Anya Fernald: Co-founder of Belcampo Farms, a regenerative and certified-humane meat operation in Northern California. She is also a chef, Iron Chef judge, and scholar-practitioner of regenerative agriculture.
What this episode covers
Lex Fridman talks with Anya Fernald on location at Belcampo Farms about food as our deepest way of interacting with the environment and the sensory experience of cooking. Fernald explains the science of cooking meat (muscle type, collagen, surface-area-to-volume ratio, direct vs. indirect heat) and how an animal's diet and life shape flavor and nutrition. The bulk of the conversation makes the case for regenerative farming as a scalable, carbon-sequestering, humane alternative to factory farming, including the role AI could play. She also reflects on her formative years making cheese in Italy and Sicily, judging Iron Chef, hunting as the cleanest meat, and pursuing a curious, uncomfortable, non-linear life.
Recommended on this episode
Sea Island Forge grill
Sea Island Forge
“that's called a sea island forge it's a wood fire grill that's inspired by like a south american style cooking so it's like it's big”— Anya Fernald
The guest's own work
Belcampo Farms meat
Anya Fernald / Belcampo
“the following is a conversation with anya farnald co-founder of belkampa farms that was founded with the purpose to create meat that's good for people the planet and the animals”— Anya Fernald
Anya Fernald's organic rum
Anya Fernald
“i also co-founded a rum business um that's an organic rum so i love that product but that's not that for me”— Anya Fernald
Belcampo meatballs
Anya Fernald / Belcampo
“i launched our meatballs i'm just about to launch our chicken meatballs doing a high protein bone broth like those are that's what why i did this”— Anya Fernald
Belcampo chicken meatballs
Anya Fernald / Belcampo
“i'm just about to launch our chicken meatballs doing a high protein bone broth like those are that's what why i did this”— Anya Fernald
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
David Gelb
“i don't know if you've seen jiro dreams of sushi it's a documentary about yeah so there's an obsession that particular first of all set of humans”— host
Traeger grill
Traeger
“now if you're cooking on a traeger you're going to get awesome smoke smell you know like you're there's plenty of ways to do this”— Anya Fernald
Iron Chef
Food Network
“you were a judge several times on an iron chef how do you judge a good meal like what uh your own other people's”— host
Big reveals from this episode
- Belcampo represents less than 1% of US-raised animals; the rest is factory farmed, which Lex says haunted him after his visit.
- Fernald argues industrial farming has 'de-skilled' agriculture, turning it from art and science into entry-level employment.
- She claims converting damaged and underutilized rangeland to regenerative ag could sequester 20-40% of the world's carbon.
- Belcampo's 25,000 acres have been third-party verified as carbon-impact negative.
- She pushes back on the 'ditch meat for plant-based' narrative, arguing meat can be part of the climate solution if we eat less and pay more.
- On a high-grain diet a cow's rumen looks 'black and shiny' inside versus green and compost-smelling in grass-fed animals.
- Fernald reveals her early Sicily cheese job answered to 'multiple masters' and her boss later went to federal prison for corruption.
- She is pro-hunting, calling hunted game the cleanest, happiest meat and wild animals the truly 'happiest cows.'
Worth remembering
- Cooking and smelling food while hungry can lower your hunger by roughly 40%, changing your satiety threshold.
- How meat cooks is governed more by muscle function and collagen content than by fat content.
- Load-bearing muscles like cheek and shin are full of collagen that must be liquefied with low, slow, moist heat.
- Lex notes he read a paper arguing the killing of an animal can never truly be humane.
- Ruminants like cows have five stomachs to process low-calorie, high-fiber grass that would make humans sick.
- In the 1950s commercial chickens took about 54 weeks to reach full weight; in confinement today it can be 2.5 weeks.
- A truly grass-fed chicken doesn't exist because chickens are monogastric omnivores that need grain density.
- An animal's omega-3-to-6 ratio can change within a week of switching to grain.
- Conventional beef can have a 1:30 omega-3-to-6 ratio while Belcampo's grass-fed beef gets as low as 1:1.
- Fernald was technically a professional musician, playing oboe in a Sicilian municipal band for 50 euro per funeral.