448: Underrated veggies, hydroponic farming & the new "fast food" | Lisa Merkle, co-founder of Imagine Farms

The mindbodygreen Podcast

mindbodygreen

Alternative Health, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lisa Merkle: “I needed to calm my nervous system in order to heal.” Lisa, the co-founder of Imagine Farms, joins mbg co-CEO, Jason Wachob, to discuss the marriage of technology and nature, plus: - Lisa’s personal approach to well-being (~00:36) - What inspired Lisa to start Imagine Farms (~05:23) - What a vertical hydroponic farm looks like (~09:10) - How you can farm more crops with less land (~13:06) - How precision growing can make your food healthier (~14:53) - Why vertical hydroponic farms are the future of agriculture (~17:16) - How re-localizing the food system can help with food insecurity (~20:38) - Why vertical hydroponic farming is the new & healthier “fast” food (~23:53) - The most nutritious & underrated vegetables grown at Imagine Farms (~25:18) - Daily practices to live a more environmentally conscious life (~31:28) - How Imagine Farms produce entered Miami markets & restaurants (~36:46) - The future of our food system (~40:43) Referenced in the episode: - Check out Imagine Farms. - Watch the Imagine Farms short film. - Watch Lisa at mbg revitalize 2017. - Learn more about Zak The Baker. - Learn more about Food Rescue South Florida. - mbg Podcast episode #434, with Amy Sapola, PharmD. - mbg Podcast episodes #331 and #39, with Paul Hawken. - mbg Podcast episode #243, with Jesse Daystar, Ph.D. We hope you enjoy this episode sponsored by Cotton, and feel free to watch the full video on Youtube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the MyBuddyGreen podcast. I'm Jason Wackib, founder and co-CEO of MyBuddyGreen and
0:05.6	your host. Lisa Merkel is the co-founder of an amazing new indoor vertical hydroponic farm in
0:13.6	Miami called Imagine Farms. And what's so awesome is I've known Lisa for over a decade
0:21.1	from the wellness scene back in New York City, but now we're both in Miami.
0:25.0	Um, Lisa did a lot of incredible things in the event space back in New York and even spoke at our
0:31.5	revitalized event in 2017 about her journey with cancer. So Lisa, so good to see you.
0:37.3	Hi Jason, it's great to be with you. So let's start with your your story. Let's go back to,
0:44.0	you know, you being diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer and how that experiences shaped your
0:50.5	approach to well-being. Sure. So I will say that this past July, marked five years, cancer-free.
0:58.2	Congratulations. Thank you. Um, so that means I'm officially in remission and what is so exciting
1:04.6	about that is means the likelihood of a reoccurrence is significantly decreased. So, you know,
1:12.4	that's like a milestone that I've been so grateful to celebrate this past year. To share about
1:18.7	my story, I was diagnosed in 2016 at the age of 41 of stage 3 rectal cancer and at the time,
1:26.8	I had been recently certified as a holistic health coach and completed a 200 hour yoga teacher
1:33.4	training. So I identified then and I still do as a yogi and by that, I mean practicing
1:41.2	my body spiritual fitness as a way of life. And then that was reflected really in my professional
1:51.4	way of being in the world producing events with health and wellness professionals helping them
1:55.4	amplify their information, their stories and real time. And I knew what a profound difference
2:02.8	that health and well-being practice made in my life then. So that was a big part of my life.
2:09.7	And then when I was diagnosed, it became a very important part of my journey. So I chose
2:17.7	very traditional conventional treatment. So stage 3 cancer, really there's a level of urgency
2:26.4	because of the potential of cancer and metastasizing throughout the system. And I really leaned in
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