July 26, 2022 • 50 mins
Innovation lights the fire for change and growth, and the peanut industry is ablaze! Today we highlight a few movers and shakers in the industry including a young farmer who’s growing organic peanuts and trying his hand at hemp; a Southwestern grower whose diversified operation won her family a peanut efficiency award; a third-generation family peanut business that’s exploring avenues like single-origin peanuts; a researcher who puts the peanut genome to work to make rapid improvements for growers; and a family who started a baby snack company to help prevent food allergies.
Featured in this episode are Sedrick Rowe, Georgia peanut grower; Lexi Floyd, Texas peanut grower; Marshall Rabil, director of sales and marketing at Hubs Peanuts; Peggy Ozias-Akins of UGA Tifton; and JJ Jaxon, founder of Mission Mighty Me.
If you’d like to read more about these innovators:
· Marshall Rabil - How a Third-Generation Entrepreneur Is Helping his Family’s Peanut Business Grow and Adapt for the Future
· Lexi Floyd - These 3 Young Women are Redefining What It Means to be a Farmer, and Shaping the Future of the Industry
· Mission MightyMe: Taking Aim at Peanut Allergy Prevention, Mission MightyMe Launches New Infant Food
· Peggy Ozias-Akins - In the Southeast, Public Breeding Program Supports Development of Diverse Cultivars to Benefit Growers & Protect Industry
· Peggy Ozias-Akins - Peanut Genomics Bring the Future Closer: Q&A with Dr. Corley Holbrook
· Sedrick Rowe – Part of Georgia’s inaugural group of licensed hemp growers, Sedrick Rowe hopes to inspire a new generation of young Black farmers
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lindsay Stevens (00:10):
Hi and welcome back to the peanut podcast. I
hope you didn't miss too muchwith the extra month of waiting
and anticipation for our nextepisode. I'm Lindsay Stevens.
Lauren Highfill Williams (00:18):
And I'm Lauren Highfill Williams.
Welcome back, everybody. By thetime this episode comes out,
everyone will be wrapping uptheir summers. We will have just
gotten back from our July BoardMeeting and the Southern Peanut
Growers Conference in Florida.
Lindsay Stevens (00:31):
Yeah, it was great seeing all those who
listen there and we alwaysappreciate your feedback. So now
getting into what's on tap. Fortoday, we're going to be
discussing innovators inpeanuts.
Lauren Highfill Williams (00:41):
Yes, we'll be highlighting a few
movers and shakers in theindustry, including Sedrick
Rowe, who's growing organicpeanuts and trying his hand at
hemp. Marshall Rabil, who helpsrun a third generation family
peanut business that's exploringavenues like single origin,
peanuts and their own eventspace.
Lindsay Stevens (00:59):
We'll also be speaking with Peggy Ozias-Akins
who's a researcher who puts thepeanut genome to work to make
rapid improvements for growers.
JJ Jaxon, who with his wife,Katherine started a baby snack
company to help prevent foodallergies. And Lexi Floyd a
grower who won the 2019 PeanutEfficiency Award for the
Southwest. We've got a lot tocover today. So let's get into
it.
Lauren Highfill Williams (01:22):
What's Walmart, Berkshire Hathaway,
Ford Motor Company and TysonFoods all have in common,
they're giant and their familyout. In the peanut industry
family owned on a smaller scaleis the norm. And the Hubbard
peanut company, also known asHubs is no exception. Hubs is a
family owned business that'sbeen around since they sold
(01:43):
their first one ounce bag ofpeanuts for 10 cents in 1954.
Since then, the business hasgrown from just Dot and HJ
Hubbard, to now being run bytheir children and
grandchildren. Marshall iscurrently the Director of Sales
and Marketing. Here's a littlemore about him.
Marshall Rabil (01:59):
My great grandfather had a farm. And
that's where Dot Hubbard startedharvesting the largest peanuts
you could find. And then ourdemand grew to where we needed
to outsource some of thefarming. But because we were
only using super extra largeVirginia type peanuts, we had to
go to farmers in Virginia, NorthCarolina and South Carolina to
(02:21):
meet the demand for the XXLpeanuts that we're using.
Lauren Highfill Willia (02:26):
Marshall remembers growing up around the
business and even riding on theconveyor belt in the early 80s
as a child. It's a wonder wesurvived that decade isn't. The
original offices for Hubs werelocated in Marshall's
grandparents original house. Infact, his mom's office was her
childhood bedroom. But as thecompany grew, so did the amount
of space they needed. This ledto Hubs buying an old grocery
(02:48):
store building and repurposingit into The Vine. Here's
Marshall with what The Vine is.
Marshall Rabil (02:54):
So The Vine is a 7000 foot retail space within
In addition to The Vine,Marshall is also working on
the overall farm fresh building,where we have hosted a number of
different community events wehave. It's a music venue now
where we have singer songwritersessions, where different
artists will come in and what wedo have a unique dinner menu. A
(03:16):
lot of our a lot of our menuitems do feature peanuts as
well, which is kind of cool. Butit's a space for us to sell
peanuts and other Virginiaspecialty foods, as well as nice
wines and beer and some appareland things like that. So it's
been a lot of fun to have a newcommunity space to showcase our
products and other things fromVirginia. So it's it's just a
(03:40):
real small piece of what theoverall Vine is. But we've got a
lot of warehouse space, we tookthe old meat department and the
beer cooler and converted thatinto a chocolate and rubbing
room. So now we're able to coatour own peanuts in chocolate.
And another section is a newpackaging room. We've got
(04:01):
warehousing. And so we have alittle bit of space for the Food
Bank of Southeastern Virginia,that's where they were going
into that space. And we areproducing backpacks for the kids
in school, the school programsand so a number of different
civic organizations are comingin and building those kits. So
we've been able to use it as acenter for community service as
(04:23):
well as our production needs andwarehousing and retail. So
there's a lot that's been goingon there in the last couple of
years, but it's been fun.
another innovation, the singleorigin peanut project.
Before coming back into thepeanut business. I was involved
in international development andled college students on study
(04:46):
abroad trips around the world.
And while I was doing that, Ireally started to understand and
see how impactful direct tradeor single origin was for cacao
farmers and coffee farmersaround In the world, and always
thought that it'd be cool to dosome kind of project with
peanuts. And even in oh eight, Istarted talking to a farmer in
(05:07):
Uganda about the opportunity todo something with his farm. He
was he also grew coffee, butthey had peanuts too. And that
never really materialized. Butthen out of out of the blue,
Elijah Barnes shows up in Sedleyone day and he had peanuts to
sell. And I've known Elijah,because he was the narrator of
the Virginia peanut story. AndI'd heard that he had been
shocking peanuts, and had wantedto connect with him. And he just
(05:29):
so happened to walk in one dayand said, Hey, would you like to
buy my peanuts? And I said,"Absolutely, I would love to buy
your peanuts, I love your story,I think this is can be a great
project for us." And so wediscussed it and ended up buying
his entire crop in 2020. Andactually, we cooked them,
packaged them, and sold out inabout 24 hours on our website.
(05:51):
And so that was I thought thatwas a great success. And so this
past year, we we talked to himagain, and we purchased his his
whole crop. And he doubled hisproduction and more actually
more than doubled hisproduction. And so we still have
some of his single originpeanuts available. And it's done
(06:11):
really well. It's gotten a lotof nice, a lot of nice press
Virginia live and just did anarticle about it, as well as
some of the other it's going tocome out this fall, there's a
couple other publications thatare doing some stuff. And so
just from awareness about himtrying to preserve the history
and culture of of shockingpeanuts, the old fashioned way,
(06:33):
I think has been received reallywell in our community as well as
as well as nationally, becauseit's really just going back to
our roots. And it's been fun towork directly with with him
because like I said earlier,we're we're working with farmers
across the VC region whocontract with the shellers. So
for us to be able to go directand pay him directly has been a
(06:56):
unique product and process ingeneral. And it's been it's been
a lot of fun. And there's we'vegot a couple other products that
are coming out using the singleorigin peanuts into the future,
which would be cool to.
Lauren Highfill Williams (07:10):
To many, it seems like innovation
runs in the Hubbard family. Infact, Marshall was featured in
the Virginia Pilots 40 under 40.
However, Marshall claims thatall he's done is built on to the
business, and that the realinnovators are HJ and Dot.
Marshall Rabil (07:26):
I do not think of myself really, as an
innovator, I think that Dot andH J. Hubbard could be considered
innovators, Dot's credited withcreating the specialty peanut
category, and was posthumouslyawarded the Lifetime Achievement
Award from the American PeanutCouncil because she started this
industry, which really kind ofput Virginia peanut processors
(07:49):
on the map. I mean, we were theoriginal, but they're now
probably 30 other companies thatare doing something similar. So
when I think about the impactthat that's had across our
region, it really it really wasinnovative at the time. And by,
you know, we didn't have a gradeof peanuts, the USDA did not
have a grade until Dot wasrequesting the peanuts that did
(08:12):
not go through at the shellers.
And she only took the toppeanuts, it didn't go through
the screens. And so she createdthe super extra large category
and created the cook processthat everybody in our industry
uses now, which is calledblister fried cooking. So
they're soaked in hot water,they're fried in oil. And my
grandfather worked with localengineers to develop a
(08:34):
continuous cook process, ourkitchen is still the same design
that he used that I think manyhave have have implemented as
well. But he was kind of thefirst to do this continuous
roaster that we know of. And soI think they were really
innovative at early on. And nowthe innovation that we've done
(08:54):
with the single origin peanut orthis single origin chocolate
bar, it's not innovative, it'sjust going back to the old
fashioned way. So it's, I mean,even think about like organic
movement, that's just the way weused to eat. You know, that's
not there's nothing reallyinnovative about growing
organically or doing things theold fashioned way. But it's it
is a a different kind of take oninnovation because you're just
(09:16):
going back to your roots alittle bit differently to kind
of be more connected to the landand to the farmers and to the
people.
Lauren Highfill Williams (09:24):
And while Marshall may have his
hands full with his currentprojects, he still has ideas for
future innovations.
