#125 Ryan Griggs - The Regenaissance Is Upon Us - Ben Wehrman Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
People will say they want this or that long term for food, like a good food system.

(00:04):
Well, you have to put your money where your mouth is or else that's not going to happen
because the powers that be, it's very corrupt.
All of the institutions, USDA, it's very corrupt.
And it's going to take a long time to essentially course correct.
So what can we do as we the people in the short term?
Well, you got to support directly.
We just need to go back to having relationships with the farmers, essentially.

(00:26):
That's what it always comes down to.
Hello, everyone.
Thank you for coming by for another episode of the Ben Warbin podcast.
I appreciate you joining us today.
We have a very special guest.
His name is Ryan Griggs.
He is the founder of Regennaissance, which I got my favorite shorts on for this one.
Oh, heck yeah.
Let's go.

(00:46):
I got these last time.
These have been my favorites when I've been traveling, dude.
I just throw them on and I feel like I can swim in them.
I can spend my days in them.
They're super comfortable.
So Regennaissance is an awesome clothing company.
You're also going around doing stuff with farms and ranch.
So can't wait to hear more about that and get into it.
Ryan, thanks for coming, dude.

(01:08):
Thank you for having me.
So as I was mentioning earlier, we love a good story here.
And you have a very crazy story when it comes to health and wellness and how the current system just is not serving people very well and how we need to make a lot of changes.
So could you give us your backstory?

(01:29):
Please don't try to summarize it too much because I love the ranting detail you go into.
For sure.
Okay.
So it was interesting because, I mean, it hit like a train wreck.
But then looking back, my life was the boiling pot of water with the frog analogy and just slowly but surely just was culminating in the background.

(01:53):
So I moved down to Austin, Texas in 2018.
and June. So it's pretty much going on. What is that? Seven, eight years ago. And pretty much
right in the fall of that year, I started noticing things were kind of off with my mom.
And she was the type of person to where she texted me and called me pretty much every single day,

(02:13):
at least text. She was always heavily involved, which was a good thing. I'm not saying that's a
bad thing. But I started noticing just like sentences and just things just were slowly off,
didn't make sense to her. And then I went back home for a wedding. And I think it was around
November of 2018, back to my hometown in Indiana, for one of my brother's best friend's weddings.

(02:35):
And I remember I was in the bonus room. And she was just sitting there by herself just in her
underwear. And I've never, it kind of threw me off because that's not something she does.
And she was really confused, like where what I'm trying to remember because I remember like I
walked in and she like looked at me so confused like trying to figure out where she was I'm

(02:56):
I mean that really threw me back because I'm only 23 at the time just moved to Austin and all of a
sudden my mom's health is already getting pretty bad but that was kind of in the background you
know did the wedding went back home or went back to Austin and then 2019 rolls around and I really
started noticing that a lot of her sentences made no sense whatsoever and like slurring words

(03:19):
whenever we would talk, really bad memory. And then I was really starting to think that she
actually had dementia. And so I would talk to her friends and my family and a lot of other people
started noticing things too. So I actually had a bunch of people write down whatever they had in
this Google Doc. And I'll never forget the day I called my mom to tell her to get tested for

(03:41):
dementia, which obviously that sucked. Because I remember right after that call ended, I was just
bawling my eyes out thinking that I literally finally, you know, I'm free from, or not free,
I'm finally on the next phase of life after college and whatnot, to moving down on my own
and all that. And then all of a sudden, my mom's health. And so that was really messing with me.

(04:04):
But then at the start of the pandemic, fast forwarding a little bit, because my mom's
health still getting bad. Literally right as the pandemic started, I get news that my brother
has stage three colon cancer. And that hit me like a ton of bricks too, because my anxiety
immediately took me to the day of his funeral. And unfortunately that ended up happening.

(04:28):
But I'm just reflecting back too, because I had a fairly straightforward life.
I mean, I have a small family. Everyone on my dad's side passed away before I was born,
but had a good childhood, went to college, went to grad school, moved down to Austin,
got a job at IBM. So things were good and I had a good future ahead, but then

(04:52):
yeah, nothing like this had ever happened to me. And so as the pandemic was going on,
I was destroyed. I had no way of handling any of this well at all.
and I remember this was September of 2020 we're told that his cancer is in remission which is
great and all so I went back home my mom got a cookie cake and you know had balloons and we were

(05:15):
all celebrating and my brother he was smart looking back he didn't really want to celebrate
it was more so because my mom because he was just thinking that you know it's not technically over
which was crazy because it was only two months later that we were told not only is this cancer
back, but stage four. So I find that out in December of 2020. And this was now at the height
of the pandemic. And I also remember he had to have surgery in Indianapolis on Christmas day or

(05:40):
Christmas Eve, one of those two days. And because of the stupid COVID rules,
he was only allowed one visitor the whole entire day for one hour. And so I think about that a lot
too. I know with Bitcoin and everything, with freedom and sovereignty, I think about that day
a lot because I remember texting my brother. And just the fact that I don't want to go on a side

(06:04):
tangent with that because that was just, I tend to forget some of those things a lot, but whenever
I bring it up, it does get pretty infuriating. Whenever you're somebody like my brother who
was totally at stage three colon cancer, then it was in remission. And not only is it back,
but stage four. And on Christmas day, probably the number one holiday you want to be with family,

(06:28):
he's told he has to spend it pretty much alone.
And so I went back home for the first six months of 2021 to be his caretaker.
And then it's really hard to put into words. And this is why I do everything because it's one of

(06:49):
those things that we all know it sucks but whenever you see it firsthand it's a I can explain
everything that I went through and it will have you in tears but you still have no idea like what
it truly felt like I mean um so yeah I realized cancer and all of that was
I guess how I'll summarize it whenever I first moved back to go to my hometown my brother had

(07:16):
apartment about five minutes from my parents' place because my parents had the same house that
we grew up in. And that's where my brother ended up going back. And whenever I went back, the initial
plan was I would be in my brother's apartment and I would go over to my parents' place and help him
out. That lasted for a whole day because I realized that I need to be in the same room with him

(07:36):
because cancer and all that stuff isn't just like a nine to five. It is 24 seven. It does not stop.
it does not matter um so yeah for those six months i watched all of that unfold between
that and the chemo treatments and all the opioids that he had to take for all the pain
was horrific to say the least he spent the last two and a half months of that six months in the

(08:01):
hospital and so i really got to see what the hospital environment was like and how awful that
is for everybody involved, not just the patients and their families. It's horrific for the nurses.
I remember, so my brother spent the first week of that in the ICU, and then he transitioned to

(08:22):
a floor below for another week before going to a long-term hospital
to pretty much finish out the rest of his life. But I remember it was about 12 midnight rolled
around. And I didn't realize that he was getting delirious because I didn't know what that was like
ever experiencing something like that to where he was literally losing his mind.

(08:46):
He thought people were coming after him. He thought I was pushing away. He had me kept
getting a nurse to come help and help. And she was severely overworked, understaffed. There's
beeping sounds everywhere around the hospital because they needed help. And this nurse was
just such an angel about everything because I felt terrible having to get her every 10 seconds
because I had no clue what was going on. I was on probably 36 hours of no sleep either. And

(09:12):
it's terrifying knowing the worst feeling through all that was the helpless aspect
of I just had to watch him suffer. It was, he essentially was tortured for six months
physically every single day.

(09:34):
Nauseous and pain from the moment he wake up
to the moment he goes to sleep,
even if he rarely ever slept.
And for me, it was psychological torture
the whole six months to watch all that unfold.
He unfortunately passed three days
before his 33rd birthday
to where my mother and me
were sitting on his bedside in hospice
and watched all of that.

