This week co-host, Anne O’Connor, speaks with Jeff Moyer who is a world renowned authority in organic agriculture. His expertise includes organic crop production systems with a focus on weed management, cover crops, crop rotations, equipment modification and use, and facilities design. Jeff is perhaps most well-known for conceptualizing and popularizing the No Till Roller Crimper for use in organic agriculture. In 2011, he wrote Organic No-Till Farming, a publication that has become a resource for farmers throughout the world.

Jeff brings a farmer’s perspective and approach to issues in organic agriculture. He is a past chair of the National Organic Standards Board, a founding board member of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, the Chairman of the Board of Director of The Seed Farm, part of the Green America Non-GMO Working Group, a Project Member of The Noble Foundation’s Soil Renaissance project, and a Board Member of PA Farm Link.

In September 2015 Jeff was appointed as Executive Director of Rodale Institute after spending the last four decades at the Institute, helping countless farmers make the transition from conventional, chemical-based farming to organic methods.

This week we replay a show where host, Theresa Marquez, has a lovely conversation with Miriam Grunes, executive director of REAP Food Group, an incredibly active food and farming education and advocacy group based in Madison, Wisconsin. REAP was instrumental to bringing farm to school to the Madison school district, and through their various programs — such as Chef in the Classroom, Buy Fresh Buy Local, the Farm Fresh Atlas, and so much more — they are making sure that the city’s children will grow up “food literate” — able to make good, healthy choices for both their own bodies as well as the planet.

We’ve pulled the following quote from Miriam because it really sums up the mission of REAP as well as the way we should all view the relationship between food and community:

I don’t doubt, that there’s some incredible sustainable local food movement work across the country. But our little piece of southern Wisconsin has been on the cutting edge of that, really, for about thirty years.

Twelve years ago or so, when I started working or volunteering with REAP…a reporter came up to me—and I don’t know why me, because I didn’t know much of anything yet—and said, “So, what is this today? Why are we all here?” I mumbled something just completely incoherent, but, “Yes, we want to support our farmers!” …She just looked at me with this blank expression that clearly indicated like, “What? What are you even talking about? And why would we care about that?”

Twelve years later, nobody asks that anymore. …We get that this is important forevery possible reason. It’s social justice, and it’s environment, and it’s economic development, and it’s health and nutrition, and it’s community.

And our communities are changing. We’re becoming more urban—that’s just the reality—and we need to connect our urban and rural again. We just have to. We are becoming more diverse. We are not the all-look-the-same, stay-with-the-people-we-know-best communities we used to be. We have to embrace each other. We have to pull each other up, both from the farm side and from the consumer side. And that is the work of the local food movement now. It is so much about making this food readily available for everyone that is in our community.

Insightful words.