Marshall Rabil (09:31):
I'm very bullish on peanuts as a plant based
protein that can feed the world.
And there's there obviously beena ton of innovations from oil to
butter to what we can do withthe shells once the peanuts have
been blanched. There's a lot ofskins and there's so many vital
nutrients and minerals that arein those skins and if we can
figure out a way to reallycapitalize on those. I think
(09:53):
there's some there's someopportunities there. Because
obviously peanuts are justhugely important as a plant
based protein and I do not seethat going anywhere. So I'm very
bullish on the future of peanutsin general. We just are about to
release a new product in the inthe single origin line. We
worked with Kaya chocolate,which is based out in Arkansas.
(10:16):
It's a guy who went to my highschool and graduated about 20
years before I did, but he has asingle origin chocolate company.
And we have a we worked withBashir, who's a farmer in
Uganda. And we're using hischocolate and we're using a
licensed single origin peanutsand we blended those to make
what I think is the first eversingle origin chocolate single
origin peanut bar. That's that'scome out. And in the future, I
(10:40):
would love to continue to workwith other companies and
collaborate on small batchlimited release products.
Ultimately, we want to sell ourclassic salted peanuts and our
chocolate covered peanuts, but Ilove working with others on
small batch limited releases,where we're getting in front of
their audience, they're gettingin front of buyers and, and so
(11:01):
there are a few things thatwe're continuing to work on. And
we are as a company that I thinkcan be fun for the future.
Lindsay Stevens (11:13):
Now we're moving from Marshall in
Virginia, to South Georgia,where first generation farmer
Sedrick Rowe is one of a handfulof Georgia farmers to grow
organic peanuts. Here's Sedrickwith a little about himself.
Sedrick Rowe (11:25):
I started farming in 2017. That was after I
graduated with my master's fromFort Valley State. I started
with organic peanuts as my firstcrop on 10 acres. It was a
research working with Georgiaorganics. At the time I was
growing three differentvarieties of peanuts, the
(11:47):
Georgia O6G, Flowrun 331 andalso to Georgia 12Y. Why I was
growing those three, becausethose were the three main
varieties of peanuts thatGeorgia was accustomed to. So
just trying to grow themorganically was, you know, it
was a challenge and you know,something different. So it
(12:10):
started out in 2017/18 asresearch that later led to an
organization called GOPER,Georgia Organic Peanut
Association, where they're nowmarketing organic peanuts, and
also have a few or dozen organiccertified growers now in the
state of Georgia. I was one ofthose farmers to help kind of
(12:36):
build that organization from,you know, having the peanuts
that first year to working withthe president and chairman of
that organization, you know,growing alongside of them also.
So that was a good opportunityin a niche market for me as
well.
Lindsay Stevens (12:54):
Sedrick's path to farming isn't a typical one,
he grew up in Albany, Georgia,and no one in his family farms.
While his friends families did,and he had been around
agriculture a lot in his life,It wasn't until he got a
football scholarship at FortValley State University that he
got to be hands on anddiscovered his passion.
Sedrick Rowe (13:10):
Fort Valley had a farm across from the football
field. And I kept saying, youknow, I'm gonna go over there
one day and see what they knowwhat they doing or whatever. In
my senior year, for better, Iwas working on the farm organic
farm. And I got a chance to, youknow, basically run that whole
plant myself from time I plantedall the way to the time of
(13:32):
harvest and, and that was a, itwas a five acre plot that had
blue, organic blueberries,persimmons, Chinese chestnuts,
pecan trees, and also, I was incharge of the raised beds where
I can do any type of vegetableor produce that I wanted. So
(13:52):
it's like I had a playground ofdirt where I can do what I want
and grow it. And it's allorganic, no chemicals or
anything. When I learned how Iasked my mentor, how do I get
rid of the weeds and stuff hewas like, "Nah, that's when
you're a football skills gonnacome in, because that's gonna
take a lot of work," you know,you want to do a lot of intense
(14:15):
hoeing and cultivating by handcultivating by hand pulling the
weeds and, you know, sometimeafter hand water if you don't
have water access, so he youknow, he kind of made sense. I
was like, Yeah, this organic isnot for everyone, because it's
very intense labor. You know, itjust requires a lot so, and I
(14:37):
just feel like that was my youknow, I need your calling. So
that was that is what led me toget more into the organic side
because I kept looking aroundand seeing that at the time.
Georgia had his campaign of 200or 100 organic farmers. So I'm
looking at a race if it's 12,000farmers in the state of Georgia,
(14:58):
and he's only you know, Under100 organic farmers, I think I'm
gonna follow up on the organicside of things. So, no, that's
where my focus is kind of made.
Lindsay Stevens (15:09):
So if you're like me, the only experience
you've had with the organic foodgrowing process is through an
episode of King of the Hill.
According to the EPA,organically grown food is food
grown and processed using nosynthetic fertilizers or
pesticides. Pesticides derivedfrom natural sources, such as
biological pesticides may beused in producing organically
grown food. So unlikeconventional farming, organic
(15:30):
farmers can't use the normalpesticides most farmers use. The
main difference for Sedrickthough is organic farming has a
lot more labor involved.
Sedrick Rowe (15:42):
It has a lot of challenges with grow organic
peanuts. For one word, we don'thave the same access we don't
have we're not able to use thesame insecticides, pesticides
and herbicides. Sometimes we'renot allowed to use any
herbicides unless you can findsome best arm relisted or, or on
(16:02):
that organic standard, you know,like approved list. So that's
hard to come across. So postharvest for organic farmers is
we spend more we use more dieselbecause we're tilling more
sometimes we're cultivating morealso so that way you know, I
(16:22):
tell people I don't most farmersare plant peanuts and don't have
to worry about weed control forthe first 90 days 60 to 90 days.
We mean I had to worry aboutwaking show at the 14 days so
I'm calling I'm using more of mydiesel costs is more higher
upfront because I'm running totry it longer. As far as when it
(16:47):
comes to spraying for diseasesanything my peanuts are not
treated so they're notresistance to a lot of you know
like chemicals and stuff you canspray insecticides and stuff so
mad you know I'm planning apeanut that hasn't been coated
treated and nothing just bearpeanut going to the ground. So
(17:10):
my risk is a lot higher becauseI don't have the knock land I
can use a knock on it like mostfarmers when I get ready to
plant but it has to be organicalso the risk is a lot higher
because we're that seed is notis not promised to germinate
lack of conventional farming seewe're Prime Minister Germany
that's on the post harvest sideon the harvesting side of
(17:32):
things. Like say it'll be anybecause very intense. So you
know you're used to people digand peanuts and you know when
they one person on the trend andjust run through a field with no
problems at work and he got somany weeds and that you're just
digging up peanuts, you'redigging up other root and weeds
and jamming up your peanutdigger so sometimes you have to
(17:55):
hop off and pool pull stuff offthe digger, you know, it's just
like back in the day, how theyare. And so you find yourself
having to always have more labornow because someone has to be
all behind the tractor. You knowwhy someone is driving it decide
to try to say so much or they'rejumping on and off. Even with
(18:18):
let's dig into peanuts, evenwhen it comes to harvesting it
like I said, I don't have aclean field. So organic fields
are going to have a lot of weedsmixed in with those peanuts. So
when that combine goes to suckup the peanuts, it doesn't have
all these other weeds and stuffand get jammed up and he'd never
noticed, you know, he's not usedto taking so now you're putting
(18:40):
more wear and tear on yourequipment. So it's like organic,
you have to deal with oldequipment stuff I know I can
fix, you know, because ifthere's new equipment and they
mess up I don't know how longdid it take for me to take it to
do is to eat it. So you'll see alot of organic farmers using a
(19:01):
lot of older methods, olderequipment, smaller scale farming
when it comes to organicpeanuts. I would love for it to
be on a larger scale but thatcomes with more experience with
the state with this crop. Moregrowers getting involved and
hopefully making large farmerscan you know kind of help out
(19:24):
with a little with some of theyou know methods on a larger
scale or something like that. Soyou know is it's a real it's a
real difference on costs when itcomes to farming organic pinos
versus conventional. I will saythe cost is a lot higher for
organic farmer getting aconventional farmer.
Lindsay Stevens (19:44):
Whether organic or conventional. We all know
that no farmer just grows onecrop and diverse operations are
essential. Once House Bill 213passed and was signed into law.
Sedrick applied for his hemplicense. He is one of just 118
hemp producers in Georgia. Anumber that's been declining
since 2019, but luckily forRowe, when it came time to plant
(20:04):
his 4000 seedlings in thesummer, he had prior experience
with the crop
Sedrick Rowe (20:09):
Ever since got legalized, I kind of been in the
loop of it myself, I kind of gotstarted at Fort Valley and my
training on and prior to itcoming. Fort Valley and UGA for
about a year at the time hadtheir license to grow. But you
know, they were doing smallamounts of it. And, you know,
(20:30):
just, it was a crop, I feltlike, you know, can no one gave
me any insight on it, no oneknows about this crap in
Georgia. I think, you know,that's when I was like, this is
my chance right now. So growingup my first year, I grew five
acres of him did not know whatthe state was going through at
the time was where our legal,you know, legal, legal side of
(20:53):
things. As the season my firstyear as the season went on, you
know, good good yield. But Istarted to seeing that processes
were dropping out and no goingbankrupt. And you know, just a
lot of stuff was going crazythat didn't involve the farm at
the time. My first year I grewfor biomass, the second year I
(21:13):
grew for oil that's when Istarted learning to plant more
like the higher the CBD thebetter, better it is less you
got to use. So then that was thesecond year and third year was
CBG. You know, that's anothercomponent of, you know, like the
medicinal side of things. Soevery year, it kept changing on
(21:34):
what state of Georgia wanted togrow for what processes wanted.
And now we're at the point whereI feel like I've been growing it
since day one I had to stop,I've been dealing with different
processes to the point whereeveryone in Georgia is familiar
with how growing I kind of growbased on what it processes and
(21:55):
how they can market. So I lookat myself, I'd say I've mastered
this plant I mastered this cropis you know is now not the
things I'm doing now with thiscrop is more and more for
research rather than for profit.
