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This is a moment that
requires people to stay at home
in the state of California.

Today, I'm issuing
a stay-home, stay-safe order
for all Michiganders.

- For all Ohioans.
- Across Maryland.

- All Delawareans.
- The entire state
of Louisiana.

For the state
of Illinois.

These can be
very tough days.

All of us are safer at home.

Hi, Alice.
How are you?

Oh, Ruth.

I mean, I keep thinking,
it can't get any harder,
and then it does.

I know, I know.
It's such a frightening time.

It is, it's horrible.

So, Alice, I am working
on this documentary

about the pandemic
and what it's going to do
to the food system.

I really can't send cameras
to anyone or, you know...

- That's right.
- This is what we're stuck with.

Yeah.

Um, I think that...

this is a disaster moment
for the food system.

I would be surprised if more
than half of the restaurants

were able to reopen
at the end of this.

And, you know, I think
the farmers are just planting

as if someday
we're going back to normal.

And it's not going to be
the same.

No, it's not.

The farmers may not sell
all the food that they have.

And they may or may not find
somebody else to take it.

I mean, we really need
to rethink everything now,

I think, from the ground up.

COVID was the wake-up call.

The moment we couldn't ignore.

Our broken food system
was exposed.

The abundance that we
as Americans are used to
could just go away.

It could all end.

I've been writing about food
for 50 years,

trying to get Americans
to care more about it.

Ruth Reichl, the revered
restaurant critic
for the New York Times...

Ruth Reichl,
Gourmet magazine editor...

How we eat as a nation
is important.

I mean, I think it's important
to our children, I think
it's important to the future.

And I think food
is not just something you eat,

it's political and social...

Food is elemental
to our survival,

but we take food
and the people behind it
completely for granted.

First I started talking
to the independent
restaurateurs I knew,

and then I reached out
to independent farmers
and ranchers.

Welcome to Bluffton.

Welcome to Spencertown.
Can you hear me?

- Yeah.
- Oh, good, hi.

- Hi.
- Good morning, ma'am,
how are you?

Can you take me through
this whole pandemic process?

I was running numbers,
and I'm like, I have
to do something different.

My workers demanded answers
that I didn't have.

The CEO of Tyson said
the American food system
Is breaking.

Yeah... he's right.

A lot of people
are on the ropes, and things
haven't been good anyway.

These folks
are part of our family,

and we're going to put them
on the unemployment line.

The chance of us
as farmers surviving just,

you know, goes down every day.

Inexpensive food,
at some point of the food chain,

someone is getting abused.

There's only one way
out of that.

It's changing the systems
that caused us to be

so lacking in resiliency
when the pandemic struck.

They're all struggling,
experimenting, doing
whatever it took to survive.

Not that a paycheck
is everything, but it's like,
you know, what is your worth?

What's your value?

With so many of them
in crisis,

I wanted to connect
with those people directly.

- Hey.
- Hi, Ruth.

How are you?

So, what's it like
in Chinatown?

I mean, are you surrounded
by restaurants that are closing?

Yeah, that's the saddest part
about this neighborhood,

is, there's an eerie quietness
in this neighborhood.

A lot of empty store fronts,
a lot of closed restaurants.

Chinatown was the first
to be affected.

People are scared
to come to Chinatown.

Whether that's, you know,
stereotypes or prejudices.

Just making fun of the virus
in Chinese names

is depleting the stature of what
this neighborhood had built.

But the hardest thing
about this pandemic
is that each business

has been having to handle
this puzzle on their own.

I mean, it was
particularly bad timing for you,

because you were
just opening a restaurant.

Yeah.

I was already in survival mode,
but that week leading up
to the pandemic,

I was going from one
to two locations, and I was
really stretched thin.

Obviously, I'm not
paying rent.

Hopefully my landlords
won't kick me out.

But I'm the primary
breadwinner of my family.

All of a sudden, I'm like,
how do I take care of
my own family

and then take care
of all of these people?

And I just felt like
I had failed everybody.

You can ask me questions
while I do my hair.

Okay. So you just talked
about the restaurant,
how you pivoted.

I hate the word "pivot"!

I called my landlord
and I said,

"Hey, I just want you to know
that maybe we can't pay
our rent next month."

"Can you please make sure
everything's okay?"

And he's like, "It's not."

"My 80-year-old parents
rely on this income."

- Yeah.
- What the heck
do you do?

And I'm like,
there's no way I'm going to do
what everyone's doing

and not pay
their rent, if I can.

And, because he's an immigrant.

It's not them versus us.

It's not the-- maybe
the banks a little bit, but...

Maybe the banks
a little bit, yeah.

You know, if this is
the foreseeable future,
will you be okay?

Uh...
I don't think Porridge & Puffs

is going to look like what it
was, and I don't expect it to.

This is day one, minute one,
brand-new business.

- Take care, enjoy cooking.
- Thank you.

I don't think
you sent me a Venmo.

No, I did, you must've
been on, I just sent it.

Oh, okay.

When I was growing up,

most people just didn't pay
much attention to food.

Today, food is as important
as art and books
and movies and music.

It is a huge part
of popular culture.

People often ask me today
if I think there's too much
emphasis on food.

And you know what?

My answer is no.
There was too little.

You've heard
of the art of cooking.

Well,
here's an artist at work.

When I was growing up,

it was probably the only time
in human history

where people willfully chose
not to pay attention

to where their food came from,

how they were eating,
what it meant to their bodies.

The consequences
have been horrendous.

I didn't mean to be unkind
to mother,

but she did spend an awful lot
of time in that kitchen.

Frankly, I had better things
to do with my time.

Back in the '50s,
advertising began
to sell us the idea

that cooking should be quick
and convenient.

Just reach
for a can, 3 minutes to heat,
and it's ready to eat.

You'll be dancing with joy
when you serve
Brown Beauty Spanish Rice.

If there were health
consequences, nobody was
thinking about it.

Efficiency was everything.

But in the 1960s
on public television,

Julia Child came along
and began teaching

a fairly small,
rebellious audience
how to cook like the French.

Cutting down this way
and cutting across,
do practice this method.

It does take a little practice,
takes you about
a week or so to learn.

It was a direct response
to the idea that American food
was terrible.

I mean, everybody talked
about, "Oh, America,

the land
of hamburgers and hot dogs,
the land of fast food."

And Julia Child
comes along and says, "No,
Americans can cook great food."

"They just have to learn
the technique."

And then you have
Alice Waters come along,

and there's a revolution
against that revolution,

which is, you cannot make
great food if you don't
have great ingredients.

I mean, Alice says,
"Garbage in, garbage out."

You want great food in America,
it's not about technique, it's
about the quality of the food.

Just a second,
I'm going to move over here
so I can lean back on the couch.

I'm going to make you jealous.

Oh, oh, my God.
You-- I am very jealous.

There is not a--
The best I can do is rhubarb.

Are you thinking of reopening
at some point?

Well, the restaurant's
just not big enough.

God, it makes me so sad.

- I mean, we have bathrooms
that are big as the closet.
- That's true.

I mean, the tables
are very close together.

We've been making farm boxes,
because, for me,

the big, big issue
is keeping all
of our purveyors alive.

When all of these
restaurants start to close,

it will close other parts of
other industries, as well.

Our order this week for produce
was the smallest it's ever been.

Those are relationships
that I have with farms
that are over ten years,

and it sucks to not be
able to support them.

It's so bleak.

You don't walk away
from a farm.

You can't put farms on furlough.

It's kind of like
a relationship.

You can't just ignore them
for two months or three months

and then walk back in and expect
to be greeted fondly.

The very first farmers
I called were Lee and Bob Jones
at Chef's Garden,

because I know that

almost their entire business
is selling to restaurants,

so this
had to be brutal for them.

So, what have the last few weeks
been like for you?

You know, we're underwater.
We lost a lot of money in March.

