Ep.87: Sara Eckhouse – Moonshots for Better Food

Ep. 87: Sara Eckhouse – Executive Director, FoodShot Global ||

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On episode 87 of Sourcing Matters we welcome the Executive Director of FoodShot Global – Sara Eckhouse. Launched in Fall of 2018, FoodShot Global is an investment platform aimed at accelerating food system transformation through an annual challenge – a call for “Moonshots for Better Food” that will create a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable food system worldwide. FoodShot is a global consortium of world-class partners, including mission-aligned venture funds, banks, corporations, universities, and foundations. Together FoodShot will award up to $10 million in equity and up to $20 million in debt funding to innovative businesses.
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As Senior Advisor to Secretary Tom Vilsack at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Sara Eckhouse focused on local and regional food systems, organic agriculture, and healthy food access. Sara launched and managed programs to support sustainable agriculture, and she has firsthand knowledge of the opportunities and challenges of combining sustainability with profitability in food value chains.
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During our 45 minute discussion we review the goals and objectives of this innovative financing forum. We learn of some of the recipients of funding, and of the Foodshot Groundbreaker award – a prize-pool of $500,000 in philanthropic capital awarded to researchers, social entrepreneurs and advocates in the regenerative food space. We hear why Sara decided to take on this role at Foodshot Global after being an Obama Administration political appointee who for five years influenced US product differentiation.
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Joining as cohost is Jay Vilar – founder, and a practitioner at ‘Nourish’ – a bespoke consulting company with a mission to educate, teach, and train people on the benefits of using food to heal your body and optimize your health.  Located in Boston and Washington, DC – Jay has always been on the forefront of using optimal health techniques, and bio-hacking his nutrition to achieve remarkable results in his career.
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Tunein to hear what it takes to make food and its production the next moonshot to save the planet.

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co-host:

Jay Vilar

  • Founder of Nourish
  • A focus on Nutritional Therapy
  • Rodale Institute Fellow
  • Host of  ‘listen to your mother’ show

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Ep.72: Jon Cianfrani – Capturing Fermentation

Ep. 72: Jon Cianfrani – Producer, Director, Editor at ZPZ Production ||

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On Sourcing Matters episode 72 we welcome Jonathan Cianfrani – documentary & television producer/ editor/ director at Zero Point Zero Production. Over the past ten years Jon Cianfrani has travelled the world in pursuit of unique stories and creative ways to tell them.  He’s been involved in all aspects of capturing and curating these stories through documentary film and television.
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From episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” and the PBS & Netflix program – “Mind of a Chef” – Cianfrani has been worked as a producer, director and editor for New York City – based – Zero-Point-Zero (ZPZ) production.  Most recently, Jon directed the feature documentary titled “Fermented” which is scheduled to air online in April 2019.   Hosted by Chef Edward Lee, the film poses the question: “What is Fermentation?” to chefs and artisans on the west coast, Chicago, and rural Japan.
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Joining as co-host for this conversation is Jay Vilar – the founder and practitioner at ‘Nourish’ – a bespoke consulting company with a mission to educate, teach, and train people on the benefits of using food to heal your body and optimize your health.  Jay has always been on the forefront of using optimal health techniques, and bio-hacking his nutrition to achieve remarkable results in his career.
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In our 40 minute discussion we learn more about what it was like to work with Tony Bourdain.   We discuss numerous food categories where cold-firing – or living microbes – are used to value-ad food stuff.  From beer, miso, bread, pickles, salami, kombucha, cheese and more – we hear from Jon about the combination of art and science used in fermentation, and how his recent film explores how these offerings impact our lives, our health and that of the makers.  TuneIn to learn more about this culture of food.

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co-host:

Jay Vilar

  • Founder of Nourish
  • A focus on Nutritional Therapy
  • Rodale Institute Fellow
  • Host of  ‘listen to your mother’ show

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Ep.66: Rob Burns – Great Beer Breadth

Ep. 66: Rob Burns – co-founder & President of Night Shift Brewery  -ft. co-host: Jay Vilar of Nourish ||