So since Georgia has thisknowledge on it, when I say
(22:15):
that, I mean like the extensionagency can't really tell you too
much, universities can't reallytell you too much. We get all
our information from out ofstate and all of our plants come
from out of state. So at somepoint we have to start doing
stuff in-state and learning itourselves.
Lindsay Stevens (22:34):
As for future innovations, Sedrick is aiming
to help others with the researchhe does on his farm.
Sedrick Rowe (22:40):
Big vision is more of a research center for new
crops in Georgia. No, trysomething different. Have a
research center where is drivenbased on new new ideas, new ways
(23:01):
to grow based on former like alike a generational change
shift. So you know, like aresearch that shows this how it
was done in the 70s is I've donean 80s and 90s and 2000s. So
people can see the differenttimelines or what it takes for
peanuts, not only with him sinceis new is 2000 crop. So
(23:21):
therefore that's, you know,that's a way to with that hemp
side of things, I want to beable to do the research to show
how beneficial it is to farmers,even if you don't grow it, but
it may be beneficial as a covercrop, as you know, you know is
when you talk about carbon whenyou talk about climate change
and stuff of that nature is allabout what you put into the soil
(23:44):
also this morning crop thatnobody's big on carbon to
nitrogen ratio and stuff of thatnature. So I would love to build
that research facility forpeanuts and learn, is it the
growing part that's making it orthe processing part or the final
product part, I want to look atevery part of that process to
(24:07):
see how we can better makefuture plans based on the
research center findings.
Lauren Highfill Williams (24:25):
Like Sedrick, Peggy Osias-Aikens is
also interested in the researchaspect of peanuts. Peggy has
been a professor in theDepartment of Horticulture with
the University of Georgia for 36years. She's also the Director
of the Institute of PlantBreeding Genetics and Genomics
within her department. Here'sPeggy with how she got
interested in this type of work.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (24:45):
Well, first, I would say it's my fascination
with biological organisms andcuriosity about their structure
and function. My parents didgive me a small microscope when
I was a child and I would lookat drops of water under it and
and look at the little organismsmoving around. However, the
choice of animals, plants ormicrobes probably was pushed
(25:06):
toward plants due to mygrandmother's love of gardening,
and probably also myundergraduate experiences at
Florida State Universityassociated with plant
scientists. As for specificallypeanut research, my molecular
skills were unique for theTifton Campus at the time I was
hired, and I took advantage ofthe opportunities to apply them
(25:29):
to an important crop in Georgiaand work with a large number of
really bright scientists.
Lauren Highfill Williams (25:37):
Peggy served as executive committee co
chair of the Peanut GenomeSequencing Consortium, which is
a coalition of internationalscientists and stakeholders that
guide and implement researchconducted in the peanut Genome
Project. The peanut GenomeProject was integral and mapping
the peanut genome, which helpsresearchers develop disease
resistant peanuts, among otherthings. But what is a peanut
(26:00):
genome? And what did it take tomap it? Here's Peggy to answer
that.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (26:04):
Yes, a genome is all of the genetic material
or DNA in an organism. And itcontains all the information for
an organism to grow, to developand to function. So we can map
the peanut genome with a smallpieces of DNA. But to really
understand how its organized andhow that organization
contributes to diversity withinthe species, or how the assembly
(26:28):
of the genes controls orfunction, we really need a whole
genome sequence. And what thatmeans is that every ATG and C
that comprises DNA, and all thechromosomes of peanut is
ultimately sequenced in ordered.
So that's not an easy task. Andjust to put that into context,
the human genome project startedin 1990. And there have been
(26:50):
many milestones achieved as wellas translation of that
information to application inmedicine. But the human genome
was only considered to becomplete in the spring of this
year. So that's 32 years later.
Peanut has certainly benefitedfrom the evolution of sequencing
(27:11):
technologies. So during thattime, we now have virtually
complete peanut genomes in only10 years, and certainly much,
much lower costs than what itwas for the human genome.
Lauren Highfill Williams (27:25):
So how does achieving an innovation
like mapping the peanut genomebenefit the farmer, in short, it
could mean less use ofpesticides and less trips across
the field. But it also helpsresearchers and breeders with
the cost of screening forcertain variations and peanuts.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (27:40):
Yeah, so what the peanut genome sequences
allowed us to do is to discoverwhere the DNA variation is
located on a chromosome, andthen to be able to associate
that sequence variation or whatwe call a molecular marker with
trait variation. So for example,disease resistance or sea
quality. It's often costly ordifficult to measure reliably
(28:05):
certain traits, such as diseaseresistance, because that disease
pressure may not always beuniform, across the field or
across locations or acrossyears. And certainly trying to
do that in large breedingpopulations gets very expensive.
However, if we can identifylinkage of a molecular marker
(28:25):
with a trait, it's now mucheasier and more economical to
screen for the marker than toscreen for the trait. And to
give you an example, we do workseamlessly with Dr. Holbrooks
breeding program to conductmarker assisted selection. So we
take seeds from his breedingpopulations, usually in the
winter, we shave off a smallpiece of that seed doesn't
(28:49):
damage the seed, as far as itsliability, and then we extract
the DNA, that DNA is thenanalyzed for a particular
marker. And we can predict thenwhether or not that individual
will express a trait for whichwe want to select. So this
certainly saves the breedingprogram time, field space and
labor.
Lauren Highfill Williams (29:10):
And when research projects save
time, space and labor, thattranslates into more
efficiencies for grower dollarsthat are invested. What most
excites Peggy though, is beingable to take this discovery and
build on it.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (29:22):
I think that really it's applying the
information on variation inpeanut genomes. And when I say
peanut genomes, I'm not talkingabout just one genome, but I'm
talking about many now becausethe cost of sequencing is to the
point that we can sequence manypeanut genomes, and then the
association of that variationwith important traits on a high
(29:44):
resolution, so even at the genelevel, so that precision
breeding really becomes veryprecise. You know, we've been
working towards the benefit ofgrowers for for many years with
the molecular information thatwe had at hand, even 15 years
ago, but now that's just greatlyaccelerated. And we're able to
do so much more and actuallyapply that knowledge in ways
(30:08):
that can more directly benefitthe grower. So that's certainly
exciting to have yourdiscoveries translated to
something that's useful to theindustry.
Lindsay Stevens (30:20):
Speaking on building upon establish
research, that's exactly what JJand his wife Catherine did when
creating Mission Mighty Me,which is a snack specifically
designed to aid parents andearly introduction of peanut
foods. Here's JJ with a littlemore about how their company
started.
JJ Jaxon (30:35):
Well, our oldest child is 12 years old now. But when
she was born, the common medicalguidance was to avoid giving
nuts and most allergenic foodsin infancy, which, which we did.
Unfortunately, she ended updeveloping an allergy to most
nuts. And and now we know thatsince those guidance, that
(30:57):
guidance to avoid nuts and othercommon allergens was put into
place, food allergies haveincreased by more than 50% and
nut allergies have actuallytripled. Many experts believe
that removing those foods frombaby's diets is partially to
blame for that.
Lindsay Stevens (31:14):
And 2015, the now famous LEAP study was
published. Led by Dr. GideonLack, who was one of the
cofounders of Mission Mighty Me,the LEAP study found that
introducing peanut foods toinfants as early as four to six
months could prevent thedevelopment of peanut allergy by
up to 86%. The federalgovernment updated their
guidance about introducingpeanut foods soon after.
JJ Jaxon (31:34):
And, you know, my wife, Catherine, had found a
quote when she was reading aboutit, from the NIH director that
said that, you know, the resultsof this study have the potential
to transform how we approachfood allergy prevention, and his
quote was that we're talkingabout saving 1000s and 1000s of
(31:54):
kids from peanut allergies. Andthis just really rocked our
world. And this elite study cameout the same year that our third
child was born. And it just gaveus hope that we could actually
do something proactively toprevent another food allergy in
our family with our infant son.
So we thought it would be supereasy, we were just looking to
(32:18):
feed him food. But what wequickly realized is that we
looked everywhere for a productthat helped could help us
introduce early and often to ourinfant son. And it was just, it
was just easier said than done.
nuts and nut butters are chokinghazard for babies. And because
(32:42):
the guidelines that had been inplace for almost 20 years.
Encourage parents to not giveany nuts to their children, the
baby owl was entirely not free,and almost entirely allergen
free. So we were trying to mixpeanut butter into rice cereal,
(33:04):
we were doing anything we couldto try and get peanut into his
diet and also tree nuts. But itwas just really difficult to do.
And I remember super clearly mywife Catherine, in the kitchen
one night was holding up acanister of traditional rice
puffs and she was holding up ajar of peanut butter. And she
(33:28):
said, "Why can't somebody justput these two together?" And and
you know, we there were a lot ofconversations and late night
conversations around who shouldbe doing that. And whether the
big companies were the ones thatwere supposed to be doing it.
But we quickly learned afterdoing a little research that the
big companies are nottraditionally the innovators in
(33:50):
the food space. And so that'swhere the idea for creating a
peanut puff was born. And whatreally started us on our mission
to creating mission mighty me.
Lindsay Stevens (34:02):
One thing that really stuck out to me was just
how simple yet important. Theiridea was. They were just two
parents trying to figure out asafe and easy way to introduce
their child to peanuts. Sincethey launched in March 2020.
They've grown to now have asecond early introduction
product. But this one focuses onthree dots. Here's JJ with what
goes into the research,development and launching of
their product.
JJ Jaxon (34:22):
Oh, it's it's a ton of work. I think even when we
started mission mighty me we hadno idea how much work goes into,
into creating a product. But butit's all for the right reasons.
You know, we have to we want todo everything exactly right. And
so, you know, we we want to makesure that the nut butter puff
(34:47):
is, as you mentioned, had enoughprotein from every single nut
that is included as aningredient so that it's
reasonable for a child to haveat At least two grams of each
nut protein per week. And to doit in a way, that's super easy
(35:07):
for moms and dads and caregiversto just say, Okay, if I just
have a couple pouches a week inmy kid's diet, then I'm doing
exactly what I'm what I need to.
