiber, who was in the episode about with 1000 Hills and Matt Meyer that talked about policy action and supporting farmers who were in transition to doing the type of farming that we want done, that has cover crops and sequesters water. And we're putting a lot of emphasis on farmers like bending over backwards, but it's like, okay, we as consumers can also, you know, chip in, even in a small way of like paying the true cost of food and like supporting the larger system, when sometimes it's like, oh, but like, that's an expensive price for freaking eggs.

Sarah Riedl

Yeah, systems change is huge. Thank you for bringing that up. You know, of course, it makes sense that those of us who can afford to pay the real price for food that is good for us, good for our communities, and good for the planet - we should pay that price. But in the end, that doesn’t change the underlying system. And what we really need is for that kind of food, it shouldn’t be the purview of the privileged. We need a food system that places a real value on community health and ecosystem health over profits, or supply chain efficiencies, or whatever. We could be subsidizing a regenerative food economy instead of subsidizing the monocropping of corn and soybeans and cattle. 

Which brings us to another central theme of many of our episodes: The Headwaters Community Food and Water Bill. Marita, as the person who wrote the Headwaters Bill, we are fortunate to have your perspective on the show. So I’m going to turn to you. As you were thinking about building episodes around the Headwaters Bill, why did you choose these guests? What themes were you trying to highlight?

Marita Bujold 

So the first episode I hosted featured Erin Rupp, who is the founder of Pollinate Minnesota. And Lachelle Cunningham, who is a chef and also the founder of the Healthy Roots Institute. And each of them is remarkable. The name of the episode is For Bees and for People. 

Sarah Riedl  

I learned a lot listening to that one.

Marita Bujold 

I listened to it again recently because there was just so much in it. So Lachelle is an African American, she's a black woman. And she, I don't even know how she manages all the things that she does. She's just amazing. She's a teacher, she's a chef, she is dedicated to creating this Healthy Roots Institute in order to actually have a space that is about food and healing for black communities, or her own community. Actually, I think what she envisions could be a model for how we have a food system anywhere in any neighborhood, because it's truly remarkable. The question that she raised, right at the outset of that episode, I think is one that we need to focus on. And that is this in our food system. Where does the power lie? Where does the power lie? and Erin commented, made a similar, similar question. She said, Where's the money? Who profits from the food system that we have right now. And of course, these are comments that they're making about the industrial food system, which by design and practice is unsustainable, and does nothing to help us heal. It doesn't provide the health and well being that our communities need. Both these women, Erin in her work with pollinators, and Lachelle in her work, trying to actually set up something in communities that will provide communities with the food they need, that is culturally appropriate, that is healing, that really changes the dynamics and their communities. Together, the story that they brought to us was, we need to nurture a connection between the health of our communities and the health of our ecosystems. That's absolutely key. I really encourage people to listen to these two women. There's so much in that episode.

There were two other episodes where I interviewed guests. One is called Place Based Food and the other is called the healing path. And, and there actually is some commonalities between those as well. So the episode with place based food features Laurie Stern, who is currently the Director of Moses Organic. And the second guest was Stefan Meyers. And he is a member of the team that runs the Finland food chain out of Finland, Minnesota, was trying to think where I wanted to start. So one of the things that Laurie said was that before she became the director of Moses Organic, she actually ran a farm to table restaurant. And a lot of our conversation centered on what she learned from establishing relationships with the farmers, and meeting the goals that they had, which was, as she said, to capture the abundance of the local landscape and be able to feature that in the restaurant, throughout the year. They focused on seasonal eating, and preserving the foods that were available to them so they could be available as the year progressed, and all of those goals really, very similar to how communities have always eaten prior to the industrial food system coming and really changing that landscape. And it's that idea of the abundance of the local landscape, being something that we would recognize and invest in that I think is really key. And it's very similar to what they're doing with the Finland food chain. The team effort in Finland is to both protect and care for the ecosystem of northeastern Minnesota, and then connect all the dots in having a truly local food system. So that includes protecting the wild rice, harvesting it and having a way to process it right there so that it can be available. Understanding what kinds of foods are in the forest there that they can forage and make available and preserved. All the different pieces of having a system that you can rely on 365 days a year. They're doing this and they've looked into the history of the area to understand how it was successful in the past, what they can build off of. And their partnership with nature there is just extraordinary. It's another example of what we could do regionally, to live sustainably. And if we invested in it, it would work.

