June 19, 2024 • 54 mins
What if your family's legacy was defined by generations of resilience and a steadfast commitment to ranching? Join us on Chef Sense as we welcome AJ Richards, a fifth-generation rancher from St. George, Utah, who opens up about his family’s homesteading roots and their ongoing battles with the Bureau of Land Management. AJ Shares with us his new venture of creating a food purchasing platform to connect consumers to the local and regional farmers of their area.
We dive deep into the complexities and corruption within our food systems, from the interplay between big food and big pharma to the critical issues surrounding imported beef and market manipulation. Learn about the efforts of R-CALF USA in advocating for independent cattle producers and the significant role of consumer empowerment in supporting regional farms. This episode uncovers the multifaceted challenges facing the American beef industry and emphasizes the importance of understanding where our food comes from to make informed and impactful choices.
Thank you AJ Richards and team!
https://fromthefarm.io/
https://www.r-calfusa.com/
Thank you to our listeners!!
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We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host, guest or the management. All right reserved under Chef Sense Podcast and Chef Massey, LLC.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chef James (00:14):
Hey everyone, welcome to Chef Sense.
I'm your host, chef Massey.
Okay, so today on the podcast.
Aj Richards, thanks so much forbeing on.
AJ Richards (00:22):
Yeah, james, thanks for asking man.
I was super excited to get theemail and invitation.
Chef James (00:27):
Yeah, and you do cover a lot of initiatives and
what you're working on.
Can we start at the beginningjust about, like AJ Richards,
how?
Because I think sometimes theupbringing and nurturing grows
into the passion.
So would you mind sharing that?
AJ Richards (00:40):
Yeah, for sure, and that's definitely the situation
in my case.
I grew up in a small town.
At least when I was growing upwas a small town called St
George, utah.
It's just outside of ZionNational Park.
For anybody that's kind of morefamiliar with the national
parks in Utah, oh cool, myfamily homesteaded 60 miles
(01:04):
south of there on the ArizonaStrip.
Oh, so, north side of the GrandCanyon, okay, and we call it.
You know, it's known asBundyville to some.
Okay, my family are the BundyRanchers.
Some people will know that name, others won't, but if you do a
Google search of Bundy Ranchers,you'll find plenty of
(01:25):
information on them.
Oh cool, Okay, they are knownfor taking on the federal
government in 2014 and then2016,.
Fighting for the rights ofbasically grazing rights.
They settled that in 1916 whenthey made that available for
homesteading and homesteading.
Now people think of it as buy apiece of land and grow some
(01:47):
food.
You know, be, be, be,self-sustaining.
That's similar to what it whatused to be, but back in the day
it was.
Here's a piece of ground in anuninhabitable area.
Good luck If you want to go andstake your flag there and put a
fence up.
You can homestead it Right,right, and then look if you want
to go and stake your flag thereand put a fence up, you can
homestead it right, right, right, and then you have to be
self-sufficient because thegrocery store is not a backup
(02:09):
land, because it doesn't exist.
Yeah, so that was old schoolhomesteading, but my family did
that in 1916.
And so growing up, my familyare five generations of ranchers
.
I'm the city slicker cousin, Isay because I didn't grow up on
a ranch myself.
(02:29):
I just got to do the cattledrives and the brandings as
often as I could as a kid andhave multiple topics, but the
primary topics that I rememberas a kid were around the control
of the Bureau of LandManagement, otherwise known as
(02:53):
the BLM the original BLM, okay,and they regulate how land is
managed, like public lands, uh,like the like, um, public lands.
So they they're, uh, they'relike the park service, they're
like like the national forestservice, um, but they're their
own entity, they're under thedepartment of the interior.
So I would grow up hearingthese family meetings about
(03:15):
these water rights being reducedor taken away and these grazing
rights being threatened.
And you know there's a specialbeetle they have found and so
now you're not allowed to dothis on your ranch anymore to
protect the beetle, which.
That beetle ended up wiping outmillions of trees and causing
some major forest fires in theWest because of, you know, those
(03:36):
policies to protect thosebeetles.
So, yeah, growing up that'swhat it was like, and so I had a
really strong introduction intothe importance of agriculture
and its relationship in our lifeand it certainly has shaped me
to be who I am.
Chef James (03:56):
Yeah, that's amazing Hearing all that.
Coming from a farming familymyself, you know Northern
California and my uncle was agcommissioner of Siskiyou County
up there and you know anotheruncle worked in the ag, another
ag well, unfortunately, ag chemcompany so there was a lot of
like involvement, not just withour farm but as they, you know,
(04:18):
kind of went along.
And it's funny how it'sinteresting how these things you
know, when you're, when you'reraised around special people
like that, it just kind ofresonates into you and into the
fibers of who you are.
So that's where I think,looking at your story and the
journey you've been through, andalso to say thank you is being
(04:39):
a veteran, a real warrior of ourand to also the men and women
that have done that service.
So I absolutely wouldn't behere today if it wasn't for all
of you.
So I was taking a quick secondthere.
But you know, looking at all ofthis, what you're developing,
can you talk about like the beefinitiatives and the challenges
that you ran to, that kind offostered, where you had worked
(05:03):
on your platform for thatsoftware?
AJ Richards (05:05):
Yeah.
So I think, like many people,covid changed the trajectory of
lots of our lives.
Yeah, some good, some bad, youknow.
And so I was selling beef formy family's ranch.
You know, because I'm the cityslicker cousin, I didn't inherit
a ranch, I didn't.
I didn't know how to get intoit.
(05:26):
Really, I spent my whole lifewith the, the, the dream of one
day being a rancher and having aranch.
And I found myself doing allthese little different jobs just
to try to make enough money tobe a rancher.
My last business in Phoenix,arizona, went through a
bankruptcy and it moved me backhome to St George, utah, and I
(05:49):
kind of realized, like man, I'mtrying to do all of these things
to get into ag and it's notworking out.
So what if I just go get intoagriculture?
And so I was in a transitionperiod of my life.
So I called my cousin and Isaid, hey, can I sell beef for
your ranch?
And he said yes, and so westarted working together.
His his ranch is called umanchor brand ranch.
(06:11):
He's got a really great YouTubechannel.
Shows a lot of what it's liketo live the day in the life on a
ranch in the desert of Nevada.
So, anyway, started doing thatwith him towards the end of 2019
.
Well then COVID hit and so whatwould happen is he would raise
the animal, deliver it to theslaughterhouse and then I would
pick up the finished meat and goand distribute it.
So I was handling the sales andmarketing and distribution on
(06:33):
that side.
We started running into theproblem after COVID hit that we
could not get slaughter.
There was no availability.
We would call, and previouslywe would call, and they could
get us in, like the next week orthe next two weeks.
After COVID hit we would calland they're like we can get you
in an 18 months.
Like holy crap, a year and ahalf.
I got customers that aregetting a monthly order of beef
(06:55):
and you're telling me I can'tget processing for a year and a
half.
Like business is over.
So what I did is we, or whatwould happen is, my cousin would
then schedule processing forany slaughterhouse that had any
room for us and they woulddeliver it there, and then I'd
go find it, you know, go pick itup.
And that led to a whole otherhost of issues.
The cutting was the way theywould cut, the meat was
(07:15):
different, the wrapping wasdifferent, the labeling was even
different, and soinconsistencies in the brand
started to become a problem.
And there are so little marginsin selling meat anyway that, um
, and a lot of people think thefarm, you know, because meat's
expensive when you buy it direct.
(07:36):
They think that they're,they're.
Sometimes people think thatthey're making hand over fist.
They're not.
They're actually finally justviable.
The other way they're notviable and they're working off
farm jobs just to pay for thehobby.
You know what I mean.
Chef James (07:50):
Right yeah.
AJ Richards (07:51):
And that's why, you know, frankly, that's why we're
down to less than 700,000ranchers in the entire United
States.
So it was a nightmare.
Eventually I had to stop it andshut it down.
And then I was.
I mean, I was doing whatever Icould to make extra money for
the family.
My wife was holding down theprimary, she was the primary
breadwinner and I was trying tofigure out what the heck I'm
(08:12):
supposed to be doing.
And I was driving for Instacart.
I was you know, working apart-time working, a job with
some friends of mine doingconcrete during, you know,
during 2020, just whatever Icould do, and I think I was
driving for Instacart.
I'm doing a delivery.
St George has surrounding areaswhere there's livestock, you
(08:32):
know, and I'm hearing the newstalk about empty store shelves,
like there's no food because thesupply chain broke.
And I mean I can go intodetails on that if you want, but
the supply chain broke and soI'm like geez, I see cattle
standing all over in the fields.
There is food, we just have abroken supply chain.
Chef James (08:53):
Okay, wow.
AJ Richards (08:54):
We've become so reliant on everything being done
for us and convenience.
All I got to do is go to thegrocery store, because the
grocery store has a buyer thatgoes and finds the wholesaler
that, then that wholesaler goesto the big packer, the big
packer is going to the feedlot,who's then going to the auction.
(09:15):
Like all of these steps thathave been done for us, that we
don't have to put much thoughthow we eat, and that reared its
ugly head in 2020, okay, and soI'm like what if there was a
software that existed, that was,that was like airbnb, that
would connect the consumerdirectly with the producer, and
(09:37):
that software just did the didits thing, and then the people
that were behind the scenes juststayed out of the way and let
the consumer go right to theproducer, and the producer makes
the majority of the revenue, sothat they stay viable, so that
they pass that on to their nextgeneration, which is great, yeah
, and, frankly, so that morepeople who want to go into
(09:59):
growing food have a platformthey can sell it.
Um, and so that's kind of howthe idea was born.
I'll be, you know, I'll just becompletely frank.
This is I'm.
I am not this smart, this is anidea that was born of God.
He put that thought in my headand it was my job to just go and
(10:20):
put you know, one foot in frontof the other.
Despite all of my weaknesses,despite all of my self doubts
that I'm the right person toeven take this on, I just had
faith and kept going and and um.
You know, it's been four yearsthis month of, oh wow.
Chef James (10:36):
Okay, so a lot of pre-work, I mean that's so.
This is like a direct shipsituation, am I?
AJ Richards (10:43):
This is like yes, but it's like think of it like
Airbnb.
Yeah, when you rent an Airbnb,typically it's the owner of the
home that's rented that house orroom or whatever that looks
like.
You know, I just went to Austinand we stayed in Airbnb that
the homeowner lived there.
They just vacated while we werethere for a few days.
Chef James (11:01):
Oh, okay.
AJ Richards (11:02):
Yeah, right, and there are some situations like
that, and so think of it likethat.
But now, if I'm the producer,if I'm a farmer and I'm close to
you, you can open up ourwebsite and, on a map, see who's
around you growing and raisingfood that will sell right to you
Now.
Our slogan is shake the handthat feeds you.
(11:23):
So now you can get to know mepersonally, and if there's ever
a supply chain disruption, youknow where your food came from.
So as long as I'm still growingand raising food because you're
supporting me, it doesn'tmatter what's happening at the
grocery store.
You go right to the source.
Chef James (11:42):
Right, and that's amazing.
Well, and here because you know, being in New England, or
especially in the Berkshires,when COVID hit us, and that's
interesting, you said thatbecause a lot of our local farms
here we've got about, I meanit's pre-COVID but it's, you
know, 475 farms in this regionalone, almost 60,000 acres.
(12:05):
So you can see it's like smallto mid and it's like, but seeing
those farms take off duringthat burst a lot of the farm
stands blew up.
I mean we've had a couple offarms that were like erupted to
the point they ended up goinginto a storefront.
Wow, I mean it's amazing, itwas just so great.
(12:26):
You know, and I think we hadthat expendable some people had
that more of an expendableincome than ever.
So you know you're able to buyinto and bypass.
You know and say, okay, we'vegot supply chain issues.
I'm going to my local farm nowand you're obviously getting
something so much better butwith so much behind it.
