221. Restoring Dairy Farming with Family, Food & Festival: At Churchtown Dairy, with Judith Schwartz, Eric Vinson & Steffen Schneider

The RegenNarration Podcast

The extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York is restoring dairy farming in a context where such farms are still closing around them. They are doing it with nature, family, food and festival at its heart. With organic and biodynamic methods, they are keeping cattle together in their families to amazing benefit, cultivating myriad farm products including medicinal plants, restoring a diverse landscape, designing beautiful buildings including a store onsite, and hosting an extensive set of gatherings at their spectacular barn venue. That’s where we’d attended an event the night before, with guest-of-honour and friend, the globally renowned author of Cows Save the Planet, Water in Plain Sight, and The Reindeer Chronicles, Judith Schwartz. It’ll also host the Real Organic Project conference on September 28, amongst Shakespeare productions and varied concert events.
Today we meet Churchtown’s herd and farm managers – Eric Vinson and Steffen Schneider respectively. I already knew a bit about Steffen - Co-Founder of the Institute for Mindful Agriculture, and Director Emeritus of Farm Operations at Hawthorne Valley Farm, up the road from Churchtown (having spent 30 years there). And Eric? Well, this 36 year old former journalism major used to run a successful event hire company in the city. But when covid hit, the realisation hit that he needed to live out something more meaningful. He landed at Churchtown, prepared to do anything to get a start. And two years on, he’s managing the herd, with a big vision, and an appetite for sharing it with people.
Eric’s our main guide here, as Steffen just had a short time with us, and Judy is my esteemed unofficial co-host.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 29 August 2024.
Title slide: Judith Schwartz, Olivia Cheng & Eric Vinson (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
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Capitole

1. 221. Restoring Dairy Farming with Family, Food & Festival: At Churchtown Dairy, with Judith Schwartz, Eric Vinson & Steffen Schneider (00:00:00)

2. Music, Preview, Introduction & Supporter Thanks (00:00:07)

3. A revolution in dairy farming – restoring kinship in herds (no more calf separation & slaughter) (00:03:00)

4. How to make this way of farming more feasible for farmers (00:06:40)

5. Steffen on the prospect of ethical dairy labelling to stop organic dairies dying (00:09:14)

6. Other operations like this coming on (00:10:35)

7. Smaller scale is key (00:12:00)

8. Calf mortality & sickness is zero here (00:13:00)

9. New England Public Media (00:13:30)

10. The dark underbelly of the dairy industry (00:14:30)

11. What’s the size of the herd here, products being sold etc.? (00:15:45)

12. Steffen departs … Eric talks some history of the place (00:17:00)

13. Here come the calves (& some mind-blowing findings about them) (00:19:00)

14. The sacred cow & the place of beef (00:21:00)

15. Nature’s miracles & my ignorance! (00:23:30)

16. The wonders of cattle (00:24:30)

17. Reflections on biodynamic farming (00:26:00)