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In this episode of Eat. Drink. Think., we are kicking off 2024 with Tracey Ryder, co-founder of Edible Communities.
Host Amy O’Neill Houck chats with Tracey for an update on the nearly 80 publications in the network, and they talk about the role Edible Communities can and does play in telling the stories of what we all eat, and why that storytelling matters. Hear about what new magazines are coming to readers in 2024 and an update on Edible Communities’ foray into television production.
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Links:
Edible Communities
Find Tracey on Linkedin
The Food Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Tracey Ryder
Edible Communities Looks Ahead to the Next 20 Years by Tracey Ryder
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Full Transcript:
Amy O’Neill Houck:
Welcome to Eat. Drink. Think. I’m Amy O’Neill Houck. In this podcast from Edible Communities, a network of magazines published across North America, we celebrate all things local and sustainable in the food world. Today we’re speaking with Tracey Ryder. Tracey is the co-founder of Edible Communities, which currently publishes 80 titles and has won the publication of the Year award from the James Beard Foundation. Tracey has worked as a journalist and a graphic designer. She’s been a marketing and communications consultant for food and agriculture companies. She currently works with sustainable brands to create custom publications, website and marketing materials. She develops recipes and is a research analyst with an emphasis on the economic impact of business on rural communities.
Tracey is also a trained chef and has authored, co-authored or developed more than a dozen cookbooks. When I was thinking about how to kick off 2024, I knew I wanted to have a conversation with Tracey about Edible Communities, the role this community of publications can and does play in telling the stories of what we all eat and why that storytelling matters.
Tracey, welcome to Eat. Drink. Think.
Tracey Ryder:
Thanks for having me, Amy.
AOH:
Absolutely. Well, we should probably be explicit in mentioning that I’m coming to this conversation not just as an interviewer, but as a co-publisher of an Edible magazine, and that’s Edible Alaska. So with that out of the way-
TR:
Thrilled to have you there too.
AOH:
Yeah. With that out of the way, I wanted to ask you, I guess there’s probably a lot of listeners who may not know the Edible community’s backstory. You didn’t set out to grow a big media network. You co-founded the first title in 2002. Can you tell us that story and fill us in about how and why it grew into what it is today?
TR:
Sure, I’d be happy to. So Edible Ojai did publish in the spring of 2002. It’s been 21 years, and we did that just because it was a small, rural agricultural community with lots of stories to tell, and we recognize that and also because we have a lot of farmer friends who were willing to write for us and participate in it all.
Carole and I, the co-founder of Edible Communities, and I had a small media company then called Elements Omnimedia. We had big aspirations for someday being a big media company, but we didn’t know exactly what form that would take. But at the time we did a lot of marketing consulting. We developed websites and did photography and created content, and we also published the Visitors Guide and a lot of magazines for private schools in Ojai. It’s considered the gateway to Yale. There are more private schools in this little town of 8,000 people than almost anywhere.
And we thought, let’s just create something because we love it and we own it, we want to do it.
And what we were passionate about was food and agriculture. So that was the birth of Edible Ojai, and we published it quarterly with the seasons for about a year and a half.
And then Saveur Magazine, which at the time was very big and vibrant and everyone paid attention to, and they included us in their Saveur 100. And that really changed the whole scope and direction for Edible because we were included in that list. It was the top 100 food things from all over the world, and they included Edible Ojai.
And it was the two inches of ink that changes your life. And they said, “We wish this concept would pop up everywhere.”
In the first week after that issue hit newsstands, we could literally feel the magazine being distributed nationwide because it was published in New York and the phone calls started coming in from the east and slowly came in from the west and we heard from over 400 people in the first week that wanted an Edible magazine in their town.
So we had bought the domain name for Edible Communities. We thought we might do other magazines in California, which at the time was our home and that it might grow to go between like Ojai and San Francisco maybe, but we were a little surprised with it growing as quickly as it did and going as far as it did.
So we always give a nod and a thanks to Saveur editors who included us then because it really was the boost that we needed to grow the model and have these.
We quickly figured out that we were not experts in towns all over the country though, and that we had to come up with a business model that would allow us to have publishers like yourself and Jeremy who know their community far better than we do. So that’s really how it all began.
