What does “best available” actually mean when it comes to food?

In this conversation, Dana sits down with Sam Sifton of The New York Times to unpack how we got here. Not just what we eat, but why we eat the way we do, and how much of that is shaped by systems most of us never see.

Sam has spent more than two decades helping shape how Americans cook, think about ingredients, and make decisions in their kitchens. Through his work at The New York Times and his role building New York Times Cooking, he has influenced behavior at a scale few people ever reach. That perspective makes this conversation different. It moves beyond trends and into the mechanics of how habits actually form.

At the center of it is a simple but complicated idea: most of us are not choosing the best possible food. We are choosing the best available. And what is available is determined by a system built for consistency, scale, and convenience.

That system has improved in real ways. Access is broader. Ingredients that were once hard to find are now standard. In some places, people are closer to their food than they have been in decades. But at the same time, the underlying structure has not changed as much as it appears. Much of what we eat still moves through centralized networks that prioritize sameness, making it difficult for better food to reach more people in a meaningful way.

This is where the tension lives.

Because once people experience something different, something that tastes better, behaves differently, or comes with a clear sense of where it came from, their expectations begin to shift. And once that shift happens, it is hard to go back. The challenge is that the system is not designed to make those experiences easy, consistent, or widely accessible.

The conversation moves through that tension. From the real progress we have made in how we eat, to the limits of a system that still prioritizes efficiency over connection. From the role of cooking in building confidence and changing behavior, to the way restaurants can either reinforce sameness or act as a bridge between farmers and eaters. From the friction between chefs and small farms trying to work together, to the reality that better food does not always scale cleanly.

What emerges is not a simple answer, but a clearer understanding of the trade-offs. We have built a system that delivers food reliably and at scale. At the same time, we are seeing a growing desire for something more connected, more specific, and more reflective of where food actually comes from.

Understanding that gap is the first step.

If you want to take that one step further, start by finding a farmer near you. Even just knowing who they are changes how you see what’s on your plate. A simple way to do that is here.

And if you already have someone in mind, nominate them through the For Farmers Movement. It’s one of the most direct ways to support the people doing this work: Nominate here.

If you enjoyed this episode, take a moment to rate and review One Bite is Everything. It helps more people find these conversations and become part of the shift.

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One Bite is Everything connects the food on your plate to the bigger system behind it—health, community, environment, and economy. Through the For Farmers Movement, those connections turn into action, supporting small and mid-sized farms across the country. And on Bite Sized, Dana breaks down what’s actually happening behind the food we see every day.

Because food isn’t just food. And the more you understand it, the more everything changes.

Learn more at www.forfarmersmovement.com

In honor of Earth Day, this episode takes a closer look at something often missing from the environmental conversation: the role farmers actually play.

We tend to hear about agriculture in broad strokes—greenhouse gas emissions, water use, soil erosion. And those concerns are real. But agriculture is not one thing. It varies widely depending on how it’s done, and that difference matters more than most people realize.

Drawing from nearly 300 farm projects funded through the For Farmers Movement, a different picture starts to emerge. One that isn’t theoretical or ideological, but grounded in what farmers are actually doing on the ground.

Across these farms:

• 134 are investing directly in soil health
• 80 are improving pastures through rotational grazing
• 54 are extending growing seasons with protected infrastructure
• 31 are strengthening water systems
• 11 are rebuilding after climate disasters

Most of these farmers didn’t set out to “do climate work.” They set out to run viable farms. But in doing so, many are strengthening the land itself.

This episode looks at:

• Why agriculture has a reputation problem
• The difference between farming systems and why it matters
• What small and mid-size farms reveal about environmental stewardship
• Why farmers are often the first to see environmental change
• How everyday food choices connect back to land, water, and resilience

Because food is not just food. It reflects the condition of the land it comes from.

Call to Action:

If this episode changes how you think about food, take the next step:

• Nominate a farmer → Here
• Support a farmer grant → Here
• Follow along → Instagram @xoxofarmgirl
• Rate and review this podcast on Apple podcasts

There are about 2 million farms in the United States. Every year, a significant number of the farmers running them are approaching retirement age with no clear plan for what happens to their land when they're done. Farmland doesn't just disappear when a farmer retires. It gets sold, subdivided, converted, or absorbed into larger operations. And in a lot of cases, that means the end of a working farm, a community food source, and sometimes four generations of family work.

In this episode, Dana sits down with Molly Johnston Heck and Olivia Fuller from American Farmland Trust's Farmland for a New Generation program, a New York State initiative that connects retiring farmers with the next generation of land stewards.

Olivia isn't just a program staffer. She's a fourth-generation farmer who used AFT's own tools to navigate her family's transition out of dairy and into direct-to-consumer beef, pork, and sheep. She knows this story from the inside.

