The Ruminant: Audio Candy for Farmers, Gardeners and Food Lovers - e.90: Our Agricultural Heritage is At Risk

Episode Date: February 2, 2017

First, my conversation with Simran Sethi on her book Bread Wine Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love, which describes the increasing threat to the biodiversity within our food system, and how a better appreciation for the diversity of flavour that's all around us could help reverse the problem.  Then: I review two great tools for market gardeners made by Two Bad Cats

This is the Ruminant Podcast. I'm Jordan Marr. And this woman, like, she was asked, like, do you know what you're harvesting? Do you know what you're picking? And she said, I don't know. Bullets? And that sounds so preposterous, you know, on one level, that we would be so disconnected. But on another level, it makes complete sense. Like, this is a crop that they don't even consume in that country. The Ruminant is a website and podcast that explores what good farming looks like. At theruminant.ca, you'll find photo-based blog posts, essays, gear and book reviews, as well as show notes for each episode of the podcast. I tweet at ruminantblog,

and you can email me day or night at editor at theruminant.ca. Okay, on with the show. editor at theruminant.ca. Okay, on with the show. My guest on the show today is Simran Sethi. My name is Simran Sethi. I'm a journalist and author. I wrote the book Bread, Wine, Chocolate, The Slow Loss of Foods We Love. And I'm also starting... In her book, Simran documents the slow but steady loss of the genetic diversity in our food system over the last few decades, largely due to the ever-increasing commodification and standardization of how our food is grown. Our agricultural heritage is under threat, she argues, and one key to saving it is for all of us to appreciate, pursue, and consume the diversity of flavors that this heritage contains.

For her research, Simran traveled the world to meet the farmers and processors who are working to maintain agricultural biodiversity and to taste the fruits of their labor. Simran joined me for an interview a few weeks ago, and I asked her to start by defining the problem of agricultural biodiversity loss. What we're looking at is, of course, the loss of agricultural biodiversity. And what that means is the loss of diversity in every component that makes food and agriculture possible. So a loss of diversity in soil, in the microbial diversity in soil, a loss of diversity in the seeds that are sown, a loss of diversity in the kinds of crops that we grow, in the livestock that we raise, and through the food chain. And, you know, this happens for reasons ranging from socioeconomic changes to agricultural shifts that include the consolidation of the supply chain

in food and agriculture, but also, you know, a result of deforestation and overgrazing and the kinds of things that we do to our ecosystem, mining and logging, and also, you know, climate change, a big one that seems slow moving, but is rapidly and dramatically affecting various ecosystems, and the ways in which we engage with food. So changing diets, you know, a change in the kinds of ways we prepare food. Many of us are moving toward highly processed foods that are more convenient foods. And a loss of that connection, I would say, to agriculture, to farming, to gardening, and that kind of sense of seasonality, that understanding that food comes from a particular place and that place has meaning. Those are the kinds of reasons we see this loss of diversity. When I asked her about what's being done to combat the problem, Simran explained it comes

down to conservation, and that typically, conservation of agricultural biodiversity has taken three forms. The first, called ex situ, or out-of-place conservation, happens when we establish repositories or archives for the genetics of the food we eat. One example of this is a seed bank. The other two types are variations of in-situ, or in-place, conservation. There's in-situ conservation in the wild, which involves preserving the natural ecosystems that are home to a lot of the origins of foods that later became domesticated. And in-situ conservation on farm, where farmers make ongoing efforts to produce and therefore preserve the plant varieties and animal breeds that are in danger of being lost.

In her book, Simran proposes a fourth model of conservation that she calls in vivo conservation. Simran Sethi. What I propose in the book is a fourth model of conservation, and that is what I call complete like distortion of the scientific term in vivo conservation, in life conservation. We save these foods by eating them. And, you know, the reason I propose this, I'm not the first to do it, but I'm certainly the first to kind of present it in this particular manner, is that I really think, you know, farmers can't grow what we won't eat. So this idea that we can kind of have an institute on farm conservation without a market for it is not viable, first of all. And secondly, I think, and more importantly, every one of us has a stake in our agricultural system.

