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SUMMER 2021
J OU R NA L
THE CENTER FOR REGENERATIVE PRACTICE
Field of the Future New Def inition of Nutrient Growing a New Crop
SUSAN JENNINGS Density Goes Beyond Labels of Regenerative Farmers
DAN KITTREDGE AMY HARPER & KAT CHRISTEN
CONTRIBUTORS Matan Mazursky, Educator AGRARIA JOURNAL SUMMER 2021
CONTENTS
Gabby Amrhein, Megan Bachman, Beth Bridgeman, Jyoti Miller, Database Coordinator
Ariella Brown, Caressa Brown, Kat Christen, Scott Montgomery, Webmaster
Sheryl Cunningham, David Diamond, Emily Foubert, Pam Miller, Office Manager
Rose Hardesty, Amy Harper, Bob Huston, Rachel Isaacson, Teddy Pierson, Asst. Landuse Coordinator
Susan Jennings, Dan Kittredge, Jim Linne, Peggy Nestor, Kaylee Rutherford, Miller Fellow An Invitation to Pay Attention— and Thrive, SHERYL CUNNINGHAM 4
Teddy Pierson, Kenisha Robinson, Rich Sidwell, Kenisha Robinson, Farmer Training Assistant
Cheryl Smith Xinyuan Shi, Americorps VISTA What’s In a Name? 5
PHOTOGRAPHY
McKenzie Smith, Miller Fellow Field of the Future, SUSAN JENNINGS 6
Mark Thornton, Educator
Dennie Eagleson, Amy Harper, Rose Hardesty, New Definition of Nutrient Density Goes Beyond Labels, DAN KITTREDGE 9
Tiffany Ward, Educator
Susan Jennings, Teddy Pierson, Renee Wilde
Joseph Young, Melrose Acres Grant Coordinator Edible Ethics: To Harvest or Not to Harvest, GABBY LOOMIS-AMRHEIN 12
ILLUSTRATION
FARMER PARTNER Natural Foods – Native Edible Plants, BY TEDDY PIERSON 14
Bob Huston
Jason Ward
Black Farming and Beyond, ARIELLA J. BROWN HORN 15
EDITORS
COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS
Amy Harper and Susan Jennings Farmer Fellowship Program: Growing a New Crop of Regenerative Farmers, AMY HARPER & KAT CHRISTEN 16
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
DESIGN Sheryl Cunningham, President Coming Back to the Land: Reviving a Multigenerational Legacy, BY KENISHA ROBINSON & CARESSA BROWN 18
Tika Redding Richard Sidwell, Treasurer
As Below, So Above: From Healthy Soil to Healthy Body, A Conversation with Elaine Ingham, MEGAN BACHMAN 20
Megan Bachman, Secretary
AGRARIA STAFF
Mark Cohen Optimal Health: A Physician/Farmer Perspective, JIM LINNE 22
Robert Bacheller, Land Team
Jessica D’Ambrosio Agraria: A New Educational Model, RICH SIDWELL 24
Amber Bodkin, Grantwriter
Donna Haller
Naomi Bongorno, Development Manager Around Agraria, Photography, AMY HARPER & DENNIE EAGLESON 26
Kevin Hallinan
Ariella Brown, Black Farming Conference Lead
Sarah Hippensteel Hall From Activist to Advocate: How I Became a Voice for Black Agriculture, CHERYL WOOD SMITH 28
Sherry Chen, Melrose Acres Manager
Jim Linne
Kat Christen, Farm Training Manager Macy Reynolds Grounded Hope: From the Highways to the Hedgerows, RENEE WILDE 30
David Diamond, K-12 Education Lead Steven Roe Food as Farmacy, PEGGY NESTOR 32
Alberta Dempsey, Research Intern Cheryl Smith
Lyric Ester, Land Team for argiope, GABBY LOOMIS-AMRHEIN 33
Emily Foubert, Nature Education Lead AGRARIA
Nature Based Education During a Pandemic, DAVID DIAMOND 34
Adam Green, GIS Coordinator and Web Developer Box 243
Rose Hardesty, Social Media 131 E. Dayton Yellow Springs Road Building Community Through Reskilling, BETH BRIDGEMAN 37
Amy Harper, Communications Manager/Research Liaison Yellow Springs, OH 45387
VOLUNTEERS, 38
Kelly Hudson, Educator 937-767-2161
Rachel Isaacson, Americorps VISTA SNAPSHOTS Around and About Agraria, AMY HARPER 40
Susan Jennings, Executive Director CALENDAR, 46
Stephanie Kelly, Educator
Electric Blue Songs to Nurture the Spirit, EMILY FOUBERT 48
Alex Klug, Food and Farm Program Manager
Matthew Lawson, Project Manager CENTER FOR REGENERATIVE PRACTICE FUNDR AISING UPDATES, 49
2 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 3
INTRODUCTION
about food legacies—Gabby Loomis-Amrhein asks us to antioxidants, while other spinach may have only a small
BY SHERYL CUNNINGHAM pay attention to where and who we are as we forage and amount? Megan Bachman’s interview with Elaine Ingham
the impacts our foraging might have on ecosystem health. puts a new spin on an old idea—you are what you eat—to
Caressa Brown and Kenisha Robinson turn our attention make the connection between healthier soils and healthier
toward their family histories, and their grandfathers’ and humans. In her feature on Leslie Edmunds of Clem &
fathers’ relationships with growing food, and how those Thyme Nutrition, Peggy Nestor explains that there is work
An Invitation to Pay Attention growing lessons are connected to their present and future,
and that of their community. Cheryl Smith looks back
being done, just down the road, for people hungry to learn
about the healing power of real, whole food.
— and Thrive toward the decline of her childhood home in Dayton, Susan Jennings asks us to pay attention to the
and the liberatory capacity of land reclamation and food bigger picture, and how new understandings of our
interconnectedness with each other and the planet can lead
production for Black Americans.
us to a healthful future.