Home delivery, I think,
is a good move, but we're
starting from zero.

How are we going
to handle this?

What decisions
are we going to make

to protect our team physically,
emotionally, financially...

You haven't had to throw
anything out, have you?

We're planting literally
every day,

and so those products,
right after the restaurants
closed down,

that product just kept coming
and coming and coming.

You know, there was definitely
a period there where there was

a lot of dumping.

But if we're going down, we're
going to go down fighting.

I began thinking
about what might be
happening out there

to the small,
independent ranchers,

the ones who supply meat
to our restaurants
and supermarkets.

And then I came across
a rancher from Kansas.

He was all over social media,

talking about the challenges
that were facing his community.

You know, the state
of the cattle business

has turned into more than just
a cattle business problem.

It's turned into a United States
economics problem.

Good morning, ma'am,
how are you?

I'm very well, thank you.
If you could tell me the story

of COVID for you,
it would be great.

Okay. Uh...

We're starting to back
the cattle up.

You've seen on TV, I'm sure,
and everywhere,

of disposing of milk and hogs.

And we're probably not far
from that in the cattle part.

You have this huge
discrepancy now.

You've got record beef prices.

So the consumer's paying twice
what they were 60 days ago,

and you have a packer that's
making a billion dollars a week
processing cattle,

while all
the producers are going broke.

It sounds like
the Big Four packers,

the meat processors,
have too much control?

Exactly.
The packers got so big,

and the monopolization
of processing plants so common,

that if you
take two of them offline,

all of a sudden we have
a meat shortage,

when there's
no shortage of food here.

We could feed
a small country right now
with what we're wasting.

- Absolutely.
- But our system
is so specialized

that any kink
and we're in trouble.

I think that will
eventually bite us.

The majority of mass agriculture
in the United States

is all about how cheaply
can you produce it.

And that's what's gotten us
to where we are.

Other countries can't spend
per capita what we do

on entertainment and vehicles
and housing,

because they're
spending it on food.

- Right.
- You know.

For the last 50 years we've
thrown agriculture under the bus

as the bargaining tool
for everything America thought

the other countries
ought to be doing.

Coming out
of World War II,

there was a very
conscious decision on the part
of the American government

to make food political.

They had a huge stockpile
of ammunition left over
from World War II.

They decide to convert it
into fertilizer.

There is a deep encouragement
to replace the animals
on the farm with machines.

There's privileging
of efficiency,
the factory model,

and there is a whole notion
that one way we can
fight communism

is by having the cheapest
and most abundant food on
earth.

We had an arms race
and a farms race.

You plan to outstrip us,

particularly in the production
of consumer goods?

Nixon actually had what
were called

the "kitchen cabinet
conversations" with Khrushchev.

He took him through
supermarkets,

and this notion is,
"Look at what we have
in this country."

Nixon's secretary
of agriculture, Earl Butz,

actually said to the farmers,
"Get big or get out."

We're going to make this
industry pay.

P-R-O-F-I-T.

He encouraged them
to take out huge loans

to buy combines
and expensive equipment.

And they did.

Then, in the early '80s,
the overproduction of food,

combined with enormous farm
debt and high interest rates,

caused farmer after farmer
across the middle of America
to go bankrupt.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Bless us, O Lord,
and these our gifts,

which we are about to receive
from thy bounty,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Oh, there you are.

Oh. Hi! Hi!

I don't do much
video conferencing,

and I usually choose not to do
the video, because I'm just kind
of shy, I guess, I don't know.

No, I totally get that.

So, tell me what COVID
has been like for you.

The markets took a hit,
but they're crappy anyway.

So, you know,
it's just one more thing.

So, what do you grow?

Well,
we grow corn and beans.

And, in 2013,
we put wheat into our rotation.

And we've done Sudan
for forage for cattle,

because we just know
we have to get an income source
other than corn and soybeans.

Because it doesn't pay.

Farming economics
for the last eight years
has been stressful.

We're at cost of production
or less.

We're buying land,
we're buying equipment.

It's a half a million
dollars, almost,

for some of these combines
and tractors.

We've got bills up to here.
I mean, we are highly leveraged.

So we're transitioning acres
into organic.

But you'll get
more for organic.

Yes, but the hard part
is that 36 months of transition.

It's a nightmare.

Right, yeah,
36 months of no money.

Right,
and tell your banker that.

We go every year to the bank
to renew our ag loan.

And it's only from beginning
of the year to the end.

And it's like, there's no,
there's no flow
in between years,

where soil health needs that.

Transition to organic
needs that.

So, do you have animals
as well?

Just kids.

Agricultural economics
is totally upside-down.

So, the majority of farmers
in the United States
go to the bank every winter,

and they borrow
operating capital so that they
can buy seed and fertilizer

and all of the inputs
that they'll need to grow
their crops.

They farm all year
and hope they can make enough
at the end of the year

to pay that note back and hope
that the lending institution

will do it again next year.

Over, and over, and over,
and over.

And in our history, that's
exactly what happened to us.

It was Economics 101
in the '80s.

We lost the family farm in '83.

I mean, everything,
it was an auction,

and everything right down
to my mom's car and our home

were auctioned off
in a foreclosure.

And it was survival mode.

Unfortunately right now feels
eerily, eerily like that.

It's a stupid business.
Nobody else does that.

I mean, go to any financial
advisor and say, "All right,

I'm going to risk
$8 million this year,

and I'm going
to work 100 hours a week
for a $50,000 return."

I mean, they're going
to tell you you're an idiot.

I mean, the more I report
this documentary,

the more I feel that
the finances of farmers

are at the crux
of so much of what's
going on in this country.

The degree of risk that
these folks take on
is staggering.

Like, we get...

You know, we're talking about
forgiving student loan debt,
right, as a way of like,

you know, recognizing
that the economy has been
stacked against people

who've graduated in the past
couple of years,

and that it's a real drag
on economic growth.

Oh, my God, you know how much
farm debt's out there?

Those folks are part
of a food production system.

They deserve to be able
to make a living
doing what they're doing.

That's a choice.

We made a conscious decision
to favor agribusiness interests,

as opposed to investing
in the people that were
on the land.

If you ask how many farmers are
actually able to make a living
just from farming?

It's almost no one.
Almost no one.

If, if you're generous,
it would be about
seven percent of farmers.

You just have to think
about that.

You know, what economic sector
would sustain

with only seven percent
of them being able
to make positive revenue?

- How are you?
- How we doing, Chef?

- Good to see you.
- I'll show you...

- Hey, Marcus.
- How are you, dear?

You can tell, quickly,
what business is in Harlem,

but not of Harlem, right?

I'll show you the difference.

If you're in Harlem,
it's just boarded up
with plywood, right?

If you're of Harlem,
there's art on your gate.

So, in and of.

- Ready to go.
- How you doing, Chef?

- What's up man,
what's going on?
- That's the chef.

You have restaurants
all over the world, right?

"Had" is the key word there.

It took me 25 years
to build this.

It took ten days
to break it all down.

When people said, Ruth,
everybody's left New York City,

I find it almost disrespectful.

People have not left.

Do you need
another mask?

Yeah,
I could use another one.

There are
deli workers, nurses,

homeless people,
people with mental illnesses.

And on top of that, every day,
Harlem gets busloads
of homeless,

or people that are
incarcerated, and just get
dropped off on 125th street.

I mean, it's, it's horrendous.

Do you want some food?

- I got some.
- You got some, good.

One of the things that
I'm looking at is,

in 1920, 19% of the farms
in America were Black-owned.

Now it's like one percent.

- Wow. Do you know this amazing
woman, Karen Washington?
- No.

She's fierce.
You'll love her.

Ten to one.

And if they don't come,
it's donated to La Finca.

All right. Let's make sure
everybody got their order.

One red Russian
kale six-pack.

- Uh-huh.
- You got the parsley?

- Yes.
- Chives?

Yes.
This will do good in shade.

