White Oak Pastures
Media Coverage & Podcasts
Will Harris frequently appears on YouTube Channels and Podcasts to be a source of transparent and reliable information about animal welfare, regenerative farming, and rural revival. We know how important it is to reach conscious consumers wherever open-minded, science-based conversations are happening.
That's why we want you to be able to hear straight from an experienced regenerative farmer whether you read our blog, subscribe to our YouTube Channel or listen to Will Harris Podcast appearances below on your favorite device.
Featured Appearances
In the News
The Wall Street Journal Global Food Forum
June 2024
The WSJ Global Food Forum brings together leaders from every corner of the food industry and agricultural economy to explore the forces shaping the future.
This video highlights the conversation with our owner, Will Harris.
Growing Solutions: Regenerative Farming
This multigenerational family farm risked it all -- ditching conventional farming practices and going back to the basics.
Brought to you by:
Pattrn & The Weather Channel
Following In Nature's Footsteps with Dr. Shawn Baker
Join Will Harris and Dr. Shawn Baker as they discuss topics like diverse farming vs. monocrop for enhanced productivity, how maximizing yield through tech has consequences, biodiversity, importance of scaling for regenerative food producers, financial considerations in farming, analogies in health care and regenerative health, and more...
Healing the Earth Through Regenerative Farming with Neil deGrasse Tyson & Will Harris
Is industrial farming bad for us? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly learn about the future of food production, regenerative agriculture, and greenwashing with herdsman, land steward, and author Will Harris.
Op-ed: This Farm Bill Could Rein in Big Agriculture’s Lobbying Power
Including the new Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act in the upcoming farm bill would go a long way toward fixing the USDA’s commodity checkoff programs.
By Will Harris
Interview with Lauren Knight Hughes
In this video, Lauren meets with Will Harris as he shares the scandal behind the big meat scam going on every day in the United States and abroad.
Reversing Climate Change
In this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Ross Kenyon and Jada Dormaier from Nori are joined by Will Harris to discuss his remarkable journey from industrial to regenerative farming. The conversation is simultaneously a beginners introduction, and a deep dive into regenerative farming practices.
Live Life in Motion
This episode features fourth-generation cattleman at White Oak Pastures, Will Harris. In the mid-1990s, Will made the bold decision to revert to the sustainable farming techniques his great-grandfather had used 130 years before. Since Will has successfully implemented these changes, he has been recognized all over the world as a leader in humane animal husbandry and environmental sustainability.
A podcast by By Sam Kleckley
Rooted in Organic Podcast
Will Harris is the owner of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, GA. He joins us to talk about the history of his farm, the pros and cons of doing things differently and the generational changes and benefits he sees on his farm.
Breaking New Roots
Listen in on this one on one talk with Will Harris while driving around his 3,000 acre farm as he addresses questions that most haven’t heard asked before: how big is too big, do you look down on your conventionally farming neighbors, what does the future of White Oak Pastures and regenerative agriculture as a whole look like, and more.
Down to Earth
Episode 163: A Matter of Conscience: Will Harris on Regenerating an Industrial Ranch
In this Down to Earth episode, Will Harris, fourth-generation cattleman of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, discusses how he moved from industrial to regenerative practices to better the animal's quality of life and the land.
Ranch Investor Podcast
Earth Stewards: Insights from Three Masters of Land Management
Join industry titans Will Harris, Howard Halderman, and Don Colte as they share their wisdom on incentivizing investment in regenerative agriculture for a sustainable future, highlighting the promise of higher market values for well-managed, environmentally conscious farms.
Louisiana Eats
Sustainability: The Secret to Success
In this episode, we hear from two chefs and farmer, Will Harris, who are doing their part to provide for their customers, while finding ways to live in harmony with the planet. Will Harris of White Oak Pastures is a pioneer in regenerative farming and is the author of A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food.
Food & Beverage Talk
Impact investing can make a difference in regenerative agriculture. Will Harris, a 4th-generation farmer in rural Georgia, talks about the evolution of the beef industry into a vertically integrated food system, the positive impacts of grass-fed beef, and the benefits to animal welfare – areas that are returning to being valued aspects of food production. Will weaves this into a broader discussion of how to make farming more sustainable, more environmentally friendly, and more beneficial to us all.
