Civil Eats is a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system. We publish stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities. Follow Civil Eats on Twitter @civileats and on Facebook.
Indigenous Food Security is Dependent on Food Sovereignty
Farmers of Color May Soon Get More Support in California
Aliza Sokolow’s Food Photos Could Change the Way You Think About Farmers
Indigenous California Chefs are Reviving and Preserving Native Cuisines
The Palestinian Chefs Building a Bridge to Their Culture Through Food
Long Meadow Ranch Takes a Full-Circle Approach to Farming in Wine Country
3 Reasons to be Concerned about the USDA’s Proposed GMO Labeling Rules
Can Dinner Parties Make America Great Again?
Growing California Rice and Almonds Against the Grain
What Does the New Regenerative Organic Certification Mean for the Future of Good Food?
How an Iowa Law Requiring Grocers to Sell Conventional Eggs is Stirring Controversy
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"disqusTitle": "Can Dry Farming Help Save California’s Vineyards?",
"title": "Can Dry Farming Help Save California’s Vineyards?",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ci>by Lela Nargi\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s most recent drought lasted many long, parched years—eight in some regions—before ending in 2017 to the relief of everyone in and out of agriculture. For the state’s grape growers, it meant respite from parched vines putting out small berries and leaves and showing other signs of stress.\u003cbr>\n[aside postID='bayareabites_68996,bayareabites_130307' label='More on Dry Farming']\u003cbr>\n“It was hard to walk through some vineyards and see vines dying, and there was nothing you could do,” says Tegan Passalacqua, director of winemaking for \u003ca href=\"http://www.turleywinecellars.com/\">Turley Wine Cellars\u003c/a>. “Some vineyards lost 300 vines in one year. Talk to the old timers, and they’ll tell you—they never remember that happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was plenty of suffering to go around, but some vineyards fared less terribly than others—historic parcels east of San Francisco, in Contra Costa County, for example. Planted at the turn of the last century by Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish immigrants, they rely on a technique called dry farming rather than irrigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these vineyards did not go unscathed during the drought, they did manage to “acclimatize,” says Charlie Tsegeletos, director of winemaking for \u003ca href=\"https://clinecellars.com/\">Cline Cellars\u003c/a>, which owns about 150 acres of heritage vineyards in the county and contracts from another 300 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135019\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-4-Charlie-Tsegeletos-700x750.jpg\" alt=\"Cline Family Cellars winemaker Charlie Tsegeletos.\" width=\"700\" height=\"750\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135019\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-4-Charlie-Tsegeletos-700x750.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-4-Charlie-Tsegeletos-700x750-160x171.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cline Family Cellars winemaker Charlie Tsegeletos. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cline Family Cellars)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All around them, Contra Costa is experiencing an explosion of development. The allure of living amid the old vineyards’ leafy, picturesque rows is, ironically, \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2009/08/10/farmland-conservation-the-important-lesson-of-brentwood-california/\">threatening their continued existence\u003c/a>. Tsegeletos says offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars per acre are hard to pass up for vineyard heirs with little interest in continuing the family business. With development has come concern that if these vineyards disappear, the knowledge the county’s dry farms can offer other wine-growing systems in fast-drying regions may also fade away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A critical lesson of dry farming “is that there are options,” says Matt Dees, winemaker at \u003ca href=\"https://www.jonata.com/\">Jonata Vineyard\u003c/a> in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This has special relevance in light of the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/a> (SGMA), which will soon begin to \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">curtail the amount of water\u003c/a> that can be pumped from 21 critically over-drafted aquifers, several of which are in wine-producing regions. \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/08/climate-change-threatens-worlds-wineries-which-grapes-saved/2136457001/\">Some in the industry are already preparing\u003c/a> by shading vineyards, cover-cropping, and seeking out new rootstocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Passalacqua says this past, balmy year in California was a “healing” time for vineyards, and sufficient winter rains allowed viticulturists to almost forget the specter of drought. But there’s no looking away from the changing climate. Vintners and winemakers are experiencing “a lot of urgency,” says Allison Jordan, executive director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA). “I have great hope that we will find a way through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Tenets of Dry Farming\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, while contemplating the extreme variability in recent rainfall, Dees planted two experimental acres of dry-farmed grapes in a Jonata vineyard in \u003ca href=\"https://www.ballardcanyonava.org/\">Ballard Canyon\u003c/a>. He’d gotten to thinking, “What if the drought continues? What if nine inches of rain a year is the new normal? We’d better be ready.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dry farming, a method that’s been used for centuries to grow grapes, almonds, and olives in Mediterranean countries, requires soils with enough structure to hold moisture from \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/LegacyFiles/floodmgmt/hafoo/csc/docs/CA_Precipitation_2pager.pdf\">seasonal rains\u003c/a> for months at a time—in California, these rains happen between October and April. One method is to plant young vines that are grafted to vigorous rootstocks relatively far apart and water them for only their first two years in the ground. The point is to encourage their roots to dig deep into the dirt from which they’ll pull stored rainwater starting in year three.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-1-jonata-vineyards-700x468.jpg\" alt=\"Dry farmed grape vineyards\" width=\"700\" height=\"468\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135020\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-1-jonata-vineyards-700x468.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-1-jonata-vineyards-700x468-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dry farmed grape vineyards \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jonata)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In dry farming, you’re putting resistance into the system,” says Stephen Gliessman, an emeritus agroecologist at the University of Santa Cruz who also co-owns the dry-farmed vineyard \u003ca href=\"http://www.condorshope.com/\">Condor’s Hope\u003c/a> in the Cuyama Valley of northern Santa Barbara County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though plenty of wine grape growers in the state practice dry farming, the method represents a drop in the bucket of a $70 billion business. Tightly spaced, high-yield, drip-irrigated vineyards are much in favor; their practices encourage roots to hang out near the surface of the soil, where they expect to find water—and they can’t survive without a frequent fix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dry-farming yields per acre can be lower; \u003ca href=\"http://www.caff.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Dry-Farming-BMP-Guide_web.pdf\">some estimates\u003c/a> put them at two to three tons per acre, versus three to four tons for premium grapes. Fans of wines made from dry-farmed grapes, however, extoll their more complex flavors. “But vineyards today are too focused on maximizing yields rather than adapting to local conditions so they’re not so dependent on water,” Gliessman says. “They’re using a limited resource, and climate change makes it worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Small Farms Experimenting with New (Old) Methods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gliessman and his neighbors in the near-desert of Cuyama could watch this scenario play out at a vineyard \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/3/6/hmc-vineyard-environmental-review/\">owned by the company\u003c/a> that manages Harvard University’s endowment. North Fork Vineyard’s irrigation system is drawing what Gliessman calls “excessive” groundwater from one of those 21 critically over-drafted aquifers. This water use has raised the hackles of residents, who are waiting to see how SGMA, which spurred \u003ca href=\"http://cuyamabasin.org/assets/pdf/Cuyama-GSP-Section-4-Monitoring-Networks.pdf\">Cuyama’s Groundwater Management Plan\u003c/a>, will affect the valley starting next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harvard’s vineyard, says Gliessman, is a prime example—although certainly not the only one—of grapes being planted in a manner that is not appropriate for the land and the available water. “Companies growing grapes industrially have to start accepting the fact that water-intensive systems are going to have to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the moment, though, it’s smaller wineries that seem most open to adapting. This is partly to do with finances. Big companies can afford to shell out for increasingly expensive water rights where needed, or purchase additional acres in cooler places, like British Columbia, says David Runsten, policy director of sustainability advocacy organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.caff.org/\">Community Alliance with Family Farmers\u003c/a> (CAFF). Smaller operations, he says, “are stuck where they are. But can they dry farm?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-3-grapes-with-cover-crops-caff.jpg\" alt=\"Dry-farmed grapevines with cover crops.\" width=\"640\" height=\"631\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135021\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-3-grapes-with-cover-crops-caff.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-3-grapes-with-cover-crops-caff-160x158.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dry-farmed grapevines with cover crops. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of CAFF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jonata’s Dees is not the only one trying. More than half of Turley’s 50 vineyards across the state practice dry farming. Cline is experimenting with own-rooted—as opposed to grafted—vines on some near-dry-farmed blocks at its home base in Sonoma; Tsegeletos calls it “risky” due to pest concerns. \u003ca href=\"https://tablascreek.com/\">Tablas Creek\u003c/a>, in Paso Robles, mostly dry farms its roughly 120 acres and has set up 30 acres the “old-fashioned California way,” with vines far apart and no irrigation system installed, according to general manager Jason Haas. He says in those blocks, “Getting into harvest season in the drought years, it looked like there was no drought at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A grower can’t just one day decide to up and dry farm. “It requires thinking [in advance] about how to get vines to generate a deep root system,” says Haas; as vineyard parcels come to the end of their lives, though, they can be replaced. Dry farming also isn’t right if soils and rainfall aren’t a match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Haas, Runsten, and Gliessman all think more vineyards could adopt the practice. In Mendocino County, says Runsten, many wineries irrigate their vines, “and I can’t understand why. They’re next to the Russian River and get plenty of rain.” He blames convention—the idea that “this is the way things are done”—and the risk-averse nature of vineyard consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As you go farther north and closer to the coast, dry farming becomes more viable,” says Haas. Some winemakers argue that it could even work for \u003ca href=\"http://agwaterstewards.org/practices/dry_farming/\">all of landlocked Napa\u003c/a>, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/Napa-wineries-confront-climate-change-by-planting-14308512.php\">the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> reported recently that climate-slammed vineyards are scrambling to try out heat-hardy varietals.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Spreading the Dry-Farming Gospel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tablas Creek and other vineyards have hosted seminars presented by CAFF to offer up research and help viticulturists think about adjusting the way they grow grapes. Runsten says there’s been a general pooh-poohing of some of CAFF’s projected climate models. On the flip side, Haas sees grower interest in dry farming increasing. “All over, there are people who are terrified” about the shifting climate, he says; to prepare, many of them are willing to try something new to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-2-jonata-matt-dees-drew-pickering-ruben-solorzano-350x525.jpg\" alt=\"Matt Dees (center), with assistant winemaker Drew Pickering (left) and vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano (right).\" width=\"350\" height=\"525\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135022\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-2-jonata-matt-dees-drew-pickering-ruben-solorzano-350x525.jpg 350w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-2-jonata-matt-dees-drew-pickering-ruben-solorzano-350x525-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt Dees (center), with assistant winemaker Drew Pickering (left) and vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano (right). \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jonata)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two years into his dry-farming experiment, Jonata’s Dees is not a card-carrying convert. “There are people who are taking up the dry-farming torch and saying the old vines are the ideal, but it’s not black and white to me,” he says. He thinks an “integrated” approach that reduces reliance on irrigation but also increases soil health, might be more viable for a lot of vineyards. California’s \u003ca href=\"http://calclimateag.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Healthy-Soils-Fact-Sheet-2018.pdf\">Healthy Soils Program makes grants\u003c/a> to wine grape growers for just that latter purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, watching the young vines in his experimental block dig deep to find water has been eye opening, he says, and perhaps indicates that they’re stronger than he gave them credit for. There’s also “a feeling you get sometimes in vineyards, and this feels really good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAFF received grant money from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to run seminars a few years ago and continues to conduct them when it can. DWR funds other water-use efficiency programs for vineyards, although they are mostly focused on irrigation systems, according to information shared by the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CSWA supports water use reduction goals, too, including improved irrigation systems and monitoring with technology such as drones; encouraging best practices such as cover crop management; and third-party sustainability certification that includes a water component. The Alliance partnered with CAFF to produce some dry-farming case studies, says CSWA’s Jordan, who believes, too, that dry farming could expand in California. “In places where it’s appropriate, I think additional education will help increase rates” of adoption, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even beyond the focus of dry farming, Dees says, “Grumpy old farmers are getting together to talk about [sustainability]. That says a ton.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Contra Costa County, efforts to preserve the old vineyards continue. Cline’s Tsegeletos says that the city of Oakley seems genuinely interested in trying to keep them around, offering some rent-free acres. But should development amp up throughout the county, Gliessman says there will be repercussions, and not just for the vineyards. Swimming pools and lawns use a lot of groundwater; pavement “affects the capacity of systems to take in water, get it into the soil system, and help maintain groundwater—it all runs off instead.” Whoever’s left behind to use that water, they’ll have less of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond that, Gliessman sees something urgent yet less visible at stake. “Taking the place of these small operations are large-scale industrial [ones],” he said. “What we’re losing are people who live on the land, work it, know it and its history, and are committed to sustainability. And that is what the future of agriculture should be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/10/03/can-dry-farming-help-save-californias-vineyards/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>by Lela Nargi\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s most recent drought lasted many long, parched years—eight in some regions—before ending in 2017 to the relief of everyone in and out of agriculture. For the state’s grape growers, it meant respite from parched vines putting out small berries and leaves and showing other signs of stress.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n“It was hard to walk through some vineyards and see vines dying, and there was nothing you could do,” says Tegan Passalacqua, director of winemaking for \u003ca href=\"http://www.turleywinecellars.com/\">Turley Wine Cellars\u003c/a>. “Some vineyards lost 300 vines in one year. Talk to the old timers, and they’ll tell you—they never remember that happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was plenty of suffering to go around, but some vineyards fared less terribly than others—historic parcels east of San Francisco, in Contra Costa County, for example. Planted at the turn of the last century by Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish immigrants, they rely on a technique called dry farming rather than irrigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these vineyards did not go unscathed during the drought, they did manage to “acclimatize,” says Charlie Tsegeletos, director of winemaking for \u003ca href=\"https://clinecellars.com/\">Cline Cellars\u003c/a>, which owns about 150 acres of heritage vineyards in the county and contracts from another 300 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135019\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-4-Charlie-Tsegeletos-700x750.jpg\" alt=\"Cline Family Cellars winemaker Charlie Tsegeletos.\" width=\"700\" height=\"750\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135019\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-4-Charlie-Tsegeletos-700x750.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-4-Charlie-Tsegeletos-700x750-160x171.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cline Family Cellars winemaker Charlie Tsegeletos. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cline Family Cellars)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All around them, Contra Costa is experiencing an explosion of development. The allure of living amid the old vineyards’ leafy, picturesque rows is, ironically, \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2009/08/10/farmland-conservation-the-important-lesson-of-brentwood-california/\">threatening their continued existence\u003c/a>. Tsegeletos says offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars per acre are hard to pass up for vineyard heirs with little interest in continuing the family business. With development has come concern that if these vineyards disappear, the knowledge the county’s dry farms can offer other wine-growing systems in fast-drying regions may also fade away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A critical lesson of dry farming “is that there are options,” says Matt Dees, winemaker at \u003ca href=\"https://www.jonata.com/\">Jonata Vineyard\u003c/a> in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This has special relevance in light of the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/a> (SGMA), which will soon begin to \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">curtail the amount of water\u003c/a> that can be pumped from 21 critically over-drafted aquifers, several of which are in wine-producing regions. \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/08/climate-change-threatens-worlds-wineries-which-grapes-saved/2136457001/\">Some in the industry are already preparing\u003c/a> by shading vineyards, cover-cropping, and seeking out new rootstocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Passalacqua says this past, balmy year in California was a “healing” time for vineyards, and sufficient winter rains allowed viticulturists to almost forget the specter of drought. But there’s no looking away from the changing climate. Vintners and winemakers are experiencing “a lot of urgency,” says Allison Jordan, executive director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA). “I have great hope that we will find a way through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Tenets of Dry Farming\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, while contemplating the extreme variability in recent rainfall, Dees planted two experimental acres of dry-farmed grapes in a Jonata vineyard in \u003ca href=\"https://www.ballardcanyonava.org/\">Ballard Canyon\u003c/a>. He’d gotten to thinking, “What if the drought continues? What if nine inches of rain a year is the new normal? We’d better be ready.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dry farming, a method that’s been used for centuries to grow grapes, almonds, and olives in Mediterranean countries, requires soils with enough structure to hold moisture from \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/LegacyFiles/floodmgmt/hafoo/csc/docs/CA_Precipitation_2pager.pdf\">seasonal rains\u003c/a> for months at a time—in California, these rains happen between October and April. One method is to plant young vines that are grafted to vigorous rootstocks relatively far apart and water them for only their first two years in the ground. The point is to encourage their roots to dig deep into the dirt from which they’ll pull stored rainwater starting in year three.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-1-jonata-vineyards-700x468.jpg\" alt=\"Dry farmed grape vineyards\" width=\"700\" height=\"468\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135020\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-1-jonata-vineyards-700x468.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-1-jonata-vineyards-700x468-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dry farmed grape vineyards \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jonata)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In dry farming, you’re putting resistance into the system,” says Stephen Gliessman, an emeritus agroecologist at the University of Santa Cruz who also co-owns the dry-farmed vineyard \u003ca href=\"http://www.condorshope.com/\">Condor’s Hope\u003c/a> in the Cuyama Valley of northern Santa Barbara County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though plenty of wine grape growers in the state practice dry farming, the method represents a drop in the bucket of a $70 billion business. Tightly spaced, high-yield, drip-irrigated vineyards are much in favor; their practices encourage roots to hang out near the surface of the soil, where they expect to find water—and they can’t survive without a frequent fix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dry-farming yields per acre can be lower; \u003ca href=\"http://www.caff.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Dry-Farming-BMP-Guide_web.pdf\">some estimates\u003c/a> put them at two to three tons per acre, versus three to four tons for premium grapes. Fans of wines made from dry-farmed grapes, however, extoll their more complex flavors. “But vineyards today are too focused on maximizing yields rather than adapting to local conditions so they’re not so dependent on water,” Gliessman says. “They’re using a limited resource, and climate change makes it worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Small Farms Experimenting with New (Old) Methods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gliessman and his neighbors in the near-desert of Cuyama could watch this scenario play out at a vineyard \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/3/6/hmc-vineyard-environmental-review/\">owned by the company\u003c/a> that manages Harvard University’s endowment. North Fork Vineyard’s irrigation system is drawing what Gliessman calls “excessive” groundwater from one of those 21 critically over-drafted aquifers. This water use has raised the hackles of residents, who are waiting to see how SGMA, which spurred \u003ca href=\"http://cuyamabasin.org/assets/pdf/Cuyama-GSP-Section-4-Monitoring-Networks.pdf\">Cuyama’s Groundwater Management Plan\u003c/a>, will affect the valley starting next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harvard’s vineyard, says Gliessman, is a prime example—although certainly not the only one—of grapes being planted in a manner that is not appropriate for the land and the available water. “Companies growing grapes industrially have to start accepting the fact that water-intensive systems are going to have to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the moment, though, it’s smaller wineries that seem most open to adapting. This is partly to do with finances. Big companies can afford to shell out for increasingly expensive water rights where needed, or purchase additional acres in cooler places, like British Columbia, says David Runsten, policy director of sustainability advocacy organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.caff.org/\">Community Alliance with Family Farmers\u003c/a> (CAFF). Smaller operations, he says, “are stuck where they are. But can they dry farm?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-3-grapes-with-cover-crops-caff.jpg\" alt=\"Dry-farmed grapevines with cover crops.\" width=\"640\" height=\"631\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135021\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-3-grapes-with-cover-crops-caff.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-3-grapes-with-cover-crops-caff-160x158.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dry-farmed grapevines with cover crops. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of CAFF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jonata’s Dees is not the only one trying. More than half of Turley’s 50 vineyards across the state practice dry farming. Cline is experimenting with own-rooted—as opposed to grafted—vines on some near-dry-farmed blocks at its home base in Sonoma; Tsegeletos calls it “risky” due to pest concerns. \u003ca href=\"https://tablascreek.com/\">Tablas Creek\u003c/a>, in Paso Robles, mostly dry farms its roughly 120 acres and has set up 30 acres the “old-fashioned California way,” with vines far apart and no irrigation system installed, according to general manager Jason Haas. He says in those blocks, “Getting into harvest season in the drought years, it looked like there was no drought at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A grower can’t just one day decide to up and dry farm. “It requires thinking [in advance] about how to get vines to generate a deep root system,” says Haas; as vineyard parcels come to the end of their lives, though, they can be replaced. Dry farming also isn’t right if soils and rainfall aren’t a match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Haas, Runsten, and Gliessman all think more vineyards could adopt the practice. In Mendocino County, says Runsten, many wineries irrigate their vines, “and I can’t understand why. They’re next to the Russian River and get plenty of rain.” He blames convention—the idea that “this is the way things are done”—and the risk-averse nature of vineyard consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As you go farther north and closer to the coast, dry farming becomes more viable,” says Haas. Some winemakers argue that it could even work for \u003ca href=\"http://agwaterstewards.org/practices/dry_farming/\">all of landlocked Napa\u003c/a>, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/Napa-wineries-confront-climate-change-by-planting-14308512.php\">the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> reported recently that climate-slammed vineyards are scrambling to try out heat-hardy varietals.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Spreading the Dry-Farming Gospel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tablas Creek and other vineyards have hosted seminars presented by CAFF to offer up research and help viticulturists think about adjusting the way they grow grapes. Runsten says there’s been a general pooh-poohing of some of CAFF’s projected climate models. On the flip side, Haas sees grower interest in dry farming increasing. “All over, there are people who are terrified” about the shifting climate, he says; to prepare, many of them are willing to try something new to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-2-jonata-matt-dees-drew-pickering-ruben-solorzano-350x525.jpg\" alt=\"Matt Dees (center), with assistant winemaker Drew Pickering (left) and vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano (right).\" width=\"350\" height=\"525\" class=\"size-full wp-image-135022\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-2-jonata-matt-dees-drew-pickering-ruben-solorzano-350x525.jpg 350w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/10/190923-dry-farming-grapes-vineyards-california-wine-2-jonata-matt-dees-drew-pickering-ruben-solorzano-350x525-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt Dees (center), with assistant winemaker Drew Pickering (left) and vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano (right). \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jonata)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two years into his dry-farming experiment, Jonata’s Dees is not a card-carrying convert. “There are people who are taking up the dry-farming torch and saying the old vines are the ideal, but it’s not black and white to me,” he says. He thinks an “integrated” approach that reduces reliance on irrigation but also increases soil health, might be more viable for a lot of vineyards. California’s \u003ca href=\"http://calclimateag.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Healthy-Soils-Fact-Sheet-2018.pdf\">Healthy Soils Program makes grants\u003c/a> to wine grape growers for just that latter purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, watching the young vines in his experimental block dig deep to find water has been eye opening, he says, and perhaps indicates that they’re stronger than he gave them credit for. There’s also “a feeling you get sometimes in vineyards, and this feels really good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAFF received grant money from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to run seminars a few years ago and continues to conduct them when it can. DWR funds other water-use efficiency programs for vineyards, although they are mostly focused on irrigation systems, according to information shared by the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CSWA supports water use reduction goals, too, including improved irrigation systems and monitoring with technology such as drones; encouraging best practices such as cover crop management; and third-party sustainability certification that includes a water component. The Alliance partnered with CAFF to produce some dry-farming case studies, says CSWA’s Jordan, who believes, too, that dry farming could expand in California. “In places where it’s appropriate, I think additional education will help increase rates” of adoption, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even beyond the focus of dry farming, Dees says, “Grumpy old farmers are getting together to talk about [sustainability]. That says a ton.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Contra Costa County, efforts to preserve the old vineyards continue. Cline’s Tsegeletos says that the city of Oakley seems genuinely interested in trying to keep them around, offering some rent-free acres. But should development amp up throughout the county, Gliessman says there will be repercussions, and not just for the vineyards. Swimming pools and lawns use a lot of groundwater; pavement “affects the capacity of systems to take in water, get it into the soil system, and help maintain groundwater—it all runs off instead.” Whoever’s left behind to use that water, they’ll have less of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond that, Gliessman sees something urgent yet less visible at stake. “Taking the place of these small operations are large-scale industrial [ones],” he said. “What we’re losing are people who live on the land, work it, know it and its history, and are committed to sustainability. And that is what the future of agriculture should be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/10/03/can-dry-farming-help-save-californias-vineyards/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Indigenous Food Security is Dependent on Food Sovereignty",
"title": "Indigenous Food Security is Dependent on Food Sovereignty",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Bites | KQED Food",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ci>By Andi Murphy\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several times a year, the locals at Orleans, California see a surge of sport fishermen and trophy hunters come through town, driving big trucks decked out in camouflage and sporting polarized fishing sunglasses.\u003cbr>\n[aside postID='news_11698712,news_11638976,bayareabites_132675' label='More on the History of Indigenous Foods']\u003cbr>\nThe locals, including some of the Native people from tribes in the Klamath Basin, have to enter the same lottery and buy the same hunting permits as the outsiders who may or may not see the cultural and nutritional value of the animals they are harvesting. For some Native people, including Lisa Hillman, seeing their food treated in this way was an unpleasant shock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes me want to turn away,” Hillman said. “Otherwise I might say something I shouldn’t, as a mother and as a leader in the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5422031/\">Study\u003c/a> after \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pa.1876\">study\u003c/a> has shown that access to healthy food is critically low in Native communities across the U.S. In Orleans, a small, unincorporated town with limited resources, Native people have a hard time accessing food, let alone traditional, indigenous food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new study from Hillman, a member of the Karuk tribe and the manager of its \u003ca href=\"http://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources/eco-cultural-revitalization/pikyav-field-institute\">Píkyav Field Institute\u003c/a>, and colleagues from U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, explores the profound lack of food access among tribal members in the northwestern corner of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the course the last five years, the researchers received more than 711 survey responses, conducted 115 follow-up interviews, and worked with 20 focus groups to determine the food access challenges that members of the Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa, and Klamath tribes face. The study found that \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-019-00925-y\">92 percent\u003c/a> face at least some level of food insecurity—compared with \u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx\">11.8 percent\u003c/a> of all U.S. households.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We only have one highway,” Hillman said about Orleans, a hub for the Karuk tribe with a population of 600. “Getting food here is really difficult,” she said, and the nearest grocery store is a two-hour drive away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study also showed that essentially everyone who participated wants more access to indigenous foods, but they first have to overcome limited access, regulations, and a legacy of colonialism to eat the food that has been part of their tribal identity and culture since before colonization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was just astounding how widespread these feelings of loss, need, want, and frustration were in our area and across the tribes,” said Hillman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixty-four percent of Native households in the area rely on food assistance, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fns.usda.gov/fdpir/food-distribution-program-indian-reservations\">Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations\u003c/a>, sometimes called commodities or “commods.” And 21 percent of those households reported using these food assistance programs because Native foods weren’t available. About 40 percent of participants said they rely on Native foods for food security.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Lack of Access to Native Foods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t always like this; 84 percent of people didn’t used to run out of food or worry about running out of food in the past. Traditionally, indigenous people in the Klamath Basin lived off of an abundance of wild game and fish, nuts, berries, and herbs. They also had unlimited access and the practical and cultural knowledge to gather, cook, and preserve these foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134286\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" class=\"size-full wp-image-134286\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-1020x765.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sturgeon caught by Yurok fishermen on the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Photo CC-licensed by DocentJoyce on Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tribal members face a number of barriers that have cropped up over the last 170 years as a result of the California Gold Rush, forced assimilation, broken treaties, and changing land jurisdictions. Their traditional territory is massive compared to the tiny pieces of land now known as reservations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Karuk don’t technically have a reservation. They have multiple, small sections of land held in trust by the government. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has a small reservation, which includes a section of the Trinity River. The Yurok reservation stretches 44 miles along the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean to the town of Weitchpec and meets the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. Similar to the Karuk tribe, the Klamath Tribes (Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin) have land held in trust by the government that is spread across Klamath County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each tribe has limited rights to hunting and fishing on their own traditional territories (not on reservation land), but off-reservation hunting and fishing are \u003ca href=\"https://www.bia.gov/sites/bia.gov/files/assets/public/raca/manual/pdf/idc2-060922.pdf\">subject to state and federal fish and game laws\u003c/a>, yet another obstacle to accessing their traditional foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t ‘allowed’ in the eyes of the federal government to do these things,” Hillman said. “We have to apply for a permit to hunt our own Native species that we’ve hunted for a long time and managed for a long time before somebody decided this was their land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salmon is always a hot-button issue in the Klamath Basin. Salmon populations are most affected by dams and the Hoopa Valley Tribe has been in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wlj.net/top_headlines/court-ruling-could-prompt-decision-on-klamath-dams/article_6426f18a-2962-11e9-9346-9f2db85c388f.html\">decades-long legal battle\u003c/a> with California and Oregon to get four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t had access to the fish that we’ve had access to for decades,” Hillman said. This year, the Karuk Tribe put tighter restrictions on salmon fishing and the tribe is \u003ca href=\"http://www.karuk.us/images/docs/press/2019/Press_Release19-02-05_Springer_Candidate_for_listing.pdf\">petitioning\u003c/a> the California Fish and Game Commission to list Spring Chinook as a protected species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Focus groups conducted as part of the five-year study also listed misguided resource management policies, logging, and criminalization of hunting, fishing, and gathering practices as contributing to food insecurity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to go off of the reservation, so basically, they call us outlaws, poachers, whatever. We’re not poachers or outlaws. We are providers. Native man is a provider,” according to one confidential interview highlighted in the study. “He goes out and he gets food for his family. He ain’t out there looking for trophies. He’s looking for meat to feed his family … The Creator gives us these animals so we can live. Now you got to go buy a ticket, a tag, a license to go out and be who you are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Food Security Through Food Sovereignty\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>According to the study, 7 percent of Native households said they are Native food secure, meaning they have access to indigenous foods like pine nuts, acorns, chestnuts, huckleberries, elderberries, wild potatoes, wild mushrooms, eels, salmon, sturgeon, and deer, to name just a few. The study also finds nearly 83 percent of households consumed Native foods at least once in the past year and that there is a strong desire—according to 99.56 percent of survey respondents—to have more access to these foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134287\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-134287\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Glenn Moore, Hoopa/Yurok Cultural Practitioner arranges salmon on skewers during a traditional baking demonstration. \u003ccite>(Photo CC-licensed by the U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These findings led the report authors to make a number of recommendations to better reflect Native food needs in future food insecurity studies. In addition to recommending the USDA factor in Native foods and travel to far-distant stores to use SNAP or WIC in future studies, researchers would like state and federal agencies to strengthen hunting and fishing rights, promote tribal stewardship to the land and natural resources, and increase funds for tribal education, research, and extension programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a nutshell: Native people want food sovereignty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really, food is at the core of everything we do, who we are. It’s our identity,” Hillman said. “We’re really trying to get it [Native food education] back into the schools, because that’s where we can sort of bridge that knowledge gap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources/eco-cultural-revitalization/pikyav-field-institute\">Píkyav Field Institute\u003c/a> has developed a K-12 curriculum that includes Native food in every lesson. The children take field trips to collect acorns and learn food origin stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over at the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Meagen Baldy, district coordinator for the Klamath Trinity Resource Conservation District, also helps connect tribal members to traditional foods through cooking demonstrations, food workshops, recipe writing, a community garden, and connecting food to the Hupa language.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My main model is using accessible food, whether it’s traditional, commodities, fished, or hunted foods,” Baldy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In food workshops, for example, Baldy will combine fresh canned salmon using local fish with kale and leeks from the garden. Or she’ll make traditional huckleberry jams and jellies and dumplings with Food Distribution Program ingredients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always tell the kids that ‘Now you’re connected to that jar of jam. When you open it, you’ll be connected back to all of us,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Establishing that deeper connection with food, its stories and culture is what Baldy’s work is all about. She’s also working to get restrictive food policies changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To us, traditional gathering is ‘agriculture,’” Baldy said. “It’s getting that [through] to the USDA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sees some light at the end of the tunnel. \u003ca href=\"https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2018/12/2018-farm-bill-is-historic-for-indian-country\">With 60 provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill\u003c/a> concerning tribes, such as more support for locally grown and produced foods and more tribal management of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, tribes have fodder to continue writing the beginning chapters of their tribal food sovereignty stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to have economic development in our communities and sustainable agriculture, but we need to get rid of barriers,” Baldy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/07/24/indigenous-food-security-is-dependent-on-food-sovereignty/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "New research shows that hunting, fishing, and foraging for traditional Native foods help nourish tribal members—but first they need access to their ancestral lands.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>By Andi Murphy\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several times a year, the locals at Orleans, California see a surge of sport fishermen and trophy hunters come through town, driving big trucks decked out in camouflage and sporting polarized fishing sunglasses.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nThe locals, including some of the Native people from tribes in the Klamath Basin, have to enter the same lottery and buy the same hunting permits as the outsiders who may or may not see the cultural and nutritional value of the animals they are harvesting. For some Native people, including Lisa Hillman, seeing their food treated in this way was an unpleasant shock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes me want to turn away,” Hillman said. “Otherwise I might say something I shouldn’t, as a mother and as a leader in the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5422031/\">Study\u003c/a> after \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pa.1876\">study\u003c/a> has shown that access to healthy food is critically low in Native communities across the U.S. In Orleans, a small, unincorporated town with limited resources, Native people have a hard time accessing food, let alone traditional, indigenous food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new study from Hillman, a member of the Karuk tribe and the manager of its \u003ca href=\"http://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources/eco-cultural-revitalization/pikyav-field-institute\">Píkyav Field Institute\u003c/a>, and colleagues from U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, explores the profound lack of food access among tribal members in the northwestern corner of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the course the last five years, the researchers received more than 711 survey responses, conducted 115 follow-up interviews, and worked with 20 focus groups to determine the food access challenges that members of the Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa, and Klamath tribes face. The study found that \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-019-00925-y\">92 percent\u003c/a> face at least some level of food insecurity—compared with \u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx\">11.8 percent\u003c/a> of all U.S. households.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We only have one highway,” Hillman said about Orleans, a hub for the Karuk tribe with a population of 600. “Getting food here is really difficult,” she said, and the nearest grocery store is a two-hour drive away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study also showed that essentially everyone who participated wants more access to indigenous foods, but they first have to overcome limited access, regulations, and a legacy of colonialism to eat the food that has been part of their tribal identity and culture since before colonization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was just astounding how widespread these feelings of loss, need, want, and frustration were in our area and across the tribes,” said Hillman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixty-four percent of Native households in the area rely on food assistance, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fns.usda.gov/fdpir/food-distribution-program-indian-reservations\">Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations\u003c/a>, sometimes called commodities or “commods.” And 21 percent of those households reported using these food assistance programs because Native foods weren’t available. About 40 percent of participants said they rely on Native foods for food security.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Lack of Access to Native Foods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t always like this; 84 percent of people didn’t used to run out of food or worry about running out of food in the past. Traditionally, indigenous people in the Klamath Basin lived off of an abundance of wild game and fish, nuts, berries, and herbs. They also had unlimited access and the practical and cultural knowledge to gather, cook, and preserve these foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134286\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" class=\"size-full wp-image-134286\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-foraging-sturgeon-2-1020x765.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sturgeon caught by Yurok fishermen on the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Photo CC-licensed by DocentJoyce on Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tribal members face a number of barriers that have cropped up over the last 170 years as a result of the California Gold Rush, forced assimilation, broken treaties, and changing land jurisdictions. Their traditional territory is massive compared to the tiny pieces of land now known as reservations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Karuk don’t technically have a reservation. They have multiple, small sections of land held in trust by the government. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has a small reservation, which includes a section of the Trinity River. The Yurok reservation stretches 44 miles along the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean to the town of Weitchpec and meets the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. Similar to the Karuk tribe, the Klamath Tribes (Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin) have land held in trust by the government that is spread across Klamath County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each tribe has limited rights to hunting and fishing on their own traditional territories (not on reservation land), but off-reservation hunting and fishing are \u003ca href=\"https://www.bia.gov/sites/bia.gov/files/assets/public/raca/manual/pdf/idc2-060922.pdf\">subject to state and federal fish and game laws\u003c/a>, yet another obstacle to accessing their traditional foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t ‘allowed’ in the eyes of the federal government to do these things,” Hillman said. “We have to apply for a permit to hunt our own Native species that we’ve hunted for a long time and managed for a long time before somebody decided this was their land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salmon is always a hot-button issue in the Klamath Basin. Salmon populations are most affected by dams and the Hoopa Valley Tribe has been in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wlj.net/top_headlines/court-ruling-could-prompt-decision-on-klamath-dams/article_6426f18a-2962-11e9-9346-9f2db85c388f.html\">decades-long legal battle\u003c/a> with California and Oregon to get four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t had access to the fish that we’ve had access to for decades,” Hillman said. This year, the Karuk Tribe put tighter restrictions on salmon fishing and the tribe is \u003ca href=\"http://www.karuk.us/images/docs/press/2019/Press_Release19-02-05_Springer_Candidate_for_listing.pdf\">petitioning\u003c/a> the California Fish and Game Commission to list Spring Chinook as a protected species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Focus groups conducted as part of the five-year study also listed misguided resource management policies, logging, and criminalization of hunting, fishing, and gathering practices as contributing to food insecurity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to go off of the reservation, so basically, they call us outlaws, poachers, whatever. We’re not poachers or outlaws. We are providers. Native man is a provider,” according to one confidential interview highlighted in the study. “He goes out and he gets food for his family. He ain’t out there looking for trophies. He’s looking for meat to feed his family … The Creator gives us these animals so we can live. Now you got to go buy a ticket, a tag, a license to go out and be who you are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Food Security Through Food Sovereignty\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>According to the study, 7 percent of Native households said they are Native food secure, meaning they have access to indigenous foods like pine nuts, acorns, chestnuts, huckleberries, elderberries, wild potatoes, wild mushrooms, eels, salmon, sturgeon, and deer, to name just a few. The study also finds nearly 83 percent of households consumed Native foods at least once in the past year and that there is a strong desire—according to 99.56 percent of survey respondents—to have more access to these foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134287\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-134287\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/07/190724-native-food-security-food-sovereignty-karuk-yurok-salmon-baking-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Glenn Moore, Hoopa/Yurok Cultural Practitioner arranges salmon on skewers during a traditional baking demonstration. \u003ccite>(Photo CC-licensed by the U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These findings led the report authors to make a number of recommendations to better reflect Native food needs in future food insecurity studies. In addition to recommending the USDA factor in Native foods and travel to far-distant stores to use SNAP or WIC in future studies, researchers would like state and federal agencies to strengthen hunting and fishing rights, promote tribal stewardship to the land and natural resources, and increase funds for tribal education, research, and extension programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a nutshell: Native people want food sovereignty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really, food is at the core of everything we do, who we are. It’s our identity,” Hillman said. “We’re really trying to get it [Native food education] back into the schools, because that’s where we can sort of bridge that knowledge gap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources/eco-cultural-revitalization/pikyav-field-institute\">Píkyav Field Institute\u003c/a> has developed a K-12 curriculum that includes Native food in every lesson. The children take field trips to collect acorns and learn food origin stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over at the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Meagen Baldy, district coordinator for the Klamath Trinity Resource Conservation District, also helps connect tribal members to traditional foods through cooking demonstrations, food workshops, recipe writing, a community garden, and connecting food to the Hupa language.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My main model is using accessible food, whether it’s traditional, commodities, fished, or hunted foods,” Baldy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In food workshops, for example, Baldy will combine fresh canned salmon using local fish with kale and leeks from the garden. Or she’ll make traditional huckleberry jams and jellies and dumplings with Food Distribution Program ingredients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always tell the kids that ‘Now you’re connected to that jar of jam. When you open it, you’ll be connected back to all of us,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Establishing that deeper connection with food, its stories and culture is what Baldy’s work is all about. She’s also working to get restrictive food policies changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To us, traditional gathering is ‘agriculture,’” Baldy said. “It’s getting that [through] to the USDA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sees some light at the end of the tunnel. \u003ca href=\"https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2018/12/2018-farm-bill-is-historic-for-indian-country\">With 60 provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill\u003c/a> concerning tribes, such as more support for locally grown and produced foods and more tribal management of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, tribes have fodder to continue writing the beginning chapters of their tribal food sovereignty stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to have economic development in our communities and sustainable agriculture, but we need to get rid of barriers,” Baldy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/07/24/indigenous-food-security-is-dependent-on-food-sovereignty/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Farmers of Color May Soon Get More Support in California",
"title": "Farmers of Color May Soon Get More Support in California",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Bites | KQED Food",
"content": "\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11713330,bayareabites_128791' label='The Politics of Farming']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abel Ruiz would like nothing more than to farm his own land, but he lacks the financial resources to make his dream a reality. Ruiz belongs to a Santa Ana, California farming cooperative called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/crececommunityinresistance.co.op/\">Community in Resistance for Ecological and Cultural Empowerment\u003c/a> (CRECE), which farms on a half-acre of land that members lease on a month-to-month basis from a local church. This tenuous arrangement has led the group’s members to try to acquire a lot of their own, but they’ve encountered the same roadblock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ran into this wall of bureaucracy,” Ruiz, 35, said. “The city won’t sell us land unless we have some form of financial backing, but funders won’t fund us unless we have some form of assets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without investors or assets, co-op members find themselves at square one—working leased land they may not have access to the following month. CRECE’s agreement with the church could end at any time. “That’s not a strong foundation for any farmer,” Ruiz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133633\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1.jpg\" alt=\"Working on the farm at CRECE.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133633\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Working on the farm at CRECE. \u003ccite>(CRECE)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He recently discussed his challenges before the \u003ca href=\"https://agri.assembly.ca.gov/\">California State Assembly’s Committee on Agriculture\u003c/a> in support of a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Robert Rivas, a Democrat who represents the farming-intensive Central Coast, that could be a game-changer for aspiring farm owners like Ruiz. AB 986—the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB986\">Regional Economies and Equity in Agricultural Lands (REEAL) Act\u003c/a>—would create a fund to conserve farmland for socially disadvantaged farmers and give them access to financial resources such as down-payment assistance and one-time investments in infrastructure improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of the bill say it’s sorely needed as the state’s agricultural industry evolves. Aging white farmers are increasingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2015/09/14/farmland-investment/72066736/\">turning over their acres to investment firms\u003c/a> who drive up land costs, making ownership off limits to California’s growing share of Latinx and Southeast Asian farmers. Rivas’s bill is one of several aimed at lowering the barriers that farmers of colors face today as a result of agriculture’s ongoing history of racial exclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Farmers of color are the fastest-growing [group of] farmers in the country,” said Neil Thapar, food and farm program director for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theselc.org/team\">Sustainable Economies Law Center\u003c/a>, which is a member of \u003ca href=\"http://www.farmerjustice.com/\">the California Farmer Justice Collaborative\u003c/a>, another sponsor of AB 986. “As our farming population diversifies, those are the people we need to serve. We need to help them continue and maintain strong local agricultural economies, which allows for more local food to be grown to satisfy the culturally relevant food needs of a more diverse population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Legacy of Discrimination\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Farmers of color in California have long experienced discrimination at both the state and national level. \u003ca href=\"http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3652&context=californialawreview\">The California Alien Land Law of 1913\u003c/a> robbed immigrants of Asian descent of the chance to buy farmland or enter into long-term lease contracts. Seven years later, the act was updated as the California Alien Land Law of 1920. Asian farmers worked under these oppressive laws until 1952, when the Supreme Court of California reversed them. Decades later, groups of \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/latino.farmers.suit/index.html\">Black and Latinx farmers\u003c/a> filed class action lawsuits alleging that the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied them loans and benefits during the 1980s and ‘90s—lawsuits that were settled with historic billion-dollar payouts to the farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given this historical context, Paul Towers, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.caff.org/\">Community Alliance with Family Farms\u003c/a>, said that the REEAL Act of 2019 serves to address the legacy of racism in California’s agriculture system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our future targets those farmers left out and pushed through the margins by a system that has favored wealthier white farmers,” Towers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California farmworkers and their families have also been subjected to environmental racism directly tied to the agricultural industry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency settled a lawsuit in 2011 spearheaded by retired Latinx farmworkers from Oxnard, California, who said their \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/california-unsatisfying-settlement-pesticide-spraying-n406001\">children had been routinely exposed to the pesticides\u003c/a> sprayed on strawberry fields near their schools. The settlement required the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to monitor three farming communities for airborne chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Racism persists today within the agricultural community,” said Beth Smoker, food and agriculture policy consultant for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.panna.org/beth-smoker\">Pesticide Action Network\u003c/a>. “The government structures have been systematically set up so that for this generation of farmers today, those barriers still exist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The REEAL Act is an outgrowth of California’s \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/08/21/a-california-bill-takes-steps-to-end-discrimination-against-farmers/\">Farmer Equity Act of 2017\u003c/a>, which acknowledged the history of racism in agriculture and outlined plans for initiatives to serve socially disadvantaged farmers. So is \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB838\">AB 838\u003c/a>, which would require the University of California to establish the statewide Farmer Equity and Innovation Center to provide training and assistance to new farmers and small and medium-sized farm owners. The program, which must be in place by July 1, 2021, would train these farmers to use best farm management practices, manage water efficiently, and market culturally relevant crops—foods that have been staples in diets of ethnic minority groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the CRECE co-op, Ruiz and his fellow farmers grow food specifically with the Mexican community in mind, he said. Their crops include garbanzo beans, corn, cucumber, tomatoes, and a mishmash of what he describes as “Mexican kitchen herbs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Both land access and technical assistance are major gaps for young farmers,” said Sophie Ackoff, vice president of policy and campaigns for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youngfarmers.org/\">National Young Farmers Coalition\u003c/a>. “We really see both bills as being the solution. We need both of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ackoff is excited that AB 838 sets out to provide farmers with culturally relevant training practices given in the languages they speak, as language barriers have previously hindered them from getting important information from small-farm advisors. Culturally relevant training also involves supporting farmers of color who use the organic and traditional farming techniques long adopted by their ethnic groups, including intercropping, agroforestry, and no-till farming. Farmers who practice intercropping grow different types of crops, such as lettuce and brussels sprouts, between rows. Agrofroestry combines farming with tree-growing and preservation, and no-till farming entails growing crops without disrupting the soil through tillage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Blow, who owns along with her husband the three-acre \u003ca href=\"http://www.soulflowerfarm.com/\">Soul Flower Farm\u003c/a> in El Sobrante, said that farmers can benefit from technical assistance, as long as it’s culturally relevant. She and her husband are African American and have often felt that the methods people of color have long used to farm are overlooked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Training is great in my opinion,” Blow said, “but I don’t see it benefitting anybody if it’s just in conventional Western farming techniques that deplete the land.” She cites permaculture, or agroforestry, as an example of an indigenous farming practice that’s catching on with the mainstream farming community. “Permaculture is way to farm using regenerative and sustainable techniques,” she said. “It is an indigenous sustainability practice that was recoined and renamed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blow and her husband have had their farm for nine years. They grow most of the crops for themselves, their two sons, and the students Blow teaches at the herbalist school she runs. She grows more than 100 plants, including Mexican marigold, rosemary, thyme, white sage, blue sage, mugwort, and calendula, for medicinal purposes. She also sells these plants at the local farmers’ market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blow said that she was always drawn to herbalism and farming. She and her husband primarily learned about farming through reading, researching, and connecting with veteran farmers in their community. Because she likes to take their own approach to farming, Blow said that she’s not sure how much she would’ve turned to the state for assistance, but acknowledges the benefits of the pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With more help and financial support, we could have accomplished what we’ve done in nine years in two,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Impact of Rising Land Values\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2017/Full_Report/Volume_1,_Chapter_1_US/usv1.pdf\">2017 Census of Agriculture\u003c/a>, released in April, farms operated by Hispanics, blacks, Native Americans, and Asians all rose from 2012 to 2017. That this growth is occurring during a period of decline for farm ownership overall signals that farmers of color will likely play key roles in the future of agriculture. But without financial resources, they could be sidelined as the mostly white farming population retires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seventy percent of retiring farmers don’t have succession plan,” Thapar said. “That’s really dangerous in that if there are not enough family members left to run the land, it’s going to be sold off to someone else to develop into something else that doesn’t include growing food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conversion of agricultural land into other entities has ecological effects as well. The REEAL Act notes that it reduces California’s ability to store carbon, maintain regional ecosystems, and, of course, produce food. The acquisition of California farmland by investment firms and corporations has also raised land values. In California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2018/2018LandValuesCashRents_Highlights.pdf\">the real estate value of farmland is $9,000 per acre\u003c/a>. Only four states—all on the East Coast—have higher real estate values. And at $340 per acre, California leads the nation in rent paid for agricultural land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cost of land is compounding the difficulties farmers of color have to accessing land,” said Young Farmers Coalition’s Ackoff. “They are not inheriting farmland either, so they are left out of this old-boy network.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pesticide Action Network’s Smoker said that historically discriminatory policies have led to farmers of color slowly losing their land over time. She added that receiving fewer federal loans than their white counterparts has also shaped the state of agriculture today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As farmers of color struggle to buy land that’s rapidly rising in value, more farms are being consolidated. In California and across the country, \u003ca href=\"https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/farms-in-us-drops-size-grows\">the number of farms is decreasing, but the size of farms is increasing\u003c/a>. Towers said this has ramifications for the food supply and for farmers of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are farming more acres and growing fewer and fewer crops in order to make enough money to be viable,” he said. “The pressure of overall consolidation makes it harder and harder to be a smaller farmer and compete with larger farmers in price and access to market. There are not enough farmers’ markets that make up for the difference.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Should Farm Ownership Be the Goal?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Daniel A. Sumner, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis, called the REEAL Act well-intentioned legislation. However, he also expressed some concerns about the bill. He questioned the idea that land ownership should be the ultimate goal of farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people who own farmland aren’t farmers, and being a farmer doesn’t necessarily have to do with land ownership,” he said. “Farming is a really tough business. A lot of farmers end up bankrupt and feeling like failures, so the last thing I want to encourage is telling people, ‘Come on in, the water is fine.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation notes that California agriculture is in a precarious state, with roughly 50,000 acres of farmland and rangeland lost annually. While the REEAL Act would increase efforts to make more farmers of color landowners, it also includes provisions to help these farmers enter into long-term leasing contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ackoff, however, said that ownership is important for farmers because it gives them much-needed stability, allows them to conserve land, and lowers the odds that farms will end up on the real estate market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The leases many farmers are operating under prevent them from making the investments they need to,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/04/15/ag-census-more-latinx-farmers-own-their-land-could-they-make-the-food-system-more-sustainable/\">Javier Zamora\u003c/a>, who owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.jsmorganics.com/\">JSM Organic Farms\u003c/a> in Royal Oaks, California, agrees. Until securing a loan from the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiafarmlink.org/\">California FarmLink\u003c/a> that he used to start JSM seven years ago, Zamora spent much of his life working other people’s land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133634\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora.jpg\" alt=\"Javier Zamora on his farm\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133634\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Javier Zamora on his farm \u003ccite>(Civil Eats)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When you lease, there’s always something that stops you from fully developing your business,” Zamora said. “You can’t build anything on it. When you own your land, there’s just no limit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruiz believes the legislation has the potential to not only help CRECE but also other would-be farmers in his community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not the only ones who’ve gravitated toward farming,” he said. “We’ve met some others who’ve kind of given up. There are people who are interested in farming, and they have a wealth of knowledge. We just need to give them access to land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/05/06/farmers-of-color-may-soon-get-more-support-in-california/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In an effort to address historic, systemic racism, two bills would support socially disadvantaged farmers, offering financial assistance, training, and more.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abel Ruiz would like nothing more than to farm his own land, but he lacks the financial resources to make his dream a reality. Ruiz belongs to a Santa Ana, California farming cooperative called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/crececommunityinresistance.co.op/\">Community in Resistance for Ecological and Cultural Empowerment\u003c/a> (CRECE), which farms on a half-acre of land that members lease on a month-to-month basis from a local church. This tenuous arrangement has led the group’s members to try to acquire a lot of their own, but they’ve encountered the same roadblock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ran into this wall of bureaucracy,” Ruiz, 35, said. “The city won’t sell us land unless we have some form of financial backing, but funders won’t fund us unless we have some form of assets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without investors or assets, co-op members find themselves at square one—working leased land they may not have access to the following month. CRECE’s agreement with the church could end at any time. “That’s not a strong foundation for any farmer,” Ruiz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133633\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1.jpg\" alt=\"Working on the farm at CRECE.