(12:47):
Anyways, in that story it tellsbut that was interesting.
You know, there is a bit of adrop-off.
That's occurred for a number ofthem too since COVID and things
have kind of slipped back toattempting to be normal.
AJ Richards (13:00):
So yeah, humans have the tendency to take the
path of least resistance, right,right.
And so when you say a littlebit more of expendable income,
if you're referring to some ofthose stimulus checks, yes,
exactly Correct.
You know that, that.
What what I think is importantis that consumers understand
(13:21):
that the food supply chainexists because we created that,
and what I mean by that is isstores do what sales data tells
them.
Yeah, and so when we buy thejunk, they make more junk.
Right, because that's that'swhat we're telling them that we
want, and their job as a or as acorporation, as a business,
(13:45):
their primary job and fiduciaryresponsibility is to grow
revenue.
So they're not going to dohigher quality proteins and
naturally growing food if thesales data says you should give
up more shelf space for bullshitprocessed food.
Now, when we talk about the costside of things, we as human
(14:08):
beings also like convenience andhabit.
We like to feed our habits, andso you know there are long-term
consequences of buying cheapfood that will actually cost you
more down the road than theimmediate savings you're doing.
Now.
Well, why would people?
(14:30):
Some people will say, well,what if you just don't have the
money?
That's, that could be true, andin many cases, I believe it
probably is true for some people.
So what I'm about to say if theshoe fits, then wear it it.
If it doesn't, then you don'tneed to right if your reason for
not buying high uh, not buyinghigh quality nutrient dense food
(14:50):
is the cost.
I'm going to invite you to lookat your other expenses.
Sure are you buying cigarettes,alcohol, yeah, you know,
cannabis.
Are you going out a lot, areyou what?
What are the other habits thatyour expenses are going towards,
that you're choosing that couldotherwise be put towards high
(15:13):
quality, nutrient dense food?
And then that leads into thenext part of that discussion,
which a good friend of mine, rcCarter.
He owns Carter Country Meats.
It's a regenerative ranch inTensleep, wyoming.
He says what's the value of agood idea?
(15:33):
and so his point of that is, ifyou think about how our body
works when we, when we feed our,our, our gut with high uh,
highly nutrient dense food, themicrobiology, our micro gut
biome, is actually, uh, known tobe our first brain.
So what we feed our stomachfeeds the rest of our brain so
(15:56):
that we then interact or reactin the world based off of what
our gut is doing.
So if I I am feeling dull ordim just in terms of my neurons
firing and my perception of theworld, it's probably because of
what I'm feeding myself.
And if you're stuck in animpoverished position, are you
(16:20):
feeding your gut biome in a waythat will fuel positive and
powerful thoughts that couldthen possibly pull you out of
the situation you're in?
Chef James (16:31):
Right.
AJ Richards (16:32):
Or are you perpetuating that by continuing
to eat junk because it's cheap?
Chef James (16:37):
Ultra processed, yeah, ultra processed.
AJ Richards (16:40):
Yeah right.
Chef James (16:41):
Yeah, okay.
AJ Richards (16:42):
And so that I can keep paying for my other habits.
Yeah, right, and yeah, okay,and so that I can keep paying
for my other habits.
So, yes, when you buy like it's, it's changing the concept
around what food is worth, andthat's why rc is working on this
idea that he's going to labelhis meat.
You know how people will labelgrass-fed and finished or corn
right but instead he's lookingat labeling it with the nutrient
(17:04):
density as well as the sellingpoint.
It's amazing, wow OK.
Chef James (17:10):
Yeah, well, that's so interesting and you know,
going into that and the complexag system and the industrial
food system that we've builttoday.
You know, in the States, whenyou're talking about like what
we produce I mean even talkingto Dr Marion Nessel, who is just
, she has the book Food Politicsand you know her studies showed
(17:33):
her over the many years wasthat we actually produce twice
as many calories than what a manor woman nutritionally needs,
and so these large companies arepushing and selling and also
going after, you know, thefamily unit or the children in
the school system.
It's really, it's reallyamazing.
(17:53):
It's kind of like you know, asyou're going into what you're
sharing, that this, this is avery large machine that has many
different connecting points ofpower.
AJ Richards (18:04):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
And the average consumer has noidea about how that interacts.
Chef James (18:11):
No.
AJ Richards (18:13):
I think that well, first of all, we know that big
food and big pharma are directlyconnected through their
investors, through the peoplethat invest and have a stake pun
intended, a stake in the gameof both sides.
Well, when you can make peoplechronically ill through poor
(18:35):
diet and you have statins andother medications that you can
then prescribe them becausethey're chronically ill, it's a
self-perpetuating loop ofrevenue.
So, what would the incentiveever be of going in a direction
that would reduce the need forhighly processed foods that make
(18:56):
them a ton of money becausethey're selling an addiction?
That's what they're doing.
It's a legal addiction.
Of course, a lot of otheraddictions are becoming
legalized, but then they're alsoselling the cure right, right,
the medication.
Chef James (19:12):
It's unbelievable.
Well, you know talking aboutthat.
When you look at like evenLatin American countries you
know, for example, like Mexico,actually delving into their food
system because their healthcaresystem is linked to the
government.
This isn't so.
It's like, oh, let's make alittle change off that.
Where you know a lot, of a lotof Latin America, I mean,
(19:36):
there's many indigenous, rootedpeople and some of these food
systems that they had there withthe ultra processed, the
governments were like, wait aminute, there's.
The end result here is we'regoing to have to pay more for
this.
So they're actually now goingin and trying to develop systems
where they can educate thechildren and people you know in
(19:57):
their communities, even by, youknow, numbering or putting, you
know, I don't know kid-friendlylike pictures or stamps on these
ultra-processed foods so thatpeople can recognize it.
AJ Richards (20:09):
But here we're, like you know, yeah Well, I mean
, when you start peeling backthe layers of this, you start
realizing that we don't live ina free country and our
government does not care aboutus.
I mean, you go to othercountries and you look at a
package of cigarettes.
Have you ever seen anothercountry in the package of
(20:29):
cigarettes?
No, I haven't.
They have actual pictures ofthroat and mouth cancer and gum
disease on the package by law sothat when you grab that, you're
like I'm knowingly consumingsomething that could create that
.
And so like to your point tooabout other countries, like
banning our food.
(20:49):
Mexico has now banned, I thinkthey've banned, but the
conversation is banning our cornexports.
Oh, my goodness specificallybecause of glyphosate okay,
right so, like you said, they'rebecause their health care is
attached to their government andthat their one's foot in the
(21:11):
bill.
They're like, well geez, how dowe reduce the cost of this
medical bill?
Well, we've got to make peoplehealthier.
And one thing we know aboutglyphosate and the corn grown
and the gmo process to makeglyphosate resistant corn is not
good for our people, so we'renot going to allow it right,
yeah, and I don't.
Chef James (21:30):
I yeah, and I wish that that would, you know,
slowly change here.
I mean, the only thing I can sayis some of these you know.
And another point I wanted to,you know, kind of bring up in
that system is and I'm sureyou've heard of it, but you know
it's it was very intriguing forme as a chef, being a part of
that system, seeing how the GPOs, these group purchasing
(22:01):
organizations, are put togetherin a way where it is a software
and it tracks and it goesthrough.
But you have, for example,myself, if I'm under an umbrella
of a certain cross US or globalhospitality management firm, if
I stay in my compliancepercentage of 80% or higher.
Typically you want to be higherthan that of using that
(22:22):
specific broad line distributorat an 80 or 90% or higher plus a
manufacturer rebate.
So if one of those big groups Iget a list of those it's an
additional kickback.
I mean you know it helps yourfood costs.
I mean it goes to, you know,the corporate office and
obviously those deals are signedthere.
But I think it's, you know itgoes into not just the, you know
(22:45):
, food and beverage hospitalityside but health care and our
school systems that are linkedinto some of these, some of
these things that are justfeeding off, let alone, the
consumer.
AJ Richards (22:58):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Chef James (23:01):
But when you look at other examples from abroad
where you know they are using,you know, regional farms and
they've worked theserelationships out.
You know let alone I've goneinto it too before but like even
the seconds you know that areleft on a farm that you know
aren't, because we're so pickyin the grocery store too right,
it's got to be a perfect bellpepper.
(23:22):
So why, does that zucchini havea scratch mark on it?
There's something wrong, youknow, so it's.
You know, we've done this thingwhere I think we've allowed
ourselves to be conditioned to,and also because we put a lot of
trust and value in our ownpoliticians and country.
I mean this, this monster, hasbeen going on for a long time.
You know, and you know, I thinkyou doing what you're doing, um
(23:46):
, um, building a network likethat.
I think it's amazing, you know,and and so like.
Right now, when you're doingthis, you're in specific areas,
but the goal is to go nationwide, right To all regions.
Like, are you cutting it up ona map in like four sections?
Or I mean that's silly, but youknow what I mean.
But are you?
AJ Richards (24:05):
Yeah, no, no we.
If you go to fromthefarmioright now, you'll see that most
of our farms and ranches are onthe Rocky Mountain West, because
it's where I live.
I've got relationships therefrom a lifetime.
Chef James (24:18):
Well, you've got to start somewhere.
AJ Richards (24:20):
I mean yeah, but we've got.
We've now just have a newseller that signed up in
Nebraska.
We've got somebody who I'mreally excited that saw the
vision White Oaks Pastures.
They're in Bluffton, georgia,and so they're on the platform
and Will and Jenny Harris arejust incredible people and we're
(24:43):
having conversations all thetime people popping up that are
going to be on the map from allacross the nation selling food
direct.
So, yeah, the goal is so ourrollout strategy over time is
get whoever we can.
It's kind of scatteredthroughout the country right now
.
My first goal is that you'll beable to order from somebody
who's within at least two dayground shipping.
(25:03):
Okay, sure, that's that's thefirst goal.
Then get, then get enoughproducers on there.
It's in within one day groundshipping and then, ultimately,
the long-term vision is that wevision is that farmers and
ranchers all across the nation,in every town across the nation,
are on the platform so that, nomatter where you're at, you can
(25:23):
pull it up and meet the personlocally who's selling direct.
That was the kind of theawareness that led me to.
This is that because I'm thecity slicker cousin and I lived
in Phoenix, arizona, for 12years, I knew how to speak urban
and I also understood thedisconnect between urban and
rural and I also know howproducers in the rural
(25:45):
environments kind of think andoperate and what they think of
people in the urban side and thelack of communication, the
urban side and the lack ofcommunication.
And so my vision was we've gotto create something that gives
them the opportunity to meeteach other at on a, in a
designated meeting location, sothat we can start to recognize
that we rely on one another.
Chef James (26:06):
Okay.
AJ Richards (26:06):
The consumers in the urban environments rely on
producers to grow and raisetheir food.
Chef James (26:12):
Yep.
AJ Richards (26:13):
The producers rely on the consumers to buy the food
that they're growing andraising.
Chef James (26:19):
Okay.
AJ Richards (26:19):
And if we can cut out all the middlemen and have
people do business direct, I asa consumer can ask the producer
that any questions that matterto me.
Maybe I love corn and grainfinished beef.
Is this beef on corn and grain?
How long is it on corn andgrain?
Is it genetically love corn andgrain finished beef?
Is this beef on corn and grain?
How long is it on corn andgrain?
Is it genetically modified cornand grain.
Chef James (26:37):
Going into some of the software and so let's say I,
you know, click beef tenderloinor something.
So when I click on it it'lltell me the pack size, the
description, so kind of likewhat you're explaining.
That will be part of thedescription, you think, or?
AJ Richards (26:51):
yeah, yeah, so, okay, so, um, I mean, I could
almost do a share screen andshow you exactly what it looks
like.
But, um, yeah, but theproducers have descriptions on
there of what they're offeringwith those particular packages
and what comes with it okay,yeah, nice, all right so some.
