Salad With a Side of Fries Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss · Jenn Trepeck

Big Food, Big Ag, Local Farms (feat. Tara Vander Dussen)

·48 min·4 clips

A wine grape grower skipped the organic label to use one pesticide that reduced overall chemical use.

Jen Trebek hosts Tara VanderDusen, a fifth-generation dairy farmer from New Mexico, environmental scientist with a degree in soil, water, and environmental science from the University of Arizona, and co-host of Discover Ag. Jen notes the interview had been anticipated for some time and that many developments in the economy and US trade relationships have since added new dimensions to the conversation. Tara opens by distinguishing between agriculture and the food industry: the farm produces the raw product, while the food industry transforms, packages, and distributes it, with many stages in between. She uses a potato as a recurring example: a family farmer grows potatoes, which may then go to a restaurant as a baked potato or to a factory to become Lay's chips. The factory farm narrative is addressed directly. Tara says 98% of US dairy farms are family-owned and operated, and agriculture as a whole is about 94% family-owned. She acknowledges that scale varies significantly by geography, with New Mexico operations tending toward larger scale than Wisconsin or Vermont farms. She points out that four companies control over 80% of US beef packaging, which is where the industrial concentration actually lives, not at the farm level. On organic labeling, Tara describes it as a farming practice designation that tells you how the operation is run, including pasture access and approved inputs, rather than a direct health indicator for the consumer. She argues that consumers often use organic as a health stamp when the relationship between farming practice and nutritional outcome is more nuanced. The pesticide discussion draws on Discover Ag's three-part series on glyphosate. Tara describes pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides as tools in a farmer's toolbox, with good management meaning choosing the right tool for the specific land and situation. She shares an example of a wine grape grower who deliberately chose not to pursue the USDA organic certification because a single targeted pesticide application allowed them to use far less intervention overall. On consumer guidance, Tara echoes a spearfisher she interviewed who told her: tell me what you care about and I will tell you how to shop. She recommends consumers identify their priorities, whether that is environmental impact, nutritional profile, budget, or direct relationships with farmers, and shop accordingly rather than defaulting to label marketing. She notes that Discover Ag has interviewed a potato farmer who told listeners the best way to buy his family farm potatoes is to go to a grocery store, challenging the assumption that local and family-farmed means farmers market only.

As heard by us

A practical look at dairy safety, testing, and the details most consumers never see.

Milk moves from pasture to plant with unusual clarity here, as the discussion traces dairy farming practices, recycled lagoon water, crop fertilizing, antibiotics, withdrawal periods, and the checks that keep happening before milk reaches consumers.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the milk story from the farm side, not the aisle-side.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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