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On the show we’ve discussed wine, weed, all kinds of meats, seafood, breads, vegetables, sweets, coffee, savories and nearly everything else on the table.  But, what brings it all together better than anything else? What not only pairs with all, but enhances each with every gulp – well, it’s beer!
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On episode 66 of Sourcing Matters we jump into the evolving world of craft beer.  Rob Burns, President and co-founder of Night Shift brewery joins us to discuss a journey into differentiated beer focused on craft and quality.  Hey, I think you should listen as this is my beer of choice.
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Spawned in the birthplace of agriculture, society and culture – this original fermented brew was first stumbled upon back in the 5th millennium BC.  Since, that process of mixing four simple ingredients – water, malt, hops and yeast – has been keeping gut health balanced, our drinking water clean, and smiles on our faces all over the world.  As I get older, that keeping gut balanced means not just a healthy microflora, but keeping our beer guts in check, and not hanging over the belt!
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The world of beer is changing quickly as consumers interests evolve.  According to the Brewers Association, in 2017, craft brewer sales accounted for 12.7 percent of the U.S. beer market by volume. In 2007, craft brewer sales accounted for a mere 3.8 percent of the U.S. beer market.  During our 40 minute conversation we explore how beer has paved a path for differentiating more food categories. After all, it’s the same consumer buying this craft beer as we seek to connect with for food produced using elevated production standards. Joining the conversation as cohost is Jay Vilar – the founder, and a Practitioner at ‘Nourish’ – a bespoke consulting company with a mission to educate, teach, and train people on the benefits of using food to heal your body and optimize your health.
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Join in on our exciting and engaging conversation on something near and dear to most of us all.  Cheers!

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@NightShiftBeer

 

co-host:

Jay Vilar

  • Founder of Nourish
  • A focus on Nutritional Therapy
  • Rodale Institute Fellow
  • Host of  ‘listen to your mother’ show

@twitter

Ep.63: Lucas St. Clair – Monumental Effort

Ep. 63: Lucas St. Clair – Founder of the ‘Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument‘  -ft. co-host: Jay Vilar of Nourish ||

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120 years ago, Teddy Roosevelt started the US national park system to protect and preserve shared natural resources. We’re hard pressed to believe that in our current political landscape, and with a compounding national debt – that our Federal Government would acquire any new large swaths of land for ecosystem and natural environment conservation.  In fact, it’s been the exact opposite as more conserved land gets squeezed for resources with every congressional cycle.  Well, there’s a guy in the wilds of the Maine woods who has got a solution for this problem.  Lucas St. Clair has adapted an innovative approach of succession that could attract more good folks of resources to look at land preservation as their way of giving back, and for planning for a more stable future.

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On episode 63 we welcome Lucas St. Clair – the founder of ‘Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument’ –  a U.S. National Monument spanning 87,563 acres of mountains and forestland in northern Penobscot County, Maine, just off the eastern border of Maine’s Baxter State Park.

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We begin our conversation discussing St. Clair’s extensive efforts to turn Maine Woods & Waters into a national monument. We learn of the communities in Maine’s 2nd. Of the logging empires, and of their recent demise. We learn more about his run for Congress in 2018, and what drives him to serve at the will of the people.  A native to the Maine woods, we hear a bit of the lineage of the iconic brand his family spawned – ‘Burt’s Bees’.  It sounds like good values were adhered to here in the household, and in the brand.
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Joining as cohost is Jay Vilar, founder and a Practitioner at ‘Nourish’ – a bespoke consulting company with a mission to educate, teach, and train people on the benefits of using food to heal your body and optimize your health.
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TUNEiN to this conversation.

@LucasStClair

co-host:

Jay Vilar

  • Founder of Nourish
  • A focus on Nutritional Therapy
  • Rodale Institute Fellow
  • Host of  ‘listen to your mother’ show

@twitter

Ep.57: Gabe Brown – Principles of Regen

Ep. 57: Gabe Brown – Innovator, farmer, businessman, author and soil health pioneer  -ft. co-host: Jay Vilar of Nourish ||

On episode 57 we welcome Gabe Brown – farmer, businessman, author and soil health pioneer.   Gabe, along with his wife, Shelly, and son, Paul, own and operate a diversified 5,000-acre farm and ranch near Bismarck, N.D. Their operation focuses on farming and ranching in nature’s image. The Browns holistically integrate their grazing and no-till cropping system, which includes a wide variety of cash crops along with multi-species cover crops and all-natural, grass-fed beef, poultry and sheep. This diversity and integration has regenerated the natural resources on the ranch without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or fungicides. Over 2,000 people visit the Brown’s ranch annually with visitors from all 50 states and 16 foreign countries.

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Brown recently released the book “Dirt to Soil” describes their personal voyage into regenerative agriculture.  This insight gained over a these decades of hard work has established a nimble knowledge-base.  In this his first book – Gabe Brown has distilled all that complexity into five (5) principles of a healthy soil-ecosystem.