(09:56):
And I remember after he passed,
I had no idea how I was so destroyed and so
going with the motions, I guess.
It felt like the next six months of 2021
just felt like an out-of-body experience the whole time.
I remember I came back to Austin,

(10:18):
went to a friend's birthday at like a cookout outside,
and I just sat there and it felt like a movie scene
to where when you're just sitting there
and they're like kind of fast forwarding through it all and it's just blurs around him and people
are just like interacting if you know what I'm talking about on that that's exactly how it felt
to where I just kind of sat there and existed but I was just so drained destroyed and just

(10:43):
numb to everything and so in the next six months of that I quit IBM I actually withdrew my 401k
because I realized that I was I was pretty fed up with I guess the whole tech world but thinking
that I could do something on my own because I've always had this deep down desire to do that. I've
just lacked the confidence. And so after going through all that, really changed a lot for that.

(11:07):
This is actually where Twitter came into play and genuinely saved my life. Because I remember
I was taking care of my brother. He was using Twitter, which I found hilarious because he's
always been anti media but he actually how I got into Bitcoin And so he was part of all the Bitcoin community and I started really seeing the utility of all of that And so slowly but surely I was learning and unlearning everything because I was also vegan at the time

(11:32):
I was very convicted in my beliefs with all that.
I quickly switched to eating meat again.
And then I started learning about pretty much everything the Maha stands for now.
I was learning in 2021.
And so I had all this going in the background, still figuring out my life.
And then in 2022, I heard about regenerative agriculture on Twitter.
And I somehow found my way into like that and like homesteading.

(11:55):
And that was my light bulb moment of, holy shit, I've been so disconnected from my food.
I'm from Southern Indiana, surrounded by cornfields.
But I used to, you know, I had a very ignorant viewpoint of all of that.
And arrogant too, just thinking I was above all of that.
And so I really started learning as much as I could on all agriculture.

(12:17):
I had this huge road trip planned in 2022.
Originally was just to travel around America because that was the one thing me and my brother talked about to keep the hope alive.
But obviously we didn't get to travel.
But then after, you know, learning about this, I kind of transformed this trip to where I started visiting some ranches.
And then by the end of this trip was September of 2022.

(12:39):
to, I used WOOFing, which is WWOOF, an acronym that stands for Worldwide Opportunities on
Organic Farms.
And that is essentially like an Airbnb-styled layout to where on the site, it's a global
organization to where people that have farms or ranches, you get housing and food in exchange

(13:00):
for your labor.
And so I was able to find this awesome property in Pennsylvania.
I talked to the farm owner.
He had some similar experiences in life to where he lost a parent and a sibling fairly quick and early on.
And so I took the leap of faith and went there.
And that was just so incredible.

(13:21):
That was the first time I experienced rural America.
The surrounding town was about 2,500 population, surrounded by the Amish and beautiful Appalachian hills.
amazing farm that had six or seven different types of animals more produce that i've ever seen in my
life some different kinds of squash i've never seen in my life if you're a listener you should

(13:45):
look up blue hubbards because it's essentially just like a giant blue dinosaur egg but an
awesome squash but yeah so as i was working on that farm i shared my story on twitter
and my plans to really just share,
hey, I'm this normie dude
who now is just getting into farming
because I had this plan
of I was just going to travel to farms,

(14:05):
share out what I'm, you know,
teach or share out what I'm doing
and learning and reading and whatnot.
And that post went viral overnight
to where I remember John Valis reached out
and I was just like, what the heck?
Because I had been a huge follower of his
and that made me realize too that
through the pandemic and everything and just health and more around America, that woke up a

(14:29):
lot of people. And so whenever I made that post, I realized that, oh, okay, so many other people
are realizing they're so disconnected from their food too. And I could really help bridge this gap
because I know Bitcoin's about taking out the middleman, but for agriculture, we desperately
need a middleman because only 1% is in agriculture and 99% is not. And on top of that, most have

(14:50):
never even spoken to a farmer, yet alone been on a farm. And so I had this huge plan again to where
I'm traveling. I was going to buy a GoPro. I was going to do Substack. But then through all this,
my health was still getting really bad. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Healthcare was
surprise, surprise, doing not a whole lot. In fact, they're making a lot of things worse,

(15:11):
misdiagnosing me. This is actually where I went to Twitter and hired independent help to where I
finally discovered at Hashimoto's a severe form of hypothyroidism, which explained why I never had
energy or really anything. But on top of that, my mom's health was still getting really bad.

(15:32):
That was just as hard as seeing my brother was seeing her because she was always very unhealthy
my whole life. But this is also why I try to tell people that you might be okay health-wise and
you know, can manage being in the shape you are for 30 years.
But in the blink of an eye, it could change overnight.
And that's essentially what happened to my mom.

(15:54):
And so I actually had to leave this farm early.
And now I'm fast forwarding to 2023.
I had this ranch in Montana lined up in February 1st.
So I had pretty much like a month and a half to get back to my health.
And because I finally figured that out and had this huge plan for all of that.
one week before I was starting in Montana, I was in Boise, Idaho, just to explore that area and then

(16:18):
get ready for this trip. I had the worst health scare of my life to where I was shitting blood
about 90 times over three days. I had the worst abdominal pains in my life. I remember I was in
this Airbnb loft by myself, trying not to panic, obviously, because I remember I was just trying
to get comfortable in my bed. And it was a crazy deja vu moment of with my brother because he was

(16:43):
doing a lot of those same things to get comfortable. So in my head, I'm thinking, is this colon cancer?
I just did a colonoscopy the year before. But everything came back clear. But my health still
continued to get worse. So I just didn't know what was going on there. And I remember this was a
Friday night. And I realized my only two options are urgent care and ER. Obviously, this is way

(17:04):
too serious for urgent care. So I told myself the next morning, I'm going to go and drive to the ER.
And so the next morning rolls around. This was around like, I don't know, 6.30, 7, 8 a.m.
I had to head straight to the bathroom. As I'm sitting on the toilet, I still had to sleep with
headphones for rain sounds because my body has just been in default fight or flight mode for so long.

(17:29):
And I remember I'm sitting there. I started profusely sweating and getting nauseous thinking
that I'm going to throw up here. But then the rain sounds started getting dim and my eyes were
closing and I'm realizing I'm passing out here. And it was happening so fast. But I remember
slowly in my head thinking if I pass out here, I could die because I had no idea why that was
happening. I'm by myself. I don't check on my Airbnb until the next day. And so I hobbled in

(17:53):
the bed and I learned that day that you could talk yourself out and not passing out because
essentially I was just saying stuff to my head and I took deep breaths. Somehow that worked to
where, you know, my eyes started opening again, my hearing came back and I immediately grabbed
some stuff and just drove straight to the ER. By then it was like 7.30. I remember still dark
outside sleeting. And since it was a Saturday, no one was outside. So I pretty much ran every red

(18:17):
light just to get there. They did a bunch of tests. Instead, I just had a really inflamed colon
and I needed to go back to Austin to do another colonoscopy and endoscopy. And mind you, I already
did two previously than the previous year um just through everything and i'm fortunately was fine
but obviously still want to get tests so i immediately came back to austin and postponed

(18:39):
the bison trip because then also after the bison trip i had farms lined up in italy for the rest
of the year and so i had this huge plane to travel the world essentially before ending back up in the
states so i came back to austin did tests no polyps or cancer they said i might have had
ulcerative colitis, but they couldn't even, they never gave me an official diagnosis. I still to

(19:01):
this day, I have no idea. So I had this mindset that I'm going to stay in Austin for the spring,
essentially, and recover because I had lost probably 10, 15 pounds in that five days. I was
just destroyed. And as I was recovering, because one thing I try to tell listeners to through
everything, I always say to go visit a farm. But the first thing I say is to go take walks outside

(19:25):
because after my brother died that's the very first thing I did to where I mean probably the
first two months after my brother died I wasn't doing anything but reading Twitter walking outside
and playing video games and smoking at night like I was not doing a whole lot but at the same time
I was rebuilding a foundation because then by the time fast refast forwarding back to where I was at

(19:47):
after this health scare was I would make sure during the day I would take walks and be out in
the sun. I would go to parks and sit in the grass and read. And that was huge because one day I was
just walking out the park and all of a sudden I just got hit in the head with the idea for
Reginissance to where I realized that there's no cool looking apparel at all related to agriculture

(20:11):
because this was again in early 2023. And when you would think of some of that style, you'd probably
think of like the cabana deer hunting game, like art style. Everything was just so outdated.
And so I realized that I could make some cool looking apparel that's educational focused.
And then I remember because I had the idea before Regenissance.

