We talk about food like it's just dinner. It never is. One Bite is Everything explores the people, practices, policies, and power that shape what's on your plate. Through 150+ conversations with farmers, chefs, scientists, historians, and policy thinkers, each episode pulls back the curtain on a food system most of us navigate without really understanding. Real stories, real stakes, no lectures. These conversations don't stop at your headphones. They ripple outward through the For Farmers Movement, a weekly letter, and a community of eaters who are connecting more deeply with the farmers who make their food possible. One Bite is Everything airs every Thursday.
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Veterans Who Farm: In Service to Our Country, Again
2026/11/05
What happens when people who have already served their country find another way to serve?
For some veterans, farming offers a new sense of purpose, community, and connection. But this relationship goes both ways. At a time when American farmers are aging and small farms are disappearing, veterans bring skills, experience, and a commitment to service that agriculture urgently needs.
In this special Veterans Day episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima brings together five voices from the veteran farming community to explore what happens when military service meets agriculture.
From raising livestock in Alaska and West Virginia to growing produce in California and oysters in New York, these farmers share how they found their way into agriculture, what they've carried with them from military life, and the challenges they face building and sustaining farms.
The conversation explores leadership, resourcefulness, mentorship, access to land, the importance of community, and why supporting veterans who farm means recognizing the work they're doing today, not only the service they've given in the past.
And sometimes, support is as simple as a pair of wool socks. IYKYK.
Featured Guests:
Kate Bowen, At Ease Orchard & Meadowdale Farm
April Smurda, Growing Roots Farm
Richard Escamilla, Donner Farms
Elizabeth Hernandez, Trillium Family Farm
Mike Miezianka, Toasted Oyster
This episode begins a week of recognizing and supporting farmers who are veterans through For Farmers Movement, leading up to Veterans Day on November 11.
Visit For Farmers Movement to discover their stories and find practical ways to support them, including Wish Lists for Farmers and the Veterans Farmer Fund. Veteran farmers are always included in our Wish Lists For Farmers, but this week ONLY veteran farmers will be featured.
Eat like it matters. Because it does.
Who Gets a Seat at the Table?
2026/10/29
Who gets recognized for the work they do? Who gets invited into the conversation? And who has to fight for a seat at the table?
At a dinner hosted by American Farmland Trust and Stone Barns Center at Blue Hill in New York City, Dana DiPrima met organic grain farmer Mary-Howell Martens, a woman who had quietly rearranged the seating chart to make sure she wouldn't be overlooked in conversations about the farm she and her husband had spent decades building.
That encounter led Dana back to Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future, a collection of essays offering wisdom to the next generation of farmers.
With the average American farmer now over 58, the question of who will farm next is increasingly urgent. But Mary-Howell's letter raises a more fundamental question: What does it really mean to choose farming as a way of life, and are we making that choice possible for the next generation?
Drawing on Mary-Howell's remarkable farming history, the experiences of women participating in For Farmers Movement, and the timeless advice of poet Rainer Maria Rilke to "live the questions now," Dana explores the difference between doing meaningful work and being recognized for it.
It's a conversation about farming, certainly. But it's also about the lives we choose, the expertise we overlook, the power of encouragement, and why making room for others matters in every profession.
In this episodeThe dinner-party seating arrangement that inspired an unexpected friendship and a bigger conversation.Why American agriculture urgently needs a new generation of farmers.What Mary-Howell and Klaas Martens learned while transitioning more than 1,300 acres to organic production.The overlooked expertise of women in agriculture and what For Farmers Movement is learning from its applicants.How a simple Farmer Thank You postcard reminded a new farmer that her work mattered.
Episode LinksLetters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future, published by Stone Barns Center (2017)Mary-Howell and Klaas Martens, Seneca Grain & Bean, organic farmers in New York's Finger Lakes regionFor Farmers Movement and its Farmer Thank You postcard program
Eat like it matters. Because it does.
The Busyness Problem and What It Costs Us with Trinity Mouzon Wofford
2026/10/22
When did cooking dinner and sitting down to eat become luxuries we have to earn?