Enjoy, and take us some pictures
and send them to us.

When I moved to the Bronx,
I had a huge backyard,
and I decided, you know what?

Let me try and grow some food.

I started with green peppers
and tomatoes,

and it was the tomato that
changed my world completely.

Because prior to that,
tomatoes were always pink,
they were never red.

They tasted like cardboard.

And so when I grew this tomato,
first of all,

I was mesmerized
that it grew on a vine.

That it was red? What?

And when I picked it
and I bit into it,
it just rocked my world.

The taste was so intense,
so sweet, and I was hooked.

COVID hit communities
of color so hard,

because of the preexisting
diet-related diseases
that we've had.

The high incidence
of hypertension,
type 2 diabetes, obesity.

I've been on this journey,
getting politicians
and people to understand

the importance of growing food,
and why it's so important,

especially in low-income
neighborhoods and neighborhoods
of color, to do so.

When you talk about food desert,
you're not getting
the underlying problem

when it comes to race
and economics
and demographics.

And when you talk about
food apartheid,
people start to listen.

It's important that we look
at our food system to see
who's growing the food.

Who are the farm workers,
who are the farmers?

Because out of 57,000 farmers
in New York state,

only 139 are Black.

- Oh, my God.
- You tell me, you tell me
what I'm fighting for.

And so we can't talk
about a sustainable,
equitable food system,

if we're not in it.

In the early 1900s,

there were more Black farms
than there were white farms.

96% of land-owning farmers
are white.

And they control 97% of land.

So you essentially have a system
that is structurally racist

because of the way that

the federal government
intervened

to first of all
appropriate that land

and then distribute it.

The vast majority of
African American farmland lost

has been in the 20th century.

It's happened since 1950, right?

So this is not ancient history,
this is current history.

This is very real
to people who were

on the land.

They're still alive,
those people.

I mean...

we have never had the reckoning
within our country that we need.

And we certainly haven't
had it within agriculture.

As part of the New Deal,
everybody got the right

to the minimum wage
for the first time, except
for groups of Black workers.

Farm workers, domestic workers,
and tipped restaurant workers
who were told

you get a zero dollar wage,
as long as tips bring you
to the full minimum wage.

And we went from zero in 1938
to $2.13 81 years later.

Prior to the pandemic,
the restaurant industry

was the second-largest
and absolute fastest-growing
sector of the US economy.

But it was also the absolute
lowest-paying employer.

Every year, the seven
lowest-paying jobs would be
in the restaurant industry,

and the eighth-lowest
would be farm workers.

So, part of what you're seeing
in the protests

is a lot of unemployed
service workers out there.

I mean, George Floyd himself was
an unemployed restaurant worker,

and there are

a ton of our people

fighting for their lives.

It is about police brutality,
and it's about so much more.

After emancipation, employers
first demanded the right
to hire newly freed slaves

and not pay them anything
and have them live entirely

on this new notion
that had just come from Europe
at the time called a tip.

And it really was slavery
that mutated this idea
of tipping,

not as a bonus or an extra
on top of a wage,
but rather the wage itself.

Because there was a desire
to hire Black people,
in particular Black women,

actually, at the time,
not pay them anything,
and have them live on tips.

But I think
the surprising thing is,

we are seeing dramatic
new willingness

of lots and lots of independent
restaurants to totally change
their business models.

I get my affinity
for fighting against any kind
of injustice from my mom.

When we were made fun of
in school, she would, like,
teach folks about Arab culture.

And she always made sure
that anyone who came through
our household was fed.

My grandmother was the same way.

And I started to see the virtue
of Arab hospitality.

You are trying
to use this time

to figure out another way.

Yes. Exactly.

It was really scary.

Our sales plummeted,

and lack of tips was
a huge blow to my workers

when we stopped
our restaurant operations.

My employees formed
a collective to, like,

demand answers from management,
but also, I think,
to take care of each other.

So I was like,
how do I take care of my workers

so that they're better off
from this whole debacle
than they were before?

And the only answer to me
was worker ownership.

I'm fascinated
and admiring of your efforts

to share the ownership
of your business
with your employees.

Living your principles
in your work life
is really difficult.

I mean, as I told you,

I've sort of come out
of this movement

and sort of watched it
happen in the '70s.

In 1973, we put everything
we owned, including our cat,

into a big green van
and drove out to Berkeley.

You know, it was all
these counterculture people.

And after
the Vietnam War movement,
we started looking

for the next cause, because we
felt like we'd made an impact.

And so, what do we see?

We see that American food
is becoming industrialized.

It wasn't really new.

But what we were seeing now
were the environmental costs

and the exploitation of labor
and agriculture.

People started protesting.

Everyone I knew was reading
Diet for a Small Planet.

And there was this new
consciousness about
limited resources.

I started cooking
at a restaurant collective
called The Swallow.

I was writing occasional

little pieces for New West--

where to go to get ice cream
and things like that.

And one of my editors said,
"Have you ever thought about
being a restaurant critic?"

And I looked at him
and said, "Don't be ridiculous."

"I don't even have
a credit card."

"What do you mean,
be a restaurant critic?"

And he said,
"Just give it a try."

I went home to my commune
and said to everyone,
"We're going out to eat."

So, for the next six years
at New West magazine,

I just wrote short stories
with the review kind of
threaded through it.

And then the LA Times called me
and said, "We want you to be
our restaurant critic."

And I was like, Oh,
maybe this is my real life.

I first met Alice in 1973.

I thought she was the most
glamorous, exciting creature.

I lived in a commune
in a broken-down old house.

We were kind of scruffy,
and Alice always felt, to me,

like, kind of, I guess,
the person I wanted to be.

And then we did become friends.

The way we've always worked
has been collaboratively.

For 50 years,
we've been buying directly

from the farmer and the rancher,

giving the farmer all the money.

No middleman.

Because when we said
to Bob Cannard,

"We're buying
everything you do,

you'll have all the money
that we would give
to a wholesaler,"

it was that
that really changed us.

Because we followed
his cycle, not ours.

And once we got in his rhythm,
we've never looked back.

And he brought all the values
right through the kitchen door.

To think that that biodiversity
is out there,

it's just waiting for us.

You grew up
in Newfoundland, right?

- Yeah.
- How'd you end up in New Haven?

Uh, I chased a girl.

So, how did you come up
with the notion of doing kelp?

What we did was ask
the ocean,

what does it make sense to grow?

And when you ask the ocean
what to grow, the ocean says,

"Grow things
that won't swim away
and you don't have to feed."

As soon as you make that shift,
you listen to the ocean,

it becomes really pretty simple
and you've got a lot
of different crops you can grow.

So kelp is the ultimate
specialty boutique food
right now, right?

And we're repurposing our crops
to non-food.

The bioplastics for N95 masks.

- Oh, yeah.
- Made out of seaweed.

But that's the sort of
"don't let a crisis
go to waste," right?

I believe in polyculture because
that allows for resilience.

That quadrant farm,
where we're harvesting food,

we're harvesting byproducts,
so things
that are not food-grade.

We're harvesting data, and we're
harvesting carbon and nitrogen.

And all of those
are different crops.

You have a crop fail, you've
got many, many different things

you can sell year-round, right?

I'm going to move
a little bit.

Dad's last operating note
at the bank was 24% interest.

And then, he was starting
to see that it was taking

greater and greater
amounts of inputs to produce
less and less outputs.

So, at the same time he was
getting his economic lesson,

he was getting this agronomic
lesson in soil health.

40 years later, we understand
that model of economics, and we
don't want any part of it.

We're a 12-month operation,
so we've been able to cash flow
without an operating note,

just because that we're selling
12 months of the year.

We met this guy by the name

of Jean Louis Palladin,

who said, basically,

"I yearn for
the produce of Europe,

because your produce here
tastes like nothing!"

And he said,
"There are enough of us chefs
that will support you

if you do this the right way,
because it will taste good."