(20:31):
But the funny thing was a year before this with my friend Case, we were actually going to do a podcast together called the Regenissance podcast.
Because he was into like the whole holistic health space.
And I was just really focused on the regenerative agriculture, just agriculture piece.
And we're going to combine all that.
And so I realized that word works so well for what I'm trying to do with all of this, because it combines regenerative and renaissance and regenerative.

(20:55):
So regenerative in the sense of our health, because where it stands in America, a lot of stuff we do destroys our health.
But I believe that we are made in God's image and that we're much more resilient than we give ourself credit.
And I knew with like the apparel side that, yeah, that I could really make some cool looking apparel.

(21:18):
That's really educational focus because we are tribal by nature.
So I figured that, you know, just wearing kind of like what Nike did with with athletic wear and whatnot.
They just emboldened. Just do it when you wear it.
I wanted to get to the where if you were wearing stuff with Regina Sons, you're thinking about where your food comes from and wanting to support locally.

(21:39):
And so through all of that, I had no intentions of starting that business.
It just kind of came to be.
And I sent a launch date for May 28th, which was a Sunday Memorial Day weekend in 2023.
And again, my mom's health is still getting worse.
I remember that Mother's Day hit that year.

(22:01):
And I realized it was her last year on earth.
And looking back, Mother's Day was essentially my funeral with her.
because I realized with my brother, I had just shoved everything down with my mom,
because I'm still trying to, you know, live with everything I went through with my brother,
and the fact that he's gone. And so, yeah, Mother's Day was far, far worse than the actual

(22:25):
day of my mom's funeral. But I just did everything I could to ensure that I would launch on May 28.
And so Memorial Day weekend rolls around. And I remember that Friday, my mom texted me for my
website which was awesome but strange because as she was declining she stopped
reaching out and so I was the one reaching out every single day and I realized why because then you know Sunday rolls around I had an awesome launch It actually yeah was so far better than I could have ever had hope for

(22:55):
And then four hours later, I actually get a call that she passed away. And so instead of tweeting
out that, Hey, I thank you for the sport. Your orders are being sent out. It's Hey, thank you
for the support. Your orders are going to be delayed because I'm having to go to my mom's
funeral. And so through all of that, it made me realize though, it's exactly where I needed to be
with all this. Because since then, I'm just going to fast forward a lot. I've actually flipped it

(23:18):
on its head to where it's a media company that has apparel. Because I have this podcast, and
everything has always been educational focused to where, because it's education, but also raising
awareness. And I try to emphasize on that too, because it's the fact that with our food system
in agriculture, most aren't aware of how we've gotten here and what's going on.

(23:40):
And the powers that be know that.
And that's how they're able to get away with so much and able to essentially do the most
corrupt and moral things to these farmers and ranchers, like steal their land, put them
in jail, steal their land, all kinds of examples.
And that's because that most people aren't aware of.
And that's why I love Bitcoin and that world too, because there's so much overlap between

(24:05):
our food system and that. And I'm starting to see more and more of that moving forward. So it's just
been, it's been obviously quite the journey. But I also have, despite everything, I'm finally over
able to continue living life because obviously that last year was hell. I mean, to put a point

(24:27):
blank period on all of that, but now just so much momentum going with everything with the whole
Maha space. And why I'm so such an advocate for farmers and ranchers and saying that is because
these people are so incredible, salt of the earth people that genuinely blow me away because
again, the more stories I hear and share, it's just, they've gone through so much

(24:55):
that people aren't aware of and they just want to provide good food for themselves,
their families, their communities. And yeah, I'll just end it at that because I know I was like a 30
minute story. But yeah. That's amazing, dude. And I just love how you had a very close encounter

(25:18):
with the whole health system from the food side to the health side to the healthcare side,
and how it just needs to be fixed.
So I would love to hear some details
on how exactly you made that connection of,
this is the problem that I saw
and this is how this company is going to fix it.

(25:39):
What are the exact solutions that you are bringing to this
or helping bring to others through Regennaissance?
So I fully believe,
and I'm going to start talking about this a lot,
I fully believe all of humanity's problems,
like the root of it of all humaneness problems is our disconnection from our food.
And what I mean by that is for all of our existence, we've always been living in conjunction

(26:01):
with nature and our food.
We've always, I mean, for the most part, we were hunting for it.
So we had to, and then agriculture came along and you were essentially our homesteaders
to where you always had a pig, you had some chickens, you grew some produce, and then
you'd trade and barter with your neighbors.
Now, for the first time in humaneness history, most people go their whole entire lives

(26:22):
without experiencing any of that and buy everything from a grocery store. And so that over time
has just drastically changed our culture to where we expect to have food year round, same always.
We expect it to be as efficient, fast as possible. And I'll give an example because this is where

(26:43):
we're at with our food system to where on Twitter about a month ago, I saw someone post that she
bought a potato to grow and she fully expected, I'm not joking. She fully expected to have the
potato next day. And this post had 330,000 likes. And I read all the comments, pretty much
experiencing similar things to where I didn't know I had to wait two years for blueberries to grow.

(27:06):
And I'm thinking like, it's kind of just sad. That's just where we're at. But then thinking
like where our heads at, we think we expect to have everything immediately with weight loss,
We now have Ozempic and all these other things.
You can't cheat the system, though, because all of those have dire consequences.
And if you can look up the consequences of Ozempic, it's really bad.

(27:31):
And so this is, again, going back to Bitcoin, it forces you to think long term.
And so we have to think long term about all this again with our food, because also how
the system's in place with actual farming and ranching, with all the monocropping, with
the corn, soy, and wheat subsidies, our system's been in place to make it hyper-efficient and

(27:53):
maximize yields. That's all it's been cared for. And again, that's completely changed our culture
and how we view everything. And so I'm trying to get people to get outside and go to a farm or ranch
because then it just really gets the wheels spinning in your head. And it really starts

(28:15):
thinking about all the problems that are in modern day society, all the different modern
toxins and toxicities, spending time indoors, constantly watching TV and never being outside.
I don't, to me, just everything always goes back to the fact that we've been disconnected
from our food our whole lives.
And so that's why above all else, the mission for Regenestance is to go visit a farm or

(28:37):
ranch because we've lost our community too.
people talk about all the time of that third place we've lost you know you have your home base you
have your school or work and then you used to be that third spot and that really doesn't exist
anymore to me farming and ranching could be a great option to take your kids out on a weekend

(28:59):
because again once you see the connection of all of the work the farmer and rancher does
to get food to your plate. It's hard to put into words. That's why I say that stuff because I
vividly will always remember the first time I visited a ranch in Colorado.
I actually went to visit on a processing day. I got to help out processing chickens. I got to see

(29:24):
the beautiful pastures that the chickens were raised on. I got to see all the employees,
how they actually cared. No vegans, they didn't abuse them or anything. They gave them great life.
And in fact, the owner had this interesting ceremony that he gave to the chickens before,
you know, taking their life on the last day.
I got a free bird in exchange for helping out.

(29:44):
And so I went to a friend's place afterwards and we grilled that.
I remember seeing their reactions because, again, this stuff you don't get in grocery
stores.
And so I remember just thinking about that day, the fact that we all had an awesome meal
together that was, to me, literally life changing.
thinking how the fact that we've pretty much gone so far from all that.

