Podcast 8: Digging Deep-- A Conversation with Mario Sifuentez

Cal Ag Roots Podcast

Dr. Mario Sifuentez is an Associate Professor of History at UC Merced who's done a lot of thinking about the past and future of California's Central Valley. He's been involved with Cal Ag Roots since the very start of this project, both as an advisor and as an interviewee. (You can hear his voice on our third podcast, where he gives us real insight into the Bracero Program.) Mario has deep knowledge about the history of food production, and his current research digs up some interesting new stories about an activist group featured our Can Land Belong to Those Who Work It? podcast, which is why I wanted talk with him for this Digging Deep episode. This is the second episode in our new Cal Ag Roots podcast series--Digging Deep: Conversations with Food Movement Leaders about the History of Farming-- which will be released every other month. I’m talking with people who are working to shift farming right now, bringing California farming into the future. And we’re talking about how their understanding of the past, and how what they learn from Cal Ag Roots stories, has shifted their thinking about their work. Each of the conversations will draw on Cal Ag Roots stories, so if you haven't heard them all yet, take a listen on our Story Hub (or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher)! Particularly relevant to today’s podcast is the last one we released—#2, Can Land Belong to Those Who Work it. We’ll keep on producing that style of podcasts and releasing them here—there are so, so many more histories to unearth. The two different kinds of podcasts are going to be in constant conversation with each other, so we're hoping that you’ll tune into both and that each episode will be more meaningful that way.