Trinity Mouzon Wofford joins Dana DiPrima to challenge some familiar assumptions about food, time, and money: that farmers markets are too expensive, that cooking is another chore to squeeze in, and that being constantly busy means we’re doing something right.
Trinity is the cofounder of wellness brand Golde and author of Eating at Home. From building a business with her husband to feeding their family in the Hudson Valley, she’s thinking carefully about what growth, well-being, and a good everyday life actually look like.
We talk about how she learned to shop at farmers markets on a forty-dollar weekly grocery budget nearly a decade ago, why good ingredients can make cooking simpler, and what small businesses and farmers have in common when a surge of attention fades.
Our conversation begins with her great-grandmother’s refusal to surrender the family home to urban renewal and leads to a question that touches all of us: what are we willing to make room for, and what do we risk losing when we don’t?
In this episode:
Why busyness has become a badge of honor.Making farmers markets part of everyday grocery shopping.Finding affordable staples beyond the market’s eye-catching extras.The difference between a burst of support and becoming a regular customer.How our food spending helps shape local economies and communities.Returning to the table without making dinner another performance.
Find Eating at Home by Trinity Mouzon Wofford wherever you buy books.
Explore For Farmers Movement and download the Farmers Market Field Guide at forfarmersmovement.com.
Share this episode with someone who’s always too busy to sit down for lunch. And if you value One Bite is Everything, please leave a five-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more people like you find the show.
Hosted by Dana DiPrima. Co-produced by Sonia Dhillon. Sound editing and original music by Russell Chapa.
Eat like it matters. Because it does.
Served as Punishment with Ear Hustle & Impact Justice
2026/10/15
What happens when someone else decides what goes on your plate every day, for years, and you have almost no power to change it?
Ear Hustle cohosts and cocreators Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods join Dana DiPrima as guest cohosts for a conversation with Impact Justice’s Aishatu Yusuf and Alex Busansky about food in prison, the messages it sends about human worth, and the consequences that follow people home.
Impact Justice’s James Beard Media Award-winning book, Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison, brings a largely hidden food system into view. Together, we explore what their research revealed and how fresh produce, better cooking, and partnerships with farmers can improve life inside.
Nigel also shares her experience following a prison diet for Ear Hustle’s thirty-day challenge, while Earlonne brings his firsthand knowledge of eating and working within the prison food system.
We discuss:
• How food becomes an additional form of punishment.
• What prison meals mean for health, dignity, and life after release.
• What Ear Hustle’s thirty-day challenge revealed about choice and eating.
• How Harvest of the Month, Chefs in Prisons, and growing food inside are creating change.
Explore our guests’ work:
• Ear Hustle: https://www.earhustlesq.com
• Impact Justice and Eating Behind Bars: https://impactjustice.org
Share this episode with someone who hasn’t thought about food in prison. And if you value One Bite is Everything, please leave a five-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts to help more people find the show.
Hosted by Dana DiPrima. Co-produced by Sonia Dhillon. Sound editing and original music by Russell Chapa.
Eat like it matters. Because it does.
A Regenerative Playbook: Remembering What’s Been Forgotten
2026/10/08
I think this is at the heart of the regenerative movement: a going back. That's what I did to bring you this episode. I went back into some of the conversations I've had here and found three guests who said the same thing in completely different ways.
Rick Clark is a fifth-generation farmer in Indiana. Adam Alexander is a seed collector in Wales, known as the Seed Detective. Chef Sean Sherman is an Oglala Lakota chef in Minneapolis. All three believe that the future of food depends on remembering what we've lost: in the soil, in the seed, and in our culture.
In this episode:
Rick tells the story of the spring rain that washed his perfectly worked field onto the road, and why the thing his father taught him wasn't how to farm, but how to think.Adam explains why seeds have memory, how farmers in Ethiopia have gone 800 years without famine, and why saving a single tomato seed makes it yours.Sean describes growing up on Pine Ridge without Lakota food, the beach in Mexico where everything changed, and how Owamni went from buying out of the back of a hatchback to helping build an Indigenous food economy.