So the final episode that I hosted was called A Healing Path. And this featured two guests who are members of the Red Lake community. Robert Blake and David Manual. So Robert Blake is working to have solar power be available in the community. And David manual works with a number of colleagues too on their food sovereignty program. And the things that really struck me from that conversation. There were a couple of them. One is that At the Red Lake Community along with many other of their indigenous brothers and sisters and other communities, they are trying to have a food system that is decolonized. One that will actually help them live sustainably that recaptures the knowledge and the skills of their ancestors. 

And Robert talked about how one of the things they are doing now is resurrecting something called good medicine. And good medicine is about trading with their brothers and sisters from other tribes, trading knowledge, trading foods, trading skills. It's an old tradition that they're trying to revive. And there was such hope and excitement in Robert's voice when he talked about that. And finally, I'll just say that David in his comments, he said that when he read the Headwaters community food and water bill, he said, this is really important. It's so practical. It sets up systems that really help us. And it was really good to hear that from somebody who is working so hard to create a system that's going to heal and help his own communities.

Sarah Riedl  

You know, Marita, to the guests that you've interviewed, and the stories that you've brought us are really just concrete, real world examples of this regenerative local food system that we know we need. So thank you for bringing those stories. It's always easier to envision the future when there's like a roadmap, a picture that you can look at that we can all, you know, get there together with so thank you for that. 

Marita Bujold 

You’re welcome. I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to talk with people who are doing this work and dedicating themselves to this. It's such a privilege. Another thing that David manual, who is working with partners at the Red Lake reservation for food sovereignty said was that you know what they're doing, he said, this is a good life. This is a good life. Working together to save seeds, and plant the foods that that the community has asked for to be able to preserve the maple syrup. And as you said, they don't have a lot of wild rice, but, but they can trade with other communities for that rice, even as they are growing other foods that they need. That comment really stuck with me, this is a good life. And it really begs the question. What is it that we value? What do we really value? How are we supporting it? Because right now our public money is growing a lot of corn and soybeans. That's what it does, you get an automatic subsidy to do that. And it's not helping our farmers. One of the things Erin Rupp said was that the income for those farmers is actually - negative annual income is negative $1,500. Without a subsidy, they would be getting nothing. You know, so we have to ask ourselves, how do we create that good life where our communities actually have the food that we need, that we're growing it in a way that is in partnership with nature? That we can say you know even with this crisis that we’re facing, we’re ready. 

BREAK: 

Hello listeners, this is Jeff Diamond. I hosted two episodes in Season 2, Conductors of the Symphony with Dean Engelmann and Arie Peisert, and In Transition with Mhonpaj Lee. Something that stood out to me was the recurring theme of inefficiencies. Whether that was Arie and Dean talking about all the travel that goes into the food served in many restaurants or Mhonpaj talking about the excess food that farmers grow that the food system doesn’t use, it’s clear that there is waste at every step of the process. My guests have taught me more about ways that food eaters can become more closely connected to food producers and how vital this is for the health of our planet and all its inhabitants. Thanks for listening!

Sarah Riedl 

Normally, at this point in the show, we ask our guests to share their call to action and say how listeners can support their work. So Eli and Marita and Lisa, I would like to ask you to do the same. Eli, is there something you're working on at MN350 that you would like listeners to know about? Or if you've stayed in touch with any of the guests you've worked with, what do they have going on that we can get involved with and support?

Eli Crain 

Yeah, well, I don't want to usurp Marita's time to talk about her Headwaters Bill, because that's a definite thing that people can support and sign up for. So I'll let her talk about that. But Same thing with the Land Stewardship Project, they have policy, and I think that you can never have too much good policy out there. I think we can support all sorts of good policy, and good work and advocacy. And the same thing that I kind of talked about earlier, which is the idea that we have, you know, power as a consumer to make choices. And I think the idea of just like, I don't remember which guests brought this up, but it's, it's a we have power to like ask questions, and our grocery stores at our co ops at our farmers markets and like, be like, Oh,how do you, how do you grow this? Like, where is this from? And I think that has power. And maybe in asking those questions you find out, you know, what it is you're actually supporting and, and pushes other people who are in charge of like, putting food on our shelves in like advertising to us and to say, this is what I want? And can you give that to me? Like if they know that that's what you want? Like they're more inclined to, to put that out there and label it or, or share that information? So I think that's a great way, just get curious. And, you know, be aware of what legislation is out there and be willing to contact those people and support, you know, support the businesses that you value. And support MN350, of course!

Sarah Riedl 

That's great advice. I was gonna say, asking questions, asking questions is great advice. But also, yes, supporting MN350 is great. 

