Podcasts about fair food network

Join Kelly Brownell in a conversation with Michael Dimock, Executive Director of Roots of Change, about transforming food systems through innovative policies. Discover how Roots of Change collaborates with various stakeholders to create nutrition incentive programs and support sustainable agriculture, focusing on community-first approaches. Learn about pioneering projects, insights into policy influence, and the future of agricultural practices. This episode provides an optimistic view of the evolving food system landscape and the potential for significant positive change. Interview Summary Why don't we begin by you explaining what Roots of Change does. What's the mission and role of the organization? Yes. We were originally founded by a group of philanthropic foundations that were very interested in food system change but had not seen much success in years. So we were really designed to be a catalyst to ignite the growth of what we would call the Good Food Movement. For 10 years, we were actually a philanthropic fund investing in different projects that built the power of the food movement. And then implemented projects that would catalyze change. That would show how you could scale change fairly rapidly by building collaboration. So that's really what we've been doing. And in 2013, the philanthropic fund ended, we'd spent down all the money. So we joined the Public Health Institute at that time because public health is such an incredibly important engine for food system change because the food system impacts public health so greatly. We've been since that time focused on policy change and implementing model demonstration projects. Thanks for that explanation. You talked about catalyzing change for transforming the food system. What sort of changes have you emphasized? We've been focused on a few key things. I would say that one of the most important for us has been healthy food access. And doing that through the creation of nutrition incentive programs. And the reason we're interested in that is, all the changes that we pursue are aimed to hit several different levers of change simultaneously. By building nutrition incentive programs, you help the small and midsize farmers who are supplying local grocery stores, the farmers markets, and at the same time, you're creating the funding for low-income families to actually purchase organic, regenerative, sustainable agriculture. From their local market. You get a lot of payoff for that kind of action. You mentioned incentives. How do incentives fit into this? There is a program, a federal program called the GUSNIP. Named after Gus Schumacher, who was Undersecretary at USDA during the Clinton years, and actually worked with us early on. And so that program is a pool of funding through the Farm Bill that is given as grants to either states or nonprofits that are creating these programs where a family comes in with their SNAP benefits, and their purchasing power is doubled. They're given matching dollars to buy fruits and vegetables from a farmer's market, a local store, grocery store. So it's an incentive to purchase fresh nutritious food. And so, we have worked on the original federal policy. We're one of the first demonstration projects to show how you do nutrition incentives working with folks in the upper Midwest and in the East. And then we created an analog. California also has a matching fund which helps us pull more money from the federal level. So, we can really get a big impact at the local level. And we built that California program as well. We've been really deep in nutrition incentives. But we also work on farmer farmworker protections from heat. It's a big problem out here in the West. Increasing temperatures. We're working with different scientists, epidemiologists, and farmers to figure out best management practices or technologies that keep farmers cool. And then we also work on programs to provide incentives for ranchers to produce regenerative meat, that is grass-finished meat. So, those are the three areas working in right now. But we're also just starting a project. I have a meeting today with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to develop a plan for mid and small-scale infrastructure for regional food systems in the state of California to be achieved by 2040. One thing I really like about your approach is the lining up of incentives to produce food in a way that's better for both human health and the environment. Because so many incentives are lined up the other way. Obviously, the food industry wants to make as much money as they can, and that comes from highly processed foods that aren't very good for health. And then the same sort of incentives lines up for agriculture to do industrial forms of agriculture where you maximize the yield per acre. To turn that around is really going to be a major effort. One thing I like about your approach is that you're trying different things that can become models for what could be used in a very broad scale in terms of public policy. I really admire that and like what you're doing. Do you have an overall strategy for helping bring about change? One of the things that we did in 2010-11 is we did a deep analysis of the food system and did a systems dynamic map of the entire food system. Working with leaders, Secretary of Agriculture for California, farmers - big size, small size, organic, conventional, with food justice folks. And we looked at where are the real intervention points. One of the things that we really realize is that, as you were pointing out, the current incentives are for industrialization, basically. And so, the question is, how do you actually change that? And policy is one important lever for doing that. So, we work a lot on trying to change the policy levers to create incentives for what we would call healthy and resilient agriculture. Tell me more about how you go about doing that. I'd love to hear when you're done with that, how you go about doing that with policymakers. Well, I'll jump right in on that. Let's look at what we did with nutrition incentives. So, working with Fair Food Network out of the upper Midwest, and Wholesome Wave out East, Roots of Change did a study. We created our own nutrition incentive programs using philanthropic dollars and some USDA kind of innovative dollars, and then we studied it for two years, what the impacts were. We wrote a report then, which went to Congress, to Debbie Stabenow in Minnesota, who was the Senator there who was on the ag committee. And she began writing a bill that would say, okay, let's provide incentives for people to buy healthy food that also helped the small farmers. So that switched the incentive from the big agricultural systems to the regional food system players. That was one way we did it. The other thing that we did in California was we organized all the farmers markets to go to the State of California and say, look, if you provide this nutrition incentive program in California and analog, we'll pull down more dollars from the federal government. The California legislature said that's a great idea. They got on board. Which then helped the farmers markets to provide more funding because farmers markets are often stressed. Too many markets, so there's problems. Competition between markets. So, to provide a new market, which is low-income families who are using nutrition incentives and their SNAP dollars, that was really important for the farmer's market. Those farmer's markets became another big piece of our strategy. Our way of making change was just to build collaborations, large collaborations of people. We work with many other nonprofits and farming groups in California to approach the legislature and over the last three years we've gotten $1.3 billion dollars in investments from the state of California into sustainable agriculture and food justice. Because we're able to build these large collaborations who convince the legislators who really care about votes that there's enough people out there want to see this happen. And we have just placed a billion-dollar request on the next bond, which will be in the next election, November. This November there's the climate bond. It's called a climate bond for the State of California. Ten billion dollars, one billion of that will be dedicated to nutrition, nutritional health, farm workers, and sustainable agriculture. So, in all ways, it's about getting enough voices. So, if you look at what we're really trying to do, we're trying to build the power of what we would call the Good Food Movement. Best of luck with that billion-dollar request. I really hope that goes through. You know, in the beginning of your response to my last question, you talked about a report that you did in concert with other organizations around the country and how that became influential in the policy process. Very often, some of the people in my orbit, scientists, wonder how they can help with this kind of thing and how they can do work that makes a difference. And I've often thought that speaking with people in the policy and advocacy world, like you, turns up some really interesting questions they could help address, if they knew what