Thriving Farmer Podcast
In this episode of the Thriving Farmer Podcast, Michael welcomes Will Harris, a fourth-generation farmer and the owner of White Oak Pastures. His regenerative farm maintains a zero-waste ecosystem that supports 10 species of animals and produces everything from high-quality meats to organic fertilizers, demonstrating their commitment to land, livestock, and community.
Roots and Ruminants Podcast
Will Harris joins hosts Jared and Justin to talk all things grass, cows, and money. Watch this to this episode to hear the three discuss why Will turned away from industrial agriculture techniques and how his operation morphed into what it is today.
Eat Better Food Today!
Join Ken Couhinan and Will Harris as they discuss Will’s move from a factory farm in 1995 to now allow livestock to express their instinctive behavior, mitigate climate change, rebuild healthy soil, and revitalize the backbone of America.
The Appropriate Omnivore
Aaron Zober and Will Harris delve into many topics of regenerative agriculture, such as undergrazing and overgrazing, multispecies farming, and White Oak’s zero waste program.
The Washington Post
How to help the environment?
Farmers and food enthusiasts have ideas.
“A Bold Return to Giving a Damn” is the straight-shooting, thoroughly engaging story of the tenacious efforts of “one of the last Good Ol’ Boys” to transform White Oak from a business reliant on Big Agriculture into the thriving, zero-pesticide, zero-waste Garden of Eden it is today."
Review by Alexis Burling
Literary Hub
Keen On
Will Harris on the Local Future of Food
Andrew talks to Will Harris, author of A Bold Return to Giving a Damn, about the repellent nature of industrial farming and why the future of food should be local.
Hosted by Andrew Keen
University of Georgia
Almanac 2023
In this feature, the UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences dives into the regenerative practices of White Oak Pastures and covers how Will Harris (BS - Animal Science '76) reimagined the legacy of his ancestral farmland.
Written by: Maria Lameiras
Georgia Magazine
March 2023 Edition
In this Spring edition, Georgia Magazine highlights White Oak Pastures as a Southwest Georgia farm that has returned to its roots. The article features a brief history of the farm and the changes that have been implemented by Will Harris as the fourth generation steward of the land.
Written by: Lanier Nagle
Sundance Film Festival 2023
Food And Country
America’s policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs.
Worried for their survival, trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl reaches out across political and social divides to uncover the country’s broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.
Sowing Prosperity Podcast
The Power of Regenerative Agriculture: A Story of Renewal and Prosperity in Bluffton, Georgia (2023)
Learn how Will Harris' farm in Bluffton, Georgia, builds resilience by serving the local community through integrated and localized farming.
Logan and Will discuss the importance of localized, vertically integrated systems and how it can protect us from the fragility exposed during crises like COVID-19.
Hosted by: Logan Duvall
The Meat Mafia Podcast
#160: A Bold Return to Giving a Damn featuring Will Harris
Topics in this conversation include:
- How did White Oak Pastures come to be?
- Building a legacy on the land- Welfare farming & its effect on our health
- A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: Changing Our Culture
- Carbon sequestration, the water cycle, and returning life back to the land
Farm to Table Talk
Giving A Damn – Will Harris
Food, farms and earth will be better if more people give a damn. Will Harris does. He has worked as a cowboy and a rancher for decades, but now calls himself a land steward and herdsman.
At White Oak Pastures in SouthWest Georgia, over 150 employees work together to raise, process, and ship meat from 10 species of livestock to loyal customers. And while they are proud of the grassfed and pasture-raised meats that they sell, their business centers around one central goal: regenerate the land.
Variety
‘Food and Country’ Review: Pandemic-Made Doc Addresses Dire Kinks in the Food Chain
There's urgency here, but Food and Country doesn't scold. It feeds viewers ideas about what might be scalable in terms of independent farming...
Fourth generation rancher Will Harris is particularly affecting as he walks around White Oaks Pastures in Bluffton, Ga., the farm he took from an industrial operation to a nearly 100% carbon negative spread: 'I don't think of this farm as a factory. I think of it as an organism,' he says.
Secret Atlanta
Enjoy The Reopening Of The Livingston Bar At The Historic Georgian Terrace Hotel
The new menu will showcase a mixture of local and European influences. Meese said guests can expect to experience “a mixture of a mixture of French, Italian and Spanish along with the flavors of Georgia.” Appetizer dishes include tuna crudo with ponzu, pickled cucumber and matcha crisp. Entrees will include entrees such as White Oak Pastures braised short ribs with cipollini onions, fingerlings and heirloom carrots, Maine diver sea scallops with truffled Parmesan risotto.