So getting the formulas right tomake sure that there's, you
know, exactly the right amountof nut protein from from each
nut because I'm sure as everyonewould imagine, every different
(35:28):
type of nut has differentprotein levels, and different
forms of nuts come in differentprotein levels. So that that
took a lot of work, making surethat we've got a reliable supply
chain. And super, super tightquality control measures in
place is incredibly important tous. And so that that takes a lot
(35:49):
of work as well. And then makingsure that we can produce the
products like our nut butterpuffs in a way that's really
scalable. So that we can trulyreach mass market and, and get
this out into the world in areally big and impactful way, is
a ton of portrait. And then thelast that maybe the most
(36:10):
important point in formulatingour nut butter puffs was to make
sure they taste great, becauseguess what kids let you know
really fast, if it doesn't tastegood. And if it doesn't taste
good, they're not going to eatit. So there was a lot of work
in formulating us making surethe protein levels were right.
But importantly, making surethat it tastes great. And from
(36:32):
what we've seen so far, childrenlove it. So we're excited about
it.
Lindsay Stevens (36:39):
JJ says the key to their product is making sure
the kids that are ultimatelygoing to be eating their peanut
puffs actually enjoy them.
Luckily for them, they have sometaste testers handy.
JJ Jaxon (36:49):
Oh, definite taste testers. Well, unfortunately,
because my oldest is allergic tonuts, she doesn't get to do as
much taste testing as, as ouryounger to but our younger to
our big taste testers, we in ouroffice have pouches up on a
shelf that initially wereintended for a background with
(37:12):
video interviews. And what wequickly realized is that those
pouches were just evaporating inand our little our little guy
was grabbing pouches as you'dget by. But we actually have a
big panel of taste testersbecause our team of 10 people,
nine of the our team members arewomen and most have children
(37:35):
under two. And so we have whatwe call a peanut panel of all of
our team members, little ones,and you can see them
occasionally on Instagram andother ways that we try to reach
people. They're just incrediblyadorable and cute. And they give
instant feedback in terms of youknow, whether new products we're
(37:58):
creating are going to, you know,are really gonna hit the mark.
You know, another thing that Ihad mentioned in talking about
being a parent and also startingMission Mighty Me, that really
hit home in March of 2020. Whenwe were launching our first
product, our product, peanutpuffs and of course, as everyone
(38:19):
knows, March of 2020, was whenthe COVID-19 global pandemic,
you know, really started sinkingin, that was certainly something
that we didn't see coming inlaunching our first product. But
there we were launching ourfirst product after over two
years of development work tocreate it. And all of our kids
(38:41):
had gone into virtual forschool. And, and it was just
total, and we were working fromhome as well as most of the
world. And it was it was justtotal chaos. But but you know,
being a parent, and you knowworking really hard at creating
something is just a it's quite ajourney, we'll say it will say
(39:03):
that quite a journey, but welove it and we love what we're
doing. And think it can have areally big impact.
Lindsay Stevens (39:09):
Ask your future innovations. Not only are they
looking at expanding from justAmazon to being sold in grocery
stores, but they're looking atexpanding their product line to
include more allergens.
JJ Jaxon (39:19):
We're very excited about the future and our
pipeline in product development.
Our customers continue to askfor more mighty me, and which we
just love, especially when weget videos from customers with
their little and saying moremighty May. So we're working on
on new flavors. We have a planfor other product forms, and
(39:43):
including additional allergens.
You know, we're trying to goabout this very prudently and
make sure that we're doingeverything right. But also be
able to get great products tomarket as soon as we responsibly
can, so, yes, be on the lookoutfor new flavors and new
(40:06):
products, which were, whichwe're very excited about.
Lauren Highfill Williams (40:13):
Going back to the farm for Texas
peanut growers, Lexi, Floyd andher husband, Jared, innovation
means addressing big issues likewater inputs, land value and
supply chain challenges, butalso doing all that they can to
secure a bright future for theirdaughters.
Lexi Floyd (40:28):
But I was a little bit more concerned on the back
side of things, you know, what'sour five year plan? What's our
10 year plan? Estate planning,that's a big thing for us, we
have three girls, I want them tobe in the possession best
position to receive what we'vebuilt. And I want us to be in
the best position to pass thaton. And so I don't want to be,
(40:49):
you know, a family that getsstuck 20 years down the road,
and we've done, we've done noneof that planning. And all of a
sudden, we're in a situationwhere our kids have to figure it
out for themselves. And that'snot fair. I mean, Jared and I
have built this life, you know,primarily, Jared has built all
this. And I've just kind ofmanaged everything. But so I
think that that's reallyimportant. And farmers don't
(41:10):
want to talk about that nobodywants to talk about it is like
pulling teeth, did it get him tosit down and talk about estate
planning, talk about, you know,state taxes? What are we doing
for the future? How are we goingto set this up and different?
Either we do a joint ventureLLC, or entities, how are we
going to set everything up? Sothat the transition someday is
you know, is as smooth aspossible? And, you know, it's
(41:33):
hard to think about thosethings, because they are years
down the road where you know,commodity prices, input water is
right now. But I think, youknow, we've all got to think
about those things. We've allgot to kind of come up with a
game plan because otherwise,yeah, all the work we did with
water and inputs and farming isjust kind of be kind of not
(41:57):
useless. But it'll it'll make abig difference for their future,
their future. And I wanteverything to be set up as best
as we can.
Lauren Highfill Williams (42:04):
Lexi and Jared were the 2019 winners
of the foreign press pienaEfficiency Awards for the
Southwest. Lexie says they havea good balance with Jared being
the dreamer. And her being aself proclaimed type a practical
personality that's led them todefine and address innovation
more holistically and on severalfronts, from technology to
labor.
Lexi Floyd (42:25):
Right off the bat, you think technology. And we do
implement some more innovativetechnological things, especially
because we have such a largeorganic operation. Like we
implement a weed zapper. And alot of people haven't seen it,
but it basically just goesthrough and I don't even, if
they're farmers listening tothis are probably going to
(42:45):
cringe at my description of whathappens. But basically
electrocutes and shocks all theweeds, and it kills them that
way rather than having to applychemical or spraying. So it's
just a little bit more efficienta little bit. It's a different
practice. It works for us. Itmay not work in other
operations, obviously. And soJared kind of he talked about
the weeds after he talked aboutdiversification. And to me,
(43:10):
diversification is likeinnovation, like, you
immediately think doingsomething different. And we do
do a lot of different things. Wetry to diversify with our crops
and rotation is big for us. Butwe're also diversifying our
land. And when I say that, Imean we're really diversifying
where we're geologically andlike location wise, where we're
farming, we've kind of spreadout into different areas of the
South Plains. Financially, we'retrying to diversify, we're
(43:34):
trying to be innovative becausethe farmer can no longer rely or
rely on one crop or one revenuestream, we've really got to, you
know, have a couple of differentrevenue streams. Because when
one is terrible, the other one'sgoing to make up for the
difference. Water is a hugeissue for us, it's can continue
to be a huge issue for us, Ithink through our farming
career. And then employees,we've really tried to innovate
(43:57):
and get our employees to stayfor a long time. Labor is hard
to find good laborers hard tofind. But when you find somebody
that's good, you've got to beable to kind of customize what
they need from us. Each of ouremployees, you know, we kind of
we know we got to you know, theyhave different things that they
value. So we really tried toplay on what they value, what
(44:20):
means the most of them to createan environment where they don't
want to leave, they don't wantto go work for somebody else.
They want to stay with us. Soyou really have to innovate on
all facets of our business. Andthe margins are so small now and
I don't think that's going toget any better. So it's just a
lot of different things. Andlike I said, Jared focuses on
different things to beinnovative about and I focus on
(44:40):
different things. And I thinkthat has really helped us in the
last couple of years, especiallywhen it's been so hard with
commodity prices and inputs. Ithink that the fact that we're
focusing on different facets andwe kind of meet in the middle
has really helped us a lot.
Lauren Highfill Williams (44:54):
Trying something new can be hard for
those who think about all thewhat ifs but Lexi shares her
advice for pharma to herconsidering new ideas.
Lexi Floyd (45:03):
But I think if you play to your strengths, you find
a niche market in your area. Ifyou find something else that
nobody else is doing, that'sgreat. But like you said, how do
they go about starting that? AndI think just having the
confidence in yourself talkingto other farmers and just just
go for it, have a plan, plan itout, mitigate your risk, and I
(45:23):
think you'll be okay. But it isit's intimidating and stressful.
And like I said, I'm on the backend of things. So Gerrard's over
here scheming up all these, youknow, new ideas, and I'm over
here thinking oh, no, you know,and so I know it's, it's scary.
And I'm more on that, that endof kind of being hesitant to
start new things. But I thinkthat if you plan it out, and you
(45:44):
kind of mitigate as much risk asyou can, you can, you can
probably be pretty successful.
So but it all it all turns outin the end, it's all going to be
okay, it's just but it is it'sscary. Farming is stressful, and
it wears on you. But, you know,like I said the beginning,
there's nothing more rewarding.
Lauren Highfill Williams (45:59):
As our guests have shown today,
innovation can start as small asLexi's weed zapper, or JJ and
Catherine's kitchenconversation. Or it can be as
large as Sedrick's trial of anew crop and Peggy's work on
mapping the peanut genome. Thekey is recognizing the
opportunity, putting in the workand taking the leap to help lead
(46:19):
your operation and our industryforward.
Lindsay Stevens (46:25):
Well, Lauren, I gotta say that this might be one
of my favorite episodes, it'salways so fun to hear about the
new products, and I love hearingabout the new ideas on the
horizon. Which leads me to myquestion for you. So if you were
to be a peanut innovator, whatarea in our industry would you
want to work in? And what typeof product would you create? So
like industry like research,allergy manufacturing, that kind
(46:46):
of sort of thing?