We are indebted to him forever,

for hurting our feelings
so badly.

He's one of the ones
we all really miss.

Absolutely.
But he started a revolution.

What we didn't understand was,

as we researched how do we grow
really great-tasting vegetables,

we had no idea that we
were bringing nutrition
along for the ride.

And the medical community
is taking note of our work

and the work of many, many
other regenerative farms,

who are growing healthy crops

and raising the body's ability
to defend itself from disease.

I often wonder what our country
would look like

had we made
a different choice in 1948.

What if we had decided we were
going to have the most
nutritious food?

From 1940 to 2000,
we've lost 40%
of the nutritive value

of the food we grow
in this country.

Now, we have the highest
per capita spending
of healthcare

of any industrialized nation
in the world,

because we have
the lowest per capita spending

on food of any industrialized
nation in the world.

The big picture is that what
this system has been generating

has been sanctioning
the concentration of wealth

in the very few large monopolies

and sanctioning the production
of junk food,

which happens to be
very profitable
for the food industry

but horrible for the health
of the entire population.

After World War II,
chain restaurants began
to proliferate.

Everybody loved them,
but they used

inexpensive labor
and low-quality ingredients

that came straight
out of the industrialized
farming system.

These fast-food corporations
made huge profits

offering cheap food,
and they became symbols
of American culture.

We exported them
all over the world.

COVID revealed the fragility
of independent restaurants.

One in five look likely
to close,

and I worry that the chain
restaurants are going
to gobble up the real estate.

The workload seems
already better.

What do you guys think?

I feel like...

It feels like it's the same.

They had all sacrificed
and been in quarantine,
never got out of quarantine.

And then we had to compete
with places opening.

I talked to my team, I said,
like, "This isn't working,
we're not going to survive."

And that's the first time
I felt that, ever.

You know, I think I've been
in the system so long

where I just have to be like,
you have to be humble.

You have to just work twice as
hard and charge half as much,

because you're a woman
and you're an immigrant.

And they're just like,
"Oh, my God, we've all
worked in fine dining."

"You would charge $40
for this."

"And we need to, because
you're not being fair to us."

"You expect us to work
all the stations,

do all the things,
and then you charge $13?"

"Like, come on," and I think
it's a culture where people

really don't want to pay
a lot for food.

But I don't know
that you can have your standards
and try and do cheap food.

I mean...

I mean, because you're using
really high-quality ingredients.

Your food is very
labor intensive.

Should I just become
a fine dining restaurant?

I mean, this is...
I mean, this is...

I think you have the answers
for me, Ruth.

Uh...

Maybe you should, um...
and then the question is,

are people going to go
to fine dining restaurants?

I mean, a lot of the fine dining
chefs I'm speaking to

are saying, "I don't think
I'm going to reopen as
a fine dining restaurant."

I mean,
it just doesn't seem to make
sense in this particular moment.

You can't really be
defensive right now,

and you can't wait
for the cavalry to come.

You have to scale it to a point

where it's like
you're feeding an army
for it to work out.

I started going like,
"Hey, what are we going to do
for Thanksgiving?"

We paid up and bought
a couple thousand turkeys.

I mean,
how many pounds of stuffing
are you going to make, Grant?

- Uh, five thousand.
- Are you serious?

Five thousand pounds
of stuffing?

I mean, I think thinking the way
you do is frightening to people.

You're taking a lot of risks.

I disagree.
So there's like...

There's risk
and then there's being risky.

So, I guess you're
taking risk, but risk is like,

you used it in a pejorative way,
right, like risk is bad.

No, I'm, I'm not.

I mean, I think
what I'm learning

in all this reporting
I'm doing is,

I'm starting to understand risk.

I mean, farmers,
more than anybody, I mean,

for their whole lives
it's about managing risk.

That's why they're
so great to deal with.

- Because they understand it
intuitively.
- Yeah.

So, right after this,
I've actually got a phone call

with a really
forward-thinking farm.

White Oak Pastures,
it's in Georgia.

They're a carbon-negative farm.

I called them last week
with no reason.

Like, I made up a reason
to call them, because
I was in a bad mood.

And I was just like,
"I need to talk to somebody
positive right now."

Completely the cultural opposite
of where we live,

and yet, like, I'm like,
why is someone

not making a documentary
about these people?

I mean, I'd like
to get those south,
catch them in the triangle.

And then shoot them down,
maybe to Bermuda Bend.

I'll check with Tyler
to make sure their fencing
ain't going to be in the way.

I wanted to talk to you about,
what got you on this path,

and whether it's possible
for other people.

You know, 25 years ago,
I didn't say, "The food system
is not resilient,

I think I'll work
on making it resilient."

That did not happen.

I am the fourth generation
of my family

to raise animals on this farm
in Bluffton, Georgia.

And my father started
the process of industrializing,

commoditizing,
and centralizing this farm.

I farmed that way for 20 years.

In the mid-'90s,

I found that I had
become disillusioned

with the excesses
of that farming system.

So I started just very gradually
moving away from it.

For me, the first canary
in the coal mine

was animal welfare.

Really, it's incumbent upon me,
as the herdsman,

to give
the animals the opportunity
to express instinctive behavior.

And you can't do that
in the confinement model.

These cattle out here,
walking and grazing
is instinctive behavior.

Those chickens right there,
scratching and pecking
is instinctive behavior.

Those hogs in that swamp
over there that's rooting
and wallowing,

that's instinctive behavior.

Over a 20-year period,
the organic matter in our soil

has gone from about
half a percent to five percent.

And by the way, all that carbon
came from greenhouse gasses
that used to be up there,

that got, through photosynthesis
and microbial activity
and animal activity,

got marooned in the soil.

I saw my land go
from a dead mineral medium

to an organic medium
that's teeming with life.

Everything is tied
to everything else.

I don't think of this farm
as a factory.

I think of it as an organism.

We're at a turning point
in this business,
as far as I'm concerned.

It is a broken pricing system.

Call where you do business

and ask them
to call the senators
and representatives.

Sign that petition,
stand up for your rights.
We are bringing attention to it.

So, if there is one thing
you could explain

to the American consumer
about your business,
what would it be?

I would like the American
consumer to understand that

the person that does
all the work
and has all the investment

is doing it literally
for nothing, and the middlemen
are getting all the money.

The system's so monopolized.

This packer takes these yards,

and this packer takes
this area of this state.

And nobody else comes in
and messes with them.

I mean, how would it work,
in your dream world?

I would like them
to break up the Big Four,
like we did in 1917.

I would like to start
with the two that
are majority foreign-owned.

I want government to police
a level playing field.

Then let us fight it out
on the economies of scale
and efficiency among ourselves,

and let the best people win
and stay in business.

That's America.

Perhaps the most
important person

for the continued sustainability
and viability
of American agriculture

and the welfare
of the American farmer

is not the Secretary
of Agriculture, but is in fact

who is in the Department
of Justice and their
antitrust regulatory unit.

That person is going to matter
a lot as to whether or not we
get an ever more concentrated,

more consolidated food system,

or start paying farmers
more fairly for the products
that they produce.

I would like to have
smaller beef plants
every 300, 400 miles.

If one went down, it would be
two, three percent of the daily
slaughter, not 15%.

I would like producers
to own those packing plants.

I think that would be better
for states and communities
and producers.

Do you still have to depend
on the big packing companies?

Well, ultimately
I made the choice

to build slaughterhouses
on my farm,

which at that time
was unheard of.

I was blessed, I had equity,
I was left the farm,
I was not hand-to-mouth.

So I could lose money
for a while, and I did.

And now I have about
$7.2 million invested

in further processing
infrastructure.

You know, the front side
of my card says,

"land steward and herdsman."

It don't say "meat processor,"
cuz I don't like that part.

It don't say "marketer,"
cuz I don't like that part.

So... but I'm all those things.