AOH:
Yeah. Actually that was going to be my next question. So Edible magazines all have independent publishers who run their own magazines. They publish only what they want to publish. Can you talk a little bit about what brought you to that structure and how it serves the Edible Communities’ mission?
TR:
Yeah. It was very important to us that we not dictate content for any of the Edible magazines.
We really knew that if we could attract the right community of publishers, that they would do the best job possible for their communities because they would know it so well. And that’s how we develop the licensing model.
Many people from the outside look at Edible and they think we’re a franchise and we’re not at all.
We are a licensing model, which literally means that every Edible publisher independently owns and operates their magazine. We do not dictate any of their content.
The goal was that if you saw 100 Edible magazines on a coffee table together that you knew they were members of the same family, but they had very distinct and unique personalities, which after 21 years, I’m really happy to say is the case. Maine is not like Phoenix and San Francisco’s not like Miami. They’re all very distinct and unique and different. And honestly, it’s still to this day, the thing that delights me the most, I think.
AOH:
So with around 80 publications putting out on average four to six publications per year, that’s a lot of stories and you get to enjoy receiving copies of all those magazines.
Do you have any recent stories that might’ve come to mind that may give listeners a sense of the power of local storytelling?
TR:
Oh gosh, that’s a great question. There’s so much. It ranges for me. Sometimes I have to admit that I live in New Mexico now, so I pay particular attention to our local Edible because it informs the decisions I make about food and where I’m going to buy it or source it or find it or who our farmers are. So there’s a little bit of that.
I’m also very nostalgic for Ojai where this company started, so I pay special attention. But honestly, for me, even recently in San Francisco, there was one about the neighborhoods.
What makes those little local gems local gems, and why is that so special? And I find that very compelling because communities create that themselves, and it’s something that doesn’t exist where I live. So it’s really interesting.
And then sometimes I find myself almost brought to tears by other stories.
Like Edible Maine recently did a story on incarcerated people who are having the opportunity to garden. And I think the recidivism rate on incarceration is 65% will return again, and in the state of Maine it’s 20%. And they really tie it to the fact that they’re being connected through gardening to knowing there’s hope and other things to do. That really has the power to change lives.
That storytelling really has the power to change lives. I’ve always believed that. And I think that’s a really good example because other times it’s actually a little hard to measure things. We know after 20 years that stories have had the power to change lives, but it’s sometimes hard to quantify.
I mean, one anecdotal story I recall was being on a launch trip for Edible Boston when it was brand new, and this was maybe 18 years ago.
And there was a young woman, we were on a photo shoot, she was making hand pulled mozzarella cheese, and she turned to the publisher of Edible Boston and said, “I don’t think you should run this story about me because I don’t think I’m going to be around by the time this issue comes out. I’ve sold every share in my LLC that I possibly can. I’ve done everything I can and I don’t think I can hang on any longer.”
And the publisher said, “Just hang on until the issue comes out, just hang out.” And then I remember about 10 years later, she was still going strong and making mozzarella, and she really credited that story on saving her business and changing her life. So it definitely happens.
AOH:
Do you think that there is a different effect that local storytelling has versus, I mean our very necessary national media?
TR:
Definitely. There’s that old saying, the personal is universal in a way, but I think the local storytelling, regardless of where you live, I can really connect to those personal stories that are local regardless of where they’re taking place.
Just because there’s a quality to it’s like it’s aspirational in a way.
And I think it inspires people then to take those stories back to their own community and want to affect some change. So even though it may not be about my community where I live, once I hear that story, it really can be applied almost universally. And I love that aspect.
AOH:
And has there been a growth in the number of titles recently? Are there some new ones you want to talk about?
TR:
Yes, there has. It’s very interesting history with Edible.
Back in 2009 when the economic crash happened and the world was going to hell. Shades of today maybe, but it was for different reasons. Edible doubled in size. We literally in 2009, 2010 went from 30 to 60 titles.