(30:06):
And so that's why Regenascence is essentially,
I'm just tossing so much media at you about the actual farming and ranching,
but also why you should give a damn and actually support directly and locally.
Because if we want to have the changes we want long-term,
because this is another thing too,

(30:26):
people will say they want this or that long-term for food.
like a good food system, well, you have to put your money where your mouth is or else that's
not going to happen because the powers that be, it's very corrupt. All of the institutions, USDA,
it's very corrupt and it's going to take a long time to essentially course correct.
So what can we do as we the people in the short term? Well, you got to support directly and know

(30:50):
your farmers and ranchers because they are pretty much all the industries are captured.
they're really going heavy after the ranching and the beef industry but the people again don't it's
hard to see whenever you you go into grocery stores and there's always food what happens
whenever the pandemic happened everyone freaked out and so i don't want that to be the wake-up

(31:13):
call for most people yeah there's steps to the connection to the food because i'm here back in
my hometown on Whidbey Island, Washington. And shout out to Three Sisters Farm. That's where I
get my meat every time I come back and visit and they do a great job. But I haven't actually walked
on a farm myself. I bet they have a way you can do that. And I need to so you can actually see us

(31:36):
get closer because I go to that little community shop that they have and it's cool to talk to them
and everything. But I feel like just seeing it being done and doing it yourself, like you said,
is a great next step so no that's a great that's a great point too because that to me is just as
important as actually what you're what you're doing is you're still directly supporting um but

(32:00):
what's tough is you still don't see the connection overall uh because it i really can't put into
words whenever you see just like the actual farm after knowing the farmer or rancher and actually
trying the food, it just, it closes the loop essentially. Um, cause again, it's great to
support. And I know people will buy say beef directly from a rancher, but it's from another

(32:23):
state. And that's still great. Like I'm not saying that that's bad, but you still don't see the
connection fully. And to me, that still does not address the root cause. And you're still kind of
missing the whole point to me. Um, it's kind of like if you're a believer in God and still don't
ever go to church in a way and one of the things you mentioned there which i think is a great answer

(32:47):
to my next question i was going to ask for people that don't live in a place where there's lots of
farms around if they're in i think people call it a food desert or someplace where it's just tough to
get good quality food i was going to say what should those people do and and you just went on
a trip to go around and see them all.
And the woofing is quite interesting that the Airbnb for farms and ranches,

(33:11):
where can people go to learn more about that?
Cause I kind of want to learn more about it too. It sounds super cool.
Yeah. So that is just, it's just woof.org, I believe.
I mean, all you have to do is just type in WWOF and Google and should be the
first one. But in, in terms of for like the food deserts and whatnot.
So I know there's quite a few maps to where you could look up farmers and ranchers.

(33:36):
So there's Eat Wild.
There's Regenerative Farmers of America.
There's BeefMaps.com.
FromTheFarm.org.
If you like raw milk and raw dairy, there's GetRawMilk.com, I believe.
And then Weston A. Price Foundation has a raw milk map.
but if not I mean those maps too will also have farms and ranches to where you could just buy it

(34:03):
to where it shipped directly to your door those might be costly but that also why I like to say that just buy what you can afford and what accessible to you Because that another thing that I try to not speak in fully absolutes to where
if you're not buying grass fed, regenerative, and all that, that is bad. Because there's still,

(34:26):
it's good, better than best, essentially. Because if you're not buying McDonald's,
but you're still buying like the cheapest eggs, that's a great first step. Even though
your local pasture-raised eggs is infinitely better than the cheapest eggs, but still infinitely
better than going to McDonald's. So again, that's going back to the disconnection from our food and
the fact that there's just so much that people have to learn and think about.

(34:53):
And then I'll just give another example too of just how we view just economics of food.
And then going back to the subsidies, it's just really jacked up how we view food because then
we've been so grown accustomed to cheap, cheap garbage food, essentially, like all the chips and
processed foods, very cheap, very, very cheap. That's, I guess, the, the upside of how we've

(35:16):
transformed our food system is the fact that we've been able to feed our population and a lot of the
world so cheaply, but it's not good quality stuff overall. And that's why you see grass fed beef in
stores at $12 a pound or something like that, or raw milk an hour away is like $15 a gallon.

(35:36):
But then you'll see folks that have no issues going to the gas station paying $3.50 for a Red
Bull. And if you equate that out to a gallon, that's about $45. And so that's two and a half
times more than a gallon of raw milk, but people will just think that a farmer is taking advantage
of them for that, but they don't realize why the cost of raw milk is like that. And so there's just

(35:57):
so many intricacies like that to where there's this massive amount of education. We just need
to go back to having relationships with the farmers, essentially. That's what it always
comes down to. It's having these conversations. And it's interesting too, because since we're so
disconnected and haven't spoken to a farmer rancher, it's very intimidating to make that
leap to go to essentially zero to one. And so that's also what I'm trying to help out with

(36:20):
reginaissance is making it as frictionless as possible on every way. Because if we're trying
to have a paradigm shift, you have to really help nudge folks the right direction or else
they're never going to change.
And that's also why I go story focused.
If I want to get folks to actually care about this stuff in a world where technology is
throwing TikTok reels and everything to where our attention spans are so small now, you have

(36:46):
to get creative with that, essentially.
I will say something that's helped my attention span is eating more meat for anyone.
I'm looking for a way to expand your brain.
Like as soon as I did the carnivore diet, that completely changed for me.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
And it's cool how those things will fit together, how people start eating more meat, and then they start getting more curious and feel better, and they want to consume more content.

(37:11):
And then they go find things like hopefully my podcast or your content that you have as well.
You have a podcast too.
And just going into all this stuff.
It's good to leave a path for people to walk on as they start to learn about this because they're going to be hungry physically and figuratively for more.
Yeah.
Super exciting.
It's great to see just more podcasts popping up specifically about the farming side because I feel like that's been a topic that's sort of popping into the big podcast every once in a while.

(37:41):
I know Joe Rogan had Joel Salatin on and a ton of people got involved in this.
and I was thankful to have Joel Salton as well.
So there are certain guests that break into the big platforms,
but having dedicated podcasts like yours about that is super important too
because there's so many stories to tell just on the ground-level farming side.

(38:01):
And I'd be curious to hear your take on just how you see the state
of farming and ranching in the world right now.
Do you think we're in like a code red, red alert mode
where the government is just cracking down on everything?
and we need to go to their aid immediately?
Or are things turning around?

(38:22):
Is the tyranny side?
Because we always hear about these farms
getting shut down by the feds.
What do you see out there?
I would say I'm very optimistic overall,
especially culturally.
People are really waking up.
But as it stands,
we are in a very bad spot overall.
Because again, every single institution

(38:44):
that's supposed to help out and be with the farmers is captured, every single one.
And then even going back to the USDA, because I've had some ranchers on my podcast talking about this.
How can we, because we the people are starting to really wake up and see these things,
but still the government has a massive stranglehold.
And so it's going up against David and Goliath, essentially.

(39:08):
And we just have to find ways to recapture these institutions.
but then at the same time so like for example our pork and chicken are are very
captured industries so when you think of pork i haven't bought pork or chicken really from a

(39:28):
grocery store and i can't remember i do not trust except pasture bird if you go to sprouts and you
have pasture bird then that's pretty much some of the best chicken you can get from a store
But pork, I would never touch anything.
Horrific industry from that standpoint because Smithfield Foods, which is Chinese, has owned that since I believe 2011, 12 or 13.

(39:53):
It's been a while since they've owned it.
And I've made posts on this.
You can even look up.
They have these pig.
They look like a giant dystopian brick hotel, like 26 stories.
And that's where they keep all their pigs.
And it's just gigantic mega factory, essentially.

(40:14):
And that's pretty much where we've gotten to some of those industries.
It's just heavy mechanized and they're indoors.
They see no sunlight.
They have no natural environments at all.
And they're just cooped up in a concrete jungle.
And then they're fed the nastiest stuff.
And then we eat that.
And so obviously that stuff's just nasty.

(40:34):
Because I've had a pig farmer at my podcast before.
and he talks about how he gets comments all the time from people of,
I can finally eat pork for the first time because it doesn't make me feel like crap.
But then going back to the beef industry, they are attacked a lot.
And I'll give an example of that.

