In this episode, we start from a question that seems simple at first glance: what does eating mean today? Behind our plates lie agricultural choices. Behind our plates are above all men and women, gestures, ways of inhabiting the land and caring for living things. With Opaline Lysiak, we will explore the links between agriculture, food, and even inner transformation. How can we produce differently, but also how can we taste, choose, and feel differently? A conversation to reconnect what we eat with those who grow it and with what truly nourishes us.
The guest: Opaline Lysiak
Since she was little, Opaline Lysiak has been writing articles about “nature.” One day she trained as an agricultural engineer, believing that agriculture was the best way to transform our landscapes. Today she knows that with agroecology, farms can become places that regenerate biodiversity (including humans) instead of destroying it. After creating the Ecole d’Agroécologie Voyageuse, she now dedicates herself to her first passion: shining a light on farms that regenerate the Earth and circulating knowledge to inspire and connect people, through the Agroécologie Voyageuse podcast, her books, and her support work. Currently, she is testing a nomadic micro chicken coop project in the gardens of Gâvres, to bring food production back to this peninsula in Brittany, while waiting to find a farm to join and settle down as a farmer.
My questions
- In your journey, at what point did the question of food become inseparable from the question of land?
- When you meet committed farmers, what concretely changes in the way they produce?
- What touches you the most in these encounters?
- We talk a lot about agroecology, but on the plate, what does that look like?
- Would you say that eating well today has become a political act?
- You travel a lot: how do you avoid travel becoming a form of extraction, even in committed projects?
- You travel and observe different agricultural systems: in your opinion, are there food cultures that are more “just” than others?
- You particularly highlight the importance of women; can you tell us about that?
- In the stories you collect, what place does pleasure have?
- In the stories you collect, do people also talk to you about difficulties; are there any that come up often?
- If everyone had to take just one step to reconnect their food with the living world, what would it be?
- Tell us about your mobile chicken coop project?
- What is your favorite recipe?
Resources to go further
- Opaline Lysiak’s podcast, Traveling Agroecology
- Her book Agroecology Through Experience, published by France Agricole
- Her Traveling Farmer blog
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A podcast hosted by Louise Browaeys, with technical support from Matthieu Brillard