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  • No disturbance (no-till, no-synthetics)
  • Bolstering Soil’s Natural Defense (the outer-layer protecting all that life)
  • Bio-diversity (marrying nature’s way keeps the system healthy)
  • A living root in the ground as long as possible (covercrops & seasonal diversity)
  • Animal & Insect integration (nature relies on the entire system working together)

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Nutritionist Jay Vilar joins again as co-host.  Vilar is the founder, and a practitioner at ‘Nourish’ – a bespoke consulting company with a mission to educate, teach, and train people on the benefits of using food to heal your body and optimize your health.  Jay has always been on the forefront of using optimal health techniques, and bio-hacking his nutrition to achieve remarkable results in his career. Jay now spends his time teaching people how to use food to heal their body and speaks to businesses on how to optimize focus & productivity using nutritional and behavioral science.  Jay recently completed a Fellowship at the Rodale Institute, and just relocated from DC to join our crew in Boston.
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It’s a fascinating 45 minute conversation with a guy who has a unique ability to tell it like it is.  To clarify and simplify some pretty sophisticated subject matter so that we can all better appreciate the broad-reaching values that soil health and regenerative agriculture can bring to our world.

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@twitter

co-host:

Jay Vilar

  • Founder of Nourish
  • A focus on Nutritional Therapy
  • Rodale Institute Fellow
  • Host of  ‘listen to your mother’ show

@twitter

Ep.56: Sylvia Wulf – A Bold Frontier

Ep. 56: Sylvia Wulf – CEO of AquaBounty -ft. Jay Vilar of Nourish ||

 

On episode 56 we welcome newly appointed CEO of AquaBounty, Sylvia Wulf for an engaging conversation that explores a new frontier of food production.  Wulf is an industry leader who’s directly responsible for coaxing large scale production and distribution to become more sustainable, more responsible and more appreciative of market trends of a modern consumer over the last 25 years.
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Prior to AquaBounty, Sylvia was President of StockYards, SVP of Merchandising, and President of the Manufacturing Division for US Foods.  A $23 billion broad line foodservice distributor, US Foods is the the 2nd largest foodservice distributor in the US.  Wulf was responsible for the P&L of the $10 billion protein and produce categories and the $1 billion Manufacturing Division of U.S. Foods Meat, Seafood and Produce operations. While leading this anchor division, Wulf developed a source to sale strategic approach that not only improved profitability but drove growth in market share at 3X the industry average. In her numerous roles responsibilities included the P&L of Perishables categories, centralized sourcing/replenishment, 15 manufacturing facilities for Meat and produce.
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As of January 2019 Sylvia Wulf has taken the reins at known salmon producer and seafood innovator – AquaBounty.  For the past 20 years AquaBounty has sought federal approval for their transgenic engineered fish which sets to localize domestic production while reducing the use of synthetics and antibiotics in their approach of farm raising fish.  It’s not the molecular scalpel used in tweaking RNA expressions as we’ve learned about with CRISPR, it’s DNA manipulation. But, it’s done for a different purpose and with different intent than we’ve seen with past GE or GMO crops so prevalent in seed production. The IP AquaBounty is interested in moving is a methodology for producing fish, cleaner and healthier fish they say.  It’s surely not designed to move more harmful proprietary chemicals sterilizing soils and the planet. And, BTW – the fish they produce are sterile, so there’s no concern with cross-pollination with natural stock.
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It’s fascinating to explore this from a few different angles.  No doubt it’s a pressing and timely subject with a stigma.  We must all appreciate that this is being rolled out, now – through-out the US.  AquaBounty has FDA approval and will soon be part of our current food production system. What needs to be determined is how it’s labeled.  They’ve instituted numerous fail safes and they have a compelling message to why they believe the time is now to use their technology to clean-up many of the approaches used in farming fish.  So, how do we all find commonality?  How do we evaluate all the biological, ethical, social and environmental issues reaching our plate?  Tune-In to hear more.

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‘Nutritionist to The Hill‘ Jay Vilar joins me as a first-time co-host.  Vilar is the founder, and a practitioner at ‘Nourish’ – a bespoke consulting company with a mission to educate, teach, and train people on the benefits of using food to heal your body and optimize your health.  Jay has always been on the forefront of using optimal health techniques, and bio-hacking his nutrition to achieve remarkable results in his career. Jay now spends his time teaching people how to use food to heal their body and speaks to businesses on how to optimize focus & productivity using nutritional and behavioral science.  Jay recently completed a Fellowship at the Rodale Institute, and just relocated from DC to join our crew in Boston.
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Sylvia Wulf knows large-scale production and food distribution.  Throughout her career she’s worked diligently to elevate standards and improve the experience for a broad swath of consumers and food animals.  Tune-In to hear what she’s up to in her latest venture – for many reasons I know our audience will find intrigue in this 45 minute conversation.

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@SWulf

 

 

co-host:

Jay Vilar

  • Founder of Nourish
  • A focus on Nutritional Therapy
  • Rodale Institute Fellow
  • Host of  ‘listen to your mother’ show

@twitter