Some will sell all a cart,meaning you can load your cart
(27:12):
with individual cuts of of meatthat you're interested in.
Some will sell all a cart,meaning you can load your cart
with individual cuts of meatthat you're interested in.
Some will sell packages likehere's an eighth of a cow.
You're going to get the exactportion of an eighth of a cow,
and so you're going to get avariety, but it's right from our
ranch and our farm.
Chef James (27:25):
Oh, that's great.
That's a lot of fun.
AJ Richards (27:28):
Yeah, I mean okay Wow.
Chef James (27:30):
All right, you had also done on your podcast,
didn't you interview.
It was the book.
Is it Barron's?
AJ Richards (27:35):
Yeah, yeah, I've got it right here.
Chef James (27:37):
I found that kind of going back to the big machine,
but you know, educatinglisteners too on that.
That's an amazing book.
I need to read it, but it'skind of like breaking it down.
But there's multiple Barron'sin that right.
AJ Richards (27:51):
The categories yeah , he, um, austin Frerich, this
was his first book.
It's called Barons, Money,power and the Corruption of
American's Food Industry.
So he, uh, I'll tell you, I'lljust open up to like the chapter
.
So he, what he did was helooked at different, um, uh,
barons, you know, leaders inindustry, moguls, and then
(28:12):
followed them and how they gotinto power.
Because anytime you have abaron or a mogul that controls a
significant portion of anyindustry, it destroys
competition and it's not a goodthing, right?
Yeah, because monopoly-wise,right.
Yeah, it's what the Rockefellersdid, right?
(28:36):
Yeah, it's what therockefellers did.
It's what, um, you know, uh, um, think and grow rich with the
author.
Uh, geez, it's one of myfavorite books and I can't even
think about it, but, um, I haveto write.
Okay, carnegie the name iscarnegie.
Oh yes, carnegie, of course,right, yeah and so clear back
then and the during theindustrial revolution, what they
did was bring together a groupof experts to dominate the steel
manufacturing industry right,which they did it.
(28:59):
Yeah, yeah, they did it well,and then not only did they do it
, they got enough power thatthen they created.
They're the ones who createdthe food, uh, the the education
system, because they needed toeducate.
I, I'm sorry, they needed toonly educate you enough to work
in a factory.
Chef James (29:17):
Oh yeah.
AJ Richards (29:17):
Their factories because they became the barons
and they were growing so muchthey needed laborers.
Henry Ford needed laborers onthe auto line, and so I can't
remember.
But there was somebody that wasquoted in that Rockefeller
organization or network thatsaid that was quoted in that
rockefeller organization ornetwork that said we don't need
you to learn to be an educatoror a poet or a thinker, we don't
(29:39):
need those, we have plenty.
In other words, me and myaristocrat friends, we've got
that part handled.
We just need you all to be thelaborers.
And so he so like in his bookhog baron.
So the hog industry, which isprimarily Smithfield, which is
all China now, yeah, they boughtthat.
Chef James (29:57):
Yeah, I was like whoa what.
AJ Richards (29:58):
Yep, now he's speaking of a specific hog baron
, that's not part of that, butstill was able to dominate Grain
, coffee, dairy berry slaughterwhich is the big four packers
and grocery.
So those are the.
He followed different leadersthat dominated those particular
you know, groceries, of course,walmart, the Walton family, sam
(30:21):
Walton.
So yeah, that's the.
That's.
Barron's is a phenomenal bookthat really kind of highlights
what we're seeing.
And so right now, for thelisteners who don't know, in the
beef industry specifically,four corporations control 85% of
the beef industry, 85.
That's dangerous, yeah it is.
(30:44):
And so that's JBS.
They're Brazilian-owned.
Morfrig they bought outNational Beef recently oh really
Wow.
They bought out National Beefrecently oh really Wow.
And Morphig is Brazilian owned.
Then you've got Cargill, whichis an American owned company by
an American family.
They talk about Cargill, theCargill family, here.
Cargill's in a ton of hot waterfor doing things that are
(31:10):
unethical, especially out in thejungles of South America where
they're just destroying therainforest to grow soybeans and
all this kind of stuff for theirfeed operation.
And then Tyson.
Tyson is a multinationalconglomerate, which probably
means it's owned mostly by Chinawho knows?
But those are the fourcompanies that control 85% of
the market.
That's why, when the beefpacking houses closed because of
(31:33):
COVID sickness, it caused majordisruption across the nation
because we've become socentralized.
Chef James (31:41):
Right, right.
And I've noticed too that someof these big, these corporate,
these complex manufacturers,they've actually used COVID as
an opportunity to like cut backon their inventory that they
offered.
AJ Richards (31:56):
Yeah they're gonna stream the pricing.
Chef James (31:58):
Yeah and didn't right, so that I found that was
very interesting.
Can you discuss the that wholeusda thing?
I think that was, was it march12th or 11th that?
AJ Richards (32:08):
uh, the ban that went on with that man, there's a
lot of stuff going on theforeign meat ban on how yeah.
So there's two, two major thingsthat happened recently.
One, they were trying to passthe approval to import beef from
paraguay.
Um, about 20, 25 years ago,paraguay was importing beef, but
(32:31):
they had an outbreak of footand mouth disease, which is the
scariest disease in terms ofimpact on herds that we could
ever have, and so they shut themdown because of that.
And recently they tried toapprove, 25 years later, that
they could start importing beeffrom Paraguay again.
And there's a few issues withthat, one being that they
(32:53):
haven't gotten rid ofput-in-bouth disease in their
country for one.
Two, why are we importing morebeef, furthering the issues that
plague our producers, which isprice fixing and fluctuating of
the market?
Now, I believe we need importedbeef right now because we do
currently have a food systemthat, if we didn't have imported
(33:16):
beef, we don't have enough.
In the United States, we are at1950s cattle numbers with 2024
population, so we have to haveimported beef just to live, but
we should not be bringing inbeef from places that have
issues related to them.
Chef James (33:35):
Right.
AJ Richards (33:36):
And then the mislabeling right, yeah, and so
the second thing is so that gotshut down and no longer allowing
Paraguayan beef to come in.
There was enough pressure,enough attention.
The next thing was what isknown as MCOOL, and that acronym
stands for Mandatory Country ofOrigin Labeling, which was
already a law.
They just were not enforcing it, because Canada and Mexico
(33:59):
complained of basically notbeing fair.
Chef James (34:02):
Somebody's not playing nice in the sandbox.
AJ Richards (34:04):
Yeah.
And so they threw a fit likethat's not fair, you're not
allowing us to be a part of afair market, and it was attached
to other trade agreements, soit's not as simple as we all
make it out to be.
But I listen, I'm an Americanfirst person.
That's just who I am.
Do I think that if, if you lookat the world from space, are
(34:24):
there borders that you can seefrom space around the globe?
No, there are not.
I think in a perfect world, godmeant us all to be together,
but also we live in a worldwhere our cultures are so
different that we have to haveborders to protect ourselves,
and also we need to protect ourAmerican farmers and ranchers
first and make sure they are theones that we have a priority
over.
(34:46):
And that recently was changed.
So it's a little weak in theway they've done it.
You know it's a political move.
So like they didn't justoutright say mandatory country
of origin, like no matter whereit comes from, you have to label
it where it comes from.
Chef James (35:04):
Okay.
AJ Richards (35:04):
All they said was it's voluntary.
Pork beef from Brazil or Canadaor Mexico.
I can no longer, because upuntil well, even right now,
until 2026, if it says USA on it, if it has a USA sticker, most
likely is not from the USA.
That was the problem.
If I had beef in Brazil and Ikilled it in Brazil and shipped
(35:27):
it over in reefers on a supertanker and then further
processed it in the UnitedStates, I could put a USA
sticker on it and now you, theconsumer at the store, think
it's a product of the USA.
What was changed was in 2026,they can't put USA on it, but
(35:49):
they don't have to put anything,so it's voluntary, which I
think is weak.
I think it should the lawshould state that if it's
whatever country it's from,there should be a sticker on
there that says Brazil, uruguay,paraguay, canada.
Chef James (36:05):
Mexico, whatever.
AJ Richards (36:08):
So the customer knows, so that you can choose,
and what they're doing is tryingto hide that from you.
Chef James (36:14):
So in your advice and I'm just this is just
throwing something out there.
In what you've seen, is therelike a percentage or numbers
where you know we were here withour ranchers and you know
producing and slaughter our beefhere, but because of the big
four and where we're at today,we've seen this percentage drop.
(36:36):
I mean we've lost a lot of them, right?
AJ Richards (36:39):
The numbers.
Yeah, oh yeah.
The numbers I can tell you isthat in 1980, that's when Reagan
changed the antitrust laws thatallowed this company to gobble
up this company and then thiscompany got you know that so now
they could buy out andconsolidate.
So Reagan changed that in 1980.
That allowed that to happen.
(36:59):
In 1980, the big four there wasmore than four of them and they
had different names back then.
Jbs was not around in 1980.
They only controlled 25% of themarket and now it's 85.
Now I don't know the number offarms and ranches that were
around then, but what I can tellyou now is that we have less
(37:23):
than 2% of our entire Americanpopulation growing and raising
food in the country.
So less than 2% of ourpopulation is growing food for
the other 98%.
If the worst case scenariohappened where imports stopped,
what do you think that means?
Chef James (37:41):
Famine, it's total famine.
AJ Richards (37:44):
Let me show you this book, this other book, and
you probably saw me talk aboutit it's Red Famine.
Red Famine talks aboutcommunist collectivization of
farms during Stalin's reign.
Started with Lenin, then wentinto Stalin and because they
became centralized, theyestimate that nobody knows
because they hit it, but 4million people starved to death.
(38:06):
Famine from 1932 to 1933.
Chef James (38:09):
Wow.
AJ Richards (38:09):
The book is just so eye-opening because, when you
look at what is happening in ourcountry specifically related to
the food supply chain, thereare policies being put in place,
decisions being put in place,like this whole fake issue with
the carbon, with global warming.
That's all fake.
And I think it's fake tocontrol our food because, if I
(38:30):
can say, your cows are theproblem and just like in
Irelandireland I think it wasthey want to kill 200 000 head
of cows.
Yeah, so if I can, I'm going tokill your cows, but don't worry
, james, I've got a proprietaryblend of ingredients to make a,
a food out of the factory thatgives you all the nutrients you
(38:51):
need.
Just trust me, it's going to begood for you and our carbon
footprint is lower, which alsois bullshit.
But now I think it's related towhat's called intellect, what I
what.
I don't call it anything, it'sjust what it is intellectual
food property.
Because if it's my ingredients,if it's my formula, you don't
have a choice but to buy it forme, just like, like in the
(39:12):
pharmaceutical industry, if Ioutlaw all the natural medicines
growing of the earth and I havethe proprietary ingredient.
For you know if cannabis canhelp with muscle aches, but I'm
not allowed to smoke cannabis.
I can only buy ibuprofen.
Chef James (39:29):
Yeah, right, yeah.
AJ Richards (39:31):
I can't make ibuprofen, so my only choice is
to buy it from thepharmaceutical company that
makes ibuprofen Right.
Right, as you know, just as an.
Chef James (39:39):
As an example, what do you think about like, with
all this going on and throwingin this whole lab grown meat
thing Like the I call it thePetri dish to table?
Yeah.
AJ Richards (39:49):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's just, it's more, it's just
more of what I just describedintellectual food property.
Chef James (39:57):
Okay, okay.
AJ Richards (39:59):
And they're going to vilify natural food that's
been on this planet for tens ofthousands of years.
For thousands of years, rightSince the dawn of man, we've
eaten meat.
Now, that's wrong and nothealthy for us or the planet.
So here's the alternative,which is, you know, petri, dish
food.
Chef James (40:18):
Yeah, right, right, and I mean it's getting sort of
shut down to a certain extent,isn't it?
AJ Richards (40:26):
I mean definitely Italy.
