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Interview with Gene Baur, President of Farm Sanctuary – 03.03.16

Gene Baur has been hailed as “the conscience of the food movement” by Time magazine. Since the mid-1980s, he has traveled extensively, campaigning to raise awareness about the abuses of industrialized factory farming and our system of cheap food production.

A pioneer in the field of undercover investigations, Gene has visited hundreds of farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses, documenting the deplorable conditions that exist. His pictures and videos exposing factory farming cruelties have aired nationally and internationally, educating millions about the plight of modern farm animals.

Gene has also testified in courts and before local, state, and federal legislative bodies, advocating for better conditions for farm animals. His most important achievements include winning the first-ever cruelty conviction at a U.S. stockyard and introducing the first U.S. laws to prohibit cruel farming confinement methods in Florida, Arizona, and California. His efforts have been covered by top news organizations, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal. Gene has published two bestsellers, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food (Scribner, 2008) and Living the Farm Sanctuary Life (Rodale, 2015), which he co-authored with Forks Over Knives author Gene Stone. Through his writing and his international speaking engagements, Gene provides simple actionable solutions coupled with a compassion-first approach to help us be the change we wish to see in treatment toward animals and in our food system.

Gene began his activist career selling veggie hotdogs out of a VW van at Grateful Dead concerts to fund farm animal rescues. Today, he serves as president of Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization, with shelters in New York and California. Providing rescue, refuge, and adoption for hundreds of farm animals each year, Farm Sanctuary shelters enable visitors to connect with farm animals as emotional, intelligent individuals. Gene believes these animals stand as ambassadors for the billions of factory farm animals who have no voice, and he has dedicated his career to advocating on their behalf.

Gene holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University, Northridge, and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University. In 2015, Gene was granted an Associate appointment in Health, Behavior, and Society at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In this prestigious position, Gene is focused on implementing courses related to evidence-based work on diet and farming as it aligns to Farm Sanctuary’s goals of shedding light on factory farming’s threat to public health, the environment and animal welfare.

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Interview with Brett Tolley of Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and Slow Fish – 02.25.16

Brett Tolley is from a four-generation fishing family from Massachusetts. He is currently the Community Organizer for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, working at the intersection of marine conservation and social justice. He is on the board of directors for Farm to Institution New England (FINE) and serves on the core team helping to grow the Slow Fish USA network. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Interview with Michelle Schwegmann author of Eat Like You Give A Damn – 02.18.16

Michelle Schwegmann is co-owner of The Herbivore Clothing Company, a vegan clothing, cookbook and lifestyle brand based in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 2002, Herbivore designs and makes clothing and accessories for people who like to fashionably proclaim their compassionate beliefs. Tee shirts, hoodies, belts, wallets, bags, cookbooks, body care and more are at their store in the vegan-minimall, and online at herbivoreclothing.com.

Michelle and her husband Josh Hooten are the authors of Eat Like You Give a Damn, a cookbook and guide for new vegans. They are parents to ten-year-old Ruby, whose daily vegan lunch you can see via the hashtag #rubybirdslunch.

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Interview with Pam Koch from the Tisch Food Center– 02.11.16

Pam Koch is the Executive Director and Research Associate Professor of Nutrition Education at the Tisch Center for Food. She conducts research about the connections between a just, sustainable food system and healthy eating, and she translates her findings into useful resources for educators and policy makers.

Pam is the primary author of the three Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE) curriculum series books: Growing Food; Farm to Table & Beyond, and Choice, Control & Change. Pam speaks about nutrition education and sustainable food systems at meetings and conferences across the country. She also collaborates with several groups that are working to increase access to healthy, sustainable food around New York City, including Wellness in the Schools, Edible Schoolyard, and Food Corps. She completed her BS and MS degrees in nutrition at Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, and her EdD and RD from Teachers College, Columbia University.

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Interview with Earl Fultz – 01.28.16

Earl Fultz is the 92 year old Founder and CEO of cHarissa, a small, artisanal food company on the North Fork of Long Island, rocking the food world and winning awards. His business is a love story, a tribute to his late wife Gloria, who transformed an old family recipe, to appeal to her American family and friends. The cHarissa rub and spice is an all natural condiment, which is free of sugar, gluten and any chemical additives, using cumin, lemon, sea salt and olive oil.

In order to help make his dream come true, Earl partnered with Jeri Woodhouse, from a Taste of the North Fork, to help market and grow the business.

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Interview with Josh Cooks from Nextdoorganics – 01.21.16

Josh helped found Nextdoorganics in 2011 and spent its first season on a rural farm outside Providence, RI. He now helps with strategic planning, design & technology, and operations logistics.

He WWOOFed on three farms in Europe and helped start a school garden at a democratic school in rural West Virginia, the state he is from. He previously worked at the Alternative Education Resource Organization.

He is also the co-founder of Sangha.is, a new online platform to facilitate the creation of residencies in learning communities around the world.

He graduated with a major in Culture & Politics from Georgetown University and earned a master’s in the Anthropology of Learning and Cognition from the London School of Economics.

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Interview with Parvati Markus, author of Love Everyone – 01.14.16

PARVATI MARKUS is a developmental editor and writer of spiritually oriented nonfiction books and memoirs. She has worked on books by various members of the satsang, from Ram Dass’s classic Be Here Now (before she went to India) to those since her time in India with Maharajji (1971–1972)—from Dada Mukerjee’s By His Grace and The Near and the Dear to Krishna Das’s recent Chants of a Lifetime. She is a former president of the board of the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram and Temple and a former development con-sultant for the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, held at the U.N. in Geneva, Switzerland. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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Interview with Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger – 01.07.16

Joel Berg is a nationally recognized leader, and media spokesperson in the fields of domestic hunger, food insecurity, obesity, poverty, food-related economic development, national service, and volunteerism. He is executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and a former Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is also author of All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?, the definitive and most well-reviewed book on American hunger of the last decade. He is also author of the forthcoming book America We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation, due out in fall 2016.

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Interview with Eric Weltman from Food and Water Watch – 12.24.15

Eric Weltman is Senior Organizer for Food & Water Watch in New York. He has over 20 years of experience leading social justice campaigns and building progressive power. Eric has helped direct ground-breaking coalitions, organize high-visibility media events, write influential publications, and manage successful initiatives to pass legislation, fund programs, and elect candidates. Eric also has extensive experience conducting trainings on media outreach, advocacy, organizing, and public speaking. He has taught urban politics at Suffolk University, and written for such publications as The American Prospect, In These Times, and Dollars & Sense. A native of New Jersey, Eric graduated from the University of Michigan and earned an M.A. in Urban & Environmental Policy from Tufts University. When he’s not changing the world, Eric enjoys being with his wife, Sarah, and son, Zach, reading history books, taking walks around New York City, watching “Burn Notice” and “House,” juggling, and eating Thai food.

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Interview with Robert Clancy – Author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Soul – 12.17.15

Robert Clancy is a gifted entrepreneur, inspirational speaker, author and minister. At 19, Robert had a divine spiritual experience that greatly altered his life. In 2012 he started “Robert Clancy – Guide to the Soul” Facebook fan page where he shares his divinely inspired thoughts, now followed by over 250,000 people worldwide. Robert is the author of the acclaimed book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Soul. Robert supports ongoing volunteerism within his business and everyday life, he inspires his team and encourages professional leaders to step up and give back.