In this episode, Rowen White—Mohawk farmer, seed keeper, and organizer—joins us to talk about relationships to land and food, upholding our responsibilities to our kin, and developing a new lexicon to talk about the food system. She shares her practice of cultivating relational, kin-centric foodways and the possibilities opened by this worldview.

Topics covered in this episode:


Min 1:38: Meet Rowen White 

Min 6:57: The Mohawk creation story

Min 9:45: Issues with the term “food system”

Min 12:42: Cultivating kin-centric food ways

Min 16:30: Rethinking the word “economy”

Min 18:05: Rowen’s journey to seed keeping 

Min 20:18: Tomatoes as Rowen’s first seed teachers

Min 23:41: The importance of food sovereignty

Min 26:38: Food sovereignty vs. self-reliance

Min 28:20: Farming in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California 

Min 33:05: How to build a connection to the land

Min 36:40: What Rowen would bring to a feast honoring their ancestors 



Spirit Plate is part of the Whetstone Radio Collective. Learn more about this episode of Spirit Plate at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at /WhetstoneRadio.

Guest: Rowen White (@rowenwhite)