Civil Eats

With young people revolutionizing the good food movement, it’s slightly ironic that at 29, I’m farming on one of the oldest agricultural landmarks in Missouri. I first visited the Mueller Farm as a teenager, when my dad took me there to visit Al and Caroline Mueller, who had been working the land since FDR was president. Since I was his “vegetable-eating” kid who grew food in our backyard, my dad thought I might like to see a “bigger garden.” It seems only fitting that now I’m back, trying to help the Mueller’s legacy grow into even bigger “gardens” throughout St. Louis. Read More

It usually surprises people when I say that it’s a great time to be in agriculture. While the number of farmers has declined significantly since our parents’ generation, there’s no denying that food prices are up, as are the prices for farmland. And the pressure is on to feed a world population growing from six billion to nine billion. We all need to eat, and it seems that finally we’re coming to realize how critical agriculture is. Read More

I never imagined myself cooking for kids. I spent most of my first three decades as a chef not knowing or caring what kids ate, and not really wanting to feed them. In fact, as a restaurant chef, my worst nightmare was the host coming into the kitchen on a Saturday night, saying, “Chef, there’s a screaming kid on table 19. What do I do?”

My response: “Tell them to leave. Why did they bring kids here on a Saturday night, anyway?”

What a difference a decade makes. Today all of my work surrounds feeding kids healthy food, teaching them how to eat well, and working nationally to assure that all kids have access to delicious, nutritious food in school every single day. Read More

With strawberries lining grocery shelves from Boston to Tokyo, some say that global food supply chains are becoming ever more complex. In one sense, that’s true: speeding fresh-picked fruit across the country, or around the world, is no small trick. But in order to achieve this, it is actually necessary to simplify the way food is grown—to turn food from a source of nutrition and local pride into an industrial commodity produced by industrial-scale farms. Read More

Today, NRDC announced the winners of its 2011 Growing Green Awards–extraordinary leaders in the field of sustainable food and agriculture who are making our food healthier for our bodies and the environment. Each year, NRDC recognizes farmers, food producers, businesses and bold thinkers who transforming the future of our food system. Read More

As a rancher and environmental lawyer, when I write or speak about America’s food system, usually it’s related to impacts on natural resources–air, water, and soils. But these last few years I’ve also become increasingly interested in how what we eat, and the way we eat, affects our health. With diet related problems like obesity and type II diabetes reaching dangerous levels, public officials finally seem poised to take action on what has grown into a crisis. At the same time, thousands of diverse individuals all over the country–from moms to school administrators to farmers–are taking food matters into their own hands. The reality is that truly changing the way America eats and produces its food will require both public and private action. Read More

Each year, NRDC recognizes sustainable food pioneers across the United States through the Growing Green Awards. OnEarth is publishing blog posts from this year’s four winners and two of the judges. All of the posts can be found here.

The soil and geology act like its skin and bones. Water functions like blood, the vines, gardens and insectaries are the lungs, and engineered wetlands for our water recycling ponds act as the kidneys.

For the entire organism to run properly and function at the highest level, we have to create a synergy between each of the parts. So we try to grow grapes and produce wine the best way we know how – with Biodynamic® and natural farming practices.

We didn’t always approach our farming in this holistic way. Read More

Each year, NRDC recognizes sustainable food pioneers across the United States through the Growing Green Awards. OnEarth is publishing blog posts from this year’s four winners and two of the judges. All of the posts can be found here.

I got my first glimpse of sustainable agriculture from my father, a North Dakota farmer who had faced the ravages of the Dust Bowl and vowed never to let that happen to his land again. His livelihood depended on healthy soils, and with two kids to feed, taking care of the land meant taking care of his family. Read More

Each year, NRDC recognizes sustainable food pioneers across the United States through the Growing Green Awards. OnEarth is publishing blog posts from this year’s four winners and two of the judges. All of the posts can be found here.

Shepherd’s Grain started with two traditional Pacific Northwest wheat growers. We raised commodity wheat and sold it by the bushel to the commodity market, where it was mixed with anonymous wheat from all over the U.S. and exported to countries along the Asian rim.

Back then, the market didn’t reward growers for quality or good stewardship. We grew wheat at the lowest cost possible. We handed it over to the market, and couldn’t track how the wheat was processed or where it ended up. Read More