Other writers featured in this edition ask us to pay
I started to grow some of my own food in the spring of Nope. What do we need to thrive? At Agraria, the answers start
attention to the relationship between soil, food, human
2009. I knew nothing about soil health, but the house I had Soil. Depleted soil. I was asking plants to grow without in the soil.
health, and the health of ecosystems. Jim Linne walks us
moved into had a big garden and I decided to use it. I got on paying attention to what they needed to thrive.
through rebuilding a farm, literally from the ground up, Sheryl Cunningham is president of the Agraria Board
the Internet and read about something called the “double- What do we need to thrive? And who, or what, counts as
while Dan Kittredge directs our attention to the mystery of of Trustees and a communication professor and faculty
dig” method, a sort of tilling by hand. That sounded good “we”?
nutrient density—how can some spinach be packed with sustainability coordinator at Wittenberg University.
to me. It turned out to be an enormous amount of work and The writers featured in this edition of the Agraria
I’m still not sure if my lower back has ever forgiven me for it. Journal ask us for something, though they do so gently and
I planted what seemed like everything that first spring—and with encouragement. They ask us to pay attention to the food
it all grew! we put into our bodies, how it was grown, and by whom.
Year two, my back and I decided not to double dig.
Instead, I attempted to till in a rather clueless way, the
They also ask us to pay attention to the legacies of food and
growing, what has been lost, and what can and should be What’s in a Name?
borrowed tiller bucking left and right, raked a bit of the soil regained.
Over the years our organization has gone by different
around, and weeded what was left. My food grew again, Beth Bridgeman talks to us about skills from the past
names, but the work has been essentially the same:
but not as well. Too much water? Not enough? Too humid? and the joy that comes with learning that they are still
to research, educate and promote community as both a
Plants in the wrong spots? worth passing down. Other writers encourage us to think
cooperative attitude and place-based way of life.
Founded in 1940 as Community Service, Inc., the intent
was to serve small communities by disseminating ideas and
strategies for their economic and cultural vitality. It was only
later that the term “community service” came to mean a
type of local volunteering.
So in the early 2000s, the organization began using
The Community Solution to highlight the ways that
community — local, cooperative living — was the solution out in several of his books.
to many of our most pressing challenges, namely oil and The name Agraria speaks to the work to both reclaim
resource depletion. and reimagine a more rooted way of life in deep relationship
In 2009, we rebranded as The Arthur Morgan to the land and one another. It brings us back to our
Institute for Community Solutions, honoring the work of foundations as an organization, and as a civilization.
our pioneering founder and reflecting our research and And it brings us to another name change for our
education prowess as a new kind of think tank. 80-plus year-old organization. The legacy that began
The 2017 purchase of our 128-acre farm brought with Community Service and continued with Community
another shift. We called it Agraria in a nod to both a Solutions will now live on under the banner of the Agraria
low-energy community design crafted by Pat Murphy and Center for Regenerative Practice. After all, the more things
Morgan’s vision of vibrant rural cultures and economies laid change, the more they stay the same.
Jacoby Creek crossing on Agraria. AMY HARPER
4 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 5
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
BY SUSAN JENNINGS
The Field of the Future
“The answers you get depend on the questions you ask.” -Thomas Kuhn
As we enter a new decade, the show up in laboratories that cannot be extreme version of this is seeing all
ground beneath our feet continues explained by the current understanding living things as nothing more than
to shift as the natural and human of how reality is constructed. When machines set loose in a random
systems that sustain us are increasingly anomalies proliferate, science enters universe. Rene Descartes famously
imperiled. Yet our greatest challenge a crisis period that is resolved when operated on his wife’s dog when it was
DENNIE EAGLESON
may be the collapse of the narratives a new paradigm arises that shifts awake to show that animals did not
that have guided us—narratives about understanding and practices. have a soul. Materialist science assumes other and the planet we inhabit. This an air-conditioned office, and AI- scientific underpinning of the Gaia
our future, about “progress” and It's clear to me that we are in this that wholes can be cut into parts thinking is evident in agricultural enhanced humans are promoted as an hypothesis and deep systems thinking.
technology, about our relationships crisis space between a world organized without fundamentally altering their systems that suggest we can kill major evolutionary option, we know that we Our understanding of frequencies
with each other and the natural world. by materialist science, conceptualized nature. parts of the food web, such as insects are on the edge of an historical cliff. as communication helps us to see
Some of the proffered descriptions of by Newton and Descartes, and Many of our most pressing and soil, without harming ourselves, We are on the verge of breaking the that trees and plants are talking to
our present—that we are in a time of an arising quantum paradigm, as problems have at their root materialist and confine animals in darkness as if delicate threads that bind us to each one another and whales and bees are
civilizational and ecological collapse, a understood by Einstein and Bohm. thinking. Climate change, ecological they could be reduced to a piece of other and the planet. navigating by sonar. In fact these are
great reset, a great turning, and a long The tenets of Scientific overshoot, rampant degenerative a corporate food “chain.” In other Yet fully embracing the arising just a few known examples of how the
emergency — provide helpful framing. Materialism (also known as scientism) diseases, hunger, and inequity systems, materialist thinking shows up quantum paradigm gives us reason for fundamental underpinnings of life are
But there are longer scientific and include the hypothesis that the natural share a basic premise that we are in siloed institutions and professions— hope, and a toolkit for change available akin to a field of energy that connects
historical arcs that illuminate a broader world is without consciousness. An fundamentally separate from each like urban planning systems that to all. The double-slit experiment that us in magical yet potentially traceable
context for our predicament and separate the engineers who design forms one basis for quantum physics ways.
provide new mindsets for developing roads from the biologists who deal was first performed in 1801—and Practices based on the
on-the-ground solutions to our systemic with the challenges of toxic run off. has since become the most replicated understanding of this unity, and the
crises. Also witness energy systems created experiment in scientific history. This need to repair the systems that threaten
Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of without a concern for the limits of their experiment shows that light is both it, are proliferating across the planet.
Scientific Revolutions, first published component parts, and health systems wave and particle—and that waves In natural systems, through rewilding
in 1962, is a history of scientific that ignore nutrition and the need for become particles when they are projects and wildlife corridors and
discovery that lays out a thesis that people to be in community with each observed. The collapse of the wave bridges, we are helping to restore
science, rather than progressing from other and nature. function into concrete reality, in other biological communities. In our
insight to insight in measured steps The atomized separateness words, happens when we pay attention. human communities, degrowth and
through experimentation, actually epitomized by a one-size-fits all This linking of consciousness cooperative initiatives; alternative
takes its biggest leaps through new materialist culture urges us toward an to the creation of concrete reality, work and currencies; and doughnut
theories that arise outside the bounds evermore brittle centralized control coupled with an understanding of the and ecological economics are helping
of the accepted science—think the of all systems by an evermore distant unity that underlies all life, gives us us to mend the divides between us—
Copernican Revolution. In this other. When drone strikes that kill principles and practices for re-mending and pull us back from the ecological
narrative, “normal” science starts people on the other side of the our relationships with nature and with edge. Permaculture and regenerative
to become stressed when anomalies AMY HARPER planet are done by an “operator” in each other. Quantum theory is the agriculture are showing us ways to feed
Fall colors along Mary's Way, the bike trail connecting Agraria with Yellow Springs.
