On this episode we welcome Brother Coyote himself, Gary Paul Nabhan. An agricultural ecologist, an ethnobotanist, a MacArthus “genius grant” winner, a professor and an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, Nabhan is a true polymath. He’s a pioneering figure in the local food movement as well as the modern heirloom seed saving movement. He’s also the author of an almost countless number of books, including The Nature of Desert Nature, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities, and Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair.
His most recent book is called Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System. The book is a challenging, poetic and hopeful exploration of what the teachings of Jesus have to tell us about our modern food system and our relationship to the natural world. Even if you’re not religious, or even spiritual, I think this interview is still well worth your time — Nabhan has tapped into a deep and universal store of wisdom just when we need it most.
I’ve been a long-time admirer — of his endless curiosity, of his versatility as a writer and of his rare insight when it comes to ethics, agriculture and science. He isn’t someone who spends much time raging at powerful institutions. He’s not always shaking his fists at corrupt corporations. Instead, he offers us pathways of hope, healing, purpose, abundance and justice.
Nabhan’s spent much of his life working, often in the fields, to preserve both cultural folkways and biological diversity, two things he see’s as being inextricably linked. And his biography is so full of milestones that it’s impossible to fit all but a fraction of them here.
Born in the early 1950s, Nabhan is a first-generation Lebanese American who was raised in Gary, Indiana. He has a B.A. in environmental biology from Prescott College in Arizona, an M.S. in plant sciences from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary arid lands resource sciences, also from the University of Arizona.
He’s served as director of conservation, research and collections at both the Desert Botanical Garden and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where he did the research to help create the Ironwood Forest National Monument.
He was the founding director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. He’s on the University of Arizona faculty as a research social scientist with the Southwest Center, where he now serves as the Kellogg Endowed Chair in Southwestern Borderlands Food and Water Security.
He and his wife currently live in Patagonia, Arizona on a five-acre spread near Tucson. I could go on, but I’m eager to share this interview with you today. I hope you find as much inspiration as I did in this conversation with Gary Paul Nabhan.
For more information, visit garynabhan.com.
Tractor Time Episode 37: Dr. Zach Bush on Farming, Glyphosate and Human Health
Tractor Time Episode 36: Kathleen Merrigan on the Future of Food
Tractor Time Episode 35: Marty Travis, Super-Farmer
Tractor Time Episode 34: Paul Dorrance, from Top Gun to Top Grazier
Tractor Time Episode 33: Doug Fine, Author of Hemp Bound
Tractor Time Episode 32: Bob Quinn & Liz Carlisle, Authors of Grain by Grain
Tractor Time Episode 31: Rodale Institute’s Pigs, and Cathy Payne, author of Saving the Guinea Hog
Tractor Time Episode 30: Carey Gillam, Environmental Journalist, Author
Tractor Time Episode 29: Glen Rabenberg, Soil Expert
Tractor Time Episode 28: Dr. Paul Dettloff, V.M.D., Author, Livestock Specialist (from 2007)
Tractor Time Episode 27: Jodi Helmer, Author, Protecting Pollinators
Tractor Time Episode 26: Will Winter, Matt Maier, Thousand Hills Beef Cattle in Minnesota
Tractor Time Episode 25: Fred Provenza, Author & Animal Behavior Expert
Tractor Time Episode 24: Jeff Moyer, Rodale Institute, 2018 Eco-Ag Award Winner
Tractor Time Episode 23: The 2018 Eco-Ag Preview Special
Tractor Time Episode 22: On Assignment, the Tropical Agriculture Conference in Belize
Tractor Time Episode 21: Daniela Ibarra-Howell, CEO of The Savory Institute
Tractor Time Episode 20: David Montgomery & Anne Biklé, Authors & Scientists
Tractor Time Episode 19: Judith McGeary, Founder of Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance
Tractor Time Episode 18: Charles Walters, Then, Today and Tomorrow (from 2006)
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