Secondly, I think, and more importantly, every one of us has a stake in our agricultural system. We are eaters, right? And as Wendell Berry says, eating is an agricultural act. So for me, this book was an attempt to really say to every single person on the planet that we play a role in the food system that is manifesting. And we can help reshape that by demanding different kinds of foods, by learning to savor and appreciate the diversity in these foods. And so that's kind of the approach that I took and one that I really believe in. So we need to savor and appreciate the diversity that is in danger of being lost. But it seems to me this is no easy task. Sure, there are lots of foodies out there who like to think they have a good palate. Sure, there are lots of foodies out there who like to think they have a good palate,

but Simran's talking about convincing a good portion of the population to be able to detect and appreciate the subtle differences in each cup of coffee they drink, or take the time to find, and then spend the extra money on, really good chocolate. And as an aside, having read her book, I'm pretty convinced that most of us have never, ever tasted really good chocolate. I asked Simran how we go about changing people's food choices and eating behaviors. And when I had thought about biodiversity in food, my mind went to like, oh, we're going to lose that esoteric squash. Like, I didn't even really know it existed. You know, I'm not going to mind if we lose one of those varieties of wild rice.

Like, I just, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't front of mind for me. And I feel like most of the literature or the writing that had been done on the loss of agricultural biodiversity framed it that way, right? Like we're going to lose this heirloom variety of something that you've never heard of and you've never tasted. So it doesn't really matter to you. So my goal was to bring it front and center and tell the story through foods that were everyday foods. What I, what I say very early on in the book is I only thought these things were one thing, right? I thought coffee was singular. It was just a taste of coffee. I thought, you know, I was raised on Twix bars. You know, I drank these like wretched wine coolers. Those are my first taste of wine.

And what I have discovered through my journey is there is so much more that is available to us. And through that discovery, I have learned to appreciate these foods more, these foods and drinks that are my anchors in my life, that bring me comfort, that help me mourn, that wake me up, like that I knew so little about them. I would like to think that awareness is the first step. So we can't know what we don't know. And so I think by explaining this to readers and by talking about the diversity that is potentially available, we start to upend or maybe transform or expand that industrialized

model, that taste that we have on our tongues can be expanded. And for me, the best example of this is the craft beer movement. I mean, you know, 20 years ago, that didn't exist. We were really basically drinking industrialized here, you know, in the United States, I'll say, you know, industrialized varieties, we had stuff like bud, bud light, like a lot of this incredible diversity that you would find in Europe or, you know, or now also here in the United States, like didn't exist or notion for me that beer was again, only one thing, like I had no idea sake is beer, you know, chicha is beer, like that there are these amazing versions of this drink that I didn't know or understand. I also think giving people the

tools to actually savor these flavors. So in the book, there are tasting guides, and I had broken down every like the way our senses work. So what I have not there are tasting guides and I had broken down every, like the way our senses work. So what I have not done is left this up to the reader, right? Like, okay, I told you about all these diverse things. Now off you go, like go enjoy them, like figure it out how, you know, cause you've been drinking like Bud Light your whole life. And now I want you to like go towards craft beer. Like, how do you do that? How do you build that bridge? And so for me, I build a bridge through these guides where I break down exactly how we can experience this diversity and approach

it, you know, in a way that I think is user-friendly. So that's, you know, that's how I'm trying to do this. All right. So that's how you approach this problem at the dinner table. But Simran identifies another challenge to preserving flavor. And that's when producers are ignorant of the intended use or end product of the food that they're producing. You know, it's a fascinating thing. And I think a lot of people don't realize this is how like cut off the system becomes when we commoditize it, right? So when a crop becomes, even for some of the people who are growing it, it becomes simply like a widget, right? Like they're picking something, but in the coffee chapter, just to jump over for one second, I interviewed a woman who had worked with female farmers in Rwanda, and she described to me

how they were harvesting coffee. There is no tradition of coffee consumption in Rwanda. And I would argue that most people who drink coffee wouldn't be able to recognize that in nature, right? It actually looks like little red berries on a tree or yellow berries or, or kind of, um, and, and this woman, like she, she was asked, like, do you know what you're harvesting? Do you know what you're picking? And she said, I don't know, bullets. And that sounds so preposterous, you know, on one level, that we would be so disconnected. But on another level, it makes complete sense. Like, this is a crop that they don't even consume in that country.

