Podcast appearances and mentions of Gary Paul Nabhan

Gary Paul Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, ethnobotanist, and award-winning author whose work focuses primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert American Southwest. Considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement, he is the author of many books including Agave Spirits, which explores the world of Mezcal production. On this episode of Nature Revisited, Gary introduces us to mezcal's sacred dimensions, ceremonial uses, probiotic benefits, and its deep-rooted cultural traditions. Distinct from other spirits due to its variety, mezcal is derived from numerous agave species and crafted through traditional methods that incorporate local flavors and elements, resulting in a unique “taste of place.” [Originally published Jan 9, 2024. Ep 112] Gary's website: https://www.garynabhan.com/ Agave Spirits book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393867107 Listen to Nature Revisited on your favorite podcast apps, on YouTube, or at https://noordenproductions.com Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/bdz4s9d7 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n7yx28t Subscribe on Youtube Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bddd55v9 Podlink: https://pod.link/1456657951 Support Nature Revisited https://noordenproductions.com/support Nature Revisited is produced by Stefan van Norden and Charles Geoghegan. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions - contact us at https://noordenproductions.com/contact

Since plants have to mate and produce offspring while rooted to the spot, they have to be pollinated – by wind, water, or animals – most commonly insects. They use a surprising array of tricks to attract pollinators: striking colours, iridescent light effects, and enticing scents, to name but a few. Insects, on the other hand, do not seek to pollinate plants – they are looking for food; so plants make sure it's worth their while. Insects are also remarkably sophisticated in their ability to find, recognise and find their way inside flowers. So pollination has evolved as a complex dance between plants and pollinators that is essential for life on earth to continue. With Beverley Glover, Director of the Cambridge University Botanic GardenJane Memmott, Professor of Ecology at the University of BristolAndLars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology at Queen Mary, University of London.Producer: Eliane GlaserReading list:Stephen L Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan, The Forgotten Pollinators (Island Press, 1997)Lars Chittka, The Mind of a Bee (Princeton University Press, 2023)Steven Falk, Field Guide to the Bees of Britain and Ireland (British Wildlife Publishing, 2015)Francis S. Gilbert (illustrated by Steven J. Falk), Hoverflies: Naturalists' Handbooks vol. 5 (Pelagic Publishing, 2015)Dave Goulson, A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees (Vintage, 2014)Edwige Moyroud and Beverley J. Glover, ‘The evolution of diverse floral morphologies' (Current Biology vol 11, 2017)Jeff Ollerton, Birds and Flowers: An Intimate 50 Million Year Relationship (Pelagic Publishing, 2024) Alan E. Stubbs and Steven J. Falk, British Hoverflies (‎British Entomological & Natural History Society, 2002)Timothy Walker, Pollination: The Enduring Relationship Between Plant and Pollinator (Princeton University Press, 2020)In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

The biggest issue threatening the food system now is not climate change. It is the emerging policies to deport undocumented workers that make the wheels turn from fields to processing plants and retail. Gary Nabham is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational Southwest. He also is a keynote speaker at Eco Farm where he brings a different message.  It's time for people in the country to come together, regardless of their politics to support the immigrants we need to  grow, process, deliver and prepare our food from farm to table.  garynabhan.com    eco-farm.org

Kevin Ellis hosts Viewpoint today with guests:9 am - Summary of the weeks news.9:15 am - Jasper Craven, Politico, discusses his in depth report on Pete Hegseth to be Defense Secretary. 9:45 - Sen. Peter Welch on Kash Patel for FBI. (Invited)10 am - Bob Ney10:30 - Gary Paul Nabhan on his latest book - Against the American Grain.

Gary Paul Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, ethnobotanist, and award-winning author whose work focuses primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert American Southwest, including the book The Nature of Desert Nature. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Gary re-introduces us to the possibilities of what a desert is and can be, challenging our traditional notions. Filled with sights, sounds, scents, and wildlife systems one wouldn't think possible, Gary reveals how the desert contains wisdom and teachings that are invaluable to humanity in the midst of our changing climate. Gary's website: https://www.garynabhan.com/ Listen to Nature Revisited on your favorite podcast apps or at https://noordenproductions.com Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/bdz4s9d7 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n7yx28t Podlink: https://pod.link/1456657951 Support Nature Revisited https://noordenproductions.com/support Nature Revisited is produced by Stefan van Norden and Charles Geoghegan. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions - contact us at https://noordenproductions.com/contact

Join Dr. Quave in conversation with MacArthur Fellow and James Beard award-winning author of “Agave Spirits”, Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan as they discuss the incredible adaptations of desert plants, innovative water management techniques, and the sacred role of plants across various cultures. Dr. Nabhan is globally known for building cross-cultural teams for the collaborative conservation of biocultural landscapes and rare foods, medicines and sacred plants. An author or editor of over thirty books and 120 scientific articles published in the likes of Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Anthropologist, Ethnobiology, and the Ecology of Food and Nutrition, he has also written for the New York Times, LA Times, Smithsonian, Food Tank and Huffington Post. He is a pioneer in the Slow Food, Sustainable Agriculture, Plant/Pollinator Conservation and Ecological Restoration movements. In this episode, Dr. Nabhan shares his personal and professional journey, detailing his work in desert plant conservation, indigenous collaborations, and the Sacred Plant Biocultural Recovery Initiative. The discussion underscores the deep connection between plants, spirituality, and human culture, offering insights into how ancient practices can inform modern sustainability efforts. Learn more about his work at https://www.garynabhan.com/ #ethnobotany #desert #fragrance #conservation #agave 

On “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg'' Dani moderates a discussion about new research and tools that can help the world adapt to a changing climate, protect agrobiodiversity, and transform our approach to and understanding of food and nutrition. Speakers dive into the architecture of a food system that will help eaters make sustainable choices, the recent work that aims to better understand diets around the globe, and measuring progress from farm to plate.  Speakers include Jessica Fanzo, Professor of Climate and Director of the Food for Humanity Initiative at the Columbia Climate School; Anna Herforth, Senior Research Associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a member of the Periodic Table of Food Initiative's Scientific Advisory Committee; Gary Paul Nabhan, a writer, ethnobiologist, Research Social Scientist Emeritus at the University of Arizona, and the Co-Founder of Native Seeds/SEARCH; Andy Jarvis, Director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund; and Jonathan Lundgren, the Founder and Director of the Ecdysis Foundation. While you're listening, subscribe, rate, and review the show; it would mean the world to us to have your feedback. You can listen to “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” wherever you consume your podcasts.