those questions were. But they often aren't having those conversations because they're mainly speaking to other scientists. That's one of the reasons why I so much like having people who approach things like you do on this podcast series. Scientists aren't our only listeners, but they're among them, and it's nice to give them ideas about how they can connect their work with what's going on out there on the ground in terms of policymaking. So, you emphasize putting people in communities first. What does that mean? And how does that play out in the work you do? It's a great segue from what you were just saying about the need to combine community voices with nonprofits and scientists, academics, and people who are good at research and who are good at analysis. Back to this idea of nutrition incentives that really grew out of what community groups were doing. The IRC (the International Rescue Committee) works with immigrants from Africa, primarily at that time who were coming into San Diego. And they were farmers, mostly. They were escaping violence, war, in their countries. And they came to San Diego and the IRC worked with them to create a farmer's market, and a farm - a community farm. And those folks were the ones that were saying, this program works. And this is a really good way to solve many problems at once. So, we were hearing from community members and the nonprofit that had created this model. So, it was a way of us understanding what was actually working on the ground. So that's one example. I can also say that in 2017, 2019 and 2020, we had terrible fires here in California. We also had all that followed with COVID in 2020. We were working with the University of California at Davis. Tom Tomich, who at that time was with the Ag Sustainability Institute at UC Davis. And we were doing research on how do you deal with climate change as small farmers? And what we realized is there was this moment in time when all of these things that have been piling up were impacting the ability to get meat. You'll remember that meat disappeared from shelves for a while because all the big plants that process meat in the Midwest were shut down due to COVID. So, what we did is then went out and we interviewed ranchers up and down the State of California, and we asked them, what do you need? And are you interested in finishing animals for grass-fed markets? Are you interested in building local markets? We got a lot of feedback that led to a white paper that Roots of Change published with the University of California at Davis and put out to the world. Which led to us getting a grant to actually take some of the suggestions and the recommendations we had gotten from the producers about what to do. What's that led to now? We have built a relationship with the University of California: ten campuses, five medical systems. They have committed to buy regenerative regional meat from the State of California. That grew out of a white paper, which was fed information by the ranchers on the ground, analyzed by academics and nonprofits, and delivered in a system that's now gotten the university to make a commitment. So, it's another example of just how you can mix all these great parties to get some sustainable change at a large scale? Now that leads me pretty nicely to what my next question. And it has to do with what's needed going forward and how do these things occur in more places in a bigger way than the places they are now. Now you mentioned, for example, the regenerative agriculture pledge that got made by the University of California system. That's a big enterprise. There are a lot of people that get touched by that system. So, that's a pretty impressive example of taking an idea that might've been smaller to begin with and then became bigger. Going forward, what kind of things are going to be needed to make that kind of thing happen more often? That's a really good question. Kelly, I think that one of it is communication. I mean, perhaps some somebody will hear this and reach out to us and say, how'd you do that? And then we'll say, well…and they'll tell us what they did and we'll learn from them. One of the things I'm really interested in, always been interested in, and one of the things that Roots of Change is focused on is trying to convene people to share information. Because you build partnerships when you share information. And those partnerships can become the engines for getting the policy makers or the corporations to change their modalities. How they're doing things. Because they realize, hey, the writing is on the wall. This has to happen. We need to figure out how to get there. And sometimes it's complex to get there because the food system is very complex. So, I would say that one of the things I'm really looking forward to is more cross collaboration. You know, we're living in the season of elections. We're hearing it on the news all the time. And the thing that drives the policy makers is whether or not they're going to be elected or reelected. And so, the more that we can convince them that there is a large majority of the public that wants to see these fundamental changes in the food system. We will have their support. We've seen it in California. We are getting incredible support from our Secretary of Agriculture, our governor, and our Secretary of Natural Resources. They work together to create things on the ground. I would say that the Tom Vilsack and Biden did a lot for regenerative agriculture, working on two big projects that have been funded by the USDA that will touch a thousand ranchers of bison and beef to get them to learn about, adapt, adopt, and then build new markets for their products. So that's an important piece. The other is the marketplace and companies want to sell their products. So, the more that consumers become discerning and what they're purchasing, the better off we're going to be. So, we have a podcast like you do. And what we're trying to do is just educate people about the connections between what they're doing and what the farmers and ranchers out there who are trying to do good work with the land and with health and with their workers. We just try to promote this idea of making good decisions about what they purchase. Tell us a little bit more about your podcast, which is called Flipping the Table. Tell us more about what you're trying to accomplish and the kind of people that you speak with. Well, it's similar to yours in a certain way, I would say. Because what I'm doing is interviewing the people that are doing the kinds of projects that we think are scaling change or could scale change. Or people who have a depth of understanding. So, the regenerative meat world, we've done a lot in the last few years. Talking to Nicolette Hahn Nyman, who wrote a couple of books about the meat system, with a great rancher up in Northern California, who advises other ranchers on how to finish their animals on grass in California in a dry environment. I just, today we dropped a podcast with Cole Mannix from the Old Salt Co op in Montana about the ranchers he's pulled together. The co op he's built that has a slaughter plant, restaurants, a meat shop, and has an online thing. And then they do a big, they do a big annual event in the summer during the solstice. So, you know, we're just trying to get voices who, like you are, who are, who are modeling and educating the public around what is happening. How much is actually happening. I've been in this world for 30 years almost, and I have to say, I have never been more optimistic about the scale of change, the accelerating speed of change, and the possibilities that lay ahead. BIO  Michael Dimock is an organizer and thought leader on food and farming systems and heads Roots of Change (ROC) a project of the Public Health Institute. ROC develops and campaigns for smart, incentive-based food and farm policies that position agriculture and food enterprises as solutions to critical challenges of the 21st century. Since 2006, Michael has been spawning and leading education and policy campaigns, community dialogues and creative engagements with government and corporate leaders to advance regenerative food and farm policies and practices that make agriculture and food enterprises solutions to critical public health challenges of the 21st century. His leadership has helped create one new law and funding program at the federal level and three new California laws that included two new funding programs and five successful budget requests. He began his career in 1989 as a sales executive in Europe for agribusiness and in 1992 founded Ag Innovations Network to provide strategic planning for companies and governments seeking healthier food and agriculture. In 1996, he founded Slow Food Russian River and, from 2002 to 2007, he was Chairman of Slow Food USA and a member of Slow Food International's board of directors. Michael's love for agriculture and food systems grew from experiences on a 13,000-acre cattle ranch in Santa Clara County in his youth and a development project with Himalayan subsistence farmers in Nepal in 1979. He is the host of the podcast Flipping the Table featuring honest conversations about food, farms and the future. 

