Women ranchers finding their power
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Release Date: 06/03/2025
Growing food year-round—in any climate
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Charlie Shultz is back on Down to Earth to update us on the thriving greenhouse programs in Santa Fe—and the explosion of interest around the world. He teaches aquaponics and hydroponics at Santa Fe Community College, and is helping people around the world not only to learn to do indoor agriculture, but also to run successful businesses.
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Renewing farms with renewable energy
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Joe Heinrich comes from a multi-generation Iowa farming family. As executive director of the non-profit , he's helping farmers to navigate the new world of renewable energy. Solar and wind developers are looking for land, which farmers have; farmers are looking for extra income steams, which energy can provide. But what happens to land with utility-scale energy installations? Some farmers are making sure that the panels are high enough off the ground that cattle can graze under them—and take advantage of the shade they provide. Others are grazing sheep under the panels, providing landscaping...
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Putting soil science to work
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
started out wanting to be a veterinarian, but then discovered soil science and was so taken by it that she got a PhD, and has devoted her career to serving farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. A practitioner and promoter of regenerative agriculture, she has worked with Conservation Districts, non-profit orgs, Extension, and her own small business, , a company that provides compost statewide. She uses science as a tool to solve on-the-ground problems, which range from crops and livestock issues to mental health, family dynamics, and food insecurity. She also guides hunting programs for...
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Bringing bison back to indigenous lands
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Montana filmmaker Daniel Glick decided to make a film about bison just because he loved the animals and wanted to be around them. He teamed up with Blackfeet filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald to co-direct the documentary, Bring them Home, narrated by Lily Gladstone. The film explores the history of bison on the North American continent and the Blackfeet nation in particular; the parallel genocides of native people and the animal that provided them with sustenance, both practical and spiritual; and the movement to bring surviving herds of bison back to their ancestral lands. In this...
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Meet Xochitl, Quivira’s new Executive Director
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Xochitl Torres Small grew up in Las Cruces, NM, and started her career as an attorney who has working in water and natural resources law. She served as U.S. Representative for New Mexico's 2nd congressional district (2019-20); she was Under Secretary for Rural Development (2021-23); and she served as United States deputy secretary of agriculture (2023-25). She brings her wide-ranging experience Executive Director of Quivira Coalition, and in our conversation she talks about her background, government service, and visions for regeneration and collaboration across the food system. ...
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Food, power, and hope in the American West
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
In today's podcast, we talk to Jennifer Sahn, editor of , and writers and , about HCN's September issue, a collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN). The issue covers a wide range of topics on Food and Power in the American West. TIMELINE 1'57 and collaboration on "Food and Power in the West" issue 3'17 stories in the issue including meat packing and pecan growing 6'10 the 7'52 what is the 10'12 RICK BASS 10'57 the definition of sustainability and why it's not 100% attainable 12'41 forest service is part of the department of agriculture but really...
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The perils and poetics of being a fire lookout
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
grew up on a farm in Minnesota, studied journalism, and got a job at the Wall Street Journal. But after the September 11 attacks and the death of his brother, he left New York behind and took a job as a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Following in the footsteps of other fire lookout writers, poets, and philosophers, like Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, and Jack Loeffler, he wrote his first book, Fire Season, in 2011. Since then he written three more books, the latest of which, The Mountain Knows the Mountain, incorporates poetry — particularly haiki — to engage both...
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Ted Turner's Ranch: Watching degraded ecosystems bounce back
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
In 1996, media mogul Ted Turner bought a New Mexico ranch that's bigger than many national parks. A new film, Preserved, details its history, conservation projects, and influence. Previously owned by Pennzoil, the ranch was badly degraded from overgrazing, forest clearcutting, coal mines, fossil fuel extraction, railroads, and a long-term lack of environmental stewardship. Turner's goal was to restore the land and its wildlife, while keeping the ranch profitable through livestock and tourism businesses. The film explores the history and conservation activities of Vermejo Park Ranch,...
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An outdoor classroom for land stewardship—and life skills
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Quinn Mendelson is Conservation Program Director of , a nonprofit that trains young adults to do conservation work in the "outdoor classroom" of New Mexico's landscapes. Not only do they learn skills like trail building, watershed restoration, and wildfire mitigation, but they also receive training that helps them to get jobs—as well as less quantifiable but just as important life skills like getting along with each other, finding their own authentic voices, and being in nature for long periods. The program has been going for three decades, and has led many of its alumni into...
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The Good Meat Movement
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
What is "good meat"? Michele Thorne has a lot to say on the subject. She is executive director of , a non-profit whose mission is to foster a healthy and humane meat system that centers local production instead of industrial monopolies that damage ecosystems and consolidate wealth. With the core value of transparency, they offer free services to butchers, ranchers, eaters, and chefs, and produce journals and that feature stories about people across the good meat universe. TIMELINE 3'51 what is good meat? 4'52 soil stewardship 5'12 the core value of transparency 5'55 the importance of consumer...
info_outlineMontana rancher Amber Smith didn't grow up in agriculture, but ranching became her life's work.
As a young adult Kristen Kipp left the family ranch in the Blackfeet but felt a deep longing to go back to her home and the work of raising livestock.
Amber is the executive director of Women in Ranching, which was first a part of the Western Landowners Alliance and then later became an independent non-profit, and Kristen is a board member. They talk about raising families on the ranch, about discrimination against women and Native people in agriculture, and about leadership that challenges the dominant model––and is often more effective because it brings people together and gives them all their own voice.