15: Organic & Sustainable Foods and CSA Farming with Brandi Bechard

The start of October brings with it the beginning of non-GMO Month in the US and Canada, and who better a guest to kick this important discussion of than Brandi Bechard!

Brandi is an amazing CSA farmer, environmentalist, and the owner of a sustainable landscaping and garden coaching business. She originally hails from Windsor, Ontario, but has lived in cities and towns across Canada while pursuing contract work in environmental and natural resource sciences. She has worked in outdoor education, wildlife research, forestry conservation and on so many other environmentally-oriented projects! After spending a couple of years in research-heavy fields, she felt she wasn't making a significant difference and had to compromise certain values that she held important to accommodate the career. She moved back to her hometown and started a business teaching others how to grow sustainable food amidst a desert of conventionally farmed land.

In our interview, we speak about her roots and what lead her to farming, break down some of the language surrounding organic and local foods, speak to issues of food security and access in Canada, and she shares more about edible landscaping and tips to help cultivate (heh…) a stronger relationship with sustainable food sources for beginners. Brandi has so much knowledge and experience to share, and is so peaceful to listen to, so I hope you learn as much as I did from this interview!

If you loved learning from Brandi and want to find out more from her, find her on Instagram @borealbrandi or on Facebook @BrandiBechard.

Resources mentioned in the show:

• Wendell Berry: learn more about the agrarian and writer in this excellent interview by Yale e360 (which references some books of his as well): https://e360.yale.edu/features/interview_wendell_berry_a_strong_voice_for_local_farming_and_the_land

• The 3rd Plate by Dan Barber: https://www.thethirdplate.com/