Published in recognition of National Fermentation Day, a celebration of one of humanity's oldest and most enduring food preservation methods. Each year, National Fermentation Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate fermented foods and the extraordinary biological processes that create them. It also offers something more important. It gives us a reason to pause and consider how deeply food preservation has shaped human history, cultural identity, scientific understanding, and our relationship...

One of the most common things I see when I walk into a facility is not a lack of training, it’s training that never made it to the floor in a meaningful way. On paper, everything is usually in place. Procedures are written, logs are filled out, and people have technically been trained. But when you step into production and start asking simple questions, the cracks show up quickly. Two people doing the same job will explain it differently, or worse, you’ll see something being done in a way...

AgriForaging was built from lived experience inside regulated food systems, to close a structural gap in how producers navigate state and federal inspection. Those producers include farmers, processors, butchers, value-added manufacturers, specialty food companies, restaurants, and businesses operating under state and federal inspection systems nationwide. Years ago, while growing a food business, I learned what that gap costs in real time. The regulations were real. The expectations were...