Last July, Joneve Murphy left a comfortable post an as in-house farmer at one of Washington, D.C.’s top restaurants to embark on an international tour de farms. While she knows how to grow obscure peppers and microgreens to top elaborate dishes, she had a feeling this wasn’t going to help feed the world, and she was curious about the farming practices that might.

She returned to the states this spring with a taste for bugs—or at least for their farmed potential—and a growing understanding of the best and worst agricultural practices the world over.

During nine months in more than a dozen Asian and European countries, Murphy, 35, stretched her understanding—and ours—of how food is grown, reflecting on her findings via Instagram and a photo-driven blog called “Farmer Seeking Roots.”

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