Lauren Highfill Williams (46:48):
Yeah, well, I'm very lucky in that I
feel like I'm already a part ofinnovation in the industry,
really, from the marketing andcommunications side. So that's
really cool. But I think justbeing fresh off some recent
shows that we've done, we werejust at the School Nutrition
Association annual conference inOrlando. And there is such
(47:12):
demand for those pre made peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, you
know, there's one manufacturerthat's making them and they've,
they've said that they don'teven really know what the demand
is, because they've never beenable to meet it. And they're the
one company out there, makingthem. And we got so many
(47:34):
questions from folks who justwant to have more of those pre
made peanut butter and jellysandwiches, it's like, I don't
know, another factory needs tobe built or another company
needs to get in on the game. ButI think just you know, if I
could, I would just build agiant factory in order to make
more of those peanut butter andjelly sandwiches. Because
(47:57):
sometimes you know that that'sthe innovation part of just, you
know, everybody loves a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich, we
just need to figure out how tohow to meet that demand and get
them into the hands of morepeople. So that's kind of what's
been on my mind lately in thespace of innovation. But what
about you, Lindsay?
Lindsay Stevens (48:16):
Um, I think that I'd have to go with
research just because, you know,I have a very curious mind. I
like to know why things work theway they do so. And for what I
would invent. I would inventsome sort of machine to help
with organic harvesting.
Lauren Highfill Williams (48:37):
Yes, we know that is a big issue.
Lindsay Stevens (48:39):
You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go with a
topical a topical researchmachine. So yeah, that's what
mine would be.
Lauren Highfill Williams (48:45):
Yeah.
Need to patent that idea. Allright.
Lindsay Stevens (48:52):
All right.
Okay, so we want to go into ourpeanut Fun Fact of the Day. So
Lauren, one of our presidentshas said that their favorite
sandwich is a peanut butter andbanana sandwich. Which president
was it?
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:09):
I'm just gonna go straight for the
obvious or what seems obvious tome. And that would be Jimmy
Carter. Right? He was the peanutpresident. So very likely, his
favorite sandwich would bepeanut butter, and banana. Is
that right?
Lindsay Stevens (49:22):
No. It's uh, oh, the guy that was a good I
like how, you know, that wouldthat would be the the easy
answer, but it's actually BillClinton.
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:34):
Oh my gosh, that was gonna be my
Lindsay Stevens (49:37):
Not a lot of connections to peanuts, but
guess.
that's the sandwich.
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:41):
Okay, good to know. All right, um,
file that away.
Lindsay Stevens (49:45):
Thank you all again for listening to the
peanut podcast. We'll see youagain in August for our next
episode.
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:51):
And as always, don't forget to
subscribe to the podcast on theplatform you're listening to us
on and if you would like to findout more information about
anything we've talked abouttoday or see our sources then go
toNationalPeanutBoard.org/podcast.
See you next time.
Lindsay Stevens (50:07):
Bye y'all
Hi and welcome back to the peanut podcast. I
hope you didn't miss too muchwith the extra month of waiting
and anticipation for our nextepisode. I'm Lindsay Stevens.
Lauren Highfill Williams (00:18):
And I'm Lauren Highfill Williams.
Welcome back, everybody. By thetime this episode comes out,
everyone will be wrapping uptheir summers. We will have just
gotten back from our July BoardMeeting and the Southern Peanut
Growers Conference in Florida.
Lindsay Stevens (00:31):
Yeah, it was great seeing all those who
listen there and we alwaysappreciate your feedback. So now
getting into what's on tap. Fortoday, we're going to be
discussing innovators inpeanuts.
Lauren Highfill Williams (00:41):
Yes, we'll be highlighting a few
movers and shakers in theindustry, including Sedrick
Rowe, who's growing organicpeanuts and trying his hand at
hemp. Marshall Rabil, who helpsrun a third generation family
peanut business that's exploringavenues like single origin,
peanuts and their own eventspace.
Lindsay Stevens (00:59):
We'll also be speaking with Peggy Ozias-Akins
who's a researcher who puts thepeanut genome to work to make
rapid improvements for growers.
JJ Jaxon, who with his wife,Katherine started a baby snack
company to help prevent foodallergies. And Lexi Floyd a
grower who won the 2019 PeanutEfficiency Award for the
Southwest. We've got a lot tocover today. So let's get into
it.
Lauren Highfill Williams (01:22):
What's Walmart, Berkshire Hathaway,
Ford Motor Company and TysonFoods all have in common,
they're giant and their familyout. In the peanut industry
family owned on a smaller scaleis the norm. And the Hubbard
peanut company, also known asHubs is no exception. Hubs is a
family owned business that'sbeen around since they sold
(01:43):
their first one ounce bag ofpeanuts for 10 cents in 1954.
Since then, the business hasgrown from just Dot and HJ
Hubbard, to now being run bytheir children and
grandchildren. Marshall iscurrently the Director of Sales
and Marketing. Here's a littlemore about him.
Marshall Rabil (01:59):
My great grandfather had a farm. And
that's where Dot Hubbard startedharvesting the largest peanuts
you could find. And then ourdemand grew to where we needed
to outsource some of thefarming. But because we were
only using super extra largeVirginia type peanuts, we had to
go to farmers in Virginia, NorthCarolina and South Carolina to
(02:21):
meet the demand for the XXLpeanuts that we're using.
Lauren Highfill Willia (02:26):
Marshall remembers growing up around the
business and even riding on theconveyor belt in the early 80s
as a child. It's a wonder wesurvived that decade isn't. The
original offices for Hubs werelocated in Marshall's
grandparents original house. Infact, his mom's office was her
childhood bedroom. But as thecompany grew, so did the amount
of space they needed. This ledto Hubs buying an old grocery
(02:48):
store building and repurposingit into The Vine. Here's
Marshall with what The Vine is.
Marshall Rabil (02:54):
So The Vine is a 7000 foot retail space within
In addition to The Vine,Marshall is also working on
the overall farm fresh building,where we have hosted a number of
different community events wehave. It's a music venue now
where we have singer songwritersessions, where different
artists will come in and what wedo have a unique dinner menu. A
(03:16):
lot of our a lot of our menuitems do feature peanuts as
well, which is kind of cool. Butit's a space for us to sell
peanuts and other Virginiaspecialty foods, as well as nice
wines and beer and some appareland things like that. So it's
been a lot of fun to have a newcommunity space to showcase our
products and other things fromVirginia. So it's it's just a
(03:40):
real small piece of what theoverall Vine is. But we've got a
lot of warehouse space, we tookthe old meat department and the
beer cooler and converted thatinto a chocolate and rubbing
room. So now we're able to coatour own peanuts in chocolate.
And another section is a newpackaging room. We've got
(04:01):
warehousing. And so we have alittle bit of space for the Food
Bank of Southeastern Virginia,that's where they were going
into that space. And we areproducing backpacks for the kids
in school, the school programsand so a number of different
civic organizations are comingin and building those kits. So
we've been able to use it as acenter for community service as
(04:23):
well as our production needs andwarehousing and retail. So
there's a lot that's been goingon there in the last couple of
years, but it's been fun.
another innovation, the singleorigin peanut project.
Before coming back into thepeanut business. I was involved
in international development andled college students on study
(04:46):
abroad trips around the world.
And while I was doing that, Ireally started to understand and
see how impactful direct tradeor single origin was for cacao
farmers and coffee farmersaround In the world, and always
thought that it'd be cool to dosome kind of project with
peanuts. And even in oh eight, Istarted talking to a farmer in
(05:07):
Uganda about the opportunity todo something with his farm. He
was he also grew coffee, butthey had peanuts too. And that
never really materialized. Butthen out of out of the blue,
Elijah Barnes shows up in Sedleyone day and he had peanuts to
sell. And I've known Elijah,because he was the narrator of
the Virginia peanut story. AndI'd heard that he had been
shocking peanuts, and had wantedto connect with him. And he just
(05:29):
so happened to walk in one dayand said, Hey, would you like to
buy my peanuts? And I said,"Absolutely, I would love to buy
your peanuts, I love your story,I think this is can be a great
project for us." And so wediscussed it and ended up buying
his entire crop in 2020. Andactually, we cooked them,
packaged them, and sold out inabout 24 hours on our website.
(05:51):
And so that was I thought thatwas a great success. And so this
past year, we we talked to himagain, and we purchased his his
whole crop. And he doubled hisproduction and more actually
more than doubled hisproduction. And so we still have
some of his single originpeanuts available. And it's done
(06:11):
really well. It's gotten a lotof nice, a lot of nice press
Virginia live and just did anarticle about it, as well as
some of the other it's going tocome out this fall, there's a
couple other publications thatare doing some stuff. And so
just from awareness about himtrying to preserve the history
and culture of of shockingpeanuts, the old fashioned way,
(06:33):
I think has been received reallywell in our community as well as
as well as nationally, becauseit's really just going back to
our roots. And it's been fun towork directly with with him
because like I said earlier,we're we're working with farmers
across the VC region whocontract with the shellers. So
for us to be able to go directand pay him directly has been a
(06:56):
unique product and process ingeneral. And it's been it's been
a lot of fun. And there's we'vegot a couple other products that
are coming out using the singleorigin peanuts into the future,
which would be cool to.
Lauren Highfill Williams (07:10):
To many, it seems like innovation
runs in the Hubbard family. Infact, Marshall was featured in
the Virginia Pilots 40 under 40.
However, Marshall claims thatall he's done is built on to the
business, and that the realinnovators are HJ and Dot.
Marshall Rabil (07:26):
I do not think of myself really, as an
innovator, I think that Dot andH J. Hubbard could be considered
innovators, Dot's credited withcreating the specialty peanut
category, and was posthumouslyawarded the Lifetime Achievement
Award from the American PeanutCouncil because she started this
industry, which really kind ofput Virginia peanut processors
(07:49):
on the map. I mean, we were theoriginal, but they're now
probably 30 other companies thatare doing something similar. So
when I think about the impactthat that's had across our
region, it really it really wasinnovative at the time. And by,
you know, we didn't have a gradeof peanuts, the USDA did not
have a grade until Dot wasrequesting the peanuts that did
(08:12):
not go through at the shellers.
