Earth Eats: Real Food, Green Living

“When you think of literacy and you think of what does that mean and what are all the parts of it– think about reading a recipe. Think about measuring the ingredients. Think about learning how to cook. Think about planning a meal, or budgeting for that meal.There are so many things that are learning-through-play, learning-through-doing-it, in a teaching kitchen. That’s the reason why we call it a teaching kitchen. It really is about learning literacy as well as some skills that are very specific to cooking.” This week on the show, conversations with an architect, a library director and the head of a food pantry about how a teaching kitchen found its way into a public library and what it means for the community.

“We’ve been presented with problems today that we’ve never dealt with before as an agriculture industry–like climate change. And I don’t think that the approach we’ve taken, historically, is going to work here…As long as I’ve heard the words ‘climate change,’ I have heard that Indigenous practice is the solution.” This week on the show, a conversation with Michelle Hughes of the National Young Farmers Coalition. In 2019, the organization made a decision to put racial equity at the center of their strategic planning work. Michelle Hughes shares the story of their transformation. This story first aired in 2022, Michelle Hughes is now the co-director of the National Young Farmers Coalition And Josephine McRobbie brings us a story about a new web tool that might help oyster farmers better prepare for the rainy season. [Note: This story first aired in 2022, Michelle Hughes is now co-director of the National Young Farmers Coalition.]

Have you ever had a hunch about something, tested it out and been shocked by the results? That’s what happened to public health scholar Funmi Ayeni. She took a traditional Nigerian home remedy and applied the rigors of scientific research to test its efficacy. The results were nothing short of jaw dropping. This week on Earth Eats, food research that could end up saving lives.

“As I started to think more about theories around food, and it’s a thing that we do every day without fail, and it really shapes the way that we interact with one another, it shapes the way we interact with our environments, the ways that we create networks of relationships–being able to name it has given it a power to be able to use it to tap into ways to think about social relationships in the present and propose alternatives.” This week we’re devoting the full show to my conversation with Dr. Kaitlyn Alcantara an anthropological bioarcheologist, at Indiana University-Bloomington, who studies foodways as tools of empowerment.

“We use wood so that we give the various microorganisms sort of a place to colonize and live from batch to batch. And over time those colonies and those species that have taken hold will change, they’ll drift and so, you’ll develop a unique character to each tank that’s really interesting.” This week on the show we dive head first into a giant oak barrel full of aging beer. Okay, well, not literally. Producer Toby Foster pays a visit to The Woodshop, that’s Upland Brewing Company’s sour beer facility. Now’s your chance to learn what’s special about this type of beer and why they needed to construct a separate building to craft it.

“The dominant vocabulary for talking about restaurants is ‘what food do they serve, what are the good dishes?’ People think that’s the only thing that’s important about restaurants.” Today on the show we talk with Historian Rebecca Spang, about the origins of restaurants, and what they mean to us today. “The experience just of knowing that there are other people and knowing that they have their own lives, they’re talking about their own things, but that you’re not completely alone.” Exploring the experience of dining out-- in this episode of Earth Eats.

“When you begin to zoom out, you realize that in fact palm oil is all around us, and the world, in a strange way, is made of palm oil; and we’re all, in a certain way, made of palm oil–in the sense that we use it to reproduce our bodies and to clean our skin and to live the lives that we live in a globalized world.” This week on the show, a conversation with Max Haiven, author of the book Palm Oil:The Grease of Empire. He traces the history of palm oil production globally, examining its damaging effect on the environment, the labor abuses in the industry and the ill-effects of this cheap fat on the health of people who consume it. An exploration of what palm can tell us about our global economy, climate change and who we areas a species.

“It’s a great thing to be outside, to have birds chirping, to be around green grass, and animals. But the problem has become, that you can’t really be a business unless you are a financially viable business.” This week on the show we explore the economics of small scale farming, and debunk some of the myths of the agrarian lifestyle. We talk with Beth Hoffman, author of Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Farming in America, and we hear from farmers across Indiana about how they’re “making it pay.” This week on the show we debunk some of the myths of the agrarian lifestyle. We talk with Beth Hoffman, author of Bet the Farm and we hear from farmers across Indiana about how they’re “making it pay.”

“There are a lot of people, they like the faux meats and they want to eat a Carne Asada that reminds of the actual, like, Beef Carne Asada. There are a lot of people who try to steer clear from the faux meats, so we wanted to have plenty of veggie items on the menu for them as well. We really wanted to represent different ingredients and different flavors that anybody can come and enjoy.” This week on the show, producer, Toby Foster visits with one of the owners of Tacotarian in Las Vegas, Nevada. Plus, East Coast style bagels come to Indiana, and a story from Harvest Public Media about too many trees in all the wrong places.

“It’s not about simply that protectionism and nationalism–that we only want to make sure that we eat Lithuanian food. It is a much deeper sense of urgency that as a state–and its political sovereignty–depends on the ability to produce food and feed its population for a long time.” This week on the show a conversation with sociologist Diana Mincyte who studies food systems in post socialist Eastern European states like Lithuania. And Muddy Fork Bakery’s Eric Schedler guides us through the steps for a traditional yeasted bread–including tips on braiding dough.

