In this episode of Return to Nature, Melissa interviews Brian Gorman, a regenerative rancher and co-owner of Blarney Ranch. He and his wife Karla raise grass-finished Dexter beef on a historic ranch in Trego, Montana. The ranch has been in continuous operation since 1894.

Brian was born and raised in Monterey Country, California, an area extremely well known for agriculture. The events of September 11th, 2001 led him to join the US Army for 10 years, where he was shocked to discover the poor quality of food provided to soldiers. While in Afghanistan, he visited the dining facility of a German-controlled base to find real, high quality food being served.

He and his wife were always conscious of health and what they consumed, which led them to raise and grow a lot of their own food, including meat. In 2015, they decided to move to Montana and start a ranch of heritage breed cattle. An homage to their engagement in Ireland and the Blarney Castle, they chose the name for their ranch, which is derived from the gaelic “an bhlarna,” meaning “small green field.”

Brian Shares:

• His experience in the US Army and the quality of food provided versus what he was used to growing up at home
• The industrial trajectory our food systems have been on since World War II
• How he and his wife chose to settle in Montana and how they began their first regenerative ranch in Arlee
• The demand that led them to move to their current operation in Trego, Montana
• Why cattle breed matters and how he chose the heritage breed Blarney Ranch raises
• Why Angus became the popular choice for beef in America
• How cross breeding has affected animal instincts and ancestry
• How regenerative agriculture is just a new term for an old way of farming and ranching
• How being in tune with the environment and observing what the land needs can broaden the climates in which agriculture can be practiced
• How regenerative ranching practices have brought native species of plant life back to Blarney Ranch’s land
• A look inside Blarney Ranch’s regenerative operation
• How regenerative ag affects irrigation
• How stockpile foraging works in Winter
• The scalability of regenerative agriculture
• The “value added” products that are possible when ranching regeneratively
• The ethics of raising meat in a society that is disconnected from the realities of agriculture
• The greenwashing of the industry that makes it hard for consumers to truly know the quality of food they’re purchasing

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You can connect with Brian through Blarney Ranch:

Website: www.blarneyranch.com

Instagram: @blarneyranch

Facebook: @blarneyranchmt

Intro/Outro Music by Ken Belcher

In this episode of Return to Nature, Melissa interviews Chuck Duke, a seasoned stop-motion and CGI animator with over 40 years experience. At age 22 Chuck found himself working claymation for Will Vinton Studios sculpting and animating the California Raisins. Between 1985 and 1995 Chuck animated on several Emmy winning Television Productions for Will Vinton. He left Vinton Studio to work on his first feature film, Henry Selick's James and the Giant Peach. In 1997, Chuck began working at George Lucas's ILM, animating on films such as Small Soldiers and Star Wars Phantom Menace. Since then, he has animated on notable stop-motion films such as Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs, Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

Chuck Shares:

• The Ray Harryhausen film that sparked his interest in learning how stop-motion was done
• How he made his early stop-motion films as a teenager
• His dad’s support for his interest in the arts and animation
• The lack of schooling available for stop-motion and animation in general during his college experience and how he garnered an informal education
• His first job in stop-motion for Will Vinton Studios and how he got it
• How technological progress has changed everything from getting an education to breaking into the industry.
• An overview of how stop-motion technology and software has changed since he started
• The capabilities of the industry standard Dragonframe stop-motion software
• How he got hired on Henry Selick’s James and the Giant Peach
• Why the Mars Attacks! animation switched from stop-motion to CGI
• Why he and other stop-motion animators transitioned to doing 3D animation
• The differences between the various stop-motion directors he’s worked with
• His experience animating at The Sisters Bloom

In this episode of Return to Nature, Melissa interviews Mariah Gannessa, the founder of Four Visions, a global leader, educator, and advocate for the study, benefits, and uses of plant medicine. Born and raised in Northern California, Mariah now lives in Colombia, working directly with the Indigenous tribes. She’s spent the last decade immersed in the healing cultures of the Amazon and has dedicated her life’s work to the plants and the peoples of the Amazon Rainforest. Four Visions supports these communities through direct commerce partnerships, donations, and sponsoring charitable initiatives.

Mariah also founded the nonprofit organization, MAGIC Fund, where she spearheads projects to preserve the Amazonian people, their culture, and their lands.

Mariah Shares:

• Her early life as an academic over-achiever and how her first plant medicine ceremony was a catalyst for her healing
• Her travels that led her to Columbia to embark on a 10-year apprenticeship learning about the art of healing, guided by her teacher, Tiata Juanito
• How her desire to find a way to support the ancestral practices and the indigenous tribes who guard them led to the creation of Four Visions
• Choosing her own path despite cultural and familial conditioning
• Keeping a connection to Nature whether immersed in the forest or in the city
• Insight into the Yahe culture of the Columbian Amazon rainforest and all the ways they utilize plant medicine
• Western attachment to the idea of credentials as necessary to being successful or experienced
• The various ways to experience plant medicine in our modern society
• A detailed look into an ayahuasca ceremony, as practiced by the Inga culture, and the experiences one can have
• Four Vision’s offerings and what those four visions of the future are

You can connect with Mariah through Four Visions:

Website: www.fourvisions.com

Instagram: @fourvisionstribe

Intro/outro music by Ken Belcher