But Well, yeah, and this iswhat I want people to hear Like,
this is a very concerning anddaunting fight.
The more I get into it, themore I see the actors behind the
scenes that most people aren't,that I wasn't aware of prior to
COVID, the more I'm concerned,and I also have hope and faith
(40:49):
in miracles, because look whatwe did and when I say we, us,
the consumers, look what we didto Beyond Meat.
We destroyed that company.
Nobody, we, the, the, the con.
You've heard the term votingwith your dollar man.
That is.
That is absolutely legitimate.
And if you look at what'shappening with companies like
(41:09):
Beyond Meat, they can shout andyell all they want and pay for
all these marketing ads and allthese different things.
Right right if we just choose tospend our money somewhere else,
it don't matter what they say,it goes nowhere and eventually
they flop.
Chef James (41:24):
And so right and you know it's just so much better
to keep the money at home and inyour community when you buy
food local.
AJ Richards (41:31):
I read, I read somewhere that when you buy
local food, 70 percent of thatmoney stays local.
Chef James (41:37):
Which is huge, it's a must.
I mean, they're your neighbor.
AJ Richards (41:42):
If you look at what Will Harris did at White Oaks
Pastures in Bluffton, georgia,that town was a ghost town.
A ghost town becauseagriculture got destroyed and
Atlanta was three hours away.
Everybody moved into the cityand left town because they
couldn't afford it, becausepeople weren't buying food from
their local producers anymore.
They changed that entire town.
(42:02):
80% of the people in town nowwork at White Oaks Pastures.
Chef James (42:07):
That's awesome and it's a thriving bustling
community now because of localfood, local food.
Yeah, yeah, and that's you know,it's very interesting too
because, like even here, we havesome, you know, pretty amazing
people that are working onputting things together.
It's they have a hard time of,they get bottlenecked, whether
(42:31):
it be transportation orslaughterhouse opportunity, and
then you know, like you saidbefore, they're spending money.
You know on that which it's acost, and these things add up
and then it goes to the consumerand and then you know, like you
said before, they're spendingmoney, you know on that which
it's a cost, and these thingsadd up and then it goes to the
consumer and and prices go upand and it's a challenge, you
know, and I think, working fromdifferent organizations here
that are coming together to tryto, you know, figure out how
(42:53):
they can put this thing together.
They've been working reallyhard on that.
So you know, it would be great,it would be great to see that
come to fruition and they'rebuilding it and working hard, so
it's pretty cool.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, yeah, you know I waslooking at the RCAF USA for some
of us over here.
Can you kind of explain?
You know them a little bit andI know that you you're a huge
(43:15):
supporter of them and they'reamazing too.
AJ Richards (43:17):
Yeah, I am and I'm glad you asked.
So our CAF there there's a.
My observation is all of thelegacy groups I'll say companies
or nonprofits groups that havebeen around for decades We've
now seen them become compromised.
They've been bought and paidfor by special interests,
(43:40):
whether it's lobbyists orcorporations doing business
directly with them throughsponsorships or whatever.
So they've been compromised.
Rcaf was stood up in response tothat happening in the cattle
industry.
There's an organization and Iwon't throw them under the bus
enough so I won't call them outby name but there's an
organization and I won't I throwthem under the bus enough so I
won't call them out by name butthere's an organization that is
that legacy organization andthey're compromised.
(44:03):
And here's why I say that soplainly.
Look at the industry.
Is it better or worse than whenyou started advocating?
If it's worse, meaning worseprices, lower numbers in cattle
producers, all of these issuesthat everybody's facing?
If it's worse, why You're notdoing your job?
(44:25):
Then why aren't you doing yourjob?
The cattle industry would bethriving.
The other industries that weresupporting the other enterprises
, like lamb and pork and chicken, they would all be thriving,
but none of those agencies didtheir job.
(44:47):
Right and so yeah, so RCAFrecognized this, and so they are
taking a stand for theindependent cattle producer.
Chef James (44:55):
And, by the way, cattle is the last.
AJ Richards (44:58):
They're the last bastion of freedom in terms of
industry that we have left inour country.
Pork industry is destroyed, thechicken industry is destroyed
and the lamb industry 75% of thelamb sold in the United States
is imported.
Yes, so our calf is the oneswho go to war in Washington to
fight these battles legally,like the M-Cool, like RFID ear
(45:22):
tags for cows that can trackevery movement, which is a whole
nother you know.
Yeah, I saw that too.
That's what I'm saying when Isaid earlier, like if you pull
back the layers and you startlooking at the corruption, it's
scary and the average persondoesn't know this.
I think that the best thing ourcountry could benefit from is
if every single consumer decidedthey were going to learn about
(45:46):
their food, which I don't thinkis too much to ask, because
human beings need three thingsfood, shelter and safety, and
food being number one.
I put water in with that.
So anybody that's going to harpon me for it, get off your high
horse, but we have this excuse.
I'm too busy worrying about myown industry or my own job or my
own hobbies or whatever.
(46:07):
None of the rest of your lifematters without food.
None of it Throughout history.
There's evidence when you read abook like this and you wonder
why people felt no sorrow whentheir own father starved and
died, laying in front of them.
I mean, there's examples ofkids saying to hell with them,
I'm hungry.
Dad literally just starved todeath in front of them and they
(46:29):
don't care.
A position where you have noremorse because you are so
hungry that it doesn't registerin the brain the way it does now
.
And that's just one example.
Viktor Frankl wrote a bookcalled Man's Search for Meaning.
Viktor Frankl was a Jewishprisoner in the concentration
(46:51):
camps and then became apsychologist.
And when people said why didn'tyou guys stand up against your
captors?
There were thousands of youprisoners and only you know a
dozen or so guards and he saidhis answer was when you are
truly starving to death, youdon't think about anything else
other than your next meal,including shoveling your
neighbor's ashes out of a kiln.
(47:12):
Now, those aren't his wordsexactly, but that's what he's
saying.
So every human being in theunited states should be invested
in knowing personally their,where their food supply comes
from and what it does to theirbody right so rfids is one of
these other things.
it's it's tags for the cows here, because, like I said, ranchers
(47:34):
are the last bastion of freedom, meaning nobody controls them,
not by and large.
They have taxes and insuranceand grazing fees and water
rights.
They're always battling.
That's a level of control, buttruly nobody controls them.
They don't have crop farmerssubsidies.
Ranchers don't have subsidiescovering their crops if they
(47:56):
don't get purchased Right.
Ranchers don't have subsidiescovering their crops if they
don't get purchased right.
They either get their cattlesold or they don't.
There's no cup, there's nogovernment organization, which
is a good thing, because thosesubsidies end up becoming like
welfare, where you then followthe rules of the people paying
you because you've now builtyour operation around the
demands and requirements ofreceiving these subsidies.
So rfid tracking of your cow'sears.
(48:18):
You know they put a tag in theear and now they can see every
movement it makes, where you'reputting it, where it's going,
how it was transferred.
The danger of that is nowsomebody has direct knowledge
and access to every singleanimal across the nation and
they shouldn't have that levelof control.
(48:38):
I'm a private individual.
I should be able to raise mycattle without you looking over
my shoulder, yeah, so RFID chipsis one that RCAF is fighting
against.
I learned about the SustainsAct through RCAF.
The Sustains Act would giveprivate entities the ability to
do direct, open business withfederal organizations.
(49:01):
So let me break that down foryou.
If I'm JBS and you're USDA, Ican say hey, usda, here's a
billion dollars to sponsor you.
You will not make any decisionsthat would affect me because I
sponsored you.
Chef James (49:18):
Yeah, yeah, payoff.
AJ Richards (49:20):
Guess what?
Jbs the CEOs went to prisonbecause they bribed 1,800
Brazilian federal officials,including their president, and
went to jail for that.
They're basically the mafia.
Now our government is trying topass a law that would say they
can go ahead and openly sponsorand fund federal organizations.
(49:42):
That's more scary to me thanany other regulation we're
fighting.
Chef James (49:47):
Wow, okay, well, hopefully that doesn't go
through.
AJ Richards (49:51):
I agree.
Chef James (49:52):
Good grief.
AJ Richards (49:52):
Okay, brief, okay, that's that's kind of like part
of my mission.
A big part of the mission isthat when we, when we create a
place like from the farm, wherepeople come to trust the food
and trust the message abouttheir food and these kinds of
things are happening, yeah, wenow have the ability to say hey,
james, just so you know, yourstate is trying to like oregon.
(50:13):
Your state is trying to putpolicy in place that's going to
shut down all of our dairyproducers on a small scale
because they're requiring themto meet the same level of
regulation as the largeoperations.
You should go and vote thatdown if we have millions of
buyers on a platform wherethey're they can trust the
message and then act on it likelike everything going on in
(50:36):
europe with the farmers and withthe farmers.
Chef James (50:38):
Yeah, that's a mess yeah.
AJ Richards (50:40):
If they were stood shoulder to shoulder with all of
the consumers of that country,it'd be over Right.
They would run their governmentout of office and replace them
with people that gave a shitabout their food.
Wow, the farmers and ranchersover there.
They don't have ranchers, butthe farmers over there are doing
it themselves.
I get messages all the time onmy social media.
(51:02):
When are the farmers andranchers in America going to
stand up and I'm like that'sbullshit when are you, the
consumers, going to stand up foryour food security and food
freedom and keep our farmers andranchers in the field growing
food for us so that we don'thave to have a disruption?
All of those tractors, all ofthose farms that are not plowing
and tilling fields right now.
They're not producing food,right, when does that show up as
a problem?
(51:23):
So it should be the citizenswho rely on the producers going
to war for them so they can stayin the fields and keep growing
our food.
Chef James (51:31):
Right, yeah, no, that's a great point, okay, wow.
Well, this has been awesome.
I really appreciate your timeand all the work that you're
doing In the sense of connectingwith you or this software.
This program is connectedthrough via website, right?
Not an app.
AJ Richards (51:49):
It's not an app, it's a web form, so the website
is fromthefarmio.
Okay, it has been designed tobe an app someday, but app
development is more tedious andmore expensive, so we might just
keep it a web-based platform.
Um, I did learn a way that youcan actually save it on your
phone as if it's an app, whichis pretty oh cool, that's great
(52:09):
yeah, you can do that with anywebsite, apparently.
so, um, uh, yeah, so it's web goto.
So a lot of people are like Ican't find it in the app store.
You're right, my fault, cause Ikeep calling it an app and then
people go look.
Well, yeah.
Chef James (52:21):
I mean, we're so conditioned by you know apps and
things.
Yeah, well, hopefully we'll getthere at some point, cause it
sure sounds like it will, causeyou're rolling, you have your
podcast, right.
AJ Richards (52:37):
We have our podcast .
It was Feed the People.
Now it's our next episode thatwill be coming out, so you can
still go find Feed the People onSpotify and all those places
we're rebranding.
It'll be called From the Farm.
And so that the next episodewill record in the next week or
so and then be released.
We just released our last onewith Austin Frerich from
(52:58):
Barron's.
Oh, very cool yeah so we justreleased that yesterday and then
you can, like I said, from thefarmio, my Instagram is a period
J underscore Richards.
On Instagram, there's somenefarious things happening in
terms of a shadow, banning andsilencing that are definitely
happening there.
So I'm also on X, and on X it'sjust my name, aj Richards.
Chef James (53:19):
Okay, yeah, you notice, the more we talk about
this stuff, the more of thosenice little messages come
through.
Totally the other fan mail.
AJ Richards (53:30):
Yeah, I'm like, oh wow, I didn't realize food was
so political, but I mean, it'sreally not.
It's like it's, whoever is init's, who is ever donating or
spending money as a sponsor onthose platforms, can control it.
So I have found, if I do anyvideos or posting targeting you
know, fake meat or lab grownmeat or something like that, I
(53:51):
kind of get a little bit of asilence going on.
Chef James (53:54):
So yeah, all right, well cool.
