Mike Badger, host of Pastured Poultry Talk

Pastured Poultry Talk is a show that enlightens and entertains listeners about the production, processing, business, and politics of raising poultry on pasture. The show was founded in 2015 through a collaboration between friends Grady Phelan and Mike Badger. At the time there was no show giving relevant chicken advice from a commercial pastured poultry perspective, so Pastured Poultry Talk was born.

Beginning in January 2016, Mike became the host of the show as Grady stepped aside to deal with farm commitments. Mike continues to draw on his broad knowledge and connections within the pastured poultry community to demonstrate to the world that independent, decentralized poultry and egg production can feed the world one community at a time. The show features guests, such as Joel Salatin, Terrell Spencer, Patrick McNiff, Paul Greive, and others who demonstrate the power of a regenerative, community-first approach to food.

Today, listeners to the show represent every stage of their pastured poultry journey from family flocks to fledgling businesses to full-time farmers.

Eat Differently

The show rallies around food freedom, and believes pasture-raised eggs and poultry is the quickest way to teach people how to eat differently. Pastured Poultry Talk takes the position that the first step to feeding your community is to feed your family, and that’s the entry way for most pastured poultry farms. The show welcomes the family flock listeners, but remember, we will eventually eat the pet rooster Willie, which is to say, we don’t get caught up in the urban chicken as pets motif.

We also don’t get scared by academics, agencies, and industry who try to scare us into thinking like them–That’s the last thing we want to do around here!

About Mike

Mike currently serves as the Executive Director of American Pastured Poultry Producers Association where he is often tasked to troubleshoot member questions, provide community resources, and generally know what’s happening in the community. He also co-owns Badger’s Millside Farm, which focuses on processing, cooking, and eating of pastured poultry. Badger’s is a modern homestead, supplying the knowledge, framework, resources, and home base for Mike and wife Christie to work independently.

He also has an extensive technology background  and publishing history. In addition to publishing a bi-monthly pastured poultry trade magazine with APPPA, he has previously authored an internationally syndicated column on Scratch for Raspberry Pi Magazine. He has four books published under the Packt Publishing imprint.

Mike brought his technical knowledge to online marketing in 2008 when he worked full-time at a marketing agency developing marketing strategies for companies. Marketing was the last corporate job Mike had before he struck out on his, but he continues to leverage his knowledge of the web, ecommerce, SEO, email, and sound marketing principles to put food on the table.

All that historical experience lands on this podcast. We shake it all up and see what comes out. Some day, Mike will take the time to trace all those seemingly unrelated paths, but for now, just understand, he’s living the life God created for him. It’s not unrelated happenstance.