So, Simran says, another way you go about fixing this problem is to recognize that everyone involved in bringing a product from farm to table needs to be able to speak about flavors in the same way, which can be hard because every culture has its own relationship to flavor. One of the most fascinating things to understand that flavor is a cultural construct. And I mean, it really, it like knocked me at the side of the head when I was like, where did my reference for sweetness come from? You know, for someone in Ethiopia, that reference probably started with honey. You know, for someone like me, I think, you know, it started with something that was much more akin to sugar. So, and those are completely different versions

of sweetness, you know, and then we build from there. In her book, Simran writes about the efforts of some chocolatiers in California to work with their cacao producers in Ecuador to develop a common vernacular for flavor, with the end goal of improving the quality of the cacao production. So here we are, we have these farmers growing this crop, they're harvesting it, they are then going through all the processes that get it, you know, to become, that go from being a cacao fruit to a cocoa bean. And that includes harvesting, collecting, fermenting, drying, and then packing it up and transporting. Now, if you don't have any relationship to the end product,

you're not going to really know what quality looks like in the cacao that you're sorting, right? Or in the transformation as it goes to becoming a cocoa bean. So what CHO has tried to do, it's a project through, co-funded I think by USAID, is create small chocolate-making facilities within these farmer cooperatives. So what they can do is actually make small batches of chocolate there so they can taste a version of this end product. Of course, it's going to be kind of like a rough version, right? All right, so that's a critical part. But what if we don't have a shared language and you tell me, oh, this tastes very acidic. Well, is our reference point for acidic something like the acid of a fruit, like a really tart,

maybe Granny Smith apple? Or are we talking about the acidity of vinegar? Like the things that are grown, even a point of reference for something tasting fruity are very different. Like what fruit might look like to you in Canada might be very different to what a first reference might be for fruit in a place like India, right? So we need a common language. And that's what I participated in with Cho in Ecuador and Esmeralda's Ecuador was the creation of their Flavor Innovation Lab and a training in which I sat with Katie Gilmer, who headed up this training, and farmers who are part of the Farming Cooperative to get a baseline of what astringent tastes like, right? Of what fruity

tastes like. What are these experiences? So when the chocolate maker is sitting in California, Northern California, and the farmer is sitting in Ecuador. How can they have a shared understanding of what something tastes like so they can together work toward refining either a farming technique, maybe a fermentation process to achieve what it is that Cho is looking for or any, you know, chocolate maker that might be working in this way is looking for. And it's not just the producers who need this training. Another big barrier to getting people interested in Simran's in vivo conservation, that is seeking out and eating the foods whose flavors represent a wider agricultural heritage that exists outside the commodity food system, is our increasing inability to identify

and describe those flavors. That's why I included in the book flavor guides. In the back of the book you'll see wheels that have descriptors on them because to say to someone like what do you experience in this cup of coffee, Like the first thing that comes to mind is probably going to be coffee. But if I ask you to dig deeper and you've never been asked to do that before, how are you going to pull out like wood, you know, or jasmine flowers? Like where's that going to come from? So it's much easier if we have a language for it. And in many cases, that's what separates kind of the pros, you know, the professional sommeliers or, or, you know, the people who are professionals in coffee or what have you from just like everyday people like us. It's that language. It's the way we pull these memories and

say, oh, that reminds me of walking through the forest when I was six years old, you know, and the smell of earth that came through the forest, like that may not be top of mind, but through practice and through getting familiar with some of the words that are used to describe some of these foods, we can have that shared language. And what that does is ultimately, it's not to make us snotty, right? It's to make us better connoisseurs of our own experience and to enable us to reach for what it is that we love. If I can describe to you like, oh, I really like a wine that has some effervescence, that has some minerality. For me, that translates as what I experienced

in this Trousseau Gris wine I talk about. It's like licking rocks. It's like this sweetness, but there's also this kind of slatiness. But until I had those words, I wouldn't have been able to describe it. So there would be no way for me to go to a store and ask for something like that.

And so that's what I believe the utility of this kind of experience is. For Cho, the utility is getting a cocoa that will more approximate a chocolate that they wish to achieve. But I think the broader implications for all of us in consuming our foods and beverages is to be able to articulate what it is that we like so we can get more of it. So here's where we're at. The biodiversity in our food system is seriously threatened. There are a number of ways to combat this problem. And as Simran sees it, a really important one is to create more demand for the foods that represent this biodiversity. To do that, we need more people to appreciate the wider diversity of flavors that these foods represent. And to do that, we need to learn how to detect, talk about, and ultimately celebrate those flavors. But it seems to me that, as if the task of refining our palates isn't challenging enough, most of the foods we eat

are now doused in other flavors, including salt. I pointed out to Simran that within the chef and foodie culture that has already embraced the value of seeking out and celebrating more diverse flavors, there's a general adage that the use of seasoning, salt and pepper, is crucial to bringing out these flavors. So I asked her, having spent so much time working on her own palate, does she still view salt as an important flavor enhancer, or is it getting in the way of our true appreciation of the foods we're eating? Both and, right? Like it can can out some of those flavors but i think anything used in excess is like gonna hide it right i mean that's that was one thing um you know that really stood out to me in the research is the way uh foods have been tweaked to kind of like hyper like we we then

