How To Fix Nutrition In Schools

Episode 86 1h 9m

Overview

As we see a rise in the hyperlocal movement, urban farming, school gardening programs, and farm to table restaurants it’s clear there are some really exciting solutions in the works for a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable food system. We just need to embrace them and keep the innovations coming.

When it comes to innovative ideas that support a more sustainable, nutritious, and beneficial food system, there’s no better person to talk to than Kimbal Musk. I was thrilled to sit down with him for this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy to dig into our changing landscape of food and how he’s managed to scale sustainable eating and education as part of his model.

It’s easy to see that Kimbal is passionate about changing our food system. We talk about how this all started, and he shares that despite his mother being a dietitian food was the enemy in their household, until at the young age of 12 he set out to learn how to cook to make delicious meals that would bring his family together.

Kimbal eventually built a high-powered tech career (think Paypal), only to leave it to pursue his true passion and go to culinary school. He found a way to connect the two with his current company Square Roots, which makes it possible to grow super fresh food in the most optimal climate possible anywhere in the world.

As Kimbal got more and more involved in the world of real food he noticed the need for educating kids about food and agriculture. School gardens increase food literacy, healthy food choices, even test scores, and this propelled Kimbal to continue spreading this information with kids through his Big Green organization, his most prized project to date. He also shares about his urban farming company Square Roots and how he helps young farmers with the National Young Farmers Coalition.

Kimbal and I talk about the many ways we can keep our food system moving in the right direction, from healthy, locally-sourced neighborhood restaurants to an educational system that involves regenerative agriculture and so much more. I hope you’ll tune in.

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by and Thrive Market. The Doctor’s Farmacy podcast works with a select group of sponsors to allow for ongoing production and allow it to be zero-cost to anyone who wishes to listen to and watch the podcast.

Topics Covered

  • The development of Kimbal’s love of cooking

    (2:10 - 4:27)

  • Kimbal’s decision to leave Silicon Valley, move to New York and go to cooking school, and his experience cooking for firefighters after September 11th

    (8:11 - 10:27)

  • Community restaurants and Kimbal’s move to Boulder, CO to open The Kitchen restaurant

    (13:36 - 15:53)

  • Scaling the industrial food system to provide local produce to more areas

    (17:19 - 19:36)

  • America’s aging farmer population, the average income of farmers, and why it’s so difficult to bring innovation into farming

    (19:10 - 21:27)

  • How the ethanol mandate is keeping young farmers from gaining access to land, and how this lead Kimbal to start Square Roots urban farming company

    (23:28 - 25:45)

  • Ecosystem services and the challenges that farmers face in efforts to break away from the monocrop system

    (37:30 - 39:47)

  • Kimbal’s experience breaking his spine and how it led him to dedicate his life to scale bringing learning gardens to schools through his organization Big Green

    (44:59 - 47:16)

  • National Young Farmers Coalition and its efforts to get young people into farming

    (54:40 - 56:57)

  • Scaling regenerative farming

    (59:33 - 1:01:50)

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Ep. 86 - How To Fix Nutrition In Schools