In this episode Designers of Paradise host Erik van Lennep talks with Jesse McDougall who, with his wife Cally, run Studio Hill, a regenerative farm in Vermont. Jesse tells a love story that leads to him becoming a farmer. It is a gravely field he walks with tragedy, angst, learning, and eventual conquest.
After acquiring the farm they decided to stop all spraying. The result? Nothing grew. The soil was dead. Fortunately, he ran across Alan Savory’s TED talk which lead to the inspiration to add animals to the land. They started with chickens and “the grass came roaring back”. Since then they’ve added turkeys, lambs, sheep, pigs, and bees. They are planning a seven layer food forest.
Jess says it was “a brutal education and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it.” He concludes “people come with the assumption that agriculture has to be destructive. It doesn’t have to be that way.” Now they are “producing more calories per acre, earning more per acre, spending less per acre.”
During the interview Jesse says he started from zero and describes his learning process and inspirations. He talks about obstacles to creating more farms like Studio Hill, the importance of farmstays, and their “mobile farm” plus he always emphasizes how important it is to keep employees safe with protective clothing during harvest season.
As Jesse concludes, “the future is unwritten and we can write it.”
Some favorite lines:
- Stopped spraying anything on the farm. Nothing grew the following spring
- People wanted the chickens
- No input agriculture – only work is maintaining & harvesting
- Farmstays are economic necessity
- Food doesn’t have to be destructive
- Screaming for entrepreneurs
- Healthy soil will hold the water uphill
- Replace the chemicals with animals
- We had spots that were gravel we brought back to lush green grass in 1 year
- Fight it with farming
- We are now producing so far beyond what we thought we could
- Future is unwritten and we can write it
Links to people mentioned:
- Alan Savory
- Joel Salatin
- Gabe Brown
- Dr. Elaine Ingham
- Dr. Christine Jones
- Eric Toensmeier
- Ray Archuleta
- Dr. Wes Jackson
Links to topics mentioned:
- Studio Hill Farm and their great “learn” guide
- Iroquois Valley Farms, (also see Erik’s interview with Steve Rivard)
- Vermont Land Trust
- Vermont’s environmental stewardship program
- Rodale Institute and the regenerative organic certification
- Vermont’s environmental stewardship program
- Patagonia Provisions
- Kernza, The Land Institute
- Nutiva
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Disclaimer – Thanks for your patience with (at times) “kitchen table” recording quality. It’s our hope that you will enjoy hearing our interviews as if you were sitting in on the conversations. As we further develop our resources and capacity, we will be bringing the audio closer to studio standards. Meanwhile, thanks for listening!
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