Farmer Spotlight: Caleb
This episode launches the For Farmers weekly farmer spotlight, and those stories will be featured here on the podcast too. Our first spotlight is Caleb, a 14-year-old raising heritage Cayuga ducks in West Virginia. He is the youngest person ever to apply for a For Farmers grant. The For Farmers community fully funded his duck run in less than 12 hours. Now you can help with what comes next by shopping his wish list: [LINK]
Find our guests
Rick Clark: farmgreen.landAdam Alexander, the Seed Detective: The Accidental Seed HeroesChef Sean Sherman: Owamni, NATIFS (natifs.org), and the Indigenous Food Lab. His newest cookbook is Turtle Island.
Mentioned in this episode
Caleb’s wish listThe Tuesday 5:18 am letter
One Bite Is Everything is part of Heritage Radio Network. Sound editing and original music by Russell Chapa.
What Farmers Really Mean to the People Who Know Them
2026/10/01
What does a farmer mean to a community? Ask the people who nominate them, and you'll hear about far more than food. You'll hear about the neighbor who lends a transplanter, the farmer who rebuilds after losing everything, the one who teaches kids where food comes from, and the one who holds a whole farmers market together.
This episode began with a question. After I spoke at a conference in Massachusetts with Farming Falmouth, someone in the audience asked how more people could hear the stories inside For Farmers Movement nominations. So this week, I'm reading twelve nominations from 2026 out loud, in the words of the people who wrote them: customers, chefs, fellow farmers, friends, and family.
Together, they paint a picture of what farmers mean across the country. Land finally owned after years without it. Sheep herded on ancestral ground in the Navajo Nation. An orchard replanted after a fire. A farm rebuilt after development took the original. A youth program graduate who came back to run the farm. And farmers who, in one nominator's words, "collaborate instead of compete."
I also share why the For Farmers Movement exists. Many of the farmers who apply can't get loans or other grants. They don't have the collateral, they can't front the money for reimbursement-based programs, or they don't meet years-in-business requirements. My grants have none of those hoops. A nomination is often the first step that connects a farmer to funding, resources, and a network of people who want them to succeed. And it tells a farmer something every farmer deserves to hear: you matter to us.
Farms featured in this episode
Grounded Roots Farms, Rocky Mount, NCHoghan Yahzi Land Restoration Project, Ganado, AZThe Blooming Hands Collective, Niwot, COTwin Peaks Orchards, Newcastle, CAMack's Farm, Davie, FLCherry Rock Farm, Brandon, SDRiver View Land & Livestock, Crown City, OHGarden-Raised Bounty (GRuB), Olympia, WACremAree Goat Farm and Dairy, Pelham, NCMinerva's Meadow, State Center, IACape Cod Flower Truck, North Falmouth, MAHappy Bird Poultry Farm, Isle La Motte, VT
What you can do in the next five minutes
Tell a farmer what they mean to you. Nominate themShop a farmer wish listIf you know a nominated farmer, remind them that grant applications are due October 12, National Farmers DaySubscribe to my Tuesday letter, in your inbox every Tuesday at 5:18 AM
OBIE Facts
Top 3% of podcasts globally#22 on millionpodcasts.com's top 100 food podcasts#87 on their top 100 agriculture podcastsMore engagement than 88% of podcasts on SpotifyFive-star rating averageProud part of Heritage Radio Network
Connect
Instagram: @xoxofarmgirl
Web: forfarmersmovement.com
Sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.
The Loneliness Between Us: What Farmers and Eaters Are Both Missing
2026/09/24
The Loneliness Between Us
From your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite Is Everything connects the food you eat to the people, policies, and stories behind it.
This episode started with a letter exchange between Maria Rodale and Wendell Berry, and one line stuck out: "I think lonely people join movements."
Through the For Farmers Movement, we have seen and heard about loneliness and isolation. In fact, it's at the heart of why the Movement started. This is an episode about two kinds of loneliness, and about what happens when the people growing our food and the people eating it actually find each other.