Lancaster Farming
Direct Climate Funds to Farms, Not Big Business [Opinion]
"...a study cited by Farm Action’s comment focused on the carbon sequestration potential of regenerative grazing and diverse husbandry.
White Oak Pastures, a family farm in Bluffton, Georgia, found that their integrated system is six times more carbon efficient than typical American production systems, sequestering 85% of the farm’s total emissions, and that rotationally grazed beef may be a very unusual case of having a net negative carbon impact from its production."
Powering the Future: Sheep to Solar | Pattrn
Solar could provide 40% of U.S. energy by 2035. But where will all these solar panels go?
In part 3 of the “Pattrn Explores: Powering the Future” series, meet a one-of-a-kind farmer transforming a big solar company’s entire business model with the help of... sheep!
Canada Talks
Flipping the Table
After decades of economic decline around the Harris family’s farm, Willexperienced an epiphany that led to a journey to what we now call regenerative agriculture. His story is about a pioneer’s perseverance, love for animals, the land and a community. His example could transform rural America.
A podcast by Michael Dimock
Carnivorist Chats
This episode features Will Harris - a fourth-generation cattleman, who tends the same land that his great-grandfather settled in 1866.
A podcast by James Leman
Joe Rogan Experience #1893
Listen as Will Harris joins the Joe Rogan Experience.
Will Harris is a fourth-generation cattleman and farmer. He's the owner of White Oak Pastures: a family farm utilizing regenerative agriculture and humane animal husbandry practices.
Russell Brand
“That P*sses Me Off!” Will Harris BREAKS DOWN Bill Gates’s Greenwash Bullsh*t
Listen as Will Harris and Russell Brand discuss Bill Gates’s land grab & use of technology in farming.
Joe Rogan Experience #1784
Listen as Diana and Robb incorporate White Oak Pastures' rural revival and regenerative practices into the conversation with Joe Rogan.
Diana Rodgers is a registered dietitian, nutritionist, and host of the "Sustainable Dish" podcast. Robb Wolf is a former research biochemist, author, and co-host of "The Healthy Rebellion" radio podcast, alongside his wife Nicki Violetti. They are the co-authors of "Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat," a companion book to the documentary of the same name.
Southeast Toyota Finance
Farm-to-table: 3 regional restaurants for fresh fare
When you eat your food, do you know where it comes from? And no, ‘the grocery store’ doesn’t count.
This year, consider showing your support to a community-based business and check out a farm-to-table restaurant in our region.
Civil Eats
Op-ed: What I Learned from White Oak Pastures—and What Other Farms Can, Too
"I saw first-hand the difference intentional, human-powered farming can make for the land—and for the vibrancy of rural communities."
PJ Media
American Farmer Puts Bill Gates on Notice
“Hell yeah I have concerns about Gates controlling farmland,” Harris begins. “Just like I don’t want a child abuser controlling even one child, I don’t want him to control a single acre.”
He then lays out five reasons why Gates’ farm policy ideas are wrong and closes the post with an open letter to Gates, inviting him to White Oak Pastures to see how a real farm runs.
House Ag Democrats
Soil Health Practices and Programs that Support Regenerative Agriculture
Mr. Steve Nygren uses White Oak Pastures as an example of how food should be produced.
He advocates for incentivizing regenerative and organic farming as well as consideration and protection for family farms.
MeatEater
Restoring The Cycles of Nature | Wild+Whole Sourced
Danielle visits White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia to learn about regenerative farming. She discovers how this farming practice captures carbon, benefits our soil, increases biodiversity, and can even improve habitat for the game and fish we pursue. She helps to butcher the flank and skirt steak from a cow and cooks a delicious meal over an open fire for the Harris family.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
McDonald’s and Walmart beef suppliers risk public health with ‘reckless’ antibiotics use
Read how Will Harris turned his back on the industrial style of farming he learned at university and from the generations of farmers in his family.
Among the major changes he made was stopping the routine use of antibiotics. “My use changed abruptly...Today we use an antibiotic therapeutically if we have a sick animal. Now, in the environment in which I raise my animals, we don’t have sick animals very much.”
