Why Making Food Taste Better Makes it Healthier

Episode 55 1h
Topics Overview

Overview

I’m a big believer in the farm to table movement, but with one major caveat: you can’t skim the cream!

What I’m saying is that we can’t cherry pick when it comes to our crops, growing the same ones over and over (even if they’re grown organically), and assume that it is a sound ecological practice. Just like humans need a diversity of foods to get the right nutrients, soil needs a diversity of plants grown on it and even the right animal inputs in order to be nutrient dense, too.

On this episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, I’m joined by mastermind chef and regenerative agriculture advocate Dan Barber.

Dan is breaking the conventional ways we eat, cook, and think about food. He is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns and the author of The Third Plate. He also co-founded Row 7 Seed Company, a seed company bringing together chefs and plant breeders in the development of new varieties of vegetables and grains. Dan has received multiple James Beard awards including Best Chef: New York City (2006) and the country’s Outstanding Chef (2009).

In this episode, it’s clear how mutually passionate Dan and I are about changing the current food system and doing so in a way that promotes health and supports the environment.

Join me and Dan for this fascinating discussion on promoting a more balanced and nutritious food system through the power of cooking, seed breeding, and more.

Topics Covered

  • How Dan came to realize farm to table doesn’t work

    (3:44)

  • Why whole farm cuisine is the solution to the farm to table fallacy

    (8:05)

  • How all cultural cuisines developed to support the land

    (10:05)

  • Learning from Sir Albert Howard, the father of organic culture

    (13:29)

  • What Dan calls, “The Third Plate”

    (17:06)

  • Breeding seeds for flavor and why Dan created his new company, Row 7 Seed Company

    (23:31)

  • How three chemical companies are controlling our food system

    (29:30:00)

  • Dan’s answer to the “Big Food” argument that we have to produce enough food to feed the world

    (40:34:00)

  • Valuing regional cuisine and the future of food

    (47:37:00)

  • Subsidizing infrastructure to disrupt the food system

    (51:01:00)

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Ep. 55 - Why Making Food Taste Better Makes it Healthier