The Dirt to Dinner Team

D2D in the Kitchen: Prepping a Clean Turkey
It's that wonderful time of year again! D2D found the best tips to properly clean, prepare, and cook your turkey for a delicious and safe Thanksgiving meal. Gobble gobble!
Food Safety
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5 Nutrients Meat Has that Plants Don't
It’s no secret that many consumers are integrating a plant-based option into their diets. And, although increasing your vegetable intake is never a bad thing, it’s important to know what nutrients you may lack without meat in your diet.
Diet, Health
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How Much Protein Should We Eat?
With supplements and bars filling the shelves, it made us wonder: how much protein should we consume? Here's what we found out...
Diet, Food Ingredients, Health
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Oakridge Dairy Overcomes Industry Challenges
Oakridge Dairy thrives amidst changing consumer preferences and environmental regulations. How can other farms use tech and regenerative ag practices to boost efficiency?
Animal Welfare and Health, D2D on the Farm, Food Production
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5 Ways Cattle & Dairy Cows Can Help the Environment
Dairy cow and cattle farms have been mistakenly blamed for a disproportionate amount of climate change. But let's take a closer look at this assumption...
Soil and Crop Management
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Grilling Season: Food Safety Best Practices
Before you fire up the grill, let’s review safe food storage, handling, and preparation to help you protect yourself, your families, and your guests from food-borne illnesses.
Food Safety
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China's Plight with Food Independence
Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambition to reshape global world order and replace the U.S. as global economic and military leader misses one key element: China's dependence on capitalist and democratic nations for food security.
Food Security, Food Trade
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A Roadmap to Your Thanksgiving Dinner
Inflation has had a major impact on food prices. And, making it worse, ongoing supply chain strains have led to empty shelves at our supermarket. What does this mean for our Thanksgiving grocery lists? And how will this affect our wallets? Let us help you navigate!
Food Production, Food Trade
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Anybody Want a Job in Ag?
Finding the workers needed to make our modern food system function is a major challenge across our supply chain. And now we have a perfect storm of labor issues affecting us all.
Agricultural Labor, Food Production
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Meet D2D's Lucy Stitzer
Lucy believes an educated and curious food consumer can transform the global agricultural system. She is determined to make evidence-based food research and information accessible to consumers so they can make the best choices for themselves and their families.
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Meet D2D's Hillary Kaufman
As a team member, Hillary manages the D2D website and makes sure readers have a great experience navigating all our content across our varied subjects, media experiences, and platforms.
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Meet D2D's Hayley Philip
Hayley joined D2D in 2018 as Marketing Director. Hayley’s interest in food, farming, and agriculture began at a young age. But it wasn’t until a few years ago when she was trying to make healthier meals for her family that she realized the enormous challenge people faced in getting actual facts about our food and food system.
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Meet D2D's Garland West
Garland, D2D's self-proclaimed in-house policy wonk, has spent four decades immersed in the complex world of food and agriculture, as both a profession and a personal passion. Garland applies that experience and curiosity in all things food-related to address our modern global food system, sustainability, and other timely topics.
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Introducing D2D's "Digging in" podcast!
Join us as we talk with everyone in the food system, from farmers to scientists and nutritionists, to discuss important issues in their field. And we’ll connect the dots along the way by asking how these experts see the food industry working together to provide safe, nutritious food for all.
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How is Salt Made?
Salt is a vital component in the functioning of our bodies and it boasts over 14,000 known uses. Where does it all come from?
Food Ingredients, Food Production
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Your Views on Food Information Credibility
Results are in for our food information credibility survey. With your input, we’ll make our site the most credible and trusted source of information about food and our food system available anywhere.
Food Production
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Can genetically engineered salmon save the world?
AquaBounty is known for its development of the first genetically engineered salmon. Now that the AquAdvantage Salmon has finally hit the market, we want to see where they are now.
Food Production, Food Technology, Soil and Crop Management
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Is Ag the Key to Future U.S.-China Relations?
Tariffs on Chinese goods have become the quiet political rage in Washington. But can a successful trade relationship in agriculture and food products help teach us another way of thinking about what’s best for both countries?
Food Regulations & Policy
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Will more ethanol fight inflation...or fuel it?
Prices for gasoline, food and other staples continue to rise and rise. The latest initiative is to increase the amount of ethanol allowed in our gas tanks. But will this temper gas prices? Or just increase food prices for consumers?
Food Regulations & Policy, Food Trade
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Goodbye “GMO”, Hello “Bioengineered”
Have you seen the new GMO labels? As of January 1st, the USDA requires food companies to label products as “bioengineered” if any ingredients are genetically modified. What will this mean for GMOs and consumer acceptance?
Food Regulations & Policy, Health
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Ukraine Conflict Clouds Outlook for Global Food System
Ukrainians are needlessly suffering from this invasion. But tragically, more suffering will follow as Putin’s aggression triggers a disrupted food system, higher food costs and, even worse, food insecurity for our most vulnerable.
Food Security
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Energy, Food Costs: The Unexpected Pain of Ukraine Invasion
While it is uncertain whether Russia's invasion of Ukraine will have serious immediate consequences for U.S. consumers, it could have profound longer-term implications for food costs, the global supply chain and trading system that makes our modern lifestyle possible.
Food Security, Food Trade
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Trading Carbon and Talking Plants
Carbon trading can enable farmers to sequester carbon, sell a ton of carbon credit on the market for consumers, and enable companies to purchase as credits. But how does this happen?