Is it possible to build a profitable expertise business that is 100% values-aligned and mission driven? Lucy Flores—who has built a design studio dedicated to co-creating a more just, joyful and sustainable U.S. food system—says yes, with the results to prove it:Why she niched her business into food equity right from the beginning—and how it played out.How she thinks about and builds alliances, coalitions and partnerships (hint: she doesn't have competitors).Her approach—as an introvert—to investing in relationships and meeting new people in her field.Why niching alone wasn't enough—and what changed when she started marketing regularly.Adopting a mindset of cautious optimism and deciding when it's “safe to fail”.LINKSLucy Flores Website | LinkedInRochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramBIOLucy is the founder of Studio Magic Hour, a collaborative design studio working to advance equity in the food system, and a former Equitable Design Fellow at Hopelab.She's partnered with organizations including the California Academy of Sciences, the Fair Food Network, Hopelab, The Nature Conservancy, Plant Futures, Share Our Strength, and the Southern Poverty Law Center to lead design and design research projects, facilitate workshops, and coach in-house design and innovation teams.Previously, she helped launch FoodCorps, a national nonprofit dedicated to cultivating joy, health, and justice for kids through nutritious food, in partnership with schools and community. She is a member of the Design Justice Network, the Democracy & Belonging Forum at the Othering and Belonging Institute, Equity Army, and AIGA.BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLERESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS10 Ways To Grow Revenue As A Soloist (Without Working More Hours): most of us have been conditioned to work more when we want to grow revenue—but what if we just worked differently?Master Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather and learn.The Soloist Women community: a place to connect with like-minded women (and join a channel dedicated to your revenue level).The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

