One Bite is Everything

For years, small livestock farmers and ranchers have been saying the same thing: access to processing is one of the biggest obstacles to getting locally raised meat to customers.

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima revisits two earlier conversations that show just how long this problem has persisted.

In 2022, Carrie Edsall of Black Willow Pond Farm described what happened when a processing appointment she had booked more than a year in advance disappeared while finished pigs were literally sitting on the trailer. Her story reveals how few alternatives many farmers have...

Jack Algiere arrived at Stone Barns Center in 2003 as its very first employee, hired to build a greenhouse on a former Rockefeller cattle operation thirty miles north of Manhattan. More than two decades later, that greenhouse has never seen a chemical, the farm he built with chef Dan Barber and Blue Hill at Stone Barns has become one of the most influential in the country, and Jack has written his first book, Seeding Hope: What Plants Teach Us About Being Human, out now from Chelsea Green.

In this conversation, Jack and I talk about the difference between...

Farmer Meg Despres of Biscuitwood Farm in Esperance, New York had a For Farmers Wish List that nobody had ever shopped. Not one item. So she left a comment on our Instagram asking a simple question: what can I do to make this list work for me?

Here's what happened next. A few DMs, one small fix, a Tuesday morning letter, and a farm transformed almost overnight.

Meg farms 50 acres in Schoharie County with a culinary focus: chef-quality vegetables, pastured eggs, black currant jam, and pierogi made from her own potatoes, a nod to her...

Beef is expensive. Cattle prices are at historic highs. Ranchers are finally getting paid more for their animals. So why is the U.S. cattle herd still the smallest it’s been in 75 years? Why are giant meatpackers losing hundreds of millions of dollars and closing plants? And why are smaller ranchers still struggling to find somewhere to process their cattle?

In this solo episode, Dana follows the beef supply chain from pasture to meat counter to understand a moment when almost every part of the system seems to be telling a different story. Years of drought sh...

What happens when a farm grows to the point where the farmers can no longer do everything themselves?

Maria Zordan and Max Morningstar own MX Morningstar Farm in Claverack, New York, where they grow about 40 acres of certified organic vegetables and operate a year-round farm store. Their business also reaches far beyond the farm through wholesale accounts, restaurants, distributors, other farms and CSA customers.

In this episode, Maria and Max take us inside the less visible work of building a farm that can last.

We talk about the transition from farmer to business...

We're told the food supply is safe. And often, it is. But safe is a bigger word than it sounds, and it rests on things most of us never see.

This episode looks at three outbreaks unfolding right now:

Every reassurance depends on people...

What if the future of food depends less on winning arguments and more on rebuilding trust?

Maria Rodale has spent a lifetime at the heart of the organic movement, carrying forward the work of one of agriculture's most influential families. But in this conversation, she looks beyond labels and certifications to something deeper: the relationships, compassion, and storytelling that create lasting change.

Together we explore why facts alone rarely change minds, how trust has become one of the most valuable ingredients in our food system, what regenerative and organic mean in today's landscape, and why...

What do elite athletes, gardeners, and small farmers have in common?

According to UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich, more than you might think.

Known to many as the first-ever UFC Welterweight Champion and the coach behind 12 MMA world champions, Pat has spent the last four decades researching a different kind of performance: the connection between soil health, nutrient density, and human health.

In this conversation, we explore why healthy soil may be the foundation of healthy food, why Pat believes biology beneath our feet deserves as much attention as nutrition on our...

On June 25th, President Trump signed an executive order advancing regenerative agriculture. The same afternoon, the USDA quietly finalized a Regenerative Feedstock Rule that lets industrial corn claim the regenerative label to sell more ethanol. Sixty-eight percent of corn farmers already qualify, which means almost nothing has to change in the field. The word is doing the work.

In this solo episode, Dana traces how a term that small farmers built with cover crops and real soil work got picked up and handed to industrial corn. Then she goes back fifty years to explain how we got...

David Wise grew up on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota, where food followed the seasons and knowledge of the land was woven into daily life. Today, as the founder of Native Wise, he raises bison, harvests manoomin, or wild rice, and produces maple sugar, maple syrup, and honey.

But his path to this work was anything but straightforward.

In this episode, David joins host Dana DiPrima to talk about growing up Ojibwe, the knowledge passed through his family, his years working in forestry, conservation, and with the USDA, and the extraordinary story behind...

What if the best bakery in town isn’t really in the bread business?

Jonathan Bethony, founder of Seylou Bakery in Washington, D.C., has built one of the country’s most respected bakeries around a simple but profound idea: every loaf begins long before flour reaches the mixing bowl. It begins with healthy soil, thoughtful farmers, heritage grains, and relationships built on trust.