“There’s a restaurant on almost every street in our various cities–they are woven into the fabrics of our communities, and they are deeply embedded in our lives. Restaurants are the places we go to celebrate marriages, to mourn divorces, the places we go to gossip with friends to celebrate after church and they become these places to hear the stories of their community. They’re talking to the farmers everyday, they’re talking to the fisherpeople everyday, they’re talking to the other producers, they’re also getting a sense of what’s challenging about their lives or what’s opportunities within their lives and they hear the everyday concerns of their customers. So they become these great collectors of stories.” This week on the show, a conversation with Katherine Miller. She’s the author of At the Table:The Chef’s Guide to Advocacy. She encourages chefs to harness the power of their unique position in the community and raise their voices for change in the food system.

“We all need to eat to survive and the quality of the food, the access to the food--the type of food that we eat is central to our health and to the health of the planet.“ This week on the show, a conversation with Carey Gillam, the author of The Monsanto Papers--Deadly Secrets, Corporate Corruption, and One Man’s Search for Justice. And we have a story from Harvest Public Media about how farmers are turning to bio-char for carbon sequestration.

“Imagine, we have dinner like at 7, 8 pm–my baba would take all of the çörek to the bakery and have it baked and he’s back home at 10pm–doesn’t matter! Fresh tea, hot tea, feta cheese, olives–breakfast. That’s like your night breakfast the day before Eid.” This week on the show, we spend time in the kitchen with Derya Dogan . She walks us through the steps of making her version of Poğaça–a Turkish hand pie filled with cheese and herbs. She shares treasured childhood memories of communal baking in her home town.

“When I try to understand–why on earth would agriculture be practiced that way? The answer is colonization. The answer really is, this wasn’t about managing land for everyone’s mutual benefit. This was a process of extraction.” In honor of Earth Day earlier this week, we are revisiting an important conversation about regenerative agriculture with Liz Carlisle, author of Healing Grounds:Climate, Justice and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming. And learn about restoring native prairies and bringing buffalo back to the land with Latrice Tatsey of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana.Tatsey is one of the researchers featured in Carlisle’s book.

“And she brought two jars of lilacs, like [a] drink made of lilacs. She brought also cups and everybody could try it. It was really something like a miracle for me because I have never thought that it could be drunk in this way.” This week on the show, a story about a community garden in Tallinn, Estonia. We talk with Jerry Mercury, a political immigrant from Russia whose encounter with the garden was transformative. And later in the show we have a recipe for quick, garden-fresh pickles, plus stories from Harvest public media about composting efforts in Midwestern cities and Federal investments in farm-to-school programs.

“And as the blade rotates and the interior cylinder freezes, it begins to churn the ice cream into a wonderful fluffy content that will be established shortly thereafter.” This week on the show, let’s kick off the summer season with a story about ice cream. Toby Foster talks with Jordan Davis and Elijah Lawson of the Chocolate Moose, Bloomington's classic ice cream stand, and so much more. And we go into the kitchen with Chris Manansala and Maria St. Claire of Pinoy Garden Cafe to learn how to make their vegetarian lumpia.

“You know, you’d wake up the day before, in the morning, and there was Grandma, already in the kitchen. You’d just get the smells, the aromas of the garlic and the citrus from the mojo, and you know it was just kind of ingrained in the memory of sitting there with my grandma while she was preparing it and just talking…” This week on the show, we dive into a family recipe from Cuba with producer Alexis Carvajal. producer Daniella Richardson review the critically acclaimed show all about kitchen culture, The Bear. Plus, are you wondering what to bring to your eclipse viewing picnic? We’ve got ideas and an original recipe for some special eclipse cookies.

“We’re not shooting for perfection, we’re shooting for richness of experience.” This week on the show, we revisit a conversation at Groundwork Indy with then Executive Director, Phyllis Boyd. She gives us a tour of their on-site garden tended by teams of young people in their youth development program. Then we take a drive around Northwest Indianapolis to see more inspiring projects, including a community orchard. Plus, from Harvest Public Media, we have reports on an increase in honey production, drought in the midwest, PFAS in crop fertilizer and a story about the forest floor as agricultural land.

“After the peace, whenever that comes, we will have land that will have to stay out of production for years because it is so heavily mined or full of cluster bomblets.” This week on the show we talk with geographer Elizabeth Cullen Dunn about the current food landscape in Ukraine. We discuss what the future may hold for farmers and food producers in the region as the war with Russia drags on and as land policy shifts in Ukraine at the start of the new year. We also talk about ice cream! We look at current shipping challenges in Ukraine, and the meaning of an ice cream cone in former Soviet Bloc countries

“We know that there are all sorts of good chemicals that come out of the dirt and working with land–working with plants–that are beneficial to our mood and our health. For refugee populations that have had to be on the run or had to live in refugee camps for decades, having a little piece of land that you can tend to that you can take care of and then see the results and not feel like you’re gonna be bombed out the next day–it brings a kind of peace of mind and a little bit of healing.” This week on the show, Tammy Ho, Professor of Gender and Sexuality studies at University of California-Riverside, shares her research about refugees from Burma and their participation in the United States food system. We’ll learn about a supermarket sushi mogul, Burmese meatpackers as essential workers, and how a group of refugees saved a failing church by starting a community garden.