Hello, health enthusiasts, and welcome to Rev Up Health, your go-to podcast for all things wellness. I'm Dr. Mark Hechler, and I'm Tandi Hechler. Together we're here to fuel your health journey with the best of functional medicine and holistic well-being. Each episode, we'll dive deep into topics that matter to your health, bringing you the latest insights, research, and inspiring stories. Whether you're on a quest for vibrant health or just looking for daily health tips, we've got you covered. So let's embark on this journey together and transform the way you live. So, Tandi, what's on our wellness radar for today?
Hello, and welcome to the Rev Up Health Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about a recent trip we got to take to a regenerative farm in California. It's a really awesome place. If anybody's ever seen The Biggest Little Farm — it's a documentary on Netflix, I believe, and some other channels too — it's quite an interesting documentary that you'll have to try and see if you can find. It puts a lot of perspective into how we grow and raise our foods, and how we treat our soil, the air, and all the animals involved.
Two Documentaries Worth Watching
There are a couple of different documentaries you can catch right now. On Netflix for free, you can catch Kiss the Ground, another documentary about regenerative farming, and I believe you can rent or purchase The Biggest Little Farm. Mark and I have watched it twice, both times on international flights — so it's good to have something to look at whenever you're on a long flight like that. It's very interesting; it gathers your interest and actually has a plot to it, so it's not just about farming. It's quite an interesting movie, so I won't give it away.
Meeting John and Molly Chester
We were recently in LA visiting our daughter and son-in-law, and we looked it up and found that you could go for a tour. They have a farm stand there where you can buy great food and products that they grow, and it's quite good. We were lucky enough that John and Molly Chester surprised our group with a little quick Q&A afterwards, so we got to meet them in person. We purchased a cookbook — it's The Apricot Lane Farms Cookbook by Molly Chester. It's huge and has amazing recipes in it, so we're excited to try those. That was an extra special treat from our visit to the farm — no pun intended.
They're really down to earth, they're good people. A lot of folks wouldn't take the time like they did to meet everybody, answer questions, and explain a lot of things. And there's a lot of stuff still to come from them — they gave us a little hint that there may be some more things in the works, so we won't give it away.
Why Regenerative Farming Matters for Health
Ultimately, why is regenerative farming important for our health? Regenerative farming is a way of creating biodiversity, and it affects everything from the soil to the crops to the animals to the air that we breathe. It's a way that things can symbiotically coexist and benefit each other — whether it's the birds eating the bugs, preventing the bugs from getting into the plants. There's a lot more diversity that occurs in these types of regenerative farms than in a traditional modern farm.
Because of that biodiversity, what they're doing is regenerating the soil the food is grown in, which means the food you're eating from these farms is more nutrient-dense — which is why it's such an important thing. And not only the nutrients, but even the moisture in the soil. They talk about how these regenerative farms can retain 50% of the moisture that comes down into the ground, versus today's traditional farms, which lose a lot of moisture.
No-Till, Cover Crops, and Integrated Livestock
No-till regenerative farms don't till the soil; they have lots of cover crop, and they integrate livestock into the farm. By moving your chickens from one area to another, you can get that soil turned. One thing I noticed — that maybe wasn't even spoken about — is that they had animals of different types and breeds. They had sheep, goats, pigs, and a lot of different types of animals that actually utilize the grasses, weeds, and bushes that grow there. I never noticed anybody mowing any grass there, which I thought was kind of interesting — you've got all the natural animals doing all the mowing for you, and then their feces fertilize the soil, and they just rotate them. It's certainly interesting to see how they do that.
Fewer Pesticides and Herbicides
With this type of farming, there's less of a need for pesticides. In fact, most of these — if you are a regenerative farm, you're not using pesticides and herbicides. It eliminates that significantly. Yes, you're going to have weeds growing around there, but it's not something that can't be controlled — the chickens and other animals can control those weeds in some respects. They even had chicken coops and chicken runs set up out in their orchards, which would help regenerate the soil and take care of the grasses and bugs, and they'd just move them around. That eliminates the need for the herbicides and pesticides you typically see, so you can literally pick fruit off the tree and eat it, because it does not have chemicals.
Building a Resilient Food System
The other really fun thing about this farm is the different species they have. They may have four different species of peach trees, or several different species of other trees, and they do this because then your food system is more resilient. If you have one that might be a little less drought tolerant and you don't have a big production that year, you're going to get production from another. So everything doesn't just revolve around the weather — there are going to be good and bad times with the weather, and different crops will produce more at certain times of the year, whether it be moisture or dryness.
Nutrient-Dense Food, Healthier You
What it means to consume foods that are more nutrient-dense is that your body is being fueled in a much more efficient, healthy way — more of the things you need, more of the fuel you need for all your daily activities, exercise, and metabolic function. And you're not going to have as much of a problem or threat with contaminated products and foods — less toxins, less chemicals. These types of chemicals and toxins can be toxic to your cells; it affects your mitochondrial health, your thyroid, and other hormones in your system. Those toxins and chemicals are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, binding receptors and causing problems, so this allows you to have a healthier metabolic system.
