Meet Xochitl, Quivira’s new Executive Director
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Release Date: 10/28/2025
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...
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Navajo farming and entrepreneurship––for the next generation
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Zachariah Ben is a sixth-generation farmer from Shiprock, New Mexico. He and his family founded Bidii Baby Foods. Using traditional Navajo food traditions, they provide healthy, nutritious, and locally-grown food to Navajo people, many of whom are living in food deserts. And, through entrepreneurship and traditional farming, they seek to heal generational trauma by fostering not only physical health but also spiritual connection to land and community––from surviving to thriving. 4'12 traditional Navajo farming principles 5'01 trauma healing 5'31 farming with the stars, singing, birth...
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Feeding a Divided America
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Gilles Stockton is author of the new book, Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change, published by University of New Mexico Press. A third generation cattle rancher, he raises beef cattle and sheep on a 5000-acre ranch in Grass Range, Montana. He’s also an international agriculture development specialist and an advocate for ranching and farming communities. The new book imparts a lifetime of wisdom and analysis of what happened to our agriculture system, why, and how we can create a system that gives power back to the farmers who are...
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Feeding a Divided America
Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast
Giles Stockton is author of the new book, Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change, published by University of New Mexico Press. A third generation cattle rancher, he raises beef cattle and sheep on a 5000-acre ranch in Grass Range, Montana. He’s also an international agriculture development specialist and an advocate for ranching and farming communities. The new book imparts a lifetime of wisdom and analysis of what happened to our agriculture system, why, and how we can create a system that gives power back to the farmers who are...
info_outlineXochitl 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.
TIMELINE
2'32 how Xochitl got into agriculture
4'11 the decision to go into politics
5'55 the difference between serving in Congress and in an agency
9'00 working in rural development
10'29 figuring out how to actually get money to rural communities
11'59 finding solutions that were energy efficient in rural areas
13'48 are agencies working together on common problems?
17'47 understanding the practicality of nature based solutions within government
22'46 soil health and why it's so important, and how Quivira does the work.
27'37 succession issues
30'26 vision for large scale transition of agriculture from industrial to regenerative
33'29 recognizing that solutions are all land-specific
35'06 how do you create local and regional food systems when a state like NM is exporting over 90% of its agriculture and importing over 90% of its food
36'11 systems that maximize only for efficiency tend not to be resilient in times of disaster
40'28 spectrum from regenerative to big ag but with lots of adoption all along the way
43'30 we need to stop "othering"
44'11 the challenges of scaling
45'59 going from government to grassroots, hopes and goals