The start of October brings with it the beginning of non-GMO Month in the US and Canada, and who better a guest to kick this important discussion of than Brandi Bechard!

Brandi is an amazing CSA farmer, environmentalist, and the owner of a sustainable landscaping and garden coaching business. She originally hails from Windsor, Ontario, but has lived in cities and towns across Canada while pursuing contract work in environmental and natural resource sciences. She has worked in outdoor education, wildlife research, forestry conservation and on so many other environmentally-oriented projects! After spending a couple of years in research-heavy fields, she felt she wasn’t making a significant difference and had to compromise certain values that she held important to accommodate the career. She moved back to her hometown and started a business teaching others how to grow sustainable food amidst a desert of conventionally farmed land.

In our interview, we speak about her roots and what lead her to farming, break down some of the language surrounding organic and local foods, speak to issues of food security and access in Canada, and she shares more about edible landscaping and tips to help cultivate (heh…) a stronger relationship with sustainable food sources for beginners. Brandi has so much knowledge and experience to share, and is so peaceful to listen to, so I hope you learn as much as I did from this interview! Listen in the playbox above or on your favourite listening platform :)

Love Brandi Bechard’s episode and want to learn more about her? Check her out online!

Instagram: @borealbrandi

Facebook: @BrandiBechard

Resources:

Wendell Berry: learn more about the agrarian and writer in this excellent interview by Yale e360 (which references some books of his as well)
The 3rd Plate by Dan Barber

This week I had the great fortune to discuss feminism and farming with Trina Moyles!

Trina is an award winning freelance writer, journalist, and author with a passion for telling stories about social justice and environmental issues. Her first book, Women Who Dig: Farming, Feminism, and the Fight to Feed the World (University of Regina Press) was released in early March 2018. The book is receiving critical praise from authors, scholars, and publications, including Raj Patel (author of Stuffed and Starved) who calls the book "haunting, powerful, and important".

Her journalism and narrative non-fiction work have been published extensively in newspapers, magazines, and online platforms, including The Globe and Mail, Alberta Views, Maisonneuve, Swerve, Vela Magazine, Motherboard, Briarpatch Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Vue Weekly, GUTS Canadian Feminist Magazine, Modern Farmer, Yes! Magazine, Permaculture Magazine, and Narratively.

Over the past ten years, Moyles has worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Canada, and East Africa on human rights and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in Cultural Anthropology and International Development, she focuses much of her research and writing on human rights education, food security, sustainable agriculture, and gender equality.

In this interview, we explore the ways in which feminism and farming intersect, and the research that inspired her book. Trina discusses what it means to be a farmer - particularly who has or hasn’t been traditionally viewed as a farmer in different cultural contexts. We speak about the varied ways in which feminism has shaped farming in day to day life for women, and the ways resiliency may help shape the future of farming with increasing threats of climate change across the world. It’s a truly fascinating interview with an inspiring and passionate writer!

Listen to the episode in the audio player above, or download on Spotify, iTunes, or Castbox!

Want to learn more about Trina and her book? Check the links below!

Personal website: www.trinamoyles.com
Book website: www.womenwhodig.com
Facebook: @trinamoyles
Instagram: @womenwhodig
Twitter: @trinamoyles