The Epoch Times
A 156-Year-Old Farm in Georgia Finds Success in Farming the Old-School Way
“Waste not; want not”—the proverbial saying describes a mentality responsible for the explosive growth and popularity of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia. Established in 1866 (just one year after the Civil War ended), White Oak remains with its founding family, the Harrises, and the current generations agree that the farm’s longevity is due to focusing not just on profits, but on the land, animals, and employees.
Organic Consumers Association
Regenerative Farmer Will Harris on Regenerative Agriculture
Will Harris is a regenerative farming pioneer who runs White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia.
He produces high-quality grass fed products, including beef and other animal products, and is an inspirational example of how to convert from conventional to regenerative agriculture and thrive financially.
Yahoo! Finance
Bill Gates Called Out By Farmer For Secretly Buying Up US Farmland: 'I Don't Want Him To Control A Single Acre'
Read Will Harris' concerns about Gates controlling farmland, “Just like I don’t want a child abuser controlling even one child, I don’t want him to control a single acre.”
Noble Research Institute
White Oak Pastures: How a 156-year-old farm practices “radically traditional farming”
"White Oak Pastures is a six-generation, 156-year-old family farm in Bluffton, Georgia. My family, the Harris family, has operated the same farm in Early County since 1866. Settled by Captain James Edward Harris, the farm has come full circle, meaning from a polycultural production system in the 1800s to a monocultural cattle farm in the 1950s, and then back to a polycultural system in the early 2000s."
The Telegraph
Family farms are the bedrock of American agriculture
"Small and family-owned farms are vital to ensuring American families have a variety of choices to find their favorite foods at their local grocery stores, markets and, increasingly, direct to the consumer from the farm itself."
Yahoo! Finance
Clean 13 'water heroes' celebrated by Georgia Water Coalition
"White Oak Pastures (Early County): Will Harris and his team at White Oak Pasture's regenerative land management practices are proving their ability to sequester as much carbon as is produced by the livestock raised on the farm. The beef raised on the farm in southwest Georgia's Bluffton community has a carbon footprint 111 percent lower than conventionally raised beef. The businesses' farming practices are protecting local creeks and improving the land."
The Working Cows Podcast
Ep. 258 – Will Harris – Regenerating Rural America
Will Harris of White Oak Pastures joins The Working Cows Podcast to talk about regenerating rural America.
White Oak Pastures is in Bluffton, GA a town that was gutted through the industrialization of agriculture. We talk about what the role White Oak Pastures has played in facilitating its regeneration.
The Active Life
The Farming That Could Save the World | Will and Jenni Harris of White Oak Pastures | Podcast Ep 175
Will and Jenni Harris discuss their individual roles and involvement with White Oak Pastures' progression.
Force of Nature Meats
Ep. 4 WHAT GOOD SHALL I DO - Will Harris on his journey from conventional farming to regenerative!
Will Harris, landsteward of White Oak Pastures speaks at the 1st annual "What Good Shall I Do" conference. Watch and listen along with us as he talks about his journey from farming conventionally to managing his land regeneratively and the lessons he learned along the way.
American Grassfed Association
AGA Producer Profiles: White Oak Pastures
In this Producer Profile, AGA takes a closer look at our first ever AGA certified producer, White Oak Pastures with Jenni Harris.
Russell Brand
Oh F*ck, He's At It Again
Watch Russell Brand breakdown Will's recent viral moment discussing Bill Gates becoming the largest farmland owner in the U.S. on Fox Business.
The Purist
Regeneration Nation
Amely Greeven writes in depth about her "unique sensory experience" at White Oak Pastures.
View White Oak Pastures' feature in the 2022 June issue (Page 92-95).
The Defender™
What Industrial Ag Gets Wrong and How Regenerative Farming Can Fix It: Joe Rogan Chats With 4th-Generation Farmer Will Harris
Prior to the mid-’90s, Will Harris ran White Oak Pastures the way his father and most other farmers in the country had — “as a very linear, monocultural cattle operation.” In an interview with Joe Rogan, Harris explained how and why he converted his 3,000-acre farm to a “kinder, gentler agriculture.”
Pharos Fit Podcast
Will Harris of White Oak Pastures - How to think about Food Systems Differently - Episode 87
In this podcast, Will discusses what it means to be a true steward of the land, the problems with chemicals and industrial farming, the challenges a regenerative farm faces, and how we fix the environmental problems that we have created by interfering with the natural cycles of life.
