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Replay of my interview with the engaging storyteller Liz Carlisle from December 2015 because she asks the important question if we know these are best farming practices why aren’t we following them? I am very excited to introduce my guest today who has written the http://lentilunderground.com (Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America), one of the best books I have read this year about some amazing Montana Farmers. A great story teller, I think you will be inspired not just by the tale of these visionary and dedicated farmers who stuck with growing organic lentils against some amazing odds, but you will also learn about how simply adding a new food like lentils to your diet can help change the world! http://amzn.to/1QDkvgG () Liz Carlisle is a fellow at the http://food.berkeley.edu/dfs/ (Center for Diversified Farming Systems) at the http://berkeley.edu (University of California, Berkeley).  She holds a Ph.D. in Geography, also from Berkeley, and a B.A. from http://harvard.edu (Harvard University).  A native of Missoula, Montana, Carlisle is a former Legislative Aide to http://www.tester.senate.gov (United States Senator Jon Tester). https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Liz-Carlisle-Portrait.jpg () Tell us a little about yourself. My name is Liz, I am originally from Montana, I didn’t grow up in a farming family but my dad had this great garden, and my grandma was a farmer and she had lost her family farm in the dust bowl. So grew up in Montana hearing these stories about why its so important to make our agriculture sustainable. So that’s how we got interested in Organic Farming, I didn’t even know it was called organics then. Fast forward a few years, my first career was as a country singer, so I was traveling around the country, and meeting farmers from all over the place and I realized people were having some of the same problems actually my grandmother’s family had in the dust bowl with the industrialization of agriculture essentially. Using too many chemicals, and soil health was declining and farmers were seeing those problems and having other kinds of problems with the industry associated with conventional agriculture as well, so I wanted to try to be part of the solution. I heard about Jon Tester of course when he ran for senate that made a lot of news, this organic farmer, made his ways in the halls of government. I went to work for him, so I quit my job as a country singer. And though that work, met all of the innovative farmers from around Montana. ‘Cause my job was as liaison for the state and get ideas for a policy team. I realized we had such an innovative group of or organic farmers and gardeners in Montana who took it upon themselves to find more sustainable systems and that was the inspiration for me to go back to grad school and do this book project to write the origins about the organic movement in Montana. In case listeners don’t know or didn’t catch it, Jon Tester is our Senator from Montana and he grew up and has a huge farm in Big Sandy and is still our Senator from Montana today. So how do you go from country singer to lisason out of Washington, DC? Well i pretty much told them the story I told you. So I quit my job as a country singer, and knew I wanted to go to work in sustainable agriculture and I came home to Montana and this position was advertised it was called legislative correspondent for department of ag and natural resources for the office of Jon Tester. I didn’t realize based in DC at first, I thought it was a position in the state and I went in for an informational interview and I was sold on the job before I realized I’d be moving back to the East Coast. I think they heard the honesty and motivations for doing it. I had a college education and I knew about writing and story telling. It just worked out, it was a great education for me in addition to the senator he had a lot of Support this podcast