Can we feed a growing planet? Absolutely!

Can we do this while improving soil and water quality? Absolutely!

Regenerative agriculture is one way to accomplish this.

Our guest for this episode is Professor Stephanie Anderson. She is a teacher and writer at Florida Atlantic University, where she teaches creative nonfiction and writes extensively about food and agriculture systems, especially regenerative agriculture. She is originally from a ranch in South Dakota, and has deep agricultural ties.

Her latest book, From the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture, relays the stories of many women who are working to improve ag systems not just in the U.S.A., but around the world. This book provides many hopeful and encouraging stories about how regenerative agriculture is making a difference. More about Stephanie can be found at her author page.

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” This quote has been attributed to Daniel Webster, who was a lawyer and served as U.S. Secretary of State in the 1800s. This quote shows a keen understanding of history, and the important role that farmers have played in societies.

Our guest for this episode is Dr. Robert Dees, who is an historian of farmers, especially in medieval Germany. His recent book can be found at the Commons Press website:

Commons Press – The Power of Peasants – Economics & politics of farming in medieval Germany

(He has written other history books as well.)

It is important to understand that innovation has been part and parcel of agriculture since the agricultural revolution began thousands of years ago. This includes not just the equipment and machines that are use to grow, harvest, store, and process grains, but also societal structures. Robert’s book gives us a fantastic glimpse into the importance of farmers, and even though his focus has been on medieval times, the lessons continue to be important today.

For further thoughts, and some interesting images that Robert has graciously shared, check out my new Substack page!

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Why is yeast the most popular microorganism?

Because it’s a fun guy!

In this episode we talk with Dr. Graeme Walker from Abertay University in Scotland. He is a professor of zymology – in other words, he studies yeasts and fermentation. His focus over the years has been fermentation for alcoholic beverages, distilled spirits, and biofuels – many of which (but not all) use cereal grain as a substrate. His recent work has been investigating non-cereal substrates for fermentation.

Graeme’s contact information can be found at his faculty webpage at Abertay University. If you would like to dig deeper into yeast and fermentation, check out his Google Scholar page and explore his publications. You can also take a deeper dive into yeast nutrition in a recent webinar with Graeme.

Especially relevant to our discussion about non-cereal fermentations is a recent study that estimates yield drags for corn, wheat, and barley due to climate change.

Indeed, changing cropping conditions may necessitate the development of non-cereal alternatives for fermentation of both beverage as well as biofuel alcohols.

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.