Resources
Listen to Maria Rodale on the pod.
Maria Rodale on Substack
Your Support for the Show Matters
Liked the show? Leave a 5-star rating and review to help us bring you more incredible guests, conversations and listeners like you. Top reviews on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or you can leave your review here.
Share it with others! Did you know that OBIE is shared more than 88% of all shows?! (Spotify wrapped 2025)
You can share it from your listening app, or screenshot it and share it on your socials! Tag @xoxofarmgirl & use hashtag #OneBiteIsEverything
Connect on Socials IG @xoxofarmgirl & Facebook
One Bite is Everything
From your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite is Everything explores the connections between food, health, community, the environment, and the economy. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders, host Dana DiPrima examines how food touches every aspect of our lives and why understanding our food system has never mattered more.
OBIE Facts
Top 3% of all podcasts globally
Top 100 food podcasts (22)
Top 100 agriculture podcasts (87)
More engagement than more than 88% of all podcasts on Spotify
Five-star rating average
Part of Heritage Radio Network, home of the top voices in food
Connect
Follow Dana at @xoxofarmgirl and learn more about the For Farmers Movement at forfarmersmovement.com.
Co-production for interview episodes by Sonia Dhillon. Sound design and original music always by Russell Chapa.
Rebel or Just Paying Attention? Farmer Scott Park Questions Everything
2026/09/17
What happens when a farmer stops doing things the way they've always been done and starts asking whether there's a better way?
Scott Park began farming in California in 1974 with a degree in political theory, almost no agricultural training, and plenty to learn. More than five decades later, he's built a large-scale farming operation by questioning conventional wisdom, experimenting, paying attention, and learning to work with nature rather than against it.
His new book, Growing Rogue: The Adventures of Changing How I Farm, draws on 53 years of meticulous daily records and a lifetime of trial, error, observation, and discovery.
In this conversation, Scott and Dana explore the tension between maximizing yields and maximizing profits, why healthy soil can be a farmer's greatest ally, and what happens when agricultural advice overlooks the value of firsthand experience. They discuss cover crops, water retention, technology, the economics of changing farming practices, and the importance of thinking beyond a single growing season.
Scott also makes a compelling case for why there is no universal recipe for farming well. What works on his California farm may not work somewhere else, but the underlying principles of observation, experimentation, adaptability, and long-term thinking can travel.
This is a conversation about farming, but it's also about questioning assumptions, embracing imperfect progress, and having the courage to try something different.
Scott's book: Growing Rogue: The Adventures of Changing How I Farm, published by Chelsea Green on September 29.
Get involved: For Farmers Movement connects farmers and eaters through stories, grants, wish lists, and simple ways to support the people who grow our food. Visit forfarmersmovement.com .
Subscribe to Bite Sized for Dana's weekly writing about food, farming, and the ways they connect to everything else.
If you enjoyed this episode, give One Bite Is Everything five stars, leave a review, and share it with someone who might appreciate Scott's perspective.
And, as always, eat like it matters. Because it does.
It Ain’t Done Yet: The Processing Problem Washington Is Finally Paying Attention To
2026/09/10
For years, small livestock farmers and ranchers have been saying the same thing: access to processing is one of the biggest obstacles to getting locally raised meat to customers.
In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima revisits two earlier conversations that show just how long this problem has persisted.
In 2022, Carrie Edsall of Black Willow Pond Farm described what happened when a processing appointment she had booked more than a year in advance disappeared while finished pigs were literally sitting on the trailer. Her story reveals how few alternatives many farmers have, why the right kind of inspection matters, and how quickly extra driving, lost time and unavailable appointments become real costs for a small farm.
In a later conversation, local-food advocate Liz Reitzig explained the regulatory bottleneck behind some of those problems, including the distinction between USDA-inspected and custom-exempt processing and the proposed changes contained in the PRIME Act.
Now, in September 2026, Washington is finally taking up many of the same issues.