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133633\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190506-farmers-of-color-socially-disadvantaged-farmers-california-legislation-crece-farm-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Working on the farm at CRECE. \u003ccite>(CRECE)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He recently discussed his challenges before the \u003ca href=\"https://agri.assembly.ca.gov/\">California State Assembly’s Committee on Agriculture\u003c/a> in support of a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Robert Rivas, a Democrat who represents the farming-intensive Central Coast, that could be a game-changer for aspiring farm owners like Ruiz. AB 986—the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB986\">Regional Economies and Equity in Agricultural Lands (REEAL) Act\u003c/a>—would create a fund to conserve farmland for socially disadvantaged farmers and give them access to financial resources such as down-payment assistance and one-time investments in infrastructure improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of the bill say it’s sorely needed as the state’s agricultural industry evolves. Aging white farmers are increasingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2015/09/14/farmland-investment/72066736/\">turning over their acres to investment firms\u003c/a> who drive up land costs, making ownership off limits to California’s growing share of Latinx and Southeast Asian farmers. Rivas’s bill is one of several aimed at lowering the barriers that farmers of colors face today as a result of agriculture’s ongoing history of racial exclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Farmers of color are the fastest-growing [group of] farmers in the country,” said Neil Thapar, food and farm program director for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theselc.org/team\">Sustainable Economies Law Center\u003c/a>, which is a member of \u003ca href=\"http://www.farmerjustice.com/\">the California Farmer Justice Collaborative\u003c/a>, another sponsor of AB 986. “As our farming population diversifies, those are the people we need to serve. We need to help them continue and maintain strong local agricultural economies, which allows for more local food to be grown to satisfy the culturally relevant food needs of a more diverse population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Legacy of Discrimination\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Farmers of color in California have long experienced discrimination at both the state and national level. \u003ca href=\"http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3652&context=californialawreview\">The California Alien Land Law of 1913\u003c/a> robbed immigrants of Asian descent of the chance to buy farmland or enter into long-term lease contracts. Seven years later, the act was updated as the California Alien Land Law of 1920. Asian farmers worked under these oppressive laws until 1952, when the Supreme Court of California reversed them. Decades later, groups of \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/latino.farmers.suit/index.html\">Black and Latinx farmers\u003c/a> filed class action lawsuits alleging that the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied them loans and benefits during the 1980s and ‘90s—lawsuits that were settled with historic billion-dollar payouts to the farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given this historical context, Paul Towers, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.caff.org/\">Community Alliance with Family Farms\u003c/a>, said that the REEAL Act of 2019 serves to address the legacy of racism in California’s agriculture system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our future targets those farmers left out and pushed through the margins by a system that has favored wealthier white farmers,” Towers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California farmworkers and their families have also been subjected to environmental racism directly tied to the agricultural industry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency settled a lawsuit in 2011 spearheaded by retired Latinx farmworkers from Oxnard, California, who said their \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/california-unsatisfying-settlement-pesticide-spraying-n406001\">children had been routinely exposed to the pesticides\u003c/a> sprayed on strawberry fields near their schools. The settlement required the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to monitor three farming communities for airborne chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Racism persists today within the agricultural community,” said Beth Smoker, food and agriculture policy consultant for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.panna.org/beth-smoker\">Pesticide Action Network\u003c/a>. “The government structures have been systematically set up so that for this generation of farmers today, those barriers still exist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The REEAL Act is an outgrowth of California’s \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/08/21/a-california-bill-takes-steps-to-end-discrimination-against-farmers/\">Farmer Equity Act of 2017\u003c/a>, which acknowledged the history of racism in agriculture and outlined plans for initiatives to serve socially disadvantaged farmers. So is \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB838\">AB 838\u003c/a>, which would require the University of California to establish the statewide Farmer Equity and Innovation Center to provide training and assistance to new farmers and small and medium-sized farm owners. The program, which must be in place by July 1, 2021, would train these farmers to use best farm management practices, manage water efficiently, and market culturally relevant crops—foods that have been staples in diets of ethnic minority groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the CRECE co-op, Ruiz and his fellow farmers grow food specifically with the Mexican community in mind, he said. Their crops include garbanzo beans, corn, cucumber, tomatoes, and a mishmash of what he describes as “Mexican kitchen herbs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Both land access and technical assistance are major gaps for young farmers,” said Sophie Ackoff, vice president of policy and campaigns for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youngfarmers.org/\">National Young Farmers Coalition\u003c/a>. “We really see both bills as being the solution. We need both of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ackoff is excited that AB 838 sets out to provide farmers with culturally relevant training practices given in the languages they speak, as language barriers have previously hindered them from getting important information from small-farm advisors. Culturally relevant training also involves supporting farmers of color who use the organic and traditional farming techniques long adopted by their ethnic groups, including intercropping, agroforestry, and no-till farming. Farmers who practice intercropping grow different types of crops, such as lettuce and brussels sprouts, between rows. Agrofroestry combines farming with tree-growing and preservation, and no-till farming entails growing crops without disrupting the soil through tillage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Blow, who owns along with her husband the three-acre \u003ca href=\"http://www.soulflowerfarm.com/\">Soul Flower Farm\u003c/a> in El Sobrante, said that farmers can benefit from technical assistance, as long as it’s culturally relevant. She and her husband are African American and have often felt that the methods people of color have long used to farm are overlooked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Training is great in my opinion,” Blow said, “but I don’t see it benefitting anybody if it’s just in conventional Western farming techniques that deplete the land.” She cites permaculture, or agroforestry, as an example of an indigenous farming practice that’s catching on with the mainstream farming community. “Permaculture is way to farm using regenerative and sustainable techniques,” she said. “It is an indigenous sustainability practice that was recoined and renamed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blow and her husband have had their farm for nine years. They grow most of the crops for themselves, their two sons, and the students Blow teaches at the herbalist school she runs. She grows more than 100 plants, including Mexican marigold, rosemary, thyme, white sage, blue sage, mugwort, and calendula, for medicinal purposes. She also sells these plants at the local farmers’ market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blow said that she was always drawn to herbalism and farming. She and her husband primarily learned about farming through reading, researching, and connecting with veteran farmers in their community. Because she likes to take their own approach to farming, Blow said that she’s not sure how much she would’ve turned to the state for assistance, but acknowledges the benefits of the pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With more help and financial support, we could have accomplished what we’ve done in nine years in two,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Impact of Rising Land Values\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2017/Full_Report/Volume_1,_Chapter_1_US/usv1.pdf\">2017 Census of Agriculture\u003c/a>, released in April, farms operated by Hispanics, blacks, Native Americans, and Asians all rose from 2012 to 2017. That this growth is occurring during a period of decline for farm ownership overall signals that farmers of color will likely play key roles in the future of agriculture. But without financial resources, they could be sidelined as the mostly white farming population retires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seventy percent of retiring farmers don’t have succession plan,” Thapar said. “That’s really dangerous in that if there are not enough family members left to run the land, it’s going to be sold off to someone else to develop into something else that doesn’t include growing food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conversion of agricultural land into other entities has ecological effects as well. The REEAL Act notes that it reduces California’s ability to store carbon, maintain regional ecosystems, and, of course, produce food. The acquisition of California farmland by investment firms and corporations has also raised land values. In California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2018/2018LandValuesCashRents_Highlights.pdf\">the real estate value of farmland is $9,000 per acre\u003c/a>. Only four states—all on the East Coast—have higher real estate values. And at $340 per acre, California leads the nation in rent paid for agricultural land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cost of land is compounding the difficulties farmers of color have to accessing land,” said Young Farmers Coalition’s Ackoff. “They are not inheriting farmland either, so they are left out of this old-boy network.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pesticide Action Network’s Smoker said that historically discriminatory policies have led to farmers of color slowly losing their land over time. She added that receiving fewer federal loans than their white counterparts has also shaped the state of agriculture today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As farmers of color struggle to buy land that’s rapidly rising in value, more farms are being consolidated. In California and across the country, \u003ca href=\"https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/farms-in-us-drops-size-grows\">the number of farms is decreasing, but the size of farms is increasing\u003c/a>. Towers said this has ramifications for the food supply and for farmers of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are farming more acres and growing fewer and fewer crops in order to make enough money to be viable,” he said. “The pressure of overall consolidation makes it harder and harder to be a smaller farmer and compete with larger farmers in price and access to market. There are not enough farmers’ markets that make up for the difference.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Should Farm Ownership Be the Goal?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Daniel A. Sumner, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis, called the REEAL Act well-intentioned legislation. However, he also expressed some concerns about the bill. He questioned the idea that land ownership should be the ultimate goal of farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people who own farmland aren’t farmers, and being a farmer doesn’t necessarily have to do with land ownership,” he said. “Farming is a really tough business. A lot of farmers end up bankrupt and feeling like failures, so the last thing I want to encourage is telling people, ‘Come on in, the water is fine.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation notes that California agriculture is in a precarious state, with roughly 50,000 acres of farmland and rangeland lost annually. While the REEAL Act would increase efforts to make more farmers of color landowners, it also includes provisions to help these farmers enter into long-term leasing contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ackoff, however, said that ownership is important for farmers because it gives them much-needed stability, allows them to conserve land, and lowers the odds that farms will end up on the real estate market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The leases many farmers are operating under prevent them from making the investments they need to,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/04/15/ag-census-more-latinx-farmers-own-their-land-could-they-make-the-food-system-more-sustainable/\">Javier Zamora\u003c/a>, who owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.jsmorganics.com/\">JSM Organic Farms\u003c/a> in Royal Oaks, California, agrees. Until securing a loan from the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiafarmlink.org/\">California FarmLink\u003c/a> that he used to start JSM seven years ago, Zamora spent much of his life working other people’s land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133634\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora.jpg\" alt=\"Javier Zamora on his farm\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133634\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/05/190412-usda-census-of-agriculture-latinx-farmowners-Javier-Zamora-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Javier Zamora on his farm \u003ccite>(Civil Eats)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When you lease, there’s always something that stops you from fully developing your business,” Zamora said. “You can’t build anything on it. When you own your land, there’s just no limit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruiz believes the legislation has the potential to not only help CRECE but also other would-be farmers in his community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not the only ones who’ve gravitated toward farming,” he said. “We’ve met some others who’ve kind of given up. There are people who are interested in farming, and they have a wealth of knowledge. We just need to give them access to land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/05/06/farmers-of-color-may-soon-get-more-support-in-california/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Aliza Sokolow’s Food Photos Could Change the Way You Think About Farmers",
"title": "Aliza Sokolow’s Food Photos Could Change the Way You Think About Farmers",
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"content": "\u003cp>Scroll through the photos on your phone and chances are good that you’ll find at least one shot of food. And you’re not alone. Today, everything from how baristas decorate their lattes to the way restaurants plate their food is approached at least partly with an eye toward how it will look in a photo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Los Angeles-based photographer \u003ca href=\"https://www.sokolowphoto.com/\">Aliza Sokolow\u003c/a>, 33, food ’grams are about more than social status; they’re also a way to honor the people she admires most: farmers. A former food stylist who worked on \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution\">Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution\u003c/a>\u003c/i> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbs.com/shows/reciperehab/\">\u003ci>Recipe Rehab\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Sokolow founded Poppyseed Agency, a social media and branding firm that works with food brands, restaurants, and chefs. Her photos show off produce: bright, carefully arranged citrus; sliced-open avocados; pints of blueberries from the farmers’ market—all showcased in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sokolowphoto.com/prints\">a stunning line of prints\u003c/a> and in her \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alizajsokolow/\">Instagram feed\u003c/a>, where she also shares details about the people behind the food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133416\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3.jpg\" alt=\"Aliza Sokolow arranges some citrus.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133416\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aliza Sokolow arranges some citrus. \u003ccite>(Holly Liss)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I really like to tell the stories of the farmers because they’re such heroes of mine,” Sokolow says. “They put in the manual labor and are able to tell when a tomato is ripe for the picking, something a machine is not capable of.” Her hope in capturing the work of her local farmers is to “give people a bit more knowledge and gratitude for what they’re eating and awareness as to how much went into what’s on the plate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.instagram.com/p/BXV85XpAy72/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The popularity of food photographs in social media feeds started off as a bit of joke, but as the influence of Instagram has grown, it has become one of the best ways to recommend and learn about restaurants. “Instagram feeds are the first place Millennials look when scoping out the food,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.michellezaporojets.com/\">Michelle Zaporojets\u003c/a>, who runs social media marketing for several Boston-based restaurants. “Foodie influencers have so much power in driving traffic just from a single photo or Instagram Story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A self-trained photographer, Sokolow studied architecture and industrial engineering at UC Berkeley and graduated in 2009, at the height of the recession. Uncertain of what she wanted to do at a time when creative jobs were scarce, she took a job in television set design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first day on set there were all these food stylists putting things together and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is like teeny tiny architecture. This is what I’m going to do when I grow up.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sokolow started apprenticing and assisting on sets, and she eventually landed a job working as an assistant to food stylists on Food Revolution. It was while in that role that she took a tour of the Santa Monica farmers’ market with \u003ca href=\"https://www.melisse.com/about-chef-josiah-citrin\">Chef Josiah Citrin of Melisse\u003c/a>, and met \u003ca href=\"http://www.freshpoint.com/author/produce-hunter/\">Karen Beverlin\u003c/a>, a “produce hunter” who introduced her to every farmer at the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133417\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10.jpg\" alt=\"Rose apples\" width=\"800\" height=\"896\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133417\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10-160x179.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10-768x860.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rose apples \u003ccite>(Aliza Sokolow)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sokolow says all the coolest things she knows about have come from farmers, like hidden rose (or Pink Pearl) apples (which have pink flesh), orange watermelons, oca wood sorrel, which comes in 32 different varieties and colors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her a-ha moment came one day when she brought produce from Laura Ramirez of J.J.’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jjslonedaughterranch/?hl=en\">Lone Daughter Ranch\u003c/a>. Ramirez is known for growing a variety of citrus, 12 different kinds of avocados, and other specialty fruit. Sokolow bought two of each type of avocado, went home, cut them all open and took a picture that she posted online. It quickly caught the attention of editors at Food & Wine, who asked if they could use it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like ‘Oh, maybe that is art,’” says Sokolow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After getting burned out from working in television, she leveraged the relationships she made at the farmers’ market to launch her digital agency, and began running the social media accounts for restaurant groups and chefs, including \u003ca href=\"http://www.hotchocolatechicago.com/mindysegal\">Mindy Segal\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://thelucquesgroup.com/suzanne-goin.html\">Suzanne Goin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, Sokolow began selling prints of the photographs featured in her Instagram feed and some of them have made their way to restaurants around the United States, including L.A.’s \u003ca href=\"https://republiquela.com/\">République\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://moodyroosterwlv.com/\">Moody Rooster\u003c/a>. She has also donated prints for fundraisers, including one for \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/09/04/brigaid-is-in-the-business-of-transforming-school-food/\">Brigaid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She uses the eye she developed through her architecture training to style the food in her photos. She’ll line up a row of colorful carrots, or place circular slices of candy-striped beets on top one another until they create a dizzying, colorful display, or cut open citrus to expose their inner geometry. Then she’ll share the photos with her 33,000 followers along with tidbits about the people who grew them in a way that is genuine, educational, and fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9.jpg\" alt=\"Slices of beets\" width=\"800\" height=\"999\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133418\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9-160x200.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9-768x959.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slices of beets \u003ccite>(Aliza Sokolow)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By using color, she’s able to make something as simple as a single avocado looking visually beautiful and extremely appealing,” says \u003ca href=\"https://myfoodsubscriptions.com/\">Beverly Friedmann\u003c/a>, a NYC-based content manager for consumer websites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron Choi of San Marcos-based \u003ca href=\"https://girlndug.com/\">Girl and Dug Farms\u003c/a> says that while he’s can’t say for sure if Sokolow’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Buhc3wilcuq/\">photographs of their produce\u003c/a> has resulted in more sales, it has definitely attracted more Instagram followers for the farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her work has reached pockets of people who ordinarily wouldn’t browse a farm’s IG posts on their own,” Choi adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes she shoots directly at a farmers’ market, but most of the time Sokolow brings food home to photograph. It can take as long as a week to gather and shoot, as she travels from market to market across the city, seeking out particular items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The colors are what really excite me,” Sokolow says. “When you’re growing up, you think carrots are orange and watermelon is pink, but when I find a pink mushroom or I see that there are five different-colored carrots, that is so mind-blowing and exciting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.instagram.com/p/BQT7bVdh1tb/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a food shoot, Sokolow cooks up the ingredients or shares them with friends. Her Instagram also features a number of snaps of cakes and other baked goods often topped with dehydrated fruits. She does a lot of dehydrating and drying, for instance, to make citrus chips that she displays on charcuterie boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really a snacker, so it works out very nicely,” Sokolow says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sokolow hopes to connect with even more people through her work. “I like to show the beauty that is what’s grown from the earth,” she says. “The farmers do the work. I just cut things open.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/04/19/aliza-sokolows-food-photos-could-change-the-way-you-think-about-farmers/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Scroll through the photos on your phone and chances are good that you’ll find at least one shot of food. And you’re not alone. Today, everything from how baristas decorate their lattes to the way restaurants plate their food is approached at least partly with an eye toward how it will look in a photo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Los Angeles-based photographer \u003ca href=\"https://www.sokolowphoto.com/\">Aliza Sokolow\u003c/a>, 33, food ’grams are about more than social status; they’re also a way to honor the people she admires most: farmers. A former food stylist who worked on \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution\">Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution\u003c/a>\u003c/i> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbs.com/shows/reciperehab/\">\u003ci>Recipe Rehab\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Sokolow founded Poppyseed Agency, a social media and branding firm that works with food brands, restaurants, and chefs. Her photos show off produce: bright, carefully arranged citrus; sliced-open avocados; pints of blueberries from the farmers’ market—all showcased in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sokolowphoto.com/prints\">a stunning line of prints\u003c/a> and in her \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alizajsokolow/\">Instagram feed\u003c/a>, where she also shares details about the people behind the food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133416\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3.jpg\" alt=\"Aliza Sokolow arranges some citrus.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133416\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-overhead-citrus-holly-liss-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aliza Sokolow arranges some citrus. \u003ccite>(Holly Liss)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I really like to tell the stories of the farmers because they’re such heroes of mine,” Sokolow says. “They put in the manual labor and are able to tell when a tomato is ripe for the picking, something a machine is not capable of.” Her hope in capturing the work of her local farmers is to “give people a bit more knowledge and gratitude for what they’re eating and awareness as to how much went into what’s on the plate.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The popularity of food photographs in social media feeds started off as a bit of joke, but as the influence of Instagram has grown, it has become one of the best ways to recommend and learn about restaurants. “Instagram feeds are the first place Millennials look when scoping out the food,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.michellezaporojets.com/\">Michelle Zaporojets\u003c/a>, who runs social media marketing for several Boston-based restaurants. “Foodie influencers have so much power in driving traffic just from a single photo or Instagram Story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A self-trained photographer, Sokolow studied architecture and industrial engineering at UC Berkeley and graduated in 2009, at the height of the recession. Uncertain of what she wanted to do at a time when creative jobs were scarce, she took a job in television set design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first day on set there were all these food stylists putting things together and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is like teeny tiny architecture. This is what I’m going to do when I grow up.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sokolow started apprenticing and assisting on sets, and she eventually landed a job working as an assistant to food stylists on Food Revolution. It was while in that role that she took a tour of the Santa Monica farmers’ market with \u003ca href=\"https://www.melisse.com/about-chef-josiah-citrin\">Chef Josiah Citrin of Melisse\u003c/a>, and met \u003ca href=\"http://www.freshpoint.com/author/produce-hunter/\">Karen Beverlin\u003c/a>, a “produce hunter” who introduced her to every farmer at the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133417\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10.jpg\" alt=\"Rose apples\" width=\"800\" height=\"896\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133417\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10-160x179.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-rose-apples-10-768x860.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rose apples \u003ccite>(Aliza Sokolow)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sokolow says all the coolest things she knows about have come from farmers, like hidden rose (or Pink Pearl) apples (which have pink flesh), orange watermelons, oca wood sorrel, which comes in 32 different varieties and colors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her a-ha moment came one day when she brought produce from Laura Ramirez of J.J.’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jjslonedaughterranch/?hl=en\">Lone Daughter Ranch\u003c/a>. Ramirez is known for growing a variety of citrus, 12 different kinds of avocados, and other specialty fruit. Sokolow bought two of each type of avocado, went home, cut them all open and took a picture that she posted online. It quickly caught the attention of editors at Food & Wine, who asked if they could use it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like ‘Oh, maybe that is art,’” says Sokolow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After getting burned out from working in television, she leveraged the relationships she made at the farmers’ market to launch her digital agency, and began running the social media accounts for restaurant groups and chefs, including \u003ca href=\"http://www.hotchocolatechicago.com/mindysegal\">Mindy Segal\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://thelucquesgroup.com/suzanne-goin.html\">Suzanne Goin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, Sokolow began selling prints of the photographs featured in her Instagram feed and some of them have made their way to restaurants around the United States, including L.A.’s \u003ca href=\"https://republiquela.com/\">République\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://moodyroosterwlv.com/\">Moody Rooster\u003c/a>. She has also donated prints for fundraisers, including one for \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/09/04/brigaid-is-in-the-business-of-transforming-school-food/\">Brigaid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She uses the eye she developed through her architecture training to style the food in her photos. She’ll line up a row of colorful carrots, or place circular slices of candy-striped beets on top one another until they create a dizzying, colorful display, or cut open citrus to expose their inner geometry. Then she’ll share the photos with her 33,000 followers along with tidbits about the people who grew them in a way that is genuine, educational, and fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_133418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9.jpg\" alt=\"Slices of beets\" width=\"800\" height=\"999\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133418\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9-160x200.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/04/190410-aliza-sokolow-food-grams-farmers-markets-beets-9-768x959.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slices of beets \u003ccite>(Aliza Sokolow)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By using color, she’s able to make something as simple as a single avocado looking visually beautiful and extremely appealing,” says \u003ca href=\"https://myfoodsubscriptions.com/\">Beverly Friedmann\u003c/a>, a NYC-based content manager for consumer websites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron Choi of San Marcos-based \u003ca href=\"https://girlndug.com/\">Girl and Dug Farms\u003c/a> says that while he’s can’t say for sure if Sokolow’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Buhc3wilcuq/\">photographs of their produce\u003c/a> has resulted in more sales, it has definitely attracted more Instagram followers for the farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her work has reached pockets of people who ordinarily wouldn’t browse a farm’s IG posts on their own,” Choi adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes she shoots directly at a farmers’ market, but most of the time Sokolow brings food home to photograph. It can take as long as a week to gather and shoot, as she travels from market to market across the city, seeking out particular items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The colors are what really excite me,” Sokolow says. “When you’re growing up, you think carrots are orange and watermelon is pink, but when I find a pink mushroom or I see that there are five different-colored carrots, that is so mind-blowing and exciting.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After a food shoot, Sokolow cooks up the ingredients or shares them with friends. Her Instagram also features a number of snaps of cakes and other baked goods often topped with dehydrated fruits. She does a lot of dehydrating and drying, for instance, to make citrus chips that she displays on charcuterie boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really a snacker, so it works out very nicely,” Sokolow says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sokolow hopes to connect with even more people through her work. “I like to show the beauty that is what’s grown from the earth,” she says. “The farmers do the work. I just cut things open.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/04/19/aliza-sokolows-food-photos-could-change-the-way-you-think-about-farmers/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Indigenous California Chefs are Reviving and Preserving Native Cuisines",
"title": "Indigenous California Chefs are Reviving and Preserving Native Cuisines",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Bites | KQED Food",
"content": "\u003cp>Vincent Medina spent seven years as a docent at the oldest building in San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.missiondolores.org/\">Mission Dolores\u003c/a>, one of the 21 missions in the state at which the Spanish tried to convert Native Californians to Catholicism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe from the East Bay, Medina (pictured above, at left) was trying to change the narrative schoolchildren heard about the Ohlone people indigenous to the area, who the conquerors enslaved in the missions. But when Medina started to feel locked in at his job at the Mission, he left and started working in the produce department at the popular East Bay grocery store, Berkeley Bowl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so fun to be able to work with these beautiful peaches and apples instead of having to think about slavery,” he said. “I just remember how much I enjoyed being around the food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Working at the grocery, Medina began thinking about serving the food native to the area, an idea he talked about with his partner, Louis Trevino (pictured above, right), a member of the Rumsen Ohlone tribe, which originated in the Monterey Bay area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the two run \u003ca href=\"https://www.makamham.com/\">Café Ohlone by Mak-’amham\u003c/a>—meaning “our food” in Chochenyo, one of several native Ohlone dialects—where they serve up traditional foods such as acorn soup, chia seed pudding, venison meatballs, and acorn-flour brownies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located outdoors in the backyard of \u003ca href=\"https://www.universitypressbooks.com/\">University Press Books\u003c/a> in Berkeley, the tribe’s aesthetic runs throughout the café. “Ohlone Land” spans the fence in capital letters, tribal baskets decorate shelves, bay laurel—important medicinally and in food—hangs from the balcony, and the space features a large table made from a fallen redwood. The café uses a pop-up model, opening one or two afternoons a week and the occasional evening—announcing all the dates and times beforehand on \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/makamham\">social media\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132677\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1.jpg\" alt=\"Louis Trevino (left) and Vincent Medina (right) cooking at Café Ohlone by mak'amham.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-132677\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Louis Trevino (left) and Vincent Medina (right) cooking at Café Ohlone by mak'amham. \u003ccite>(Emily Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trevino and Medina are among a number of \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/category/food-and-policy/indigenous-foodways/\">Indigenous chefs around the country\u003c/a> working to preserve and celebrate their heritage in hopes of keeping their culture alive and vital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For both of us, the café is bringing something to our people we’ve been lacking for too long,” Medina said of Café Ohlone. “Growing up, both Louis and I wanted to go to a place outside of our homes and see our culture, especially in our homeland. The café space is helping repair damages from colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Grounding the Work in the Ohlone Culture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Trevino and Medina met at the University of California, Berkeley, at a conference for \u003ca href=\"http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/aicls-breath-of-life/\">Breath of Life\u003c/a>, an organization that works with California Indians to strengthen and revive their languages. Reading old documents from their tribes, they found stories, history, and jokes—as well as loving descriptions of the foods their ancestors ate, such as venison and acorns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ohlone territory covers about 120 miles—from Vallejo in the east to Big Sur to the southwest, roughly—and Medina guesses the tribe has about 6,000 members. While many remember stories from their families or old dances, Medina said, the Ohlone people were hit hard by colonization—with the Spanish coming first, followed by the Mexicans and Americans—so they couldn’t keep their culture intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before opening the café, Medina and Trevino held an event for their families and other Ohlone. For two nights, they camped out in a secluded area in the East Bay hills, where they practiced language lessons, traditional gaming, and tribal bingo. They had books printed for everyone there with old stories translated to Chochenyo and English, as well as family histories and tribal heroes to make their culture more accessible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then they shared stories around the fire and had a feast of traditional foods—venison, mushrooms, native berries, acorn soup, and acorn brownies. The next morning, they served acorn flour pancakes with honey, blackberries, and hazelnut butter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the cultural loss due to colonization, tasting foods of their tribes meant a lot to participants. “Whether an elder or a young person, when they ate the acorn for the first time, there was this look people had: of feeling proud, of being able to eat that and to know it was something familiar, even if it was their first taste of it,” Medina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign.jpg\" alt=\"A sign at Café Ohlone by Mak’amham reads “Ohlone Land”\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1045\" class=\"size-full wp-image-132678\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-160x139.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-800x697.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-768x669.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-1020x888.