And we're not just talking about physical health — we're talking about emotional and mental health, your overall health in general. One of the things that's quite interesting is that when you look to eat in this way, quite often you have to go to a farmer's market or seek it out and actually talk to the farmer, and that helps your community health as well.
Economics of Regenerative Farming
When you carry it down a little further, there are economic benefits too. There's more health and less chronic disease, and that helps reduce the overall healthcare burden. But one of the big things, as we're talking economics, is that right now these regenerative farms are more costly, because it's not what we're used to, and regenerative farms aren't as subsidized as other farms that raise monocrops. There are a lot of issues with policies that go along with the subsidies for farming. With regenerative farms, you find ways to get to the final product, and when it's done in a healthy manner, it's going to be healthier for you overall.
The other piece is that once you take the plunge and start a regenerative farm, five to seven years down the line, you're in a much better place — but that initial startup cost is a little more taxing. It takes years to get a regenerative farm up and running; it's not something that just happens in a year or two. I think they mentioned seven years for The Biggest Little Farm — they suggested it took about seven years before it would see itself being able to sustain itself and be viable. And now it is thriving. Not that it doesn't still take a lot of work — the way they graze their animals and rotate their crops, even as they were explaining it, is extremely thoughtful and fascinating.
What Regenerative Farming Does for the Environment
The best thing we can do to help regenerative farming and the movement is to buy food from regenerative farms — local food. And we haven't really even talked about what this does for our environment. Doing some of the research, they talked about how these regenerative farms can actually be carbon eaters — they produce 50% less carbon that gets into the atmosphere, which affects climate change, whereas some traditional farming can actually release carbon. So these regenerative farms are actually beneficial to the environment and the air specifically. It's not just all about food — it's about the air too.
And water. We were in California, where water is a big deal, and one of the things we talked about during the Q&A is that when you farm in a regenerative way, with cover crop, the soil is like a sponge. So when it rains — and it may not rain very often, but when it does — all of that water is being collected in the soil, which is exactly what you want. One of the things they were very proud of is that they have not used their water allotment since they opened the farm, which is a great thing, especially in an area where water is so precious. They talked about their aquifer actually increasing its water level in the ground. So you can sequester water. In some of these areas in California, they get water at certain times of the year and the rest of the year don't get anything, so it's nice to know you can actually bank your water. They had some runoff areas too that would contain any moisture that gets in during heavy raining periods, so you can reuse that.
Composting and Worm Tea
It's also something where they generate their own compost out there, which is really awesome. They have separate composting facilities to generate soil that they can use to grow the crops and put into the gardens. They talked about both hot compost and cool compost. They have a whole barn dedicated to a bed of worms that they feed, and then take that and make a tea that they water their crops with. It's just amazing — hundreds of thousands of worms they had in this thing, just eating away and loving it.
It All Starts With the Soil
Ultimately, the topic of regenerative farming is so important for so many reasons. When we're talking about preventative medicine, we're trying to help people live fuller, longer lives — and to think about regenerative farming, where we can also keep our Earth healthy. It all starts with the soil. Literally, it all starts with the soil. The healthier the soil we have, the better the plants grow, the animals don't pick up the pesticides, and it doesn't affect us when we consume these products. So it makes everything healthier from head to toe, and gut health is pretty important, as we talked about in another podcast, so it makes a difference.
Find and Support Local Regenerative Farms
So we definitely encourage you to check out regenerative farms around you locally, wherever you are. There are a few in Kansas City here too — Farah Family Farm, Five Mile Farm, Herbivore Urban Farm, lots of different places you can go look. A lot of these farms, you can look at their website and it will tell you what farmers market you can find them at, and you can sign up for a CSA, where they basically provide you fresh product every week from the farm.
We're kind of trying to experiment with that a little bit here at Revelation Health. We've got some chickens, we've got some honeybees, and our garden got started late this year, but we're hoping that by next year we have that going a little bit more. Well, at least the chickens will enjoy the garden — that's right, we will.
So we encourage you to think about what you're eating, where it comes from, and how it's grown, and next time you're at the farmers market, you can ask some questions — the farmers can help you understand where they're coming from. But check it out — check out The Biggest Little Farm; I think you'll enjoy that documentary. John and Molly did a great job on it, and you'll really appreciate it. Otherwise, we hope you have a healthy day.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Rev Up Health. We hope you're leaving with some valuable insights to supercharge your health journey. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to Rev Up Health wherever you listen to your podcasts, and if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. Have a topic you want us to explore? Reach out to us on our social media channels — we love hearing from our wellness community. Until next time, keep thriving, and remember: your journey to health is a journey to a better you. Stay well, and we'll connect with you again soon. This is Tandi, and this is Dr. Mark, signing off from Rev Up Health. Take care.
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. The content is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient and their healthcare provider. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your healthcare regimen, including diet, exercise, or treatment plans. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Revelation Health and Wellbeing.