A September 4 executive order directs USDA to examine barriers to interstate meat sales, expand support for small and regional processors, increase participation in existing interstate inspection programs, address competition in livestock markets, and identify federal barriers affecting state-inspected and custom-exempt meat.
But the executive order is not a finished solution.
Some changes can be made administratively. Others may require changes to federal law. The PRIME Act remains before Congress. USDA has been given deadlines to study important barriers and make recommendations. And none of it matters ultimately unless policy changes translate into something tangible for farmers: more viable processors, more appropriate processing capacity, workable market access, and appointments when animals are ready.
Farmers and ranchers have spent years pushing this issue into public view. Washington is finally paying attention.
The deal isn’t done yet.
In this episode
Carrie Edsall of Black Willow Pond Farm on what happens when a processing appointment disappears, the hidden costs farmers absorb when processing is hours away, and why access to custom processing doesn’t necessarily allow a farmer to sell meat through the markets their business depends on.
Liz Reitzig explains the processing “choke point,” the difference between USDA-inspected and custom-exempt processing, and what the PRIME Act seeks to change.
Dana brings those earlier conversations into the current beef-processing debate, explains what the September 4 executive order does and does not do, and looks at the decisions still ahead for USDA, Congress, farmers and ranchers.
Resources
September 4, 2026 Executive Order: Promoting Fair Competition in Livestock Markets and Expanding Market Access for American Meat Producers
The PRIME Act, H.R. 4700
USDA Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program
USDA Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers (SPUR) Program
Original One Bite is Everything conversations with Carrie Edsall and Liz Reitzig
One Bite is Everything
From your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite is Everything explores the connections between food, health, community, the environment, and the economy. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders, host Dana DiPrima examines how food touches every aspect of our lives and why understanding our food system has never mattered more.
OBIE Facts
Top 3% of all podcasts globally
Top 100 food podcasts (22)
Top 100 agriculture podcasts (87)
More engagement than more than 88% of all podcasts on Spotify
Five-star rating average
Part of Heritage Radio Network, home of the best voices in food
Connect
Get the story behind the story in Dana's Tuesday letter, delivered at 5:18 AM every Tuesday: subscribe here
Know a small farmer doing great work? Nominate them here.
Every episode lives at forfarmersmovement.com/one-bite-is-everything
Follow Dana at @xoxofarmgirl
Co-production by Sonia Dhillon. Sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.
Grounded Hope with Jack Algiere of Stone Barns: What Plants, Soil, and One Little Carrot Teach Us About Change
2026/09/03
Jack Algiere arrived at Stone Barns Center in 2003 as its very first employee, hired to build a greenhouse on a former Rockefeller cattle operation thirty miles north of Manhattan. More than two decades later, that greenhouse has never seen a chemical, the farm he built with chef Dan Barber and Blue Hill at Stone Barns has become one of the most influential in the country, and Jack has written his first book, Seeding Hope: What Plants Teach Us About Being Human, out now from Chelsea Green.
In this conversation, Jack and I talk about the difference between repairing land and stewarding it, and why he walked onto that property thinking, don't mess this up. He tells the story behind the fence carrot, the tiny Mokum carrot Dan Barber asked him to pick smaller and smaller until it earned a place on the Blue Hill menu that it has held for 23 years. We dig into why flavor is the front door to changing the food system, why training brilliant young farmers isn't enough when there's no runway waiting for them, and why he believes change happens community by community, because local is a metric. And we talk about grounded hope, Jack's term for the understanding that this work is worth fighting for even if you know you won't solve the whole problem.
