Episode #2 | Isabelle Lourie-Wisbaum & Karen Clark
Reality Check
Young Farmers
Karen Clark
Karen began her agricultural journey with a couple of tomato plants and a whole bunch of books during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns. She discovered the rich history of responsible, regenerative growers around the world that persist in the face of extreme enclosure of industrial agriculture. And, of course, that homegrown tomatoes taste best (even those grown in 4 square feet of parking lot soil). In 2021, Karen left lab-bound science to apprentice at the Community Supported Garden at Genesis Farm, in Blairstown NJ. There, her heart was opened to the profound joys of working outside every day, laboring alongside the best kind of people— doing the meaningful, essential work of growing nutritious food in ways that build longterm soil fertility. Inspired to deepen her connection to land stewardship, Karen, her partner, and their two cats traveled in and around Europe trading their labor for housing and food on organic farms through the WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) network. They have since settled down in Richmond, VT, where they are laying the groundwork of their emerging homestead. Karen works part-time at New Village Farm in Shelburne, VT, a micro-dairy focused on children’s education.
Isabelle Lourie Wisbaum
Isabelle grew up in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, with her first connection to the land and farming being through her dad’s compost company. As a child, she spent a lot of time at Shelburne Farms, working at the Children’s Farmyard and as part of the 4H program at the Dairy. At Warren Wilson Collage, she joined the Draft Horse Crew, which was when she first starting thinking about agriculture as a career. After graduation, she decided to spend a summer farming until she figured out “what was next”, but farming stuck. For the past 6 years she has been raising cattle, sheep, meat chickens and pigs at Philo Ridge farm.
Resources
New Village Farm - https://www.newvillagefarm.com/
Philo Ridge Farm - https://philoridgefarm.org/
CSA - https://www.nal.usda.gov/farms-and-agricultural-production-systems/community-supported-agriculture
Shelburne Farm -https://shelburnefarms.org/
Essex Farm - https://essexfarmcsa.com/
Food Security - https://www.wfp.org/stories/food-security-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters
Guns Germs Steel - https://bookshop.org/p/books/guns-germs-and-steel-the-fates-of-human-societies-revised-jared-diamond/7292033?ean=9780393061314&next=t&affiliate=3308
Sustainable ag - https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/default/files/sce/iowa-chapter/Ag-CAFOs/SustainableAgGlossary.pdf
CSG (Blairstown NJ) woofing - https://wwoof.net/
4H - https://4-h.org/
omega 3/ grass fed health benefits - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8909876/
Geo measure - https://geomeasure.in/
types of grass - https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/botany/research/grass-research
Dan Barber - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Barber https://www.chefs4impact.org/post/meet-dan-barber; https://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_barber
Sarah Flack - https://www.sarahflackconsulting.com/about-sarah-flack/ https://civileats.com/2018/06/18/the-grazing-expert-helping-farmers-build-resilient-ecosystems/ ; Art and science of grazing - https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/sarah-flack/?
Article - Who Will Own America’s Farmland? The Land Crisis in U.S. Agriculture - https://medium.com/@bobbypulte/who-will-own-americas-farmland-the-land-crisis-in-u-s-agriculture-06e021a3620f
One straw revolution - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-one-straw-revolution-an-introduction-to-natural-farming-masanobu-fukuoka/11764589?ean=9781590173138&next=t