They cover:

• What conservation easements actually do (and what they don't)
• The Farmland Protection Implementation Program and how it puts real money in a farmer's hands
• Preemptive purchase rights and why they matter in high-pressure real estate markets like the Hudson Valley
• The land-linking platform connecting farmers who have land with farmers who need it
• Why a "bad match avoided" counts as a success
• The invisible crisis of farm transitions that wait until there's a foreclosure to begin
• The role of navigators, mediators, and social workers in the hardest conversations farm families face

This episode is a companion to a fuller story Dana is building. If you're a farmer thinking about what comes next, or a landowner who wants to see your land stay in production, this conversation is for you.

Resources mentioned:

• Farmland for a New Generation: farmlandforanewgeneration.org
• American Farmland Trust: farmland.org
• NY Farmland Protection Implementation Program (FPIG)
• Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) – federal
• Farm Net (New York farm counseling and financial support)
• New York State Agricultural Mediation Program
• AFT's current advocacy action alert (linked at farmland.org)

Production credits: Co-produced by Sonia Dhillon with sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.

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What would American food look like if the story had not been interrupted?

That's the question at the center of this conversation with Chef Sean Sherman — an Ogala Lakota chef who grew up on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and has spent his career restoring the indigenous food knowledge that colonization, displacement, and forced assimilation nearly erased.

Sean is the founder of the Indigenous Food Lab and the award-winning restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis. His latest book, Turtle Island, maps the full tapestry of indigenous food across North America — erasing colonial borders to reveal the regional diversity, plant knowledge, and food sovereignty that existed long before European settlement.

In this conversation, we talk about what was lost when indigenous food systems were dismantled — not centuries ago, but within just a few generations. We talk about the government commodity food programs that replaced traditional diets on reservations, the 90% unemployment rates Sean grew up around, and the moment in Mexico when he realized he knew hundreds of European recipes but nothing about Lakota food.

And we talk about what becomes possible when that knowledge is restored — for health, for culture, for land, for local economies, and for the future of American food.

Because long before regenerative agriculture and farm to table were trends, they were the foundation of indigenous food systems across North America. This conversation asks what it would look like to build from that foundation instead of ignoring it.

Key themes:

• Turtle Island and the erasure of colonial borders in food
• Growing up on Pine Ridge Reservation and the USDA Commodity Food Program
• How Sean became a chef before he became an indigenous food advocate
• The moment in Mexico that sent him back to Lakota food knowledge
• Owamni restaurant and the Indigenous Food Lab in Minneapolis
• Native Wise and Dream of Wild Health — indigenous food producers and youth programs
• Food sovereignty, biodiversity, and what regional food systems could look like
• The connection between indigenous food knowledge and the future of American farming

Connect with Sean Sherman:

• Owamni restaurant: owamni.com
• Indigenous Food Lab: indigenousfoodlab.org
• Instagram: @seanjsherman

Production credits: Co-produced by Sonia Dhillon with sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.

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How do we produce meat in a way that works for farmers, animals, the land, and the people who eat it? Right now, that conversation happens in extremes. On one side: a highly industrialized system designed for efficiency and low prices. On the other: a growing movement toward regenerative agriculture and animal welfare. Somewhere in the middle is a complicated reality that rarely makes it into the headlines.

Robby Sansom lives in that middle. He's the co-founder of Force of Nature, a company building a national network of ranchers, processors, and retailers to produce meat raised with regenerative principles and higher animal welfare standards without further centralizing or industrializing the system. He calls it a rising tide approach. The goal isn't to corner the market. It's to lift it.

In this conversation, Dana and Robby get into what regenerative agriculture actually means and why the word is already being stretched. The tension between what consumers want and what farmers can economically deliver. Why transparency in food systems is harder than it sounds. How protocols for animal welfare evolve in practice (including why pork is so hard). Why scaling better systems is both necessary and incredibly difficult. And how consumers, whether they realize it or not, are shaping the future of agriculture with every purchase.

This one is honest, nuanced, and worth getting into.

Key topics:

• Force of Nature origin story, from Epic Provisions to meals & pounds
• The rising tide model: why they chose not to vertically integrate
• 700+ ranches and 17+ regional processors & how the network works
• How protocols evolve year over year (beaver analogs, cover crops, rotational grazing)
• The regenerative label problem, greenwashing and why momentum still matters
• Why pork is so hard, and what one farm visit revealed
• Consumer behavior as a market signal, not just a preference
• The organic cautionary tale and what regenerative can learn from it

Resources mentioned:

• Force of Nature Meats: forceofnaturemeats.com

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What does it actually take to make local food work — not just in theory, but in real life?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, host Dana DiPrima speaks with Jeanne Blasberg, a former Boston-based author who made a dramatic life pivot: purchasing a 500-acre farm outside Madison, Wisconsin and working to build a regenerative agricultural system connected directly to a fast-casual restaurant chain, Forage Kitchen.