In this episode
How a plant scientist from a small farm on the Rhode Island coast ended up stewarding a Rockefeller landscapeWhat Stone Barns looks like today: 10 acres of organic vegetables, a half-acre soil greenhouse running year-round since 2003, orchards, grains, and a conservation plan across 1,500 acres of preserveThe fence carrot story, and what it says about the conversation between field and kitchenWhy annual production alone isn't sustainable, and how integrated systems with livestock and perennials restore landThe Leaf program, bringing plants, compost, and vegetable shares to community gardens in the BronxThe arc of change: reduce waste, substitute, change systems, build networks, then networks of networksWhy everyone, from journalists to gardeners to podcast listeners, has a role in fixing the food system
Links from this episode
Get the book: Seeding Hope: What Plants Teach Us About Being Human by Jack Algiere (Chelsea Green)
Learn more about Jack's work: stonebarnscenter.org
One Bite is Everything
From your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite is Everything explores the connections between food, health, community, the environment, and the economy. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders, host Dana DiPrima examines how food touches every aspect of our lives and why understanding our food system has never mattered more.
OBIE Facts
Top 3% of all podcasts globally
Top 100 food podcasts (22)
Top 100 agriculture podcasts (87)
More engagement than more than 88% of all podcasts on Spotify
Five-star rating average
Part of Heritage Radio Network, home of the best voices in food
Connect
Get the story behind the story in Dana's Tuesday letter, delivered at 5:18 AM every Tuesday: subscribe here
Know a small farmer doing great work? Nominate them here.
Every episode lives at forfarmersmovement.com/one-bite-is-everything
Follow Dana at @xoxofarmgirl
Co-production by Sonia Dhillon. Sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.
How a Wish List Changed Biscuitwood Farm
2026/08/27
Farmer Meg Despres of Biscuitwood Farm in Esperance, New York had a For Farmers Wish List that nobody had ever shopped. Not one item. So she left a comment on our Instagram asking a simple question: what can I do to make this list work for me?
Here's what happened next. A few DMs, one small fix, a Tuesday morning letter, and a farm transformed almost overnight.
Meg farms 50 acres in Schoharie County with a culinary focus: chef-quality vegetables, pastured eggs, black currant jam, and pierogi made from her own potatoes, a nod to her Polish roots. Her farm stand runs on the honor system with a free food pantry at its heart. She and her husband put everything they had into owning their land, and she tells us what it means to bootstrap a farm debt free, and why small farms can try things big farms never could.
We recorded this conversation during a meeting of our For Farmers interns, so you'll also hear questions from Andrea and Raeesah on how to be a better farmers market customer and how a farm's challenges change over time.
In this episode:
Why a wish list is a story about a farm and what it needsThe nomination that made Meg weep (we have more than 1,900 of them)Imposter syndrome, 15 years inFarming debt free as a deliberate choiceSmall farms as the experimenters of agriculture
Here's Meg's Wish List for Biscuitwood Farm if you'd like to contribute.
One Bite is EverythingFrom your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite is Everything explores the connections between food, health, community, the environment, and the economy. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders, host Dana DiPrima examines how food touches every aspect of our lives and why understanding our food system has never mattered more.
OBIE FactsTop 3% of all podcasts globally
Top 100 food podcasts (22)
Top 100 agriculture podcasts (87)
More engagement than more than 88% of all podcasts on Spotify
Five-star rating average
Part of Heritage Radio Network, home of the top voices in food
ConnectFollow Dana at @xoxofarmgirl and learn more about the For Farmers Movement at forfarmersmovement.com.
Co-production by Sonia Dhillon. Sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.
The Strange Economics Behind Your $8 Hamburger
2026/08/20
Beef is expensive. Cattle prices are at historic highs. Ranchers are finally getting paid more for their animals. So why is the U.S. cattle herd still the smallest it’s been in 75 years? Why are giant meatpackers losing hundreds of millions of dollars and closing plants? And why are smaller ranchers still struggling to find somewhere to process their cattle?
In this solo episode, Dana follows the beef supply chain from pasture to meat counter to understand a moment when almost every part of the system seems to be telling a different story. Years of drought shrank the herd. Rebuilding takes time, land is increasingly expensive, New World screwworm has disrupted cattle movement from Mexico, and enormous processing plants built for volume are suddenly competing for too few animals.
But there’s another beef system operating alongside that one. Small and midsized ranchers can have cattle and customers and still lack access to the regional processing they need. The result is a strange American beef paradox: too much processing capacity in some places, not enough in others, record prices for cattle, record prices for consumers, and plenty of pressure in between.