start to create these kind of hyper experiences right right? It's the extreme version of a chip, you know, is like these like flavors heaped on something like a Dorito or, you know, like, I don't know, three different meats in one sandwich. It's like, you know, we lose kind of that simplicity and it becomes this really muddled experience. So what I really actually appreciate now, and I mentioned this, I don't know if someone asked me like what food,, how do you eat now and how is it different? And actually, I really appreciate,, something on fire or freeze dried something

or what have you, like, to me, it's all like, like hiding in some ways, like what that, that foundational ingredient was. And that's my experience. But I really, you know, I do take it down to the basics. I do like to explore like different kinds of salts, you know, and peppers and stuff like that. But for me, it's really about like returning to the essence of some of what something is and what something was meant to taste like. And, and if possible, like really, like trying to understand how that would be different, like how a peach from Colorado, you know, which is on the western side of the United States versus the peach from the southeastern side, like, they're both just a peach at the end of the day.

But I'll tell you, when you start to pay attention to them, they're like, they're like two completely different experiences as they should be. Well, you, you kind of showed us that, that, that you can get there. You got there. And, and I think the highest compliment I could pay you regarding your book, is that you, you really strengthened my resolve to, to improve my palate. Cause I was just so, I mean, I'm just envious of the flavors that you've taught yourself to experience. And I've already started trying to improve my palate. So thank you. Thank you for a wonderful book. And thank you for coming on the show to talk to me today. It's been my great pleasure. And thank you. And, you know, all I can say is the

journey is a really exciting one. Like how lucky we are that the mandate is like savor deeply and pay attention and enjoy your food and i can think of nothing more exciting than that so so thanks again all right so i've got a copy of simran satie's bread wine chocolate to give away to a Canadian listener who promotes the Twitter post associated with this episode or does the same for the Facebook post. And one last thing, Simran has just started a podcast. And I'm also starting a podcast on chocolate, the continuum of the relationships that exist between cacao, cocoa, and the chocolate that we love. And that podcast is The Slow Melt, launching on January 27th. And I'll just add that if this podcast is half as interesting as the section of her book about cacao and chocolate, it's going to be really good. So maybe check it out.

Occasionally, I do product reviews for the podcast. Here's how the one you're about to hear came about. I approached this company and said, hey, your stuff looks cool. How about you give me a discount on what I want, and if I have good things to say about it, I'll produce a review for the show. If I don't have good things to say, I won't produce a review. In other words, dear listeners, I'm under no obligation to say the nice things I'm about to say about this company's stuff. Okay, product review time. Oh, and by the way, there's a giveaway at the end of this thing. One fun thing about being a commercial gardener

is discovering companies that produce cool stuff that makes your job easier or more fun. Too Bad Cats was one of those discoveries for me. I don't remember how I found out about them, but suddenly there I was on their website checking out their line of weeders and dibblers, among other specialty items they manufacture. Last season I had a chance to try out a Two Bad Cats wire weeder and a single dibble wheel, more on which in a sec. But first the wire weeder, which is a really simple hoe that they make for stand-up weeding in the garden. It comes on the end of an aluminum handle that comes standard at 60 inches long. You can get a 74-inch shaft for 10 bucks more. Here's Too Bad Cats owner Peter Giles on

how his hoe design came about. So the inspiration for the wire weeder came from a farmer friend of ours, Michael Kilpratrick. He had basically a wire at the end of a stick and it worked really well for him so we asked permission from him to make a production version of it and he tested a few versions and and liked it and it seemed to last a lot longer than then would a wood stick with a wire on it so people seem to really like it for light duty weeding and heavier duty weeding in softer soils. The hoe head itself is really simple.

It's one continuous piece of really strong wire that's bent at various angles to form a head that inserts into the aluminum shaft. You can choose from three different styles of head, each with slightly different angles to allow for different types of precision weeding. Here's Peter explaining the difference between the head styles. So on our wire weeders, we have an extra 90 degree bend on the wire. So it has two flats that you can work with, a wider flat and a narrower flat. And the narrower flat is to get

between close plantings. And it also is, since it's pulling on the wire a different way, it's much stronger, and so you can really dig out much bigger weeds. So it has those two advantages, as well as you can use the larger flat blade just as for larger areas that you want to clean weeds out of. At this point, it's probably useful to reference the stirrup hoe, which is a go-to style of hoe for many commercial market gardeners. I own a few high-quality stirrup hoes, and I love them.

