He Walked Away From the Establishment: Jonathan Lundgren on Regenerative Agriculture | Episode 65

Florida's citrus industry is now producing approximately 4% of its former capacity. The soil that once supported it has been farmed down to sand. On this episode of Productive Passions, host Christy Tagye talks with Jonathan Lundgren, founder of Ecdysis Foundation and Blue Dasher Farm, and a former USDA agroecologist who received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama in 2011, about what regenerative agriculture really means, and why the conventional food system is failing both farmers and the land.

Jonathan explains biodiversity including how insect species keep ecosystems running, and what happened when his USDA research into pesticides and GMOs got too close to the companies profiting from the status quo. He and Christy dig into farmer health data linking corn and soybean production to elevated cancer, depression, and Parkinson's rates, the debt trap keeping row-crop farmers locked into chemical dependent systems, and why he believes we're reliving the Dust Bowl in real time, this time with agrochemicals added to the mix.

They close on what's actually working: the Thousand Farms Initiative, a free, donation-funded research project that has surveyed over 2,000 farms and is helping shape food policy from the ground up.

In this episode you’ll learn:

What regenerative agriculture actually means

Why desertification happens, and how some farmers are reversing it

The health data behind chronic disease in farming communities

How to find regenerative farmers and food near you

🔗 Connect with Jon

Website: Ecdysis Foundation and Blue Dasher Farm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-lundgren-64bb59208/

Email: jonathan.lundgren@ecdysis.bio