Why We’re Going Back to the Land
with JM Fortier & Chris Moran
Welcome to The Market Gardener Podcast, your gateway to the vibrant world of organic small-scale farming. JM Fortier and Chris Moran explore the big ideas, challenges, and solutions that shape our food system. Join us and the leading voices in sustainable agriculture as we dive into insightful conversations that empower, educate, and inspire action.
About this episode
In this very first episode of The Market Gardener Podcast hosts JM Fortier and Chris Moran tell their stories and discuss the importance of the small farm movement and how so many people are finding a better and more meaningful life by going back to the land. JM goes into great detail telling his story of how he got into farming and how he developed multiple businesses over the years, always with the mission of helping to multiply small farms around the world. Chris explains his story of discovering farming in his early 20s and the ambitious and chaotic farm project he was a part of in New Jersey, and then how he ended up in Quebec where he now resides making videos with JM and The Market Gardener Institute.
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[2:44] Introduction
[9:28] JMs travels after university
[9:50] Starting farming in Quebec
[13:36] Starting La Grelinette
[16:57] Writing The Market Gardener
[25:08] Starting FQT farm
[28:23] Creating The Market Gardener Institute
[32:23] Founding Growers & Co
[33:50] Heirloom crop planning software
[38:13] Chris’s background story
[38:56] Chris’s story starting a farm in NJ
[46:00] Chris’s wife visiting his farm for the first time
[49:23] How Chris and JM met and started working together
[52:49] Quote from Living The Good Life
[53:10] Finding meaning through going back to the land
[55:00] The magic of growing things
[56:05] The decline of farming in North America
[58:03] How people farmed in the past
[59:46] Discussing hopes for the podcast (with a name blooper before we decided the podcast name!)
[1:01:52] The importance of these discussions
[1:04:18] Quote from Charles Eisenstein
[1:06:05] Is our future headed in the wrong direction?
[1:07:22] Are people living on screens too much these days?
[1:08:05] How gardening can change the suburbs
[1:11:04] Connecting people to the land through the Old Mill restaurant
[1:11:40] France’s food culture
[1:13:23] Eating together is central to being human
[1:13:47] Importance of chefs in the small farm revolution
[1:14:51] Importance of entrepreneurship and business in the small farm revolution
[1:17:28] What book have you read more than once?
[1:18:44] Incredible french book Le hasard n’existe pas
[1:19:52] Be open to serendipity
[1:20:58] Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic
[1:21:41] Rick Rubin and creativity
[1:22:32] Finding spirituality through farming
[1:23:01] What advice did you hear when you were young but only appreciated later?
[1:23:46] Ready, shoot, aim
[1:26:09] Thinking long term with business
[1:27:00] You’re a spiritual being living a human experience
[1:29:31] Thoughts on AI
[1:36:10] Wrapping up
Mentioned Links & Resources
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