Gary Paul Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, ethnobotanist, and award-winning author whose work focuses primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert American Southwest. Considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement, he is the author of many books including Agave Spirits, which explores the world of Mezcal production. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Gary introduces us to mezcal's sacred dimensions, ceremonial uses, probiotic benefits, and its deep-rooted cultural traditions. Distinct from other spirits due to its variety, mezcal is derived from numerous agave species and crafted through traditional methods that incorporate local flavors and elements, resulting in a unique “taste of place.” Gary's website: https://www.garynabhan.com/ Agave Spirits book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393867107 Listen to Nature Revisited on your favorite podcast apps or at https://noordenproductions.com Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/bdz4s9d7 Subscribe on Google Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/4a5sr4ua Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n7yx28t Support Nature Revisited https://noordenproductions.com/support Nature Revisited is produced by Stefan Van Norden and Charles Geoghegan. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions - contact us at https://noordenproductions.com/contact

This week, we dive into the world of apples and agave. First, we talk with apple historian Diane Flynt, author of Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived: The Surprising Story of Apples in the South, about what makes apples so magical and the connection apples have to people. She also teaches us the history of apples in the South and tips on what makes a good cider. Then, we turn to the world of Agave spirits with authors Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera, where we get an understanding of agave as not just an entity but a “whole rainbow of flavors and fragrance” as well as the fascinating craftsmanship behind mezcal and tequilas. Their latest book is Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals.September 8, 2023 (originally aired)Your support is a special ingredient in helping to make The Splendid Table. Donate today

Douglas E. Christie, Ph.D., is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Early Christian Monasticism; The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology; and The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss and the Common Life. He is the founding editor of the journal Spiritus and served as co-director of the Casa de la Mateada Program in Córdoba, Argentina from 2013-2015. Doug and I talk about why the poetic and apophatic theology of Hadejwich of Antwerp and Jan Van Ruusbroec might be important for our times, incarnational risk and AI, kindness as a spiritual practice and much more. Listen to Doug's first appearance on Contemplify here. Visit contemplify.com for the shownotes.  

Gary Paul Nabhan, known by many as the "father of the local food movement," is a prolific author, scientist, and activist for a healthy and truly regenerative food system that respects the land and its plants and animals; the people grow food, process, and serve the food and their communities; and to all the rest of us who eat and want our food to nourish us. He's an ecumenical Franciscan brother whose service is devoted to food equity and justice. W.K., Kellogg endowed chair for food and water security at the University of Arizona, he's the author of many books; his latest is Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized in Our Food System. He's an agrarian and ethnobotanist and is winner of numerous accolades, including a MacArthur fellowship and many literary, environmental, food, and arts awards.

The spice trade episode was an epic undertaking and I am so pleased with it, but sadly we have reached the end!On this final part we are examining a number of other spices -namely black pepper, cardamom and ginger- and we learn about the demise of the Nabateans in the early centuries of our common era. We also see how the clever tribes enhanced the selling of their incense and spices by weaving elaborate stories, with monsters and dangerous birds guarding the valuable trees!The ancient world was highly globalised and the Arabian traders were in the middle of a lucrative route; incense and spices and precious, exotic luxury goods were coming from the East and used in the West, for many millennia. For rituals, for food and seen as items that bestowed power and authority to the person who possessed them. Were the magical tears of Frankinsence, much coveted by the Egyptian Nobility, the thing that kick-started the global race for spices?Enjoy!Music by Epidemic Sound and Motion Array exceptTheme of The Delicious Legacy and end song by Pavlos KapralosFree Mily by Miltos BoumisVoiceover actors appearing in order : Mark Knight, Baron Anastis, Jim Bryden, Rachael Louise Miller.Sources:The Periplous of the Erythraean Sea (ancient unknown author),Roman Arabia by BowersockCumin, Camels and Caravans - A Spice Odyssey by Gary Paul Nabhan Food in the Ancient World from A to Z by Andrew Dalby.Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Roman_trade_relationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Islamic_Arabiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean_tradeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. If you love to time-travel through food and history why not join us at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Making this episode was an epic adventure, "travelling" through the ancient world and through time, so I had to divide it into three parts.Today in part two of our adventure amongst other things we follow the trails of frankinsence and who were the Nabataeans?The ancient spice route is inextricably linked with the Arabian peninsula. At first, this seems a little bit odd perhaps, and a little baffling. Why this inhospitable desert, is connected with the spice trade so closely?In today's part two of our trilogy about the ancient history of the spices and spice trade, we'll talk about the Frankincense and other spices introduced to the temples and plates of ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.Let's delve a bit deeper to the history of aromatics and spices, their use in ancient Greece and EgyptThe ancient world was highly globalised and the Arabian traders were in the middle of a lucrative route; Incense and spices and precious, exotic luxury goods were coming from the East and used in the West, for many millennia. For rituals, for food and seen as items that bestowed power and authority to the person who possessed them.Enjoy!Music by Epidemic Sound and Motion Array exceptTheme of The Delicious Legacy and end song by Pavlos KapralosFree Mily by Miltos BoumisVoiceover actors appearing in order : Mark Knight, Baron Anastis, Jim Bryden, Rachael Louise Miller.Sources:The Periplous of the Erythraean Sea (ancient unknown author),Roman Arabia by BowersockCumin, Camels and Caravans - A Spice Odyssey by Gary Paul Nabhan Food in the Ancient World from A to Z by Andrew Dalby.Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Roman_trade_relationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Islamic_Arabiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean_tradeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. If you love to time-travel through food and history why not join us at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode is an epic so I had to divide it in three parts!Part One today and then part two next week, and the final part the week after.The ancient spice route is inextricably linked with the Arabian peninsula. At first, this seems a little bit odd perhaps, and a little baffling. Why this inhospitable desert, is connected with the spice trade so closely?In today's part one of our trilogy about the ancient history of the spices and spice trade, we'll get introduced to the climate, region and the people who inhabited the Arabian peninsula. The ancient world was highly globalised and the Arabian traders were in the middle of a lucrative route; Insence and spices and precious, exotic luxury goods were coming from the East and used in the West, for many millennia. For rituals, for food and seen as items that bestowed power and authority to the person who possessed them. Were the magical tears of Frankinsence, much coveted by the Egyptian Nobility, the thing that kick-started the global race for spices?Enjoy!Music by Epidemic Sound and Motion Array exceptTheme of The Delicious Legacy and end song by Pavlos KapralosFree Mily by Miltos Boumis Voiceover actors appearing in order : Mark Knight, Baron Anastis, Jim Bryden, Rachael Louise Miller.Sources: The Periplous of the Erythraean Sea (ancient unknown author), Roman Arabia by Bowersock Cumin, Camels and Caravans - A Spice Odyssey by Gary Paul Nabhan  Food in the Ancient World from A to Z by Andrew Dalby.Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Roman_trade_relationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Islamic_Arabiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean_tradeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. If you love to time-travel through food and history why not join us at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We discuss the effectiveness of combining traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science for conservation and restoration initiatives on this episode. Our first guest is Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, an ethnobotanist at the University of Arizona, who discusses an ancestral food of the Comcaac people in the state of Sonora in Mexico: eelgrass. Nabhan explains how eelgrass is making a big comeback thanks to the people's restoration work, and is retaking its place at the table as a sustainable source of food for the Comcaac community while gaining international culinary attention in the process. Host Mike G. also speaks with Dr. Sara Iverson, a professor of biology at Canada's Dalhousie University, about a research project called Apoqnmatulti'k that aims to better understand the movements of lobster, eel, and tomcod in two important ecosystems on Canada's Atlantic coast. Iverson explains why those study species were chosen by the Mi'kmaq people and why it's so important that the project combines different ways of knowing, including Western science and traditional Indigenous knowledge, which a Mi'kmaq elder dubbed 'two-eyed seeing.' Further reading about Apoqnmatulti'k here: • “In Canada, Indigenous communities and scientists collaborate on marine research” Listen to episode #145 (June 1, 2022) of this podcast to hear about related Indigenous aquaculture traditions via your favorite podcast provider, or here: • “Podcast: Indigenous, ingenious and sustainable aquaculture from the distant past to today” Episode artwork: A conservationist working on a seagrass restoration project. Image courtesy of Seawilding. Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips. If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.

Ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan has been called the “father of the local food movement.” For decades he's campaigned for seed diversity and sustainable food production. Some of his insights come from the farming practices of Indigenous people living near the U.S.-Mexico border, who've grown food in arid habitats for centuries. Originally from the Midwest, Nabhan moved to the Arizona desert several decades ago. He reflects on “the wisdom of the desert,” and also talks about his work to foster a “radical center” where ranchers and environmentalists can come together to find common ground. Human identity cannot be separated from our nonhuman kin. From forest ecology to the human microbiome, emerging research suggests that being human is a complicated journey made possible only by the good graces of our many companions. In partnership with the Center for Humans and Nature and with support from the Kalliopeia Foundation, To The Best Of Our Knowledge is exploring this theme of "kinship" in a special radio series. To learn more about the Kinship series, head to ttbook.org/kinship. Original Air Date: April 15, 2022 Guests:  Gary Paul Nabhan

In July 2016, Jack Loeffler recorded Gary Snyder reading his updated version of 'Four Changes' in his home. This recorded version was prepared for and included in a major exhibition held at the History Museum of New Mexico at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. The exhibition was entitled 'Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest', and Snyder's rendering of 'Four Changes' aptly conveyed how deeply the counterculture movement helped nurture the emerging environmental movement. The impact of this manifesto is as powerful today as it was a half century ago and could not be more timely. Four Changes at Age 50: A Celebration on the Environmental Movement's First Manifesto of Contemplative Ecology Introduction by Diana Hadley, Jack Loeffler, Gary Paul Nabhan and Jack Shoemaker In the months before the first Earth Day in April 1970, mention of a prophetic manifesto seemed to crop up in nearly every serious discussion of what the nascent environmental movement should be and what values it should embody. That manifesto was conceived and shaped in the summer 1969, as poet Gary Snyder toured a number of college campuses around the United States and then entered into deeper discussions with a number of other poets, visionaries and activists in the San Francisco Bay area. Affectionately called “Chofu” by other radical environmentalists during that time, Snyder gradually refined their collective vision into a ten page draft document that became what we now know as Four Changes. Several features of this manifesto were then, and still are, unique in the canon of writings considered foundational to the environmental movement. Snyder's literary gifts shine through the manifesto with prescient, poetic and playfully comic qualities to them. The tone seemed as fresh and as “out of the box” as Leaves of Grass must have sounded when Whitman first sowed it onto the American earth a century earlier. The manifesto called for a radical shift in our relationship with the planet through changing the way we perceive population, pollution, consumption, and the transformation of our society and ourselves. In this manner, it foreshadowed later expressions of ecological thought that we now call contemplative ecology and deep ecology.  While it was in many ways anchored in Buddhist teachings, it was also precise in its understanding of modern ecological science and respectful of the place-based wisdom of the traditional ecological knowledge of the many indigenous cultures of the world. It did not privilege Western science over other ways of making sense of the environment, but welcomed dialogue and integration of many distinctive expressions.  Four Changes was also rooted in a mature understanding of the political ecology of power dynamics and disparities in access to resources that were ravaging our planet, its biological and cultural diversity. Parts of it were so pertinent to these issues that it was read into the Congressional Record on April 5th, 1970--- two and a half weeks before Earth Day flags were unfurled all around the world. In that sense, it was perhaps the first robust articulation of what we now call a yearning for environmental justice. Still, the tone was hopeful—that humankind could learn to respect, learn from and embrace the other-than-human-world. As Snyder later paraphrased one of the tenets of Four Changes, “Revolutionary consciousness is to be found among the most ruthlessly exploited classes: animals, trees, water, air, grasses.”  It is time to heed the call of the prophetic Four Changes.

Gary Paul Nabhan is a gardener, an agricultural ecologist, an ethnobotanist, and an ecumenical Franciscan Brother based in Patagonia, Arizona. He is the author of a host of books covering a diversity of plant-relationship topics – from pollinators to food policy, to love letters to his favorite landscapes. The heart of his work is fed by his own lifelong enchantment with the world – and his nearly lifelong commitment to healing wounded landscapes from a primary objective of consciously conserving healthy relationships on all levels and planes. In all he does, Gary examines our human relationships to plants and places not just as a matter of important pragmatics but as a matter of generosity, spirit, and poetics - I cannot think of a better time of year to share forward that exact kind of enchantment and hopeful work. Gary Paul Nabhan joins Cultivating Place this week - listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and for many more photos please visit cultivatingplace.com.

