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Jordan Marr, a certified organic farmer in British Columbia, interviews farmers, gardeners, academics, and journalists about stuff farmers and food system nerds care about. If where and how your food is produced matters to you, this podcast is produced for you!
The Ruminant lives!...mainly to cross-post episodes of Jordan's other show, Farming in British Columbia, when they're of a broader appeal. Herein: the Farming in British Columbia 2025 Christmas Special!
Hey everyone! This is Jordan with some bonus listening for you. As you may know, I’m the producer and host of The Organic BC Podcast, and over there, I’ve been busy producing a miniseries about whether GAP certification is a viable option for small-scale farmers who want to gain, preserve, or expand access to wholesale marketing channels. You’re about to hear episode one of that series, exactly as it dropped on The Organic BC podcast feed. If you like it, you can go find the organic BC podcast and listen to episode two right now, and episodes three through five will drop over the next few weeks.
One quick additional note is that I produced this series about GAP certification under a paid contract, but I was not paid to cross-post what you’re about to hear on my other two podcasts, Farming in British Columbia and The Ruminant. I’m posting episode one of the series here because I think it’s good and because the topic is relevant to a lot of my listeners.
Hey there, Ruminant Listeners! These days, I'm mostly podcasting over at Farming in British Columbia, and I wanted to share a popular episode on a topic that matters wherever you're farming! If you like this, come and join the party. A good number of the episodes will hold interest for those outside of BC...search for 'Farming in British Columbia' wherever you listen to podcasts.
In the summer of 2023, Bruce Lanphear, Professor of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, resigned his position as co-chair of a recently formed Science Advisory Committee of the PMRA, which regulates pesticide use in Canada. Dr. Lanphear felt he could no longer lend his credibility to the agency following disagreement about the Terms of Reference provided to Lanphear and seven other scientists comprising the committee.
Lanphear has been critical of aspects of Canada's pesticide oversight regime. I invited him on the show to discuss the topic.
You can read about Bruce's resignation here and here, or check out this google search.
The Ruminant's first ever holiday special! Fellow Canadians, don't @ me. The original version of this piece was produced for Canadian Thanksgiving, for radio.
The US chicken industry is dominated by just a few very large, vertically integrated companies. They directly control every stage of chicken production from hatching to distribution, except that they outsource the riskiest stage--raising the birds from chick to mature bird--to independent farmers. In this episode, guest Patti Anderson of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future describes this system, explains how it traps many farmers in debt, and tells us about the most recent effort to make the system more just for farmers.
After that: the farmer questionnaire!
Some links related to the chicken conversation and the proposed rule changes:
Patti suggests this blog post for a summary of the rule changes
A recent op-ed in Civil Eats about the tournament system
Here's an official summary of the proposed rule-changes
This ep: we introduce a new segment called Farm Sounds. This time: when the tradeoff that comes with a gain in efficiency on the farm doesn't feel worth it.
Plus another installment of The Farmer Questionnaire.
This episode I speak with Dr. Patrick Byrne, Professor Emeritus of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Colorado State University. Our topic: crop wild relatives, the forebears to all of the agricultural crops we love and depend on. Patrick helps us understand the relationship between, say, Teosinte and modern corn, and why the conservation of these wild relatives is crucial to the improvement of our crop cultivars.
Links:
Grin-U.org: a great repository for online learning materials on plant genetic resources conservation and use.
Free Ebook: Crop Wild Relatives & Their Use in Plant Breeding
Or some related videos instead
Our guest on the Farmer Questionnaire in this episode was Tracy Robertson of Stony Mountain Farm in BC's Cariboo Region.
The interview we planned to record yesterday and release today was postponed, so I dug up the very first episode of the show, from way back in 2012, until now never released on the newer podcast feed. It's an interview with Jason Beam about potting blocks, you lucky ducks. We'll be back with a new episode in two weeks, promise.
This episode: to mark the release of an update (sort of?) to Netflix's big, farmy 2018 hit The Biggest Little Farm, herein we review both the original documentary (Netflix) and an update, called The Return of the Biggest Little Farm, which dropped on Disney+ on Earth Day.
Also: another installment of The Farmer Questionnaire!
This episode was produced by Jordan Marr & Philippa Mennell.
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