Ep 009 Hank Will

The whole planet is in the midst of an eruption of disease. Agricultural occurrences are no different than human epidemics, in terms of potential damage. The British Isles are on the list of places that come to mind when the words “agriculture” and “outbreak” are put together, not because they have any more than the rest of the planet, but because their battles over the last 30 years have been a particularly media-rich affair. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonl...

27 Huhti 202044min

We have to admit – sitting at home is much more tolerable with the cool weather and rain we’ve had in California this year so far. If California has a stay-at-home order in place, it’s much easier with a crackling fire and a warm sweater. But we’re in mid-April, and those days are soon to be gone, so we’ll take this last moment to remember warm wools and thick sweaters. We bring you a visit with Jeri Robinson-Lawrence. She and her daughter Irina run Flying Fibers, a b...

20 Huhti 202036min

We are constantly amazed at our agricultural system, and how fast and how far it seems to have come since the early days. And when people use the phrase “early days” with regard to agriculture in America, the usual mental picture has to do with Pilgrims, a multicultural exchange, squash, corn, and a turkey. But the turkey, although it is one of the few agricultural items in our food system that actually existed here before most of us, has not become the meat-producing animal that ...

12 Huhti 202036min

We are big fans of Wallace and Gromit, thank you, so we’d like to take this opportunity to say that “A Close Shave” is not going to be an issue here. Shaun (read, “Shorn”) can rest easy on this one, as there’s no Knit-o-Matic in this episode. How can that be, when we’re talking about sheep? The St. Croix, to the rescue. The St. Croix sheep is a hair sheep, which was a new thing for us. No wool at all. It therefore is the perfect breed for ranchers and farm...

6 Huhti 202029min

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address from November 1863 was a document that outlined Lincoln’s attempt to unify the country in a time of war. It might feel a little like that right now, during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, where we are discovering that we can work together, or not. As in the time of Lincoln, people are fighting a brave fight, and some are perishing. We often look to our governments to protect the public good, organize things and help us stay safe. That’...

30 Maalis 202029min

Food. It’s what’s for dinner. Unless it’s not. Well, that sounds self-evident, but as we know from history, food is the one thing we have a hard time living without, and when we say that, we mean it gets ugly, and fast. Humans become a little more animal and a little less “human” when food gets scarce. So now is a great time for an old concept: The Victory Garden. It’s an idea that shows its value again, and again, and again. Whether it’s my grandparents du...

23 Maalis 202031min

Dugan Tillman-Brown and Firefly Farm in North Stonington, Connecticut. Our second Holstein Dilemma film interview ever, and the moment Elara fell in love. There were so many things we talked about on that lovely day in July, standing in that sunny and grassy pasture with a herd of amazingly picturesque Randall Cattle. Birds chirped in the trees and the insects lazily buzzed about. The cows, with their panda color points and horns curving like halos around their heads,...

16 Maalis 202033min

We can’t seem to escape news of the latest disease outbreak, no matter which decade we’re inhabiting. MERS, SARS, Covid-19, Spanish Flu, Zika, plague, typhoid, or leprosy for humans. In poultry parlance, we have Marek’s, Newcastle, Avian Pox…and the list goes on. There’s always something floating around that affects both humans and non-human animals, and sometimes it’s kind of terrifying. When humans feel scared of something we feel unprepared to handle, throughout history w...

9 Maalis 202043min