6 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 7
people healthfully while leaving food for through the rubble? Clearly, the future agricultural practices and the healing
our fellow creatures. And forest bathing, is malleable, and dependent on our of the systems by which we share BY DAN KITTREDGE
outdoor schools, and an explosion of dreams as well as our doings. food; and the healing of the silos of
people starting to grow their own food, We chose to call Agraria a Center education through transdisciplinary
are providing opportunities for deep for Regenerative Practice because hands-on initiatives. We share our work
immersion and reconnection between we understand that the healing that with multiple institutional partners,
New Definition of Nutrient Density
people and planet. needs to happen on the planet goes many of whom are written about in this
Kuhn stresses that the scientist’s far beyond the regeneration of soils. journal. Together with our funders and
tools and viewpoint determine the Regenerative practices are those that
Goes Beyond Labels
volunteers, they are helping to weave
outcome of experiments. If what move forward people, institutions, and a field of the future that is diverse and
we pay attention to determines the projects in an evolutionary-spiraling filled with creativity and hope. We
outcome of our future, we might cycle of growth and development.
invite you to join us as we develop a
think of attention as one of the most Our nonprofit’s current work plan As a child in elementary school I
new narrative of the possible
important resources we have. Do we assumes that we need to pay attention remember telling my science teacher
choose to “pay” our limited attention to multiple levels of healing—the that I was an Organic Farmer. The
to our collapsing structures, or to healing of the biosphere and the Susan Jennings is the Executive Director disdain with which she responded in
these vigorous new shoots growing urban/rural divide; the healing of our of Agraria. front of my peers by saying “organic
means contains carbon, so all farmers
are organic farmers” sticks with me to
this day. It was not actually that long
ago that a group of back-to-the land
homesteaders took a word that meant
one thing in the world of science
and redefined it to create a cultural
touch point that now has a significant
meaning globally.
In much the same way, food
scientists have defined nutrient density
differently than have those in the
broader food movement. Specifically,
PHOTO COURTESY OF BFA
they determine the nutrient density Bionutrient Meter developed by the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) measures the nutrient density
index of a crop by its average level of of food.
nutrients per unit calorie. For example, nutritionally uniform. This assumption effectively process standards, not quality
kale has on average a relatively high is foundationally flawed. standards. A crop is either organic or
level of nutrients but a low level of My experience as a farmer has not, local or not. There is no subtlety or
calories. By this metric then kale has been that some crops have greater nuance in them.
a high nutrient density score. Rice has sheen, vigor, vibrancy, pest and disease For a decade, the Bionutrient Food
many more calories in it per unit and so resistance, flavor and shelf life than Association, which I helped found and
would have a low nutrient density score. others. My understanding is that there serve as executive director, has been
For the broader food movement, are some profound nutrient variations working to expand our understanding
however, nutrient density has to do with in these crops, and these are really what of this new definition of nutrient
quality, with how nutritious one bunch I should be striving for rather than density, and for the past four years we
of kale is in relation to another. Or one a label like Organic or Regenerative have been using the scientific process to
bag of rice to another. Among food or local or Non-GMO etc. None of do so.
scientists there is an implicit assumption these labels correlate to the inherent We devised a strategy to move this
that all kale or rice is relatively nutritional quality of the crop and are process forward:
Volunteers planted raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, and jostaberries in Agraria's perennial pantry garden.
8 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 9
1) Identify the nutritional variation conference that fall. carrot has as much copper as those if you ate one leaf of the highest In 2020 we increased the number conditions. This will allow us to
that exists in crops so that an empirical In 2018 we established our first three carrots, and that leaf of spinach antioxidant level spinach on January of crops to 20 and broadened our build correlations from management
definition of the nutritional density lab to begin identifying the nutritional has as much iron as those 18 leaves 1 of a year, you would have to eat one base of labs from the primary lab in to quality in a way that should give
of any individual crop could be variation in food and chose two crops of spinach. When it came to those leaf of the lowest antioxidant level Ann Arbor to the first satellite lab at significant insight to growers about
accomplished. to begin with: carrots and spinach. higher order nutritional compounds, spinach every day for the entire year to Chico State in California and our first what limiting factors they can change
2) Identify the environmental We reached out to our community for antioxidants and polyphenols, it was get the same level as you received on European lab, in partnership
conditions and causal factors that volunteers and asked for samples of 75:1 – 200:1. As in this leaf of spinach January 1st of the most nutritious one! with Valorex, in the
relate to those varied nutrient density these two crops to be shipped to the has as many antioxidants as those 75 Most impressively perhaps we Normandy region of France.
readings. lab. We received samples from gardens, leaves of spinach and that carrot has as were able to build a calibration on We added oats and wheat
many polyphenols as those 75 carrots.
This variation did not correlate "The results we found in this short year
with local or organic or any other
labeling or marketing type. Some non- of assessment were nothing short of
organic carrots in a grocery store, for
astounding."
example, had much more nutrition in
them than some organic carrots from those six crops for our first-generation to our assessments, and
the local farmers market. Bionutrient Meter. The calibration is we increased the number
In 2019 we added lettuce, cherry not perfect, but we have proved that we of farms we are getting
tomatoes, kale, and grapes to our can build a handheld spectrometer at a management data from AMY HARPER
assessment process along with soil consumer price point that can be used to more than 125. We will Corn, bean, and squash, known as the Three Sisters, have been
at the center of indigenous agriculture and food traditions for
from 35 farms where those crops in real time and non-invasively to give now have more meaningful
centuries. The three complementary crops grow in Agraria's
were grown, and management and readings about nutrient density in food. data about environmental staff garden.
environmental conditions data like
cover cropping, crop variety, soil to increase overall function in the
minerals, tillage practice, soil carbon, biological system of the operations.
fertility amendments and fertilizers, This work has been accomplished
irrigation type, soil biological activity, solely through charitable donations so
mulching etc. With the 2019 data all information, raw data, hardware
we now have the ability to overlay engineering, software code, etc. remains
all of these different dynamics in open source and in the commons in
Dan Kittredge PHOTO COURTESY OF BFA
relation to each other. After reviewing
perpetuity. We want to make sure that
farms, farm stands, grocery stores and this information, although from a
3) Build and calibrate a hand-held free access to the best information
farmers markets, ranging from Maine relatively small data set of 35 farms,
nutrient density meter that anyone, is available to all globally regardless
to Iowa. We got local, organic, and it became clear that no one factor
from grower to consumer, could use of resources. We hope to have a
not organic. We looked at 16 different like type of seed, no-till, or fertility
to get a real-time assessment of the comprehensive definition of nutrient
elements in the crops, like calcium, product correlates with nutrient density
food they want so that there would density with cutting edge spectrometers
potassium, copper and zinc, as well as variation. It seems to be a combination
be no need or role for a bureaucratic
polyphenols and antioxidants, two well of these factors. and a deep understanding of how to
certification system.
defined plant secondary metabolites Also in 2019 we were able to verify do more well within the next five years.