Eli Crain: 

Yeah, support us, please!

Sarah Riedl:

Alright, and Eli, since you mentioned the Headwaters Bill, since you brought it up here. Let's go over to Marita. Marita, can you tell us a little bit about how our listeners can support the Headwaters Community Food and Water Bill? 

Marita Bujold 

Thank you very much. I need to tell you that I take heart from listening to these stories. These remarkable leaders that we have featured in the Nourish podcasts, their stories reveal the kind of visionary responsive leadership we need to help all of our communities meet the many challenges we face together. Today we invite you to pledge your support for that leadership. The Headwaters Community Food and Water Bill invests our public dollars to create a racially just, source to table food web economy that we need to nourish communities and ecosystems. It provides the crucial infrastructure necessary to operate the robust, resilient system that will help us live sustainably. MN350 Action is actively promoting the Headwaters Community Food and Water Bill as a climate solution. You can pledge your support at mn350action.org/headwaters. And then you can let others know how easy it is to support a just, local, regenerative food economy by following that link. Please contact your legislator and ask them to coauthor the bill. If you're a member of an organization or a business championing food and climate justice we would love to join forces. You can learn all the ways you can support the bill at mn350action.org and thank you for your support. 

Sarah Riedl  

Thank you Marita for that. Lisa, last but not least, what would you like to share with our listeners about ways they can get involved in the food and climate justice movement? 

Lisa Chou 

I’ll share that we just have a lot of different campaigns going on within our team. And they're all great ones, we've got a food waste group, which is, you can get a little sneak peek of that by listening to our food waste episode. But our food waste group is working on a clean plate club campaign that seeks to change the choices of restaurant owners to reduce food waste, so we're really targeting. The people who hold power in restaurants to reduce waste for all the people who eat at restaurants are plant rich diets group is also working in getting started on a new campaign that kind of has a similar strategy, in that we're partnering with an organization called greener by default, or formerly called default vege, which also seeks to convert like menu options from the default meat inclusive meals that we see everywhere to a default vegetable and meat eaters can opt into meat. And so it really uses behavioral economics, and makes it convenient. And you don't have to take the extra step to do what's best for the climate. And also, veggies are delicious. And so that's one idea, or one campaign that they're working on, our regenerative ag group is doing in getting started on lots of different things. And we've also featured, of course, the Headwaters campaign, and some of what Rita talked about. And then also you can also join and help us make these podcasts. So like no matter what your skills are, no matter what your time commitment is, no matter how much you know or don't know about climate issues, there's just like a role for everyone. If you want to join a community of people doing this work, so you can join our food systems team, you can come to a few meetings here and there or just dive into what we're working on. And you can find out info about how to get involved by going to mn 350 dot org, and the top tab that says get involved has a survey that you can fill out that'll direct you my way. And I'll end up having a conversation with you if you're interested in getting involved. So there's really a role for everyone. And we all are always welcoming new volunteers. So that's my call to action.

Sarah Riedl 

And I think we can all attest that the food systems team is a pretty, pretty nice community to be a part of. Alright, I also have a call to action. And that is for everyone who's listening to continue listening and sharing this podcast, nourished by MN350 is taking a break to prepare for more exciting conversations with visionary community leaders in season three, and hopefully will start dropping new episodes in the spring. In the meantime, be sure to follow MN350 and MN350 action on Instagram, where we'll be sharing updates from our earlier episodes, and the amazing work our guests continue to do. So you'll know where you can jump in and support all the people dedicated to building a new food and agricultural narrative in Minnesota.

That's our show for today. And that's a wrap on season two. Thank you to Lisa Chou, Eli Crain, and Marita Bujold, for sharing your insights today.

Eli Crain 

Thank you so much for having me.

Marita Bujold  1:23:32

Thank you.

Lisa

Thanks, Sarah. 

Sarah Riedl 

And for all you listeners out there, don't forget to subscribe and share. We'll meet you all back here for season three. Bye, everybody.

Nourish by MN350 is a production of the MN350 Food Systems team. We are changing the way people think about food production, distribution and consumption practices in the context of rapidly changing climate. This series is made possible by the hard work and passion of a group of dedicated volunteers. Our executive producer for Nourish by MN350 is me, Sarah Riedl, and our associate producer is Eli Crain. This episode was written and produced by Shannon Lippke and our sound editor is Ben Herrera. Our logo was designed by Fizz Design Collective, and our music is by Ecuador Manta. You can learn more MN350.org/podcasts.