Volunteer, MN350 Food Systems Team
From the MN350 Food Systems Team comes a podcast about how we create a food system that is local, regenerative, and equitable.
Nourish by MN350 introduces listeners to real-world examples of the food systems we want to create and how these examples address issues created by our current industrial food system. Two episodes are now available:
- “Diversity Matters.” In the first episode of Nourish by MN350, host Terry Hokenson connects with his guests Shona Snater of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP), Bob Dahm of Organic Bob Lawn Care, and Leslie McKenzie, founder of Transition Longfellow. Together they explore the idea that agriculture and gardening can play a role in solving the climate crisis.
Shona describes her work in southern MN with farmers reaching out to learn all they can about regenerative farming practices, and why diversity in the soil matters. She explains six separate goals LSP has for creating farmland that is diverse and regenerative. Bob speaks to us about our yards. He works to convince his customers to plant diverse, native plants in their yards as a more sustainable practice. He also manages to keep lawns, for those who have them, lush and green without harmful chemicals. Leslie points out the benefits of keeping chickens in the city as a way to improve our soil and shares resources for consumers looking to buy in to the regenerative food economy.
- “I’d call it ‘stewardship’.” Is the practice of agriculture an immediate detriment to the land if it forces a crop to grow in a non-native habitat? Is sustainable agriculture really the goal if it merely sustains mediocrity?
In this episode of Nourish, Terry continues the conversation about regenerative agriculture with two inspiring caretakers of the Earth, who share their knowledge on Indigenous ways of growing food that focus on healing the land and all life that depends on Her.
Francis Bettelyoun (Oglala Lakȟóta-Očhéthi Šakówiŋ) is the co-creator of Buffalo Star People Healing Circles, which provides transformational education and healing for adult survivors of childhood traumas and abuses, and until recently was the Coordinator of the Native American Medicine Gardens at the University of Minnesota. Jessika Greendeer is a Farm Manager with Dream of Wild Health, a 10-acre farm in Hugo, MN, where urban Native American communities reconnect with traditional Native plants and their culinary, medicinal, and spiritual uses. Together, Francis and Jessica acknowledge each other’s work throughout their individual healing journeys and inspire listeners to connect with their own land-based cultures to discover their ancestral seeds.
You can listen to these episodes at mn350action.org/podcasts or look for Nourish by MN350 on your favorite podcast player. And of course, don’t forget to subscribe and share!
If you have recommendations for the podcast, contact Sarah Riedl (sarahr@mn350.org).