4) Engage as many aligned partners associated with flavor and nutritional that the dramatic nutritional variation The level of support for our work is
as possible who also had critical value. in crops, both in the mineral levels as really the primary variable.
subject matter expertise. We call this The results we found in this first well as the higher order compounds,
partnership the Real Food Campaign. year of assessment were nothing short is present in the broader spectrum of Dan Kittredge has been an organic farmer for
In 2017, we created our first of astounding. crops assessed. The most significant more than 30 years and is the founder and
generation “Bionutrient Meter” and The variations for mineral levels variation we found was the antioxidant AMY HARPER
executive director of the Bionutrient Food
presented it at the Soil and Nutrition The staff garden on the front campus of Agraria contains native perennials as well as annual crops.
were from 3:1 to 18:1. As in, this levels in spinach: 364.5:1. That means Staff members Naomi Bongorno and Kat Christen tended the garden on a staff work day in May. Association.
10 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 11
Edible Ethics
TO HARVEST OR NOT TO HARVEST
BY GABBY LOOMIS-AMRHEIN
Foraging for food is an ancient plants have on the communion I or non-native plants vs. native plants.
tradition spanning cultures, and now seek with them? Let’s take Ramps for example, Allium
geographic and political boundaries. • What are the potential ecological tricoccum, var. tricoccum or burdickii.
The practice is seeing an uptick in effects of my harvesting or Much has been written by others
recent decades in the U.S., particularly promoting the consumption of this about this wonderful plant. This
among folks who appreciate having a food? native Allium (onion family) is a native
relationship with the outdoors. This • What is the difference between woodland plant known for inhabiting
trend, along with the current ecological “can” and “should” in harvesting shaded areas with good soil quality.
footprint of global trade and market- and in eating each of the foods I The leaves and bulb of the plant
driven relationships with nature, has forage? are a delectable edible, tasting like a
From left: Garlic mustard flower, ramp leaf, ramp flower TEDDY PIERSON
created many ethical quandaries. • If I find myself at odds with the rich, sweet, combination of the garlic
Some that are often on my mind questions above or similar ones, and onion commonly found in U.S. fraction of a given patch or population, potential to outcompete native plants however, in relation to garlic mustard
include: are there alternatives or do I need supermarket chains. It is often made while others still will encourage such as ramps, increasing the already consumption over ramps. I am a
• Whose land am I on and what to set boundaries with myself now into pesto, used as an onion/garlic foragers to eat other plants entirely. ecologically cumbersome footprint of forager on colonized land who is
does that mean about how I should in relation to these foods? garnish, and of course the foragers In the case of ramps, this often looks the history of this country. descended from colonizers. My colonial
forage and what I eat? This last question is becoming a favorite in many places, cooked low like never harvesting the bulb, only This plant, in the Brassica or relation to ramps and to garlic mustard
• What bearing does the way my hot one in foraging circles, particularly and slow in butter with morels, which taking one leaf from a plant of two mustard family, is also edible in a are different than the relationships
ancestors’ interactions with these as it involves the concept of “invasive” also appear in early to mid-spring. or more leaves, and only taking a garlicky way. As its common name other peoples hold with these plants.
The questions when applied here, fraction of these leaves per patch, with suggests, garlic mustard is more of a Far be it from me to suggest to any
bring some issues to the table. Ramps the harvest spread across the patch. garlic/mustard taste combination native person what they should and
are a plant with a reproductive life The percentage of patch harvested when set beside the sweet garlic/onion should not eat on their land. Far be
cycle regularly documented at up varies widely. I have seen folks suggest flavor of ramps. I will not lie; ramps it from me to suggest to historically
to seven years. This means it takes everything from 1/3 to 1/250th of any easily outcompete in the kitchen. and systemically impoverished
the plant up to seven years to reach given patch. This brings up another However, I have had incredible garlic Appalachians to refrain from consum-
maturity, flower, and reproduce. So, issue though: What if 20 other foragers mustard pesto, and mixed with other ing ramps, a traditional food in the
if I walk into the woods and pull a interact with this patch in this way? spring greens, it gives salads a great region. The communion we hold with
bunch of ramps from the ground, I’m Such compounded foraging would kick. Additionally, the ethics of harvest- food and with where and from whom
likely not doing a great job of either surely negate honorable harvesting ing as much garlic mustard as you it comes, is deeply personal, cultural,
stewarding the population in its own practices. can see in the name of conserving ecological, and political.
right, its place in the ecosystem, or To which there is another native plant diversity and populations I for one look forward to the
ensuring future harvests for myself or alternative, named garlic mustard. and stewarding local ecosystems far coming weeks wherein I will spend my
other foragers. Garlic mustard is an out-of-place or outweighs the potential of contributing days after work stewarding the land
Alternatives, however, have been “invasive” plant found in the eastern to the diminution of those native and eating seasonally unique pesto in
proposed. Many folks will speak of U.S. It readily colonizes most any soil populations. In sum, I adhere to the one fell swoop.
performing an honorable harvest, in shaded areas, though it particularly harvest of garlic mustard to fill my
using only parts of the plant so it can thrives in many of the same habitats halitosis needs. Gabby Loomis-Amrhein is a naturalist, birder,
still grow, as well as only harvesting a that ramps do. Garlic mustard has the I do have a strong caveat, and former lead on the land team at Agraria.