(40:57):
Fortunately, it caught wind on social media and so it ended up to where the whole case got dismissed.
but this ranching family in South Dakota they're the Maud family and last year they've had this
property in their family I think since again the early 1900s it's fourth fifth generation

(41:19):
and all of a sudden they have this anonymous complaint from a hunter because at their fence
line the land next to them is the National Forest Service Street and so they got this random
complaint from an anonymous hunter saying that their fence line is actually part of the National
Forest Service tree, which is a joke because they've done all the paperwork forever and they've

(41:41):
never had any issues, no complaints, nothing. And then all of a sudden they started getting attacked
and within 90 days after that, they had people in tactical gear at their farm or at the ranch
and essentially trying to say that they've had this fence line with the National Forest Service

(42:01):
and then they've been illegal through all this stuff.
And then all of a sudden, the husband and wife were facing up to 10 years in prison,
each $250,000 in fines.
They have two or three children.
I think the oldest is like five.
So very young family, a very great family.
the community loves them they support everybody just all that stuff and that was that caught wind

(42:27):
fortunately online and was shared like crazy because if it wasn't for that um i fully believe
they would be in jail because then at also as time was going on they were put on a gag order
to where they couldn't even talk to one another about any of this they were essentially intimidated
about taking their guns away um and all this but then you look into what was going on in the back

(42:50):
And there's some NGOs connected to the national forestry and all of this.
And so a lot, there's more and more of this happening to where the seemingly good agencies of conservation and whatnot, because it's also happening in California.
I believe actually in Washington too, with the King Ranch family to where they're trying to use like conservation easements and conservation, not conservation easements, just conservation orgs to make these ranching families escape ghosts.

(43:19):
pretty much just to steal their land.
That's what this was trying to happen with the Mallard family.
And fortunately, it made its way to Secretary of Ag, Brooke Rollins, and Donald Trump,
and they dismissed the case.
But that is constantly happening everywhere to where a farmer and rancher is being attacked
for all different reasons with raw dairy.
North Carolina is trying to ban raw milk in its entirety.

(43:43):
And so, again, this is why I'm so educational focused is...
One, people don't even realize how much work it takes to farm and ranch.
You're not just a farm and rancher.
You're a carpenter.
You're a mechanic.
It might be a vet.
You're a father, a husband.
You're so many things.
And so you only have so much time or money.

(44:05):
And this is also why the government knows this, that they don't have the resources that the government and all these other institutions, agencies have or the resources.
And so this is why the people have to really step up and support locally, because then once you have these relationships, if they're in trouble or they have friends and other farmers that need help, this is where the sharing can really help.

(44:30):
because, again, knowledge is power.
I can give so many other examples, too,
to where the government was pretty much overreaching
and it caught wind online,
and once it shared enough to where people backed away, essentially.
Yeah, so I'll leave it at that.
It's crazy.

(44:50):
We just keep seeing these stories pop up,
and as you said, only some of them catch wind on social media
and get all this buzz.
So who knows how many just don't make it there and these people just get crushed and you never hear about it.
But I think it's fair to say that this has been a huge journey for me and lots of other people of learning that these very nicely worded conservation companies or NGOs, like you said, the government agencies, they're not actually there to help the environment.

(45:25):
they're used as a weapon to get rid of natural food.
And unfortunately, so many people are falling for this.
It's just a shame to, with just...
how easily bought a lot of the people are,
essentially what it comes down to.
And then also the last thing too,
I just realized I didn't even really talk
on the whole processing aspect
because I know online people probably

(45:46):
have seen a lot of videos on
like the big four meatpacking companies,
essentially to where farmers and ranchers
have a stranglehold of when they can process their animals.
So I'll give an example of that too.
Back in 2020,
and then if you try to build out new processing facilities,
depending on the state,
there's just so many different laws.
And, for example, there's a friend in Michigan.

(46:09):
They're trying to have a small butchery.
It took about 18 months of all this process to go, and then the USDA just rejects it.
They have no idea why.
They're still fighting for it, but they can't even pass through that.
And so that's another issue is the fact that there's a massive stranglehold on the processing facilities.

(46:30):
And who has the control of all of that?
will all of the bigger companies like Tyson JBS that already own everything.
That's how they got through with COVID, with all the bird flu hysteria, essentially,
is they can control all of it all for their own money.
And who gets screwed the most? The farmers and ranchers.
We do too, but the farmers and ranchers get squeezed out the most.

(46:53):
And that's another thing too, is over time, the amount of money they get back
is just completely dwindles.
Yeah, it's crazy.
And this is something that you understand better than anyone is how these regulations that the government and other giant organizations push through are never to actually help people.

(47:16):
And we kind of have this idea in our head that, oh, they're providing guardrails to make sure the food is safer.
but I think most people
who are paying attention
have any IQ points at all.
I can understand that the FDA
and these other agencies
are not helping the people.
They do not have the interest
of the people.
Who are they actually serving, Ryan?

(47:36):
Who are these big organizations
actually helping
with all this regulation
that they're pushing down?
That is a good question.
I mean, I guess it's hard
to really know, but...
All the powers that be of JBS and those big companies, for sure, they have massive influence on our food system.

(48:01):
And then whoever, I don't know, that's why it's hard.
I don't know.
Because to me, it's whoever is actually controlling America, too.
I think all of that is in one big hotbed.
Because it's our food system.
You control the food, you control the population in a lot of ways.
I mean, because then that goes to the whole pharma aspect in our own healthcare, because you create the problem and the solution.

(48:31):
So part of the problem is our food is just completely jacked up.
And you can follow for all of the tobacco companies as that went away.
Those companies started working with the food companies and really developing how we could become addicted to all the garbage.
and that's another issue because with me too i mean like i said my health was really bad
but after my brother died i was emotionally eating like crazy um because i remember the first meal i

(48:56):
ate the first meat i had after being vegan for two and a half years was chick-fil-a uh a chick-fil-a
chicken nugget and i remember it was actually weird as all hell to have chicken um but then i
just started eating junk food again and it makes me think too where we're at culturally is we're a
very sick population. And when you're sick and this food has literally chemically hardwired you,

(49:19):
it's incredibly difficult to break. And then I believe that a lot of people, it's just eating
is another form of escape of their trauma or whatever they're facing. And so that in itself
is another avenue. And to me, all the powers that be realize this and they're just raking in the
money. They rake in so much money. It's pretty much like having a retirement account just on

(49:43):
auto repeat to where you can just sit there and you're making so much money because everyone's
just getting sicker and sicker relying on you and you can just sit in your ivory tower just
laughing away you know i think that the zeitgeist is really starting to figure that out the it's no
longer a conspiracy theory that the big pharma and big food are best buds because because people get

(50:06):
addicted to more crap food they get more sick and they buy more pills and both of those sides
benefit greatly. And as I, I don't know if you heard of Matthew Leschak, have you, you followed
him or his? Oh, yes. Yeah, actually. Yeah. Okay. His book, Fiat Food covers this. And we did a
podcast basically about how the government is really the third arm of that trifecta. And they
also benefit from people eating garbage food because it makes it easier for them to hide

(50:30):
inflation because real food is getting super expensive and they don't want that to look bad
for their money printing results.
So it's all against people.
And I think that this is very daunting
for a lot of people as they learn about this.
It seems like how do we fight back
against this huge triple force of big food,

(50:52):
big farm and big government?
They have so much power.
And one of the solutions that I push so hard
and I've had Texas Slim on,
who I'm sure you know to talk about this,
is Bitcoin being the form of money
that can't be printed by the government
and sort of removes the whole money printer aspect out of it
and gives farmers and consumers a way to direct pay with each other

(51:16):
so there's no credit card or bank account that they can shut down,
which is one of the biggest weapons they use against these farmers.
So what are your thoughts on Bitcoin as this new technology
that could actually help all these farmers stay free?
I'm definitely a Bitcoin maxi.
I got very, very, very, very lucky in the big brother department.