And she only took the toppeanuts, it didn't go through
the screens. And so she createdthe super extra large category
and created the cook processthat everybody in our industry
uses now, which is calledblister fried cooking. So
they're soaked in hot water,they're fried in oil. And my
grandfather worked with localengineers to develop a
(08:34):
continuous cook process, ourkitchen is still the same design
that he used that I think manyhave have have implemented as
well. But he was kind of thefirst to do this continuous
roaster that we know of. And soI think they were really
innovative at early on. And nowthe innovation that we've done
(08:54):
with the single origin peanut orthis single origin chocolate
bar, it's not innovative, it'sjust going back to the old
fashioned way. So it's, I mean,even think about like organic
movement, that's just the way weused to eat. You know, that's
not there's nothing reallyinnovative about growing
organically or doing things theold fashioned way. But it's it
is a a different kind of take oninnovation because you're just
(09:16):
going back to your roots alittle bit differently to kind
of be more connected to the landand to the farmers and to the
people.
Lauren Highfill Williams (09:24):
And while Marshall may have his
hands full with his currentprojects, he still has ideas for
future innovations.
Marshall Rabil (09:31):
I'm very bullish on peanuts as a plant based
protein that can feed the world.
And there's there obviously beena ton of innovations from oil to
butter to what we can do withthe shells once the peanuts have
been blanched. There's a lot ofskins and there's so many vital
nutrients and minerals that arein those skins and if we can
figure out a way to reallycapitalize on those. I think
(09:53):
there's some there's someopportunities there. Because
obviously peanuts are justhugely important as a plant
based protein and I do not seethat going anywhere. So I'm very
bullish on the future of peanutsin general. We just are about to
release a new product in the inthe single origin line. We
worked with Kaya chocolate,which is based out in Arkansas.
(10:16):
It's a guy who went to my highschool and graduated about 20
years before I did, but he has asingle origin chocolate company.
And we have a we worked withBashir, who's a farmer in
Uganda. And we're using hischocolate and we're using a
licensed single origin peanutsand we blended those to make
what I think is the first eversingle origin chocolate single
origin peanut bar. That's that'scome out. And in the future, I
(10:40):
would love to continue to workwith other companies and
collaborate on small batchlimited release products.
Ultimately, we want to sell ourclassic salted peanuts and our
chocolate covered peanuts, but Ilove working with others on
small batch limited releases,where we're getting in front of
their audience, they're gettingin front of buyers and, and so
(11:01):
there are a few things thatwe're continuing to work on. And
we are as a company that I thinkcan be fun for the future.
Lindsay Stevens (11:13):
Now we're moving from Marshall in
Virginia, to South Georgia,where first generation farmer
Sedrick Rowe is one of a handfulof Georgia farmers to grow
organic peanuts. Here's Sedrickwith a little about himself.
Sedrick Rowe (11:25):
I started farming in 2017. That was after I
graduated with my master's fromFort Valley State. I started
with organic peanuts as my firstcrop on 10 acres. It was a
research working with Georgiaorganics. At the time I was
growing three differentvarieties of peanuts, the
(11:47):
Georgia O6G, Flowrun 331 andalso to Georgia 12Y. Why I was
growing those three, becausethose were the three main
varieties of peanuts thatGeorgia was accustomed to. So
just trying to grow themorganically was, you know, it
was a challenge and you know,something different. So it
(12:10):
started out in 2017/18 asresearch that later led to an
organization called GOPER,Georgia Organic Peanut
Association, where they're nowmarketing organic peanuts, and
also have a few or dozen organiccertified growers now in the
state of Georgia. I was one ofthose farmers to help kind of
(12:36):
build that organization from,you know, having the peanuts
that first year to working withthe president and chairman of
that organization, you know,growing alongside of them also.
So that was a good opportunityin a niche market for me as
well.
Lindsay Stevens (12:54):
Sedrick's path to farming isn't a typical one,
he grew up in Albany, Georgia,and no one in his family farms.
While his friends families did,and he had been around
agriculture a lot in his life,It wasn't until he got a
football scholarship at FortValley State University that he
got to be hands on anddiscovered his passion.
Sedrick Rowe (13:10):
Fort Valley had a farm across from the football
field. And I kept saying, youknow, I'm gonna go over there
one day and see what they knowwhat they doing or whatever. In
my senior year, for better, Iwas working on the farm organic
farm. And I got a chance to, youknow, basically run that whole
plant myself from time I plantedall the way to the time of
(13:32):
harvest and, and that was a, itwas a five acre plot that had
blue, organic blueberries,persimmons, Chinese chestnuts,
pecan trees, and also, I was incharge of the raised beds where
I can do any type of vegetableor produce that I wanted. So
(13:52):
it's like I had a playground ofdirt where I can do what I want
and grow it. And it's allorganic, no chemicals or
anything. When I learned how Iasked my mentor, how do I get
rid of the weeds and stuff hewas like, "Nah, that's when
you're a football skills gonnacome in, because that's gonna
take a lot of work," you know,you want to do a lot of intense
(14:15):
hoeing and cultivating by handcultivating by hand pulling the
weeds and, you know, sometimeafter hand water if you don't
have water access, so he youknow, he kind of made sense. I
was like, Yeah, this organic isnot for everyone, because it's
very intense labor. You know, itjust requires a lot so, and I
(14:37):
just feel like that was my youknow, I need your calling. So
that was that is what led me toget more into the organic side
because I kept looking aroundand seeing that at the time.
Georgia had his campaign of 200or 100 organic farmers. So I'm
looking at a race if it's 12,000farmers in the state of Georgia,
(14:58):
and he's only you know, Under100 organic farmers, I think I'm
gonna follow up on the organicside of things. So, no, that's
where my focus is kind of made.
Lindsay Stevens (15:09):
So if you're like me, the only experience
you've had with the organic foodgrowing process is through an
episode of King of the Hill.
According to the EPA,organically grown food is food
grown and processed using nosynthetic fertilizers or
pesticides. Pesticides derivedfrom natural sources, such as
biological pesticides may beused in producing organically
grown food. So unlikeconventional farming, organic
(15:30):
farmers can't use the normalpesticides most farmers use. The
main difference for Sedrickthough is organic farming has a
lot more labor involved.
Sedrick Rowe (15:42):
It has a lot of challenges with grow organic
peanuts. For one word, we don'thave the same access we don't
have we're not able to use thesame insecticides, pesticides
and herbicides. Sometimes we'renot allowed to use any
herbicides unless you can findsome best arm relisted or, or on
(16:02):
that organic standard, you know,like approved list. So that's
hard to come across. So postharvest for organic farmers is
we spend more we use more dieselbecause we're tilling more
sometimes we're cultivating morealso so that way you know, I
(16:22):
tell people I don't most farmersare plant peanuts and don't have
to worry about weed control forthe first 90 days 60 to 90 days.
We mean I had to worry aboutwaking show at the 14 days so
I'm calling I'm using more of mydiesel costs is more higher
upfront because I'm running totry it longer. As far as when it
(16:47):
comes to spraying for diseasesanything my peanuts are not
treated so they're notresistance to a lot of you know
like chemicals and stuff you canspray insecticides and stuff so
mad you know I'm planning apeanut that hasn't been coated
treated and nothing just bearpeanut going to the ground. So
(17:10):
my risk is a lot higher becauseI don't have the knock land I
can use a knock on it like mostfarmers when I get ready to
plant but it has to be organicalso the risk is a lot higher
because we're that seed is notis not promised to germinate
lack of conventional farming seewe're Prime Minister Germany
that's on the post harvest sideon the harvesting side of
(17:32):
things. Like say it'll be anybecause very intense. So you
know you're used to people digand peanuts and you know when
they one person on the trend andjust run through a field with no
problems at work and he got somany weeds and that you're just
digging up peanuts, you'redigging up other root and weeds
and jamming up your peanutdigger so sometimes you have to
(17:55):
hop off and pool pull stuff offthe digger, you know, it's just
like back in the day, how theyare. And so you find yourself
having to always have more labornow because someone has to be
all behind the tractor. You knowwhy someone is driving it decide
to try to say so much or they'rejumping on and off. Even with
(18:18):
let's dig into peanuts, evenwhen it comes to harvesting it
like I said, I don't have aclean field. So organic fields
are going to have a lot of weedsmixed in with those peanuts. So
when that combine goes to suckup the peanuts, it doesn't have
all these other weeds and stuffand get jammed up and he'd never
noticed, you know, he's not usedto taking so now you're putting
(18:40):
more wear and tear on yourequipment. So it's like organic,
you have to deal with oldequipment stuff I know I can
fix, you know, because ifthere's new equipment and they
mess up I don't know how longdid it take for me to take it to
do is to eat it. So you'll see alot of organic farmers using a
(19:01):
lot of older methods, olderequipment, smaller scale farming
when it comes to organicpeanuts. I would love for it to
be on a larger scale but thatcomes with more experience with
the state with this crop. Moregrowers getting involved and
hopefully making large farmerscan you know kind of help out
(19:24):
with a little with some of theyou know methods on a larger
scale or something like that. Soyou know is it's a real it's a
real difference on costs when itcomes to farming organic pinos
versus conventional. I will saythe cost is a lot higher for
organic farmer getting aconventional farmer.
Lindsay Stevens (19:44):
Whether organic or conventional. We all know
that no farmer just grows onecrop and diverse operations are
essential. Once House Bill 213passed and was signed into law.
