How do we produce meat in a way that works for farmers, animals, the land, and the people who eat it? Right now, that conversation happens in extremes. On one side: a highly industrialized system designed for efficiency and low prices. On the other: a growing movement toward regenerative agriculture and animal welfare. Somewhere in the middle is a complicated reality that rarely makes it into the headlines.

Robby Sansom lives in that middle. He's the co-founder of Force of Nature, a company building a national network of ranchers, processors, and retailers to produce meat raised with regenerative principles and higher animal welfare standards without further centralizing or industrializing the system. He calls it a rising tide approach. The goal isn't to corner the market. It's to lift it.

In this conversation, Dana and Robby get into what regenerative agriculture actually means and why the word is already being stretched. The tension between what consumers want and what farmers can economically deliver. Why transparency in food systems is harder than it sounds. How protocols for animal welfare evolve in practice (including why pork is so hard). Why scaling better systems is both necessary and incredibly difficult. And how consumers, whether they realize it or not, are shaping the future of agriculture with every purchase.

This one is honest, nuanced, and worth getting into.

Key topics:

• Force of Nature origin story, from Epic Provisions to meals & pounds
• The rising tide model: why they chose not to vertically integrate
• 700+ ranches and 17+ regional processors & how the network works
• How protocols evolve year over year (beaver analogs, cover crops, rotational grazing)
• The regenerative label problem, greenwashing and why momentum still matters
• Why pork is so hard, and what one farm visit revealed
• Consumer behavior as a market signal, not just a preference
• The organic cautionary tale and what regenerative can learn from it

Resources mentioned:

• Force of Nature Meats: forceofnaturemeats.com

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What does it actually take to make local food work — not just in theory, but in real life?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, host Dana DiPrima speaks with Jeanne Blasberg, a former Boston-based author who made a dramatic life pivot: purchasing a 500-acre farm outside Madison, Wisconsin and working to build a regenerative agricultural system connected directly to a fast-casual restaurant chain, Forage Kitchen.

What began as a personal search for purpose quickly evolved into a hands-on exploration of one of the most important questions in our food system:

If consumers say they want local food, why is it still so hard to deliver?

Together, Dana and Jeanne explore the hidden friction between farms and restaurants — from menu consistency and pricing pressures to logistics, seasonality, and infrastructure gaps that make local sourcing more difficult than most people realize.

This conversation goes beyond the romantic idea of “farm to table” and into the operational reality of what it takes to produce nutrient-dense food, build viable farm businesses, and create supply chains that work for both farmers and foodservice operators.

Along the way, they discuss:

• Why local food often struggles to compete with large-scale distributors

• What restaurants actually need from farmers in order to source locally

• The role of regenerative agriculture in building resilient food systems

• How vertically integrated farm–restaurant partnerships can shift power dynamics

• Why small farms capture only a fraction of each food dollar

• The challenge of balancing environmental values with financial sustainability

• How technology may help bridge gaps between farms and buyers

• Why rebuilding regional food systems requires collaboration across the entire value chain

Jeanne’s story also reflects a broader movement: professionals leaving traditional careers in search of work aligned with their values, and discovering just how complex building a better food system can be.

This episode is a window into the future of food — and a reminder that change often happens not through grand gestures, but through relationships, iteration, and persistence.

Because food is not just food. It's infrastructure, health, and community. And it is a system we are all part of shaping.

Jeanne Blasberg is a novelist, regenerative farmer, and co-founder of a diversified farm outside Madison, Wisconsin. Her work focuses on soil health, nutrient density, local supply chains, and innovative partnerships between farms and food businesses. She is working to develop replicable models that help small and mid-sized farms remain economically viable while improving environmental outcomes.

Find Flynn Creek Farm here.

Dana DiPrima is the founder of the For Farmers Movement and host of One Bite is Everything, the podcast that connects the food on our plates to the broader systems that shape health, environment, community, and economy.

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What if the most important laboratory in agriculture isn’t a university… but a farmer’s field?

In this episode of One Bite is Everything, Dana DiPrima talks with farmer and writer Adam Kuznia about the experiments happening quietly across American farmland.

Adam manages a farm in northern Minnesota and writes the newsletter Farming Full-Time, where he explores the realities of modern agriculture from the inside. His work focuses on soil health, fertilizer economics, farmer mental health, and the identity of farming itself.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why many of the most profitable farms actually use less fertilizer

• How farmers are rediscovering the biology of soil

• Why agriculture is slow to change even when the economics demand it

• The powerful role of farmer-led experimentation

• The hidden mental health crisis in farming

• Why farming is not just a job, but an identity tied to land and family

Adam also shares how losing the farm he thought he would inherit forced him to rebuild his relationship with agriculture—and how writing helped him reconnect with farming and the broader community.

This episode is a window into the realities farmers face today: economic pressure, technological change, and the search for a more sustainable way forward.

Because the future of food may not come from one breakthrough, but from thousands of farmers running experiments in their own fields.

Find Adam Kuznia on Substack here. You must. It's so good.

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