What began as a personal search for purpose quickly evolved into a hands-on exploration of one of the most important questions in our food system:

If consumers say they want local food, why is it still so hard to deliver?

Together, Dana and Jeanne explore the hidden friction between farms and restaurants — from menu consistency and pricing pressures to logistics, seasonality, and infrastructure gaps that make local sourcing more difficult than most people realize.

This conversation goes beyond the romantic idea of “farm to table” and into the operational reality of what it takes to produce nutrient-dense food, build viable farm businesses, and create supply chains that work for both farmers and foodservice operators.

Along the way, they discuss:

• Why local food often struggles to compete with large-scale distributors

• What restaurants actually need from farmers in order to source locally

• The role of regenerative agriculture in building resilient food systems

• How vertically integrated farm–restaurant partnerships can shift power dynamics

• Why small farms capture only a fraction of each food dollar

• The challenge of balancing environmental values with financial sustainability

• How technology may help bridge gaps between farms and buyers

• Why rebuilding regional food systems requires collaboration across the entire value chain

Jeanne’s story also reflects a broader movement: professionals leaving traditional careers in search of work aligned with their values, and discovering just how complex building a better food system can be.

This episode is a window into the future of food — and a reminder that change often happens not through grand gestures, but through relationships, iteration, and persistence.

Because food is not just food. It's infrastructure, health, and community. And it is a system we are all part of shaping.

Jeanne Blasberg is a novelist, regenerative farmer, and co-founder of a diversified farm outside Madison, Wisconsin. Her work focuses on soil health, nutrient density, local supply chains, and innovative partnerships between farms and food businesses. She is working to develop replicable models that help small and mid-sized farms remain economically viable while improving environmental outcomes.

Find Flynn Creek Farm here.

Dana DiPrima is the founder of the For Farmers Movement and host of One Bite is Everything, the podcast that connects the food on our plates to the broader systems that shape health, environment, community, and economy.

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What if the most important laboratory in agriculture isn’t a university… but a farmer’s field?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima talks with farmer and writer Adam Kuznia about the experiments happening quietly across American farmland.

Adam manages a farm in northern Minnesota and writes the newsletter Farming Full-Time, where he explores the realities of modern agriculture from the inside. His work focuses on soil health, fertilizer economics, farmer mental health, and the identity of farming itself.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why many of the most profitable farms actually use less fertilizer

• How farmers are rediscovering the biology of soil

• Why agriculture is slow to change even when the economics demand it

• The powerful role of farmer-led experimentation

• The hidden mental health crisis in farming

• Why farming is not just a job, but an identity tied to land and family

Adam also shares how losing the farm he thought he would inherit forced him to rebuild his relationship with agriculture—and how writing helped him reconnect with farming and the broader community.

This episode is a window into the realities farmers face today: economic pressure, technological change, and the search for a more sustainable way forward.

Because the future of food may not come from one breakthrough, but from thousands of farmers running experiments in their own fields.

Find Adam Kuznia on Substack here. You must. It's so good.

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On Martha’s Vineyard, farmer Jo Douglas is quietly building one of the most creative small-scale food systems in the country.

Her farm, Fork to Pork, begins with a problem that defines the modern food system: nearly 40 percent of food produced is never eaten. Instead of letting that food become waste (and greenhouse gas emissions), Jo collects hundreds of gallons of surplus ingredients each day from restaurants, bakeries, hospitals, and dining halls across the island. Those scraps become feed for her pigs.

The result is a remarkable loop.

Restaurants help feed the animals. The animals grow on real food instead of commodity grain. And the pork returns to those same kitchens, where chefs cook it nose-to-tail.

But Jo’s work does not stop with pigs.

Through a second operation she calls Leaf to Beef, Jo raises cattle across a patchwork of leased pastureland on the island. Using rotational grazing, she moves her herd through multiple properties, turning underused grasslands into productive ecosystems while producing high-quality grass-fed beef for local customers.

In a place where farmland is scarce and land prices can reach millions of dollars, Jo has built a working farm by stitching together parcels of land, community relationships, and creative thinking.

In this episode, Dana speaks with Jo about:

1. Why pigs may be one of the most effective recyclers in the food system
2. How restaurants became daily partners in feeding her animals
3. What makes scrap-fed pork taste different
4. The logistics of farming on an island without a slaughterhouse
5. How rotational grazing supports both cattle health and pasture recovery
6. And what it takes to build a viable farm when you don’t own the land you farm

The conversation reveals something powerful about agriculture today: some of the most innovative models are not coming from large institutions, but from farmers willing to connect pieces of the system that can work well together.

In Jo’s case, that means turning leftovers into pork, a patchwork quilt of pasture into beef, and a small island into a living example of circular agriculture.

Find Jo and her pigs and cows here: https://www.forktopork.com

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