How big do you envision
White Oak Pastures becoming?

What we do here
is not highly scalable.

But it's highly replicatable.

There could and should be
one or two or three
White Oak Pastures

in every agricultural county
in this country.

It's an amazing thing
that you do,

where you train people
to farm the way you do.

So I believe in scale,
but it's not scale through size,
it's scale through replication.

What made you start GreenWave?

I was doing well
with kelp,

and so GreenWave was
the way to just create
this organization,

which is built on sharing,
on building knowledge networks.

Our backs are against
the wall, we have to innovate.

We've got a program called
Project GreenWave,

where we hire inner-city kids
to package, cook,
process all of our food.

They learn about 3D farming,
they learn about sustainability.

I was getting pressured
to become, like,
the kelp king, right?

And everybody was like,
"franchise your model,"

and, like, all these sharks
from Wall Street were coming

and telling me that there
was huge opportunities.

And, I mean,
what's my metric to success?

It's having 10,000 climate
resilient farmers on the ocean.

Like, that'll make me die happy.

It started out, this little
kind of tiny, you know,

we're training eight,
ten farmers a year,

southern New England,
really small, so that's
what it was going to be.

And then 8,000 people signed up
for farmer training
on the website.

When people think regenerative
ocean farming, hopefully this
would be their starting place.

It's really interesting,
because every restaurant
in America

is complaining that they
can't get workers,

because people just don't want
to do bad jobs anymore.

I mean, God forbid
we gave people a taste of agency

and beauty.

Right? Whoops!

Like, wow,
that's really too bad.

There are a lot of people
who are questioning,

do they want to go back to
things the way they used to be,

and you're offering
an alternative.

And it's so funny,
people from all over
the industry are emailing me,

like all of a sudden I've become
like an expert on co-ops,
and I'm not.

You know, I'm just learning.

I have to figure it out,
so that other people
can follow suit.

But people are interested.

Food is a gateway
for learning
about so many things,

from culture to the way
that communities have survived,

to the way that we build
community.

And it really wasn't
just about feeding myself,
I learned.

It was about feeding others.

It was like in feeding others
that I felt satiated.

Restaurants are more than
just restaurants.

We are these third spaces
that are just more than
a transaction.

I love restaurants,
I hope they continue to exist.

But I feel like a lot more
people have to reimagine
what hospitality looks like.

The, like,
true meaning of the word.

My parents didn't care
about food,

but they loved restaurants.

We went out to eat a lot.

My father was German, and he was
26 when he came to America.

We lived near Luchow's,

and we went to Luchow's
at least once a week
when I was growing up.

And I saw with that that it was
how my father went home.

My father's office was above
one of those little French
restaurants

in New York called the Dubonnet.

And we had a waiter, Max,
who was our waiter,

and my parents were always
in a good mood
when we went there.

Max would take me
into the kitchen

and get me to learn
what spices tasted like.

And that was just a place
that I loved
and felt really happy in.

And my mother was enchanted
with Restaurant Associates'
Joe Baum.

Joe Baum was the great maestro
of American restaurants
in the '50s and '60s.

I mean, he invented
the Four Seasons restaurant,

the Twelve Caesars,
La Fonda del Sol.

He redid the Rainbow Room.
I mean, he did
these restaurants as drama.

Joe Baum is the one who
brought the large peppermill
to the table,

and also is responsible
for, "Hi, my name is..."

He was a showman, and my mother
loved his restaurants.

And we couldn't afford to go
to places like the Four Seasons,

but we would go
and have a drink,

and then we would go
to the Automat or something
for dinner afterwards.

So I thought of restaurants
as places that
connected you to home,

places where people were happy,

and places that gave you
a chance to be someone else
for a while.

I mean, I watched my mother
walk into the Four Seasons,
and she was just...

you know, she was a rich woman
for a little while.

The funny thing is,

when I got to the New York Times
as a restaurant critic,

my job was actually to eat at
many of these expensive places.

I wanted to keep
my identity a secret,

so I invented
various personalities.

This is not the real Ruth
that we're seeing.

No, I actually
do not have carrot-red hair.

When you go to restaurants
as a critic, are you disguised?

- Yes, but--
- All the time?
- Not all the time.

When I first got to New York,
I went to Le Cirque.

And everybody went there,
all the ex-presidents
went there, it was a big scene.

I wrote one review
as the restaurant critic

of the New York Times,
and what happens,

and I wrote another review
as Ms. Nobody.

He had had four stars.
I took a star away.

I said, "The food was very good,
but you cannot treat people
that way."

There's still this voice
inside me saying,

"Yeah, but all
you're really doing is telling
rich people where to go eat."

And, um, if I had thought

that was all I had done
with my life,
it would make me very sad.

When my husband's
dad was farming,

they did the oats and the wheats
and the pearl millets.

And we just got away from it.

And using chemistry to take care
of our weed problems.

So, I'm guessing that you were
the one who wanted
to go organic.

Yes, it makes
all the sense in the world.

It's just, it's very scary,
because we don't farm like that.

Well, you were ahead
of your time.

I don't know
if my family thought so.

- I got a list.
- A list?

I do.

Okay, so last year,

the field that had
the greatest contribution margin

was the organic.

The field that had
one of the lowest yields
was the organic.

So it's not all about yield.

My husband and I struggle a lot,
because he's a numbers man,

and it's all about yield,
and how much money
you're going to make.

Whereas like, well,
maybe if you got your soils
in a little better condition,

you would get
that yield that you want.

It was bad, I can tell.

It didn't tank.

It wasn't perfect.

Okay, next thing.

It takes time,

and that's a huge problem
with farmers,

that they want everything
in that one-season window,

and it doesn't work that way
with soil health.

The only thing I was wanting
to bring up was goals.

Because I don't think we're all
on the same page in that,
and I think it'll help.

It's a tough road. We've had
a lot of heated discussions.

We would not be organic
if I hadn't done it myself.

I planted the field.

I mean, I made sure
it got in that year.

You know, it's their name
that gets run through the mud
if things go bad.

It's not the wives,
it's the guy.

They can't separate themselves,
where we can go hide
in our kitchen.

This is a family business,
but it's not just our family.

You know, we have 120 families
that I'm responsible for.

And we have an amazing crew
of seasonal staff,

many whom have been
with us for over 25 years.

And I have been keenly aware

of attempts at immigration
reform over the past 30 years.

H-2A is a visa program
we use here on the farm,

and it is the only
legal avenue we have

for seasonal agricultural
workers in the United States.

Americans will not do this work.

We're either going to have
foreign folks

and allow them to come in
and do this type of work,

or we'll round up
all 11 million undocumented,

we'll send them all back,
we'll seal up the border,

and then we will import
all of our food,

from where the wage
is $6 to $8 a day.

And then we compete
with that here.

That model doesn't work.

Society has to make
some of these choices.

Are we willing to pay
more for quality food
that we know is grown right,

and socially
responsible, or not?

So, what's important?
Make a choice.

Families lined up
to get fresh farm food outside
of the Maplewood YMCA yesterday.

It's all part of a program
through the USDA.

And the hope is to ease
the pandemic's burden
on families,

and getting farmers' produce
where it's needed.

The USDA Farm
to Families Program right now

is providing an unbelievable
help on cash flow.

If we had not gotten those
contracts, we would have had
to furlough more people.

This is buying time to allow
the restaurants to come back.

We're waiting to see if we get
a renewal on the new program.

I can't imagine you won't.

Until I have
that contract in my hand,
I'm not sleeping well.

So if you don't get
the contract, will you have
to furlough people?

Yes.

You're on hiatus for a bit.

We're not opening, you know,
the doors to our place,

you know, we don't have
an outdoor space.

But I actually have something
really exciting to share.

We're looking at an outdoor
venue to do a pop-up.
Come on and follow me.

Once they're in here, there'll
be someone here to give them
their amuse and their cocktails.

