# 970: Transforming Western North Carolina's Food Landscapewith Dana Choquette

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-urban-farm-podcast-with-greg-peterson-1101746/970-transforming-western-north-carolina-s-food-landscapewith-dana-choquette
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-urban-farm-podcast-with-greg-peterson-1101746/970-transforming-western-north-carolina-s-food-landscapewith-dana-choquette.md
Podcast: [The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-urban-farm-podcast-with-greg-peterson-1101746)
Published: 2026-02-27T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.urbanfarm.org/985
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/c5fc9094-2390-4818-8a0e-0b2e4f3ce3dd.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-urban-farm-podcast-with-greg-peterson-1101746/episodes/970-transforming-western-north-carolina-s-food-landscapewith-dana-choquette
Duration seconds: 2484

## Resource

How to Revolutionize Local Food In this Episode Dana Choquette, the Executive Director of the Western North Carolina Food Coalition, shares how a first-generation regenerative livestock farmer became a regional leader in local food system infrastructure. From backyard sheep during COVID to coordinating 12 food hubs and 9 food councils, Dana explains how small farms can transform local economies, reduce food insecurity, and strengthen community resilience. This episode explores food hubs, policy innovation, hunger relief, and why collaboration—not competition—is the future of regional food systems. Our Guest: Dana Choquette is the executive director of a 19 county community coalition that works to strengthen the local food system in western North Carolina. She mobilizes projects to help people in all corners of the food system from those experiencing hunger to those building viable small farms. All while building local food distribution infrastructure. She's a first generation regenerative livestock farmer, and particularly loves working with sheep and cattle. Key Topics & Entities Western North Carolina Food Coalition (WNC Food Coalition) Dana Choquette’s transition from urban life to regenerative livestock farming Western North Carolina’s 19-county food system Food hubs as aggregation and distribution infrastructure WNC Food Hub Collaborative (12 independent hubs collaborating regionally) Grow Where You Live Policy (community gardens in high-density housing) Food councils (9 hyper-local councils across WNC) Community-based food pantries and 24/7 open-access pantries Manna FoodBank partnership Warehouse aggregation and distribution model Institutional food purchasing vs. national distributors Carbon footprint and local food sourcing Farmer viability and consistent…

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