Strategic reserves -- everything from Canadian maple syrup to seeds -- are intended to stabilize prices or to help us survive, in both the short and long term.  So what are we keeping and why?  (and what happens if someone steals it?!) Like what you hear?  Become a patron of the arts for as little as $2 a month!   Or buy the book or some merch.  Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter,  or Instagram. Music: Kevin MacLeod, David Fesliyan.   Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Links to all the research resources are on the website.   In the latter half of the 20th century, American wines finally began to come into their own on the global scene.  It was no longer a social faux pas to be seen drinking California chardonnay.  Hastened by a global recession, consumption of European wines by Europeans dropped precipitously, by nearly 1/2 in France and by almost ⅔ in Italy.  What's a vineyard to do if they've produced more wine than the public is buying?  Put it in the wine lake, of course.  My name's…   A strategic reserve is the reserve of a commodity or items that is held back from normal use by governments, organisations, or businesses in pursuance of a particular strategy or to cope with unexpected events.  Your mind may go immediately to the 35 million barrels or so of crude oil that the US has in storage, but there are all kinds of strategic reserves, sometimes called stockpiles, throughout the world.  Most of those stockpiles are intended to guard against price fluctuations.  Today will trend more toward survival necessities, but if you've ever done any kind of research, you know that start off thinking you're going down one road and wind up goodness knows where.    The rationing, deprivation, and economic collapse that were part and parcel to WWII affected the lives of Europeans so profoundly that the European Economic Community, a precursor to the European Union, began subsidizing farmers.  Farmers have never been raking in the big bucks, even when the are outstanding in their field [rimshot], but they were no longer able to rely on it to support their families, especially on land pock-marked with those pesky bomb craters.  Under-production was endemic to the 1950's.  The Common Agricultural Policy was created in 1962 to pay guaranteed, artificially high prices to dairy farmers for surplus products.  These products were then sold the European public for higher prices, causing a drop in sales.  Attempts by non-EU dairies to get in on these high sale prices were kiboshed by heavy taxes.  A certain portion of products were stockpiled, to guard against crop failures, natural disasters, or in case someone got a wild hair and started WWIII.  In 1986 alone, the EU bought 1.23 million tons of leftover butter.  That's 9,840,000,000 sticks of creamy saturated fat goodness.  While this may sound like a dairy-lover's dream, the general public was not so enthusiastic when word got out of what was termed the “butter mountain,” nor were they keen to learn they were paying inflated prices for their dairy goods.  This program actually cost a lot of taxpayer money, almost 90% of the European Economic Communities entire budget.  Even as recently as 2003, these payments are approximately half of the EU budget, even though farming is only 3% of the overall economy.   It still took until the ‘90s for something to be done about it, however. Instead of paying farmers for their unwanted butter, the EEC switched to paying them to not produce it.  To move away from paying farmers guaranteed minimum prices for surplus goods, the government has shifted to paying to farmers so they won't produce as much.  While it seems counter-intuitive, it's not uncommon for governments to pay farmers not farm.  It's been done here in the US since the 1930's.  Some of the prohibitively high import taxes were rescinded as well.  In 2007, the butter surplus was liquidated, figuratively speaking.  In 2009, however, the global recession did require some of the old policies to be reinstated.  The EU claimed it was only a temporary measure that would result in a smaller butter reserve than before, a butter hill rather than a mountain.  A grass-fed knoll, if you will.  This was no magic butter, of course.  Critics argue that farming subsidies in first-world nations hurt developing countries whose farmers can't compete with the artificial prices.   The 300,000 tons of butter the government bought cost taxpayers a whopping €280,000,000, or about a third of a billion dollars, and public pressure quickly rose to get rid of it again.  As of 2011, a portion of the butter had been donated to the worldwide Food Aid for the Needy program.  They don't have this down pat, though.  Changing medical views about fat are leading people to return to butter rather than vegetable oils or margarine, at a rate that's outpacing production.   Oh, Canada, the great white north, full of polite people, ice hockey, geese, and maple syrup.  There are worse reputations for a country to have.  What a pleasant and wholesome thing maple syrup is, drizzled on pancakes on a sunny Sunday morning.  It lands strangely on the brain to learn that there is a Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve.   The Canadian maple syrup industry produces approximately 80% of the world's pure maple syrup and is the leading global producer of maple products.  The province of Quebec alone has almost 8,000 farms, fulfilling 72% of the worlds sticky sweet needs.   Maple syrup is harvested from the sap of maple trees, shockingly, but the process is even more fickle than your average crop.  Maple trees require nights below freezing and days that are in the low thirties but above freezing to  relinquish their sap in useful quantities.  If the nights are too warm or the days are too cold, production levels can vary wildly based on the weather.  That isn't good news if you're trying to maintain a large-scale industry.  It takes 40 units of sap to get one unit of syrup, though a long boiling process called sugaring off.  Corporate buyers depend on a consist supply.  Since 2000, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers has been squirreling away barrels of surplus syrup in rich times, in preparation for poor harvests.  The Federation's warehouses have a capacity of 10 million kilos / 22.2 million pounds of syrup, or about two million gallons.  Each barrel weighs about 620 pounds and commands a price of $1,650, almost 20 times the cost of crude oil.     Speaking of oil, some producers claim the Federation runs their operation like OPEC.  Those producers who don't cooperate with the quota system, those with the temerity to find their own buyers, are dealt with harshly.  Small producer Angèle Grenier told reporter Leyland Cecco she will face criminal charges if she doesn't stop selling to a private broker after the courts ordered her to hand her syrup over.  She has three choices: give the Federation her syrup crop, face jail time, or shut down.  “The federation's goal by taking our maple syrup is that by taking our income, we cannot pay our lawyers,” says Grenier.  “If one year we make 45 barrels, and the next year is a very good year and we make 60, we want to get paid for the 60,” she says. Once a producer fills the quota, the surplus, no matter how large, is retained until it is sold.  That lag-time can run into years.  According to Grenier, a neighboring producer is owed almost 100,000 Canadian dollars in unsold syrup.  According to Al Jazeera America, a small Quebec producer described what happened to his family's business: “The agent who came here to seize our syrup said, ‘If you were growing pot, we wouldn't be giving you as much trouble.'    When an accountant went to inventory the barrels in the warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blanford, he was alarms to find a number of the barrels filled with water, while others were plain empty. Because of the sheer volume of syrup, it would take two months to even determine how much was missing.  About 60 percent of the reserve, worth about $18 million at that time, had been stolen.  The thieves had rented space in the same warehouse and when the security guards were out of sight, siphoned the syrup from the barrels over the course of 11 months.  A multi-agency search began.  Hundreds of people were questioned and dozens of search warrants were issued.  It took a year for the 26 people believed to be involved in the robbery to be arrested.  About ⅓ of the syrup would never be recovered.  The mastermind, Richard Vallieres, received an eight-year prison sentence, which will be increased to 14 years if he doesn't pay $9.4 million in fines, the CBC reports.  Vallières was found guilty of theft, fraud and trafficking stolen goods.  His father, Raymond, and syrup reseller Etienne St-Pierre, have also been found guilty.  Speaking of Canada, I'm 100% serious about a virtual watch-party for the Letterkenny season 10 premier, soc med.   To quote the show to make a clunky segue, what's a Mennonite's favorite kind of raisin?  Barn-raisin'.  Yes, Virginia, there is a national raisin reserve.  That's right, raisins, those polarizing wrinkly former grapes.  While most stockpiles are created to protect against shortage, the National Raisin Reserve came to be for the opposite reason.  We were up to our epaulets in raisins, apparently.   During World War II, both the government and civilians bought raisins en masse to send to soldiers overseas, as a sweet, shelf stable taste of home.  Increased demand led to increased production, but when the war ended and the care packages stopped, the raisin market was flooded.   In 1949, Marketing Order 989 was passed which created the reserve and the Raisin Administrative Committee to oversee it, under the supervision of the USDA.  The Committee was empowered to take a varying percentage of American raisin farmers' produce, sometimes almost half, in an effort to create a raisin shortage and artificially drive up the market price. The reserved raisins didn't go to waste.  Much of it was used in school lunches, fed to livestock, or sold to other countries.  If the raisins were sold, the profit was supposed to be shared with the farmers, but those monies could easily be eaten up by operating expenses, leaving nothing for the people who actually grew the grapes.   This program stayed in place, business as usual, for 53 years, until 2002.  That's when farmer Marvin Horne decided that he would rather sell the product he had grown and processed instead of giving it away to the government. The government took exception to this idea.  Private detectives were dispatched to put his farm under surveillance, then trucks were sent to collect the raisins. When Horne refused to let the trucks on his property, he was slapped with a bill for about $680,000, the value of the raisins plus a penalty.  Not one to roll over that easily, Horne sued the government, claiming the forced forfeiture of his crop was unconstitutional.  For years, the case was volleyed from one court to another.  Eventually, it appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, not once but twice.  The first time was to settle the issue of jurisdiction.  Justice Elena Kagan suggested that the question was “whether the marketing order is a Taking or it's just the world's most outdated law.”  The second time was the core issue - was the seizure of raisins a violation of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the government taking personal property without just compensation?  In 2015, thirteen years after the farce began, the court ruled 8:1 in favor of Horne: For seizures to continue, compensation would have to be paid, that the confiscation of a portion of a farmer's crops without market price compensation was unconstitutional.    While many growers supports Horne in his efforts, even contributing to his legal fees, not everyone thinks of him as a champion of the little guy.  Some who followed the government's orders while Horne defied them resent him for it.  “I lost a lot of my land, following the rules,” said Eddie Wayne Albrecht, a raisin grower in nearby Del Rey, Calif.   He lost so much money in turning in as much as 47% of his crop that his farm, once 1,700 acres strong, is now only 100 acres.  “He got 100 percent, while I was getting 53 percent,” Albrecht said. “The criminal is winning right now.”   What's happening with the raisin reserve now?  The Agriculture Department could abolish it, but they have only hit pause on it, saying “Due to a recent United States Supreme Court decision, [the Volume Control] provisions are currently suspended, being reviewed, and will be amended.” At least that means that in the meantime, no more raisins should be put into the reserve and farmers are free to sell what's theirs.   Bonus fact the first: Golden raisins aren't dried white grapes.  Both regular and golden raisins are made from the same kind of grapes, but with slightly different processes.     MIDROLL   Do you remember how, after like the third time Futurama got cancelled, they did a quartet of movies, which went back and forth in quality like the Star Trek films.  The one, Into the Wild Green Yonder, featured a creature called the Encyclopod, who preserved the DNA of all endangered species.  It's not news that animal species are disappearing at an increasing rate, with a quarter of all known mammals and a tenth of all birds facing possible extinction within the next generation.  Global biodiversity is declining at an overwhelming speed. With each species that disappears, vast amounts of information about their biology, ecology and evolutionary history is irreplaceably lost.  In 2004, three British organizations decided to join forces and combat the issue.  The Natural History Museum, the Zoological Society of London, and Nottingham University joined forces, like highly-educated Planeteers, to create the Frozen Ark Project.     To do this, they gathered and preserved DNA and living tissue samples from all the endangered species they could get their hands on (literally), so that future generations can study the genetic material far into the future.  No, not like Jurassic Park.  I think it's been established that that's a bad idea.  So far, the Frozen Ark has over 700 samples stored at the University of Nottingham in England and participating consortium members in the U.S., Germany, Australia,India, South Africa, Norway, and others.  DNA donations come from museums, university laboratories, and zoos.  