Sustainable farming podcast explores what it means to be ‘dirt rich’

CATHY WURZER: Let's face it, the vast majority of us don't know the ins and outs of what it takes to run a successful farm, even though we all rely on farms to live literally because of the food grown on them. A podcast put out by the Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association pulls back the curtain on what it takes to make our food. It's called Dirt Rich. You know we love to highlight podcasts on this show. So the co-host of dirt rich is Katie Feterl, and she's on the line. Hey. Thanks, Katie, for taking the time to be here.

KATIE FETERL: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Cathy, for having me.

CATHY WURZER: What's the spark for this podcast?

KATIE FETERL: Wow. So this podcast was a project that came out of COVID. Sustainable Farming Association, our work is, of course, focused on advancing sustainable and regenerative farming practices throughout Minnesota. And the way that we would typically do that is by hosting lots of events on farms where farmers can get together and learn from each other, network, get that solidarity and community connections.

And COVID kind of put the kibosh on that for a time. So one of my colleagues thought like, hey, I've been thinking about the value that a podcast could bring to our work. And so we gave it a shot to continue those awesome conversations that we would usually be having in person, but be able to share those. And farmers could take it out in the field with them too. So that was the hope there.

CATHY WURZER: Good. See, I'm sure you're able to talk to all kinds of farmers from all over the state for the podcast. Is there any common thread, even a common, I don't know, mindset when it comes to farming?

KATIE FETERL: Oh, yeah. I would say the farmers that I've been able to talk to and worked with for eight or so years now, they are so generous and resourceful and innovative people. So I guess that's a number of through lines, I would say, but the spirit of collaboration.

And also the interest in kind of sharing what has worked for them and what hasn't worked with each other, it's a real like, we all do better when we all do better kind of mentality rather than hide your trade secrets, more-- I don't know-- individualistic thinking. The farmers that I've talked to are just excited to share their experiences with each other and learn from each other.

CATHY WURZER: When we talk about-- and we should maybe be clear about definitions here-- when we talk about sustainable farming, is that different? How different is that versus, say, I guess what I would say is traditional farming?

KATIE FETERL: Right. I mean, I think we could probably have a whole mini series on the podcast on the nuances of sustainable or regenerative farming. But in a nutshell, I would say that when we're thinking about sustainable farming, we're looking at it through the lens of like is this sustainable for the environment and our natural resources, economics, like can the farmer make a living on this? Does that work?

And socially is how does this fit into the community? And is it a lifestyle for that individual farmer that they can sustain? And then when we think about regenerative farming, that's going to bring in this extra layer of, how can we regenerate the natural resources that have been degraded over time? It's revitalizing and reinvigorating that way.

CATHY WURZER: And maybe I'm wrong here in my terminology when it comes to traditional farming because maybe sustainable farming really has been traditional farming versus a corporate farming, you know what I mean?

KATIE FETERL: Oh, totally. And regenerative is maybe a newer phrase for some people, but it really is drawing from indigenous ways of knowing and histories that have been around for long before since what we come to think of as modern farming or traditional conventional items.

CATHY WURZER: And I'm sure when you talk to your farmers, there's always-- you mentioned there is a spirit of collaboration. But probably I would think, at least for my farmer friends, a real passion for the land. Does that come through?

KATIE FETERL: Oh, 100%. I think each farmer has their own land ethic or the tie to the land that they're working on and stewarding. But you also see it across-- forgive me-- across the field, I guess, or different disciplines that come in. We've had a couple great episodes exploring Kernza, the perennial wheat grass that is coming out of the University of Minnesota research and as well as some other institutes and organizations too.

But that is just like an amazing story of research that started decades ago before it even hit like farm fields in Minnesota and is now still gaining momentum as a grower cooperative of farmers who are growing Kernza are working towards building markets. There are other people with economic backgrounds that are coming in to help build those markets.

And then folks like chefs like Beth Dooley who's done a lot of great work along educating the public on great things that you can make with this new crop and how good it tastes and things like that. It takes a village, and that's been a fascinating story of collaboration, I think, to see how a crop comes to our table and all the people involved.

CATHY WURZER: So podcast seems like it's targeted toward farmers, but can just the general interested public get something from this?

KATIE FETERL: Definitely. Yeah. I myself am not a farmer. My other co-hosts are, and so you'll hear a lot of great episodes with them where they can get really technical and dig deep into farmers' practices with grazing and soil health. But I like to think that people can get really good insight who aren't farming on just what goes into a farmer's day-to-day, the exciting projects that they're working on or goals that they have.

And I've also enjoyed getting to learn, OK, how do you save tomato seeds and why would we save seeds in the first place? When's a good time to plant garlic? Some insight into cider making. There's a lot of fun and interesting things for people who are just interested in how the food gets to their table.

CATHY WURZER: I'm also positive you're talking about climate change. There's so much uncertainty, and I'm positive that has to be on weighing on farmers minds because of that uncertainty. Have you talked about that? And how has that manifested?

KATIE FETERL: It does come up in quite a few conversations. It does weigh on farmers. I think it weighs on all of us. And the uncertainty is really hard to deal with and just the idea of change as well. But I've also seen really positive examples of change in the farming community and people that are thinking ahead in terms of how do we curb the effects of climate change that we're about to experience and are already experiencing?

We have the last few years with drought in Minnesota in the upper Midwest. We've had roundtables of farmers talk on the show talking about how they're dealing with that, how they're planning ahead. And it gets very complicated for the day-to-day, but it's also encouraging to hear those stories and I guess to know that there is hope. People are managing it, and people are coming together to try to figure out better ways.

CATHY WURZER: It sounds like you're having a good time with this, Katie. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Best of luck.

KATIE FETERL: Thank you, Cathy. Thank you very much.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to Katie Feterl, the co-host of the Minnesota-made podcast Dirt Rich. You can find it on the Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association's website.