The nutrition title was first included in the 1973 farm bill. It's projected to make up 84% of total Farm Bill spending, with most of the funds going to SNAP. That's because the program helps more than 40 million low-income individuals provide food for their families each month. Some of those people are farmers. In this episode, we talk to Mark Nicholson, Senior Director of Policy at the Fair Food Network to dig into how the farm bill links farms and food access.  And we'll talk to farmers about how they are uniquely positioned to directly provide nutritious food for the families in their communities.Learn more about the SNAP program here, the Healthy Food Finance Initiative here, and the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) hereCheck out Fair Food Network hereLearn more about the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program hereThe Farm Report is hosted by Leigh Ollman and Alita Kelly, produced by Leigh Ollman, Evan Flom and H Conley, and edited by Hannah Beal and H Conley. Audio engineering is by Armen Spendjian and H Conley. Music is by Breakmaster Cylinder and JangwaLearn more about the National Young Farmers Coalition here and consider becoming a member. Click here to take action on the farm bill and other important policy issues. The Farm Report is Powered by Simplecast.

Our misbegotten industrial food system is one of our greatest vulnerabilities. Its dangerously fossil-fueled, toxic, monocultural and centralized. The real cost of cheap food is very high to both people and planet. Urban food innovators are designing vibrant new local food economies built on environmental and ecological integrity, sustainability, diversity and equity. Join author Michael Pollan, Fair Food Foundation CEO Oran Hesterman, faith-based change-maker James Ella James and student leader Victoria Carter for a smorgasbord of nourishing morsels from the emerging locavore movement. Find out more about Michael Pollan at his website, and the work Oran Hesterman is doing at the Fair Food Network website.

In episode 7 we're joined by Oran Hesterman, the founder and CEO of Fair Food Network, a national nonprofit headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI on a mission to grow community health and wealth through food. This includes its Double Up Food Bucks program that doubles the spending power of individuals on SNAP, or food stamps, helping them bring home more fruits and vegetables while supporting local farmers. Our conversation spans topics related to the Double Up program as well as a larger discussion on the social determinants of health and the role of social programs in making our society healthier.Our Guest: Oran HestermanWith more than 35 years of experience as a scientist, farmer, philanthropist, businessman, educator, and passionate advocate, Oran B. Hesterman is a national leader in sustainable agriculture and food systems and is a respected partner for policymakers, philanthropic leaders, and advocates nationwide.He currently serves as Founder and CEO of Fair Food Network, a national nonprofit on a mission to grow community health and wealth through food. The decade plus it has spent testing and growing scalable solutions has led to big changes in communities. First through Double Up Food Bucks, which today is a national model for healthy food incentives in 28+ states, and now through Fair Food Fund, which is investing in good food entrepreneurs so they can be engines of a more equitable tomorrow.Before launching Fair Food Network, Hesterman led the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Integrated Farming Systems and Food & Society programs, during which time he seeded the local food systems movement with more than $200 million in investments. Prior to his work in philanthropy and nonprofits, Hesterman researched and taught forage and cropping systems management and sustainable agriculture at Michigan State University.A former fellow in the Kellogg National Fellowship Program and the National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy in Washington, D.C., Hesterman has published more than 400 reports and articles on subjects ranging from crop rotation to the impact of philanthropy on food systems practice and policy and trends in the good food movement. He currently serves on the board or in an advisory role for a number of national and Michigan-based organizations including Fair Food Fund portfolio company Five Acre Farms, Groundworks Center, NextCycle Michigan, and Pardes Hannah Jewish Renewal Community.Hesterman is a native of Berkeley, California. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of California – Davis. He completed his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in agronomy, plant genetics, and businesses administration. He lives with his wife Lucinda Kurtz in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he still gets his hands dirty in his garden and at the potter's wheel.