Soil and Crop Management
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FFA's Nicholas Mello: The Importance of Seed Science
In partnership with the Future Farmers of America, we will be highlighting a series of finalists from 2020 and 2021 to share their stories and passions. Today, read about Nicholas Mello of California and his hybrid corn seed experimentation.
Agricultural Technology, Soil and Crop Management
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Are fermented foods key to our health?
You want to prevent disease? Then consider fermented foods. Fermentation is a chemical reaction that’s responsible for some of our most favorite food and drinks that not only taste great – they can be great for you.
Health
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How safe is our food from cyberattacks?
Many of us recently learned that our food system is vulnerable to cyberattacks, just like any other business. Despite these events, industry experts find new ways to keep our food safe and supply chain constantly in motion to feed the world. Here's what's being done now...
Food Safety, Food Technology
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Toigo's Transition from Tomatoes to Cannabis
Mark Toigo had to pivot his multi-generational farm when low-cost tomatoes flooded the organic market. Converting his tomato crops to cannabis saved his struggling farm, and perhaps a few lives along the way...
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Five Reasons Why I Started Using Conservation Practices On My Farm
This article was written by Keith Mears, who farms with his family near Delphi, Indiana, and is a Conservation Steward with America’s Conservation Ag Movement.
Conservation
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Lucy Stitzer x Farm Journal: Soil, Plant & Human Health
D2D's founder talks with Trust in Food's Nate Birt about Regenerative Ag's rapid evolution and its power to restore health.
Soil and Crop Management
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Q&A with FFA’s Tyler Gardner
Future Farmers of America member, Tyler Gardner, is one hard-working college student. His work at his family’s cranberry marsh has evolved his mission to produce healthy and sustainable food for generations to come.
Soil and Crop Management
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5 Healthy Ways to Use Your Thanksgiving Leftovers
Thanksgiving dinner is one of our favorite meals of the year, but we always struggle with one thing – what on earth do we do with all those leftovers?! Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!
Food Ingredients
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5 Considerations for Your Thanksgiving Turkey
When Covid swept through our nation, there were periods of time where we couldn’t always find red meat, milk, and toilet paper. With Thanksgiving so close, we wanted to let you know to expect when buying your Thanksgiving turkey this year.
Food Security
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5 Top Issues Important to Farmers
We asked hundreds of farmers and ranchers across the U.S. to tell us their thoughts on the 2020 presidential election. Here are the 5 issues they identified as most important to farmers in America.
Food Regulations & Policy, Food Trade
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Farmer & Rancher Election Survey Results
D2D set out with a goal to better understand the issues affecting American farmers - their concerns, hopes, and thoughts about the next four years. Here are our results...
Food Regulations & Policy, Food Trade, Health, Soil and Crop Management
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Trump vs. Biden: Comparing Ag Platforms
Election Day is almost here. So where do Trump and Biden stand on American food and agriculture? We compare the candidates' views on the major issues affecting farmers and ranchers today.
Agricultural Labor, Conservation, Food Regulations & Policy
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Demanding Equality: Women Farmers in Africa
These women farmers in Africa not only challenge the status quo, but have dramatically improved their local economies...and beyond.
Agricultural Labor, Food Security, Soil and Crop Management
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Jack Bobo: How We Choose Our Food
Especially during chaotic times like this, we rely on Jack Bobo's insights into our behaviors as food consumers to educate us and help us make better decisions. While we search our supermarket for a new "superfood" to cure us or a "natural" product to make us feel healthier, Jack is searching for the answers to why our brains want us to behave this way and what we can do to better evaluate our purchasing decisions.
Agricultural Technology, Food Production
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D2D's "Nice List" for the Holidays
Here's our "nice list" of helpful posts to keep you healthy, happy and in-the-know through the holidays and into the new year. Everything from delicious, low sugar recipes to global trade and alternative proteins, we've got you covered!
Food Regulations & Policy, Health, Soil and Crop Management
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Coffee: Uniting Our Worlds
Our morning brew is so much more than just another beverage! Each cup connects us with farmers in the rainforests and mountains, highlighting the importance of sustainable farming. To bring our cup of joe to life, we introduce sustainability-rated Colombian coffee producer, Finca El Ocaso.
Food Ingredients, Food Production, Food Trade
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The Dirt to Dinner Team: Giving Thanks
The D2D Team has a lot to feel grateful for this holiday season! Here are a few things that we'll be giving thanks to this year as we celebrate with our family and friends.
Food Production, Soil and Crop Management
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'Tis the Season for Sugar
As the holidays approach, sweets are everywhere! Most of us consume two to three times more sugar than we should. Further compounding the problem are foods with hidden sugars. So what does this excess sugar mean for our health?
Diet, Food Ingredients, Health
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Water, Water...Everywhere?
Agricultural Technology, Conservation, Food Production, Soil and Crop Management
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Milk: From Cow to Carton
The journey of milk -- from a dairy farm to a processing plant to your grocery store.
Diet, Food Production, Health
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Where Do Our Fruits and Vegetables Come From?
Diet, Food Production, Food Trade, Health
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The Regulatory Approval Process for Pesticides
Food Production, Soil and Crop Management
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Conventional...or Organic?
Both conventional and organic farmers are subject to standards that make the U.S. food supply the safest in the world.