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign at Café Ohlone by Mak’amham reads “Ohlone Land” \u003ccite>(Emily Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The goal, he added, was to “center the work on returning our food and our culture back to ourselves and our families and recognize the sacrifices of people before us” with the eventual hope of “making sure the future is brighter for [Ohlone] people to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Dispelling Stereotypes with Conversation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Trevino and Medina forage in the hills of the East Bay for ingredients for their café—gathering herbs, seeds, and tea in the same place Medina’s ancestors did. During the meals, they talk with their guests about their Ohlone history and culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re making people responsible for what they know and where they live and what they’re implicated in by their presence here,” Trevino said. “We’re dispelling stereotypes, and it’s a very powerful way to do it—in conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most persistent stereotypes is that the Ohlone no longer exist. Sita Bhaumik, who was eating at Café Ohlone on a recent afternoon, says the food reminds her to think of Indigenous people in the present and future tense, rather than in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A co-founder of the \u003ca href=\"http://peopleskitchencollective.com/\">People’s Kitchen Collective\u003c/a>, Bhaumik teaches a class, “A Taste of Resistance,” at California College of the Arts; Trevino and Medina have spoken to her students about their work. She’s been inspired by the thought-provoking way the two speak about the food they’re serving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In their presentation, [they say that] flavor is really active—you can’t say, ‘This is what Ohlone people were like, if you’re tasting food in your mouth at that moment,” she said. “That is something colonialism has really done over time—to say either, ‘These people don’t exist,’ or ‘They were here,’ in the past tense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Passing Forgotten Traditions to the Younger Generation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Crystal Wahpehpah runs a catering business, \u003ca href=\"http://www.wahpepahskitchen.com/\">Wahpehpah’s Kitchen\u003c/a>, at which she cooks traditional Kickapoo food from her ancestors in Oklahoma. Like Medina and Trevino, Wahpehpah loves cooking her native foods; it connects her to her family and their traditions, as well as knowledge and experience she wants to pass on to the younger generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Crystal Wahpepah’s Kickapoo Chili.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-132679\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-160x160.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-768x768.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-50x50.jpg 50w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Crystal Wahpepah’s Kickapoo Chili. \u003ccite>(Civil Eats)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Wahpepah grew up in Oakland, she’d go every summer to Oklahoma, where she and her aunts and grandma would cook foods traditional to their \u003ca href=\"http://kickapootribeofoklahoma.com/\">Kickapoo tribe\u003c/a>, like sweet corn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the special moments I had with my grandmother and aunties of harvesting sweet corn and drying it and having it in winter,” she said. “We would go back in the summertime and harvest it and have family dinners. I thought that was the most beautiful thing, and when we’d come back to the city, I always wondered why we never had indigenous food at a restaurant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first Native American chef to be featured on Food Network’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.wework.com/creator/personal-profiles/chopped-chef-crystal-wahpepah-already-star-wework/\">“Chopped” TV show\u003c/a>, Wahpepah started her own catering business, \u003ca href=\"http://www.wahpepahskitchen.com/\">Wahpepah’s Kitchen\u003c/a>, in 2012, cooking those foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Wahpepah was attending Cordon Bleu, a cooking school in San Francisco, when a friend told her about \u003ca href=\"https://www.lacocinasf.org/\">La Cocina\u003c/a>, the San Francisco-based organization that helps low-income people, mostly women, start food businesses. La Cocina supported her in building her brand, Wahpepah said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she first started, Wahpepah went to the Oakland library to read about Indigenous food. Now she travels all over the country meeting Indigenous chefs and talking about reviving the cuisine. In the fall, Wahpepah appeared at \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/events/164250057825799/?active_tab=about\">an event\u003c/a> at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, “Keeping the Seed,” along with Trevino and Medina, where she served her food and discussed her mission to make people aware of Native American cuisines as a means of cultural preservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was growing up, I didn’t get to see Indigenous chefs or our food in stores,” Wahpepah said. “I take pride in knowing I’m building the foundation for youth to see our foods all over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wahpepah wants to keep meeting other Indigenous chefs and one day, to have her own restaurant and write a combination cookbook and memoir. Like Medina and Trevino, she wants everyone to know Indigenous people and their culture are still alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eating Indigenous food opens people up to hearing about the culture, Trevino says. “The foods are just inherently delicious—it’s completely inarguable—and as they’re eating these delicious things, and we talk about our truths, they’re extremely receptive,” he said. “They’re walking away with a really strong memory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s true,” Medina added. “How could people who create such delicious foods be lying about anything?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2019/02/21/indigenous-california-chefs-are-reviving-and-preserving-native-cuisines/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Café Ohlone and Wahpepah’s Kitchen move the idea of traditional foods from the past to the present and into the mainstream.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Vincent Medina spent seven years as a docent at the oldest building in San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.missiondolores.org/\">Mission Dolores\u003c/a>, one of the 21 missions in the state at which the Spanish tried to convert Native Californians to Catholicism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe from the East Bay, Medina (pictured above, at left) was trying to change the narrative schoolchildren heard about the Ohlone people indigenous to the area, who the conquerors enslaved in the missions. But when Medina started to feel locked in at his job at the Mission, he left and started working in the produce department at the popular East Bay grocery store, Berkeley Bowl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so fun to be able to work with these beautiful peaches and apples instead of having to think about slavery,” he said. “I just remember how much I enjoyed being around the food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Working at the grocery, Medina began thinking about serving the food native to the area, an idea he talked about with his partner, Louis Trevino (pictured above, right), a member of the Rumsen Ohlone tribe, which originated in the Monterey Bay area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the two run \u003ca href=\"https://www.makamham.com/\">Café Ohlone by Mak-’amham\u003c/a>—meaning “our food” in Chochenyo, one of several native Ohlone dialects—where they serve up traditional foods such as acorn soup, chia seed pudding, venison meatballs, and acorn-flour brownies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located outdoors in the backyard of \u003ca href=\"https://www.universitypressbooks.com/\">University Press Books\u003c/a> in Berkeley, the tribe’s aesthetic runs throughout the café. “Ohlone Land” spans the fence in capital letters, tribal baskets decorate shelves, bay laurel—important medicinally and in food—hangs from the balcony, and the space features a large table made from a fallen redwood. The café uses a pop-up model, opening one or two afternoons a week and the occasional evening—announcing all the dates and times beforehand on \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/makamham\">social media\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132677\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1.jpg\" alt=\"Louis Trevino (left) and Vincent Medina (right) cooking at Café Ohlone by mak'amham.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-132677\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-top1-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Louis Trevino (left) and Vincent Medina (right) cooking at Café Ohlone by mak'amham. \u003ccite>(Emily Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trevino and Medina are among a number of \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/category/food-and-policy/indigenous-foodways/\">Indigenous chefs around the country\u003c/a> working to preserve and celebrate their heritage in hopes of keeping their culture alive and vital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For both of us, the café is bringing something to our people we’ve been lacking for too long,” Medina said of Café Ohlone. “Growing up, both Louis and I wanted to go to a place outside of our homes and see our culture, especially in our homeland. The café space is helping repair damages from colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Grounding the Work in the Ohlone Culture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Trevino and Medina met at the University of California, Berkeley, at a conference for \u003ca href=\"http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/aicls-breath-of-life/\">Breath of Life\u003c/a>, an organization that works with California Indians to strengthen and revive their languages. Reading old documents from their tribes, they found stories, history, and jokes—as well as loving descriptions of the foods their ancestors ate, such as venison and acorns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ohlone territory covers about 120 miles—from Vallejo in the east to Big Sur to the southwest, roughly—and Medina guesses the tribe has about 6,000 members. While many remember stories from their families or old dances, Medina said, the Ohlone people were hit hard by colonization—with the Spanish coming first, followed by the Mexicans and Americans—so they couldn’t keep their culture intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before opening the café, Medina and Trevino held an event for their families and other Ohlone. For two nights, they camped out in a secluded area in the East Bay hills, where they practiced language lessons, traditional gaming, and tribal bingo. They had books printed for everyone there with old stories translated to Chochenyo and English, as well as family histories and tribal heroes to make their culture more accessible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then they shared stories around the fire and had a feast of traditional foods—venison, mushrooms, native berries, acorn soup, and acorn brownies. The next morning, they served acorn flour pancakes with honey, blackberries, and hazelnut butter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the cultural loss due to colonization, tasting foods of their tribes meant a lot to participants. “Whether an elder or a young person, when they ate the acorn for the first time, there was this look people had: of feeling proud, of being able to eat that and to know it was something familiar, even if it was their first taste of it,” Medina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132678\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign.jpg\" alt=\"A sign at Café Ohlone by Mak’amham reads “Ohlone Land”\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1045\" class=\"size-full wp-image-132678\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-160x139.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-800x697.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-768x669.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-indigenous-foods-chefs-sign-1020x888.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign at Café Ohlone by Mak’amham reads “Ohlone Land” \u003ccite>(Emily Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The goal, he added, was to “center the work on returning our food and our culture back to ourselves and our families and recognize the sacrifices of people before us” with the eventual hope of “making sure the future is brighter for [Ohlone] people to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Dispelling Stereotypes with Conversation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Trevino and Medina forage in the hills of the East Bay for ingredients for their café—gathering herbs, seeds, and tea in the same place Medina’s ancestors did. During the meals, they talk with their guests about their Ohlone history and culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re making people responsible for what they know and where they live and what they’re implicated in by their presence here,” Trevino said. “We’re dispelling stereotypes, and it’s a very powerful way to do it—in conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most persistent stereotypes is that the Ohlone no longer exist. Sita Bhaumik, who was eating at Café Ohlone on a recent afternoon, says the food reminds her to think of Indigenous people in the present and future tense, rather than in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A co-founder of the \u003ca href=\"http://peopleskitchencollective.com/\">People’s Kitchen Collective\u003c/a>, Bhaumik teaches a class, “A Taste of Resistance,” at California College of the Arts; Trevino and Medina have spoken to her students about their work. She’s been inspired by the thought-provoking way the two speak about the food they’re serving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In their presentation, [they say that] flavor is really active—you can’t say, ‘This is what Ohlone people were like, if you’re tasting food in your mouth at that moment,” she said. “That is something colonialism has really done over time—to say either, ‘These people don’t exist,’ or ‘They were here,’ in the past tense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Passing Forgotten Traditions to the Younger Generation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Crystal Wahpehpah runs a catering business, \u003ca href=\"http://www.wahpepahskitchen.com/\">Wahpehpah’s Kitchen\u003c/a>, at which she cooks traditional Kickapoo food from her ancestors in Oklahoma. Like Medina and Trevino, Wahpehpah loves cooking her native foods; it connects her to her family and their traditions, as well as knowledge and experience she wants to pass on to the younger generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Crystal Wahpepah’s Kickapoo Chili.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-132679\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-160x160.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-768x768.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-50x50.jpg 50w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/190222-cafe-ohlone-chef-crystal-wahpepah-kickapoo-chili-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Crystal Wahpepah’s Kickapoo Chili. \u003ccite>(Civil Eats)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Wahpepah grew up in Oakland, she’d go every summer to Oklahoma, where she and her aunts and grandma would cook foods traditional to their \u003ca href=\"http://kickapootribeofoklahoma.com/\">Kickapoo tribe\u003c/a>, like sweet corn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the special moments I had with my grandmother and aunties of harvesting sweet corn and drying it and having it in winter,” she said. “We would go back in the summertime and harvest it and have family dinners. I thought that was the most beautiful thing, and when we’d come back to the city, I always wondered why we never had indigenous food at a restaurant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first Native American chef to be featured on Food Network’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.wework.com/creator/personal-profiles/chopped-chef-crystal-wahpepah-already-star-wework/\">“Chopped” TV show\u003c/a>, Wahpepah started her own catering business, \u003ca href=\"http://www.wahpepahskitchen.com/\">Wahpepah’s Kitchen\u003c/a>, in 2012, cooking those foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Wahpepah was attending Cordon Bleu, a cooking school in San Francisco, when a friend told her about \u003ca href=\"https://www.lacocinasf.org/\">La Cocina\u003c/a>, the San Francisco-based organization that helps low-income people, mostly women, start food businesses. La Cocina supported her in building her brand, Wahpepah said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she first started, Wahpepah went to the Oakland library to read about Indigenous food. Now she travels all over the country meeting Indigenous chefs and talking about reviving the cuisine. In the fall, Wahpepah appeared at \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/events/164250057825799/?active_tab=about\">an event\u003c/a> at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, “Keeping the Seed,” along with Trevino and Medina, where she served her food and discussed her mission to make people aware of Native American cuisines as a means of cultural preservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was growing up, I didn’t get to see Indigenous chefs or our food in stores,” Wahpepah said. “I take pride in knowing I’m building the foundation for youth to see our foods all over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wahpepah wants to keep meeting other Indigenous chefs and one day, to have her own restaurant and write a combination cookbook and memoir. Like Medina and Trevino, she wants everyone to know Indigenous people and their culture are still alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eating Indigenous food opens people up to hearing about the culture, Trevino says. “The foods are just inherently delicious—it’s completely inarguable—and as they’re eating these delicious things, and we talk about our truths, they’re extremely receptive,” he said. “They’re walking away with a really strong memory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s true,” Medina added. “How could people who create such delicious foods be lying about anything?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "The Palestinian Chefs Building a Bridge to Their Culture Through Food",
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"headTitle": "Bay Area Bites | KQED Food",
"content": "\u003cp>When Lamees Dahbour set up her weekly tent at Off The Grid, the San Francisco-based food truck fair, this year, she didn’t just unpack trays of fragrant falafel, crisp \u003cem>ejja\u003c/em> (vegetable fritters), and creamy \u003cem>mutabal\u003c/em> (eggplant dip). She also unfurled a red, black, white, and green Palestinian flag and displayed it proudly. The flag was a conversation-starter: \u003ca href=\"https://www.mamalamees.com/our-story\">Mama Lamees\u003c/a>, as she is affectionately known, says that people often came up and asked about it, although some confused Palestine with Pakistan. It was also a way to proudly share her identity, at a time when many Americans know little about Palestinian culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to spread the word and the taste of some dishes, [and make it clear] that there is a culture called Palestinian, and there is a food belonging to that country,” says Dahbour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dahbour is featured in an upcoming episode of KCET’s documentary series “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kcet.org/shows/the-migrant-kitchen\">The Migrant Kitchen\u003c/a>,” alongside \u003ca href=\"https://www.thrillist.com/best-new-restaurants-2018?article=best-chef\">rising star\u003c/a> and fellow Palestinian chef, Reem Assil. The episode, which airs tonight, highlights the chefs’ work and sheds a rare light on Palestinians and the Arab world through food. At a time when anti-Arab sentiment is front and center in many parts of the U.S., Assil and Dahbour serve up a message of understanding and acceptance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131657\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Lamees Dahbour.\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lamees Dahbour. \u003ccite>(Jim Sulllivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Palestinians have been cooking forever, but we kind of hide behind our food,” says Assil. “We’ll call it ‘Mediterranean,’ we don’t call it what it is, because we’re afraid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antidote, for both these chefs, is visibility. At \u003ca href=\"https://www.reemscalifornia.com/\">Reem’s California\u003c/a>, Assil’s Oakland-based bakery, she made the deliberate decision to call the menu “Arab street food.” For her, it’s a kind of reclamation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be proud to be Arab,” she says. “We’re a beautiful people, we’re not terrorists, we’re not all these backwards images that the media puts out about us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside Reem’s, voices singing in Arabic play over the speakers, a mural of a Palestinian activist graces the wall, and profiles of Middle Eastern artists, musicians, and thinkers are printed on each of the numbered order cards—like baseball cards for the culturally literate. And at \u003ca href=\"https://www.dyafaoakland.com/\">Dyafa\u003c/a>, the critically acclaimed Oakland restaurant Assil opened in April with Bay Area chef and restauranteur Daniel Patterson’s restaurant group, she’s bringing Syrian-Palestinian cuisine—often relegated to cheap-eats establishments—to a fine-dining setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An Unlikely Journey to Owning a Food Business\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Though Dahbour is of Palestinian heritage, she was born in Kuwait. Her father left Palestine to escape political turmoil, undertaking an arduous desert crossing during which many of his friends died. In Kuwait, Dahbour grew up as the middle child in a large family. Around age 11 or 12, her mother was hospitalized for a time and Dahbour found herself in charge of the kitchen. She loved it. “[It] gave me a chance to be kind of the head of the household!” she laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131658\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Lamees Dahbour at work in the kitchen.\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lamees Dahbour at work in the kitchen. \u003ccite>(Jim Sulllivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At that point, operating a food business never crossed her mind. Instead, she pursued higher education, eventually working in business administration for the United Nations, a job that took her all over the Middle East. In 2006, she decided to move to the U.S. with her husband and small children to follow her extended family. Dahbour is frank about surviving domestic violence from her former husband, and she’s measured when she talks about her divorce and living as a single mother with three kids in elementary school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was really tough financially to do and run everything in the family,” she says. “I spent almost six years in court, in family court, in criminal courts, just to get my family situation stable.” Around the time when her kids were graduating from elementary and middle school, that time of year when many families bring teachers and principals gifts, Dahbour made some calculations: She couldn’t afford to buy gifts for all her children’s teachers, but she could cook up a Palestinian feast, and offer “traditional dishes that are not in the market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The response to her food was overwhelmingly positive, and guests asked her, “Why aren’t you opening a restaurant?” The manager of her housing complex, who always followed the incredible smells coming out of her apartment and eventually joined the family for meals, agreed—and it was this manager who introduced Dahbour to La Cocina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lacocinasf.org/\">La Cocina\u003c/a> is a nonprofit incubator kitchen in San Francisco that supports working class food entrepreneurs, with a primary focus on immigrants and women of color. Now in their thirteenth year, La Cocina provides business resources and consulting for 35 to 40 entrepreneurs a year from their space in the city’s Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Moving Forward, Despite Controversy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Assil is also a La Cocina alum and her path to working in food was just as nonlinear as Dahbour’s. Before baking had even crossed her mind, Assil was a community organizer and activist. Her trajectory toward food began after 9/11, when a crescendo of anti-Arab sentiment fed into her sense of anxiety and a lack of belonging. She got sick, left college in 2003, and came to stay with family in California. Here, she says, she nursed herself back to health through food, anti-war activism, and “finding my voice as an Arab woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was one dish that Assil found especially captivating: \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em>, a chewy flatbread with crisp edges. It was \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> that she made with her family, and \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> that she saw again and again in local bakeries while on what she calls “a soul-searching trip to Lebanon and Syria.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131659\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Reem Assil making man’oushe at Reem’s California.\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reem Assil making man’oushe at Reem’s California. \u003ccite>(Jim Sullivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For those of us from the Middle East, [\u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em>] is a household name, it’s something we grew up eating,” says Ramzi Salti, a Lecturer in Arabic at Stanford University. Salti, who is also featured in “The Migrant Kitchen,” is author of \u003ca href=\"https://www.arabology.org/\">Arabology\u003c/a>, a blog that highlights culture from the Arab world. Watching the growth in popularity of \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> here in the States has been something of a pleasant surprise, Salti says. “You live long enough, you see everything!” he laughs. In addition to being delicious, he adds, the flatbread is “supposed to have very healing qualities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Assil, this healing wasn’t just physical, she also found it profound to explore the role bread plays in Arab cultures. “Bread is the lifeline, the oral history of my people,” she says. “It’s something that is accessible to both the rich and the poor and across cultures; everybody resonates with bread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In even the most remote mountain villages in the Middle East, Assil says, you’ll find a post office and a bakery. These bakeries are cornerstones in their communities, and seeing this inspired Assil to develop the concept for Reem’s at La Cocina in 2015. When a spot opened up at the busy Fruitvale Station transit hub in East Oakland the following year, it made perfect sense. Here, at a sunny corner spot just under the train platform, she serves up \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> covered in flavorful \u003ci>za’atar\u003c/i>, \u003ci>shakshuka\u003c/i>, lamb baked in turnovers, chewy sesame-coated bread called \u003ci>khobz sim sim\u003c/i>, and rows of sweet pastries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131660\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519.jpg\" alt=\"Reem Assil holding her baby at Reem’s California. \" width=\"350\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519.jpg 350w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519-160x237.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519-240x356.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reem Assil holding her baby at Reem’s California. \u003ccite>(Jim Sullivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The restaurant has not been free from controversy, however. The large, colorful mural that decorates one wall of Reem’s Bakery—of a woman named Rasmea Odeh who, in 1970, at 21, was convicted by Israeli courts of participating in a bombing that killed two Israeli students—became a hot-button issue within weeks of the shop opening. While Assil sees Odeh as a civic leader and a symbol of resilience, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jweekly.com/2017/05/30/an-bakery-that-dishes-out-hatred/\">an op-ed\u003c/a> in The Jewish News of Northern California denounced the bakery for lionizing a “terrorist.” Hate mail and negative Yelp reviews followed, but Assil’s community rallied around her and the bakery. Today, the protesters have moved on, and the mural remains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Assil and Dahbour stress the allyship they’ve seen from Jewish customers and friends. When her bakery was targeted, Assil says, “the first people to come to my side were my white and Jewish allies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a similar note, Dahbour remembers how surprised she was when Israeli customers came to talk with her at her food tent, telling her where they were from and asking if they could reserve seats at her restaurant (there’s no brick-and mortar restaurant yet, however). The lawyer who volunteered to help register Dahbour’s business is Jewish and one of her closest friends; since he and his family keep kosher, she cooks vegetarian dishes for the meals they share so their families can eat together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For both chefs, the lesson has been to model openness and civility, even when faced with opposition. “I feel like … food puts some peace between people,” says Dahbour, thoughtfully. “Food brings everyone to one table peacefully. I don’t think you’re going to cook for someone you hate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the ways to counteract extremism or xenophobia is to show another side to the culture, or to the people, and what better way is there to do that than through food and cuisine?” asks Salti. His words are measured and cautiously optimistic. “Showing that side of the culture will perhaps lead to a better understanding of the region itself and show a better, more harmonious tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was produced in partnership with KCET’s “The Migrant Kitchen” and originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/12/05/the-palestinian-chefs-building-a-bridge-to-their-culture-through-food/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>. Now in its third season, “The Migrant Kitchen” will air an episode profiling Dahbour and Assil on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcet.org/shows/the-migrant-kitchen/episodes/manoushe\">December 5\u003c/a>. The trailer for the episode is embedded below.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All photos by Jim Sullivan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"//players.brightcove.net/136368194/V1xBaDVb6l_default/index.html?videoId=5975995498001\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360></iframe\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Featured on the new season of KCET’s ‘Migrant Kitchen,’ Reem Assil and Lamees Dahbour are redefining their cuisine and culture, and serving up a message of peace.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Lamees Dahbour set up her weekly tent at Off The Grid, the San Francisco-based food truck fair, this year, she didn’t just unpack trays of fragrant falafel, crisp \u003cem>ejja\u003c/em> (vegetable fritters), and creamy \u003cem>mutabal\u003c/em> (eggplant dip). She also unfurled a red, black, white, and green Palestinian flag and displayed it proudly. The flag was a conversation-starter: \u003ca href=\"https://www.mamalamees.com/our-story\">Mama Lamees\u003c/a>, as she is affectionately known, says that people often came up and asked about it, although some confused Palestine with Pakistan. It was also a way to proudly share her identity, at a time when many Americans know little about Palestinian culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to spread the word and the taste of some dishes, [and make it clear] that there is a culture called Palestinian, and there is a food belonging to that country,” says Dahbour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dahbour is featured in an upcoming episode of KCET’s documentary series “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kcet.org/shows/the-migrant-kitchen\">The Migrant Kitchen\u003c/a>,” alongside \u003ca href=\"https://www.thrillist.com/best-new-restaurants-2018?article=best-chef\">rising star\u003c/a> and fellow Palestinian chef, Reem Assil. The episode, which airs tonight, highlights the chefs’ work and sheds a rare light on Palestinians and the Arab world through food. At a time when anti-Arab sentiment is front and center in many parts of the U.S., Assil and Dahbour serve up a message of understanding and acceptance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131657\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Lamees Dahbour.\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-Lamees-family-kitchen-700x467-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lamees Dahbour. \u003ccite>(Jim Sulllivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Palestinians have been cooking forever, but we kind of hide behind our food,” says Assil. “We’ll call it ‘Mediterranean,’ we don’t call it what it is, because we’re afraid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antidote, for both these chefs, is visibility. At \u003ca href=\"https://www.reemscalifornia.com/\">Reem’s California\u003c/a>, Assil’s Oakland-based bakery, she made the deliberate decision to call the menu “Arab street food.” For her, it’s a kind of reclamation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be proud to be Arab,” she says. “We’re a beautiful people, we’re not terrorists, we’re not all these backwards images that the media puts out about us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside Reem’s, voices singing in Arabic play over the speakers, a mural of a Palestinian activist graces the wall, and profiles of Middle Eastern artists, musicians, and thinkers are printed on each of the numbered order cards—like baseball cards for the culturally literate. And at \u003ca href=\"https://www.dyafaoakland.com/\">Dyafa\u003c/a>, the critically acclaimed Oakland restaurant Assil opened in April with Bay Area chef and restauranteur Daniel Patterson’s restaurant group, she’s bringing Syrian-Palestinian cuisine—often relegated to cheap-eats establishments—to a fine-dining setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An Unlikely Journey to Owning a Food Business\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Though Dahbour is of Palestinian heritage, she was born in Kuwait. Her father left Palestine to escape political turmoil, undertaking an arduous desert crossing during which many of his friends died. In Kuwait, Dahbour grew up as the middle child in a large family. Around age 11 or 12, her mother was hospitalized for a time and Dahbour found herself in charge of the kitchen. She loved it. “[It] gave me a chance to be kind of the head of the household!” she laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131658\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Lamees Dahbour at work in the kitchen.\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-lamees-cooking-700x467-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lamees Dahbour at work in the kitchen. \u003ccite>(Jim Sulllivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At that point, operating a food business never crossed her mind. Instead, she pursued higher education, eventually working in business administration for the United Nations, a job that took her all over the Middle East. In 2006, she decided to move to the U.S. with her husband and small children to follow her extended family. Dahbour is frank about surviving domestic violence from her former husband, and she’s measured when she talks about her divorce and living as a single mother with three kids in elementary school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was really tough financially to do and run everything in the family,” she says. “I spent almost six years in court, in family court, in criminal courts, just to get my family situation stable.” Around the time when her kids were graduating from elementary and middle school, that time of year when many families bring teachers and principals gifts, Dahbour made some calculations: She couldn’t afford to buy gifts for all her children’s teachers, but she could cook up a Palestinian feast, and offer “traditional dishes that are not in the market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The response to her food was overwhelmingly positive, and guests asked her, “Why aren’t you opening a restaurant?” The manager of her housing complex, who always followed the incredible smells coming out of her apartment and eventually joined the family for meals, agreed—and it was this manager who introduced Dahbour to La Cocina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lacocinasf.org/\">La Cocina\u003c/a> is a nonprofit incubator kitchen in San Francisco that supports working class food entrepreneurs, with a primary focus on immigrants and women of color. Now in their thirteenth year, La Cocina provides business resources and consulting for 35 to 40 entrepreneurs a year from their space in the city’s Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Moving Forward, Despite Controversy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Assil is also a La Cocina alum and her path to working in food was just as nonlinear as Dahbour’s. Before baking had even crossed her mind, Assil was a community organizer and activist. Her trajectory toward food began after 9/11, when a crescendo of anti-Arab sentiment fed into her sense of anxiety and a lack of belonging. She got sick, left college in 2003, and came to stay with family in California. Here, she says, she nursed herself back to health through food, anti-war activism, and “finding my voice as an Arab woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was one dish that Assil found especially captivating: \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em>, a chewy flatbread with crisp edges. It was \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> that she made with her family, and \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> that she saw again and again in local bakeries while on what she calls “a soul-searching trip to Lebanon and Syria.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131659\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Reem Assil making man’oushe at Reem’s California.\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-manoushe-700x467-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reem Assil making man’oushe at Reem’s California. \u003ccite>(Jim Sullivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For those of us from the Middle East, [\u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em>] is a household name, it’s something we grew up eating,” says Ramzi Salti, a Lecturer in Arabic at Stanford University. Salti, who is also featured in “The Migrant Kitchen,” is author of \u003ca href=\"https://www.arabology.org/\">Arabology\u003c/a>, a blog that highlights culture from the Arab world. Watching the growth in popularity of \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> here in the States has been something of a pleasant surprise, Salti says. “You live long enough, you see everything!” he laughs. In addition to being delicious, he adds, the flatbread is “supposed to have very healing qualities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Assil, this healing wasn’t just physical, she also found it profound to explore the role bread plays in Arab cultures. “Bread is the lifeline, the oral history of my people,” she says. “It’s something that is accessible to both the rich and the poor and across cultures; everybody resonates with bread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In even the most remote mountain villages in the Middle East, Assil says, you’ll find a post office and a bakery. These bakeries are cornerstones in their communities, and seeing this inspired Assil to develop the concept for Reem’s at La Cocina in 2015. When a spot opened up at the busy Fruitvale Station transit hub in East Oakland the following year, it made perfect sense. Here, at a sunny corner spot just under the train platform, she serves up \u003cem>man’oushe\u003c/em> covered in flavorful \u003ci>za’atar\u003c/i>, \u003ci>shakshuka\u003c/i>, lamb baked in turnovers, chewy sesame-coated bread called \u003ci>khobz sim sim\u003c/i>, and rows of sweet pastries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_131660\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-131660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519.jpg\" alt=\"Reem Assil holding her baby at Reem’s California. \" width=\"350\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519.jpg 350w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519-160x237.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/12/181205-lamees-reem-palestinian-chefs-kcet-migrant-kitchen-baby-350x519-240x356.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reem Assil holding her baby at Reem’s California. \u003ccite>(Jim Sullivan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The restaurant has not been free from controversy, however. The large, colorful mural that decorates one wall of Reem’s Bakery—of a woman named Rasmea Odeh who, in 1970, at 21, was convicted by Israeli courts of participating in a bombing that killed two Israeli students—became a hot-button issue within weeks of the shop opening. While Assil sees Odeh as a civic leader and a symbol of resilience, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jweekly.com/2017/05/30/an-bakery-that-dishes-out-hatred/\">an op-ed\u003c/a> in The Jewish News of Northern California denounced the bakery for lionizing a “terrorist.” Hate mail and negative Yelp reviews followed, but Assil’s community rallied around her and the bakery. Today, the protesters have moved on, and the mural remains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Assil and Dahbour stress the allyship they’ve seen from Jewish customers and friends. When her bakery was targeted, Assil says, “the first people to come to my side were my white and Jewish allies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a similar note, Dahbour remembers how surprised she was when Israeli customers came to talk with her at her food tent, telling her where they were from and asking if they could reserve seats at her restaurant (there’s no brick-and mortar restaurant yet, however). The lawyer who volunteered to help register Dahbour’s business is Jewish and one of her closest friends; since he and his family keep kosher, she cooks vegetarian dishes for the meals they share so their families can eat together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For both chefs, the lesson has been to model openness and civility, even when faced with opposition. “I feel like … food puts some peace between people,” says Dahbour, thoughtfully. “Food brings everyone to one table peacefully. I don’t think you’re going to cook for someone you hate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the ways to counteract extremism or xenophobia is to show another side to the culture, or to the people, and what better way is there to do that than through food and cuisine?” asks Salti. His words are measured and cautiously optimistic. “Showing that side of the culture will perhaps lead to a better understanding of the region itself and show a better, more harmonious tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was produced in partnership with KCET’s “The Migrant Kitchen” and originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/12/05/the-palestinian-chefs-building-a-bridge-to-their-culture-through-food/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>. Now in its third season, “The Migrant Kitchen” will air an episode profiling Dahbour and Assil on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcet.org/shows/the-migrant-kitchen/episodes/manoushe\">December 5\u003c/a>. The trailer for the episode is embedded below.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All photos by Jim Sullivan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Long Meadow Ranch Takes a Full-Circle Approach to Farming in Wine Country",