So when the world was in a very difficult place, a lot of people came to Edible. They wanted a fresh start, they wanted to invest in themselves, the job market was all over the place. A
nd now as a result, sadly of a pandemic, people returned home. A lot of people returned home. They had gone to college, living in urban areas, having a career, and then the pandemic hit and they weren’t sure what to do or what the future looked like and move back home.
So for example, we have a new publisher based in Brownsville, Texas who is publishing Edible Rio Grande Valley. And she had been living for a dozen years in Manhattan and working in the hospitality industry and came home and launched a magazine.
So again, this is another time of great growth for us.
I mean, we have two more titles in Canada this year, one on the far east, edible Newfoundland and Labrador, and one on the far west in Sea to Sky. And then we also have other ones, Port City in North Carolina, the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. One of the last parts of California that didn’t have an edible magazine until now in Mendocino and Lake County.
So yeah, there’s a lot of new titles and every one of them has just started out really strong and really representing their community. They’re terrific.
AOH:
That’s very exciting. Do people do edible tourism? Is that a thing?
TR:
Edible tourism?
AOH:
Yeah. I know personally I do, I look for the magazine, but do you hear from just everyday folks when they’re traveling, are they looking for the Edible magazines?
TR:
Honestly, I think it’s the number one phone call we get to our office after all these years, and it’s so great. I love the calls because someone will call and say, “My child is getting married in Montana and I want to send a magazine to every person coming to their wedding so they know where to eat and what to do when they’re in Montana or I am traveling to X.”
And a lot of times they’re just right and let us know that they just got back from somewhere, but the first thing they do when they land is find the local Edible magazine. So that’s really exciting, I think, and it’s a great tool for traveling.
AOH:
So in spite of my own bias, I want to hear your take on this. Can you talk a bit about why print?
TR:
I have some strong biases as well, or not be so different?
Yes. Print, yes.
Well, I’m probably going to date myself too, but I’m of the age that still prefers print over most other ways of consuming media.
But I think there’s something very tangible about it. Our readers surveys every time we do one, they tell us they love holding the magazines, they love the texture of the paper, they also collect them and keep them around. So I think print has… At least our print when it is collected and valued in that way, it sticks around a lot longer. I actually had a phone call once from someone, and this was probably 15 years into Edible Ojai who said, “I am missing issue 11, and I have to get it.” I have every issue and I do not want to have one missing from my collection.”
So I just think there’s so much value to it. You can revisit pages, you can lay the magazines open and cook a recipe. There’s just something so tangible.
I mean, we are a media company, so we have all the other formats of digital content that are able to be consumed on different platforms, but I love that we’re a print forward company and that these magazines really do so authentically represent the communities that they’re talking about.
AOH:
I think we could even maybe just take it a little further and say, why periodicals? Why magazines? I know you’ve written and developed books and we all love books and we love digital media. And is there something about the magazine form that you think lends itself to food writing in particular?
TR:
Absolutely. Yes. There’s a very timely aspect of food and food trends and seasonality of course informs a lot of food.
Magazines are able to do that without being quite as static as a cookbook maybe. I love books sitting in a room full of books, but there’s just something so compelling and timely, I guess it is.
And I like the arc of the seasons, which most of our magazines follow as they’re publishing. And I don’t know if it’s the recipes or the way you can tell a story. In a magazine, you have different flanks and formats and access points that make the content accessible to everybody for different reasons. Yeah.
AOH:
This fall, you wrote a piece that you called a highlight reel of the Good Food Movement, and it’s available on Edible Communities website. It was called The Food Revolution Will Not Be Televised, and it has a bit of nostalgia and some inspiration for approaching future challenges. Can you tell us what you mean by good food?
TR:
Yes. When I say good food, I am meaning food very much in the way Carlo Petrini talks about it with slow food, it’s fair and just clean and accessible to all people.
I think we still have a long way to go, which is really what the story was about. We’ve accomplished a lot, but we still have a long way to go.
And I work with a lot of companies who are really trying to do that. Who are really trying to move the dial in the right direction and make quality food that’s not going to make us fat and sick and toxic available to more and more people.
There are a lot of debates about can local food really feed everybody? And I think we don’t give it enough credit. I think there’s a lot more potential there than we think.
Certainly regional food there is. But yeah, for me, it’s knowing that fresh, seasonal, delicious food is available and that the people who grow it and produce it are fairly compensated.