Garlic mustard leaves TEDDY PIERSON
12 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 13
Natural Foods – Native Edible Plants
BY TEDDY PIERSON
Black Farming and Beyond
WOOD SORREL much information about the nutritional content of wood
Oxalis stricta nettle, though its relative stinging nettle is considered a super BY ARIELLA J. BROWN HORN
Description: Small yellow flower with five petals, power in terms of its nutritional content. It is high in iron,
bright green heart shaped leaflets in sets of 3 - classic calcium, protein, and vitamins C, A, and K, among other
Early last year a small group of the Justice for Black Farmers Act now
“shamrock” shape, fruits resemble miniature okra. things.
volunteers came together to create before Congress recognizes that as well S.E. PHOTOGRAPHY
Growth habits: Common garden and lawn “weed,” can a platform to not only celebrate the as the injustices of the past that left so of the roundtable discussions and will
form dense mats EVENING PRIMROSE include sources for grants and funding
Oenothera biennis Black and underrepresented farming many Black farmers landless. If passed
Edible parts: Leaves, flowers, and fruits. Sour, lemony taste. community in Southwest Ohio, but into law it would create a new Equitable opportunities, information about
Harvest late spring to early fall. Fruits are delightfully crisp Description: Tall (3-6’), biennial plant with dark green, upcoming events, a profile of a Black
also to take a look back at the history of Land Access Service under the USDA
and crunchy. Can be used in salads, cooked greens, soups, narrow, pointed leaves with a light-green or red contrasting farmer from our region, and much
farming in the Black community and that would issue land grants of 160
sauces, garnishes, teas, and as a cool, sweetened lemonade- mid-rib. Upper portion of the plant has 1” wide yellow more. To subscribe to the newsletter,
serve as a catalyst for the next generation acres apiece to up to 20,000 experienced
like drink. flowers with four petals that come together to form a long contact Rachel Isaacson, risaacson@
of Black farmers. The result was the first Black farmers annually, through 2030.
Nutrition: High in iron, calcium, and vitamin c. slender tube. Flowers bloom early summer to early fall.
Black Farming Conference in Southwest This would expand Black-owned communitysolution.org.
Only a few flowers bloom at a time, opening during the Our keynote speaker for this year’s
Ohio, held virtually in September. farmland by up to 32 million acres.
evening and closing late the following morning. Unopened conference will be Leah Penniman, co-
Antioch College, The National (Source: https://www.agriculture.com/
buds are found above the blooming flowers, and seed pods founder of Soul Fire Farm and author
Afro-American Museum and Cultural news/business/justice-for-black-farmers-
found below. of Farming While Black. Ms. Penniman
Center, and Central State University bill-introduced-in-senate)
Growth habits: Sunny, dry areas such as field edges is a highly sought-after speaker, and
partnered with us on the conference, In 1920, there were nearly 926,000
and meadows. we are delighted she has accepted
and we received generous sponsorship Black farmers, compared with fewer
Edible parts: Taproot of 1st year growth (basal rosette of our invitation to join us this year. Our
support from Nationwide Insurance, than 50,000 today. Community
leaves) can be cooked and used like other root vegetables conference theme will be Black Farming:
The Ohio Farm Bureau, and Farm Solutions/Agraria hopes to help
WOOD NETTLE and has a spicy taste. Young shoots and leaves of second-
Credit of Mid-America as well as other change this narrative through the Community Land and Food Sovereignty.
Laportea canadensis year growth (flowering stalk) can be eaten raw or cooked as If living through a global pandemic over
contributions and in-kind donations. creation of the Black Farmers Network.
Description: Tall (2-5’) medium green plant with large, a spicy green. Harvest mid to late spring before flowering. the past year has taught us anything,
With more than 400 attendees from We are bringing local Black and
alternate, serrated leaves. Stalks and leaves are covered Flowers and buds, spicy and a little sweet, can be added to it is that we as a society need to get
around the country over a two-day underrepresented farmers together
with stinging hairs. This is a native plant often mistaken for salads or used as a garnish. Seeds have a pleasant flavor and back to growing our own food, truly
period and more than 1,000 who pre- for quarterly roundtables, publishing a
another member of the nettle family, stinging nettle (Urica can be roasted, used likewise as a garnish, or an addition to knowing where our food comes from,
registered for the conference, it was clear quarterly Black farming newsletter, and
dioica). However, the stinging nettle has pairs of opposite breads. and supporting our local, family and
that we had struck a common chord sponsoring the annual Black Farmers
leaves only, while wood nettle has some alternate leaves. Nutrition: The oil of the seeds has the highest amount community farms. Be on the lookout for
with our focus on Black farming. conference. These are small ways in
Growth habits: Moist, rich soils, floodplain and bottomland of gamma-linolenic acid, more conference details soon.
The keynote address, by Dr. Anna which we can be better citizens of our
woodlands, colony forming an Omega 6 fatty acid, For more information about the
Lisa Cox took us back to pre-civil war community. They are also ways of
Edible parts: Shoots, tops, young leaves, and seeds. Best of any known food and Black Farmers Network or to offer
times, before Ohio was a state, to learn saying thank you to the farmers who
eaten early to mid-summer. Gloves must be used to harvest; also contain the amino suggestions about how we might better
about how Black pioneers cultivated work every day to put food on our tables.
boiling neutralizes the sting. acid tryptophan. Evening serve and strengthen the region’s Black
the land in this region and created a The goal of the Black Farmers
Can be eaten as a cooked primrose is also a source of farming community, please contact
livelihood for themselves before it was Network is to create a platform for the
green, an addition to soups protein, carbohydrates, beta blackfarmersconferenceoh@gmail.com.
all stripped away by racist laws, policies, Black farming community to network,
or casseroles, or made into carotene, potassium, and
and practices that robbed Black as well discuss relevant farming topics, share Ariella J. Brown Horn is Associate Director
tea. Seeds are very similar to vitamin B3.
as indigenous people of their land and insights, gain peer support, and connect of Gender Equity Programs and Education
flax seeds and can be used in agrarian ways of life. with resources. Our next network at Antioch College, coordinator of the Black
hot cereals or breads. Teddy Pierson is a naturalist, photographer, and member of the land Access to land is one of the biggest roundtable will be held in October. Our Farmer Network, and a member of the planning
Nutrition: There is not barriers small scale farmers face, and quarterly newsletter is an extension committee for the Black Farming conference.
team at Agraria.
