“Its Your Money and Your Life” broadcasted live from the 7th annual Berry Good Night event in La Jolla, hosted by Bill & Michelle Lerach and sponsored by The Berry Good Food Foundation and Specialty Produce.

Berry Good Night celebrates local growers, ranchers, and producers, along with championing the ideology of sustainable food. It unites kindred spirits—artisans, food activists, farmers, ranchers, winemakers, brewers, writers, chefs, restaurateurs and dedicated locavores—for an evening of conscious conversation over a sensory sustainable feast. Passionate chefs from San Diego and Baja California join together to create dishes using animals raised by local ranchers and produce from local growers, paired with local wines, beers, and spirits. Guests rotated tables each course to forge new friendships and potential partnerships. Berry Good Night stands as a model for other communities to come together and share sustainable practices, explore fair food systems, and support their local growers and guardians of the land.

In the first segment Richard and Joe were joined by event host, Michelle Lerach, and Eileen Gregory, proprietor of Grupo La Villa del Valle, a luxury inn, winery and restaurant using organic and sustainable principles located in the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Mexico. They gave an overview of the evening’s events and a summary of the goals and upcoming panels and events hosted by the Berry Good Food Foundation.

Next, the discussion focused on food waste. Michelle Lerach, Elly Brown, director of the San Diego Food System Alliance, and Calla Rose Ostrander, climate change advisor at the Jena and Michael King Foundation explain what food waste is and how it impacts our environment.

Continuing with the topic of food, the discussion focused on the real cost of food. Trish Watlington, owner of The Red Door Restaurant & Wine Bar and The Wellington Steak & Martini Lounge and tender of The Red Door Family Garden and Kari Hamerschlag, deputy director of food and technology at Friends of the Earth talked about how and why people have come to expect cheap food and why processed food so cheap, and healthy food so expensive.

The final segment was about farming sustainability. Catt White, CEO of San Diego Markets, a company that helps to develop and manage markets and events in urban neighborhoods to bring farmers to the city and people to the table, and Jeff Alves, a local family farmer with Terra Bella Ranch in De Luz Valley and agri¬business owner of Farm to Office discussed why it is tough to make a profit farming and are expenses greater for organic farmers.

Listen to a podcast of The 7th Annual Berry Good Night!

Listen to a podcast of Michelle Lerach and Eileen Gregory!
Listen to a podcast of Michelle Lerach, Elly Brown, Calla Rose Ostrander!
Listen to a podcast of Trish Watlington, Kari Hamerschlag!
Listen to a podcast of Catt White Jeff Alves!