Their mission has four component: to coordinating global efforts in animal biobanking; to share expertise; to help to organisations and governments set up biobanks in their own countries; and to provide the physical and informatics infrastructure that will allow conservationists and researchers to search for, locate, and use this material wherever possible without having to resample from wild populations.   The Frozen Ark Project was founded in 2004 by Professor Bryan Clarke, a geneticist at the University of Nottingham, his wife Dr Ann Clarke, an immunologist with experience in reproductive biology, and their friend Dame Anne McLaren, a leading figure in developmental biology.  Starting in the 1960's, Clarke carried out comprehensive studies on land snails of the genus Partula, which are endemic to the volcanic islands of French Polynesia.  Almost all Partula species disappeared within just 15 years, because of a governmental biological control plan that went horribly wrong.  In the late '60s, the giant African land snail, a mollusk the size of a puppy, was introduced to the islands as a delicacy, but soon turned into a serious agricultural pest, because, as seems to happen 100% of the time humans think they know better, the giant snail had no natural predators.  To control the African land snails, the carnivorous Florida rosy wolfsnail was introduced in the '70s, but it annihilated the native snails instead.  As a last resort, Clarke's team managed to collect live specimens of the remaining 12 Partula species and bring them back to Britain.  Tissue samples were frozen to preserve their DNA and an international captive breeding program was established.  Currently, there are Partula species, including some that later became extinct in the wild, in a dozen zoos and a there few been a few promising reintroductions.   The extinction story of the Partula snails resonated with the Clarkes, who realised that systematic collection and preservation of tissue, DNA, and viable cells of endangered species should become standard practice, ultimately inspiring the birth of Frozen Ark.  The Frozen Ark Project operates as a federated model, building partnerships with organisations worldwide that share the same vision and goals.  The Frozen Ark consortium has grown steadily since the project's launch, with new national and international organisations joining every year.  There are now 27 partners, distributed across five continents.  Biological samples like tissue or blood from animals in zoos and aquariums can be taken from live animals during routine veterinary work or from dead animals.  Bonus fact: more of a nitpick, the post-mortem examination of an animal is a necropsy.  Autopsy means examining the self.  The biobanks can provide a safe storage for many types of biological material, particularly the highly valuable germ cells (sperm and eggs).     Their work isn't merely theoretical for some distant day in the future.  One success story of the Frozen Ark, which illustrates the benefits of combining cryobanked material, effective management, and a captive breeding program, is the alarmingly adorable black-footed ferret. The species was listed as “extinct in the wild” in 1996, but has since been reintroduced back to its habitat and is now gradually recovering.  More recently, researchers were able to improve the  genetic diversity to the wild population by using 20-year-old cryopreserved sperm and artificial insemination.     There are many organizations around the world who have taken up the banner of seed preservation, nearly 2,000 in fact.  Most of us have heard of the seed vault at Svalbard, the cool-looking tower sticking out of a Norwegian mountain, where the permafrost ensures the seeds are preserved without need for electricity.  But that's not the seed vault I want to talk about today and fair warning, this one's gonna get heavy, but it's one of those stories I find endlessly fascinating and in a strange way, uplifting.   In September 1941, German forces began to push into Leningrad, before and since called St Petersburg.  They laid siege to the city, choking off the supply of food and other necessities to the city's two million residents.  The siege of Leningrad didn't last a month, or two, or even six.  The siege lasted nearly 900 days.  Among the two million Soviet citizens struggling to survive were a group of scientists ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of mankind.  While they did, their leader, Nikolay Vavilov, Russian geneticist and plant geographer, lay dying in a Soviet prison a thousand miles away.    Vavilov had travelled the world on what he called “a mission for all humanity.”   Vavilov led 115 expeditions to 64 countries, to collect seeds of crop varieties and their wild ancestors. Based on his notes, modern biologists following in Vavilov's footsteps are able to document changes in the cultural and physical landscapes and the crop patterns in these places.  To study the global food ecosystem, he conducted experiments in genetics to improve productivity for farmers.  “He was one of the first scientists to really listen to farmers – traditional farmers, peasant farmers around the world – and why they felt seed diversity was important in their fields,” says Gary Paul Nabhan, ethnobiologist and author of ‘Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine', continues: “All of our notions about biological diversity and needing diversity of foods on our plates to keep us healthy sprung from his work 80 years ago.”  His hope was that one day science could work with agriculture to increase each farm's productivity and to create plants that would grow in any environment and bring an end to hunger.  As Russia fought to find its way through undergoing revolutions, anarchy, and, most importantly to Vavilov, famines, he went about storing seeds at the Institute of Plant Industry, also known as the Pavlovsk Experimental Station.  The scientists there collected thousands of varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, and tubers.  Unlike Svalbard and Kew Garden, the seeds a Pavlovsk weren't just stored as seeds, but some were perpetuated as plants in the field.  This is because some varieties do not breed true from seeds, so can't be stored as seeds to get those plants in the future.   There was one obstacle in Vavilo's way.  Two, really, but one was much greater a threat, that being Joseph Stalin.  The other threat was Stalin's favorite scientist, Trofim Lysenkoly.  Lysenko was a dangerously mis-informed scientist.  Rather than survival of the fittest, where the genes that help an organism survive long enough to reproduce are the ones that are passed on, Lysenko believed that organisms could inherit traits the parent acquired during its lifespan.  Instead of believing that the giraffe with the longest neck was able to reach the food and live to have babies, he believed that the giraffe stretched its neck up and its baby would have a longer neck because of that.  He also believed that if you grafted a branch from a desirable tree onto a less desirable tree, the base tree would improve.  His theories about seeds and flowers were equally backwards.  It was garbage science at best.  At worst, well, we don't need to speculate on that.  We saw it happen.  Crops failed under his now-mandatory systems on the new collectivized farms, which themselves reduced productivity.  Lysenko's policies brought on a famine.  But he was in Stalin's favor and in the Soviet Union, that was all that mattered.  In August 1948 when the Politburo outlawed the teaching of and research into classical Mendelian genetics, the pea plant-based genetics we learn about in middle school.  This disastrous government interference in the face of widely-accepted science and its outcomes are called the Lysenko Effect.     There was no way Stalin's favorite scientist was going to take the fall, so Stalin singled out Vavilov, who had been openly critical of Lysenko.  He claimed Vavilov was responsible for the famines because his process of carefully selecting the best specimens of plants took too long to produce results.  Vavilov was collecting seeds near Russia's border when he was arrested and subjected to 1700 hours of savage interrogation.  World War II was in full swing and it was impossible for his family to find out what had happened to him.  Vavilov, who spent his life trying to end famine, starved to death in the gulag.   Back in Leningrad, some scientists from the Institute of Plant Industry were able to get the bulk of the tuber collection, and themselves, to another location within the city.  A dozen of Vavilov's scientists stayed behind to safeguard the seed collection.  At first, it seemed as though they'd only have to contend with marauding enemy troops breeching the city, seeking to steal the seeds or simply destroy the building.  The red army pushed the Germans back as long as they could.  Nothing moved in or out of the city.  “Leningrad must die of starvation”, Hitler declared in a speech at Munich on November 8, 1941.  As the siege dragged on, the scientists then had to contend with protecting the seeds from their own countrymen.  Food was rationed, but once it ran out, people ate anything they could to survive--vermin, dogs, leather, sawdust, and as so often happens in such dark hours, some at the dead.  The scientists barricaded themselves inside with hundreds of thousands of seeds, a quarter of which were edible just as they were, along with rice and grains.   But they did not eat them.  They took turns guarding the store room in shifts, even as they grew weaker, even as they heard the Germans looting and destroying out in the streets.  The only thing that mattered was guarding the collection, safeguarding both the botanical past and future for mankind, and the work of their fallen Vavilov.  One by one, the scientist began to die of starvation.  One man died at his desk; another died surrounded by bags of rice.  In the end, nine of the twelve scientists did not live to see the end of the siege.  But not a single grain, seed, or tuber was eaten.  According to Nabhan, “One of them said it was hard to wake up, it was hard to get on your feet and put on your clothes in the morning, but no, it was not hard to protect the seeds once you had your wits about you.  Saving those seeds for future generations and helping the world recover after war was more important than a single person's comfort.”   Unlike many of the 85 million deaths in WWII, those nine scientists' lives were not wasted.  Today, many of the crops that we eat came from cross-breeding with varieties the scientists saved from destruction.  As much as 80% of all the pre-collapse Soviet Union's fields were sown with varieties that originated in Vavilov's collection.  It's a sad tale, I know, but also an amazing one that so few of us hear.  Which is odd when you consider the thousands of hours of WWII documentaries out there.  The world nearly lost Vavilov's collection a second time, though.  In 2010, the land it sits on was being sold to a developer who planned to build private homes on the site.  The collection can't just be moved; there are all sorts of complex legal and technical issues, including quarantines.  The public called for the site to be preserved and in 2012, the Russian government took formal action to prevent the land from being conveyed to private buyers.  As far as I can find, it stands safely still.    Much to my lasting disappointment, the wine lake was not a physical lake of wine, like Willy Wonka's chocolate river for women with Live, Laugh, Love decor.  In addition to subsidies equivalent to $1.7 billion per year, the EU purchased the vineyards' lower-quality grapes for what it called “crisis distillation,” turning the grapes into industrial alcohol and biofuels, rather than for drinking.  This unfortunately encouraged some growers to produce more inferior grapes, so in 2008, the government just paid growers to dig up vines and abandon fields of surplus grapes.  In 2015, all of the previously enacted programs were phased out, meaning wineries would once again be responsible for their own excesses.  Remember…Thanks…    https://listverse.com/2015/12/14/10-of-the-strangest-items-governments-are-stockpiling/ http://theweek.com/articles/454970/logic-behind-worlds-4-weirdest-strategic-reserves https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/20/why-maple-syrup-is-controlled-by-a-quebec-cartel/?utm_term=.8628802d4fe2 http://mentalfloss.com/article/87144/15-strategic-reserves-unusual-products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_mountain https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/europeans-eat-into-butter-mountain-in-sign-high-prices-to-linger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omBxXzdBR2Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiZ75XbG7YA https://verdict.justia.com/2015/07/15/raisins-regulations-and-politics-in-the-supreme-court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Raisin_Reserve https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/one-growers-grapes-of-wrath/2013/07/07/ebebcfd8-e380-11e2-80eb-3145e2994a55_story.html?utm_term=.74d6dccd2110 http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/market-information-by-sector/horticulture/horticulture-sector-reports/statistical-overview-of-the-canadian-maple-industry-2015/?id=1475692913659 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-01-02/the-great-canadian-maple-syrup-heist https://explorepartsunknown.com/quebec/canadas-maple-syrup-cartel-puts-the-squeeze-on-small-producers/ https://modernfarmer.com/2014/01/illustrated-account-great-maple-syrup-heist/ http://time.com/4760432/maple-syrup-heist-prison-fine/ http://www.ediblegeography.com/syrup-stockpiles-wine-lakes-butter-mountains-and-other-strategic-food-reserves/ http://www.ediblegeography.com/syrup-stockpiles-wine-lakes-butter-mountains-and-other-strategic-food-reserves/ https://www.ft.com/content/982ed0e4-8a1d-11e4-9b5f-00144feabdc0 https://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/articles/b/guest_blog/posts/confeusion-a-quick-summary-of-the-eu-wine-reforms http://mentalfloss.com/article/87144/15-strategic-reserves-unusual-products https://listverse.com/2015/12/14/10-of-the-strangest-items-governments-are-stockpiling/ http://www.nww2m.com/2015/06/scitech-tuesday-when-the-rubber-meets-the-road/ https://insideecology.com/2018/01/12/the-frozen-ark-project-biobanking-endangered-animal-samples-for-conservation-and-research/ https://www.researchitaly.it/en/news/the-ice-memory-project-is-underway/#null https://www.arctictoday.com/ice-cores-best-link-ancient-climates-scientists-racing-preserve-still-can/ https://www.rbth.com/blogs/2014/05/12/the_men_who_starved_to_death_to_save_the_worlds_seeds_35135 https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-scientists-who-starved-to-death.html

