A Farmer’s Pilgrimage: Interview with Michael Ableman
With just two percent of the population growing food for all of us, it’s fair to say farmers are a threatened species. They’re also not the most social crowd.
Michael Ableman - farmer, writer, photographer and educator - set out on a cross country trip at the height of harvest time to visit America’s farmers on their own turf. He chronicles his experiences in the new book: Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It.
This week, join host Jerry Kay in conversation with Ableman and find out what he saw and heard at the front lines of small scale agriculture, and hear his predictions on the future of food and farming.
This Week's Guests:
Michael Ableman — Farmer, Author
Ableman is the founder and executive director of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, a non profit organization based on one of the oldest and most diverse organic farms in southern California, where he farmed from 1981 to 2001. The farm has become an important community education center and a national model for small scale and urban agriculture, hosting as many as 5000 people per year for tours, classes, festivals, and apprenticeships. Ableman is also the author of From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World and On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm
His work has been featured in National Geographic, Utne Reader, Gourmet Magazine, on NPR’s All Things Considered and twice in front page coverage in the Los Angeles Times. An award-winning film about Ableman’s work, Beyond Organic, narrated by Meryl Streep aired nationally on PBS.
He has received numerous awards for his work including the 2001 "Sustie" Award for his work in sustainable agriculture, Eating Well magazine’s 1995 Food Hero Award and the Environmental Leadership Award from the governor of the state of California.
Currently, he lives on his own 12 acre farm in British Columbia with his wife and two sons.
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