14 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 15
NEW FA R M E R FE L LOWS H I P P RO G R AM
Growing a New Crop of Regenerative Farmers
BY AMY HARPER AND KAT CHRISTEN
A vision Agraria has had since its founding — to the Black Farming Network coordinated by Ariella Brown
serve as an incubator for beginning farmers — became of Agraria.
a reality this spring when the organization launched the Fellows without property of their own will be able
Regenerative Farmer Fellowship, in partnership with The to establish plots on Agraria and on Agraria’s partner in
Nature Conservancy and Central State University. Springfield, Melrose Acres Urban Agriculture Center.
This pilot program will support six beginning farmers Leading the training will be Kat Christen, who developed,
through 25 weeks of education and training in regenerative operated, and managed the Antioch College Farm for
agricultural practices and business planning. The first 10 years. She has also led educational programming on
class of Farmer Fellows is a group of six women, most of Smaller Footprint Farm, which she and her husband, Doug
whom are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC). Christen, have owned and operated since 2006. Supporting
They represent both urban and rural sites in Montgomery, Kat will be Program Assistant Kenisha Robinson, who is
Greene and Clark counties. According to the 2017 Ag also participating as a Fellow in the program.
Census, less than 1% of farmers in Ohio are BIPOC, and A unique feature of the program is the financial
Regenerative Farming Fellows Kenisha Robinson and River Johnson with Kat Christen at Agraria. DENNIE EAGLESON
of these farmers, 30-43% are new and beginning farmers. support the Fellows will receive: $12/hour for 20 hours
The training includes workshops focused on per week over the course of the program, from April 19 either low or non-paid, creating a barrier for low-wealth
regenerative practices and business planning as well as through October 8. A grant secured by TNC from the “non-privileged” groups, according to a 2015 study,
tours of successful farms and/or markets. It will allow North Central Region of Sustainable Agriculture Education “Situating on-farm apprenticeships within the alternative
participants to build capacity for their own sites and and Research (NCR-SARE) program provides funding for agrifood movement: Labor and social justice implications”
growing operations and to connect and collaborate with the stipends. (MacAuley, L. and Niewolny, K. Journal of Agriculture,
farmers and organizations that support farmers, including The majority of farm internships and trainings are Food Systems, and Community Development, April
8, 2016). The study called in part for consideration of
strategies that “provide apprentice farmers the equivalent
of minimum wage with benefits,” and ways to “supplement
apprentices’ educational activities through the land-grant
system, programming initiatives, and programs that have
had demonstrated success in providing such support.” This
project addresses these issues of equity.
The first cohort of six participants includes a diverse
range of experiences and interests within the field of
regenerative growing and within their communities.
Participants have expressed interest in growing annual
crops, flowers, and native nursery plants, agroforestry,
perennial crop production, and more. In addition,
participants are interested in addressing food security in
their communities, learning more about specific growing
systems, building growing capacity at their sites, selling
products, business planning and/or meeting other growers.
The Fellowship program will be tailored, whenever possible,
DENNIE EAGLESON DENNIE EAGLESON
Program Assistant Kenisha Robinson, of Trotwood, who is also a Fellow in the program, with Fellow Omope Daboiku, from Edgemont Garden in to meet the interests and goals of this exciting new cohort. Fellow River Johnson with Mandy Knaul, who provided rototiller training
Dayton, and Trinity Hoskins, of Springfield. to Fellows.
16 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 17
Caressa’s goals for Veggie Soul:
BY KENISHA ROBINSON & CARESSA BROWN The Urban Farmers’ Market was to
partner with churches located in West
Dayton and Trotwood to host a weekly
traveling farmers market and also
teach residents of the two communities
Coming Back to the Land how to garden at a community plot in
West Dayton. This initiative brought
out multiple generations to learn to
R EVIVING A M U LTIG E N E R AT I O NAL L EGACY
garden throughout the summer of
An edited version of this article appeared in the and were just one generation away of debt to a white farmer in a part of 2020. However, due to COVID-19
Black Farming Newsletter from the sharecropping era. For her Alabama that did not allow Black kids related shutdowns, the churches closed
KENISHA ROBINSON their doors, and the market end of this
Kenisha Robinson and Caressa grandparents and great grandparents, to receive an education. He, his wife, Friends and family pitched in to help prepare the ground and plant the first crops in
Brown are childhood friends who farming to feed their family was a and their nine young children had to Nouorganic Farm. community outreach initiative did not
joined forces in 2019 to address the necessity, not an option. work off their debt in the farmer’s field but he never taught Caressa to garden Kenisha’s desire to reconnect with the get off of the ground. Kenisha and
food desert crisis in the West Dayton Both of her parents’ families during Alabama’s long growing season. because he wanted her to focus on land—and that alchemy generated two Caressa opted to donate their first-year
and Trotwood, Ohio, communities. moved north to pursue better When winter months came around and getting an education. She was a part new local food ventures in Dayton— harvest to those who requested it and
Kenisha is a “surprise” third opportunities; they wanted more out there was no work for Black people, of the first generation in her family to Kenisha’s Nourganic Life Farm and gave the remaining produce away to
generation farmer. Though she grew of life for their future generations. Caressa’s grandfather had to ask for a receive a K-12 education in one school Caressa’s Veggie family and friends.
up on her family farm in Trotwood, Kenisha’s paternal grandfather owned cash advance from the white family to system, and one of the first in her Soul: The Urban
she did not intend to become a horses, raised chickens, and grew feed his family. The cycle continued for family to earn a college degree and take Farmers’ Market.
“For her grandparents and great
farmer. Her parents grew up in the produce on his farm in New Lebanon, almost a decade until one night, her advantage of opportunities that her The two women grandparents, farming to feed their
south, in Georgia and Alabama, Ohio, and her father raised pigs and grandfather had enough. He wanted father and grandfather never dreamed completed The Ohio
hogs and grew an array of better for his children. possible. She has a bachelor’s degree in State University family was a necessity, not an option."
vegetables and fruits around The growing season was over, and organizational/educational leadership Extension’s New and
their farm while also working a as usual he had requested an advance and is now working on a degree in Beginning Farm College and went on They plan to continue encouraging
full-time job as a mail-carrier. from the white family that he and his urban affairs. to obtain GAPS Certifications from area residents to adopt self-sustaining
Kenisha’s parents encouraged family were essentially enslaved to. Caressa begged her father for years Cornell University, in 2020. They also and self-sufficient lifestyles by growing
her to take a different path, Only this time, he had no intention to help her start and garden, and in attended the first annual Black Farming their own food, not only for their
toward higher education and of having his family work it off during 2019 he drove up from Texas to build Conference: Beyond “40 Acres and a consumption but also to produce fresh,
a career they thought would the next growing season. Instead, he a small garden box in her backyard Mule,” last year and recently became non-pesticide grown produce for sale
provide a more stable and packed up his wife and kids and fled, and teach her the basics of gardening. members of the Ohio Ecological Food direct to the community.