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author of over 30 books. His work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement. A first-generation Lebanese American, Nabhan was raised in Gary, Indiana. He worked at the headquarters for the first Earth Day in Washington DC Gary has achieved several degrees, including a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary arid lands resource sciences also at the University of Arizona, and he has received numerous awards including a Macarthur Fellowship.  He co-founded Native Seeds/SEARCH  a non-profit conservation organization which works to preserve place-based Southwestern agricultural plants as well as knowledge of their uses, and he did the research to help Secretary Bruce Babbitt create Ironwood Forest National Monument. He now serves as the Kellogg Endowed Chair in Southwestern Borderlands Food and Water Security. At the University of Arizona, where he founded the Center for Regional Food Studies and catalyzed the initiative to have UNESCO designate Tucson as the first City of Gastronomy in the U.S. Despite all this, I only came to hear about Gary when Ricky Taylor of Alta Marfa forwarded me an article about Gary's intra-institutional work to catalog and preserve the rich diversity of Mexico's traditional fermented beverages. Maybe this shows my need to broaden my scope, or maybe it shows the power of these fermented beverages to capture attention… I'll let you decide. Regardless, I'm so grateful to have discovered the wealth of wisdom and knowledge that is Gary Paul Nabhan, and I'm thrilled to be able to share him with you. https://www.garynabhan.com/ Colonche, Tepache, Tesguino, Pulque, Mesquite, Mescal Sponsor: https://www.centralaswine.com/

