Farm 2 Fork Collective

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Thetransition to a sustainable, affordable and healthy food system is going too slow.

Therefore, it is time to shift gears. By bridging the gap between food industry needs from farm-to-fork and knowledge institutes, Next Food Collective is accelerating the pace of transforming agri-food systems.

We extend an invitation to all companies with a passion for sustainable healthy food to join us on this exciting journey.

Exploring by which mechanisms texture moderates eating rate and how this relates to overeating. Creating evidence-based food design principles to guide development of foods that can help moderate energy intake.

Join forces with Next Food Collective and become a driving force for positive impact. We actively seek like-minded partners sharing our passion for sustainable healthy food. Together, we can reshape the agri-food industry.

Act now and join our mission.

A doctor in Southwest Georgia is promoting sustainable organic farming while brewing beer and producing CBD products. And the brewery and taproom has given an economic boost to downtown Albany. This is Pretoria Fields Collective.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: Besides the government building, none of the buildings were full. And now? Now we've only got two buildings that are empty. In every glass we're trying to promote South Georgia agriculture. So we want to promote organic farming, sustainable farming practices, and appropriate use of natural resources.

David Zelski: Beer. Some people celebrate with it. Others mourn with it. Some reports say that the first solid proof of beer production comes from the period of the Sumerians around 4000 B.C. Others claim that the earliest beer discovered is from 13,000 B.C. No matter which is true, we know that beer has been bringing people together in good times and bad for thousands of years. It's a tradition the world over. And in Albany, Georgia, it's a way of life.

David Zelski: I'm David Zelski, and this is the Fork in the Road podcast, featuring the stories from Georgia's farmers, fishermen, merchants, artisans, chefs and others who help provide Georgia grown products to folks in the Peach State and beyond. Today, we're in the southwest corner of the state in Georgia's 10th largest city: Albany. Across the street from the Flint RiverQuarium is where you'll find Pretoria Fields Brewery and Pretoria Fields Collective.

David Zelski: That is Dr. Tripp Morgan. Yep. Today we're talking to a doctor about beer. And we're going to talk to him about hemp, too. This is going to be a good one. All right. Well brewing, I guess. And the brewery was not your original profession.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: No, no, no. Yeah, not at all. No, I'm a I'm a physician. And so my dad and sister are both pharmacists. And he ran a small town pharmacy in Camilla, Georgia, for the entire my entire life. Now, we also had a family farm. And so my dad, he went to Vietnam and came back. He actually was an agricultural economics major. Never really used his AG degree. He ended up going to pharmacy school. Well, I came back after medical school and had established my practice and he had retired. And lo and behold, he wanted to farm. So we went into business together. I had a farm in Camilla and we bought a farm in Albany. I decided we wanted to do something a little bit different. So we had being in obviously in health and wellness, being a physician. We got our form organic certified, and we're going through that. We we did some small grains. We did blueberries and blackberries. And really were trying to find an added benefit for the products that we're already making. Omaha Brewing was doing well, and there they were sort of out in the middle of nowhere, kind of like we are out in Pretoria, Georgia. So trying to capitalize on agricultural tourism, We decided to open a brewery well after the downtown development found out about our project. They actually invested in us and moved my small idea of a small brewery on our farm to a much bigger idea of a large downtown brewery with the taproom and 30 barrel brewing facility. So it's so it went it really quickly went from a little project to a much bigger project. But staying the same with our idea of in every glass, we're trying to promote South Georgia agriculture. So we want to promote organic farming, sustainable farming practices and appropriate use of natural resources. Part of that promotion is we've done through our partnerships. And one of those is with the Flint River Keeper. And you said you like our beer Shoalie. Well, it's named after the shoal bass and we give 2% of all the sales back to back the Flint River Keeper for sustainable habitat management for that particular product. So so we're trying to get be not only are we trying to promote agriculture, but be good stewards to our environment locally and as well statewide.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: We opened December 7th, 2018. When we came down here. There, besides the government building, none of the buildings were full. And now, now we've only got two buildings that are empty. So it's really spurred development in the downtown area.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: We grow Cascade Hops. They've done very well the past two years. We've had enough to do a small batch of wet hop beers through through hops that were grown specifically on the farm. So that's been awesome. We've continued to propagate the hops that we have. So we're up to a little over an acre now or acre, acre and a half. And so that particular part has done awesome. We've it took us we started this project five years ago just thinking about the things that we wanted to grow, grew for different types of barleys. We've done three or four different types of wheat, oats, corn, all looking at all looking at varietals that our brewers wanted to use it so we could then propagate and use those and then tell other farmers about what we're doing to try to try to spread the wealth. I guess a good way to think of it, Yeah.