lucrative life. She set her sights in the middle of the night, risking their She fell in love with the process and and Farm Association. Kenisha, who never dreamed that
on college and the big city lives. He moved them to town in Texas power of growing her own food. So Kenisha’s initial goal for Nourganic she would one day become a farmer,
lights, graduated from Wright where he heard there was a school that much so, that it fueled her quiet dream Life Farm was to plant a variety of has reconnected with her farming roots,
State University with a degree taught Black kids in K-4th grades, then of owning a farm, and she flooded her vegetables to get an idea of what would continuing the legacy her father worked
in public administration, to another Texas town where there was Facebook timeline with updates about grow on the land. A friend with tractor so hard to leave for his family. She
and eventually moved to school that taught Black kids 4th-8th her garden and her desire to own plowed, tilled and disked a small patch now sees farming and growing your
Chicago, where she worked grades, and then once again to another a farm. of land for them; they purchased a few own food as a necessity, rather than
for the Greater Chicago Food town in Texas that taught Black kids in Kenisha, who had moved back to hand tools and enlisted some family an option. “It’s interesting how history
Depository, the food bank for 9th-12th grades. Ohio to help care for her ailing father, and friends to assist with planting and repeats itself,” she says.
Cook County. Caressa’s father migrated to saw Caressa’s post, and reached out harvesting. The experience helped
Caressa, is the youngest child Dayton, Ohio, after serving in the U.S. to her with an offer: the opportunity renew Kenisha’s connection to and love Kenisha Robinson is program assistant for
of a Jim Crow-era sharecropper Marine Corps, and relocated back to to grow on her family-owned property of nature. She not only wants to restore the Regenerative Farming Fellowship Program
from Alabama. Her grandfather Texas, after she graduated from high in Trotwood, which had lain dormant the land that her family once worked and also one of six Fellows participating in
found himself stuck in a cycle school. He had always kept a garden, for years. Caressa’s vision sparked but also use it to help her community. the program.
Kinesha Robinson and Caressa Brown
18 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 19viruses, protozoa and fungi and their forever, and you are never going to slowly killing ourselves? The epidemic
collective genetic material present in solve that problem,” Ingham said. “And of chronic diseases correlates well with
As Below, So Above: From Healthy Soil to Healthy Body the soil/gastrointestinal tract.” that’s what fixing the biology in the soil the ecological devastation of our soils.
These microorganisms essentially will do.” Take the use of the popular
A CONVERSATION WITH ELAINE INGHAM
serve the same function in both When Ingram started her work, pesticide glyphosate. As Ingham
places. They help the plant’s roots nearly all soil research focused on the explained at the Ohio Ecological Food
BY MEGAN BACHMAN in the soil, and the gut microflora, mineral content, not the biology, of the and Farm Conference in February
optimally absorb nutrients from their soil. But without microorganisms soil is 2021, when glyphosate accumulates
I remember the first time I heard food movement, and the whole foods That’s thanks to the pioneering work of
environment, Ingham explained in a more like “dirt,” she says. In 1978, she in the soil, the soil can no longer hold
the saying, “You are what you eat.” movement expanded that initial Elaine Ingham of the Soil Food Web
recent Zoom interview. started her Ph.D. research by asking mineral nutrients for plants. In high
I was young enough to be a little realization. I sought to avoid food School, who’s been studying soil life
“The microorganisms need to be university professors in agriculture all enough concentrations, plants will
unsettled by the idea that I might grown with toxic chemicals, eschew (and its relationship to human life) for
in your food so that you always have across the country whether she should actually absorb glyphosate, which
become a “chicken” or “popsicle” overly processed food, and choose going on five decades.
the correct amount of microorganisms
but old enough to understand that fresher foods closer to home. To Ingham, it all comes down to
in your body,” she said. “The cells “They all said, ‘You shouldn’t do that because
what I put into my body affected my But it wasn’t until I learned about the diversity of the microbiome — in
lining your intestines, your colon allow
constitution. the connection between healthy soils both our soil and our digestive system.
the uptake of the nutrients into the
these organisms do nothing in the soil.' That’s
As I grew up, my awareness of and human health did I fully appreciate She defines “microbiome” as “the
the organics movement, the local the phrase, “You are what you eat.” totality of microorganisms, bacteria,
bloodstream, and that is mediated by a how bad our understanding of soil really was.”
whole bunch of microorganisms.”
Take two apples, Ingram says. look at the role of fungi in soil. means, yes, we are eating glyphosate.
One is grown naturally, the other “They all said, ‘You shouldn’t What does that do to our body?
sprayed with fungicides to kill apple do that because these organisms do “It’s doing exactly the same thing
scab. Though both technically apples, nothing in the soil,’” Ingham recalls. in your microbiome as in the soil, which
the sprayed one now lacks the healthy “That’s how bad our understanding of is to kill those beneficial organisms,”
microorganisms your body needs to get soil really was.” Ingham said, “And it’s withholding
the most out of the apple, since at least Since then, advances in ways to nutrients from your gut microflora —
50% of the beneficial organisms have image microorganisms, such as x‐ray from your digestive system — so you
been killed. shadow microscopy, have helped shed can’t obtain the nutrients that you
“Where are the good guys going light on their role in the larger soil want.”
to come back from if you spray that food web. The realization of just how Healthy soil grows plants that are
orchard?” she asks. biodiverse healthy ecosystems are, was unstressed and resistant to disease. But
Instead, Ingham says, eat straight a wake-up call. when we eat fragile plants, our human
from the garden, gently wash produce “The Bible lists 5,000 species, and health becomes fragile too.