(51:43):
He, it obviously sucks that I'll never, I mean, I believe I'll see him in the afterlife.
I mean, but with the loss of a loved one, that pain never goes away.
With that being said, he set me up very well for the rest of my life in terms of being able to live without him.
because he told me about Bitcoin for a while

(52:06):
and I didn't understand it.
It's actually hilarious.
I bought Bitcoin back in 2015
and I had no idea what I was doing.
The only reason why I bought Bitcoin was
there was this website to where you could buy
stuff off of Amazon for like 20% off.
So I was just,
I bought a bunch of Bitcoin just to buy stuff off of Amazon.
I was saving 20% every single time.

(52:28):
But then I remember it was a couple of years later,
it was actually Andreas Antonopoulos.
I watched his two episodes on Rogan and him just giving concrete examples of his life and Greece.
I really saw the true value of it all.
And then I've been a big Ron Paul guy my whole life, too.
I was libertarian up until essentially this most recent election.

(52:51):
And so I've always thought about a lot of that stuff of getting away from the government and just people meddling with our money.
and how the fact that banks are asking you what you're doing with your money
and they can just stop you from even using it, just all of that garbage.
And then I think about farming and all of that.
Yeah, this is why I was saying earlier that there's just so much overlap between –

(53:12):
I mean, you mentioned SLIM.
That's what Beef Initiative is, that overlap with farming and just individual sovereignty
because the government hates that.
They hate loss of control, especially with your money supply.
And so Bitcoin to me is the way forward.

(53:33):
I've tried to,
I try to talk to people about Bitcoin as much as I'm talking about farming
and ranching.
Funny enough,
I have,
I remember it was on Amazon for sale,
Saifedean's book.
I bought like 20 or 30 copies cause it was just so cheap.
And so I'm just handing that out to,
because if you can think about sovereignty from your food,
then I hope you can think about that for your money too.

(53:55):
but again that makes you think about long term too for a lot of big corners i know you're thinking
people are thinking about their future children but then also their children's children and
etc etc that's how we have to think about our food too because everything that we're experiencing
in our food system now it didn't happen overnight this has been happening you can even argue since

(54:16):
1910s 20s it's just continually it takes decades and decades to see the full consequences and so
I know we'll still see a lot of good changes with our food system, but to me, I'm fighting for my grandchildren on our food system.
And I wouldn't have been able to think like that had it not been for Bitcoin because,

(54:50):
our food system. But to me, I'm fighting for my grandchildren on our food system. And I wouldn't
have been able to think like that had it not been for Bitcoin, because Bitcoin was the first thing
that made me start really thinking about time preference. I know that's my brother. People can
tell you about Bitcoin and why they believe that. But once you actually fully embody that yourself,

(55:14):
then you can really understand the full time preference aspect. And so now that I do
yeah I can't not think about it
I completely agree with all that
I just think it helps empower
all of the
parties that we care about here
that are trying to make these

(55:34):
person to person connections again
because that's what this is all about
it's reconnecting with your farmer shaking your farmer's
hand being able to pay them for things
in a money that can't be debased
so it feels good
passing your Bitcoin over to them
And I lived in Costa Rica for a couple months earlier this year.
And where I was, there was a great, I guess it'd technically be a butcher or just a meat shop.

(56:02):
Segura's Meat Shop is a place where they have all this regenerative beef and you can pay for it with Bitcoin.
So it just feels good supporting the beef movement with sound money that they can't take away.
Because when you're, I mean, this is deep level stuff.
And obviously, not everyone out there has Bitcoiners in yet, but I hope they will be soon.

(56:23):
But when you're giving dollars to a farmer or rancher, if the day ever comes where the government cracks down them and takes away their bank account, which we've seen, then they've lost that money.
But they can't take away their Bitcoin.
So it's a great way to know that you're really bolstering their business in a powerful way and helping get them down the rabbit hole more.

(56:44):
because as they get more Bitcoin, they'll learn about it more,
and then they'll continue building their company around it,
which is just a great way for all businesses to function,
and especially small ones that we care about.
They're helping make our community healthier.
It's so important.
Spot on.
And the last thing, too, you're spot on talking about the price manipulation aspect, too,

(57:06):
because as Trump took office, what did him and Brooke Rollins talk about?
the price of eggs. That's all I talked about. The price of eggs, it's so high, we got to lower it.
And that's all they did. And the ways they went about it, I don't agree with fully,
but they got the price of eggs down. And that's all they did. But why did they do that? To distract
in a lot of ways for the population. And that just, to me, goes back to just the price,

(57:35):
how we view the economics of our food, because it's so jacked up. And obviously,
inflation is horrific and they might pass this one awesome, beautiful bill that will
help the inflation even more. And so, yeah, it's interesting too from the economics of farming and
ranching too, because in a lot of ways, there's a lot of communist aspects of it all because

(57:58):
they try to come and save the day for food. There's not a lot of free market. There's not
a lot of innovation. And so that's where Bitcoin can come into play too. It's just a very
over-regulated system too because then going back to the the butchery process there's just so many
different regulations test fees you have to pay for and so that's why i was just saying the the

(58:23):
farmer rancher is the amount of money they see back is dwindling more and more because every
single agency whether it's the farm credit bureau system has just been completely captured to try
to maximize how much money they can take out of that farmer
or rancher and just
essentially turn them into
because with Tyson, a lot of these

(58:44):
the farmers are just
they're feudal lords and
they're just tyrants essentially.
It's just modern day feudalism.
Ryan, I need to scold you for a second, dude.
I just pulled up Nostra to try to
find you on there. Are you not a Nostra yet?
I'm not.
Speaking of technologies
for freedom,

(59:05):
How much do you know about Nostra?
Because I think this is going to be a huge piece of it too.
No, I do know Nostra.
The issue is I have so much on my plate that it's hard to manage every social media.
Because I'm also...
It's interesting too what people see as the business-facing side.

(59:26):
Because every time they miss me on Instagram, they think they're talking to some team.
Or when they email me, they think they're talking to some support.
No, it's just me.
Like I'm doing a lot of all that.
So I'm severely understaffed.
I do want to do Nostra, but it's more so bandwidth issues.

(59:46):
Yeah.
Cause I don't even use LinkedIn and LinkedIn actually, I don't like LinkedIn overall, but there's a huge agriculture section on that.
So right now my only focus is I've been Twitter and Instagram.
Yeah.
Cause I do like Nostra.
Yeah, no, I totally understand.
And I'll give you the mega bull case if you haven't received it recently, though.

(01:00:06):
I see a future where Nostrid just swallows everything the same way that Bitcoin swallows all money because it essentially brings so much freedom to people in so many ways where you own your digital identity.
You can pay with Bitcoin to people in one tap.
It's natively integrated to send sats around easily.

(01:00:26):
So we're already seeing there are a bunch of farmers arriving on there already who are finding out, oh, crap, I can just talk about my farm right here.
And people just send me SaaS.
They can buy stuff through their shop clients coming out where people can just actually have sell things on there and just get paid directly and just remove all the other middlemen.

(01:00:46):
and in the future i i think that the the end game is that twitter and linkedin and instagram and all
these different big social media apps will have to become nostre clients if they want to keep going
because we're going to have these alternatives that are built on nostre where people can't be

(01:01:07):
controlled and shadow banned and algorithm slaves and it's just going to be a better alternative
so obviously it's a we're very early to it but i do think it's going to continue growing and
getting better better so i don't know i like that and i guess my my whole rationale too is the people
i'm trying to reach right now are the people that are on instagram or twitter um yeah because i mean

(01:01:30):
it's like i was saying it's literally 99 of america is not in our culture and so how can i
it's a very tough problem because I'm also fighting against just the TikTok algorithm
and all of the garbage of where we're at now with social media.
So I'm trying to culturally help drive culture change too.

