Episode 11 - Bob Quinn, KAMUT International
The U.S. has a cheap food system, says Bob Quinn, founder of KAMUT International. The problem? The high costs down the road: farmers going broke, decline of rural communities, pollution of the earth, and loss of our health. Bob makes a clear argument for valuing food that makes and keeps us healthy, and how to drive this change. Join our conversation about farming for health.
Bob, a farmer with a Ph.D in plant chemistry, and a consummate entrepreneur, was motivated by economics to experiment with organic agriculture on his family farm in the 1970s. The financial benefits led him to transition the full farm to organic, and as the farm changed he learned about the environmental and health payoff. Bob grew his passion into founding an heirloom wheat business which he took from a local operation in Montana into the global brand--KAMUT International.
Bob weaves together a story of entrepreneurialism, with the history of wheat, and a call to treat food as medicine. Looking at 100 years of the history of bread in the U.S. Bob explains why we started manufacturing highly-processed breads, and how an experiment with an ancient wheat grain led to KAMUT International. It is a story of international partnership as Italy grew to be the largest market for KAMUT, and in the process Bob and his Italian research partners made remarkable discoveries about the health properties of ancient wheat.
And this is a sobering story. In spite of sourcing from certified organic farms, Bob shares how glyphosate is leaching into crops in the plain states and Saskatchewan-- through the soil and in the rain. The levels have reached such a high concentration that KAMUT has been forced to dramatically cut exports to Italy given Italy’s high organic standards.
Bob proposes a vision for 100% organic agriculture in the US. It is a vision that does not hinge on public policy but on consumer demand and the opportunity growing demand creates for farmers. We’re exploring how the organic transition can be a win-win. A leader in the field of organic agriculture, Bob is talking in specific terms about how to create a healthier future by growing better food.