But Two Bad Cats Wire Weeder fills a weeding niche that my stirrup hoes don't. Here's Peter again. It's faster and lighter than a stirruppo. You never need to sharpen it. It's less likely to damage your plants if it accidentally nicks one of them. It tends to pull the weeds whole from softer soil so it doesn't leave the roots behind to regrow. There are plenty of areas where a stirrupo works very well, such as harder soils. But anytime the weeds are relatively small and the soil is relatively soft, the wire weeder does the job a lot more efficiently.

I can back up what Peter is saying there. Bringing one of his hoes to a bed with lots of mature weeds isn't a great idea. Kind of like bringing a knife to a gunfight. But if you're getting to a bed with young weeds, and particularly if your soil is soft, Peter's weeders make short work of the job and allow you to get pretty close to your crops with little risk of damaging them. I noticed on the Too Bad Cats site that they also mention that these weeders are great if you're weeding around drip tape, because since the wire on the hoe isn't sharp it's not going to nick your tape. The other product I want to talk about is 2BadCats single dibble wheel. You probably want to go to 2BadCatsLLC.com to get a proper idea of what it looks like but essentially it's a shaft with a wheel on the end with dibbles positioned every

so often along the wheel. By pushing it down the row of a garden bed you can make the correct spacing for whatever you're planting. In the right soil conditions, the dibbles will even make depressions that are sufficient to plant right into. What I like about the dibbler is that it's relatively light, so it's easy to carry with you when you're headed out to plant seedlings. The dibbles on the wheel can be moved around for different spacing requirements, which is great. When I first used it, I became worried that dibbles were going to come loose really easily, but I've used it a ton since I got it and haven't lost one yet. I plant lettuce every week during my main season and in 2016 I used this dibbler every time to quickly establish the right spacing for

transplants. This tool has some limitations though. I mentioned before that it can make good depressions for planting into but I found it tough to create those conditions consistently. Too wet and soil would cake to the dibbles, making them less effective for each successive depression. Too dry and the depression would cave in on itself. For this reason, I tend to use the dibble wheel strictly as a fast way to mark my rows for evenly spaced plantings, and then I carve out the depressions by hand as necessary when I put the plants in. Also, if you want each row's plants to offset with the next row, this tool can work, but you'd be better off considering one of Two Bad Cats' multi-wheel

dibble tools or another brand altogether. The single wheel dibbler can roughly offset your spacing if you're really careful when you mark your rows, but for impatient, sloppy farmers like me, it's not very effective for accurate offsetting. Overall, these are two well-built tools that I expect to use regularly in my garden for years to come. Check out 2badcatsllc.com for more info. Oh, and by the way, Peter has offered to send one wire weeder to a listener in North America. To be eligible for the draw, go find 2badcats' Facebook page, look for the post about this review, and share this episode on your own page. All participants will go into a draw to win the hoe and I'll announce the winner

during the next episode. But hey, if you're a Canadian and you win the draw, Peter might ask you to pay the little bit of extra shipping that it takes to get the weeder to Canada. And you're totally on your own for any ridiculous duties or taxes that may or may not be applied by our capricious border agents. And speaking of giveaways, the winner of the book Devoured, the giveaway from the last episode of the Ruminant podcast, is Ariella Fulkowski.

So Ariella, I've gotten in touch with you already, but if you didn't get that message, get a hold of me, editor at theruminant.ca, to claim your prize. Today I... All right. There's another episode coming on, folks. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm going to be back at you in two weeks with more of The Ruminant podcast.

I hope you're enjoying the new season, and I look forward to talking to you again soon. Here's Vanessa. you again soon here's vanessa trying to give me the screw but if we bury ourselves in the woods in the country we're no closer we never have laundry we'll owe nothing to this world of thieves live life like it was meant to be i don't fret honey i've got a plan to make our final escape All we'll need is each other a hundred dollars and maybe a roll of duct tape And we'll run right outside of the city's reaches We'll live off chestnuts, spring water and peaches We'll owe nothing to this world of thieves

And live life like it was meant to be guitar solo Because why would we live in a place that don't want us A place that is trying to bleed us dry We could be happy with life in the country With salt on our skin and the dirt on our hands I've been doing a lot of thinking Some real soul searching

And here's my final resolve I don't need a big old house or some fancy car to keep my love going strong. So we'll run right out into the wilds and graces. We'll keep close quarters with gentle faces and live next door to the birds and the bees and live life like it was meant to be