December 30, 2020
This year has been a good year for podcasts, particularly Tractor Time. Hosted by Acres U.S.A. editor Ben Trollinger, Tractor Time podcast features interviews with eco-farmers, soil scientists, authors and other notable experts in and around the field of agriculture.
This May, Tractor Time celebrated a milestone of 100,000 downloads! Thank you all for listening. We are looking forward to many more great episodes in the next year. In the meantime, take a look back at our most popular episodes in 2020.
Tractor Time’s Most Downloaded Episodes in 2020
10. Episode 46: Ken Roseboro on GMOs
Ken Roseboro, the editor and publisher of The Organic and Non-GMO Report, has been called “the nation’s reporter on all issues surrounding genetically modified foods” by Acres USA magazine.
9. Episode 44: In Defense of Okra with Chris Smith
Chris Smith is the author of the James Beard Award-winning book, The Whole Okra: A Seed to Stem Celebration. Chris lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he is the founder and executive director of The Utopia Seed Project.
8. Episode 41: Darby Simpson on Finding Opportunity During a Pandemic
Darby Simpson does the Grassfed Life podcast with Diego Footer, and is a contributor to Acres U.S.A. magazine. He’s a conscientious farmer too, running a pasture-based, non-GMO livestock operation in Indiana, located between Indianapolis and Bloomington. In this interview, we talk about everything from farm diversification to the future of farmers’ market to the impact of COVID-19.
7. Episode 39: Sherri Dugger and Judith McGeary
On this episode of Tractor Time, we’re presenting a double feature on farm activism. We caught up with Sherri Dugger and Judith McGeary at the 2019 Eco-Ag Conference in Minneapolis. Both of them were speakers at the multi-day event, which pulls in leaders in sustainable farming from all over North America and beyond. Sherri and Judith are at the forefront of efforts to empower small farmers and to fight for better food policy.
6. Episode 40: Marty Travis on Farming in a Time of Pandemic
Marty Travis was quick to shift the focus of his business as the coronavirus outbreak closed many of the restaurants he served. Marty runs Spence Farm in Illinois along with his wife Kris and son Will. He’s also the author of My Farmer, My Customer.
5. Episode 43: Rebecca Burgess on the Farm-to-Closet Movement
Rebecca Burgess is the co-author of the new book Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy. In this conversation, Rebecca opens up her closet, somewhat literally, to us, and shines a bright light on a system that takes an enormous toll on our environment. She isn’t just exposing a broken system, however — she has a bold and hopeful vision for what a regenerative clothing system could look like.
4. Episode 42: Gerry Gillespie on Renewing the Soil with ‘Waste’
An internationally recognized recycling expert, Gerry Gillespie wants to challenge our preconceptions about waste. And he’s been doing this kind of work for decades. He’s a pioneer in the Zero Waste movement and the mastermind behind the City to Soil project, which connects household organic matter with farmers. He is the author The Waste Between Our Ears: The Missing Ingredient to Disrupt Climate Change is in the Trash.
3. Episode 45: Agroecologist Nicole Masters on Her Love of Soil
Nicole has 20 years of experience working in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, to create regenerative food systems. She is the author of For the Love of Soil.
2. Episode 38: Mimi Casteel and Regenerative Wine
On this episode, we welcome Mimi Casteel, a wine maker in Oregon’s Eola-Amity Hills. At Hope Well Vineyard, Casteel is blazing her own trail and fast becoming one of the leading voices in the regenerative agriculture movement. Mimi talks eloquently and brilliantly — not just about wine, but agriculture and land use in general.
And the most downloaded episode of 2020 is – Episode 37: Dr. Zach Bush on Glyphosate, Farming and Human Health
Dr. Zach Bush is a triple-board certified physician, with a focus on internal medicine, endocrinology, and hospice and palliative care. He currently runs a clinic in rural Virginia that focuses on plant-based nutrition and holistic health.
At his clinic a few years ago, Dr. Bush began noticing that nutrition-based medicine just wasn’t working as he had expected. Some of his patients were just getting sicker. That led him on a journey deep into a dysfunctional and toxic agricultural system that through the heavy use of chemicals like glyphosate is robbing crops of nutritional value, accelerating the decline of human health, destroying the environment and paving the way for mass extinction. Yeah, it gets pretty bleak — there’s talk of disease, cataclysm and collapse — but stick with it — because Dr. Bush is at heart a radical optimist. He believes that regenerative agriculture can save the world by creating healthy soils that will sequester carbon, reverse climate change, produce highly nutritious food and create healthy humans.
Thank you for listening to Tractor Time podcast. Keep up with new episodes here!
