Travels with Benji

Not your normal post-college road trip. Come along as we discover the most innovative ideas and projects in America's food system. Mmmmm...food.

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To beef, or not to beef? Travels with Benji is back to bring you a low-definition, high-quality Nebraska beef experience. The Cooksleys have been raising cows on this grassland for four generations. Their knowledge and respect of the land allows them to grow our beef without degrading the sand hill prairie ecosystem that supports them. That’s what we call a win-win!

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Home, home on the range (at cooksley ranch Nebraska)

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We saw the future and came back to tell you the story of FarmedHere, the country's largest aquaponics facility.  They churn out almost million pounds of fresh local produce for the city of Chicago.  Good googly moogly this idea is juicy!

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Trash...? There's no such thing. We took a tour of The Plant to see how they are trying to eliminate waste by using the trash from one system as inputs for another. Check them out here http://www.plantchicago.com/, or better yet, adapt their model in your home town and help close the waste loop!

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Powered by old vegetable oil and dumpster food, Guisseppe travels the country giving out free tea to strangers in his tricked-out school bus Edna.  

Check out the video to see why

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Tommy and Benji get press passes to the Good Food Festival. On day one we learn about what it takes to bring a good food idea from the planning room to the dining room with the help of business  mentors and investors.  With the proper guidance and funding, these good food ideas can help change our food system to be better for producers, consumers, and the planet. Oh yeah, and there were samples...

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Composting+Biking=Winning. We took to our tandem again to see how the Compost Pedallers, a company in Austin, TX, combine our two loves: biking and composting, successfully filling hearts with joy while emptying organic waste from landfills. Come along for the ride.

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Good googly moogly!  

In the latest and greatest installment of Travels with Benji, the boys take the tandem bike through Louisiana’s Bayou exploring microprocessing in the seafood industry.  Check out the video above to see how this innovative idea benefits both producers and consumers - bringing a delicious, environmentally friendly product to your door and fairly compensating fishermen for their work.   

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In February, we took a stroll through Yonkers, Ny with Curt Collier. This man has seen the future, and has some cool things to report back.

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Benj and Tom cross the border into Texas and introduce the newest member of the team.

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In the first installment of urban grilling, the team takes on the power outlets outside the University of Louisana Lafayette's science building. You ain't never seen sautéed peppers and onions & scrambled eggs on wheat toast cooked like this. 

Yum yum.

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We met up with Thomas Hymel to talk about microprocessing & value-added seafood on Louisiana's coast.  His work aims to empower fishermen to vertically integrate their businesses - bringing a high quality product to consumers and a larger profit margin to fishermen.  

Seems like a win-win to me.  

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The best part of waking up is...the police with their hands on their guns.

For those of you following us on Snapchat, you might have seen the video of us elegantly settling in for the night in in our mini(camper)van. If you didn't see it, it looked like this:

I know many of you are thinking that living in a minivan is posh decadence and the life of luxury. This is undoubtedly true except for one caveat: everyone is jealous of your mobile throne and will try to make your life as difficult as possible.

We awoke to a knock on the windows, blue lights flashing, and a police officer yelling "get out of your palace on wheels."  In an awkward scramble we emerged from our cocoon in our undies to greet two officers with their hands on their guns looking as confused as we did. After explaining to them that Tommy's yes nod in response to their question "do you have any warrants out for your arrest?" was just a product of Tommy's inability to function without coffee,  they alerted us that everywhere in the USA is private property and that the only places where we can sleep are truck stops. 

So yeah, follow us on Snapchat @travelswbenji

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ReFreshing a Community

It’s definitely the most unexpected place I’ve seen a WholeFoods.

Jeff Schwartz, executive director of Broad Community Connections,and I sat in the garden behind his ReFresh project to talk about this one-of-a-kind“fresh food hub.”  ReFresh is home to eight or so organizations ranging from local non-profits to a global moneymaker that came together under one roof to revitalize and unite the North Broad Street area of New Orleans.  As we walked around the North Broad Street area, stepping on broken glass, the new ReFresh building contrasted with the run-down houses.  I couldn’t believe that this whippersnapper, Jeff, was the mastermind behind it.

A native New Orleanian, Jeff felt compelled to help rebuild New Orleans after Katrina pulled the rug out from beneath his city. He got his degree in Urban Planning and in 2010 started putting pieces into place on this project.

With the help of residents and community leaders he realized that providing food access, in the form of a grocery, would serve as a foundation to aid this historic neighborhood. He did that and so much more. While food is vital to survive, Jeff jumped on the opportunity to bring together partners to make Broad Street thrive.  Now, folks that need some groceries can go to the ReFresh building, walk through the lobby and see at risk youth learning employment and life skills to their left in Liberty’s Kitchen, see their friends participating in a free cooking class in Tulane’s Center for Culinary Medicine teaching kitchen in front of them, and run into neighbors as well as folks from outside their immediate community as they enter the produce section of Whole Foods on their right.  All this in an area where last year you’d be hard pressed to find someone to sell you an apple.

Jeff didn’t invent anything new or have any groundbreaking idea.  He had the logical thought to create a hub where non-profits and for-profits can come together over some food and provide vital services to a community that desperately needed them.  Jeff and his team busted their asses to bring the right people together and navigate real estate transactions and the complicated stuff required to make this happen. The outcome is something that Jeff believes can be translated to any community...a place where food brings people together and enhances their lives on every level.

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Urban Farming in NOLA w/ Tony Lee

Tony Lee runs the Magellan Street Community Garden - a one-lot operation just across the river from New Orleans.  He’s a big, gregarious guy whose mouth can hardly keep up with the nodes of thought firing in his head.  We meet him on a grey Sunday afternoon, hoping to hear a bit about community farms.

We get a lot more.

The three-hour conversation ranges from the taste of different radishes, to his childhood, to the future, to multicolored carrots.  But the through-line of it all is a story of personal transformation that has inspired the mission of the Magellan Community Gardens. Nestled amongst a community plagued by a lack of food access and information, Tony hopes to bring the knowledge and power of growing your own produce back to the people.   

Check out the audio piece above to hear Tony’s story in his own words.  

Maybe you’ll be inspired to plant a few seeds of your own.

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We're live!  Follow us here on the blog, or on any of the platforms below.

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Our media partner, Planet Forward, will also be posting our content and following along with the journey.  Check out all the great storytelling going on over there at  http://www.planetforward.org/blogs

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Definition

Travels with Benji /trævəlz wɪθ benji/

Noun: A roadtrip with your host, Benji, showcasing innovations in sustainable agriculture around America.  It's gonna be interesting, it's gonna be weird, it's gonna be fun.  Follow us here, or on your fave social media platform.

Snapchat - travelswbenji

Instagram - travelswithbenji

Facebook - facebook.com/travelswithbenji

Twitter - @travelswbenji​

Alternatively, keep a keen eye to the sky for our smoke signals.  Any way you do it, we're stoked for you to join us.