Posts in Bring it Home
Here’s what tariffs on China are doing to America’s farmers

For farmers, it’s been a tough couple of years in an already-tough industry. But none of that compares to the challenges that lay before us: in retaliation for tariffs from the U.S., China will no longer buy our ag exports. To put it in context, China was the fourth-largest buyer of our agricultural goods.

Read More
The surprising truth about the agricultural labor shortage, as told by a California farmer

It’s no secret that agriculture is experiencing a critical labor shortage, but what many people don’t realize is how far its impact ripples out. According to a 2017 report from the California Farm Bureau Federation, 55 percent of responding farmers had experienced employee shortages despite ramped-up recruiting, increased pay and other incentives.

Read More
A new (and kid approved) way of eating more veggies

Did you know that 85% of kids in this country are not getting the vitamins and minerals they need to support proper physical and mental development? This is largely due to the fact that they’re consuming fewer foods that are fortified with the core five food groups—fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein. As parents, it’s more important than ever to think about the foods we’re consuming with our kids—not only when you sit down for meals, but also when eating on the go.

Read More
How powders, juices and purees could save the industrial food complex

Last month, the journal Pediatrics came out with a study of how common, FDA-approved food additives threaten children’s health. The results were grim, underscoring the fact that the United States is woefully behind much of the world in regulating toxic ingredients like phthalates, artificial colors, and preservatives like nitrates and nitrites…and how the development of our children’s endocrine, nervous, and reproductive systems are at stake.

Read More
5 Tricks to help your kids get into vegetables (plus a kid-friendly summer recipe)

As I mentioned in my last post, as a vegetable farmer, I’m always on a mission to get more produce and diversity into my kids’ diets. I credit my own mom with influencing my approach on this, as she always said “A little of everything, not a lot of one thing.” I’ve never forgotten that and take it to heart as a parent.

Read More
Q&A with Dr. Fogarty: How to fight free-radicals veggie-style

Most people know about antioxidants but, what they are “anti” against is perhaps less well known. Buckle in, here we go. In the mid-1950’s a truly brilliant Scientist proposed the “free radical theory of aging”—also sometimes referred to as the oxygen paradox—that says, “That which gives us life also takes it”.

Read More
What happens when Functional Foods meet Functional Fitness

We’ve been talking over the last year about the health benefits of eating vegetables in their many different forms, whether fresh, juiced, blended or, of course, as powders. On a personal level, I’m a great lover of veg, and not just because I work in agriculture. My mantra at home―the one that makes my kids roll their eyes―is “Gotta have a veg!” At my house, we eat a veggie with every meal because, if I’m promoting the value of vegetables in my profession, I think it’s important to practice what I preach in my personal life and my diet.

Read More
Why You Should Feed Your Cat or Dog Vegetables

Ever notice how Fido or Furball sometimes munches on grass or weeds? It turns out dogs and cats like their greens just as we humans do. Though their diet should be primarily comprised of protein, pets also eat plant matter for digestive aid, nutrients and detoxification. When their body needs it, they make use of whatever’s handy (including―but not limited to―your lawn).

Read More
Healthy veggie snacks to the rescue!

If you count potato chips, a lot of Americans have been eating a semi-plant-based diet for years… which begs the question: What exactly is a plant-based diet? Researchers at the American College of Cardiology recently studied three iterations of plant-based diets to find that, while a higher intake of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables was associated with a “substantially lower risk of heart disease,” a plant-based diet that emphasized “less healthy plant foods like sweetened beverages, refined grains, potatoes and sweets had the opposite effect.”

Read More