In this episode you'll hear about: •  Challenges of producing healthy food sustainably•  Why “local” matters to food growers and consumers•  Pandemic illustrates how “un-resilient” the world's food systems are today•  Mark Watson describes how Fair Food Fund supports food-based businesses and pays investors a return• How Cooking with Que pivoted when Covid-19 took away its revenueRelated story: Green pastures ahead for sustainable food post Covid-19United Nations SDG #2 InformationGuest bios: Mark Watson is a senior strategic investment advisor for the Fair Food Network based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He supports the network's impact investing arm the Fair Food Fund, which provides catalytic capital and business assistance to support entrepreneurs in food-based businesses that support their communities.Dan Horan is CEO and founder of Five Acre Farms. It aims to bring local foods to grocery stores, restaurants and food shops, supplying milk, buttermilk, cage free eggs, and other dairy and apple-based products that are sourced and produced within 275 miles. Five Acre Farms works with farmers using sustainable practices and pays them a fair price to ensure they are sustainable, too. Quiana “Que” Broden is the owner of Cooking with Que, where she aims to teach people how to “eat to live” by introducing them to more plant-based meals.Global ESG Summit streams across three time zones on May 27UN's World Food ProgrammeFeeding AmericaFeed the Hunger FundGlobal FoodBanking Network*correction:  Global FoodBanking Network does not invest in hunger-relief work in California and Hawaii, as the episode mentionsPresident Jimmy Carter audio clip courtesy of C-Span.  From 1977 commencement speech to Notre Dame.

Vision is the idea of a better tomorrow. During COVID-19, we have learned a lot about ourselves, our work and our impact. We have had abundant resources flow to our state in the form of food assistance with SNAP, Pandemic-EBT, unemployment benefits, school meals changing their models to grab-and-go, and our network distributing almost 5 million pounds of food each week. We have adapted and will continue to do so to help feed our hungry neighbors. Tune in this evening to hear from Dr. Phil Knight, Gerry Brisson, President and CEO of Gleaners Community Food Bank and Alex Canepa, State Policy Manager of Fair Food Network and a member of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Food Security Council. Alex is a thought leader and using his one handful of life to build out his vision of food security; a vision where farmers and those who work around agriculture and food processing, are able to generate community-level wealth. While we live in one of the wealthiest places on Earth, a large percentage of our children are food insecure. We must figure out how to unlock the food chain enabling everyone, not just some, to access healthy and nutritious foods. We know our work has no value if we distribute food that people won’t eat; people need to be eating the food that they receive as well as enjoy it. Change is part of existence – be the change you wish to see in the world. We are imperfect people, doing meaningful work with a vision of a better tomorrow.

Seeded with a 2012 challenge grant of $3.75 million, the Fair Food Fund, the impact investing arm of Fair Food Network, has attracted a total of $6.4+ million in grants and program related investments from more than 20 funders. Since then, the Fund has provided more than $3.6 million in financing and business assistance to over 80 enterprises across 9 states.

Host Alex Kravitz talks to Olivia Rebanal from Capital Impact Partners, Jean Chorazyczewski of The Fair Food Network, and Amit Makhecha of FEAST Detroit. These guests share the stark facts about this challenge, detail the steps they are taking to cultivate a more inclusive and equitable local food system, and offer suggestions for what it will take to solve this challenge in communities across America.