Remind them not to mingle
with other people.

So that's our dining room.

You guys follow me, this is
where we're going to meet.

I do want to be more grown-up
than Porridge & Puffs.

I do want it to be
a tiny little bit more formal.

But we have to be warm.

Never, ever, ever be aloof.

I love fine dining,
but my biggest complaint is,
it's always so sterile.

We can be cerebral
and smart and warm
at the same time.

Let me ask you
a practical question.

Sure, yes.

How do you
get more farms

by Black people
in New York state?

Okay, easy question.

I tell people,
give us three things.

Give us the opportunity to farm,

give us the land to farm,

give us the capital
and resources to farm.

Where I farm now,
the Chester Agricultural Center,
perfect example.

My farm, Rise & Root Farm,
we have three acres of land.

We grow food,
we have farm tours,
we have school groups.

People from the city
come up to see four women--

two are women of color,
two are white, three of us
are LGBTQ women.

And so we run the gamut
of what America looks like.

I run a low-income
farmer's market in the Bronx.

We're going into our 19th year.

And it took a long time,
first of all,

to build trust with the people
in my neighborhood,

because in a low-income
neighborhood,

there is the soup kitchens
and food pantries,

the fast food,
the processed food,
the junk food.

Then I had to educate that
I'm the farmer, I grew the food,

and I have to pay bills,
and I have to feed my family,

and I have to buy the seeds.

And so there's a cost
and value of food.

Because no one talks
to them about that.

I mean, the costs
are going to be huge

if we plant the product
and the restaurants
aren't ramped up.

It's a matter of trying
to time... you know?

Well, we're going to plant
as if they are open,

and if they're not open, we're
going to take it on the chin.

Last time we spoke, you were
waiting to hear whether or not

you were going to get
back into the Farmer
to Families Program.

- Mm-hm.
- Did you?

- No.
- You're kidding.

No.

USDA came in and said, "the only
box offer that we'll take is
a combination box."

Sysco got 32 states.
Yeah, all the small guys
got shut out.

The fresh produce that they're
getting in the boxes that I saw

were a bag of apples
and a bag of potatoes.

They were getting fresh,
leafy greens from us.
So we're out.

But this is supposed to be
bailing farmers out.

I mean, it's not supposed
to be bailing Sysco out.

- Right.
- Things are driving me crazy,
I'm taking them off.

You know, we were really
counting on that contract,

to do what
the program really intended.

Farm to Families
Food Box Program.

Help the farm,
help those families...

and then they changed it.

In this last round
of food boxes,

if you do not include
the letter from Donald Trump

and the White House in the box,
you don't get paid.

- No.
- The letter has to be
included in the box.

It's a disaster.

We were counting on that,
so we planted up for that.

We have to make a decision
as to how much to leave
in the field.

We cannot spend the dollars,
because we don't have them
right now, to harvest that

and store it
and then throw it away.

We have several million people
in New York City alone
that are going to bed hungry.

And here we are just a handful
of hours down the road,
with the product in the field.

120 families here

that we don't know how we can
keep on the payroll.

We're not smart enough
as a society to work together
to connect those dots.

I don't know what to say.

We're trying every way
we know how, Ruth.

The chefs are in trouble.

It's a ripple-down effect,
and it's a struggle.

You can't do it all.

You can't.

Uh... this is,
this is a societal problem.

You know, this is,
this is all of our failure.

All of us.

When we were in our twenties
and we all moved to California,

you know, the idea was,
we would follow our passions.

You know,
you only go through life once.

We weren't going to be beholden
to corporate America.

Um, you could live really
on nothing in those days.

We all bought that house
together, that group of us.

I mean, Doug and my share
of the rent was $45 a month.

We raised half our own food,

and, you know, there were

15 people for dinner every night
and we split the cost.

- Yeah.
- It was really cheap.

And I don't think
you can do that anymore.

We're so spoiled.

We're used to everything,
all the time.

That's the thing
that's missing, is--

Oh, God, I didn't leave
the beans on the fire, did I?

Did you?

Yes...

Can I ask
a really stupid question?
Are you a good cook?

Yeah, I am a good cook.

I'm not a great cook,
I'm not a trained, you know,
I'm not a "chef."

But I have, I started--
So like, the cover
of my first book,

Tender at the Bone,
is a picture of me
cooking at 7.

I've always loved to cook.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's what I do, you know,

when I am sad, or in trouble.

- I go into the kitchen.
- Yeah, yeah.

It's my best place.

I feel like I've sort of
spent my whole life working
up to this project.

- Really?
- Yeah, yeah.

It also makes me feel like
a terrible failure,

that we didn't fix this.

We were talking
about the concentration

in the food industry
in the early '70s.

And we just
let it happen, you know?

This wave came over us,

and we got sidetracked
by "deliciousness," you know.

You know, a whole group
of us who started out
with the politics of food,

and then became cooks,
and opened restaurants,

and let this really
egregious thing take hold.

And we should have been
fighting it.

We should have been
fighting it tooth and nail,

the moment we saw it coming
over the horizon.

And we just let it happen.

And I feel, you know,
culpable and devastated by that.

What is the weather
supposed to be Sunday?

- I mean, Saturday--
- Just cold.

Just cold, but, I mean,
hopefully it won't be iced over.

What do you guys do
this time of year?

Well,
we've been hauling bales.

So there's a lot of
cattle feeders around here.

They'll use it
for bedding for cattle.

So the guys have been
busy with that.

I did some hauling yesterday,

and then just kind of
getting ready for taxes,

because I'm so behind.

And then, all the seed people,
the chemical people,
they come knocking at your door.

To get the biggest discounts,
you have to buy the inputs
in October, November, December,

and we won't be using them
until April or later.

But you have to put that money
out up front so you can get
that big discount.

That seems so unfair.

Yeah.

How are things going
with your husband?

Well, working
with Kerry's been challenging,

but also rewarding.

I mean, when we do disagree,

we, uh, disagree respectfully
most of the time

and try to keep it,
you know, it's about the farm.

It's not personal between us.

And it's about a practice.

But it is getting better.

And it does help that
the boys are older now

and they're in the conversation.

My husband has been
in the hospital, so I've been...

- What happened?
- Um...

He got very dehydrated
and then his kidneys failed.

- Oh, no. Is that...
- He's home.

He came home yesterday,
but I'm not...

uh, totally on top of things
right now.

Is that going to be something
long-term that affects--

No, but it was really bad.

I mean, we didn't realize
how sick he was

until, you know,
it was really bad.

Were you able to go
in the hospital with him?

- No.
- Yeah, wow.

And, I mean,
I want to tell you, you know,

it's given me a whole
new perspective

on when they talk about
these COVID patients
dying alone.

- Yeah.
- ...the hospital
for almost a week.

They are so stressed,
they are so overworked.

I never once talked
to a doctor.

- I mean...
- Wow.

And the nurses were
really lovely, but, you know,

they would call me when they
could to give me information.

And Michael
was terrified, alone.

Uh... It was horrible.

Really horrible.

You do not want to get sick
in the middle of a COVID crisis.

Yeah, yeah.

So, are most of
your people still with you,

or have you had
to furlough a lot of people?

We went from 167 to,

we're right about 95 right now.

I really hold myself
hugely responsible

for the financial mess
that we're in,

because I didn't create enough
of a diverse business,

not focused on just one
revenue stream of restaurants.

Just...
I got blindsided by it.

Coronavirus,
it's a horrible thing.

You know, through this,
you have to maintain hope.

And we're going to find
new ways to do business.

It's going to be the new normal,
and we have to figure out
what that is.

How are you?

I'm pretty good,
how are you?

I'm good, I think.
It's a little bit nasty here.

We got a bunch of ice and snow,
wet last night, so...

How much COVID
is there around you?
Still really low?

Oh, you know, we'd be low
as far as, just because
the population's so low.

