In this episode Designers of Paradise host Erik van Lennep talks with Emily Oakley of Three Springs Farm in Oklahoma. In addition to operating the farm for 14 years with her partner Michael Appel, Emily participates in and helps organize farmer-to-farmer exchanges and serves as an Organic Producer Representative to USDA’s National Organic Standards Board.
Erik and Emily’s conversation takes them from the benefits of being small (“Small is just fine”!) through the role of food as a bridge to other topics and onto the broad meaning of organics, especially in the context of Three Springs Farm. Emily is particularly interested in the role of women in farming and “shining a light where there has been a shadow.” She talks about her experiences with both south-to-south and domestic farmer-to-farmer exchanges and the implications of climate change especially for agrobiodiversity. They close with a discussion of organic certification and the opportunity for more farmers, especially new and small farmers, to seek certification. Emily emphasizes that getting certification might not be very difficult.
Listen in as Erik and Emily “geek out” on seeds and certifications. It is a delight!
More about Emily:
References mentioned in the conversation:
- Ensete ventricosum the “False banana”
- USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Support Project
- Organic Regulations
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