Liz Alpern is passionate about bringing people together through food. She is the creator of Queer Soup Night. Each QSN a time to feel welcome who identify as queer to not feel like an exception in the room. There are now Queer Soup Night communities across the country. Liz is also the co-founder of The Gefilteria and co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods. Liz and her co-founder Jeffery’s mission for their work is to reclaim and revolutionize Ashkenazi cuisine. In all her free time, Liz is also a faculty member at the International Culinary Center's Culinary Entrepreneurship program in New York and consults for the national food justice organization Fair Food Network. Liz and Julia talk about the work Liz does, the intention she brings to it, and the intersection of their shared queer and Jewish identities. There's also a shoutout to the Third Wave Fund and answers to listeners' questions. For more about Julia and her work, head here.

The idea for Sprout Urban Farms germinated in 2009 when a citizen approached Jeremy Andrews (far right), a community organizer, about helping him start a community garden. After news spread throughout the city about the possibility of a new community garden, others expressed interest in community gardening. To better gauge the interest throughout the city, a like minded group of people decided to hold a community forum on community gardening. Attendees of the forum decided to collectively work on several issues and projects for that year. It was at that most wonderful gathering of over 100 citizens from all corners of our county, that Sprout Urban Farms was born. For nearly two years, Sprout Urban Farms was a completely volunteer-ran, and unfunded organization of really cool people with all kinds of creativity, vision, and the drive to ACT towards accomplishing our goals. In the spring of 2011, the Fair Food Network granted Sprout Urban Farms its first large sum of monies to continue our work in Battle Creek, Michigan. That funding was followed by funding from the Battle Creek Community Foundation. Now with funding, the organizer who helped develop Sprout, became its Executive Director. Under the direction of Mr. Andrews, Sprout has continued to garner regional and national attention for our work in improving food access and making our city that much better. This episode has been sponsored by Hearst Ranch. “If you’re successful at community organizing, the community doesn’t need organizing anymore. Everyone is then a community organizer.” [19:05] — Jeremy Andrews on Greenhorn Radio

Aired 11/13/11 Some bad news: In 2008 more than 50% of all US harvested cropland grew only two crops - corn and soybeans and more than 40% of the food calories consumed worldwide came from just three crops: wheat, corn and rice. 30% of Detroit residents receive food stamps, but 92% of Detroit's food stamp retailers offer few or no fresh fruit or vegetables. The average plate of food eaten in our homes or restaurants travels 1,500 miles from where the food is grown. Our food system consumes 10.3 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce 1.4 calories of food energy." And some good news: There are now 8000 farm to school programs across the US. Eight years ago there were only 4. There are now 6000 farmers' markets in the US three times as many as in 1995. 330 hospitals in the US and Canada have pledged to purchase food that is grown according to Fair Food principles. In recent years a number of books and films have documented the dangers of our current food system, and a number of those have been featured on Free forum. Just as you can't alter the course of climate change by simply switching to efficient light bulbs, today's guests believe that you can't fix the broken food system by simply growing a backyard garden. It requires redesigning our food system. My first guest, ORAN HESTERMAN has a new book FAIR FOOD, a guide to changing not only what we eat, but how our food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed and sold. Hesterman opens the book talking about Detroit, Michigan, an unlikely beacon of hope in the fight for fair food. Prior to starting the Fair Food Network, where he is President & CEO, ORAN HESTERMAN was the inaugural president of Fair Food Foundation, leading their sustainable food systems programs. Before that, he researched and taught in the crop and soil sciences department at Michigan State University in East Lansing, and for more than 15 years he co-led the Integrated Farming Systems and Food and Society Programs for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, during which time the Foundation seeded the local food systems movement with over $200 million. FAIR FOOD is his first book. My second guest LEILA CONNERS, a founder of Tree Media in Santa Monica, is a producer of URBAN ROOTS, a documentary on the food revolution taking place in Detroit. Directed by Detroit-native Mark McInnis the film tells the powerful story of a group of dedicated Detroiters working tirelessly to fulfill their vision for locally-grown, sustainably farmed food in a city where people -- as in much of the county -- have found themselves cut off from real food and limited to lifeless offerings of fast food chains, mini-marts, and grocery stores stocked with processed food from thousands of miles away. LEILA CONNERS is Founder and President of Tree Media Group. Conners is director, producer, and writer on THE 11TH HOUR, as well as the short films "Global Warning" and "Water Planet" (all with Leonardo DiCaprio). She was Associate Editor at New Perspectives Quarterly and Global Viewpoint, focusing on international politics and social issues. She is producer of URBAN ROOTS. fairfoodbook.org, fairfoodnetwork.org, urbanrootsamerica.com, treemedia.com

Guest Oran Hesterman, Ph.D., President and CEO of Fair Food Network, and author of 'Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All'Fair Food Network