— don’t scrub or use harsh soaps — the people at Michigan State University “We’ve got to understand that
and be sure to compost to continue the showed that in a one-acre woodlot in these two things are related,” Ingham
cycle. Michigan [there were] over one million said. “We need billions and billions of
The popularity of probiotics in species,” Ingham said. bacteria — on the outside when we
recent years is one way to improve gut But change in the larger have to grow plants and on the inside
health, especially since 60 percent of agriculture industry has been slow. In when we’re growing human beings.”
the immune system is located there. the meantime, we’re losing species of Now, I know that if I am what I
But why not go to the literal root of the bacteria, fungi and protozoa that may eat, I actually am the soil in which my
problem? After all, biologically diverse never return, Ingham says. food is grown. And I sure don’t want to
soil not only improves plant health and “One suspects that we are getting be dirt.
water retention, it also sequesters more close to the no-return point, where the
carbon from the atmosphere, Ingham last of the land is desertified,” she said. Megan Bachman is a board member of
notes. And fundamentally, if we are Agraria and editor of the Yellow Springs
“You can try to fix the symptom killing the life in the soil, aren’t we also News.
GRAPHIC COURTESY OF ELAINE INGHAM, SOIL FOOD WEB SCHOOL
20 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 21what to do, she just needs us to get our
BY JIM LINNE boot off of her neck.
Now that the farm was in grass-
land, I introduced cattle as a way
OPT I MAL H E A LTH to build soil organic matter, recycle
nutrients, and produce high quality
A Physician/Farmer Perspective beef. Healthy soil is a living organism
with billions of microbes in a single
As a physician, I was trained in the to start focusing our efforts on content of food. Soil is the foundation teaspoon. In order not to harm the
detection and treatment of disease. prevention. While the USA boasts of health. Healthy, nutrient dense food soil biology, we have avoided using any
During my 35 years in the practice of providing the best health care in comes from healthy biologically alive harmful chemicals such as antibiotics,
of gastroenterology, I noted a marked the world, our populace suffers from soil. Our soils have become degraded hormones, pesticides, or herbicides.
increase in diet related disease. NASH an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and through the lack of biological diversity, With short periods of grazing
(non-alcoholic steatohepatitis), which other chronic illnesses that are related high levels of chemical inputs, and followed by long periods of rest, the
is primarily caused by obesity and primarily to diet and lifestyle¹. To bare fallows. biodiversity of plants in the pasture
diabetes, is now the leading cause of address this problem, we must change Our current agriculture is extractive has increased as the latent seed bank
cirrhosis in the USA. Eosinophilic our focus from treatment to prevention and unsustainable. Regenerative is awakened. The soil organic matter
esophagitis is an inflammatory disease of disease, with good nutrition being agriculture is a way to grow our foods has increased from 1.5% to 4%, cycling
Jim Linne with his herd of cattle on White Clover Farm RENEE WILDE
of the esophagus that is due to food the cornerstone. We need to emphasize that mimics Nature. It is a system that carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere
allergies. It causes painful swallowing whole foods as opposed to the highly produces healthy, nutrient dense food and sequestering it in the soil. This only grass, sunshine, and water—the The presence of birds of prey are an
and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). processed, high calorie, hyperpalatable while continuously building topsoil. has resulted in improved soil structure way Nature intended. indication of a healthy ecosystem with
Once rare, it is now the leading cause foods that are often deficient in It helps restore our broken carbon and with better water infiltration and water Testing done at Michigan State a well-functioning food web.
of food becoming lodged in the nutrients and minerals.²,³ water cycles. holding capacity. We can now hold University confirms the high mineral, A holistic definition of health
esophagus. As a farmer, I have developed As a first-generation farmer, my an additional 50,000 gallons of water vitamin, and omega-3 fatty acid includes the health of the planet as well
The costs associated with the a more holistic view of health and goal was to farm regeneratively. The content of our beef.4 as all of its inhabitants. They cannot
treatment of these and other diet- nutrition that includes the environ- farm I purchased was in conventional "Soil is the foundation of health. We direct-market our be separated. As we strive to improve
related diseases are becoming mental impact of the way we produce crop production of corn and soybeans beef locally, providing our health through better nutrition,
unsustainable. I felt that we needed food and its effect on the nutritional with its associated tillage, chemicals, Healthy, nutrient dense food comes a healthy product while we must remember that healthy soil is
and bare winter fallows. The 5 tenets from healthy biologically alive soil." improving the land. the foundation for healthy food as well
of regenerative agriculture are: 1) keep Nature has responded as ecosystem function. Optimal health
the soil covered; 2) minimal soil per acre. Not only does this allow us to the care that we have given to the only occurs when the whole ecosystem
disturbance i.e., no tillage; 3) increase to grow more biomass, it also helps land with another gift in the form is healthy.
biodiversity; 4) keep living roots in protect the watershed from erosion, of birds. We now have hundreds of
the soil year around; 5) incorporate runoff, leaching, flooding and drought. swallows that follow the cattle herd Jim Linne is on the Agraria Board of
livestock. The restored groundwater provides providing natural fly control. Red Trustees and also the planning committee for
I started out by planting the entire our cattle with clean water year around tailed hawks, American kestrels, the Nourishing Life Conference to be held
farm in perennial grasses. I repaired from natural springs. We are able to Northern harriers, and short eared June 18-19, 2021. He is owner of White
a large erosion gully by building a dam produce our 100% grass-fed beef using owls patrol the pastures and hayfields. Clover Farm.
to create a small farm pond. What Citations:
followed demonstrated the richness 1. Wang, Youfa et al. “Will all Americans become overweight or obese? estimating the progression and cost of the US obesity epidemic.” Obesity (Silver
and generosity of Nature. This pond Spring, Md.) vol. 16,10 (2008): 2323-30. doi:10.1038/oby.2008.351
is now lined with willows, cattails, and 2. Poti JM, Braga B, Qin B. Ultra-processed Food Intake and Obesity: What Really Matters for Health-Processing or Nutrient Content? Curr Obes Rep.
2017 Dec;6(4):420-431. doi: 10.1007/s13679-017-0285-4. PMID: 29071481; PMCID: PMC5787353.
beautiful American Lotus water lilies.
3. Mozaffarian, Dariush et al. “Changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men.” The New England journal of medicine vol.
It is home to hundreds of fish, insects, 364,25 (2011): 2392-404. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1014296
amphibians, and reptiles. An explosion 4. Bronkema, Sara & Rowntree, Jason & Jain, Raghav & Schweihofer, Jeannine & Bitler, Chad & Fenton, Jenifer. (2019). A Nutritional Survey of
The pond on White Clover Farm was regenerated along with the soil. JIM LINNE of biodiversity. Mother Nature knows Commercially Available Grass-Finished Beef. Meat and Muscle Biology. 3. 116. 10.22175/mmb2018.10.0034.
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