The Impact of Advocate, Journalist and Researcher on Good Food Change

Watch our interview with Gail Nickel-Kailing, Good Food World below or listen on Spotify.

Gail and I had tried to find time to talk for over a year. Meantime, I was publishing a weekly internal e: newsletter for our membership. It's often an environmental scan of what might be important to consider for our small and medium-sized businesses. I also include what is foremost on my mind and this week, it was about the watchdog group, Organic Eye reporting on some inconsistencies with organic certifiers. Within minutes of me hitting send, Gail wrote to say she could talk to that issue. We scheduled a conversation right then and there. While overdue, this was an eye opener on nearly every level.

My takeaways were many and I hope you enjoy the conversation and take the time to connect to Good Food World and Gail's wisdom, experiences and methodologies.

My first takeaway, consistent with my 20 years of publishing Collaborative INSIGHTS is that the discovery of advocates, experts and agents of change are often found right in your own community. I used to call this the "Meet Your Neighbor" program because it happened so frequently. Go figure. Gail works a short 2 hours from my office.

My second takeaway was that she was not a follower of conventional career paths, which allowed her to dig deep in areas driving her curiosity. It sounded familiar and I wanted to learn more.

Gail shares her journey into food journalism and endless exploration of the how's and why's of food growing, harvesting, farming and ranching. Listen to her unconventional methods to learn and share. It's remarkable and to the benefit of each farm, ranch and grower she visited throughout Montana.

There are many more takeaways from our conversation, but listen to Gail's answer, if she started a business today. Her answer is grounded in experience, knowledge and the current environmental landscape of food and it's role in community.

And yes, she independently brings up soil health and its role in health, including taste and appeal in meal prep.

Gail will be expanding her network to Wisconsin later in 2025 and in the meantime, I would suggest any/all regenerative, small, medium, organic producers invite Gail to visit along her next journey. Her value is to learn and share best practices of a GoodFood World.