In this episode, Jonathan shares an extraordinary personal journey that spans the Adirondacks, Senegal, Washington's Bread Lab, and ultimately the creation of Seylou. Along the way, we explore how faith, service, and...

We often think of a farm as a place that grows food. But a small farm does so much more than that.

It holds up a local economy, circulating dollars in a way no chain store can. It creates belonging, the feeling of being known by the person who grows your food.

It carries the identity of a family and a town.

And it quietly supports the mental health and the very future of the place it calls home.

In this quick episode, we explore how small farms fortify our communities...

What does the USDA actually do? Who does it serve? And why does it seem like some farmers receive support automatically while others struggle to access even basic resources?

In this episode of One Bite Is Everything, Dana DiPrima takes listeners through a practical USDA 101. From its origins as Abraham Lincoln's "people's department" to its modern role overseeing everything from SNAP and school lunches to crop insurance, conservation programs, and rural development, this episode explores one of the most powerful and least understood agencies in American life.

Dana examines the difference between programs that maintain...

What happens when people step out of the grocery store and onto a working farm?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana sits down with chef and educator Gary Podesto of Climate Farm School, an organization that brings people directly to farms to learn about food systems, soil health, climate resilience, and regenerative agriculture. Through immersive, week-long experiences on farms around the world, participants gain a deeper understanding of where food comes from and the people responsible for producing it.

Gary shares what draws people to these experiences, from health concerns and climate...

What happens when food assistance programs lose funding?

For millions of children and families, the effects can be immediate. Fewer meals. More strain on household budgets. More difficult choices between food, housing, healthcare, and transportation.

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana welcomes back Rachel Sabella, Director of No Kid Hungry New York, to discuss how recent and proposed funding cuts could impact children, families, schools, and communities. Together, they explore why hunger remains a persistent challenge in America and why many organizations are concerned that the problem could worsen in the months...

What does it actually take to create a truly great restaurant experience — not just once, but every single night?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana sits down with Chef Chris Stam of Alchemy on Martha's Vineyard to talk about the invisible systems, relationships, and standards behind great food.

Chris’s path took him from culinary school outside Boston to some of the most intense kitchens in the country, including Spice Market and the restaurant groups of Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud. Along the way, he learned not just how to cook, but how...

What do small farmers actually need?

After reviewing nearly 900 farmer grant applications through the For Farmers Movement — along with 45 new project submissions from the Friend of a Farmer Choice Awards — a very different picture of American farming begins to emerge. One you might not expect.

In this solo episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana pulls back the curtain on the hidden infrastructure quietly holding small farms together and explores what farmers are actually asking for help with.

Because it’s probably not what most people think.

Consumers often imagine small farms...

Show Notes

What does it actually take to become a farmer today if you didn’t grow up on a farm, inherit land, or have a roadmap?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana sits down with first-generation goat farmer Emma Smalley to talk about the reality of building a farm from scratch in modern America.

Emma’s path into farming started with a Craigslist ad and an aging goat farmer named Roger who needed help caring for his herd. What followed was mentorship, loss, land searches, commuting hours to support the...

Inside the hidden systems, rules, economics, and realities shaping America’s farmers markets.

Most people think they understand farmers markets.

You show up. You buy produce, eggs, cheese, meat, flowers, or honey from a farmer. You support local food. Done.

But behind every stand is an entire system most consumers never see.

In this episode, Dana sits down with Catt Fields White for a fascinating conversation about what’s really happening behind the scenes at farmers markets across America and why the details matter far more than most of us realize.

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 h...

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 wha...

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...

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 regi...

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...

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 co...

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...

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. Th...

What happens when a family farm grows far beyond its backyard beginnings?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, host Dana DiPrima speaks with Brittney Miller, second-generation owner of Manchester Farms in South Carolina, a farm that began more than 55 years ago on a picnic table and now raises millions of quail each year.

Scaling agriculture often means losing the intimacy that once defined it. Systems replace instincts, automation replaces people, and efficiency overtakes care.

Manchester Farms has taken a different path.

Brittney describes a business that produces millions of...

Let’s start with what’s simple: food is health.

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima speaks with Carter Williams, systems engineer turned agricultural investor and contributor to the Food Is Health Substack.

Carter introduces a framework that reframes the conversation:

System A — biologically aligned, nutrient-dense food rooted in nature.

System B — industrial agriculture built for scale and yield, but not for healthy outcomes.

System C — a possible next chapter that keeps scale while restoring biological integrity.

This conversation is about systems architecture — and what’s a...

What does American farming feel like right now? Not from a policy brief or an out of touch news headline. But from inside the daily lives of small farmers.