"title": "Long Meadow Ranch Takes a Full-Circle Approach to Farming in Wine Country",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Bites | KQED Food",
"content": "\u003cp>Visitors to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sthelena.com/\">St. Helena\u003c/a>, Napa Valley’s chic epicenter, frequently stop at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.longmeadowranch.com/eat-drink/restaurant\">Farmstead\u003c/a>, a restaurant, cafe, farmstand, and general store known for seasonal, locally grown, and organic fare. To most, it’s a destination restaurant-winery, one of a handful of exceptional Wine Country establishments. But the deviled eggs and sauvignon blanc and the caramelized beets and cabernet tell a different story, one of heritage-breed chickens raised on the farm, certified organic vineyards, 150-year-old olive groves, and acres of heirloom fruits and vegetables. That’s the story of \u003ca href=\"http://www.longmeadowranch.com/\">Long Meadow Ranch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130706\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo.jpg\" alt=\"Ted Hall, Laddie Hall, and Chris Hall.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130706\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-520x346.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ted Hall, Laddie Hall, and Chris Hall. \u003ccite>(Long Meadow Ranch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Almost 30 years ago, Ted and Laddie Hall entered the wine business with a plan to prove that they could produce world-class vintages using sustainable, organic farming methods. But unlike Napa’s dominant vinters, it wasn’t just wine they were after. According to their son Chris, the Halls wanted to create an “organic, sustainable, integrated farming system that relies on each part of the ranch to contribute to the health of the whole.” It was a pioneering approach they called “full circle farming,” an approach that is unique in its depth and scope among Napa Valley wineries today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Halls found their first property, a tangled mass of overgrown vegetation, in the Mayacamas Mountains above St. Helena. They set about restoring the neglected estate, father Ted and son Chris exploring the land from the backs of their spotted Appaloosas. “We quickly knew the potential,” says Chris Hall, who is now executive vice president and chief operating officer of Long Meadow Ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, there were surprises in store: In 1992, the pair discovered 250 olive trees concealed by masses of Douglas fir and digger pines; three years later, they found a second olive grove. While DNA tests have not been able to identify the variety of olive, the now-restored trees have been dated to 1870, making them the oldest of a handful of historic olive groves in Napa dating back to the end of the 19th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130707\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg\" alt=\"The historic olive groves at Long Meadow Ranch.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130707\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The historic olive groves at Long Meadow Ranch. \u003ccite>(Shoshi Parks)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These days, Long Meadow Ranch also cultivates over 200 varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables, heritage breeds of laying poultry including Ameraucanas and Black Australorps, honey, several hundred head of Highland cattle, and more on 2,000 acres of land spread out over five properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The different areas of the ranch work in tandem—the poultry feast on overripe or damaged fruits and veggies, the bees pollinate the vineyards, the chickens’ manure augments the Ranch’s extensive composting operation, and Haflinger and Norwegian Fjord horses plow the potato fields. Everything produced on the farm is certified organic by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccof.org/\">CCOF\u003c/a>; their newest vineyards earned organic certification in 2017 after a multi-year process involving a reduction of resource inputs, the elimination of all pesticides, and a plan to encourage ecological diversity and healthy soil and vines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have learned that organic farming methods produce higher quality at lower cost, with real consumer benefits,” says Hall. Heirloom and heritage produce and animals have been chosen for similar reasons. “There’s an agricultural heritage that we’re trying to preserve,” explains harvest manager Charlie McIntosh. “Heritage breeds are heartier, with a genetic resiliency that connects to flavor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1080px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg\" alt=\"Bourbon Red Turkeys.\" width=\"1080\" height=\"750\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130708\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg 1080w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-160x111.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-800x556.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-768x533.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1020x708.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-960x667.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-240x167.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-375x260.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-520x361.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bourbon Red Turkeys. \u003ccite>(Shoshi Parks)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That genetic resiliency is one of the key scientific principles grounding the farming practices at Long Meadow Ranch; another is water conservation—fundamentally important in this drought-prone region, Hall says. Long Meadow uses both dry farming and deficit irrigation to reduce their water use, resulting in roughly 25-30 gallons per vine per year, compared to an average winegrower’s 100-120 gallons per vine, according to winemaker Stéphane Vivier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farming at Long Meadow is underpinned by the “systems engineering” perspective Ted Hall acquired while attending Princeton as an electrical engineering student. The farm is “a holistic system with many feedback loops,” he says, in which each piece affects the whole. Some of his ideas about organic, sustainable growing, however, go back much farther.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was a child I spent a lot of time with my grandfather [who grew produce for a small grocery store in Pennsylvania] learning to turn a compost pile and making soapy water and nicotine water to use as natural pesticides,” he recalls. As a 4-H member, he raised chickens and Hampshire lambs and sold eggs. Later, as a graduate student at Stanford in the early 1970s, Hall and wife Laddie helped to re-start a defunct community garden. On the side, Hall made wine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seventeen years later, the Halls took the leap from amateur to professional, purchasing their first Napa property in 1989. Last year, Ted Hall was voted the \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/community/star/news/local/ted-hall-named-grower-of-the-year/article_40e16f1a-22f7-5786-9e02-c96bd8f79914.html\">Napa Valley Grower of the Year by Napa Valley Grapegrowers\u003c/a> for his leadership, his commitment to sustainability, and his community focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Rare Breed of Wine Country Farmer\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the big picture, Napa isn’t strictly monocultural—vegetable, field, and floral crops, as well as livestock and poultry, are raised throughout the county—but all of these products combined make up \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofnapa.org/DocumentCenter/View/8426/2017-Crop-Report--English\">less than 1 percent\u003c/a> of the region’s gross agricultural value. The rest is generated by fruit and nut crops, especially vineyards and olive groves, which are planted on about 46,000 acres. And although there are more than 30 varieties of grapes cultivated in Napa Valley, there has lately been a significant shift toward cabernet sauvignon, which fetches the second-highest price on the market and now makes up 50 percent of grapes grown in Napa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg\" alt=\"Vegetables and grapevines growing at Long Meadow Ranch.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130709\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vegetables and grapevines growing at Long Meadow Ranch. \u003ccite>(Shoshi Parks)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s not that Napa vintners aren’t planting other crops. According to Korinne Munson, director of communications at \u003ca href=\"https://napavintners.com/\">Napa Valley Vintners\u003c/a>, many winegrowers do plant cover crops like legumes and mustard among their vines, use sheep and goats to remove vegetation, and have vegetable gardens, but, in most cases, these things are done to promote the healthy growth of the vines and for small-scale consumption—most vinters identify themselves and their properties as responsible growers of wine grapes, not diversified farmers producing a wide variety of agricultural products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those that produce nuts, spices and vegetables on a large, commercial scale are few and far between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.fao.org/agroecology/knowledge/10-elements/diversity/en/\">Many believe\u003c/a> that crop diversification is one of the keys to a robust agricultural future. Not only is it a \u003ca href=\"http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/ics-diversification-report-iowa/\">cost-effective means of improving agricultural resilience\u003c/a> by decreasing the transmission of pathogens and quelling pest outbreaks, diversification can provide alternate income streams that may help to keep a farmer’s head above water in the event of disease or disaster. Part of the problem for smaller vintners, however, is the market, itself. Whereas Long Meadow generates its own internal economy for selling vegetables, poultry, and olive oil on their Farmstead property and at their restaurant, says Munson, it’s a luxury that most wine grape producers can’t afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Long Meadow Ranch is one of the few vinter/growers in the Napa Valley that has diversified their operations so extensively,” says Novi. A small, select group of other highly diversified wine operations similarly depend on a self-generated outlet for selling products beyond wine. Novi points to two other examples: \u003ca href=\"https://hudsonranch.com/\">Hudson Vineyards\u003c/a>, which raises heritage breed pigs and goats, grows vegetables and runs a small grocery called Hudson Greens and Goods; and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cliffamily.com/\">Clif Family\u003c/a>, which produces nuts, olive oil, spices, and produce which are prepared in dishes served out of their Bruschetteria Food Truck at their tasting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography.jpg\" alt=\"The Farmstead restaurant at Long Meadows Ranch.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"801\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130710\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-768x513.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-1180x788.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-960x641.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Farmstead restaurant at Long Meadows Ranch. \u003ccite>(Shea Evans Photography)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Long Meadow can be “a little bit more of a champion for those diversified products because they’re feeding more people,” says Munson. Despite their larger footprint, the Ranch has stayed true to their original goals of stewardship and sustainability. “The growth has been thoughtful. Our vision has always been, with wine or anything else, to grow the right crop or the right variety in the ideal environment or location or soil or microclimate for what we’re doing,” says Chris Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the Farmstead, the fruits of Long Meadow Ranch’s full-circle farming philosophy are on full display. Executive Chef Stephen Barber surveys the farm daily, creating new dishes for the restaurant’s menu as produce comes into season. The general store sells hot sauce made from estate-grown chilis, honey from the Ranch’s bee colony, and Prato Lungo olive oil from the historic olive groves. The on-site farmstand and other nearby farmers’ markets sell Long Meadow’s fresh, organic produce directly to consumers. And there’s the estate-grown wine, which flows generously in the restaurant, at regular outdoor community events, happy hours, and in tastings at the general store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the different facets contribute to one another,” says Chris Hall. “We are committed to proving that world-class quality and responsible farming go hand in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Update: This article was updated to accurately reflect the organic certification information for Long Meadow Ranch.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/09/25/long-meadow-ranch-takes-a-full-circle-approach-to-farming-in-wine-country/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "For nearly 30 years, the Hall family—Ted, Laddie, and son Chris—have pioneered a holistic, ecosystem-focused approach on their diversified farm amidst the sprawling vineyards of Napa, California.",
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"description": "For nearly 30 years, the Hall family—Ted, Laddie, and son Chris—have pioneered a holistic, ecosystem-focused approach on their diversified farm amidst the sprawling vineyards of Napa, California.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Visitors to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sthelena.com/\">St. Helena\u003c/a>, Napa Valley’s chic epicenter, frequently stop at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.longmeadowranch.com/eat-drink/restaurant\">Farmstead\u003c/a>, a restaurant, cafe, farmstand, and general store known for seasonal, locally grown, and organic fare. To most, it’s a destination restaurant-winery, one of a handful of exceptional Wine Country establishments. But the deviled eggs and sauvignon blanc and the caramelized beets and cabernet tell a different story, one of heritage-breed chickens raised on the farm, certified organic vineyards, 150-year-old olive groves, and acres of heirloom fruits and vegetables. That’s the story of \u003ca href=\"http://www.longmeadowranch.com/\">Long Meadow Ranch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130706\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo.jpg\" alt=\"Ted Hall, Laddie Hall, and Chris Hall.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130706\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-hall-family-photo-520x346.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ted Hall, Laddie Hall, and Chris Hall. \u003ccite>(Long Meadow Ranch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Almost 30 years ago, Ted and Laddie Hall entered the wine business with a plan to prove that they could produce world-class vintages using sustainable, organic farming methods. But unlike Napa’s dominant vinters, it wasn’t just wine they were after. According to their son Chris, the Halls wanted to create an “organic, sustainable, integrated farming system that relies on each part of the ranch to contribute to the health of the whole.” It was a pioneering approach they called “full circle farming,” an approach that is unique in its depth and scope among Napa Valley wineries today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Halls found their first property, a tangled mass of overgrown vegetation, in the Mayacamas Mountains above St. Helena. They set about restoring the neglected estate, father Ted and son Chris exploring the land from the backs of their spotted Appaloosas. “We quickly knew the potential,” says Chris Hall, who is now executive vice president and chief operating officer of Long Meadow Ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, there were surprises in store: In 1992, the pair discovered 250 olive trees concealed by masses of Douglas fir and digger pines; three years later, they found a second olive grove. While DNA tests have not been able to identify the variety of olive, the now-restored trees have been dated to 1870, making them the oldest of a handful of historic olive groves in Napa dating back to the end of the 19th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130707\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg\" alt=\"The historic olive groves at Long Meadow Ranch.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130707\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-historic-olive-grove-credit-Shoshi-Parks-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The historic olive groves at Long Meadow Ranch. \u003ccite>(Shoshi Parks)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These days, Long Meadow Ranch also cultivates over 200 varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables, heritage breeds of laying poultry including Ameraucanas and Black Australorps, honey, several hundred head of Highland cattle, and more on 2,000 acres of land spread out over five properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The different areas of the ranch work in tandem—the poultry feast on overripe or damaged fruits and veggies, the bees pollinate the vineyards, the chickens’ manure augments the Ranch’s extensive composting operation, and Haflinger and Norwegian Fjord horses plow the potato fields. Everything produced on the farm is certified organic by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccof.org/\">CCOF\u003c/a>; their newest vineyards earned organic certification in 2017 after a multi-year process involving a reduction of resource inputs, the elimination of all pesticides, and a plan to encourage ecological diversity and healthy soil and vines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have learned that organic farming methods produce higher quality at lower cost, with real consumer benefits,” says Hall. Heirloom and heritage produce and animals have been chosen for similar reasons. “There’s an agricultural heritage that we’re trying to preserve,” explains harvest manager Charlie McIntosh. “Heritage breeds are heartier, with a genetic resiliency that connects to flavor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1080px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg\" alt=\"Bourbon Red Turkeys.\" width=\"1080\" height=\"750\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130708\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg 1080w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-160x111.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-800x556.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-768x533.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1020x708.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-960x667.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-240x167.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-375x260.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-Bourbon-Red-Turkeys-credit-Shoshi-Parks-520x361.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bourbon Red Turkeys. \u003ccite>(Shoshi Parks)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That genetic resiliency is one of the key scientific principles grounding the farming practices at Long Meadow Ranch; another is water conservation—fundamentally important in this drought-prone region, Hall says. Long Meadow uses both dry farming and deficit irrigation to reduce their water use, resulting in roughly 25-30 gallons per vine per year, compared to an average winegrower’s 100-120 gallons per vine, according to winemaker Stéphane Vivier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farming at Long Meadow is underpinned by the “systems engineering” perspective Ted Hall acquired while attending Princeton as an electrical engineering student. The farm is “a holistic system with many feedback loops,” he says, in which each piece affects the whole. Some of his ideas about organic, sustainable growing, however, go back much farther.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was a child I spent a lot of time with my grandfather [who grew produce for a small grocery store in Pennsylvania] learning to turn a compost pile and making soapy water and nicotine water to use as natural pesticides,” he recalls. As a 4-H member, he raised chickens and Hampshire lambs and sold eggs. Later, as a graduate student at Stanford in the early 1970s, Hall and wife Laddie helped to re-start a defunct community garden. On the side, Hall made wine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seventeen years later, the Halls took the leap from amateur to professional, purchasing their first Napa property in 1989. Last year, Ted Hall was voted the \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/community/star/news/local/ted-hall-named-grower-of-the-year/article_40e16f1a-22f7-5786-9e02-c96bd8f79914.html\">Napa Valley Grower of the Year by Napa Valley Grapegrowers\u003c/a> for his leadership, his commitment to sustainability, and his community focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Rare Breed of Wine Country Farmer\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the big picture, Napa isn’t strictly monocultural—vegetable, field, and floral crops, as well as livestock and poultry, are raised throughout the county—but all of these products combined make up \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofnapa.org/DocumentCenter/View/8426/2017-Crop-Report--English\">less than 1 percent\u003c/a> of the region’s gross agricultural value. The rest is generated by fruit and nut crops, especially vineyards and olive groves, which are planted on about 46,000 acres. And although there are more than 30 varieties of grapes cultivated in Napa Valley, there has lately been a significant shift toward cabernet sauvignon, which fetches the second-highest price on the market and now makes up 50 percent of grapes grown in Napa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg\" alt=\"Vegetables and grapevines growing at Long Meadow Ranch.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130709\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-napa-valley-veggies-and-vines-credit-Shoshi-Parks-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vegetables and grapevines growing at Long Meadow Ranch. \u003ccite>(Shoshi Parks)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s not that Napa vintners aren’t planting other crops. According to Korinne Munson, director of communications at \u003ca href=\"https://napavintners.com/\">Napa Valley Vintners\u003c/a>, many winegrowers do plant cover crops like legumes and mustard among their vines, use sheep and goats to remove vegetation, and have vegetable gardens, but, in most cases, these things are done to promote the healthy growth of the vines and for small-scale consumption—most vinters identify themselves and their properties as responsible growers of wine grapes, not diversified farmers producing a wide variety of agricultural products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those that produce nuts, spices and vegetables on a large, commercial scale are few and far between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.fao.org/agroecology/knowledge/10-elements/diversity/en/\">Many believe\u003c/a> that crop diversification is one of the keys to a robust agricultural future. Not only is it a \u003ca href=\"http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/ics-diversification-report-iowa/\">cost-effective means of improving agricultural resilience\u003c/a> by decreasing the transmission of pathogens and quelling pest outbreaks, diversification can provide alternate income streams that may help to keep a farmer’s head above water in the event of disease or disaster. Part of the problem for smaller vintners, however, is the market, itself. Whereas Long Meadow generates its own internal economy for selling vegetables, poultry, and olive oil on their Farmstead property and at their restaurant, says Munson, it’s a luxury that most wine grape producers can’t afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Long Meadow Ranch is one of the few vinter/growers in the Napa Valley that has diversified their operations so extensively,” says Novi. A small, select group of other highly diversified wine operations similarly depend on a self-generated outlet for selling products beyond wine. Novi points to two other examples: \u003ca href=\"https://hudsonranch.com/\">Hudson Vineyards\u003c/a>, which raises heritage breed pigs and goats, grows vegetables and runs a small grocery called Hudson Greens and Goods; and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cliffamily.com/\">Clif Family\u003c/a>, which produces nuts, olive oil, spices, and produce which are prepared in dishes served out of their Bruschetteria Food Truck at their tasting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography.jpg\" alt=\"The Farmstead restaurant at Long Meadows Ranch.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"801\" class=\"size-full wp-image-130710\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-768x513.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-1180x788.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-960x641.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/10/180925-long-meadow-ranch-farmstead-interior-napa-valley-credit-shea-evans-photography-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Farmstead restaurant at Long Meadows Ranch. \u003ccite>(Shea Evans Photography)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Long Meadow can be “a little bit more of a champion for those diversified products because they’re feeding more people,” says Munson. Despite their larger footprint, the Ranch has stayed true to their original goals of stewardship and sustainability. “The growth has been thoughtful. Our vision has always been, with wine or anything else, to grow the right crop or the right variety in the ideal environment or location or soil or microclimate for what we’re doing,” says Chris Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the Farmstead, the fruits of Long Meadow Ranch’s full-circle farming philosophy are on full display. Executive Chef Stephen Barber surveys the farm daily, creating new dishes for the restaurant’s menu as produce comes into season. The general store sells hot sauce made from estate-grown chilis, honey from the Ranch’s bee colony, and Prato Lungo olive oil from the historic olive groves. The on-site farmstand and other nearby farmers’ markets sell Long Meadow’s fresh, organic produce directly to consumers. And there’s the estate-grown wine, which flows generously in the restaurant, at regular outdoor community events, happy hours, and in tastings at the general store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the different facets contribute to one another,” says Chris Hall. “We are committed to proving that world-class quality and responsible farming go hand in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Update: This article was updated to accurately reflect the organic certification information for Long Meadow Ranch.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This article originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/09/25/long-meadow-ranch-takes-a-full-circle-approach-to-farming-in-wine-country/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "3 Reasons to be Concerned about the USDA’s Proposed GMO Labeling Rules",
"title": "3 Reasons to be Concerned about the USDA’s Proposed GMO Labeling Rules",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Advocates say the rules raise a number of red flags, and could end up causing more confusion than clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food labels help consumers quickly discern whether their food contains gluten, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats, or MSG. This same right to know should be clearly offered for foods that are genetically engineered (“GE” or “GMO”), especially since \u003ca href=\"https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/issues/976/ge-food-labeling/us-polls-on-ge-food-labeling\">polls consistently show\u003c/a> that Americans overwhelmingly believe they have the right to know if their food is GE, with roughly 90 percent regularly voicing support for mandatory GMO labeling as a result of concerns about health, food safety, and environmental impacts from GE foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) long-awaited proposed regulations for GMO labeling on food are so surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Released in May, the regulations come out of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/114/plaws/publ216/PLAW-114publ216.pdf\">2016 law\u003c/a> signed by President Obama prohibiting existing state GE labeling laws, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/27/471759643/how-little-vermont-got-big-food-companies-to-label-gmos\">Vermont’s\u003c/a>, which required on-package mandatory labeling, and instead created a nationwide standard. Instead of proposing straightforward rules, the 100-page USDA document presents a range of alternatives on a number of key issues, and leaves a handful of questions open for comment, to be decided in the final rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many consumers and influencers in the food movement, the federal GE labeling law has offered a ray of hope for transparency about what’s in our food and how it’s produced. After the 2016 law was passed, food journalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/opinion/gmo-labeling-law-could-stir-a-revolution.html\">Mark Bittman wrote\u003c/a> that the law “could stir a revolution” of folks wanting to know more about their food, including whether antibiotics or pesticides were used in the production of those foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, for those of us advocating for true transparency of foods produced using genetic engineering, the new USDA rules raise a number of big red flags. Here are the three ways the rules could end up causing more confusion than clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1. They Propose Using “Bioengineered,” and the Acronym BE Instead of “Genetically Engineered” or GMO.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The term GMO has been used by farmers, food manufacturers, retailers, and the government for over a decade and is widely familiar to many. The National Organic Program, proposed by the USDA in 2000, excluded the use of GMOs in organic production and handling. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nongmoproject.org/about/history/\">Non-GMO Project\u003c/a>, founded in 2007, tests food products for the presence of GMOs and has certified thousands of food products in the marketplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USDA proposes \u003cem>only\u003c/em> allowing the term “bioengineered,” or “BE,” on products produced using genetic engineering, and does not allow other more well-known terms—a scenario that would likely confuse many consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government-mandated speech such as food labeling should be presented in a neutral way. The 2016 law requires that for purposes of the regulations, “a bioengineered food … shall not be treated as safer than, or not as safe as, a non-bioengineered counterpart.” Yet the symbols proposed to be used on packaging include an image of a sun, and another that uses the letters BE to create a smiley-face—both project an image that these foods are healthy and beneficial for the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_129244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1.jpg\" alt=\"GMO Labeling -Do these symbols say GMO to you?\" width=\"700\" height=\"324\" class=\"size-full wp-image-129244\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-160x74.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-240x111.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-375x174.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-520x241.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Do these symbols say GMO to you? \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Civil Eats)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2. They Propose the Use of Digital QR Codes Instead of On-Package Text Labeling.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency proposes that QR codes (encoded images on a package that must be scanned with a smartphone) be allowed as a substitute for clear, legible language on the package. In 2017, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) \u003ca href=\"https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/5061/victory-usda-releases-gmo-labeling-study\">forced the public disclosure\u003c/a> of the USDA’s own \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/USDADeloitteStudyofElectronicorDigitalDisclosure20170801.pdf\">study\u003c/a> on the efficacy of this labeling, which showed it would not provide adequate disclosure to millions of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the study concluded that consumers are: unfamiliar with QR codes or do not know that digital links contain food information; may not have equipment capable of scanning digital links on their own; may be unable to connect to broadband, or connect at a speed that is so slow that they cannot load information; and that technological challenges disproportionately impact low-income earners, rural residents, and Americans over the age of 65. By not mandating on-package text labeling, the proposed rule discriminates against more than 100 million Americans who do not have adequate access to this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3. It Proposes that Highly Refined Foods such as Oils and Candy be Exempt from Labeling.