Well, it was, it was awesome.
Aj, thank you for your time.
All right, well, cool.
Well, it was, it was awesome,aj, thank you for your time and
maybe we can do this againsometime.
Get an update.
AJ Richards (54:02):
Yeah, it'd be great , all right.
Chef James (54:05):
All right, thank you , take care.
AJ Richards (54:06):
You too.
Chef James (54:07):
Yeah, all right, everyone, that is a wrap.
Also the Instagram Chef Massey.
Let's keep it simple.
Chefmasseycom, have a good one.
Bye for now.
Hey everyone, welcome to Chef Sense.
I'm your host, chef Massey.
Okay, so today on the podcast.
Aj Richards, thanks so much forbeing on.
AJ Richards (00:22):
Yeah, james, thanks for asking man.
I was super excited to get theemail and invitation.
Chef James (00:27):
Yeah, and you do cover a lot of initiatives and
what you're working on.
Can we start at the beginningjust about, like AJ Richards,
how?
Because I think sometimes theupbringing and nurturing grows
into the passion.
So would you mind sharing that?
AJ Richards (00:40):
Yeah, for sure, and that's definitely the situation
in my case.
I grew up in a small town.
At least when I was growing upwas a small town called St
George, utah.
It's just outside of ZionNational Park.
For anybody that's kind of morefamiliar with the national
parks in Utah, oh cool, myfamily homesteaded 60 miles
(01:04):
south of there on the ArizonaStrip.
Oh, so, north side of the GrandCanyon, okay, and we call it.
You know, it's known asBundyville to some.
Okay, my family are the BundyRanchers.
Some people will know that name, others won't, but if you do a
Google search of Bundy Ranchers,you'll find plenty of
(01:25):
information on them.
Oh cool, Okay, they are knownfor taking on the federal
government in 2014 and then2016,.
Fighting for the rights ofbasically grazing rights.
They settled that in 1916 whenthey made that available for
homesteading and homesteading.
Now people think of it as buy apiece of land and grow some
(01:47):
food.
You know, be, be, be,self-sustaining.
That's similar to what it whatused to be, but back in the day
it was.
Here's a piece of ground in anuninhabitable area.
Good luck If you want to go andstake your flag there and put a
fence up.
You can homestead it Right,right, and then look if you want
to go and stake your flag thereand put a fence up, you can
homestead it right, right, right, and then you have to be
self-sufficient because thegrocery store is not a backup
(02:09):
land, because it doesn't exist.
Yeah, so that was old schoolhomesteading, but my family did
that in 1916.
And so growing up, my familyare five generations of ranchers
.
I'm the city slicker cousin, Isay because I didn't grow up on
a ranch myself.
(02:29):
I just got to do the cattledrives and the brandings as
often as I could as a kid andhave multiple topics, but the
primary topics that I rememberas a kid were around the control
of the Bureau of LandManagement, otherwise known as
(02:53):
the BLM the original BLM, okay,and they regulate how land is
managed, like public lands, uh,like the like, um, public lands.
So they they're, uh, they'relike the park service, they're
like like the national forestservice, um, but they're their
own entity, they're under thedepartment of the interior.
So I would grow up hearingthese family meetings about
(03:15):
these water rights being reducedor taken away and these grazing
rights being threatened.
And you know there's a specialbeetle they have found and so
now you're not allowed to dothis on your ranch anymore to
protect the beetle, which.
That beetle ended up wiping outmillions of trees and causing
some major forest fires in theWest because of, you know, those
(03:36):
policies to protect thosebeetles.
So, yeah, growing up that'swhat it was like, and so I had a
really strong introduction intothe importance of agriculture
and its relationship in our lifeand it certainly has shaped me
to be who I am.
Chef James (03:56):
Yeah, that's amazing Hearing all that.
Coming from a farming familymyself, you know Northern
California and my uncle was agcommissioner of Siskiyou County
up there and you know anotheruncle worked in the ag, another
ag well, unfortunately, ag chemcompany so there was a lot of
like involvement, not just withour farm but as they, you know,
(04:18):
kind of went along.
And it's funny how it'sinteresting how these things you
know, when you're, when you'reraised around special people
like that, it just kind ofresonates into you and into the
fibers of who you are.
So that's where I think,looking at your story and the
journey you've been through, andalso to say thank you is being
(04:39):
a veteran, a real warrior of ourand to also the men and women
that have done that service.
So I absolutely wouldn't behere today if it wasn't for all
of you.
So I was taking a quick secondthere.
But you know, looking at all ofthis, what you're developing,
can you talk about like the beefinitiatives and the challenges
that you ran to, that kind offostered, where you had worked
(05:03):
on your platform for thatsoftware?
AJ Richards (05:05):
Yeah.
So I think, like many people,covid changed the trajectory of
lots of our lives.
Yeah, some good, some bad, youknow.
And so I was selling beef formy family's ranch.
You know, because I'm the cityslicker cousin, I didn't inherit
a ranch, I didn't.
I didn't know how to get intoit.
(05:26):
Really, I spent my whole lifewith the, the, the dream of one
day being a rancher and having aranch.
And I found myself doing allthese little different jobs just
to try to make enough money tobe a rancher.
My last business in Phoenix,arizona, went through a
bankruptcy and it moved me backhome to St George, utah, and I
(05:49):
kind of realized, like man, I'mtrying to do all of these things
to get into ag and it's notworking out.
So what if I just go get intoagriculture?
And so I was in a transitionperiod of my life.
So I called my cousin and Isaid, hey, can I sell beef for
your ranch?
And he said yes, and so westarted working together.
His his ranch is called umanchor brand ranch.
(06:11):
He's got a really great YouTubechannel.
Shows a lot of what it's liketo live the day in the life on a
ranch in the desert of Nevada.
So, anyway, started doing thatwith him towards the end of 2019
.
Well then COVID hit and so whatwould happen is he would raise
the animal, deliver it to theslaughterhouse and then I would
pick up the finished meat and goand distribute it.
So I was handling the sales andmarketing and distribution on
(06:33):
that side.
We started running into theproblem after COVID hit that we
could not get slaughter.
There was no availability.
We would call, and previouslywe would call, and they could
get us in, like the next week orthe next two weeks.
After COVID hit we would calland they're like we can get you
in an 18 months.
Like holy crap, a year and ahalf.
I got customers that aregetting a monthly order of beef
(06:55):
and you're telling me I can'tget processing for a year and a
half.
Like business is over.
So what I did is we, or whatwould happen is, my cousin would
then schedule processing forany slaughterhouse that had any
room for us and they woulddeliver it there, and then I'd
go find it, you know, go pick itup.
And that led to a whole otherhost of issues.
The cutting was the way theywould cut, the meat was
(07:15):
different, the wrapping wasdifferent, the labeling was even
different, and soinconsistencies in the brand
started to become a problem.
And there are so little marginsin selling meat anyway that, um
, and a lot of people think thefarm, you know, because meat's
expensive when you buy it direct.
(07:36):
They think that they're,they're.
Sometimes people think thatthey're making hand over fist.
They're not.
They're actually finally justviable.
The other way they're notviable and they're working off
farm jobs just to pay for thehobby.
You know what I mean.
Chef James (07:50):
Right yeah.
AJ Richards (07:51):
And that's why, you know, frankly, that's why we're
down to less than 700,000ranchers in the entire United
States.
So it was a nightmare.
Eventually I had to stop it andshut it down.
And then I was.
I mean, I was doing whatever Icould to make extra money for
the family.
My wife was holding down theprimary, she was the primary
breadwinner and I was trying tofigure out what the heck I'm
(08:12):
supposed to be doing.
And I was driving for Instacart.
I was you know, working apart-time working, a job with
some friends of mine doingconcrete during, you know,
during 2020, just whatever Icould do, and I think I was
driving for Instacart.
I'm doing a delivery.
St George has surrounding areaswhere there's livestock, you
(08:32):
know, and I'm hearing the newstalk about empty store shelves,
like there's no food because thesupply chain broke.
And I mean I can go intodetails on that if you want, but
the supply chain broke and soI'm like geez, I see cattle
standing all over in the fields.
There is food, we just have abroken supply chain.
Chef James (08:53):
Okay, wow.
AJ Richards (08:54):
We've become so reliant on everything being done
for us and convenience.
All I got to do is go to thegrocery store, because the
grocery store has a buyer thatgoes and finds the wholesaler
that, then that wholesaler goesto the big packer, the big
packer is going to the feedlot,who's then going to the auction.
(09:15):
Like all of these steps thathave been done for us, that we
don't have to put much thoughthow we eat, and that reared its
ugly head in 2020, okay, and soI'm like what if there was a
software that existed, that was,that was like airbnb, that
would connect the consumerdirectly with the producer, and
(09:37):
that software just did the didits thing, and then the people
that were behind the scenes juststayed out of the way and let
the consumer go right to theproducer, and the producer makes
the majority of the revenue, sothat they stay viable, so that
they pass that on to their nextgeneration, which is great, yeah
, and, frankly, so that morepeople who want to go into
(09:59):
growing food have a platformthey can sell it.
Um, and so that's kind of howthe idea was born.
I'll be, you know, I'll just becompletely frank.
This is I'm.
I am not this smart, this is anidea that was born of God.
He put that thought in my headand it was my job to just go and
(10:20):
put you know, one foot in frontof the other.
Despite all of my weaknesses,despite all of my self doubts
that I'm the right person toeven take this on, I just had
faith and kept going and and um.
You know, it's been four yearsthis month of, oh wow.
Chef James (10:36):
Okay, so a lot of pre-work, I mean that's so.
This is like a direct shipsituation, am I?
AJ Richards (10:43):
This is like yes, but it's like think of it like
Airbnb.
Yeah, when you rent an Airbnb,typically it's the owner of the
home that's rented that house orroom or whatever that looks
like.
You know, I just went to Austinand we stayed in Airbnb that
the homeowner lived there.
They just vacated while we werethere for a few days.
Chef James (11:01):
Oh, okay.
AJ Richards (11:02):
Yeah, right, and there are some situations like
that, and so think of it likethat.
But now, if I'm the producer,if I'm a farmer and I'm close to
you, you can open up ourwebsite and, on a map, see who's
around you growing and raisingfood that will sell right to you
Now.
Our slogan is shake the handthat feeds you.
(11:23):
So now you can get to know mepersonally, and if there's ever
a supply chain disruption, youknow where your food came from.
So as long as I'm still growingand raising food because you're
supporting me, it doesn'tmatter what's happening at the
grocery store.
You go right to the source.
Chef James (11:42):
Right, and that's amazing.
Well, and here because you know, being in New England, or
especially in the Berkshires,when COVID hit us, and that's
interesting, you said thatbecause a lot of our local farms
here we've got about, I meanit's pre-COVID but it's, you
know, 475 farms in this regionalone, almost 60,000 acres.
(12:05):
So you can see it's like smallto mid and it's like, but seeing
those farms take off duringthat burst a lot of the farm
stands blew up.
I mean we've had a couple offarms that were like erupted to
the point they ended up goinginto a storefront.
Wow, I mean it's amazing, itwas just so great.
(12:26):
You know, and I think we hadthat expendable some people had
that more of an expendableincome than ever.
So you know you're able to buyinto and bypass.
You know and say, okay, we'vegot supply chain issues.
I'm going to my local farm nowand you're obviously getting
something so much better butwith so much behind it.
(12:47):
Anyways, in that story it tellsbut that was interesting.
You know, there is a bit of adrop-off.
That's occurred for a number ofthem too since COVID and things
have kind of slipped back toattempting to be normal.
AJ Richards (13:00):
So yeah, humans have the tendency to take the
path of least resistance, right,right.
And so when you say a littlebit more of expendable income,
if you're referring to some ofthose stimulus checks, yes,
exactly Correct.
You know that, that.
What what I think is importantis that consumers understand
(13:21):
that the food supply chainexists because we created that,
and what I mean by that is isstores do what sales data tells
them.