Sedrick applied for his hemplicense. He is one of just 118
hemp producers in Georgia. Anumber that's been declining
since 2019, but luckily forRowe, when it came time to plant
(20:04):
his 4000 seedlings in thesummer, he had prior experience
with the crop
Sedrick Rowe (20:09):
Ever since got legalized, I kind of been in the
loop of it myself, I kind of gotstarted at Fort Valley and my
training on and prior to itcoming. Fort Valley and UGA for
about a year at the time hadtheir license to grow. But you
know, they were doing smallamounts of it. And, you know,
(20:30):
just, it was a crop, I feltlike, you know, can no one gave
me any insight on it, no oneknows about this crap in
Georgia. I think, you know,that's when I was like, this is
my chance right now. So growingup my first year, I grew five
acres of him did not know whatthe state was going through at
the time was where our legal,you know, legal, legal side of
(20:53):
things. As the season my firstyear as the season went on, you
know, good good yield. But Istarted to seeing that processes
were dropping out and no goingbankrupt. And you know, just a
lot of stuff was going crazythat didn't involve the farm at
the time. My first year I grewfor biomass, the second year I
(21:13):
grew for oil that's when Istarted learning to plant more
like the higher the CBD thebetter, better it is less you
got to use. So then that was thesecond year and third year was
CBG. You know, that's anothercomponent of, you know, like the
medicinal side of things. Soevery year, it kept changing on
(21:34):
what state of Georgia wanted togrow for what processes wanted.
And now we're at the point whereI feel like I've been growing it
since day one I had to stop,I've been dealing with different
processes to the point whereeveryone in Georgia is familiar
with how growing I kind of growbased on what it processes and
(21:55):
how they can market. So I lookat myself, I'd say I've mastered
this plant I mastered this cropis you know is now not the
things I'm doing now with thiscrop is more and more for
research rather than for profit.
So since Georgia has thisknowledge on it, when I say
(22:15):
that, I mean like the extensionagency can't really tell you too
much, universities can't reallytell you too much. We get all
our information from out ofstate and all of our plants come
from out of state. So at somepoint we have to start doing
stuff in-state and learning itourselves.
Lindsay Stevens (22:34):
As for future innovations, Sedrick is aiming
to help others with the researchhe does on his farm.
Sedrick Rowe (22:40):
Big vision is more of a research center for new
crops in Georgia. No, trysomething different. Have a
research center where is drivenbased on new new ideas, new ways
(23:01):
to grow based on former like alike a generational change
shift. So you know, like aresearch that shows this how it
was done in the 70s is I've donean 80s and 90s and 2000s. So
people can see the differenttimelines or what it takes for
peanuts, not only with him sinceis new is 2000 crop. So
(23:21):
therefore that's, you know,that's a way to with that hemp
side of things, I want to beable to do the research to show
how beneficial it is to farmers,even if you don't grow it, but
it may be beneficial as a covercrop, as you know, you know is
when you talk about carbon whenyou talk about climate change
and stuff of that nature is allabout what you put into the soil
(23:44):
also this morning crop thatnobody's big on carbon to
nitrogen ratio and stuff of thatnature. So I would love to build
that research facility forpeanuts and learn, is it the
growing part that's making it orthe processing part or the final
product part, I want to look atevery part of that process to
(24:07):
see how we can better makefuture plans based on the
research center findings.
Lauren Highfill Williams (24:25):
Like Sedrick, Peggy Osias-Aikens is
also interested in the researchaspect of peanuts. Peggy has
been a professor in theDepartment of Horticulture with
the University of Georgia for 36years. She's also the Director
of the Institute of PlantBreeding Genetics and Genomics
within her department. Here'sPeggy with how she got
interested in this type of work.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (24:45):
Well, first, I would say it's my fascination
with biological organisms andcuriosity about their structure
and function. My parents didgive me a small microscope when
I was a child and I would lookat drops of water under it and
and look at the little organismsmoving around. However, the
choice of animals, plants ormicrobes probably was pushed
(25:06):
toward plants due to mygrandmother's love of gardening,
and probably also myundergraduate experiences at
Florida State Universityassociated with plant
scientists. As for specificallypeanut research, my molecular
skills were unique for theTifton Campus at the time I was
hired, and I took advantage ofthe opportunities to apply them
(25:29):
to an important crop in Georgiaand work with a large number of
really bright scientists.
Lauren Highfill Williams (25:37):
Peggy served as executive committee co
chair of the Peanut GenomeSequencing Consortium, which is
a coalition of internationalscientists and stakeholders that
guide and implement researchconducted in the peanut Genome
Project. The peanut GenomeProject was integral and mapping
the peanut genome, which helpsresearchers develop disease
resistant peanuts, among otherthings. But what is a peanut
(26:00):
genome? And what did it take tomap it? Here's Peggy to answer
that.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (26:04):
Yes, a genome is all of the genetic material
or DNA in an organism. And itcontains all the information for
an organism to grow, to developand to function. So we can map
the peanut genome with a smallpieces of DNA. But to really
understand how its organized andhow that organization
contributes to diversity withinthe species, or how the assembly
(26:28):
of the genes controls orfunction, we really need a whole
genome sequence. And what thatmeans is that every ATG and C
that comprises DNA, and all thechromosomes of peanut is
ultimately sequenced in ordered.
So that's not an easy task. Andjust to put that into context,
the human genome project startedin 1990. And there have been
(26:50):
many milestones achieved as wellas translation of that
information to application inmedicine. But the human genome
was only considered to becomplete in the spring of this
year. So that's 32 years later.
Peanut has certainly benefitedfrom the evolution of sequencing
(27:11):
technologies. So during thattime, we now have virtually
complete peanut genomes in only10 years, and certainly much,
much lower costs than what itwas for the human genome.
Lauren Highfill Williams (27:25):
So how does achieving an innovation
like mapping the peanut genomebenefit the farmer, in short, it
could mean less use ofpesticides and less trips across
the field. But it also helpsresearchers and breeders with
the cost of screening forcertain variations and peanuts.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (27:40):
Yeah, so what the peanut genome sequences
allowed us to do is to discoverwhere the DNA variation is
located on a chromosome, andthen to be able to associate
that sequence variation or whatwe call a molecular marker with
trait variation. So for example,disease resistance or sea
quality. It's often costly ordifficult to measure reliably
(28:05):
certain traits, such as diseaseresistance, because that disease
pressure may not always beuniform, across the field or
across locations or acrossyears. And certainly trying to
do that in large breedingpopulations gets very expensive.
However, if we can identifylinkage of a molecular marker
(28:25):
with a trait, it's now mucheasier and more economical to
screen for the marker than toscreen for the trait. And to
give you an example, we do workseamlessly with Dr. Holbrooks
breeding program to conductmarker assisted selection. So we
take seeds from his breedingpopulations, usually in the
winter, we shave off a smallpiece of that seed doesn't
(28:49):
damage the seed, as far as itsliability, and then we extract
the DNA, that DNA is thenanalyzed for a particular
marker. And we can predict thenwhether or not that individual
will express a trait for whichwe want to select. So this
certainly saves the breedingprogram time, field space and
labor.
Lauren Highfill Williams (29:10):
And when research projects save
time, space and labor, thattranslates into more
efficiencies for grower dollarsthat are invested. What most
excites Peggy though, is beingable to take this discovery and
build on it.
Peggy Ozias-Akins (29:22):
I think that really it's applying the
information on variation inpeanut genomes. And when I say
peanut genomes, I'm not talkingabout just one genome, but I'm
talking about many now becausethe cost of sequencing is to the
point that we can sequence manypeanut genomes, and then the
association of that variationwith important traits on a high
(29:44):
resolution, so even at the genelevel, so that precision
breeding really becomes veryprecise. You know, we've been
working towards the benefit ofgrowers for for many years with
the molecular information thatwe had at hand, even 15 years
ago, but now that's just greatlyaccelerated. And we're able to
do so much more and actuallyapply that knowledge in ways
(30:08):
that can more directly benefitthe grower. So that's certainly
exciting to have yourdiscoveries translated to
something that's useful to theindustry.
Lindsay Stevens (30:20):
Speaking on building upon establish
research, that's exactly what JJand his wife Catherine did when
creating Mission Mighty Me,which is a snack specifically
designed to aid parents andearly introduction of peanut
foods. Here's JJ with a littlemore about how their company
started.
JJ Jaxon (30:35):
Well, our oldest child is 12 years old now. But when
she was born, the common medicalguidance was to avoid giving
nuts and most allergenic foodsin infancy, which, which we did.
Unfortunately, she ended updeveloping an allergy to most
nuts. And and now we know thatsince those guidance, that
(30:57):
guidance to avoid nuts and othercommon allergens was put into
place, food allergies haveincreased by more than 50% and
nut allergies have actuallytripled. Many experts believe
that removing those foods frombaby's diets is partially to
blame for that.
Lindsay Stevens (31:14):
And 2015, the now famous LEAP study was
published. Led by Dr. GideonLack, who was one of the
cofounders of Mission Mighty Me,the LEAP study found that
introducing peanut foods toinfants as early as four to six
months could prevent thedevelopment of peanut allergy by
up to 86%. The federalgovernment updated their
guidance about introducingpeanut foods soon after.
JJ Jaxon (31:34):
And, you know, my wife, Catherine, had found a
quote when she was reading aboutit, from the NIH director that
said that, you know, the resultsof this study have the potential
to transform how we approachfood allergy prevention, and his
quote was that we're talkingabout saving 1000s and 1000s of
(31:54):
kids from peanut allergies. Andthis just really rocked our
world. And this elite study cameout the same year that our third
child was born. And it just gaveus hope that we could actually
do something proactively toprevent another food allergy in
our family with our infant son.
So we thought it would be supereasy, we were just looking to
(32:18):
feed him food. But what wequickly realized is that we
looked everywhere for a productthat helped could help us
introduce early and often to ourinfant son. And it was just, it
was just easier said than done.
nuts and nut butters are chokinghazard for babies. And because
(32:42):
the guidelines that had been inplace for almost 20 years.
Encourage parents to not giveany nuts to their children, the
baby owl was entirely not free,and almost entirely allergen
free. So we were trying to mixpeanut butter into rice cereal,
(33:04):
we were doing anything we couldto try and get peanut into his
diet and also tree nuts. But itwas just really difficult to do.