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another big question left unanswered in the proposed rules is whether or not genetically engineered foods such as cooking oil, candy, and soda will get labeled. These are ingredients that are typically derived from GE crops, but they’ve been processed in such a way that the GE content may or may not be detectable by a genetic test in the final product. This puts labeling on thousands of GE products in question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to these big three issues, the USDA’s proposal also seeks comments on how to deal with newer forms of genetic engineering—such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/MSExcludedMethodsNOPFall2017.pdf\">synthetic biology\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GEPlants/ucm537109.htm\">gene-editing\u003c/a>, and CRISPR—and whether or not to include foods produced using this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USDA will be \u003ca href=\"https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=AMS_FRDOC_0001-1709\">accepting public comments\u003c/a> on the proposed rule until July 3, 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/06/22/3-reasons-to-be-concerned-about-the-usdas-proposed-gmo-labeling-rules/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Advocates say the rules raise a number of red flags, and could end up causing more confusion than clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food labels help consumers quickly discern whether their food contains gluten, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats, or MSG. This same right to know should be clearly offered for foods that are genetically engineered (“GE” or “GMO”), especially since \u003ca href=\"https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/issues/976/ge-food-labeling/us-polls-on-ge-food-labeling\">polls consistently show\u003c/a> that Americans overwhelmingly believe they have the right to know if their food is GE, with roughly 90 percent regularly voicing support for mandatory GMO labeling as a result of concerns about health, food safety, and environmental impacts from GE foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) long-awaited proposed regulations for GMO labeling on food are so surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Released in May, the regulations come out of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/114/plaws/publ216/PLAW-114publ216.pdf\">2016 law\u003c/a> signed by President Obama prohibiting existing state GE labeling laws, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/27/471759643/how-little-vermont-got-big-food-companies-to-label-gmos\">Vermont’s\u003c/a>, which required on-package mandatory labeling, and instead created a nationwide standard. Instead of proposing straightforward rules, the 100-page USDA document presents a range of alternatives on a number of key issues, and leaves a handful of questions open for comment, to be decided in the final rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many consumers and influencers in the food movement, the federal GE labeling law has offered a ray of hope for transparency about what’s in our food and how it’s produced. After the 2016 law was passed, food journalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/opinion/gmo-labeling-law-could-stir-a-revolution.html\">Mark Bittman wrote\u003c/a> that the law “could stir a revolution” of folks wanting to know more about their food, including whether antibiotics or pesticides were used in the production of those foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, for those of us advocating for true transparency of foods produced using genetic engineering, the new USDA rules raise a number of big red flags. Here are the three ways the rules could end up causing more confusion than clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1. They Propose Using “Bioengineered,” and the Acronym BE Instead of “Genetically Engineered” or GMO.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The term GMO has been used by farmers, food manufacturers, retailers, and the government for over a decade and is widely familiar to many. The National Organic Program, proposed by the USDA in 2000, excluded the use of GMOs in organic production and handling. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nongmoproject.org/about/history/\">Non-GMO Project\u003c/a>, founded in 2007, tests food products for the presence of GMOs and has certified thousands of food products in the marketplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USDA proposes \u003cem>only\u003c/em> allowing the term “bioengineered,” or “BE,” on products produced using genetic engineering, and does not allow other more well-known terms—a scenario that would likely confuse many consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government-mandated speech such as food labeling should be presented in a neutral way. The 2016 law requires that for purposes of the regulations, “a bioengineered food … shall not be treated as safer than, or not as safe as, a non-bioengineered counterpart.” Yet the symbols proposed to be used on packaging include an image of a sun, and another that uses the letters BE to create a smiley-face—both project an image that these foods are healthy and beneficial for the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_129244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1.jpg\" alt=\"GMO Labeling -Do these symbols say GMO to you?\" width=\"700\" height=\"324\" class=\"size-full wp-image-129244\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1.jpg 700w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-160x74.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-240x111.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-375x174.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/07/180622-gmo-labeling-inline-1-520x241.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Do these symbols say GMO to you? \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Civil Eats)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2. They Propose the Use of Digital QR Codes Instead of On-Package Text Labeling.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency proposes that QR codes (encoded images on a package that must be scanned with a smartphone) be allowed as a substitute for clear, legible language on the package. In 2017, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) \u003ca href=\"https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/5061/victory-usda-releases-gmo-labeling-study\">forced the public disclosure\u003c/a> of the USDA’s own \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/USDADeloitteStudyofElectronicorDigitalDisclosure20170801.pdf\">study\u003c/a> on the efficacy of this labeling, which showed it would not provide adequate disclosure to millions of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the study concluded that consumers are: unfamiliar with QR codes or do not know that digital links contain food information; may not have equipment capable of scanning digital links on their own; may be unable to connect to broadband, or connect at a speed that is so slow that they cannot load information; and that technological challenges disproportionately impact low-income earners, rural residents, and Americans over the age of 65. By not mandating on-package text labeling, the proposed rule discriminates against more than 100 million Americans who do not have adequate access to this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3. It Proposes that Highly Refined Foods such as Oils and Candy be Exempt from Labeling.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another big question left unanswered in the proposed rules is whether or not genetically engineered foods such as cooking oil, candy, and soda will get labeled. These are ingredients that are typically derived from GE crops, but they’ve been processed in such a way that the GE content may or may not be detectable by a genetic test in the final product. This puts labeling on thousands of GE products in question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to these big three issues, the USDA’s proposal also seeks comments on how to deal with newer forms of genetic engineering—such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/MSExcludedMethodsNOPFall2017.pdf\">synthetic biology\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GEPlants/ucm537109.htm\">gene-editing\u003c/a>, and CRISPR—and whether or not to include foods produced using this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USDA will be \u003ca href=\"https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=AMS_FRDOC_0001-1709\">accepting public comments\u003c/a> on the proposed rule until July 3, 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/06/22/3-reasons-to-be-concerned-about-the-usdas-proposed-gmo-labeling-rules/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>From culinary diplomacy to feeding the resistance, people are turning to shared meals as a way to communicate across political and cultural divides.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a clear night last November, nearly one year after the 2016 election, 10 strangers ranging in age from 25 to 56 gathered in the dining room of a downtown Brooklyn apartment. The group, split evenly into self-identified conservatives and liberals, stacked their plates with spicy fish tacos, crisp tortilla chips, and creamy guacamole from the buffet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they took their seats at the table, a facilitator pulled out a deck of cards with questions about food and politics, including, “Does pineapple belong on a pizza?” and “Should there be stricter gun legislation?” Each attendee took turns drawing a card and then guessing what they thought the majority of the table would answer before launching into a discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Phillips, a second-year law student at New York University and lifelong Republican, drew his card and asked the group, “Should welfare recipients be required to take drug tests?” Anne Phelan, a playwright and liberal, readied an impassioned response between mouthfuls of tortilla and tilapia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phillips and Phelan are part of an emerging movement of people using dinner parties to provoke civil political discussion. An increasing number of groups recognize the importance of learning from those who think differently and they’re turning to food as a unifier. These organizations intend to use the positive feelings associated with meal time to make participants feel comfortable with one another and encourage them to hear new points of view without shutting down or lashing out.\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo.jpg\" alt=\"Make America Dinner Again\" width=\"557\" height=\"557\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-129188\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo.jpg 557w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-160x160.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-240x240.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-375x375.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-520x520.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-50x50.jpg 50w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 557px) 100vw, 557px\">\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.makeamericadinneragain.com/\">Make America Dinner Again\u003c/a> (MADA), a culinary diplomacy project, organized the Brooklyn dinner attended by Phillips and Phelan. The project was founded by Bay Area friends Justine Lee and Tria Chang as a reaction to how shocked they were by the results of the 2016 election. Anyone around the country can host a dinner using a downloadable template that includes ground rules, icebreakers, guided activities, and closing reflections. Over two dozen dinners have taken place since the group launched in early 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have these dinners been successful in fostering warm feelings between ideological adversaries? Tom Speaker, coordinator of the New York chapter, isn’t sure. “It’s not like we can measure what direct effect we have on polarization in terms of numbers,” explains Speaker. “All you can really measure are the stories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scholar and author Sam Chapple-Sokol, inspired by stories of how food has been used to bridge divides, coined the term “\u003ca href=\"http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1871191x-12341244\">culinary diplomacy\u003c/a>” in 2012 to describe this phenomenon. His research focuses on the use of food to foster discussion and aid in negotiations. “The easiest way to win hearts and minds is through the stomach,” says Chapple-Sokol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Bourdain, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 61, was famous for his belief that food can be a way to learn about other people and other cultures. “Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating to me,” Bourdain said in \u003ca href=\"https://bookpage.com/interviews/8122-anthony-bourdain\">an interview in 2001\u003c/a>. “The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the term used to describe these activities is new, using food to bring people together is not a novel idea. Today’s trends build on a history of culinary diplomacy. From Biblical times comes the phrase “breaking bread,” which can mean both sharing a meal and finding understanding between two parties. In more modern times, an article in the October 1959 issue of the \u003cem>Journal of Home Economics \u003c/em>features a junior high class preparing international meals and eating together to “promote better understanding of other countries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, the \u003ca href=\"https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/09/197375.htm\">Diplomatic Culinary Partnership program\u003c/a> was launched by the U.S. State Department in 2012 under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The high-profile initiative involved sending \u003ca href=\"http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/the-state-department-unveils-the-diplomatic-culinary-partnership-2381915\">U.S. celebrity chefs\u003c/a> around the world to cook at foreign embassies, host local dinners for the public, and collaborate with celebrated chefs in host countries. Lauren Bernstein, former director of the program from 2012 to 2017, saw it as a tool to soften both high-level diplomatic relationships and the perception of the American public as a whole. “We were able to reach so many people, because everyone loves food,” says Bernstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Culinary diplomacy is not without its critics. Sending wealthy chefs into other countries doesn’t necessarily accomplish much, according to Alina Dolea, a scholar of international communication at the University of California at Berkeley. In practice, this form of culinary diplomacy functions more like a glossy public relations campaign than a real attempt at dialogue, she writes in \u003cem>The Routledge Handbook of Critical Public Relations. \u003c/em>She argues that the people who have access to the resources and events involved in this type of activity are often not the ones who are most in need of understanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone is as cynical as Dolea. One of the recent examples of culinary diplomacy is \u003ca href=\"https://www.conflictkitchen.org/\">Conflict Kitchen\u003c/a>, a restaurant in Pittsburgh founded by Carnegie Mellon University professor Jon Rubin and artist Dawn Weleski in 2010. By serving foods from countries with which the United States is in conflict, Conflict Kitchen aims to humanize these nations and reframe the discussion about how war affects civilian life. Rubin and Weleski rewrote the menu seven times to cover cuisines from Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Palestine, Venezuela, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an indigenous tribe from upstate New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant augments its activities by hosting events like “Join a Local Palestinian for Lunch,” aspiring to create connections between local residents and people from other cultures. Their methods contrast with the State Department initiative by keeping the food affordable and making the experience open to all, not just those with access and resources. For their work, Rubin and Weleski were nominated for an International Award for Public Art by The Institute for Public Art in Hong Kong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cookbook author Julia Turshen has also been a vocal advocate for using food as a tool for social justice and sparking discussion. Her bestselling 2017 \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/10/03/julia-turshen-wants-to-feed-the-resistance/\">cookbook\u003c/a> \u003cem>Feed the Resistance\u003c/em> provides recipes for physical and mental nourishment for activists, from chef Preeti Mistry’s tikka masala macaroni and cheese to an essay titled “How Food Can Impact Communities” by La Cocina’s Caleb Zigas. In April, Turshen launched \u003ca href=\"https://equityatthetable.com/\">Equity at the Table\u003c/a> (EATT), a searchable online database of diverse voices in the food industry. “I plan to continue to use my work as a way to center marginalized voices and to shift the industry in a more equitable direction (not to be confused with a more equal one),” says Turshen. “I’m not interested in merely adding seats to the table – I’m invested in shifting who gets to do the inviting and the table setting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some dinner parties are being used to challenge rather than comfort. \u003ca href=\"http://www.fromlagos.com/dinnerseries/\">Blackness in America\u003c/a> is a series hosted by Nigerian chef and author Tunde Wey that explores themes like police brutality, sexism, and violence through the lens of race. From 2016 to 2017, Wey organized 20 intimate dinners attended by a mix of Black and non-Black people. To orient the discussion to his personal experience of being Black in America, Wey cooked and served a rotating menu of homestyle Nigerian food, including his favorite jollof rice flavored with scorching scotch bonnet peppers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike MADA and Conflict Kitchen, Wey’s goal with Blackness in America isn’t tied to generating warm and comfortable feelings. He wants diners to be speak honestly about tough topics, even if it’s difficult and stirs up painful emotions. “I think that discomfort can be instructive,” explains Wey. “I’m not actively seeking discomfort for my guests, but when you’re talking about uncomfortable things, and you’re talking about them honestly and in an intimate way, you’re bound to be uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/03/01/at-this-pop-up-lunch-counter-race-is-included-in-the-bill/\">current project\u003c/a>, named after Saartjie Baartman, a Black South African woman who was taken to Europe in the 1800s and paraded as a sexualized spectacle and oddity, Wey is tackling privilege and race. The venture began earlier this year as a month-long pop-up restaurant in New Orleans where patrons could choose to pay different amounts based on their race. In May, Wey hosted a series of \u003ca href=\"https://www.metrotimes.com/table-and-bar/archives/2018/03/26/tunde-ways-hamtramck-pop-up-will-explore-race-privilege-and-charity\">four dinners in Detroit\u003c/a> where diners experienced their meal differently based on a survey they filled out about their existing privilege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these are modest, low-profile events. MADA is optimistic that their latest host will raise the group’s profile: Glenn Beck. Beck took an interest in MADA after reading \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/eveturowpaul/2017/12/12/the-political-and-communal-power-of-dinnertime/#3c195e58ada4\">an article\u003c/a> about it in \u003cem>Forbes\u003c/em>and seeing how it relates to his desire to continue political discourse and promote free speech. He hosted \u003ca href=\"https://www.glennbeck.com/2018/04/27/watch-the-full-episode-make-america-dinner-again/\">and filmed\u003c/a> his own MADA event this past April and plans to host many more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our first dinner modeled after MADA felt the way many Americans feel,” Beck told Civil Eats. “People feel that they aren’t being heard. Many power brokers have recognized this, but rarely do they ask, ‘who is actually and honestly listening without agenda?’ I hope we continue this trend to model how easy this really can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the Brooklyn dining room, Anne Phelan voiced her opinion that welfare recipients should not be drug tested, and to her surprise, conservative Nick Phillips agreed. While neither came away feeling like their minds had been changed about any of the issues they discussed, they both agreed that the group dinner setting changed the dynamic. “It was the least confrontational possible way to talk about this stuff,” says Phelan, “and the tacos were pretty good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/civileat\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>From culinary diplomacy to feeding the resistance, people are turning to shared meals as a way to communicate across political and cultural divides.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a clear night last November, nearly one year after the 2016 election, 10 strangers ranging in age from 25 to 56 gathered in the dining room of a downtown Brooklyn apartment. The group, split evenly into self-identified conservatives and liberals, stacked their plates with spicy fish tacos, crisp tortilla chips, and creamy guacamole from the buffet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they took their seats at the table, a facilitator pulled out a deck of cards with questions about food and politics, including, “Does pineapple belong on a pizza?” and “Should there be stricter gun legislation?” Each attendee took turns drawing a card and then guessing what they thought the majority of the table would answer before launching into a discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Phillips, a second-year law student at New York University and lifelong Republican, drew his card and asked the group, “Should welfare recipients be required to take drug tests?” Anne Phelan, a playwright and liberal, readied an impassioned response between mouthfuls of tortilla and tilapia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phillips and Phelan are part of an emerging movement of people using dinner parties to provoke civil political discussion. An increasing number of groups recognize the importance of learning from those who think differently and they’re turning to food as a unifier. These organizations intend to use the positive feelings associated with meal time to make participants feel comfortable with one another and encourage them to hear new points of view without shutting down or lashing out.\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo.jpg\" alt=\"Make America Dinner Again\" width=\"557\" height=\"557\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-129188\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo.jpg 557w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-160x160.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-240x240.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-375x375.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-520x520.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-50x50.jpg 50w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180614-dinner-parties-mada-logo-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 557px) 100vw, 557px\">\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.makeamericadinneragain.com/\">Make America Dinner Again\u003c/a> (MADA), a culinary diplomacy project, organized the Brooklyn dinner attended by Phillips and Phelan. The project was founded by Bay Area friends Justine Lee and Tria Chang as a reaction to how shocked they were by the results of the 2016 election. Anyone around the country can host a dinner using a downloadable template that includes ground rules, icebreakers, guided activities, and closing reflections. Over two dozen dinners have taken place since the group launched in early 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have these dinners been successful in fostering warm feelings between ideological adversaries? Tom Speaker, coordinator of the New York chapter, isn’t sure. “It’s not like we can measure what direct effect we have on polarization in terms of numbers,” explains Speaker. “All you can really measure are the stories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scholar and author Sam Chapple-Sokol, inspired by stories of how food has been used to bridge divides, coined the term “\u003ca href=\"http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1871191x-12341244\">culinary diplomacy\u003c/a>” in 2012 to describe this phenomenon. His research focuses on the use of food to foster discussion and aid in negotiations. “The easiest way to win hearts and minds is through the stomach,” says Chapple-Sokol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Bourdain, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 61, was famous for his belief that food can be a way to learn about other people and other cultures. “Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating to me,” Bourdain said in \u003ca href=\"https://bookpage.com/interviews/8122-anthony-bourdain\">an interview in 2001\u003c/a>. “The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the term used to describe these activities is new, using food to bring people together is not a novel idea. Today’s trends build on a history of culinary diplomacy. From Biblical times comes the phrase “breaking bread,” which can mean both sharing a meal and finding understanding between two parties. In more modern times, an article in the October 1959 issue of the \u003cem>Journal of Home Economics \u003c/em>features a junior high class preparing international meals and eating together to “promote better understanding of other countries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, the \u003ca href=\"https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/09/197375.htm\">Diplomatic Culinary Partnership program\u003c/a> was launched by the U.S. State Department in 2012 under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The high-profile initiative involved sending \u003ca href=\"http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/the-state-department-unveils-the-diplomatic-culinary-partnership-2381915\">U.S. celebrity chefs\u003c/a> around the world to cook at foreign embassies, host local dinners for the public, and collaborate with celebrated chefs in host countries. Lauren Bernstein, former director of the program from 2012 to 2017, saw it as a tool to soften both high-level diplomatic relationships and the perception of the American public as a whole. “We were able to reach so many people, because everyone loves food,” says Bernstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Culinary diplomacy is not without its critics. Sending wealthy chefs into other countries doesn’t necessarily accomplish much, according to Alina Dolea, a scholar of international communication at the University of California at Berkeley. In practice, this form of culinary diplomacy functions more like a glossy public relations campaign than a real attempt at dialogue, she writes in \u003cem>The Routledge Handbook of Critical Public Relations. \u003c/em>She argues that the people who have access to the resources and events involved in this type of activity are often not the ones who are most in need of understanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone is as cynical as Dolea. One of the recent examples of culinary diplomacy is \u003ca href=\"https://www.conflictkitchen.org/\">Conflict Kitchen\u003c/a>, a restaurant in Pittsburgh founded by Carnegie Mellon University professor Jon Rubin and artist Dawn Weleski in 2010. By serving foods from countries with which the United States is in conflict, Conflict Kitchen aims to humanize these nations and reframe the discussion about how war affects civilian life. Rubin and Weleski rewrote the menu seven times to cover cuisines from Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Palestine, Venezuela, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an indigenous tribe from upstate New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant augments its activities by hosting events like “Join a Local Palestinian for Lunch,” aspiring to create connections between local residents and people from other cultures. Their methods contrast with the State Department initiative by keeping the food affordable and making the experience open to all, not just those with access and resources. For their work, Rubin and Weleski were nominated for an International Award for Public Art by The Institute for Public Art in Hong Kong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cookbook author Julia Turshen has also been a vocal advocate for using food as a tool for social justice and sparking discussion. Her bestselling 2017 \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/10/03/julia-turshen-wants-to-feed-the-resistance/\">cookbook\u003c/a> \u003cem>Feed the Resistance\u003c/em> provides recipes for physical and mental nourishment for activists, from chef Preeti Mistry’s tikka masala macaroni and cheese to an essay titled “How Food Can Impact Communities” by La Cocina’s Caleb Zigas. In April, Turshen launched \u003ca href=\"https://equityatthetable.com/\">Equity at the Table\u003c/a> (EATT), a searchable online database of diverse voices in the food industry. “I plan to continue to use my work as a way to center marginalized voices and to shift the industry in a more equitable direction (not to be confused with a more equal one),” says Turshen. “I’m not interested in merely adding seats to the table – I’m invested in shifting who gets to do the inviting and the table setting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some dinner parties are being used to challenge rather than comfort. \u003ca href=\"http://www.fromlagos.com/dinnerseries/\">Blackness in America\u003c/a> is a series hosted by Nigerian chef and author Tunde Wey that explores themes like police brutality, sexism, and violence through the lens of race. From 2016 to 2017, Wey organized 20 intimate dinners attended by a mix of Black and non-Black people. To orient the discussion to his personal experience of being Black in America, Wey cooked and served a rotating menu of homestyle Nigerian food, including his favorite jollof rice flavored with scorching scotch bonnet peppers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike MADA and Conflict Kitchen, Wey’s goal with Blackness in America isn’t tied to generating warm and comfortable feelings. He wants diners to be speak honestly about tough topics, even if it’s difficult and stirs up painful emotions. “I think that discomfort can be instructive,” explains Wey. “I’m not actively seeking discomfort for my guests, but when you’re talking about uncomfortable things, and you’re talking about them honestly and in an intimate way, you’re bound to be uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/03/01/at-this-pop-up-lunch-counter-race-is-included-in-the-bill/\">current project\u003c/a>, named after Saartjie Baartman, a Black South African woman who was taken to Europe in the 1800s and paraded as a sexualized spectacle and oddity, Wey is tackling privilege and race. The venture began earlier this year as a month-long pop-up restaurant in New Orleans where patrons could choose to pay different amounts based on their race. In May, Wey hosted a series of \u003ca href=\"https://www.metrotimes.com/table-and-bar/archives/2018/03/26/tunde-ways-hamtramck-pop-up-will-explore-race-privilege-and-charity\">four dinners in Detroit\u003c/a> where diners experienced their meal differently based on a survey they filled out about their existing privilege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these are modest, low-profile events. MADA is optimistic that their latest host will raise the group’s profile: Glenn Beck. Beck took an interest in MADA after reading \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/eveturowpaul/2017/12/12/the-political-and-communal-power-of-dinnertime/#3c195e58ada4\">an article\u003c/a> about it in \u003cem>Forbes\u003c/em>and seeing how it relates to his desire to continue political discourse and promote free speech. He hosted \u003ca href=\"https://www.glennbeck.com/2018/04/27/watch-the-full-episode-make-america-dinner-again/\">and filmed\u003c/a> his own MADA event this past April and plans to host many more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our first dinner modeled after MADA felt the way many Americans feel,” Beck told Civil Eats. “People feel that they aren’t being heard. Many power brokers have recognized this, but rarely do they ask, ‘who is actually and honestly listening without agenda?’ I hope we continue this trend to model how easy this really can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the Brooklyn dining room, Anne Phelan voiced her opinion that welfare recipients should not be drug tested, and to her surprise, conservative Nick Phillips agreed. While neither came away feeling like their minds had been changed about any of the issues they discussed, they both agreed that the group dinner setting changed the dynamic. “It was the least confrontational possible way to talk about this stuff,” says Phelan, “and the tacos were pretty good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/civileat\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Growing California Rice and Almonds Against the Grain",
"title": "Growing California Rice and Almonds Against the Grain",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Bites | KQED Food",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>These two crops are often treated like commodities in the state, but Greg Massa and Raquel Krach have prioritized a high-functioning ecosystem on their farm while selling direct to customers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his now-weathered, century-old diary, Manuel Fonseca penned an entry in Portuguese about the many challenges he faced as a new immigrant trying to grow rice in California’s Sacramento Valley. Fonseca planted his first crop in 1916 and found himself wrestling with an alarming number of weeds in the paddies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the challenges, the farm survived, and three generations and a century later, his great-grandson Greg Massa is still growing rice, along with his wife Raquel Krach. Although Greg’s father, Manuel Massa Jr., opted to use herbicides, Greg has chosen to farm organically, meaning he’s facing the same weeds as his great-grandfather, which are difficult to remove once he floods his fields with nourishing waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We farm organically because we think spraying poison on food and on our environment is wrong,” Massa says. But being an organic rice farm has been anything but easy, requiring Massa and Krach to employ an arsenal of farming techniques: crop rotation, cover crops, field preparation, timely planting, and deep water followed by drought stress to restrain weeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rice is difficult to grow organically with modern varieties that were bred for high inputs of nitrogen and herbicides to kill weeds,” Massa explains. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. We’ve tried using goats, mowing, and spraying vinegar with limited success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Set on 200 verdant acres in Hamilton City, \u003ca href=\"http://massaorganics.com/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a> farms rice, almonds, sheep, and pigs. Sandwiched between two majestic national forests, the Mendocino and the Plumas, with the Sacramento River at its feet, Massa Organics is 15 miles from the university town of Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128779\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1.jpg\" alt=\"Massa Organics’ rice fields after a winter rain.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128779\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Massa Organics’ rice fields after a winter rain. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though rice, which Massa sells to restaurants in town, is its primary selling staple, the farm also sells its grass-fed ground lamb at the Chico farmers’ market and raw nonpareil almonds, jars of almond butter, lamb, and pork to farmers’ markets in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a rice industry dominated by larger producers like \u003ca href=\"http://www.lundberg.com/\">Lundberg\u003c/a> (which does its own \u003ca href=\"http://www.lundberg.com/about/\">conservation work\u003c/a>), Massa Organics is the rare independent brand selling directly to its customers through markets, CSAs, and small retail stores using social media as a marketing tool. Rarer still is the Massa approach to farming as a means of ecological work. The couple views each crop as part of a \u003ca href=\"http://massaorganics.com/how-we-grow/\">fully functioning ecosystem\u003c/a>—the rice as part of a pond ecosystem and the almonds part of a woodland ecosystem—that relies on biodiversity and natural relationships for crop health.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>An Ecological Approach to Farming\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Massa and Krach both have Masters’ degrees in ecology and moved to the farm in 1997 with hopes of re-thinking his family’s approach to conventional commodity farming. Though they could have entered academia, the pair was inspired by Krach’s agroecology research on Costa Rican tropical tree plantations growing right next to rainforests without harming them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was doing my research on this actual plantation and thought, ‘This is kind of weird that I’m doing this in a research-based situation when we have a real farm,’” Krach says. Hoping to engage in applied ecology that made an immediate difference, she convinced Massa they could convert his family farm into a living experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We chose organic farming as a means of doing conservation work because our methods promote biodiversity by mimicking natural ecosystems,” Massa says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128780\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field.jpg\" alt=\"Snow geese spend a winter morning on the farm in this photo from a drone flying over Massa’s fields.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128780\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snow geese spend a winter morning on the farm in this photo from a drone flying over Massa’s fields. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like Massa’s ancestors, he and Krach chose to farm medium-grain \u003ca href=\"https://healthyliving.azcentral.com/nutrition-of-calrose-rice-12230450.html\">Calrose rice\u003c/a>, a versatile variety bred specifically to flourish in California. The result is a sweet, nutty brown rice high in fiber and taste that Charles Phan, executive chef at the renowned San Francisco restaurant \u003ca href=\"http://www.slanteddoor.com/\">The Slanted Door\u003c/a>, serves and swears by. But its taste isn’t the only reason that Massa and Krach chose Calrose over jasmine and basmati varieties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Small farmers in Thailand sell a little jasmine rice, and they’re reliant on that for their income,” Massa said. “Many generations of Thai farmers worked to select jasmine rice to make it what it is. We decided early on we were not going to grow jasmine or basmati because it felt too much like stealing their genetic heritage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after taking over, Massa and Krach began to transition the land to organic, eventually diversifying the operation, adding almonds, wheat, and several heritage breeds of animals to the mix. By 2002, the rice operation was certified, and the rest followed over the course of the next eight years. Today, their whole operation is certified organic.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Creating a Natural Woodland Environment\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Integrating heritage animal breeds—Dorper sheep, Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs, and Berkshire pigs—has been an important way to improve the farm’s ecological footprint as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128781\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1.jpg\" alt=\"Some of Massa Organics’ piglets.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1133\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128781\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-160x151.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-800x755.