22 Could West Coast Farming Follow the Tuscan Template? With Ariane Lotti

Pacific Time: The "What if...?" of West Coast Independence

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13d ago 43:49

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What if growing food didn’t have to destroy the planet?
Ariane Lotti grew up in the U.S., trained in environmental policy at Yale, and worked on Capitol Hill. But her journey took an unexpected turn: she returned to her family’s rice farm in Tuscany to reinvent agriculture from the ground up.

In this episode, we meet this regenerative farmer who's testing the limits of what’s possible—combining policy smarts with muddy boots. Ariane walks us through the lessons Italy and Europe can offer the West Coast, from flavor and biodiversity to subsidies that reward rural resilience. We also talk ducks, risotto, the promise and perils of organic certification, and how U.S. ag policy might finally modernize.

In this episode, we cover:

The surprising differences between U.S. and EU farm policy
Why regenerative agriculture needs room for experimentation
How ducks could replace herbicides in rice paddies
What the West Coast could do with our land if we started from scratch
Why farming is both political and personal

Guest Bio:
Ariane Lotti is the owner of Tenuta San Carlo, a regenerative rice farm and agritourism business on Italy’s Tuscan coast. A former Yale-trained policy advocate in Washington D.C., she now grows rice organically, raises livestock, and experiments with soil and water conservation techniques that blend ancient practices with modern research.

Related Episodes:

Ep 19: Could Roman Ruins Inspire West Coast Offense? (Greg Amrofell)
Ep 18: What If the West Coast Took Health Into Its Own Hands? With Abie Flaxman
Ep 08 Leave America and Discover Ecotopia? (Greg Amrofell)

💬Join the conversation by offering your take on this spicy question:
True or false: I’d love to buy all organic groceries right from the farmer’s market. Why do you today, or why don’t you today? Share your answers at the community center for Pacific Time at Substack, BlueSky, Instagram, and Facebook

Listen:

🎧 Pacific Time Podcast is on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and many other platforms. Please follow, share, and leave a review.

Thanks to:

Hosts: The Tenuta San Carlo team (Instagram)
Student Program: University of Washington Wellness in the World (Instagram)
Producer: Tim Wohlberg

Resources:

Tenuta San Carlo (Note their recipes!)
Posto Pubblico (Yum)
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
FAO: Ducks in Integrated Rice Farming

24 episodes