For years we’ve been talking about the high cost of cheap food and that problem has not gone away. So yes, the story talks about that. We have had great accomplishments over the past 25 years of the food movement, and certainly there are icons in that process. I mean, there are wonderful companies like a Niman Ranch who has supported 750 independent family farmers to be paid a high price for the food they produce, and they really stick to what they say they’re doing, and that’s great.
But I’d love to know there were 200 more examples of that. Not just one.
Alice Waters certainly has done so much to change the tenor of the food movement for the past 30 to 40 years at Chez Panisse, but again, we could use 200 of those stories and they do exist.
And I think, again, that’s what ties it back to Edible Communities is that you guys on a local level get your boots on the ground literally, and you get to mine that content in the way that is really having an impact on your local communities.
And I still think that’s where the solutions are going to come from.
AOH:
The challenges you mentioned like food access equity and how climate change is and will affect how we eat.
In the article you quote Mark Bittman who talks about the fact that the way folks think about food has changed even in the last decade. He said, “You cannot buy your way into a better food system. That alliances are needed to address inequities and unfairness on many different levels.”
What do you think he meant by alliances and what do you see us moving towards as far as fairness and equity?
TR:
Well, I think alliances are going to be the path forward, honestly, because we’ve been so siloed for so long in our own little camps, and there are so many organizations doing really good work and nobody’s talking to each other. I don’t want to speak for Mark certainly, but I think we share this feeling that there’s not going to be one organization that can do everything.
There’s not going to be one way to get everyone access to fair wages, to good, clean, just food, and that we have to find a structure other than through typical government channels or whatever to do things a different way.
And I think now we’re seeing it in the indigenous community so much. There’s First Nations have all kinds of programs happening now, and we need to lift and highlight and feature those voices in a way that hasn’t been done yet enough.
And in the BIPOC community, again, there’s just so much work to be done, but I think it’s time for everybody to get out of their silos and start working together.
I don’t know what that specifically looks like. I don’t think it’s another organization, though. I think it’s activity. It’s we have to do things, and I agree with Mark in that we can’t buy our way out of this because God knows this country throws away… We throw away a third of our food, and money hasn’t solved problems. So we need to find other collaborations and ways of working together for sure.
AOH:
And what and who is inspiring you as you look forward into the next year and beyond?
TR:
Boy, that’s a good question. Well, in the next year and beyond, frankly, I know we work in the world of food and the food system, but I find myself obsessed with climate and that I feel like this is our greatest threat and it’s affecting everything on every level. And sometimes it’s just so scary and it feels so big.
Where is the solution? Have we gone too far? Can we bring down our carbon levels? I mean, what is going to happen? So I find myself really being inspired and reading nature writers and environmental writers, and I’m a huge fan of Terry Tempest Williams. I love every word she writes because for me, she writes with such a level of emotion that just feels honest and also inspirational. So I find myself reading a lot and taking solace in writers like Terry and others.
AOH:
Do you have anything upcoming or new with respect to Edible Communities in 2024 or beyond that you’d like to share?
TR:
Yes. Well, we talked about consuming content in different forms of media, and we’re very hopeful that Edible will soon have a television show. And speaking of Edible Travel, the interest in our show is very much related to travel and the uniqueness of the communities where we publish. So it’s a really wonderful concept. Of course, with all things television, there’s always a really long runway to go from concept to execution. We’re getting closer all the time though, and it’s really based on this concept of Edible being able to provide this insider’s guide and unique look to communities that most people would probably gloss right over or not have access to. So that’s our concept. And in fact, just this week we made huge progress on that front, so hopefully we’ll be shooting a pilot in early 2024.
AOH:
Well, that’s exciting to hear and we’ll look forward to it and maybe have you back. Tracey, thank you so much for joining us.
TR:
Totally my pleasure. Amy, thanks for having me.
AOH:
We’ve been listening to Edible Communities Co-founder Tracey Ryder. Thank you for joining us today at Eat. Drink. Think. If you like this episode, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to pick up your local Edible magazine. You can find show notes for today’s episode at ediblecommunities.com.