Yeah, and so when we buy thejunk, they make more junk.
Right, because that's that'swhat we're telling them that we
want, and their job as a or as acorporation, as a business,
(13:45):
their primary job and fiduciaryresponsibility is to grow
revenue.
So they're not going to dohigher quality proteins and
naturally growing food if thesales data says you should give
up more shelf space for bullshitprocessed food.
Now, when we talk about the costside of things, we as human
(14:08):
beings also like convenience andhabit.
We like to feed our habits, andso you know there are long-term
consequences of buying cheapfood that will actually cost you
more down the road than theimmediate savings you're doing.
Now.
Well, why would people?
(14:30):
Some people will say, well,what if you just don't have the
money?
That's, that could be true, andin many cases, I believe it
probably is true for some people.
So what I'm about to say if theshoe fits, then wear it it.
If it doesn't, then you don'tneed to right if your reason for
not buying high uh, not buyinghigh quality nutrient dense food
(14:50):
is the cost.
I'm going to invite you to lookat your other expenses.
Sure are you buying cigarettes,alcohol, yeah, you know,
cannabis.
Are you going out a lot, areyou what?
What are the other habits thatyour expenses are going towards,
that you're choosing that couldotherwise be put towards high
(15:13):
quality, nutrient dense food?
And then that leads into thenext part of that discussion,
which a good friend of mine, rcCarter.
He owns Carter Country Meats.
It's a regenerative ranch inTensleep, wyoming.
He says what's the value of agood idea?
(15:33):
and so his point of that is, ifyou think about how our body
works when we, when we feed our,our, our gut with high uh,
highly nutrient dense food, themicrobiology, our micro gut
biome, is actually, uh, known tobe our first brain.
So what we feed our stomachfeeds the rest of our brain so
(15:56):
that we then interact or reactin the world based off of what
our gut is doing.
So if I I am feeling dull ordim just in terms of my neurons
firing and my perception of theworld, it's probably because of
what I'm feeding myself.
And if you're stuck in animpoverished position, are you
(16:20):
feeding your gut biome in a waythat will fuel positive and
powerful thoughts that couldthen possibly pull you out of
the situation you're in?
Chef James (16:31):
Right.
AJ Richards (16:32):
Or are you perpetuating that by continuing
to eat junk because it's cheap?
Chef James (16:37):
Ultra processed, yeah, ultra processed.
AJ Richards (16:40):
Yeah right.
Chef James (16:41):
Yeah, okay.
AJ Richards (16:42):
And so that I can keep paying for my other habits.
Yeah, right, and yeah, okay,and so that I can keep paying
for my other habits.
So, yes, when you buy like it's, it's changing the concept
around what food is worth, andthat's why rc is working on this
idea that he's going to labelhis meat.
You know how people will labelgrass-fed and finished or corn
right but instead he's lookingat labeling it with the nutrient
(17:04):
density as well as the sellingpoint.
It's amazing, wow OK.
Chef James (17:10):
Yeah, well, that's so interesting and you know,
going into that and the complexag system and the industrial
food system that we've builttoday.
You know, in the States, whenyou're talking about like what
we produce I mean even talkingto Dr Marion Nessel, who is just
, she has the book Food Politicsand you know her studies showed
(17:33):
her over the many years wasthat we actually produce twice
as many calories than what a manor woman nutritionally needs,
and so these large companies arepushing and selling and also
going after, you know, thefamily unit or the children in
the school system.
It's really, it's reallyamazing.
(17:53):
It's kind of like you know, asyou're going into what you're
sharing, that this, this is avery large machine that has many
different connecting points ofpower.
AJ Richards (18:04):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
And the average consumer has noidea about how that interacts.
Chef James (18:11):
No.
AJ Richards (18:13):
I think that well, first of all, we know that big
food and big pharma are directlyconnected through their
investors, through the peoplethat invest and have a stake pun
intended, a stake in the gameof both sides.
Well, when you can make peoplechronically ill through poor
(18:35):
diet and you have statins andother medications that you can
then prescribe them becausethey're chronically ill, it's a
self-perpetuating loop ofrevenue.
So, what would the incentiveever be of going in a direction
that would reduce the need forhighly processed foods that make
(18:56):
them a ton of money becausethey're selling an addiction?
That's what they're doing.
It's a legal addiction.
Of course, a lot of otheraddictions are becoming
legalized, but then they're alsoselling the cure right, right,
the medication.
Chef James (19:12):
It's unbelievable.
Well, you know talking aboutthat.
When you look at like evenLatin American countries you
know, for example, like Mexico,actually delving into their food
system because their healthcaresystem is linked to the
government.
This isn't so.
It's like, oh, let's make alittle change off that.
Where you know a lot, of a lotof Latin America, I mean,
(19:36):
there's many indigenous, rootedpeople and some of these food
systems that they had there withthe ultra processed, the
governments were like, wait aminute, there's.
The end result here is we'regoing to have to pay more for
this.
So they're actually now goingin and trying to develop systems
where they can educate thechildren and people you know in
(19:57):
their communities, even by, youknow, numbering or putting, you
know, I don't know kid-friendlylike pictures or stamps on these
ultra-processed foods so thatpeople can recognize it.
AJ Richards (20:09):
But here we're, like you know, yeah Well, I mean
, when you start peeling backthe layers of this, you start
realizing that we don't live ina free country and our
government does not care aboutus.
I mean, you go to othercountries and you look at a
package of cigarettes.
Have you ever seen anothercountry in the package of
(20:29):
cigarettes?
No, I haven't.
They have actual pictures ofthroat and mouth cancer and gum
disease on the package by law sothat when you grab that, you're
like I'm knowingly consumingsomething that could create that
.
And so like to your point tooabout other countries, like
banning our food.
(20:49):
Mexico has now banned, I thinkthey've banned, but the
conversation is banning our cornexports.
Oh, my goodness specificallybecause of glyphosate okay,
right so, like you said, they'rebecause their health care is
attached to their government andthat their one's foot in the
(21:11):
bill.
They're like, well geez, how dowe reduce the cost of this
medical bill?
Well, we've got to make peoplehealthier.
And one thing we know aboutglyphosate and the corn grown
and the gmo process to makeglyphosate resistant corn is not
good for our people, so we'renot going to allow it right,
yeah, and I don't.
Chef James (21:30):
I yeah, and I wish that that would, you know,
slowly change here.
I mean, the only thing I can sayis some of these you know.
And another point I wanted to,you know, kind of bring up in
that system is and I'm sureyou've heard of it, but you know
it's it was very intriguing forme as a chef, being a part of
that system, seeing how the GPOs, these group purchasing
(22:01):
organizations, are put togetherin a way where it is a software
and it tracks and it goesthrough.
But you have, for example,myself, if I'm under an umbrella
of a certain cross US or globalhospitality management firm, if
I stay in my compliancepercentage of 80% or higher.
Typically you want to be higherthan that of using that
(22:22):
specific broad line distributorat an 80 or 90% or higher plus a
manufacturer rebate.
So if one of those big groups Iget a list of those it's an
additional kickback.
I mean you know it helps yourfood costs.
I mean it goes to, you know,the corporate office and
obviously those deals are signedthere.
But I think it's, you know itgoes into not just the, you know
(22:45):
, food and beverage hospitalityside but health care and our
school systems that are linkedinto some of these, some of
these things that are justfeeding off, let alone, the
consumer.
AJ Richards (22:58):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Chef James (23:01):
But when you look at other examples from abroad
where you know they are using,you know, regional farms and
they've worked theserelationships out.
You know let alone I've goneinto it too before but like even
the seconds you know that areleft on a farm that you know
aren't, because we're so pickyin the grocery store too right,
it's got to be a perfect bellpepper.
(23:22):
So why, does that zucchini havea scratch mark on it?
There's something wrong, youknow, so it's.
You know, we've done this thingwhere I think we've allowed
ourselves to be conditioned to,and also because we put a lot of
trust and value in our ownpoliticians and country.
I mean this, this monster, hasbeen going on for a long time.
You know, and you know, I thinkyou doing what you're doing, um
(23:46):
, um, building a network likethat.
I think it's amazing, you know,and and so like.
Right now, when you're doingthis, you're in specific areas,
but the goal is to go nationwide, right To all regions.
Like, are you cutting it up ona map in like four sections?
Or I mean that's silly, but youknow what I mean.
But are you?
AJ Richards (24:05):
Yeah, no, no we.
If you go to fromthefarmioright now, you'll see that most
of our farms and ranches are onthe Rocky Mountain West, because
it's where I live.
I've got relationships therefrom a lifetime.
Chef James (24:18):
Well, you've got to start somewhere.
AJ Richards (24:20):
I mean yeah, but we've got.
We've now just have a newseller that signed up in
Nebraska.
We've got somebody who I'mreally excited that saw the
vision White Oaks Pastures.
They're in Bluffton, georgia,and so they're on the platform
and Will and Jenny Harris arejust incredible people and we're
(24:43):
having conversations all thetime people popping up that are
going to be on the map from allacross the nation selling food
direct.
So, yeah, the goal is so ourrollout strategy over time is
get whoever we can.
It's kind of scatteredthroughout the country right now
.
My first goal is that you'll beable to order from somebody
who's within at least two dayground shipping.
(25:03):
Okay, sure, that's that's thefirst goal.
Then get, then get enoughproducers on there.
It's in within one day groundshipping and then, ultimately,
the long-term vision is that wevision is that farmers and
ranchers all across the nation,in every town across the nation,
are on the platform so that, nomatter where you're at, you can
(25:23):
pull it up and meet the personlocally who's selling direct.
That was the kind of theawareness that led me to.
This is that because I'm thecity slicker cousin and I lived
in Phoenix, arizona, for 12years, I knew how to speak urban
and I also understood thedisconnect between urban and
rural and I also know howproducers in the rural
(25:45):
environments kind of think andoperate and what they think of
people in the urban side and thelack of communication, the
urban side and the lack ofcommunication.
And so my vision was we've gotto create something that gives
them the opportunity to meeteach other at on a, in a
designated meeting location, sothat we can start to recognize
that we rely on one another.
Chef James (26:06):
Okay.
AJ Richards (26:06):
The consumers in the urban environments rely on
producers to grow and raisetheir food.
Chef James (26:12):
Yep.
AJ Richards (26:13):
The producers rely on the consumers to buy the food
that they're growing andraising.
Chef James (26:19):
Okay.
AJ Richards (26:19):
And if we can cut out all the middlemen and have
people do business direct, I asa consumer can ask the producer
that any questions that matterto me.
Maybe I love corn and grainfinished beef.
Is this beef on corn and grain?
How long is it on corn andgrain?
Is it genetically love corn andgrain finished beef?
Is this beef on corn and grain?
How long is it on corn andgrain?
Is it genetically modified cornand grain.
Chef James (26:37):
Going into some of the software and so let's say I,
you know, click beef tenderloinor something.
So when I click on it it'lltell me the pack size, the
description, so kind of likewhat you're explaining.
That will be part of thedescription, you think, or?
AJ Richards (26:51):
yeah, yeah, so, okay, so, um, I mean, I could
almost do a share screen andshow you exactly what it looks
like.
But, um, yeah, but theproducers have descriptions on
there of what they're offeringwith those particular packages
and what comes with it okay,yeah, nice, all right so some.
Some will sell all a cart,meaning you can load your cart
(27:12):
with individual cuts of of meatthat you're interested in.
Some will sell all a cart,meaning you can load your cart
with individual cuts of meatthat you're interested in.
Some will sell packages likehere's an eighth of a cow.
You're going to get the exactportion of an eighth of a cow,
and so you're going to get avariety, but it's right from our
ranch and our farm.
Chef James (27:25):
Oh, that's great.
That's a lot of fun.
AJ Richards (27:28):
Yeah, I mean okay Wow.
Chef James (27:30):
All right, you had also done on your podcast,
didn't you interview.