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-768x725.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-1020x963.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-1180x1114.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-960x906.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-240x227.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-375x354.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-520x491.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some of Massa Organics’ piglets. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Krach and Massa have pioneered a natural grazing pattern for their sheep, converting their 30-acre almond orchard into a natural woodland. Every morning, and sometimes in the afternoons, Massa and Krach move an electric fence to cover a different 6,000- to 8,000-square foot area, guiding 100 Dorper sheep and lambs to a new patch of orchard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mimicking the ancient patterns of pack herbivores like pronghorn antelope, the sheep graze happily on perennials and other grasses. In the process, the herd replicates a natural woodland ecosystem—one that consists of mature trees, understory plants, large mammals, small mammals, birds, and insects all living in symbiosis that serve the crops well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woodland environment \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2010/05/26/beeline-to-extinction/\">attracts beneficial insects\u003c/a> that protect against pests, and the grazing animals naturally remove weeds, fertilize the almond trees with their waste, and create a richer soil for insects and thus a richer food source for birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Massa and Krach pasture their 120 pigs as well. In addition to creating natural fertilizer, Krach says the pigs provide a plowing function for the farmers, digging up stubborn weeds, and are mostly fed rice, wheat, safflower, and hay that is grown on the farm. “They’re part of the cycle,” she says. “If they tear up the ground, we can just plow it and move them out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agriculture is intricately connected to the larger web of life for the pair. “Everything we do with the animals is totally counter to mass production,” Krach says. “Letting them live like they should is the only way we can imagine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spring is a lively time for Krach, as she manages their animal operations. Most of the 45 ewes are pregnant this time of year and hungrily mow down the tall grasses by at least a foot over three or four hours in the field. Krach finds it hard to go inside when she’s standing in three-foot grass watching her ewes and 11 lambs, the babies frolicking in a beautiful pink sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1.jpg\" alt=\"Sheep before an approaching storm.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1036\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128782\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-160x138.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-800x691.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-768x663.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-1020x881.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-1180x1019.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-960x829.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-240x207.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-375x324.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-520x449.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheep before an approaching storm. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty idyllic,” Krach says. “It’s hard work, but raising the sheep is fun, and it’s lambing time, so I can’t get enough of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, the lambs will go to the farmers’ market to be sold. Krach sees letting the animals go as part of the cycle and hopes to educate omnivores about where their meat comes from. “We hope we can teach people and they can learn about [how we raise animals] by knowing our farm or buying our products,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Water Limitations and an Ecological Lifestyle\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Almonds, like meat, have often \u003ca href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/09/california-stil-drought-and-almonds-are-still-sucking-lots-water/\">gotten a bad rap\u003c/a> as a water-thirsty crop in drought-ridden California. But as an almond farmer, Massa sees much of that response as scapegoating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, it takes some water to grow [almonds], but if you look at what you get out of these nuts, [it’s worth it],” he says. “They’re really full of health benefits—they can \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes/almonds\">regulate your blood sugar\u003c/a> and hold your hunger at bay for several hours. I’d challenge you to find another crop that could do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greg says rice used to have a similarly bad rap. “In terms of water used per serving, rice can be pretty good. Lots of crops use a lot of water, and in most of California, you can’t dry-farm everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128777\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1.jpg\" alt=\"150 tons of compost to be spread on the Massa almond orchards.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1199\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128777\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-800x799.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-768x767.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-1020x1019.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-1180x1179.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-960x959.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-240x240.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-375x375.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-520x520.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-50x50.jpg 50w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">150 tons of compost to be spread on the Massa almond orchards. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With two water-intensive crops, Massa Organics is fortunately situated just a few hundred yards from the Sacramento River near its intersection with Stony Creek. Half the land is in an irrigation district with water rights from the river, and the other half of their water comes from what Greg called “very good groundwater,” with minimal sinking of the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Massa and Krach’s dedication to ecology and conservation—a view of the bigger picture that goes far beyond profits—has also inspired innovation. They live in a well-insulated, energy-efficient \u003ca href=\"http://massaorganics.com/the-house-that-rice-built\">rice straw-bale farmhouse\u003c/a>, use solar panels to provide approximately 90 percent of the farm’s energy, and use biodiesel made from vegetable oil they recycle from local restaurants to power most of the farm’s vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our background in ecology directs everything we do on the land,” Massa says. “We’re always looking to stack enterprises, integrate processes, grow new things, and grow them better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/05/29/growing-california-rice-and-almonds-against-the-grain/\">\u003cem>Civil Eats\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "These two crops are often treated like commodities in the state, but Greg Massa and Raquel Krach have prioritized a high-functioning ecosystem on their farm while selling direct to customers.\r\n\r\n",
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"description": "These two crops are often treated like commodities in the state, but Greg Massa and Raquel Krach have prioritized a high-functioning ecosystem on their farm while selling direct to customers.\r\n\r\n",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/author/dkim/\">Dakota Kim\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/05/29/growing-california-rice-and-almonds-against-the-grain/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>These two crops are often treated like commodities in the state, but Greg Massa and Raquel Krach have prioritized a high-functioning ecosystem on their farm while selling direct to customers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his now-weathered, century-old diary, Manuel Fonseca penned an entry in Portuguese about the many challenges he faced as a new immigrant trying to grow rice in California’s Sacramento Valley. Fonseca planted his first crop in 1916 and found himself wrestling with an alarming number of weeds in the paddies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the challenges, the farm survived, and three generations and a century later, his great-grandson Greg Massa is still growing rice, along with his wife Raquel Krach. Although Greg’s father, Manuel Massa Jr., opted to use herbicides, Greg has chosen to farm organically, meaning he’s facing the same weeds as his great-grandfather, which are difficult to remove once he floods his fields with nourishing waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We farm organically because we think spraying poison on food and on our environment is wrong,” Massa says. But being an organic rice farm has been anything but easy, requiring Massa and Krach to employ an arsenal of farming techniques: crop rotation, cover crops, field preparation, timely planting, and deep water followed by drought stress to restrain weeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rice is difficult to grow organically with modern varieties that were bred for high inputs of nitrogen and herbicides to kill weeds,” Massa explains. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. We’ve tried using goats, mowing, and spraying vinegar with limited success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Set on 200 verdant acres in Hamilton City, \u003ca href=\"http://massaorganics.com/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a> farms rice, almonds, sheep, and pigs. Sandwiched between two majestic national forests, the Mendocino and the Plumas, with the Sacramento River at its feet, Massa Organics is 15 miles from the university town of Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128779\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1.jpg\" alt=\"Massa Organics’ rice fields after a winter rain.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128779\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-fields-1-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Massa Organics’ rice fields after a winter rain. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though rice, which Massa sells to restaurants in town, is its primary selling staple, the farm also sells its grass-fed ground lamb at the Chico farmers’ market and raw nonpareil almonds, jars of almond butter, lamb, and pork to farmers’ markets in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a rice industry dominated by larger producers like \u003ca href=\"http://www.lundberg.com/\">Lundberg\u003c/a> (which does its own \u003ca href=\"http://www.lundberg.com/about/\">conservation work\u003c/a>), Massa Organics is the rare independent brand selling directly to its customers through markets, CSAs, and small retail stores using social media as a marketing tool. Rarer still is the Massa approach to farming as a means of ecological work. The couple views each crop as part of a \u003ca href=\"http://massaorganics.com/how-we-grow/\">fully functioning ecosystem\u003c/a>—the rice as part of a pond ecosystem and the almonds part of a woodland ecosystem—that relies on biodiversity and natural relationships for crop health.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>An Ecological Approach to Farming\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Massa and Krach both have Masters’ degrees in ecology and moved to the farm in 1997 with hopes of re-thinking his family’s approach to conventional commodity farming. Though they could have entered academia, the pair was inspired by Krach’s agroecology research on Costa Rican tropical tree plantations growing right next to rainforests without harming them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was doing my research on this actual plantation and thought, ‘This is kind of weird that I’m doing this in a research-based situation when we have a real farm,’” Krach says. Hoping to engage in applied ecology that made an immediate difference, she convinced Massa they could convert his family farm into a living experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We chose organic farming as a means of doing conservation work because our methods promote biodiversity by mimicking natural ecosystems,” Massa says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128780\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field.jpg\" alt=\"Snow geese spend a winter morning on the farm in this photo from a drone flying over Massa’s fields.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128780\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-geese-field-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snow geese spend a winter morning on the farm in this photo from a drone flying over Massa’s fields. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like Massa’s ancestors, he and Krach chose to farm medium-grain \u003ca href=\"https://healthyliving.azcentral.com/nutrition-of-calrose-rice-12230450.html\">Calrose rice\u003c/a>, a versatile variety bred specifically to flourish in California. The result is a sweet, nutty brown rice high in fiber and taste that Charles Phan, executive chef at the renowned San Francisco restaurant \u003ca href=\"http://www.slanteddoor.com/\">The Slanted Door\u003c/a>, serves and swears by. But its taste isn’t the only reason that Massa and Krach chose Calrose over jasmine and basmati varieties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Small farmers in Thailand sell a little jasmine rice, and they’re reliant on that for their income,” Massa said. “Many generations of Thai farmers worked to select jasmine rice to make it what it is. We decided early on we were not going to grow jasmine or basmati because it felt too much like stealing their genetic heritage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after taking over, Massa and Krach began to transition the land to organic, eventually diversifying the operation, adding almonds, wheat, and several heritage breeds of animals to the mix. By 2002, the rice operation was certified, and the rest followed over the course of the next eight years. Today, their whole operation is certified organic.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Creating a Natural Woodland Environment\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Integrating heritage animal breeds—Dorper sheep, Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs, and Berkshire pigs—has been an important way to improve the farm’s ecological footprint as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128781\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1.jpg\" alt=\"Some of Massa Organics’ piglets.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1133\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128781\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-160x151.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-800x755.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-768x725.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-1020x963.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-1180x1114.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-960x906.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-240x227.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-375x354.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-piglets-1-520x491.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some of Massa Organics’ piglets. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Krach and Massa have pioneered a natural grazing pattern for their sheep, converting their 30-acre almond orchard into a natural woodland. Every morning, and sometimes in the afternoons, Massa and Krach move an electric fence to cover a different 6,000- to 8,000-square foot area, guiding 100 Dorper sheep and lambs to a new patch of orchard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mimicking the ancient patterns of pack herbivores like pronghorn antelope, the sheep graze happily on perennials and other grasses. In the process, the herd replicates a natural woodland ecosystem—one that consists of mature trees, understory plants, large mammals, small mammals, birds, and insects all living in symbiosis that serve the crops well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woodland environment \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2010/05/26/beeline-to-extinction/\">attracts beneficial insects\u003c/a> that protect against pests, and the grazing animals naturally remove weeds, fertilize the almond trees with their waste, and create a richer soil for insects and thus a richer food source for birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Massa and Krach pasture their 120 pigs as well. In addition to creating natural fertilizer, Krach says the pigs provide a plowing function for the farmers, digging up stubborn weeds, and are mostly fed rice, wheat, safflower, and hay that is grown on the farm. “They’re part of the cycle,” she says. “If they tear up the ground, we can just plow it and move them out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agriculture is intricately connected to the larger web of life for the pair. “Everything we do with the animals is totally counter to mass production,” Krach says. “Letting them live like they should is the only way we can imagine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spring is a lively time for Krach, as she manages their animal operations. Most of the 45 ewes are pregnant this time of year and hungrily mow down the tall grasses by at least a foot over three or four hours in the field. Krach finds it hard to go inside when she’s standing in three-foot grass watching her ewes and 11 lambs, the babies frolicking in a beautiful pink sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1.jpg\" alt=\"Sheep before an approaching storm.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1036\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128782\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-160x138.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-800x691.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-768x663.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-1020x881.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-1180x1019.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-960x829.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-240x207.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-375x324.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-sheep-storm-1-520x449.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheep before an approaching storm. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty idyllic,” Krach says. “It’s hard work, but raising the sheep is fun, and it’s lambing time, so I can’t get enough of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, the lambs will go to the farmers’ market to be sold. Krach sees letting the animals go as part of the cycle and hopes to educate omnivores about where their meat comes from. “We hope we can teach people and they can learn about [how we raise animals] by knowing our farm or buying our products,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Water Limitations and an Ecological Lifestyle\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Almonds, like meat, have often \u003ca href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/09/california-stil-drought-and-almonds-are-still-sucking-lots-water/\">gotten a bad rap\u003c/a> as a water-thirsty crop in drought-ridden California. But as an almond farmer, Massa sees much of that response as scapegoating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, it takes some water to grow [almonds], but if you look at what you get out of these nuts, [it’s worth it],” he says. “They’re really full of health benefits—they can \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes/almonds\">regulate your blood sugar\u003c/a> and hold your hunger at bay for several hours. I’d challenge you to find another crop that could do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greg says rice used to have a similarly bad rap. “In terms of water used per serving, rice can be pretty good. Lots of crops use a lot of water, and in most of California, you can’t dry-farm everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128777\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1.jpg\" alt=\"150 tons of compost to be spread on the Massa almond orchards.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1199\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128777\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-800x799.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-768x767.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-1020x1019.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-1180x1179.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-960x959.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-240x240.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-375x375.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-520x520.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-50x50.jpg 50w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/06/180525-massa-organics-compost-1-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">150 tons of compost to be spread on the Massa almond orchards. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/massaorganics/\">Massa Organics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With two water-intensive crops, Massa Organics is fortunately situated just a few hundred yards from the Sacramento River near its intersection with Stony Creek. Half the land is in an irrigation district with water rights from the river, and the other half of their water comes from what Greg called “very good groundwater,” with minimal sinking of the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Massa and Krach’s dedication to ecology and conservation—a view of the bigger picture that goes far beyond profits—has also inspired innovation. They live in a well-insulated, energy-efficient \u003ca href=\"http://massaorganics.com/the-house-that-rice-built\">rice straw-bale farmhouse\u003c/a>, use solar panels to provide approximately 90 percent of the farm’s energy, and use biodiesel made from vegetable oil they recycle from local restaurants to power most of the farm’s vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our background in ecology directs everything we do on the land,” Massa says. “We’re always looking to stack enterprises, integrate processes, grow new things, and grow them better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/05/29/growing-california-rice-and-almonds-against-the-grain/\">\u003cem>Civil Eats\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "What Does the New Regenerative Organic Certification Mean for the Future of Good Food?",
"title": "What Does the New Regenerative Organic Certification Mean for the Future of Good Food?",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Bites | KQED Food",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Several new labels introduced recently seek to move beyond USDA organic. Can they shore up sustainable practices, or will they sow consumer confusion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organic is not enough. Or that’s the thinking behind the new \u003ca href=\"https://regenorganic.org/\">Regenerative Organic Certification\u003c/a> (ROC) that was officially launched at the Natural Products Expo West trade show last week. The Regenerative Organic Alliance, a coalition of organizations and businesses led by the Rodale Institute, Patagonia, and Dr. Bronner’s, have joined the seemingly \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/07/10/should-regenerative-agriculture-get-its-own-label/\">unstoppable engine propelling\u003c/a>sustainable agriculture beyond the term “organic,” or, as some believe, bringing it back to its original meaning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The USDA] Organic [label] is super important—thank goodness it was put into play,” says Birgit Cameron, senior director of Patagonia Provisions, an arm of Patagonia that aims to solve environmental issues by supporting climate-friendly food producers. “The ROC is absolutely never meant to replace it, but rather to keep it strong to the original intention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other newly proposed certifications—including the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.realorganicproject.org/\">The Real Organic Project\u003c/a>,” which was also announced last week—one of the Alliance’s primary goals is to require growers to focus on soil health and carbon sequestration. But, as Cameron explains, it is also an attempt to be a “north star” for the industry as a certification that encompasses the health of the planet, animal welfare, and social fairness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As producers move up through its tier system (bronze, silver, and gold) they will eventually set an even “higher bar” than any other labels offered right now. According to Jeff Moyer, executive director of the Rodale Institute, this built-in incentive to constantly improve on-farm practices is something the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) organic requirements lack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1059\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-126039\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-160x85.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-800x424.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-768x407.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-1020x540.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-1180x625.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-960x508.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-240x127.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-375x199.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-520x275.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you play with the federal government, you have to give up some things,” Moyer says. “Organic is a fairly static standard … once you become certified you’re in the club and there’s no incentive to move beyond that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Mechanics of a New Regenerative Label\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>There are still nuances that need to be worked out, but, as it stands now, USDA organic certification (or an international equivalent) is a baseline requirement for ROC certification—a company or farm must at least be USDA Organic certified to earn the ROC label. However, the Alliance—instead of the USDA—will oversee ROC certification. ROC-certified producers must also meet the requirements of one of the existing certifications for animal welfare and social fairness, such as \u003ca href=\"https://animalwelfareapproved.us/\">Animal-Welfare Approved\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.fairtradecertified.org/\">Fair Trade Certified\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Alliance’s goal is that ROC will be enforced through the same third-party certifier with whom producers are already working, such as Oregon Tilth or CCOF. Proponents say that requirements will be regularly reevaluated and updated as new practices emerge, and that in this way, it will be a living document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>USDA organic requirements are also meant to be updated through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic/nosb\">National Organic Standards Boards\u003c/a> (NOSB), a group of farmers, industry reps, and scientists that meets twice yearly in a public setting to discuss and vote on recommendations for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/programs-offices/national-organic-program\">National Organic Program\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Alliance is part of a growing group of activists and producers disillusioned with the NOSB’s decisions last year to \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/10/31/opinion-keep-organic-in-the-soil/\">allow soil-free crops\u003c/a>–such as those grown using hydroponics–to qualify as certified organic and the \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/12/18/years-in-the-making-trumps-usda-kills-organic-animal-welfare-rules/\">withdrawal of a rule that required improvements in animal welfare\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many view the co-opting of the word “organic” by \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/why-your-organic-milk-may-not-be-organic/2017/05/01/708ce5bc-ed76-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html?utm_term=.a36bfca5d8b8\">large corporations\u003c/a> and mono-crop farms as more evidence of the label’s erosion. They also worry about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/18/lax-enforcement-at-ports-allows-bogus-organic-foods-to-reach-u-s-government-report-says/?utm_term=.9153c0fb9a1d\">influx of fraudulent organic\u003c/a> food being imported into the country. And the fact that the current \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/10/17/the-state-of-trumps-usda-what-you-need-to-know/\">USDA\u003c/a> and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (\u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/02/05/trumps-epa-chief-is-reshaping-food-and-farming-what-you-need-to-know/\">EPA\u003c/a>) have both moved away from many of the values embraced by the organic movement in the last year seems to be spurring this new movement along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groups behind these labels are also slowly introducing the term “regenerative” to the mainstream. While there is not yet one official definition of the term, Kevin Boyer, project director at the newly established \u003ca href=\"http://regenerativeagriculturefoundation.org/\">Regenerative Agriculture Foundation\u003c/a>, an education and grant-making organization, summed regenerative ag up as “any system of agriculture that continuously improves the cycles on which it relies, including the human community, the biological community, and the economic community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Boyer says he knows of at least four other regenerative labels that are currently in the works, but ROC is the farthest along. (Not all will use organic certification as a baseline.) This influx of new standards contributes to the urgency the Alliance feels to get out in front of the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more popular it gets, the more vulnerable it is to having someone who is not part of the regenerative agriculture community come in and use it,” says Boyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Alliance held \u003ca href=\"http://standards.nsf.org/apps/group_public/document.php?document_id=39305\">a public comment period\u003c/a> facilitated by NSF International, a certifier with whom they have an established relationship. The certification has also gone through two revisions so far, but the Alliance deliberately chose not to pass it through a large committee of reviewers. Instead, they want to “put a stake in the ground” now by presenting it to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite goals that are broadly supported by many people in the sustainable agriculture community, ROC has garnered skepticism among those who believe it is working in a vacuum and further confusing a marketplace where consumers are already overwhelmed by an abundance of third-party labels such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nongmoproject.org/\">Non-GMO\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/faqs/what-does-rainforest-alliance-certified-mean\">Rainforest Alliance Certified\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think ROC did a really beautiful job in addressing all the things that regenerative agriculture is supposed to care about, but it has to be a conversation with the whole community and built in a way that truly promotes the inclusion the movement has had since the very beginning,” says Boyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Adding Confusion in a Crowded Marketplace?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Bob Scowcroft, the retired executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation and a 35-year activist and leader in the organic farming movement, also has concerns about splintering support for organic food. At the Ecological Farming Conference in January, he was dismayed to hear \u003ca href=\"https://eco-farm.org/conference/2018/session/scaling-soil-health-deliver-climate-solutions\">a panel of ROC underwriters\u003c/a> tell an audience of successful organic farmers, some of whom undoubtedly spent thousands of dollars on USDA organic certification, that it wasn’t enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I try to remind people … organic is only 4.8 percent of the food economy,” he says. “Ninety-five percent of the economy is still sprayed [with synthetic pesticides] or [made up of] CAFOs, so we’re going to shred each other? We can only afford to do that when organic is 45 percent of the economy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scowcroft welcomes a “certain amount of agitation” within the umbrella of sustainable agriculture and believes that everything can be improved, but he says adding yet another label into the mix—especially one that is wrapped up in a strong marketing platform instead of extensive research—might not make any significant improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regenerative agriculture is probably the 262nd term for organic. We really don’t want to do this again,” said Scowcroft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather, he would like to see more energy and faith put into the systems that are already established. He points to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/soils/health/\">increased awareness\u003c/a> within the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service about cover crops and soil runoff as evidence of the shared value for some “regenerative” requirements. And he supports more research on soil fertility, carbon sequestration, crop rotation, and perennial grasses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Scowcroft sees it, the finish line of the “30-year march” toward a better food system isn’t even close to being crossed, but there are many important placeholders that have already been set. Programs like the \u003ca href=\"https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/organic-agriculture-research-and-extension-initiative\">Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sare.org/\">Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education\u003c/a> grants have ushered in tremendous positive changes, he says, asking why anyone would want to give up on a system that is still malleable and able to get even stronger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The model is already there to bring that language to the National Organic Standard Board to further the conversation on eventual improvement,” Scowcroft says. “There shouldn’t be anything stopping anybody from doing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126038\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-126038\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/176791286\">Lee Health\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For other good food advocates, however, the NOSB’s recent decision not to ban hydroponic operations from organic certification was just the latest example of the fact that the board itself is now composed of a number of representatives of large corporations that would \u003ca href=\"http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/20672/national-organic-standards-board-organic-integrity-usda-corporate-power\">like to see the standards further watered down\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some folks fought so long and hard to get [federal organic standards] only to see these things trying to displace them,” says Boyer. “I credit the organic movement for creating an atmosphere that even allows this conversation. But, especially here in California, you don’t have to drive very far to see an organic farm that is not fulfilling the ideal organic vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some ranchers, like Julie Morris of \u003ca href=\"https://www.morrisgrassfed.com/\">Morris Grassfed Beef\u003c/a> in California’s San Benito County, say the organic label has never worked for her family’s operation. Unlike ROC, Morris says the original organic standards were written for fruit and vegetable growers and did not take adequately into account livestock practices. Morris Grassfed’s pastures are certified organic, but their beef is not because they work with smaller butchers who can’t always afford certification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, Morris is excited about the coming wave of regenerative standards because, she believes it will consider more of the practices she and her husband already use on their land, with their animals and their employees. For years they have been “first-person certified”—a term Morris uses to describe how they earn customers’ loyalty by showing them first-hand how they run their ranch. But, as more people seek out these kinds of products she says those direct connections don’t always happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Consumers want to know that we nurture the earth, raise our animals humanely, and pay our workers fairly,” she said. “We will now have a chance to share that and be transparent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, the Alliance hopes that farmers will also choose to get on board because of the potential market pull and additional premium they could receive for something with the ROC stamp. As Cameron explains, the Alliance is counting on the fact that a significant portion of consumers are already searching for something that exceeds organic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, however, any premiums are speculative. The Alliance is still in the process of deciding whether the label will be consumer-facing or will just come into play in business-to-business interactions. Patagonia, for example, could say they will only buy cotton from farms that are regenerative organic certified, which would be a boon to the farmers, but not much of a step toward educating the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Producers] may or may not advertise to consumers,” says Moyer. “If the market says ‘this is confusing me,’ they might not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Morris, Loren Poncia, rancher and owner of \u003ca href=\"https://stemplecreek.com/\">Stemple Creek Ranch\u003c/a> in Marin County, California, is intrigued by the possibility that this one certification could help consolidate several of the certifications he already earns. And since his pastures are already certified organic and part of the Global Animal Partnership, Stemple Creek might be a prime contender for ROC. But it will also depend on how laborious the certification process is. It’s a challenge, Poncia says, to manage the ranch, the business, and also keep up with all the certifications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless customers are coming to me and asking, ‘Are you certified by this?’ it’s probably not going to motivate me to get another certification,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another sticking point for some people is the question of specific practices versus outcomes. Right now, ROC, like other certifications, is primarily practice-based rather than measuring specific data-driven outcomes. At first glance, focusing on practices might help regulate the methods (i.e., inputs, tillage, irrigation) a farmer or rancher might employ and get them to their goal more quickly. But Boyer from the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation argues that the opposite tends to happen. He says that a practice-based standard restricts farmers by telling them what they can and cannot do instead of fostering innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people are good at ticking the boxes, but nothing new comes out of that,” Boyer says. “That doesn’t grow the movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, an outcomes-based standard encourages farmers to “employ their creativity.” It makes loopholes less appealing because there is more freedom for farmers to utilize practices that are specific to their operations and, therefore, more successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing that everyone agrees on is that the Alliance has more work to do. The next step is to run pilot programs with interested farmers—many of whom are already on their way to reaching the standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/03/12/what-does-the-new-regenerative-organic-certification-mean-for-the-future-of-good-food/\">\u003cem>Civil Eats\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Several new labels introduced recently seek to move beyond USDA organic. Can they shore up sustainable practices, or will they sow consumer confusion?",