After reviewing nearly 400 grant applications and more than one hundred farmer wish lists, a clear pattern emerges: the strain on small farms is rarely dramatic. It is steady. And personal. And it is often invisible until it’s too late.

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, host Dana DiPrima explores the emotional temperature of American farming, the fatigue of constant explanation, the frustration of be...

What if the future of food isn’t about fixing the industrial system—but building a parallel one?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, host Dana DiPrima is joined by David Fisher, a botanist, former USDA-funded potato breeder, and environmental scientist who has spent decades studying plants, sustainability, and food systems.

David challenges some of the most common assumptions about agriculture, climate change, and food security. Rather than focusing on reforming industrial agriculture, he argues that resilience may come from something far more personal—and far more scalable: growing food closer to home.

I...

This week, let’s back it up for a minute.

It’s easy to get left behind in conversations about food and farming. Easy to feel like you don’t belong. But food is yours. It’s essential. And you should have more power, more knowledge, and more levers to pull to make sure your food is good.

At the center of this podcast is a simple truth:

Food is not JUST food.

If you care about health, community, the environment, or the economy, this episode is for you.

This epi...

In this second part of my conversation with Dave Fischer of Fischer Farms, we move beyond headlines and into the systems shaping what ends up on our plates.

If you haven’t listened to the first part of the convo yet, I recommend you go back and listen at some point. That episode lays the groundwork with a deep dive into beef supply chains, methane narratives, soil biology, and the pressure small farmers face inside a highly consolidated food system.

In this episode, we go further.

Dave and I talk about why farmer’s ma...

What’s really happening with beef right now? Why do prices feel volatile, headlines feel confusing, and farmers feel squeezed, even as demand stays strong?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, I’m joined by Dave Fischer, founder of Fischer Farms, for a wide-ranging and deeply honest conversation about the modern beef system and the quiet forces shaping what ends up on our plates.

Dave brings a rare perspective. He’s a lifelong farmer and a former industrial engineer who spent years working in global supply chain management before returning to the land. That c...

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans are being framed as more than nutrition advice. This time, the language goes further—talking about realigning the food system, supporting American farmers and ranchers, and ensuring real food is affordable for families.

That framing matters.

In this episode of One Bite Is Everything, host Dana DiPrima steps back from the loud reactions about food groups and asks a different set of questions—ones that have largely been missing from the conversation since the Guidelines were released.

If we are truly asking Americans to eat more real food...

2026 doesn’t feel like a trend year.

It feels like a decision year.

In this solo episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima reflects on what she’s heard over the past year from farmers, eaters, and innovators across the food system and why small farms can’t keep fighting the same battles the same way.

This conversation isn’t about predictions or hot takes. It’s about pressure points. The quiet, accumulating strain that asks small farms to absorb rising costs, explain themselves endlessly, and compete with convenience culture one customer at a time...

What if the future of food follows the same path as clean beauty?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, host Dana DiPrima continues a broader conversation about innovation, transparency, and consumer power—this time through the lens of food. After exploring how climate and systems innovation can spark change across industries, this conversation asks a parallel question: What happens when everyday shoppers are finally given clarity about what they’re buying?

Dana is joined by Sam Citro Alexander, founder and CEO of FoodHealth Co., whose career began inside the beauty industry during the rise...

This Christmas Day episode of One Bite is Everything is a little different.

Instead of a conversation about policy, food systems, or what’s broken, Dana takes listeners back to the farm—and to the donkey who quietly anchored it all.

Murphy arrived in the summer of 2015. He was small, gentle, and lonely. He came with a long life expectancy and, unknowingly, a long list of lessons. Over time, Murphy became the reason an accidental farm stopped being a side project and became a commitment. Chickens are one thing. Goats are another. A donkey who migh...

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, host Dana DiPrima sits down with climate entrepreneur and Supercool CEO Josh Dorfman for a wide-ranging conversation about how innovation in the climate space is quietly rewriting the rules for how change actually happens.

Rather than focusing on individual sacrifice or guilt, this conversation explores systems — and why the most effective climate solutions succeed not because people try harder, but because better choices are designed to be easier, cheaper, and inevitable.

Josh shares real-world examples from across industries, from electric trucking and clean infrastructure to agriculture and bui...

This week on One Bite is Everything, we’re taking a look back over all the conversations we’ve had in 2025 with farmers, chefs, historians, entrepreneurs, policy thinkers, and food system insiders. Here, a quiet thread emerges: the future of food. Not as an abstract concept, but as something that’s already shaping our grocery carts, our communities, and the lives of the hardworking farmers at the center of it all.

In this episode, Dana breaks down the biggest forces that will shape what we eat in 2026 and beyond. She weaves together insights from this year’s interview...