But honestly I think
our percentages here

are probably higher
than yours where you live.

Probably because everybody
here just bored on
with total disregard.

So, are you seeing
any effect of the election
on your business?

Uh...

I would probably say no.

I mean, the,
the effect it's having is,

is most cattle people
are very conservative
and very to the right.

So, they're in a poor mood
about it.

I think the Democrats have a big
burden in rural America.

Well, and I'm going
to say this quite honestly,

ag does not necessarily flourish
under Republican administration.

Our lifestyle
and beliefs out here

is what makes everybody to be
so conservative, and regulation.

But quite honestly,
ag probably is better off under
Democratic administrations,

if you look back over history.

One of the things
that you bring up

is this rural/urban divide...

- Yep.
- ...and your fear

that rural America is basically
going to be pushed off the map.

These little towns,
you know, the town I live by,
6,500 people, it's all ag.

You know, those 50-
to 100-head cowherd guys,

they get their stuff
repaired in town,

and they buy their pickups
in town, and they eat
in town, and...

I mean, they support
all the local businesses.

You get to where you have
800 to 1,000 cows,

you don't have to buy your
mineral from the local mill,

you can order it by a semi-load
from somewhere like Kansas City.

You can get
your medicine direct,

and you don't have to go
through a local retailer.

I mean, these towns are about
to dry up and blow away anyway,

with just the migration
that ag has already took.

The kids out here,
about all get an excellent
secondary education.

And then they have
the work ethic and the morals

that the companies
in the cities want.

And so, they pay them way more
than what they could
stay here and make.

It's just a steady flow
of pushing everybody
into city.

You said you thought
that next year,

10% of the cow/calf people
around you would be
out of business.

Do you still think that?

Yeah.

You know, there's a day
of reckoning coming.

Bluffton peaked
in population in 1900.

When I was growing up
in the '60s,
Bluffton was still a town.

You know, it still
had stores, and...

but under the industrial
commodity scenario,

it atrophied and atrophied.

When it hit its bottom,
which was probably
10 or 15 years ago,

the town became
economically irrelevant.

But when we hired
100 and something young,

educated, passionate people here
and paid them well,

they needed a place

to eat and sleep
and shop and play.

And so we built it.

Now we've got 176 employees.

We're the largest
private employer in the county.

Our average employee makes
way above the county average,

in one of the poorest counties,
in one of the poorest states
in the nation.

And what resulted
is a really nice community.

You know, it's still tiny,
but it's gone from ghost town,

literally, to destination,
in a decade.

So, I'm very proud of that.

So I hear you've been
doing something with a solar
power company now, too?

Some friends of mine owned
a very large farm, near my farm,

and they sold it
to a renewable energy company.

I was not very happy about that,

because they take
really good farmland,

and they use Roundup,
and erosion is horrible.

It becomes a moonscape.

We populated that solar field
with about 2,000 sheep
for vegetative control.

And later on we added
a few thousand chickens,
a few hundred ducks.

Yeah.

It has been a wonderful success.

Everybody wins.

They actually pay us
the same amount of money

they would pay a company
to spray and mow and trim,

and we're building
organic matter in their soil,
and preventing erosion.

It's created new jobs
and produces some really good
lamb for our customers to eat.

I mean, everybody wins.

This was farmed-to-death
row crop land.

Now, perennials are coming.

So that is Bermuda grass,

which is a great warm-season
perennial grass.

That's evidence that life's
coming back to the land.

Hi, Zuzu.

You want to say hi
to Auntie Ruth?

- Hi.
- Bye-bye, Auntie Ruth.

Bye-bye.

Our landlords
won't give us any relief.

They won't work with us,
they haven't negotiated with us.

I mean, one option is to stay.

Second option is
to break the lease early.

And then the third option is
to fold both of our locations
together, in the Mission.

Have you discussed this
with your staff?

- We're doing it today, actually,
having the big meeting, yeah.
- Really?

It's a good sort
of stepping stone,

before worker ownership
even comes into play,

as I figure out how to,
like, involve the collective

in whatever decisions
that I'm making as an owner,
about this transition.

If we decided to go
work at the Mission temporarily,

we would have to go
roll in at like three,

four in the morning before,
before y'all open up.

I'm going to go
to the landlords
and tell them,

"You're going to give us relief,
or we walk away."

If they say, "You know what,
we'll give you relief,"

then I'll bring it back here
and we consider it.

If they say no, which I think
they are, unfortunately,
we move.

We know that that's going
to be our goal,

is to make sure that
our workers stay in Oakland.

I haven't cut my teeth
in the industry

as much as some of the people
that work for me, you know?

So there's a lot of wisdom
and skill there.

Hot pita, hot pita!

Luis is, like,
from a third generation

of bakers from the Yucatán.

It's, like, in his blood.

Like, I learn
so much from him every day.
I mean, I learn from them.

Luis is like, it's about
our change of mentality.

We have to think like
employees and like bosses.

I'm really OCD,
you guys.

This makes me so batty.

So, you've opened
your new place.
How is it?

It's great and it's horrible.

I think...

uh, I'm just going to say it.

The food is like an A-minus.

The service is a C-minus,
maybe a D.

Ooh.

I think I'm at 20%
of where I want to be.

So, there's a lot of room
for improvement.

And I think I broke my
back-of-house team.

We were there until 2:30 a.m.

I don't lose my shit, usually,
and I lost my shit.

- They were mad.
- That sounds brutal.

- And I just, like...
- And God knows there are a lot

of out-of-work front-of-house
people at the moment.

But none of them want to work.
I literally called 100 people.

They don't want to work, Ruth.

And especially the way
that I want to set up,

where I want to take, I want
to pay the front of the house

and back of house equally,
you know.

I set a price, I said everyone
across the board in service,

no matter if you're the porter
or the dishwasher,

you get $20 an hour,
because it's so fucking hard.

But servers will not work
for $20 to $25 an hour.

Whereas my
back-of-the-house team
will break their backs

and don't think they're doing
enough for that amount.

- Right.
- I think there's
financial literacy

that needs to happen
in our industry.

And that financial literacy
needs to be taught to everyone

who's working,
as well as to diners.

Well, more senators
are calling for a hearing

to review legislative proposals
to improve the meat-packing
industry.

In his weekly call
with reporters just yesterday,

Senator Chuck Grassley
called for a hearing as well.

I call this hearing

of the US Senate Committee
on Agriculture, Nutrition,
and Forestry to order.

We're going to focus
specifically
on our cattle markets today.

You know,
COVID really showed
how fragile our food system is.

Consumers were paying higher
prices for meat, while ranchers
were paid less for their cattle.

But the big, consolidated
companies really made
record profits.

- I've been
watching the hearings.
- Uh-huh.

So, how did we actually get
to the point that there are
these hearings?

Well, I don't want
to take a lot--

I mean, I...

Me and three or four or five
others being relentless,

I think,
finally got enough people
starting to pay attention.

I mean, I have flown and met
with countless senators
and legislators.

We've drove people nuts, man.

Good for you.

I'm getting hundreds of calls

from beef cattle producers
that are saying,

"Cindy, what is wrong
with this market?"

Ultimately,
aren't these people putting
themselves out of business?

I mean, if nobody's
going to raise cattle anymore,

the packers are ultimately
out of business too.

But they're going towards
total vertical integration.

They know that the biggest,
most efficient, elite producers

will get bigger
as the smaller ones go out.

And when you get to where
there's five producers where
there was 100, they will unify.

And they will charge
what beef's worth,

and then the American consumer
will be paying a lot more
for food.

We have to address this issue
of lack of competition

and the fact
that there is an oligopoly

and that price setting and
market power's being misused

in a way that disadvantages
the very people

that are out there trying
to make a living on the land.

If those senators
and representatives are smart,

you don't want this country's
food supply in limited hands.

Have you gotten
the first vaccination yet?

Yes.

I got it last week.