It was the book.
Is it Barron's?
AJ Richards (27:35):
Yeah, yeah, I've got it right here.
Chef James (27:37):
I found that kind of going back to the big machine,
but you know, educatinglisteners too on that.
That's an amazing book.
I need to read it, but it'skind of like breaking it down.
But there's multiple Barron'sin that right.
AJ Richards (27:51):
The categories yeah , he, um, austin Frerich, this
was his first book.
It's called Barons, Money,power and the Corruption of
American's Food Industry.
So he, uh, I'll tell you, I'lljust open up to like the chapter
.
So he, what he did was helooked at different, um, uh,
barons, you know, leaders inindustry, moguls, and then
(28:12):
followed them and how they gotinto power.
Because anytime you have abaron or a mogul that controls a
significant portion of anyindustry, it destroys
competition and it's not a goodthing, right?
Yeah, because monopoly-wise,right.
Yeah, it's what the Rockefellersdid, right?
(28:36):
Yeah, it's what therockefellers did.
It's what, um, you know, uh, um, think and grow rich with the
author.
Uh, geez, it's one of myfavorite books and I can't even
think about it, but, um, I haveto write.
Okay, carnegie the name iscarnegie.
Oh yes, carnegie, of course,right, yeah and so clear back
then and the during theindustrial revolution, what they
did was bring together a groupof experts to dominate the steel
manufacturing industry right,which they did it.
(28:59):
Yeah, yeah, they did it well,and then not only did they do it
, they got enough power thatthen they created.
They're the ones who createdthe food, uh, the the education
system, because they needed toeducate.
I, I'm sorry, they needed toonly educate you enough to work
in a factory.
Chef James (29:17):
Oh yeah.
AJ Richards (29:17):
Their factories because they became the barons
and they were growing so muchthey needed laborers.
Henry Ford needed laborers onthe auto line, and so I can't
remember.
But there was somebody that wasquoted in that Rockefeller
organization or network thatsaid that was quoted in that
rockefeller organization ornetwork that said we don't need
you to learn to be an educatoror a poet or a thinker, we don't
(29:39):
need those, we have plenty.
In other words, me and myaristocrat friends, we've got
that part handled.
We just need you all to be thelaborers.
And so he so like in his bookhog baron.
So the hog industry, which isprimarily Smithfield, which is
all China now, yeah, they boughtthat.
Chef James (29:57):
Yeah, I was like whoa what.
AJ Richards (29:58):
Yep, now he's speaking of a specific hog baron
, that's not part of that, butstill was able to dominate Grain
, coffee, dairy berry slaughterwhich is the big four packers
and grocery.
So those are the.
He followed different leadersthat dominated those particular
you know, groceries, of course,walmart, the Walton family, sam
(30:21):
Walton.
So yeah, that's the.
That's.
Barron's is a phenomenal bookthat really kind of highlights
what we're seeing.
And so right now, for thelisteners who don't know, in the
beef industry specifically,four corporations control 85% of
the beef industry, 85.
That's dangerous, yeah it is.
(30:44):
And so that's JBS.
They're Brazilian-owned.
Morfrig they bought outNational Beef recently oh really
Wow.
They bought out National Beefrecently oh really Wow.
And Morphig is Brazilian owned.
Then you've got Cargill, whichis an American owned company by
an American family.
They talk about Cargill, theCargill family, here.
Cargill's in a ton of hot waterfor doing things that are
(31:10):
unethical, especially out in thejungles of South America where
they're just destroying therainforest to grow soybeans and
all this kind of stuff for theirfeed operation.
And then Tyson.
Tyson is a multinationalconglomerate, which probably
means it's owned mostly by Chinawho knows?
But those are the fourcompanies that control 85% of
the market.
That's why, when the beefpacking houses closed because of
(31:33):
COVID sickness, it caused majordisruption across the nation
because we've become socentralized.
Chef James (31:41):
Right, right.
And I've noticed too that someof these big, these corporate,
these complex manufacturers,they've actually used COVID as
an opportunity to like cut backon their inventory that they
offered.
AJ Richards (31:56):
Yeah they're gonna stream the pricing.
Chef James (31:58):
Yeah and didn't right, so that I found that was
very interesting.
Can you discuss the that wholeusda thing?
I think that was, was it march12th or 11th that?
AJ Richards (32:08):
uh, the ban that went on with that man, there's a
lot of stuff going on theforeign meat ban on how yeah.
So there's two, two major thingsthat happened recently.
One, they were trying to passthe approval to import beef from
paraguay.
Um, about 20, 25 years ago,paraguay was importing beef, but
(32:31):
they had an outbreak of footand mouth disease, which is the
scariest disease in terms ofimpact on herds that we could
ever have, and so they shut themdown because of that.
And recently they tried toapprove, 25 years later, that
they could start importing beeffrom Paraguay again.
And there's a few issues withthat, one being that they
(32:53):
haven't gotten rid ofput-in-bouth disease in their
country for one.
Two, why are we importing morebeef, furthering the issues that
plague our producers, which isprice fixing and fluctuating of
the market?
Now, I believe we need importedbeef right now because we do
currently have a food systemthat, if we didn't have imported
(33:16):
beef, we don't have enough.
In the United States, we are at1950s cattle numbers with 2024
population, so we have to haveimported beef just to live, but
we should not be bringing inbeef from places that have
issues related to them.
Chef James (33:35):
Right.
AJ Richards (33:36):
And then the mislabeling right, yeah, and so
the second thing is so that gotshut down and no longer allowing
Paraguayan beef to come in.
There was enough pressure,enough attention.
The next thing was what isknown as MCOOL, and that acronym
stands for Mandatory Country ofOrigin Labeling, which was
already a law.
They just were not enforcing it, because Canada and Mexico
(33:59):
complained of basically notbeing fair.
Chef James (34:02):
Somebody's not playing nice in the sandbox.
AJ Richards (34:04):
Yeah.
And so they threw a fit likethat's not fair, you're not
allowing us to be a part of afair market, and it was attached
to other trade agreements, soit's not as simple as we all
make it out to be.
But I listen, I'm an Americanfirst person.
That's just who I am.
Do I think that if, if you lookat the world from space, are
(34:24):
there borders that you can seefrom space around the globe?
No, there are not.
I think in a perfect world, godmeant us all to be together,
but also we live in a worldwhere our cultures are so
different that we have to haveborders to protect ourselves,
and also we need to protect ourAmerican farmers and ranchers
first and make sure they are theones that we have a priority
over.
(34:46):
And that recently was changed.
So it's a little weak in theway they've done it.
You know it's a political move.
So like they didn't justoutright say mandatory country
of origin, like no matter whereit comes from, you have to label
it where it comes from.
Chef James (35:04):
Okay.
AJ Richards (35:04):
All they said was it's voluntary.
Pork beef from Brazil or Canadaor Mexico.
I can no longer, because upuntil well, even right now,
until 2026, if it says USA on it, if it has a USA sticker, most
likely is not from the USA.
That was the problem.
If I had beef in Brazil and Ikilled it in Brazil and shipped
(35:27):
it over in reefers on a supertanker and then further
processed it in the UnitedStates, I could put a USA
sticker on it and now you, theconsumer at the store, think
it's a product of the USA.
What was changed was in 2026,they can't put USA on it, but
(35:49):
they don't have to put anything,so it's voluntary, which I
think is weak.
I think it should the lawshould state that if it's
whatever country it's from,there should be a sticker on
there that says Brazil, uruguay,paraguay, canada.
Chef James (36:05):
Mexico, whatever.
AJ Richards (36:08):
So the customer knows, so that you can choose,
and what they're doing is tryingto hide that from you.
Chef James (36:14):
So in your advice and I'm just this is just
throwing something out there.
In what you've seen, is therelike a percentage or numbers
where you know we were here withour ranchers and you know
producing and slaughter our beefhere, but because of the big
four and where we're at today,we've seen this percentage drop.
(36:36):
I mean we've lost a lot of them, right?
AJ Richards (36:39):
The numbers.
Yeah, oh yeah.
The numbers I can tell you isthat in 1980, that's when Reagan
changed the antitrust laws thatallowed this company to gobble
up this company and then thiscompany got you know that so now
they could buy out andconsolidate.
So Reagan changed that in 1980.
That allowed that to happen.
(36:59):
In 1980, the big four there wasmore than four of them and they
had different names back then.
Jbs was not around in 1980.
They only controlled 25% of themarket and now it's 85.
Now I don't know the number offarms and ranches that were
around then, but what I can tellyou now is that we have less
(37:23):
than 2% of our entire Americanpopulation growing and raising
food in the country.
So less than 2% of ourpopulation is growing food for
the other 98%.
If the worst case scenariohappened where imports stopped,
what do you think that means?
Chef James (37:41):
Famine, it's total famine.
AJ Richards (37:44):
Let me show you this book, this other book, and
you probably saw me talk aboutit it's Red Famine.
Red Famine talks aboutcommunist collectivization of
farms during Stalin's reign.
Started with Lenin, then wentinto Stalin and because they
became centralized, theyestimate that nobody knows
because they hit it, but 4million people starved to death.
(38:06):
Famine from 1932 to 1933.
Chef James (38:09):
Wow.
AJ Richards (38:09):
The book is just so eye-opening because, when you
look at what is happening in ourcountry specifically related to
the food supply chain, thereare policies being put in place,
decisions being put in place,like this whole fake issue with
the carbon, with global warming.
That's all fake.
And I think it's fake tocontrol our food because, if I
(38:30):
can say, your cows are theproblem and just like in
Irelandireland I think it wasthey want to kill 200 000 head
of cows.
Yeah, so if I can, I'm going tokill your cows, but don't worry
, james, I've got a proprietaryblend of ingredients to make a,
a food out of the factory thatgives you all the nutrients you
(38:51):
need.
Just trust me, it's going to begood for you and our carbon
footprint is lower, which alsois bullshit.
But now I think it's related towhat's called intellect, what I
what.
I don't call it anything, it'sjust what it is intellectual
food property.
Because if it's my ingredients,if it's my formula, you don't
have a choice but to buy it forme, just like, like in the
(39:12):
pharmaceutical industry, if Ioutlaw all the natural medicines
growing of the earth and I havethe proprietary ingredient.
For you know if cannabis canhelp with muscle aches, but I'm
not allowed to smoke cannabis.
I can only buy ibuprofen.
Chef James (39:29):
Yeah, right, yeah.
AJ Richards (39:31):
I can't make ibuprofen, so my only choice is
to buy it from thepharmaceutical company that
makes ibuprofen Right.
Right, as you know, just as an.
Chef James (39:39):
As an example, what do you think about like, with
all this going on and throwingin this whole lab grown meat
thing Like the I call it thePetri dish to table?
Yeah.
AJ Richards (39:49):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's just, it's more, it's just
more of what I just describedintellectual food property.
Chef James (39:57):
Okay, okay.
AJ Richards (39:59):
And they're going to vilify natural food that's
been on this planet for tens ofthousands of years.
For thousands of years, rightSince the dawn of man, we've
eaten meat.
Now, that's wrong and nothealthy for us or the planet.
So here's the alternative,which is, you know, petri, dish
food.
Chef James (40:18):
Yeah, right, right, and I mean it's getting sort of
shut down to a certain extent,isn't it?
AJ Richards (40:26):
I mean definitely Italy.
But Well, yeah, and this iswhat I want people to hear Like,
this is a very concerning anddaunting fight.
The more I get into it, themore I see the actors behind the
scenes that most people aren't,that I wasn't aware of prior to
COVID, the more I'm concerned,and I also have hope and faith
(40:49):
in miracles, because look whatwe did and when I say we, us,
the consumers, look what we didto Beyond Meat.
We destroyed that company.
Nobody, we, the, the, the con.
You've heard the term votingwith your dollar man.
That is.
That is absolutely legitimate.