Derrick speaks with agro-ecologist and Ecumenical Franciscan Brother Gary Paul Nabhan about his book "Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for all those Marginalized by our Food System".    Gary was previously on the Food and Faith Podcast during the "Eco-tones of the Spirit" series during the summer of 2019. You can hear our first interview with him here:https://foodandfaithpodcast.podbean.com/e/ecotones-of-the-spirit-reciprocal-restoration-a-conversation-with-gary-paul-nabhan/   www.garynabhan.com www.healingtheborderdisorder.org www.makewayformonarchs.org  

On this episode we welcome Brother Coyote himself, Gary Paul Nabhan. An agricultural ecologist, an ethnobotanist, a MacArthus “genius grant” winner, a professor and an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, Nabhan is a true polymath. He's a pioneering figure in the local food movement as well as the modern heirloom seed saving movement. He's also the author of an almost countless number of books, including The Nature of Desert Nature, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities, and Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair. His most recent book is called Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System. The book is a challenging, poetic and hopeful exploration of what the teachings of Jesus have to tell us about our modern food system and our relationship to the natural world. Even if you're not religious, or even spiritual, I think this interview is still well worth your time — Nabhan has tapped into a deep and universal store of wisdom just when we need it most. I've been a long-time admirer — of his endless curiosity, of his versatility as a writer and of his rare insight when it comes to ethics, agriculture and science. He isn't someone who spends much time raging at powerful institutions. He's not always shaking his fists at corrupt corporations. Instead, he offers us pathways of hope, healing, purpose, abundance and justice. Nabhan's spent much of his life working, often in the fields, to preserve both cultural folkways and biological diversity, two things he see's as being inextricably linked. And his biography is so full of milestones that it's impossible to fit all but a fraction of them here. Born in the early 1950s, Nabhan is a first-generation Lebanese American who was raised in Gary, Indiana. He has a B.A. in environmental biology from Prescott College in Arizona, an M.S. in plant sciences from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary arid lands resource sciences, also from the University of Arizona. He's served as director of conservation, research and collections at both the Desert Botanical Garden and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where he did the research to help create the Ironwood Forest National Monument. He was the founding director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. He's on the University of Arizona faculty as a research social scientist with the Southwest Center, where he now serves as the Kellogg Endowed Chair in Southwestern Borderlands Food and Water Security. He and his wife currently live in Patagonia, Arizona on a five-acre spread near Tucson. I could go on, but I'm eager to share this interview with you today. I hope you find as much inspiration as I did in this conversation with Gary Paul Nabhan. For more information, visit garynabhan.com.

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement.

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist , Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational Southwest . He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement.

Ostensibly, editor Gary Paul Nabhan's collection of friends' essays, The Nature of Desert Nature is about the desert. Rather ... it's human nature that we encounter delving into this collection of essays. The writers reminisce on their own beingness as they encountering one specific desert: the Sonoran. The Sonoron is the desert covers vast area in the Southwest United States and Northwest Mexico. Most of the essays focus on Tucson and its environs. For our guests, living on the edge of the desert also has meaning ...  what is the nature of desert nature? Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla and Stacy Patterson. For June, we're reading Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown! Join us for the LIVE Recording on Tue, June 22nd at 5pm pacific

Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan is a first-generation Arab-American who has spent his life crossing borders. An agrarian ecologist and ethnobotanist whom Time magazine called the father of the local food movement, his work straddles both sides of America's southern border in Arizona. As a professed ecumenical Franciscan brother, his spiritual practice goes far beyond the walls of institutional religion, and his new book, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers, describes the struggles of those living on the margins of empire, in the ancient Middle East and today. In this conversation, Gary reflects on the richness and challenges of life that unfolds on the wild edges of places, societies, and religion. Book recommendation: Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System, by Gary Paul Nabhan Gary's website: https://www.garynabhan.com/ Borderlands Restoration L3C: https://www.borderlandsrestoration.org/borderlands-restoration-l3c.html Earth & Spirit Center website: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/

Gary Paul Nabhan is an ecumenical Franciscan brother who does cross cultural collaborations for environmental and social justice and caring for creation. He is known as a pioneer in the local food movement and has lead the effort to save heirloom seeds.An Arab American, he has a great love for desert environments and lives in the desert overlooking the Santa Cruz River Valley near Patagonia, Arizona.  The Santa Cruz is a binational river near the U.S. - Mexico border and supports a rich diversity of plants and animals as well as human cultural life.We talked about walking toward the radical center, learning from traditional caretakers of the land and celebrating those who are doing the courageous work of finding solutions to the world's daunting problems.

Every year for Earth Day, we check in with writer and photographer Stephen Trimble, author of “Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America,” and many other books. This time, Stephen Trimble suggested we also reach out to his friend, ecologist, ethnobotanist and writer, Gary Paul Nabhan.

Every year for Earth Day, we check in with writer and photographer Stephen Trimble, author of “Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America,” and many other books. This time, Stephen Trimble suggested we also reach out to his friend, ecologist, ethnobotanist and writer, Gary Paul Nabhan.

Ecotones of the Spirit: Reciprocal Restoration a conversation with Gary Paul Nabhan With co-hosts Anna Woofenden and Sam Chamelin  www.foodandfaithpodcast.org

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement.

