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Kalie Rider
Kalie grew up in the sugar beet territory of Western North Dakota with the belief that leaving was the ultimate goal in life. Throughout her childhood she experienced chronic severe migraines and general fatigue and early on it was obvious to her that it was related to what she ate, so she decided to study nutrition in college to get to the bottom of her health condition. In her quest to become a Registered Dietitian, she started making connections between food and her family’s history of farming, which led her to pursue a Master's in Environmental Studies with a focus on food systems at the University of Montana. Meanwhile, back at home, her brother Jed was experiencing his own health conditions and extreme anxiety trying to keep the sugar beet farming tradition alive. He was ultimately exposed (at a bar of all places) to concepts of holistic management grazing systems, adopted them, and never turned back.
After her stint in Montana and ten years away from home, Kalie moved back to be a part of the lives of her nieces and nephews and live on her brother’s ranch to watch the life and diversity come back to the land. Now she sees the Dakota prairie for the rich beauty that it is.
Today Kalie works as a diabetic educator with Indian Health Services, is a mentor for the North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition, teaches nutrition as an adjunct at Williston State College, and spends many weekends playing music with her band Gettin’ Outta Dodge. She obsessively looks for connections between the soil and human health, and believes that if we start focusing our efforts on improving our soils, the health will follow.
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