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"description": "Several new labels introduced recently seek to move beyond USDA organic. Can they shore up sustainable practices, or will they sow consumer confusion?",
"title": "What Does the New Regenerative Organic Certification Mean for the Future of Good Food? | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/author/areguzzoni/\">Ariana Reguzzoni,\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Several new labels introduced recently seek to move beyond USDA organic. Can they shore up sustainable practices, or will they sow consumer confusion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organic is not enough. Or that’s the thinking behind the new \u003ca href=\"https://regenorganic.org/\">Regenerative Organic Certification\u003c/a> (ROC) that was officially launched at the Natural Products Expo West trade show last week. The Regenerative Organic Alliance, a coalition of organizations and businesses led by the Rodale Institute, Patagonia, and Dr. Bronner’s, have joined the seemingly \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/07/10/should-regenerative-agriculture-get-its-own-label/\">unstoppable engine propelling\u003c/a>sustainable agriculture beyond the term “organic,” or, as some believe, bringing it back to its original meaning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The USDA] Organic [label] is super important—thank goodness it was put into play,” says Birgit Cameron, senior director of Patagonia Provisions, an arm of Patagonia that aims to solve environmental issues by supporting climate-friendly food producers. “The ROC is absolutely never meant to replace it, but rather to keep it strong to the original intention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other newly proposed certifications—including the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.realorganicproject.org/\">The Real Organic Project\u003c/a>,” which was also announced last week—one of the Alliance’s primary goals is to require growers to focus on soil health and carbon sequestration. But, as Cameron explains, it is also an attempt to be a “north star” for the industry as a certification that encompasses the health of the planet, animal welfare, and social fairness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As producers move up through its tier system (bronze, silver, and gold) they will eventually set an even “higher bar” than any other labels offered right now. According to Jeff Moyer, executive director of the Rodale Institute, this built-in incentive to constantly improve on-farm practices is something the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) organic requirements lack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1059\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-126039\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-160x85.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-800x424.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-768x407.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-1020x540.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-1180x625.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-960x508.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-240x127.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-375x199.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-standards-520x275.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you play with the federal government, you have to give up some things,” Moyer says. “Organic is a fairly static standard … once you become certified you’re in the club and there’s no incentive to move beyond that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Mechanics of a New Regenerative Label\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>There are still nuances that need to be worked out, but, as it stands now, USDA organic certification (or an international equivalent) is a baseline requirement for ROC certification—a company or farm must at least be USDA Organic certified to earn the ROC label. However, the Alliance—instead of the USDA—will oversee ROC certification. ROC-certified producers must also meet the requirements of one of the existing certifications for animal welfare and social fairness, such as \u003ca href=\"https://animalwelfareapproved.us/\">Animal-Welfare Approved\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.fairtradecertified.org/\">Fair Trade Certified\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Alliance’s goal is that ROC will be enforced through the same third-party certifier with whom producers are already working, such as Oregon Tilth or CCOF. Proponents say that requirements will be regularly reevaluated and updated as new practices emerge, and that in this way, it will be a living document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>USDA organic requirements are also meant to be updated through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic/nosb\">National Organic Standards Boards\u003c/a> (NOSB), a group of farmers, industry reps, and scientists that meets twice yearly in a public setting to discuss and vote on recommendations for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/programs-offices/national-organic-program\">National Organic Program\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Alliance is part of a growing group of activists and producers disillusioned with the NOSB’s decisions last year to \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/10/31/opinion-keep-organic-in-the-soil/\">allow soil-free crops\u003c/a>–such as those grown using hydroponics–to qualify as certified organic and the \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/12/18/years-in-the-making-trumps-usda-kills-organic-animal-welfare-rules/\">withdrawal of a rule that required improvements in animal welfare\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many view the co-opting of the word “organic” by \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/why-your-organic-milk-may-not-be-organic/2017/05/01/708ce5bc-ed76-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html?utm_term=.a36bfca5d8b8\">large corporations\u003c/a> and mono-crop farms as more evidence of the label’s erosion. They also worry about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/18/lax-enforcement-at-ports-allows-bogus-organic-foods-to-reach-u-s-government-report-says/?utm_term=.9153c0fb9a1d\">influx of fraudulent organic\u003c/a> food being imported into the country. And the fact that the current \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2017/10/17/the-state-of-trumps-usda-what-you-need-to-know/\">USDA\u003c/a> and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (\u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/02/05/trumps-epa-chief-is-reshaping-food-and-farming-what-you-need-to-know/\">EPA\u003c/a>) have both moved away from many of the values embraced by the organic movement in the last year seems to be spurring this new movement along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groups behind these labels are also slowly introducing the term “regenerative” to the mainstream. While there is not yet one official definition of the term, Kevin Boyer, project director at the newly established \u003ca href=\"http://regenerativeagriculturefoundation.org/\">Regenerative Agriculture Foundation\u003c/a>, an education and grant-making organization, summed regenerative ag up as “any system of agriculture that continuously improves the cycles on which it relies, including the human community, the biological community, and the economic community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Boyer says he knows of at least four other regenerative labels that are currently in the works, but ROC is the farthest along. (Not all will use organic certification as a baseline.) This influx of new standards contributes to the urgency the Alliance feels to get out in front of the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more popular it gets, the more vulnerable it is to having someone who is not part of the regenerative agriculture community come in and use it,” says Boyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Alliance held \u003ca href=\"http://standards.nsf.org/apps/group_public/document.php?document_id=39305\">a public comment period\u003c/a> facilitated by NSF International, a certifier with whom they have an established relationship. The certification has also gone through two revisions so far, but the Alliance deliberately chose not to pass it through a large committee of reviewers. Instead, they want to “put a stake in the ground” now by presenting it to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite goals that are broadly supported by many people in the sustainable agriculture community, ROC has garnered skepticism among those who believe it is working in a vacuum and further confusing a marketplace where consumers are already overwhelmed by an abundance of third-party labels such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nongmoproject.org/\">Non-GMO\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/faqs/what-does-rainforest-alliance-certified-mean\">Rainforest Alliance Certified\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think ROC did a really beautiful job in addressing all the things that regenerative agriculture is supposed to care about, but it has to be a conversation with the whole community and built in a way that truly promotes the inclusion the movement has had since the very beginning,” says Boyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Adding Confusion in a Crowded Marketplace?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Bob Scowcroft, the retired executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation and a 35-year activist and leader in the organic farming movement, also has concerns about splintering support for organic food. At the Ecological Farming Conference in January, he was dismayed to hear \u003ca href=\"https://eco-farm.org/conference/2018/session/scaling-soil-health-deliver-climate-solutions\">a panel of ROC underwriters\u003c/a> tell an audience of successful organic farmers, some of whom undoubtedly spent thousands of dollars on USDA organic certification, that it wasn’t enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I try to remind people … organic is only 4.8 percent of the food economy,” he says. “Ninety-five percent of the economy is still sprayed [with synthetic pesticides] or [made up of] CAFOs, so we’re going to shred each other? We can only afford to do that when organic is 45 percent of the economy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scowcroft welcomes a “certain amount of agitation” within the umbrella of sustainable agriculture and believes that everything can be improved, but he says adding yet another label into the mix—especially one that is wrapped up in a strong marketing platform instead of extensive research—might not make any significant improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regenerative agriculture is probably the 262nd term for organic. We really don’t want to do this again,” said Scowcroft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather, he would like to see more energy and faith put into the systems that are already established. He points to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/soils/health/\">increased awareness\u003c/a> within the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service about cover crops and soil runoff as evidence of the shared value for some “regenerative” requirements. And he supports more research on soil fertility, carbon sequestration, crop rotation, and perennial grasses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Scowcroft sees it, the finish line of the “30-year march” toward a better food system isn’t even close to being crossed, but there are many important placeholders that have already been set. Programs like the \u003ca href=\"https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/organic-agriculture-research-and-extension-initiative\">Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sare.org/\">Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education\u003c/a> grants have ushered in tremendous positive changes, he says, asking why anyone would want to give up on a system that is still malleable and able to get even stronger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The model is already there to bring that language to the National Organic Standard Board to further the conversation on eventual improvement,” Scowcroft says. “There shouldn’t be anything stopping anybody from doing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126038\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-126038\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-768x512.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/24/2018/03/180312-regenerative-agriculture-grocery-foods-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/176791286\">Lee Health\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For other good food advocates, however, the NOSB’s recent decision not to ban hydroponic operations from organic certification was just the latest example of the fact that the board itself is now composed of a number of representatives of large corporations that would \u003ca href=\"http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/20672/national-organic-standards-board-organic-integrity-usda-corporate-power\">like to see the standards further watered down\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some folks fought so long and hard to get [federal organic standards] only to see these things trying to displace them,” says Boyer. “I credit the organic movement for creating an atmosphere that even allows this conversation. But, especially here in California, you don’t have to drive very far to see an organic farm that is not fulfilling the ideal organic vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some ranchers, like Julie Morris of \u003ca href=\"https://www.morrisgrassfed.com/\">Morris Grassfed Beef\u003c/a> in California’s San Benito County, say the organic label has never worked for her family’s operation. Unlike ROC, Morris says the original organic standards were written for fruit and vegetable growers and did not take adequately into account livestock practices. Morris Grassfed’s pastures are certified organic, but their beef is not because they work with smaller butchers who can’t always afford certification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, Morris is excited about the coming wave of regenerative standards because, she believes it will consider more of the practices she and her husband already use on their land, with their animals and their employees. For years they have been “first-person certified”—a term Morris uses to describe how they earn customers’ loyalty by showing them first-hand how they run their ranch. But, as more people seek out these kinds of products she says those direct connections don’t always happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Consumers want to know that we nurture the earth, raise our animals humanely, and pay our workers fairly,” she said. “We will now have a chance to share that and be transparent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, the Alliance hopes that farmers will also choose to get on board because of the potential market pull and additional premium they could receive for something with the ROC stamp. As Cameron explains, the Alliance is counting on the fact that a significant portion of consumers are already searching for something that exceeds organic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, however, any premiums are speculative. The Alliance is still in the process of deciding whether the label will be consumer-facing or will just come into play in business-to-business interactions. Patagonia, for example, could say they will only buy cotton from farms that are regenerative organic certified, which would be a boon to the farmers, but not much of a step toward educating the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Producers] may or may not advertise to consumers,” says Moyer. “If the market says ‘this is confusing me,’ they might not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Morris, Loren Poncia, rancher and owner of \u003ca href=\"https://stemplecreek.com/\">Stemple Creek Ranch\u003c/a> in Marin County, California, is intrigued by the possibility that this one certification could help consolidate several of the certifications he already earns. And since his pastures are already certified organic and part of the Global Animal Partnership, Stemple Creek might be a prime contender for ROC. But it will also depend on how laborious the certification process is. It’s a challenge, Poncia says, to manage the ranch, the business, and also keep up with all the certifications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless customers are coming to me and asking, ‘Are you certified by this?’ it’s probably not going to motivate me to get another certification,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another sticking point for some people is the question of specific practices versus outcomes. Right now, ROC, like other certifications, is primarily practice-based rather than measuring specific data-driven outcomes. At first glance, focusing on practices might help regulate the methods (i.e., inputs, tillage, irrigation) a farmer or rancher might employ and get them to their goal more quickly. But Boyer from the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation argues that the opposite tends to happen. He says that a practice-based standard restricts farmers by telling them what they can and cannot do instead of fostering innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people are good at ticking the boxes, but nothing new comes out of that,” Boyer says. “That doesn’t grow the movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, an outcomes-based standard encourages farmers to “employ their creativity.” It makes loopholes less appealing because there is more freedom for farmers to utilize practices that are specific to their operations and, therefore, more successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing that everyone agrees on is that the Alliance has more work to do. The next step is to run pilot programs with interested farmers—many of whom are already on their way to reaching the standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/03/12/what-does-the-new-regenerative-organic-certification-mean-for-the-future-of-good-food/\">\u003cem>Civil Eats\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "How an Iowa Law Requiring Grocers to Sell Conventional Eggs is Stirring Controversy",
"title": "How an Iowa Law Requiring Grocers to Sell Conventional Eggs is Stirring Controversy",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Supporters of a new bill say its purpose is for more equity for low-income consumers, but advocates claim it’s propping up industrial agriculture.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite igniting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/07/iowa-stores-may-be-forced-to-sell-eggs-from-battery-hens\">national controversy\u003c/a>, Iowa lawmakers are quickly moving forward with a law that would require grocery stores to sell conventional eggs from hens raised in battery cages if they also sell “specialty” eggs with labels like cage-free and free-range. The House passed \u003ca href=\"https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=87&ba=HF2408\">House File 2408\u003c/a> at the end of February, and it then passed the Senate earlier this week. The bill has now been sent to Governor Kim Reynolds to be signed into law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Animal rights and food safety groups like \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercyforanimals.org/\">Mercy for Animals\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.humanesociety.org/?credit=web_id93480558\">Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)\u003c/a> are fighting against its passage, urging governor Reynolds to veto the law. The stated intent of the law is to guarantee access to eggs for low-income recipients of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children ( WIC) benefits, who are not allowed to buy cage-free eggs. (More on that below.) However, advocates say it’s a blatant attempt to prop up the caged-egg industry at a time when American consumers are demanding more humane conditions for farm animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Each hen caged by the egg industry has less space than the dimensions of an iPad,” said Chris Holbein, public policy director of farm animal protection for HSUS. “Not only is this extremely cruel, but it \u003ca href=\"http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/salmonella.html\">increases food safety risks\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iowa is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.iowaegg.org/iowa-egg-farmers/\">leading producer\u003c/a> of eggs in the country, and its caged egg industry purchases massive amounts of the state’s commodity corn and soy for feed. Representative Jarad Klein, who introduced the bill in the House, has received considerable \u003ca href=\"https://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=12999607\">campaign contributions\u003c/a> in the past from agribusiness companies and groups with a major stake in those industries, such as Monsanto and the Iowa Corn Growers Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a proud Iowa egg producer and small sustainable and traditional family farmer, I know firsthand just how harmful industrial animal agriculture has been to the Iowa way of life,” farmer Becky Higgins wrote \u003ca href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2018/02/20/iowa-legislature-tell-grocers-what-kind-eggs-they-can-sell/355510002/\">in recent an op-ed\u003c/a> in the \u003cem>Des Moines Register\u003c/em>. “The government has no place mandating that grocers must sell a product that family farmers, businesses, and consumers reject.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the law also say it is anti-free market. “During this whole movement of going from caged to cage-free, the big argument that was given by the same agribusiness groups, was that we should let the market make these decisions,” said Matt O’Hayer, founder of \u003ca href=\"https://vitalfarms.com/\">Vital Farms\u003c/a>, the country’s largest producer of pasture-raised eggs. “All of a sudden, now that the market has made a decision, they’ve come back and said, instead, that they want to use legislation to force grocery stores to sell these [conventional eggs].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it’s ultimately enacted or not, the law points to a larger battle that will continue to play out as conventional egg producers look for ways to hang onto as much of the market as possible as more retailers and consumers choose alternatives like cage-free, pasture-raised, and organic.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Details and Implications of the Law\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Despite receiving national attention, the immediate implication of the bill is that it could slow the tidal shift toward cage-free eggs, at least in Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation applies only to grocers that accept benefits through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) WIC program, a supplemental nutrition program for low-income mothers and their children. It also only applies to grocers that sold conventional eggs before January 1, 2018. That means stores that already only sell cage-free eggs would not be affected, and new grocers that make that choice would also be exempt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The retailers most likely to be affected are grocers that have made commitments to switch to entirely cage-free within the next few years. Walmart, for example, has close to \u003ca href=\"https://idph.iowa.gov/Portals/1/userfiles/184/WIC%20Approved%20Vendors_2.pdf\">60 stores\u003c/a> that accept WIC benefits in Iowa and has \u003ca href=\"https://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2016/04/05/walmart-us-announces-transition-to-cage-free-egg-supply-chain-by-2025\">pledged\u003c/a> to transition to a completely cage-free supply chain by 2025. Under this law, its Iowa stores would have to reverse course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why can’t WIC recipients buy cage-free eggs? While the USDA does not mandate the exact \u003ca href=\"https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-food-packages-regulatory-requirements-wic-eligible-foods#EGGS\">type of eggs\u003c/a> WIC recipients can buy, some states do, in order to keep purchasing within budget constraints. In Iowa and many other states, that means WIC recipients are not allowed to buy eggs that make “any special health claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other states it’s even more specific. New York, for example, specifically omits from WIC eggs labeled cage-free, free-range, or organic. In other words, if all grocery stores in New York started only selling cage-free eggs tomorrow, recipients of WIC wouldn’t be able to buy eggs with their benefits at all. Since nearly all of the country’s national grocery chains have committed to switching to cage-free, those WIC requirements may have to be reconsidered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Iowa, critics say the state lawmakers are using the government assistance program as a ploy, since some of the biggest grocery chains, like \u003ca href=\"https://hy-vee-company.azurewebsites.net/corporate/news-events/news-press-releases/hy-vees-statement-on-cage-free-eggs/\">Hy-Vee,\u003c/a> have publicly said they would not make the switch. Advocates say that shows that the bill’s real objective is to prop up agribusiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the tactic draws attention to what could be a real issue as consumer demand shifts toward eggs from chickens raised in more humane environments generally. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/programs-offices/livestock-poultry-seed-program\">the UDSA Livestock, Poultry, and Seed Program\u003c/a>, the percentage of egg-laying hens being raised cage-free compared to all egg-laying hens in the U.S. rose from just over 3 percent in 2007 to over 16 percent in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More than 200 of the world’s leading companies, including Walmart, Costco, Dollar Tree, and McDonalds are switching exclusively to cage-free eggs because doing so is better for their customers and for animals,” said HSUS’s Holbein. And while Iowa egg producers may think this law will help them in the short term, he says, it goes against their long-term interests, because they “will inevitably have to meet the growing demand for cage-free conversions by consumers and retailers,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other states, momentum to pass cage-free laws have moved in in the opposite direction. California’s \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_2,_Standards_for_Confining_Farm_Animals_(2008)\">Proposition 2\u003c/a> was the first state law to ban the confinement of chickens in battery cages. In Massachusetts in 2016, 77 percent of voters approved a \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2015/09/08/the-cage-free-egg-battle-goes-to-massachusetts/\">measure\u003c/a> that would only allow cage-free eggs to be sold in the state after 2022. In both states, however, those laws are being challenged in lawsuits brought by other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even with the passage of those laws, there remains plenty of uncertainty about truth-in-labeling on “free-range” eggs. Earlier this year, Walmart was \u003ca href=\"https://newfoodeconomy.org/walmart-organic-egg-outdoor-access-fraud-lawsuit/\">hit with a class-action lawsuit\u003c/a> alleging the retailer and Cal-Maine Foods misled shoppers by describing eggs from hens raised in eight windowless structures in Kansas as coming from birds “free to roam, nest and perch in a protected barn with outdoor access.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battle, then, will continue—in Iowa and across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/03/09/how-an-iowa-law-requiring-grocers-to-sell-conventional-eggs-is-stirring-controversy/\">\u003cem>Civil Eats\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/author/lheld/\">Lisa Held,\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/\">Civil Eats\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Supporters of a new bill say its purpose is for more equity for low-income consumers, but advocates claim it’s propping up industrial agriculture.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite igniting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/07/iowa-stores-may-be-forced-to-sell-eggs-from-battery-hens\">national controversy\u003c/a>, Iowa lawmakers are quickly moving forward with a law that would require grocery stores to sell conventional eggs from hens raised in battery cages if they also sell “specialty” eggs with labels like cage-free and free-range. The House passed \u003ca href=\"https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=87&ba=HF2408\">House File 2408\u003c/a> at the end of February, and it then passed the Senate earlier this week. The bill has now been sent to Governor Kim Reynolds to be signed into law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Animal rights and food safety groups like \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercyforanimals.org/\">Mercy for Animals\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.humanesociety.org/?credit=web_id93480558\">Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)\u003c/a> are fighting against its passage, urging governor Reynolds to veto the law. The stated intent of the law is to guarantee access to eggs for low-income recipients of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children ( WIC) benefits, who are not allowed to buy cage-free eggs. (More on that below.) However, advocates say it’s a blatant attempt to prop up the caged-egg industry at a time when American consumers are demanding more humane conditions for farm animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Each hen caged by the egg industry has less space than the dimensions of an iPad,” said Chris Holbein, public policy director of farm animal protection for HSUS. “Not only is this extremely cruel, but it \u003ca href=\"http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/salmonella.html\">increases food safety risks\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iowa is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.iowaegg.org/iowa-egg-farmers/\">leading producer\u003c/a> of eggs in the country, and its caged egg industry purchases massive amounts of the state’s commodity corn and soy for feed. Representative Jarad Klein, who introduced the bill in the House, has received considerable \u003ca href=\"https://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=12999607\">campaign contributions\u003c/a> in the past from agribusiness companies and groups with a major stake in those industries, such as Monsanto and the Iowa Corn Growers Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a proud Iowa egg producer and small sustainable and traditional family farmer, I know firsthand just how harmful industrial animal agriculture has been to the Iowa way of life,” farmer Becky Higgins wrote \u003ca href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2018/02/20/iowa-legislature-tell-grocers-what-kind-eggs-they-can-sell/355510002/\">in recent an op-ed\u003c/a> in the \u003cem>Des Moines Register\u003c/em>. “The government has no place mandating that grocers must sell a product that family farmers, businesses, and consumers reject.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the law also say it is anti-free market. “During this whole movement of going from caged to cage-free, the big argument that was given by the same agribusiness groups, was that we should let the market make these decisions,” said Matt O’Hayer, founder of \u003ca href=\"https://vitalfarms.com/\">Vital Farms\u003c/a>, the country’s largest producer of pasture-raised eggs. “All of a sudden, now that the market has made a decision, they’ve come back and said, instead, that they want to use legislation to force grocery stores to sell these [conventional eggs].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it’s ultimately enacted or not, the law points to a larger battle that will continue to play out as conventional egg producers look for ways to hang onto as much of the market as possible as more retailers and consumers choose alternatives like cage-free, pasture-raised, and organic.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>Details and Implications of the Law\u003c/strong>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Despite receiving national attention, the immediate implication of the bill is that it could slow the tidal shift toward cage-free eggs, at least in Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation applies only to grocers that accept benefits through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) WIC program, a supplemental nutrition program for low-income mothers and their children. It also only applies to grocers that sold conventional eggs before January 1, 2018. That means stores that already only sell cage-free eggs would not be affected, and new grocers that make that choice would also be exempt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The retailers most likely to be affected are grocers that have made commitments to switch to entirely cage-free within the next few years. Walmart, for example, has close to \u003ca href=\"https://idph.iowa.gov/Portals/1/userfiles/184/WIC%20Approved%20Vendors_2.pdf\">60 stores\u003c/a> that accept WIC benefits in Iowa and has \u003ca href=\"https://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2016/04/05/walmart-us-announces-transition-to-cage-free-egg-supply-chain-by-2025\">pledged\u003c/a> to transition to a completely cage-free supply chain by 2025. Under this law, its Iowa stores would have to reverse course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why can’t WIC recipients buy cage-free eggs? While the USDA does not mandate the exact \u003ca href=\"https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-food-packages-regulatory-requirements-wic-eligible-foods#EGGS\">type of eggs\u003c/a> WIC recipients can buy, some states do, in order to keep purchasing within budget constraints. In Iowa and many other states, that means WIC recipients are not allowed to buy eggs that make “any special health claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other states it’s even more specific. New York, for example, specifically omits from WIC eggs labeled cage-free, free-range, or organic. In other words, if all grocery stores in New York started only selling cage-free eggs tomorrow, recipients of WIC wouldn’t be able to buy eggs with their benefits at all. Since nearly all of the country’s national grocery chains have committed to switching to cage-free, those WIC requirements may have to be reconsidered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Iowa, critics say the state lawmakers are using the government assistance program as a ploy, since some of the biggest grocery chains, like \u003ca href=\"https://hy-vee-company.azurewebsites.net/corporate/news-events/news-press-releases/hy-vees-statement-on-cage-free-eggs/\">Hy-Vee,\u003c/a> have publicly said they would not make the switch. Advocates say that shows that the bill’s real objective is to prop up agribusiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the tactic draws attention to what could be a real issue as consumer demand shifts toward eggs from chickens raised in more humane environments generally. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/programs-offices/livestock-poultry-seed-program\">the UDSA Livestock, Poultry, and Seed Program\u003c/a>, the percentage of egg-laying hens being raised cage-free compared to all egg-laying hens in the U.S. rose from just over 3 percent in 2007 to over 16 percent in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More than 200 of the world’s leading companies, including Walmart, Costco, Dollar Tree, and McDonalds are switching exclusively to cage-free eggs because doing so is better for their customers and for animals,” said HSUS’s Holbein. And while Iowa egg producers may think this law will help them in the short term, he says, it goes against their long-term interests, because they “will inevitably have to meet the growing demand for cage-free conversions by consumers and retailers,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other states, momentum to pass cage-free laws have moved in in the opposite direction. California’s \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_2,_Standards_for_Confining_Farm_Animals_(2008)\">Proposition 2\u003c/a> was the first state law to ban the confinement of chickens in battery cages. In Massachusetts in 2016, 77 percent of voters approved a \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2015/09/08/the-cage-free-egg-battle-goes-to-massachusetts/\">measure\u003c/a> that would only allow cage-free eggs to be sold in the state after 2022. In both states, however, those laws are being challenged in lawsuits brought by other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even with the passage of those laws, there remains plenty of uncertainty about truth-in-labeling on “free-range” eggs. Earlier this year, Walmart was \u003ca href=\"https://newfoodeconomy.org/walmart-organic-egg-outdoor-access-fraud-lawsuit/\">hit with a class-action lawsuit\u003c/a> alleging the retailer and Cal-Maine Foods misled shoppers by describing eggs from hens raised in eight windowless structures in Kansas as coming from birds “free to roam, nest and perch in a protected barn with outdoor access.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battle, then, will continue—in Iowa and across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://civileats.com/2018/03/09/how-an-iowa-law-requiring-grocers-to-sell-conventional-eggs-is-stirring-controversy/\">\u003cem>Civil Eats\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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