Pam Holloway has been farming for 16 years after traveling the world as a nurse. She noticed increasing autoimmune diseases in American children and healthier European children who ate more local foods. She discusses the importance of knowing where food comes from by asking who grew it, what conditions it was grown in, when it was harvested, and how it was produced. Soil health is also crucial, as the soil contains billions of life forms connected to human health. Pam sees a future with smaller, more local farms using portable structures and technology, as well as multi-species farming, to produce high-quality, nutrient-dense foods in an environmentally sustainable way.

1. A Food Conversation with Tourmaline Farms -
Fieldtoplate
- Amanda Archibald

2. Rebecca Subbiah, RD talks with Pam Holloway, MS, RN from Tourmaline Farms about
food, farming, the soil and quality food for your plate.
“16 years ago, Pam and Amanda (Field to Plate) worked side by side in Heidelberg,
Germany. Today they find themselves working towards the same cause: connecting the
health of the soil to the health of humanity.”

3. 21 Years ago my husband and I left the Palouse to travel the world in service to our
country. After living in Kentucky, Germany, Belgium and Virginia we are happy to
finally be home. Through our travels we’ve been thankful to learn a lot about food,
farming and community. I started my career as a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse and
progressed into Maternal-Child Care, Pediatrics, Health Promotion and Community
Well-Being. Throughout my career, I noticed a significant increase in auto-immune
related diseases in American children. Additionally, I found that the European children
who were living in the smaller locavore oriented communities were much healthier.
1. Tell us a little about yourself, how long have you been farming and
what lead you to farm?

4. 2. What are some important questions the public should think about when
buying food?
It’s simply asking the same questions that we were all taught in grade school, Who,
What, When, Where, Why & How?
1) WHO raised it? Is it a farmer contracted to a corporation or an individual at the local
farmer’s market? Know WHO your farmer is.
2) WHAT are the conditions like on the farm? Is it an industrial mono-culture
environment or is it a poly-culture multi species farm? To quote Joel Salatin, "Godly
farming should be aesthetically and aromatically sensually pleasing."
3) WHEN was the food produced? Is it fresh & will it spoil or was it harvested/collected
before it was even ripe and then shipped halfway around the world to look perfect in a
grocery store? Nutrients rapidly degrade after food is harvested. It should either be
consumed fresh or rapidly frozen to preserve nutrients.

5. 4) WHERE was the food grown? Was it grown in “toxic rescue chemistry” or natural tilth,
full of earthworms & minerals, holistically managed to sequester carbon and promote a
healthy micro biome? Whatever our food consumes, we consume- this applies to vegetable
and animal. If our animals consume toxins, we consume toxins. If our plants consume
toxins, we consume toxins. We are inextricably linked to our food.
5) WHY is the food available to you at that time & place? Is the food seasonal has it been
shipped halfway around the world so that you can have it at that time? Food is seasonal and
local. We are healthiest when we honor the locality and seasonality of food.
6) HOW did you come across the food? The best food comes from sources that you know
& trust. Know Your Farmer. Know Your Food.

6. 3. Soil health is so important can you explain this to us?
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer
and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death
into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper
care for it we can have no life.”
Life begins and ends in the soil, it is where our food comes from. It sounds overly
simplistic to say, but it is profoundly true. One handful of soil contains billions of forms of
life and all of these life forms are connected directly to the health of the soil. Soil provides
the minerals and microbes that are directly key to the health of the human micro biome.
Adding herbicides, pesticides and fungicides to the soil is the equivalent of our taking
chemotherapy. If we want to be healthy, we must return to holistic principles that honor
the micro biome of the soil as well as ourselves.

7. 4. How do you see the future of farming?
There has never been a better time to go into farming. With the portable, movable
structure that we have now, we can have portable farms that are technologically capable
to rapidly set-up and start farming. Farming doesn’t have to be capital intensive. I see
young farmers leasing land and stacking enterprises to create a polyculture of agrarian
practices. Multi-species symbiotic relationships are critical to the future of farming.
Young farmers will need to be willing to give the time & relationships to learn from older
farmers on the land, rather than a text book. Our job as agrarians, is to make our farms
accessible and palatable so that the youth have the opportunities to start farming.

8. The future of farming is exciting, dynamic and marries the best of technology with
nature. Farms are smaller, more local and an intimate part of their community. Multi-
species polyculture is key with a focus on nutrient dense, high quality food that delivers
the best of the tilth to the table. Aesthetically and aromatically sensually pleasing, farms
become gathering places in the community where relationships with the soil and food are
solidified into a holistic balance that is economically, environmentally and socially healthy.

9. Fieldtoplate
Field to Plate is a visionary food education company, pioneering a paradigm shift in how
we think, talk and teach Americans about food and food choice. We are part of the
groundswell that believes that food, and the soil we grow it in, are the Foundation to our
health.
LLC 977 Kelly Road
West Boulder CO
United States
240.422.5072
http://www.fieldtoplate.com/