Future Foods: The Science and Art of the Nopal Cactus

Frances Whitehead is an award-winning transdisciplinary environmental artist who integrates art with plants, soil, food, and agricultural sustainability. Having spent much of her career in cities of the Great Lakes Basin, she moved to New Mexico five years ago because she wanted to live in a dry climate and work on what she calls "arid reworlding" — which is all about responding to climate change by building a healthy future that uses less water. On a trip to Mexico, her life was changed by an encounter with the Nopal cactus, which has been a staple of Mexican culture for millennia. This led to her project, Nopalogy, which addresses the potential role of Nopal as a future food in colder climates. In this podcast we explore the work with Nopal, as well as the role of the artist in agriculture and the food system, the latest research on Nopal, and the new field trials she's initiated in Santa Fe.