Wine. Tomatoes. Green beans. Tofu. What may sound like a menu is actually what this Maryland farmer grows. Jennie Schmidt shares why her farm transitioned from organic to conventional to be more sustainable, how she produces such a wide variety of crops, and what food bullying terms like factory farming mean to her family farm.
Jennie is a dietitian turned farmer, so she’s a great #featuredfarmer during National Nutrition Month & National Agriculture Month. She grows corn for chickens, soybeans for tofu and oleic oil, grapes for wine, tomatoes for a canning company, green beans for the fresh market and other crops on their farm in Maryland. Jennie gives great insight on why she uses chemicals on all of her products, the positive environmental impact she works toward, and how some of the products can be a pain in the butt to grow and even smell really bad. Listen in to go inside a 'grocery store' farm.
Key points
Fabulous quotes
“Chemicals naturally occur in all foods. And you and me “
“Where foods grows, bugs go.”
“When you plow your field, you’re burying the organic matter you’ve built up from the previous year.”
“There are different types of farming practices that work for different parts of the country that work for different crops.”
“There’s no cookie cutter system – no one system works perfectly across all growing regions.”
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