It’s a story about beef, but it’s also about what happens when efficiency, scale and resilience aren’t the same thing.
Learn more and support farmer grants at For Farmers Movement. Follow along @xoxofarmgirl.
When Growing the Farm Means Leaving the Field
2026/08/13
What happens when a farm grows to the point where the farmers can no longer do everything themselves?
Maria Zordan and Max Morningstar own MX Morningstar Farm in Claverack, New York, where they grow about 40 acres of certified organic vegetables and operate a year-round farm store. Their business also reaches far beyond the farm through wholesale accounts, restaurants, distributors, other farms and CSA customers.
In this episode, Maria and Max take us inside the less visible work of building a farm that can last.
We talk about the transition from farmer to business owner and how they knew it was time to step away from some of the day-to-day production. Max explains how he thinks about delegation and why an owner's time should be spent solving the problems that don't have obvious answers. Maria talks about the growing complexity of managing employees, regulations, wholesale accounts and retail while still keeping a hand in production.
We also get into the realities of selling local food. Restaurants may want to buy directly from farms, but consistency, volume and delivery can make those relationships difficult for both sides. Maria and Max explain how distributors, wholesale buyers, other farms and their own farm store help create a system that actually works.
It's a practical conversation about growth, efficiency, hiring, infrastructure and what it takes to turn a farm into a durable business that can employ people, raise wages and keep moving forward.
In this episode:
How MX Morningstar Farm grew from leased land into a 40-acre vegetable operationWhen farmers need to start thinking like business ownersHow Maria and Max decide what to delegateWhy efficiency matters as a farm growsThe complicated reality of selling directly to restaurantsWhere distributors fit into a strong local food systemHow their farm store changed the businessGrowing a farm in a way that creates jobs and supports higher wagesWhy, as Max says, running the business “never ends”
About Maria Zordan & Max Morningstar
Maria Zordan and Max Morningstar are the owners of MX Morningstar Farm, a certified organic vegetable farm in Claverack, New York. The farm grows approximately 40 acres of vegetables and sells through wholesale channels, restaurants, distributors, CSA and its year-round farm store in New York's Hudson Valley.
https://www.mxmorningstarfarm.com
One Bite is EverythingFrom your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite is Everything explores the connections between food, health, community, the environment, and the economy. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders, host Dana DiPrima examines how food touches every aspect of our lives and why understanding our food system has never mattered more.
OBIE FactsTop 3% of all podcasts globally
Top 100 food podcasts (22)
Top 100 agriculture podcasts (87)
More engagement than more than 88% of all podcasts on Spotify
Five-star rating average
Part of Heritage Radio Network, home of the top voices in food
ConnectFollow Dana at @xoxofarmgirl and learn more about the For Farmers Movement at forfarmersmovement.com.
Co-production by Sonia Dhillon. Sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.
Is the Food Supply Really Safe? Why Transparency Matters
2026/08/05
We're told the food supply is safe. And often, it is. But safe is a bigger word than it sounds, and it rests on things most of us never see.
This episode looks at three outbreaks unfolding right now:
Cyclospora in the lettuce, a parasite so hard to detect that the case was built on interviews, not lab testsNew World screwworm, a flesh-eating pest eradicated 60 years ago, now back in TexasH5N1 bird flu, which leapt from poultry into dairy cattle and now turns up in the milk supply
Every reassurance depends on people testing, tracing, and watching, and those people (and their jobs) are disappearing. It's part of why a shorter supply chain is a more transparent one, the small, local, diversified farms that make our food easier to see, and to trust. Food is never just about food.
One Bite is EverythingFrom your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite is Everything explores the connections between food, health, community, the environment, and the economy. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders, host Dana DiPrima examines how food touches every aspect of our lives and why understanding our food system has never mattered more.