(01:01:53):
That was kind of a mission I'm in now.
So in July, I have this truck.
I'm getting a videographer to come with me for the next essentially five and a half months
to where I'm traveling around the country, visiting farms and ranches to really, one,
do my podcast in person and to just really drive the quality of that to have better conversations

(01:02:16):
and stories, but then also tours, any educational videos, but just to humanize this whole entire
industry, but as well as just trying to wake people up. Because when I think of a social media
to really try to capture somebody, you only have three seconds. Our attention spans are really bad
now because that's what's something the older generations have no idea they really can't

(01:02:39):
understand is for the younger generations you've had a screen in your face pretty much at birth
and so that it's hard to understand that and so it's interesting whenever the older generations
you know will say that kids these days are this or that but they've been brainwashed in so many
ways. I have a cousin to wear. She despises me and is so woke. But that's because I've seen the

(01:03:05):
evolution over time from social media, especially Instagram and how they've attacked everybody. And
she's a woman. So all of the typical things that have attacked, it works. And so how can I push
back to all of that and get people to care about something like farming to where something is,
we're already so disconnected from to where so many people, a lot of people believe that our

(01:03:25):
food comes from grocery stores. I should start at that. Like that is actually a thing to where
it sounds crazy, but there's a lot of people out there to where they don't think food comes from
a farmer ranch. It comes from a grocery store. And so how can I help change that on social media
through stories and whatnot and really getting, I guess, the gotchas?

(01:03:48):
So I'm doing this road trip and I'm doing another road trip next year. And essentially,
these next four years I'm gonna be on the road pretty much as much as I can to
share stories essentially kind of like what do you look at YouTube at all you
know Peter Santanello is I don't recognize that name no so he to me is the

(01:04:09):
greatest account on what America is like because he has traveled everywhere he travels everywhere in the country and he just talks with people that show him around and share stories And it so powerful
because we have this viewpoint or that viewpoint on America. And a lot of it might be true.
We might be missing some things. He is showing the depths of this country and really humanizes it.

(01:04:34):
And it's awesome because you have to go independent, essentially. That's what I'm
doing is I'm becoming an independent journalist. Why did Substack get so large is because all the
media got captured. And so people wanted to go independent through all that. And it's, it's just
kind of why it has to be a collaborative effort too. That's why I love Bitcoiners so much because
Bitcoiners are so collaborative, want to help each other because you all have the understanding

(01:04:58):
of what we're up against. But then also just the shared values system. That's also why I love
farming and ranching because there's a lot of shared values immediately like whenever i go to
bitcoin conference even before i met you ben say i met you just randomly at bitcoin i know we'd be
able to talk for hours because of our our shared fundamental values and that's why i love farmers

(01:05:23):
and ranchers so much is because despite everything they go up against despite all the stress because
people don't know that the suicide rate for farmers is worse than veterans
but despite all that they still want to farm and ranch and so there's something to that and
yeah i'll just end up that that's why i always say above all else go visit a farm ranch because

(01:05:47):
it can literally change your life it changed mine absolutely and one of the good concepts
this brings up too is the the top down versus the bottom up forces here for for making change
for good and i think you and i both would believe that bottom up is really how we're going to do
this because we keep getting these glimmers of hope that oh maybe there will be some top down

(01:06:13):
leader that actually changes things i'm not sure how you feel about the current administration
there's certain names out there that have said the right things but i don't know if i just i
just don't trust any politicians anymore. I don't care how many nice things they say, but I just
think that this really is going to start from educating and supporting the farmers and ranchers
at the bottom, giving them freedom tools like Bitcoin Noster and just getting them the tools

(01:06:37):
to thrive without any need for any specific leader in the political system. Would you agree that we
should be 100% focused on bottom-up right now? I think America is completely a captured nation.
that's a whole another conversation a whole another conversation but i fully believe we have
been a captured country for a very long time and so that's why like you said bottom up that's exactly

(01:07:01):
i think about interesting enough i i've been reading it's got the title of the book but it
was leading up to the american revolutionary war and how like when you look at the boston tea party
it was a 2% tax.
So people were like, why would people revolt
and do something like that over a 2% tax?

(01:07:22):
It wasn't just because
it was only 2%, it was because a lot of
landowners could see the writing on the wall
that if the British government was going to
implement a 2% tax,
they were going to continue to push and push and push
to where they were eventually going to steal your land.
And so they built decentralized communities.
Like, that's what...
It's interesting
how Americans,

(01:07:43):
Like we know, a lot of us know how lucky we are to be in this country.
But man, you have to look at the formation and leading up to how we broke away from the British government and formed America.
It's insane how they were able to do that because there's no technology.
You can just go on Telegram and build these little networks.

(01:08:06):
But so they could see the writing on the wall with tyranny and they build up the bottom up approach, essentially.
And that's how the American Revolutionary War started for a multitude of reasons.
But it was just the fact that they could see the writing on the wall with the 2% tax.
And I think about that a lot with how they try to do stuff like that.

(01:08:27):
When I say they, the government tries to make these little seemingly innocent little taxes or laws.
But it's not for that to continue to push.
I mean, that's what COVID was.
I will fully believe that's what COVID was, to test humanity's response to how much overreach and control they can have on us.

(01:08:50):
And now we're, yeah.
One of the questions I got to ask here is the scalability side of regenerative farming.
I know that this is a big concern for a lot of people that are hearing about this.
they think oh obviously that giant pig mill that you talked about this factory farming stuff is

(01:09:15):
really bad we got to get away from that but is it scalable to go to a fully regenerative farming
model where all of us can have direct access to really good quality meat in farms in our
communities what are your thoughts on that it's a very complex issue um
because i think it is scalable because there's an example like pasture bird to where they scaled

(01:09:40):
the hell out of their pasture-raised chicken but then we have will harris of white oak pastures
saying that he doesn't believe it's regenerative or that regenerative can scale
and so i don't even know if that's the right question to ask because
the problem in itself is the fact we don't have enough people in general getting into the space
The average age of the farmer is nearly 60.

(01:10:03):
Most don't have an heir.
Hardly anyone's getting into the space of farming and ranching.
But then that goes back to the conversation of it's because it's hard to even make a profit.
It's hard to even get by.
And so that's also why I say you have to support the ones that are already doing it out there.
Because if we want to see the change, if we want regenerative long term,

(01:10:25):
but you're not supporting directly or doing what you can,
you're contributing to the problem long-term.
And so if you're complaining, you are just a hypocrite in my opinion.
But then, like I do believe it's scalable for sure
because Pastra Bird has done that.

(01:10:47):
And what's cool about regenerative agriculture
is people that are getting into the space are getting creative with it.
And so I know over time, as these more collaborations happen, because this is also why I have Regenestance.
It's not just to connect consumers with producers.
It's to connect farmers and ranchers with one another because everyone's so siloed in themselves.

(01:11:07):
And so I believe that the more collaboration happens with all of that and sharing and whatnot, that it could happen.
And then if we continue to drive changes positively with these government institutions over time, I absolutely believe that.
It's just kind of where we're at with our subsidies.
It puts a massive stranglehold on farmers because farmers includes produce.

(01:11:32):
Ranching is just animals.
And so the stranglehold of just doing massive monocropping of corn, soy and wheat, that is a very tough model to break out from.
Because a lot of farmers also go into it and they know they're just raking in the dough.
Because that's one thing, too, is there are farmers out there and ranchers out there that they don't really care what they're doing.

(01:11:56):
That's the exception, not the norm, in my opinion.
Most farmers and ranchers just are trying to do the best they can with what they have.
And so that's also why, too, consumers latch on to words very strongly.
And so they think that regenerative is the only, like if it's not regenerative, it's bad.

(01:12:17):
The farmer's bad.
And so take Will Harris, for example.
He helped pioneer the grass-fed and finished beef movement essentially in America because he inherited, I think he's a fifth or sixth generational farmer of white oak pastures in Bluffton, Georgia.
His grandfather and father were conventional farmers.

(01:12:37):
And so he talks about how once he took over his farm, he would always go out to look for weeds and stuff to kill.
And he had monocropping and his cattle weren't grass fed and finished.
He realized what he was doing and what he needed to do to change.
And so he almost pretty much lost his whole business transforming his whole entire operation to grass fed and finished.