Didn't you feel like...
a kind of lightness from that?

Well, it was very strange,
actually, Ruth,

because I got
enormously depressed.

I woke up in the morning
the next morning,

and I, I just said,

"We're never going
to address climate change,
and I might as well just...

give up," and started crying,

and I was crying
off and on all day.

It frightened me.

I mean, this COVID time
has been an interesting time
for a lot of people,

'cause a lot of people have,
like, have never had time
to think before.

And, you know, I go
for a walk every morning,

but I have never looked deeply

and stopped along the way,
the way I do now.

That I am seeing, you know,

almost the plants grow
from day to day...

...the blossoms
on the fruit trees already.

And I, it's...

the closer look that I'm having.

You know, I love spring.

It's one of the advantages
of farming for a living.

You get a do-over every year.

There are opportunities
that have been created
due to COVID.

Pre-COVID, we grew
a wide variety of vegetables

and we sold them directly
to restaurants.

Now, we grow a wide variety
of vegetables,

we sell them to restaurants,
to home consumers,

to institutions and hospitals

that are now starting to
understand the whole concept
of food as medicine.

In 1983, I came home from
Ohio State my freshman year.

That house was the house
that was sold,

and Dad's farm
was at that barn,
and it was full of equipment,

and it took two days
to sell it all.

We bought that back.

And my son is moving in there,
and his wife.

And it's kind of a full circle.

He is just coming back into
the business, as is my daughter.

Lee's son works in the business.

So we're very excited
to be having the next generation

come back into the business.

- I can tell you
some good news, if you want.
- Yeah.

So we just found out
yesterday that Knuth Farms
is certified organic now.

- Oh, fantastic!
- Yeah, so...

Congratulations,
that's amazing.

So, what does it actually mean
for your farm that you've now
been certified organic?

Right now,
it is the dollar sign.

Instead of $3.30 corn,

we're hoping to get $6
to $7 a bushel.

So take that times
30,000 bushels,
and that's a lot of money.

I like the direction
with the organic
and regenerative movement,

where it's coming
around back to soil health.

I think that's really rewarding.

The boys are interested
in seeing this unfold,

because they're saying things
and I'm going,

"Ooh, you wouldn't have said
that about a year ago."

It's nice when it's a family
business, most of the time.

And I think down the road,
they'll definitely want
to work together.

So, we think they're
pretty level-headed,

and, uh... and we value
their opinion right now.

I mean, because, we are
at that stage where
we're getting up there,

and they're the future,
so this is neat, because
we get to hand it off to them.

We have something
to hand off to them.

One of the problems
in American agriculture

is that the average age
of the American farmer is 64.

And we're losing young people
in this business
at a terrific rate.

Being 65,
I can understand that.

There are plenty of young people
who would love to come back
to the farm.

Farming is a wonderful life,
lifestyle, livelihood.

All kind of good things
about it.

And I, I scold people
when they say,

"Oh, farming is a hard life."
No, it's not.

Have you ever seen a roofer?
Now, that's hard-ass work.

You see the guys
putting roofs on houses?

Don't tell me how hard
farmers work, when I see
a roofer working.

Well, welcome
to White Oak Pastures.

My name is Jodi,
and I'm a member

of the fifth generation
on the farm.

My great great grandfather,
he raised multi-species,

slaughtered his own animals
on the farm,

sold them locally
to the people here in Bluffton.

And it's very similar
to our model today.

We joke now, saying,
we farm more like
our great great grandfather did

than when my grandfather was
alive and operating the farm.

All right, so we've got
the Easter campaign
starting this weekend.

We've got a little bit
of trim that Buck's going
to try to run for ground lamb,

and then some merguez, and...
are you going to run
some more chorizo?

We're going to run
200 pounds of each batch.

Good deal. Uh...

Jenni
is my middle daughter

and she has always
been my shadow.

We have been inseparable
since she got potty trained.

And I am just
fiercely proud of her.

That works both ways.

It's so great to have a kid
who's your shadow.

It's great to have a dad
that's a mentor.

I've always told
my daughters that my goal is

to have the opportunity for them
to come back, but not
the obligation to come back.

Jenni, did you always
know that you wanted to
come back and work on the farm?

I did not.

So, growing up gay and closeted,

I really had made peace
with the fact that

I would have to choose

professional happiness
or personal happiness,

and those two couldn't
possibly coincide.

And it didn't work that way,
I get to have both.

It sounds kind of like
a fairy tale, to be honest.

It does, it does.
I think dad and I both agree,

we get to live
in our own fairy tales.

They're very different,
but they're,
they're fairy tales.

So, Will,
what's your fairy tale?

You know, I'm living it.

To have...

I'm a little emotional.

Me too.

Something in the air.

I don't know.

You know, uh, I love what I do.

That's an understatement.

You know, it's my hobby,

my vocation, my avocation,

my legacy and heritage,
every day.

We've been 14 months
in the pandemic.

We have learned some things,

collectively, what business
works and what doesn't, right?

A year later,
we're much clearer
that we need to leave Fruitvale.

We have a chance
to build our own bakery
here in downtown Oakland.

I want you all to see, could
this be the new home of Reem's?

A business model that would be
profitable for everybody.

Racks and racks and racks
of dough and pastry
shaping happening.

- I'd say excited.
- Excited, worried?

- Emotional.
- Emotional.

You know, across the board,
people were really responsive

and gave us really
excellent reviews.

Because I personally know
what I need to work on,

you know,
I know the wonky things.

I'm at 40% of where
I want to be.

I feel like we're on
training wheels a little bit.

How could it not be?
You're a brand-new restaurant
in the middle of a pandemic.

You know, with a new restaurant
like yours,

where you're doing
really experimental food,

and really food of your heart,

you're going to have to find
your customers,

and you can't assume
that everybody who comes

is going to love it,
because they're not,
they're just not.

And you can't take it to heart.

Yeah.

Thanks, Ruth.

Yeah.

When I was a child,
I was attracted to food

because I saw that
it brought people together.

But it was when
I began looking at cooks
that I really fell in love.

Because it seemed to me it was
impossible to make great food

if you didn't
have a generous soul.

Independent farmers
and ranchers are also
a special breed.

They understand
and care about food in a way
that nobody else does.

I have never connected
so personally with the people
I was interviewing.

The isolation of COVID did
something really unexpected.

It sparked
deeper relationships,

deeper understanding.

The people I met this year
give me hope.

They're independent
of the industrialized model,

which frees them
to take risks.

Their collective vision

may hold the key
to our well-being.

I've always believed that food
is social and political,

but it's so much more
than that.

It shows us our values.

How we grow
and make our food

tells us who we are
as a nation,

and more importantly,
who we are as human beings.

I would love to meet you
in person.

- That would be great.
We'll have to one of these days.
- Yeah.

My son'll be riding
in that world a lot,

so if he gets up
in the New York rodeo
or whatever

and we get over there,
I'll probably look you up.

Oh, please. Please.

I'm really proud
to call you here from Glasgow.

You are the 2021 winner
of the Food Planet Prize.

Oh, my... are you kidding?

The decision has been made
by the Curt Bergfors Foundation,

believe it or not,
to double up on the prize.

So you're not winner of just
one million US dollars,

you are now the winner
of two million US dollars,

the largest prize
for sustainability in the world.

Congratulations, Bren,
and the whole GreenWave team.

So this is confidential
because they want
to keep it confidential,

but they're naming
the restaurant of the year.

- Whoa!
- Whoa! Isn't that cool?

And then everyone around me
is like, "Wait,
can we just take a moment

to not react to it
as, like, another, you know,

you having to react to a pivot,
and just enjoy it?"

And I'm like,
"Yeah, but oh, my God!"

The food that we eat,
the tools that we use,

the methods of agriculture
were started by your ancestors.

And every time someone says,

"Get down and dirty
and go into a garden,"

you go into that garden
with pride.

Thank you so much.