Agrarian Futures

Our guest today Will Potter’s new book, Little Red Barns, started as a tale about censorship in journalism around industrial agriculture, but became something much bigger: a 10 year investigation look at how factory farming, an ages old mythos of family farms, and the rise of authoritarian politics have all worked in tandem to produce social, economic, and ecological disaster.
Will is an investigative journalist and author of Green Is the New Red. In this conversation, we talk about what he found writing Little Red Barns, from the industry's efforts to keep cameras out of factory farms to what that secrecy is really protecting.
In this episode, we explore:
The story of the “little red barn” that masks a darker truth about industrial agriculture
What led Will to spend a decade investigating factory farms and how the project grew beyond ag gag laws
How ag gag laws work, and how they've been used to prosecute journalists and whistleblowers
Competing visions for what comes next: What role animals play, and should play, in our food system
How Will connects factory farming to the broader rise of authoritarian politics
More about Will:
Will Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist and TED Senior Fellow who exposes political repression and the erosion of civil liberties.
His reporting and commentary have appeared in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Rolling Stone, and has helped overturn prosecutions and challenge censorship laws. He has been invited to testify before the U.S. Congress, the Australian Parliament, and the Council of Europe, advocating for protest rights and press freedom.

His landmark book Green Is the New Red revealed how governments and corporations have labeled nonviolent activists as “terrorists.” Counter Terrorism Unit surveillance documents described it as “compelling and well-written.” His new book, Little Red Barns, is the result of a 10-year investigation into factory farms and rising fascism, and was recently named one of Publishers Weekly’s most-anticipated releases and a starred review.
Will’s journalism and scholarship have been heavily influenced by growing up in the hardcore punk scene, and he has collaborated with bands including Rise Against. He was previously a Knight-Wallace Fellow and visiting professor at the University of Michigan, and was named the distinguished journalist-in-residence at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song. This episode was edited by Drew O’Doherty.

Enjoy Part 2 of Emma and Austin's reflections on 2.5 years of Agrarian Futures. In this episode, they highlight the commonalities they see in the big success stories of the regenerative movement, including cooperative economics, finding the right niche in the food system, learning to tell your story, and much much more.
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Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song. This episode was edited by Drew O’Doherty.

Hi all! This time, we're doing something a bit different.
In this episode, Emma and Austin - hosts of Agrarian Futures - sit down to tell their own story, and share some of their key takeaways of 2.5 years of talking with brilliant farmers and thinkers about the future of our food system. Enjoy!
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Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song. This episode was edited by Drew O’Doherty.

In this conversation, Geoff Lawton offers us something rare: a genuinely hopeful and rigorously grounded vision of how humanity can become a reparative rather than destructive force on this planet.
As one of the world's leading permaculture designers and educators, Geoff has built demonstration sites and trained practitioners across six continents, from the Jordan Valley to the Australian bush. At Zaytuna Farm in New South Wales, he has spent over two decades transforming bare, degraded land into a thriving food forest with 32 bodies of water, hundreds of tree species, and a model for what regenerative living can look like at every scale.
In this episode, we dive into:
How permaculture redefines wealth, from money to clean air, clean water, clean food, and community
Why the biggest missing element in modern agriculture is trees
How soil organic matter holds the key to our water crisis
What Zaytuna Farm looks like today after 25 years of regeneration
Why our economy needs to shift from extraction to deposition
How permaculture projects in Jordan, Hungary, and Spain are proving this works at scale
Why Geoff believes humanity may be on the verge of a new kind of consciousness
More about Geoff Lawton, Zaytuna Farm, and Discover Permaculture:
Geoff Lawton is a world renowned permaculture consultant, designer and teacher. He took his PDC in 1983 with Bill Mollison, widely considered the “father of permaculture.” Geoff has specialized in permaculture education, design, implementation, system establishment, administration and community development since 1985. Working in over 50 countries, Geoff has taught more than 15,000 students, he established the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia and Zaytuna Farm which is Geoff and Nadia’s family home. As an award winning Permaculture Designer, Geoff’s main aim is to drive the establishment of self-replicating educational demonstration sites across the globe.
Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song. This episode was edited by Drew O’Doherty.

Gabe Brown didn't set out to revolutionize agriculture. He set out to survive it.
After four consecutive years of crop disasters left him $1.5 million in debt, he had no choice but to question everything he'd been taught. What emerged from that reckoning became one of the most influential farms in the regenerative agriculture movement, and eventually two organizations working to spread those lessons globally: Understanding Ag, now consulting on over 37 million acres worldwide, and Regenified, a verification company built to cut through the greenwashing.
In this episode, we look forward. Where is regenerative agriculture headed? Who's driving it, and what's standing in the way?
In this episode, we dive into:
How four years of disaster became the foundation of a regenerative farming philosophy
What it actually means to farm in synchrony with nature, and why it works anywhere
Why farmers care more about the land than they're given credit for
How to become a price maker instead of a price taker
The role of banks, insurers, and major brands in accelerating the regenerative transition
Why Gabe thinks regenerative will be the norm within 25 years
What the next generation of farmers looks like, and where they're coming from
More about Gabe Brown:
Gabe, along with his wife Shelly, and son Paul, own and operate Brown's Ranch, a diversified 5,000 acre farm and ranch near Bismarck, North Dakota. The ranch consists of several thousand acres of native perennial rangeland along with perennial pastureland and cropland. Their ranch focuses on farming and ranching in nature's image.
Over 2,000 people visit the Brown's Ranch annually to see this unique operation. They have had visitors from all fifty states and twenty-four foreign countries.
Gabe and Brown's Ranch have received many forms of recognition for their work, including a Growing Green award from the Natural Resource Defense Council, an Environmental Stewardship Award from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and a Zero-Till Producer of the Year Award, to name a few. Gabe has also been named one of the twenty-five most influential agricultural leaders in the United States.
Gabe recently authored the book, “Dirt to Soil, One Family’s Journey Into Regenerative Agriculture.”
Links to Gabe’s Work:
Brown’s Ranch
Regenified
Understanding Ag
Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller. This episode was edited by Drew O'Doherty.