To protect public health, the FDA’s Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program tests FDA-regulated foods shipped in interstate commerce to determine whether they comply with pesticide tolerances, or maximum residue levels, set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If the FDA finds that the amount of pesticide residue on a food is over the tolerance, or when a pesticide is found and there is no tolerance established, the FDA can take action. Sara McGrath, PhD, is a chemist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Human Foods Program. She is in the Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation where she focuses on monitoring chemical contaminants in foods broadly, with a focus on pesticides.

• To learn more about the FDA’s work to monitor the food supply for safe levels of pesticides, visit Pesticides.
• You can find the FDA Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program’s annual reports and accompanying data here: Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Reports and Data.

Climate change has become a partisan issue but really has not gotten as much attention as it needs.  Rob Jackson is the Chair of the Global Carbon Project, a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy, and a professor of earth science at Stanford University. His book “The Clear Blue Sky” shows a bipartsan path hat can make needed change in decades rather than centuries. www.tintotheclearbluesky.com

What role will more tariffs, immigration restrictions and food policies have on our food system.  Farmer and former Missouri Farm Bureau President, Blake Hurst joins Farm to Table Talk to explore the policies that will effect our food and farming globally and locally..

Craft Beef is successful so how about Craft Beef? Jeff and Kara Smith are the co-founders of Colorado Craft Beef, a company rooted in a multi-generational ranching legacy. Over the years, they’ve built a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer beef company that not only provides high-quality beef products but also connects people with agriculture, dispels common myths, and promotes pride in how we feed our families.  Jeff Smith challenges old industry standards to generate new mindsets and value-added partnerships from ranch to table. www.coloradocraftbeef.com

Happiness can be found on the way  from farm to table where we break bread together. Ezekiwee Anderson discovered happiness baking very special bread that led to Rize Up Sourdough.  Rize Up’s story began as a home-based quarantine sourdough project that quickly turned into a micro bakery. Within a year, Rize Up out grew Azikiwee’s backyard ovens. Overcome with a need to make a difference and hopefully inspire young Black bakers to think outside the traditional he shows how to be the change we seek — sharing the love of delicious, thoughtfully baked bread. The Rize Up story is featured in a National Geographic produced film streaming on Hulu, “World Eats Bread”. Rizeupsourdough.com

The Farm Bill is largely a Food Bill with over 80% of the programs in the area of public nutrition.  The previous $867 billion Farm Bill was passed in 2018 but on September 30, 2024 it expired. The nation’s farmers and consumers need a bipartisan solution says Adam Warthesoen, Organic Valley’s Vice President of Government Affairs.  To bring the farm story to the public and to celebrate National Farmers Day October 11, Organic Valley is bringing a firsthand farm experience to viewers live from small organic family farms, coast to coast, all day long. Anyone can join.

An indigenous way of being may be just what the world needs – starting with an indigenous view of food. Decolonizing our diets will lead to an expansive palate that creates a relationship with traditional, seasonal, everyday foods. Karuk tribe member Sara Calvosa Olson is a food writer and editor living in the Bay Area with her husband and two sons. Her work dwells at the intersection of storytelling, Indigenous food systems, security, sovereignty, reconnection, and recipe development. ChimiNu’am is her book of Native California foodways for the contemporary kitchen.

akihsara.com,  @thefrybreadriot.

Roundup is a herbicide that has been controversial and the subject of lawsuits against Monsanto and now Bayer. Are we “headed to the last roundup” as go the lyrics to an ancient cowboy tune by Gene Autry?  Missouri farmer Blake Hurst is the author of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about this prodcut that has saved armers from excessive tillage or back breaking hand hoeing of the past. He joins Farm To Table Talk while driving in his John Deere Combine to a field ready to harvest.

Cats and dogs should watch out for hungry immigrants according to recent political propaganda. Truth is that immigration is a necessity in the country and not a reason to keep our pets locked indoors. Farm To Table Talk returns with this podcast from earlier this year to remind us that immigration is essential for a functioning food system According to Steve Hubbard of the American Immigration Council, the H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program allows U.S. employers that face a shortage of domestic workers to hire foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.  Foreign help is being sought from over two-thirds of the counties in the U.S.

www.american immigration council.org

Help is needed and is at hand to build resilient local & regional food systems through the US Department of Agriculture. Tricia Kovacs is the Deputy Administrator of Transportation and Marketing programs rolling out to  communities in every state.

• • Learn about USDA local food programs discussed in the podcast:
    • Regional Food Business Centers Program (Agricultural Marketing Service)
    • Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (Agricultural Marketing Service)
    • Local Agriculture Market Program (Agricultural Marketing Service)
    • The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program (Food and Nutrition Service)

• • Sign up to receive the “From the Ground Up” newsletter

• • Learn about USDA AMS Grants and Opportunities

• • View the Local and Regional Food Systems Resource Guide

• • Learn about USDA careers:
    • AMS Career Opportunities
    • USAJobs (USDA)

• • See other ways to stay connected:
    • USDA AMS Linked In
    • USDA AMS Instagram
    • USDA Facebook
    • To help provide schools with local foods, in addition to the FNS program at the link above, AMS established the Local Food for Schools Program Cooperative Agreement Program to strengthen the food system for schools by helping to build a fair, competitive, and resilient local food chain, and expand local and regional markets with an emphasis on purchasing from historically underserved producers and processors.