Ecotones of the Spirit: Reciprocal Restoration with Gary Paul Nabhan This is the next installment of our series from Wake Forest School of Divinity, "Ecotones of the Spirit."  This is the third of several presentations by Gary Paul Nabhan, a leading agrobiologist, ethnobotanist, and ecumenical Franciscan brother.   Gary Paul Nabhan Ecotones of the Spirit Food and Faith Podcast

This is the second installment of our series from Wake Forest School of Divinity, "Ecotones of the Spirit."  This is the second of several presentations by Gary Paul Nabhan, a leading agrobiologist, ethnobotanist, and ecumenical Franciscan brother.   Gary Paul Nabhan Ecotones of the Spirit Food and Faith Podcast

This is the first installment of our series from Wake Forest School of Divinity, "Ecotones of the Spirit."  This is the first of several presentations by Gary Paul Nabhan, a leading agrobiologist, ethnobotanist, and ecumencial Franciscan brother.  Today, he tells a story of Jesus, and speaks to the abundance that is present in every ecotone. Gary Paul Nabhan Ecotones of the Spirit Food and Faith Podcast

Did you know that food can reconnect us to our cultural roots and heritage, and create stronger communities? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Gary Paul Nabhan, Ph.D., Kellogg Endowed Chair at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center. Nabhan is an agricultural Ecologist, ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Award. He is considered the “father” of the local food and heirloom seed saving movements. He will discuss his new book, “Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities,” and share his thoughts on how food is at the healing center of strong communities. Nabhan describes the economic disparity at the U.S. - Mexican border, the importance of healing food, and his philosophy about how restoring our environment can restore cohesiveness in our communities. Nabhan was involved in the first Earth Day in 1970.

In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara speaks with Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, founder of the Center for Regional Food Studies at the University of Arizona. They talk about sustainability, conservation, indigenous agriculture, and his newest of several books, “Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair.” Follow Gary: @Ferhat9282468.

In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara speaks with Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, founder of the Center for Regional Food Studies at the University of Arizona. They talk about sustainability, conservation, indigenous agriculture, and his newest of several books, “Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair.” Follow Gary: @Ferhat9282468.

Climate Migrant Caravans / Climate and the Majestic Gyrfalcon / Climate Disruption and the Poor / Beyond the Headlines / Healing Our Land and Communities Through the Power of Food / BirdNote®: Where Are They Now? This week, we delve into the link between climate change and the recent wave of migrant caravans coming from Central America. Many of the migrants are fleeing their homes in the wake of crop failures, the result of a massive drought that has lasted for five years. Also, without the financial means to adapt or recover from climate impacts, disadvantaged groups here in the U.S. are vulnerable, too. In New Bern, North Carolina, many African-American residents of a public housing complex flooded out by Hurricane Florence are now homeless. And local food movement pioneer Gary Paul Nabhan joins us to discuss how restoring the health of our lands can improve the health of our communities. He's the author of the new book, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities. Displacement and rootedness, in this week's episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

Climate Migrant Caravans / Climate and the Majestic Gyrfalcon / Climate Disruption and the Poor / Beyond the Headlines / Healing Our Land and Communities Through the Power of Food / BirdNote®: Where Are They Now? This week, we delve into the link between climate change and the recent wave of migrant caravans coming from Central America. Many of the migrants are fleeing their homes in the wake of crop failures, the result of a massive drought that has lasted for five years. Also, without the financial means to adapt or recover from climate impacts, disadvantaged groups here in the U.S. are vulnerable, too. In New Bern, North Carolina, many African-American residents of a public housing complex flooded out by Hurricane Florence are now homeless. And local food movement pioneer Gary Paul Nabhan joins us to discuss how restoring the health of our lands can improve the health of our communities. He's the author of the new book, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities. Displacement and rootedness, in this week's episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

Climate Migrant Caravans / Climate and the Majestic Gyrfalcon / Climate Disruption and the Poor / Beyond the Headlines / Healing Our Land and Communities Through the Power of Food / BirdNote®: Where Are They Now? This week, we delve into the link between climate change and the recent wave of migrant caravans coming from Central America. Many of the migrants are fleeing their homes in the wake of crop failures, the result of a massive drought that has lasted for five years. Also, without the financial means to adapt or recover from climate impacts, disadvantaged groups here in the U.S. are vulnerable, too. In New Bern, North Carolina, many African-American residents of a public housing complex flooded out by Hurricane Florence are now homeless. And local food movement pioneer Gary Paul Nabhan joins us to discuss how restoring the health of our lands can improve the health of our communities. He's the author of the new book, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities. Displacement and rootedness, in this week's episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

Climate Migrant Caravans / Climate and the Majestic Gyrfalcon / Climate Disruption and the Poor / Beyond the Headlines / Healing Our Land and Communities Through the Power of Food / BirdNote®: Where Are They Now? This week, we delve into the link between climate change and the recent wave of migrant caravans coming from Central America. Many of the migrants are fleeing their homes in the wake of crop failures, the result of a massive drought that has lasted for five years. Also, without the financial means to adapt or recover from climate impacts, disadvantaged groups here in the U.S. are vulnerable, too. In New Bern, North Carolina, many African-American residents of a public housing complex flooded out by Hurricane Florence are now homeless. And local food movement pioneer Gary Paul Nabhan joins us to discuss how restoring the health of our lands can improve the health of our communities. He's the author of the new book, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities. Displacement and rootedness, in this week's episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

Gary Paul Nabhan, author and father of the local food movement, joins host Jenna Liut to talk about his new book, “Food from the Radical Center: Healing our Communities and our Land,” which contains a collection of stories that illustrate what good can happen when people organize and work together to restore land in order to produce healthy foods. They discuss just how divided our nation is today, various community-based collaborative restoration strategies, and the unprecedented impacts they have had in restoring North America's food biodiversity and fostering a sense of empathy for our neighbors. Eating Matters is powered by Simplecast.

It's a pledge drive special edition of Access Utah today. My special guest for the hour is Dr. Jason Gilmore, assistant professor of Communication Studies at Utah State Unviersity. We'll reach into the archives for parts of some of our favorite episodes of the program. We'll hear from Phillip Dray, author of "At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America." Then we'll hear part of my conversation with Sonia Nazario on the family separation and zero tolerance immigration crisis. Sonia Nazario is author of the book "Enrique's Journey." And we'll conclude with a segment from my interview with Gary Paul Nabhan who is working to use food to unite people across social and political divisions. We also discuss Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story."

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement.

30 Minutes spoke with Gary Paul Nabhan, Ph.D., about Tucson’s recent designation as a UNESCO World City of Gastronomy and…

Gary Paul Nabhan is a nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He has been honored as a pioneer in the local food movement and seed saving community by Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, New York Times, Bioneers and Time magazine. As the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, he works with students, faculty and non-profits to build a more just, nutritious, sustainable and climate-resilient foodshed spanning the U.S./Mexico border.

Joel Salatin is a farmer and author who raises livestock using holistic methods of animal husbandry. Gary Paul Nabhan is an ecologist, ethnobotanist and writer.