(01:13:02):
And now he's pretty much one of the most well-known in the space.
He went on Joe Rogan multiple times.
White Oak Pastures is pretty much one of the largest regenerative farms in America.
But, I mean, he's so revered from the public.
But I think about if the same people that revere him now,

(01:13:23):
where they have done that 10, 20 years ago when he wasn't a regenerative farmer.
Well Joe Salton always was that way so he not an example But I think about there so many farmers out there who are doing it the conventional way to where they might be using chemical sprays or this or that but they don have either the knowledge the funds because it is very costly at the beginning to make these changes

(01:13:48):
so we have to support farmers in general that's that's what i'd also try to get at too is like
the good better best model is if we want to have good farmers and ranchers and have regenerative
system long term but you are you know tossing this or that at a farmer that's not regenerative
right now then that's part of the problem too again this always goes back to long-term preference

(01:14:13):
and having to have patience and understanding and grace.
But then also we still have to be outspoken too.
Because this is also why with the whole Maha movement and whatnot,
I had never voted for Trump in my life.
I never cared to until this year actually was, I voted early.
It was the fastest I've ever voted simply because of the whole Maha movement.

(01:14:37):
And I knew going in that there was a strong chance that none of this was ever going to be implemented
from the actual government.
But the fact that for the first time in our history, the government was talking about the actual problems of our health system, you know, with pharma, with the healthcare, our food systems, like they were talking about everything that's never been talked about.

(01:14:57):
I knew that I had to take advantage of that whole movement to where to still use that with the people.
So I still have a lot of hope with all of that.
the fact that people are waking up, the fact that people are making these small changes,
the fact that more people are going to farmers markets and actually having some good market
food, getting backyard chickens, having a small garden.

(01:15:21):
It really takes a lot of these small little changes over time to where you look back in
20 years and you realize you changed drastically.
Because that's how I view myself personally after everything I've gone through in my family.
That's what I was saying with the walks and all that.
looking back, I did a hell of a lot to build a refoundation.
But at the time, I felt like I was doing nothing. I think that's kind of

(01:15:44):
what's going to happen a lot is we're making these small changes and
you just have to think long term, essentially.
Yeah, I like that answer a lot. And something I would add to it is that there
are layers to that scaling question. And for example,
one of the things that Joel Salatin tells people is to just get some chickens. Everyone should get

(01:16:06):
some chickens. And if every house in my neighborhood I'm living here were to get a little chicken coop
in their backyard, which would handle their eggs, then the burden of the farm to have to carry the
whole community would be lower. And so you would need less of the farms themselves to scale when
more is decentralized even further out among each person. And then once more and more people are

(01:16:30):
learning that, oh, this is super fun. I kind of like this. Maybe I will get a cow or something
and just continue building their individual little homesteads as this is becoming quite a
romantic idea that people to start their own homestead and have their own food. So they don't
even need to rely on a farmer. And I think this is a great thing for people to learn more about

(01:16:52):
and look into. So what would be your advice for anyone out there who may be listening and saying,
I love farmers. This is great, but I can go even further than that. I can start my own
little operation here where I can start growing my own food on my property and maybe get a new
property where I have more space to do that. Where should people start if they want to learn more

(01:17:12):
about that and go down that path? Yeah, that's a good question.
So I'd say first, define what your goals are for all of that. Is it to just grow food for yourself
or is it to grow food and think about where that might lead to of, you know,
supporting your surrounding community and really start building that out?

(01:17:34):
Because there are a lot of differences with that too.
Because what's cool with all this, why I like regenerative agriculture
and going back to it forces you to innovate essentially,
is the fact that if you have these small decentralized farms and ranches
and homesteads, it just forces you to get creative with it all too.
and that just drives innovation a lot.

(01:17:56):
To learn, though, so I have a podcast where I talk to farmers and ranchers,
and it is a lot of education, too.
I think that's a good way because where I'm at is, again,
I'm just this normie dude who I worked on a farm for a little bit,
and I've learned a good deal bit, but compared to a farmer, I know jack shit.

(01:18:16):
It's a good way to really get a sense of the culture of farming and ranching.
through my site I have so many resources too because that's the whole point of virginisance
is just education as much as possible so there's that resource too because I have a sub stack
with all of that in terms of learning more there's some good organizations like the

(01:18:37):
Rodale Institute which is Alan Savory no no no is that I'm blanking so hard right now my mind is
mush well there's just look up alan savory on youtube he is just incredible he has a tech ted
talk that he gave it like 11 or 12 years ago that's just phenomenal um i'm compiling all these

(01:18:57):
resources for that too because then there's just so many wonderful youtube is just incredible
resource if you just youtube regenerative agriculture or even jill salatin or gabe brown
or alan savory the algorithm will do its work to where you could spend the next 10 years of
watching just everything you'll learn so much through all of that uh that's so that's a

(01:19:18):
a great resource i think that's another interesting thing too is
again going back to wilde farming ranch and we've outsourced a lot of our responsibilities
and thinking when i go to twitter and see like like grok is this true she's like oh man that's
where we're at now to where we're outsourcing everything literally just trusting your intuition
and just google um that's what i also find interesting about like finding a farmer ranch

(01:19:43):
you can literally just google farms and ranches near me i know it's intimidating but at the same
time we over complicate it because we're at a time in our lives where it's the easiest to get
any information um because used to you'd have to go visit a farmer ranch and start those conversations
which I still want you to do that.

(01:20:05):
But I think my biggest recommendation is actually YouTube because there,
there is more by the day that I continue to find just awesome accounts because
then you can find yourself in like Australian agriculture and Australia has a
rich history of agriculture, the UK, et cetera, et cetera.
And so I would say my website, my, my podcast,

(01:20:27):
but then any type of YouTube with just farming and ranching will just engross you in it all.
Awesome. Yeah, I actually just did a recording with Alan Savory recently.
So that episode is coming out soon. I'm excited to share that with folks.
And you just teed it up quite well, but I was going to start wrapping it up here.

(01:20:47):
Where else can people go find all of your great content other than your podcast, your website?
You said you're on Twitter and Instagram.
Is that all the main places you would recommend people go check you out?
Yeah, so I'm really building because I earlier this year changed from apparel to media company.
So I'm really just building that out, especially leading up to this road trip and after that.

(01:21:09):
So my site is just theregenissance.co.
And I have some really big plans for just building all that out.
I have a newsletter that's not just like a salesy newsletter.
I promise you is all very news focused of what's going on.
I have a sub stack that's very similar to where it's just sharing,

(01:21:30):
you know,
the history,
a lot of history of ag and news and things that are going on.
I'm going to be building out a Patreon because I'm going to have so much
media essentially that I'm sharing from the road.
And then,
yeah,
I use Twitter and Instagram.
It's just the regenerations.
And then that's where you'll be able to find me.
Thank you for having me,
Ben.
This was awesome.

(01:21:50):
And I'm going to continue bugging you about Nostra because people are going
to want to send you bitcoin for all this great stuff you're doing i understand that it's it's a
lot of stuff to juggle as you just said it's uh exciting stuff man i can't wait to continue
following that whole adventure you're going on it's gonna be really cool i still need to go
dive into your podcast this is something i try to do with all the podcasters i have on here is

(01:22:14):
really just go through their whole library and just hear all these people because i need more
farmers on here it's been too sparse i had a couple great regenerative farmers but i need more
this is such a great thing that everyone who has a platform needs to be pushing so
appreciate you so much for what you're doing curating all those into one place for folks
like myself who want to go learn more and i'll definitely be doing that i hope my listeners will

(01:22:37):
too ryan griggs i appreciate you so much for coming on man thank you for doing what you do
for giving me these comfy shorts we're showing them again go get them people they're amazing
lots of apparel to buy there and stuff to learn from Ryan and have a good one man it's been a
great pleasure thank you

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#125 Ryan Griggs - The Regenaissance Is Upon Us

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#125 Ryan Griggs - The Regenaissance Is Upon Us