Leslie Wiser fell in love with farming in her 20s, but as a child of immigrants, felt obligated to follow a more traditional career. It took nearly two decades before she returned to farming this time, with a new sense of purpose.

Food, for me, is how I hold on to my personal heritage, said Wiser, who started the market garden Radical Family Farms in Sebastopol, California. She started farming again, and reconnected with her Chinese and German roots by growing heritage vegetables from those countries a process she calls identity farming.