OBIE FactsTop 3% of all podcasts globally
Top 100 food podcasts (22)
Top 100 agriculture podcasts (87)
More engagement than more than 88% of all podcasts on Spotify
Five-star rating average
Part of Heritage Radio Network, home of the top voices in food
ConnectFollow Dana at @xoxofarmgirl and learn more about the For Farmers Movement at forfarmersmovement.com.
Co-production by Sonia Dhillon. Sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.
Beyond Organic: Maria Rodale on Trust and Compassion
2026/07/30
What if the future of food depends less on winning arguments and more on rebuilding trust?
Maria Rodale has spent a lifetime at the heart of the organic movement, carrying forward the work of one of agriculture's most influential families. But in this conversation, she looks beyond labels and certifications to something deeper: the relationships, compassion, and storytelling that create lasting change.
Together we explore why facts alone rarely change minds, how trust has become one of the most valuable ingredients in our food system, what regenerative and organic mean in today's landscape, and why movements only succeed when people choose to move forward together.
From the future of farming to the power of sharing a meal, this conversation offers a hopeful vision for how farmers, eaters, and communities can build something better together.
In this episode:
Why Maria believes the future isn't organic versus conventional, but finding ways to move forward together.The surprising role that storytelling plays in changing hearts and minds.Why trust has become one of the most important currencies in our food system.How the organic movement can inspire without relying on fear.The challenges and opportunities surrounding regenerative agriculture.What consumers can do every day to support healthier farms, healthier communities, and healthier food.Why compassion may be the missing ingredient we've been overlooking all along.
One Bite is EverythingFrom your plate to the rest of the world, One Bite is Everything explores the connections between food, health, community, the environment, and the economy. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders, host Dana DiPrima examines how food touches every aspect of our lives and why understanding our food system has never mattered more.
OBIE FactsTop 3% of all podcasts globally
Top 100 food podcasts (22)
Top 100 agriculture podcasts (87)
More engagement than more than 88% of all podcasts on Spotify
Five-star rating average
Part of Heritage Radio Network, home of the top voices in food
ConnectFollow Dana at @xoxofarmgirl and learn more about the For Farmers Movement at forfarmersmovement.com.
Co-production by Sonia Dhillon. Sound design and original music by Russell Chapa.
Podcast reviews
Read One Bite is Everything podcast reviews
5 out of 5
75 reviews
★★★★★
Harry Duran 2026/01/31
A must listen about the future of our food system
What a wonderful and insightful conversation Dana guided in her 2-part episode with Dave Fischer, CEO of Fischer Farms. Dana’s thoughtful questions an...
★★★★★
GR Farm Shop 2026/01/27
Advocating for us All
As a small farmer, One Bite is Everything is one of the few podcasts that truly reflects the realities of this work. Dana DiPrima listens to farmers a...
★★★★★
Dirtanddarling 2025/12/05
Thank You!!
In today’s age there are so many differing opinions about our country’s food system, production and agriculture. It’s quite overwhelming. I’m thankful...
★★★★★
The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast 2025/11/15
A must-listen for anyone who believes food is more than sustenance—it’s a story.
One Bite is Everything is a delicious blend of storytelling and sensory experience. Each episode takes you beyond the plate, exploring the people, pla...
★★★★★
Pop maker/Goat gamer 2025/09/04
Thank You
Thank you for telling the story of real people doing the really hard work to feed and care for others through their daily work. The podcast is thought...
★★★★★
Grounded in Maine 2025/08/10
Paying attention to each bite DOES change everything
Each week I learn something new to be mindful about, and really just how important food is- more than just fuel for the body. The depth of conversatio...
★★★★★
Michael Ray Robinov 2025/06/08
Love the show!
Thank you for featuring our farmers and sharing the Farm to People story!!
★★★★★
Vernon Family Farm 2025/02/27
Incredible job!
A phenomenal podcast that amplifies farmer’s voices and local food! Couldn’t love these episodes more!
★★★★★
Seven Brothers Farm 2025/02/27
7B Farm
I absolutely love this podcast! It’s incredibly informative. I really enjoy hearing stories from fellow farmers. Even as a farmer myself, I’ve learne...