David Zelski: It's got to be kind of neat having a blueberry farmer and, you know, different, different fruits. All these, these folks that you're helping support by putting their product in your beer, how important is it to you to have these South Georgia farmers be a part of this collective?

Dr. Tripp Morgan: Oh, gosh. I mean, huge. So. So the biggest products and, you know, we're not the we're not helping we're not helping the the industrial farmer. I mean, we're helping the smaller guy have a you know, the guy who's not farming as many acres is as you would think about with those things. He's maybe he's maybe trying to get involved in some other products besides corn, cotton and peanuts. And so blueberries, blackberries or traditional grains that we're that we're trying to promote something, you know, organically grown, sustainably farmed. And, you know, of course, not genetically modified, of course. And even if where we can substitute antiquarian grains or things from things that maybe were more traditionally grown around here.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: Yeah, it depends on which one it is. Right? So so hops. There's really interesting hops that come from all over the world. And so we certainly want to be able to provide that. So like Shoalie itself is a West Coast IPA supposed to be West Coast IPA. You know, it's got, it's got that particular flavor to it, but Skywater, which is our golden ale. All of the grain is grown in Georgia was malted in Georgia. So it's 80% Georgia grown. And you commented on our Berry Gose which is one of our seasonals. Yeah I'm super proud of that one because we coriander and sea salt are berry wheat berries were grown right here and the blueberries and blackberries are grown right here. So for almost all of our beers now, we're 50% plus as far as which what ingredients actually came from Georgia. And a lot of that came from us going out and recreating a barley production in South Georgia, which really hadn't been done since the seventies.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: Well, that's what we're trying to do, right? I mean, so, you know, all the products that we're making are either being organically grown or they're being grown with as few of the farm products as we can. So some of our farmers, they still grow industrially, right? But we just ask them to limit the amount that they can for sure.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: Yeah. So this is a great book, Dr. Li, food and health and disease. And so he describes the health benefits that have been found in beer. And the chemical actually starts with an x,xamoterol or something. I don't know exactly how you say it, but but it has a chemical properties similar to that that we always talk about which is good in wine. So they did find it in beer. So that's a thing.

Dr. Tripp Morgan: So we thought it would make sense for us, for our business, our business model. Because of my background in medicine, we try to promote health and we're promoting health through organic farming and we're promoting healthy, sustainable farming. And if I can get people to think about thinking that way, then maybe we can get them to think about how cannabis could also be, you know, is a sustainable farming product. I mean, it's been grown well, it's probably been grown with this ever since we started farming, meaning thousands, thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. The products itself were used, have been used to feed everything from the cattle and then you eat cattle to get the products, you know, the the product itself out of it, to be able to use the stem itself for clothing, to be able to use the roots for tea. It has to be grown organically though. And so it's a universal extractor out of the out of the dirt. So it'll it'll it'll pull up any organic molecules so if. If there's pesticides or against phosphates or heavy metals in the ground and you're not farming appropriately, you can actually create a product that's harmful, not helpful. So it's very important that you know where your hemp is coming from or your cannabis products or your CBD is coming from. Because of that practice and also because of this idea that I feel like we have to have industrial farming. I mean, there's no doubt we couldn't feed all the people, not only in the United States but in the world without it. But at the same time, industrial farming is making us sick. I mean, there's more there's increase in diabetes, hypertension, rheumatologic disease. All of these things have gone up over the past year. The number one increase in rheumatol in autoimmune disease is actually with farmers. And so why is that? Because they're exposed to one idea is that they're exposed to a lot of chemicals to be able to create those those products.

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