And if you look at what'shappening with companies like
(41:09):
Beyond Meat, they can shout andyell all they want and pay for
all these marketing ads and allthese different things.
Right right if we just choose tospend our money somewhere else,
it don't matter what they say,it goes nowhere and eventually
they flop.
Chef James (41:24):
And so right and you know it's just so much better
to keep the money at home and inyour community when you buy
food local.
AJ Richards (41:31):
I read, I read somewhere that when you buy
local food, 70 percent of thatmoney stays local.
Chef James (41:37):
Which is huge, it's a must.
I mean, they're your neighbor.
AJ Richards (41:42):
If you look at what Will Harris did at White Oaks
Pastures in Bluffton, georgia,that town was a ghost town.
A ghost town becauseagriculture got destroyed and
Atlanta was three hours away.
Everybody moved into the cityand left town because they
couldn't afford it, becausepeople weren't buying food from
their local producers anymore.
They changed that entire town.
(42:02):
80% of the people in town nowwork at White Oaks Pastures.
Chef James (42:07):
That's awesome and it's a thriving bustling
community now because of localfood, local food.
Yeah, yeah, and that's you know,it's very interesting too
because, like even here, we havesome, you know, pretty amazing
people that are working onputting things together.
It's they have a hard time of,they get bottlenecked, whether
(42:31):
it be transportation orslaughterhouse opportunity, and
then you know, like you saidbefore, they're spending money.
You know on that which it's acost, and these things add up
and then it goes to the consumerand and then you know, like you
said before, they're spendingmoney, you know on that which
it's a cost, and these thingsadd up and then it goes to the
consumer and and prices go upand and it's a challenge, you
know, and I think, working fromdifferent organizations here
that are coming together to tryto, you know, figure out how
(42:53):
they can put this thing together.
They've been working reallyhard on that.
So you know, it would be great,it would be great to see that
come to fruition and they'rebuilding it and working hard, so
it's pretty cool.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, yeah, you know I waslooking at the RCAF USA for some
of us over here.
Can you kind of explain?
You know them a little bit andI know that you you're a huge
(43:15):
supporter of them and they'reamazing too.
AJ Richards (43:17):
Yeah, I am and I'm glad you asked.
So our CAF there there's a.
My observation is all of thelegacy groups I'll say companies
or nonprofits groups that havebeen around for decades We've
now seen them become compromised.
They've been bought and paidfor by special interests,
(43:40):
whether it's lobbyists orcorporations doing business
directly with them throughsponsorships or whatever.
So they've been compromised.
Rcaf was stood up in response tothat happening in the cattle
industry.
There's an organization and Iwon't throw them under the bus
enough so I won't call them outby name but there's an
organization and I won't I throwthem under the bus enough so I
won't call them out by name butthere's an organization that is
that legacy organization andthey're compromised.
(44:03):
And here's why I say that soplainly.
Look at the industry.
Is it better or worse than whenyou started advocating?
If it's worse, meaning worseprices, lower numbers in cattle
producers, all of these issuesthat everybody's facing?
If it's worse, why You're notdoing your job?
(44:25):
Then why aren't you doing yourjob?
The cattle industry would bethriving.
The other industries that weresupporting the other enterprises
, like lamb and pork and chicken, they would all be thriving,
but none of those agencies didtheir job.
(44:47):
Right and so yeah, so RCAFrecognized this, and so they are
taking a stand for theindependent cattle producer.
Chef James (44:55):
And, by the way, cattle is the last.
AJ Richards (44:58):
They're the last bastion of freedom in terms of
industry that we have left inour country.
Pork industry is destroyed, thechicken industry is destroyed
and the lamb industry 75% of thelamb sold in the United States
is imported.
Yes, so our calf is the oneswho go to war in Washington to
fight these battles legally,like the M-Cool, like RFID ear
(45:22):
tags for cows that can trackevery movement, which is a whole
nother you know.
Yeah, I saw that too.
That's what I'm saying when Isaid earlier, like if you pull
back the layers and you startlooking at the corruption, it's
scary and the average persondoesn't know this.
I think that the best thing ourcountry could benefit from is
if every single consumer decidedthey were going to learn about
(45:46):
their food, which I don't thinkis too much to ask, because
human beings need three thingsfood, shelter and safety, and
food being number one.
I put water in with that.
So anybody that's going to harpon me for it, get off your high
horse, but we have this excuse.
I'm too busy worrying about myown industry or my own job or my
own hobbies or whatever.
(46:07):
None of the rest of your lifematters without food.
None of it Throughout history.
There's evidence when you read abook like this and you wonder
why people felt no sorrow whentheir own father starved and
died, laying in front of them.
I mean, there's examples ofkids saying to hell with them,
I'm hungry.
Dad literally just starved todeath in front of them and they
(46:29):
don't care.
A position where you have noremorse because you are so
hungry that it doesn't registerin the brain the way it does now
.
And that's just one example.
Viktor Frankl wrote a bookcalled Man's Search for Meaning.
Viktor Frankl was a Jewishprisoner in the concentration
(46:51):
camps and then became apsychologist.
And when people said why didn'tyou guys stand up against your
captors?
There were thousands of youprisoners and only you know a
dozen or so guards and he saidhis answer was when you are
truly starving to death, youdon't think about anything else
other than your next meal,including shoveling your
neighbor's ashes out of a kiln.
(47:12):
Now, those aren't his wordsexactly, but that's what he's
saying.
So every human being in theunited states should be invested
in knowing personally their,where their food supply comes
from and what it does to theirbody right so rfids is one of
these other things.
it's it's tags for the cows here, because, like I said, ranchers
(47:34):
are the last bastion of freedom, meaning nobody controls them,
not by and large.
They have taxes and insuranceand grazing fees and water
rights.
They're always battling.
That's a level of control, buttruly nobody controls them.
They don't have crop farmerssubsidies.
Ranchers don't have subsidiescovering their crops if they
(47:56):
don't get purchased Right.
Ranchers don't have subsidiescovering their crops if they
don't get purchased right.
They either get their cattlesold or they don't.
There's no cup, there's nogovernment organization, which
is a good thing, because thosesubsidies end up becoming like
welfare, where you then followthe rules of the people paying
you because you've now builtyour operation around the
demands and requirements ofreceiving these subsidies.
So rfid tracking of your cow'sears.
(48:18):
You know they put a tag in theear and now they can see every
movement it makes, where you'reputting it, where it's going,
how it was transferred.
The danger of that is nowsomebody has direct knowledge
and access to every singleanimal across the nation and
they shouldn't have that levelof control.
(48:38):
I'm a private individual.
I should be able to raise mycattle without you looking over
my shoulder, yeah, so RFID chipsis one that RCAF is fighting
against.
I learned about the SustainsAct through RCAF.
The Sustains Act would giveprivate entities the ability to
do direct, open business withfederal organizations.
(49:01):
So let me break that down foryou.
If I'm JBS and you're USDA, Ican say hey, usda, here's a
billion dollars to sponsor you.
You will not make any decisionsthat would affect me because I
sponsored you.
Chef James (49:18):
Yeah, yeah, payoff.
AJ Richards (49:20):
Guess what?
Jbs the CEOs went to prisonbecause they bribed 1,800
Brazilian federal officials,including their president, and
went to jail for that.
They're basically the mafia.
Now our government is trying topass a law that would say they
can go ahead and openly sponsorand fund federal organizations.
(49:42):
That's more scary to me thanany other regulation we're
fighting.
Chef James (49:47):
Wow, okay, well, hopefully that doesn't go
through.
AJ Richards (49:51):
I agree.
Chef James (49:52):
Good grief.
AJ Richards (49:52):
Okay, brief, okay, that's that's kind of like part
of my mission.
A big part of the mission isthat when we, when we create a
place like from the farm, wherepeople come to trust the food
and trust the message abouttheir food and these kinds of
things are happening, yeah, wenow have the ability to say hey,
james, just so you know, yourstate is trying to like oregon.
(50:13):
Your state is trying to putpolicy in place that's going to
shut down all of our dairyproducers on a small scale
because they're requiring themto meet the same level of
regulation as the largeoperations.
You should go and vote thatdown if we have millions of
buyers on a platform wherethey're they can trust the
message and then act on it likelike everything going on in
(50:36):
europe with the farmers and withthe farmers.
Chef James (50:38):
Yeah, that's a mess yeah.
AJ Richards (50:40):
If they were stood shoulder to shoulder with all of
the consumers of that country,it'd be over Right.
They would run their governmentout of office and replace them
with people that gave a shitabout their food.
Wow, the farmers and ranchersover there.
They don't have ranchers, butthe farmers over there are doing
it themselves.
I get messages all the time onmy social media.
(51:02):
When are the farmers andranchers in America going to
stand up and I'm like that'sbullshit when are you, the
consumers, going to stand up foryour food security and food
freedom and keep our farmers andranchers in the field growing
food for us so that we don'thave to have a disruption?
All of those tractors, all ofthose farms that are not plowing
and tilling fields right now.
They're not producing food,right, when does that show up as
a problem?
(51:23):
So it should be the citizenswho rely on the producers going
to war for them so they can stayin the fields and keep growing
our food.
Chef James (51:31):
Right, yeah, no, that's a great point, okay, wow.
Well, this has been awesome.
I really appreciate your timeand all the work that you're
doing In the sense of connectingwith you or this software.
This program is connectedthrough via website, right?
Not an app.
AJ Richards (51:49):
It's not an app, it's a web form, so the website
is fromthefarmio.
Okay, it has been designed tobe an app someday, but app
development is more tedious andmore expensive, so we might just
keep it a web-based platform.
Um, I did learn a way that youcan actually save it on your
phone as if it's an app, whichis pretty oh cool, that's great
(52:09):
yeah, you can do that with anywebsite, apparently.
so, um, uh, yeah, so it's web goto.
So a lot of people are like Ican't find it in the app store.
You're right, my fault, cause Ikeep calling it an app and then
people go look.
Well, yeah.
Chef James (52:21):
I mean, we're so conditioned by you know apps and
things.
Yeah, well, hopefully we'll getthere at some point, cause it
sure sounds like it will, causeyou're rolling, you have your
podcast, right.
AJ Richards (52:37):
We have our podcast .
It was Feed the People.
Now it's our next episode thatwill be coming out, so you can
still go find Feed the People onSpotify and all those places
we're rebranding.
It'll be called From the Farm.
And so that the next episodewill record in the next week or
so and then be released.
We just released our last onewith Austin Frerich from
(52:58):
Barron's.
Oh, very cool yeah so we justreleased that yesterday and then
you can, like I said, from thefarmio, my Instagram is a period
J underscore Richards.
On Instagram, there's somenefarious things happening in
terms of a shadow, banning andsilencing that are definitely
happening there.
So I'm also on X, and on X it'sjust my name, aj Richards.
Chef James (53:19):
Okay, yeah, you notice, the more we talk about
this stuff, the more of thosenice little messages come
through.
Totally the other fan mail.
AJ Richards (53:30):
Yeah, I'm like, oh wow, I didn't realize food was
so political, but I mean, it'sreally not.
It's like it's, whoever is init's, who is ever donating or
spending money as a sponsor onthose platforms, can control it.
So I have found, if I do anyvideos or posting targeting you
know, fake meat or lab grownmeat or something like that, I
(53:51):
kind of get a little bit of asilence going on.
Chef James (53:54):
So yeah, all right, well cool.
Well, it was, it was awesome.
Aj, thank you for your time.
All right, well, cool.
Well, it was, it was awesome,aj, thank you for your time and
maybe we can do this againsometime.
Get an update.
AJ Richards (54:02):
Yeah, it'd be great , all right.
Chef James (54:05):
All right, thank you , take care.
AJ Richards (54:06):
You too.
Chef James (54:07):
Yeah, all right, everyone, that is a wrap.
Also the Instagram Chef Massey.
Let's keep it simple.
Chefmasseycom, have a good one.
Bye for now.
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