Herald and News
Opinion: Family Farms are the Bedrock of American Agriculture
Big Ag is increasingly threatened by family farms that pride themselves on the humane treatment of the animals they raise and the farmworkers they employ, such that they have pumped untold amounts of money into taking their fight to the Supreme Court.
The Carnivore Lion
White Oak Pastures Will Harris: BIG LIES - Big Pharma and Regenerative Farms
Will Harris discusses the corruption of our agriculture and how regenerative farming is the answer to restoring our health, climate change and animal welfare.
Alison Morrow
Thousands of cattle dead - why? || Will Harris (White Oak Pastures)
Listen to Alison Morrow and Will Harris discuss the mainstream media, the lack of resilience in our food supply chain, USDA regulations, and more!
Michael Kummer
The Importance of Regenerative Agriculture
In this insightful conversation with Will Harris of White Oak Pastures, we talk about the importance of regenerative farming practices for animal welfare and soil quality, and dig into why most modern farming operations break the cycles of nature (thus negatively impacting the environment and the health of everyone involved).
Climate & Capital Media
Is there a place for beef in a climate-friendly future?
Eating beef. A guilty pleasure at best for climate-concerned carnivores. But it’s bad, right?
Jenni Harris, part of a fifth-generation to make her living on the White Oak Pastures family farm says, categorically: Nope.
“I believe that the earth evolved into this pretty green-blue planet teeming with life because of animal impact and I don’t think we can maintain this really pretty green-blue planet without animal impact,” she says. “I think that our farm is proof of that.”
Written by: Kari Huus
Read the full article here
Waco Tribune-Herald
Will Harris: Family farms are the bedrock of American agriculture
Rising feed, fertilizer and fuel costs and global pressures have put the American farmer at a crossroads.
The large, multinational agribusiness conglomerates who have come to dominate our nation’s food chain would like nothing more for regular Americans to think that their mass-produced meats are the only options available.
The Naturally Inspired Podcast
Will Harris - White Oak Pastures. Radically Traditional Farming.
Will Harris discusses White Oak Pastures' transition from using the industrial farming methods he was trained in to adapting a regenerative production model.
The Climate Kitchen
Episode 10: Labeling, Certifications, and How To Buy Better Food
At no point in human history have we been more disconnected from the growing of our food than we are today.
Tune in to learn from incredible guests, including Will Harris of White Oak Pastures, about dangers of misleading food labels.
Ranch Investors Podcast
How a World-Class Cattleman Revived a 130-Year-Old Farming Method
In this episode, Will Harris tells the story of how he revived a 130-year-old farming method.
By using sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices, Harris has improved the quality of his cattle while preserving the land. He is a true world-class cattleman, and his story is both inspiring and informative.
The Ground Work Podcast
Building Resilient Communities, Ecosystems, and Businesses with Will Harris of White Oak Pastures
Tune in as Will Harris highlights how market access and getting your product to consumers is one of the biggest hurdles in the business and how ‘greenwashing’ in the market has made it harder for small businesses to bust into the space occupied by multinational corporations.
At the heart of the conversation, is an idea of coming home and digging in to build up rural America, just like Will has done with Bluffton
Farm Traveler Podcast
Ep 163: Regenerative Farming and Decentralizing Food – White Oak Pastures
In this interview, Jenni Harris talks about how White Oak Pastures started regenerative farming practices, how we manage 10 different livestock species, and how we engage with consumers through lodging, workshops, direct-to-consumer, and dining.
Jenni also talks about the importance of decentralizing food, how regenerative farming isn’t just a new buzzword just for marketing, and why country of origin labels might need to come back on some foods.
Yanasa TV
The Farm Bill | Regenerate America Farm Bill
Will Harris of White Oak Pastures and Finian Makepeace of Kiss the Ground are hosted by Yanasa TV to discuss our current agriculture system.
Curly-Haired Country Gal
How Can I Be Happy & Healthy at 100? ║ Wise Traditions Conference 2022
Walker Homes, our Makerspace manager, shows off the White Oak Pastures table at the 22nd annual Wise Traditions Conference, put on by the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Media Archive
CLICK HERE to view media appearances from 2021 and years prior.
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TOURS & LODGING