Rhys Pender is a winemaker, farmer, writer, and holder of a rare designation: he is a Master of Wine.  A while back, Rhys wrote this post for the blog WineAlign, in which he argues that North America's food and wine culture is poorly integrated, and that this is holding both facets of the culture back.  I asked Rhys to join me on the podcast to talk about his piece. Herein, we discuss some of the barriers to achieving a more integrated food and wine culture, and why such an outcome would be better for that culture, and even for food security. Rhys and his partner Alishan Driediger make wines that can be found on their website, littlefarmwinery.ca. He also has a project called Wine Plus+.