And I remember super clearly mywife Catherine, in the kitchen
one night was holding up acanister of traditional rice
puffs and she was holding up ajar of peanut butter. And she
(33:28):
said, "Why can't somebody justput these two together?" And and
you know, we there were a lot ofconversations and late night
conversations around who shouldbe doing that. And whether the
big companies were the ones thatwere supposed to be doing it.
But we quickly learned afterdoing a little research that the
big companies are nottraditionally the innovators in
(33:50):
the food space. And so that'swhere the idea for creating a
peanut puff was born. And whatreally started us on our mission
to creating mission mighty me.
Lindsay Stevens (34:02):
One thing that really stuck out to me was just
how simple yet important. Theiridea was. They were just two
parents trying to figure out asafe and easy way to introduce
their child to peanuts. Sincethey launched in March 2020.
They've grown to now have asecond early introduction
product. But this one focuses onthree dots. Here's JJ with what
goes into the research,development and launching of
their product.
JJ Jaxon (34:22):
Oh, it's it's a ton of work. I think even when we
started mission mighty me we hadno idea how much work goes into,
into creating a product. But butit's all for the right reasons.
You know, we have to we want todo everything exactly right. And
so, you know, we we want to makesure that the nut butter puff
(34:47):
is, as you mentioned, had enoughprotein from every single nut
that is included as aningredient so that it's
reasonable for a child to haveat At least two grams of each
nut protein per week. And to doit in a way, that's super easy
(35:07):
for moms and dads and caregiversto just say, Okay, if I just
have a couple pouches a week inmy kid's diet, then I'm doing
exactly what I'm what I need to.
So getting the formulas right tomake sure that there's, you
know, exactly the right amountof nut protein from from each
nut because I'm sure as everyonewould imagine, every different
(35:28):
type of nut has differentprotein levels, and different
forms of nuts come in differentprotein levels. So that that
took a lot of work, making surethat we've got a reliable supply
chain. And super, super tightquality control measures in
place is incredibly important tous. And so that that takes a lot
(35:49):
of work as well. And then makingsure that we can produce the
products like our nut butterpuffs in a way that's really
scalable. So that we can trulyreach mass market and, and get
this out into the world in areally big and impactful way, is
a ton of portrait. And then thelast that maybe the most
(36:10):
important point in formulatingour nut butter puffs was to make
sure they taste great, becauseguess what kids let you know
really fast, if it doesn't tastegood. And if it doesn't taste
good, they're not going to eatit. So there was a lot of work
in formulating us making surethe protein levels were right.
But importantly, making surethat it tastes great. And from
(36:32):
what we've seen so far, childrenlove it. So we're excited about
it.
Lindsay Stevens (36:39):
JJ says the key to their product is making sure
the kids that are ultimatelygoing to be eating their peanut
puffs actually enjoy them.
Luckily for them, they have sometaste testers handy.
JJ Jaxon (36:49):
Oh, definite taste testers. Well, unfortunately,
because my oldest is allergic tonuts, she doesn't get to do as
much taste testing as, as ouryounger to but our younger to
our big taste testers, we in ouroffice have pouches up on a
shelf that initially wereintended for a background with
(37:12):
video interviews. And what wequickly realized is that those
pouches were just evaporating inand our little our little guy
was grabbing pouches as you'dget by. But we actually have a
big panel of taste testersbecause our team of 10 people,
nine of the our team members arewomen and most have children
(37:35):
under two. And so we have whatwe call a peanut panel of all of
our team members, little ones,and you can see them
occasionally on Instagram andother ways that we try to reach
people. They're just incrediblyadorable and cute. And they give
instant feedback in terms of youknow, whether new products we're
(37:58):
creating are going to, you know,are really gonna hit the mark.
You know, another thing that Ihad mentioned in talking about
being a parent and also startingMission Mighty Me, that really
hit home in March of 2020. Whenwe were launching our first
product, our product, peanutpuffs and of course, as everyone
(38:19):
knows, March of 2020, was whenthe COVID-19 global pandemic,
you know, really started sinkingin, that was certainly something
that we didn't see coming inlaunching our first product. But
there we were launching ourfirst product after over two
years of development work tocreate it. And all of our kids
(38:41):
had gone into virtual forschool. And, and it was just
total, and we were working fromhome as well as most of the
world. And it was it was justtotal chaos. But but you know,
being a parent, and you knowworking really hard at creating
something is just a it's quite ajourney, we'll say it will say
(39:03):
that quite a journey, but welove it and we love what we're
doing. And think it can have areally big impact.
Lindsay Stevens (39:09):
Ask your future innovations. Not only are they
looking at expanding from justAmazon to being sold in grocery
stores, but they're looking atexpanding their product line to
include more allergens.
JJ Jaxon (39:19):
We're very excited about the future and our
pipeline in product development.
Our customers continue to askfor more mighty me, and which we
just love, especially when weget videos from customers with
their little and saying moremighty May. So we're working on
on new flavors. We have a planfor other product forms, and
(39:43):
including additional allergens.
You know, we're trying to goabout this very prudently and
make sure that we're doingeverything right. But also be
able to get great products tomarket as soon as we responsibly
can, so, yes, be on the lookoutfor new flavors and new
(40:06):
products, which were, whichwe're very excited about.
Lauren Highfill Williams (40:13):
Going back to the farm for Texas
peanut growers, Lexi, Floyd andher husband, Jared, innovation
means addressing big issues likewater inputs, land value and
supply chain challenges, butalso doing all that they can to
secure a bright future for theirdaughters.
Lexi Floyd (40:28):
But I was a little bit more concerned on the back
side of things, you know, what'sour five year plan? What's our
10 year plan? Estate planning,that's a big thing for us, we
have three girls, I want them tobe in the possession best
position to receive what we'vebuilt. And I want us to be in
the best position to pass thaton. And so I don't want to be,
(40:49):
you know, a family that getsstuck 20 years down the road,
and we've done, we've done noneof that planning. And all of a
sudden, we're in a situationwhere our kids have to figure it
out for themselves. And that'snot fair. I mean, Jared and I
have built this life, you know,primarily, Jared has built all
this. And I've just kind ofmanaged everything. But so I
think that that's reallyimportant. And farmers don't
(41:10):
want to talk about that nobodywants to talk about it is like
pulling teeth, did it get him tosit down and talk about estate
planning, talk about, you know,state taxes? What are we doing
for the future? How are we goingto set this up and different?
Either we do a joint ventureLLC, or entities, how are we
going to set everything up? Sothat the transition someday is
you know, is as smooth aspossible? And, you know, it's
(41:33):
hard to think about thosethings, because they are years
down the road where you know,commodity prices, input water is
right now. But I think, youknow, we've all got to think
about those things. We've allgot to kind of come up with a
game plan because otherwise,yeah, all the work we did with
water and inputs and farming isjust kind of be kind of not
(41:57):
useless. But it'll it'll make abig difference for their future,
their future. And I wanteverything to be set up as best
as we can.
Lauren Highfill Williams (42:04):
Lexi and Jared were the 2019 winners
of the foreign press pienaEfficiency Awards for the
Southwest. Lexie says they havea good balance with Jared being
the dreamer. And her being aself proclaimed type a practical
personality that's led them todefine and address innovation
more holistically and on severalfronts, from technology to
labor.
Lexi Floyd (42:25):
Right off the bat, you think technology. And we do
implement some more innovativetechnological things, especially
because we have such a largeorganic operation. Like we
implement a weed zapper. And alot of people haven't seen it,
but it basically just goesthrough and I don't even, if
they're farmers listening tothis are probably going to
(42:45):
cringe at my description of whathappens. But basically
electrocutes and shocks all theweeds, and it kills them that
way rather than having to applychemical or spraying. So it's
just a little bit more efficienta little bit. It's a different
practice. It works for us. Itmay not work in other
operations, obviously. And soJared kind of he talked about
the weeds after he talked aboutdiversification. And to me,
(43:10):
diversification is likeinnovation, like, you
immediately think doingsomething different. And we do
do a lot of different things. Wetry to diversify with our crops
and rotation is big for us. Butwe're also diversifying our
land. And when I say that, Imean we're really diversifying
where we're geologically andlike location wise, where we're
farming, we've kind of spreadout into different areas of the
South Plains. Financially, we'retrying to diversify, we're
(43:34):
trying to be innovative becausethe farmer can no longer rely or
rely on one crop or one revenuestream, we've really got to, you
know, have a couple of differentrevenue streams. Because when
one is terrible, the other one'sgoing to make up for the
difference. Water is a hugeissue for us, it's can continue
to be a huge issue for us, Ithink through our farming
career. And then employees,we've really tried to innovate
(43:57):
and get our employees to stayfor a long time. Labor is hard
to find good laborers hard tofind. But when you find somebody
that's good, you've got to beable to kind of customize what
they need from us. Each of ouremployees, you know, we kind of
we know we got to you know, theyhave different things that they
value. So we really tried toplay on what they value, what
(44:20):
means the most of them to createan environment where they don't
want to leave, they don't wantto go work for somebody else.
They want to stay with us. Soyou really have to innovate on
all facets of our business. Andthe margins are so small now and
I don't think that's going toget any better. So it's just a
lot of different things. Andlike I said, Jared focuses on
different things to beinnovative about and I focus on
(44:40):
different things. And I thinkthat has really helped us in the
last couple of years, especiallywhen it's been so hard with
commodity prices and inputs. Ithink that the fact that we're
focusing on different facets andwe kind of meet in the middle
has really helped us a lot.
Lauren Highfill Williams (44:54):
Trying something new can be hard for
those who think about all thewhat ifs but Lexi shares her
advice for pharma to herconsidering new ideas.
Lexi Floyd (45:03):
But I think if you play to your strengths, you find
a niche market in your area. Ifyou find something else that
nobody else is doing, that'sgreat. But like you said, how do
they go about starting that? AndI think just having the
confidence in yourself talkingto other farmers and just just
go for it, have a plan, plan itout, mitigate your risk, and I
(45:23):
think you'll be okay. But it isit's intimidating and stressful.
And like I said, I'm on the backend of things. So Gerrard's over
here scheming up all these, youknow, new ideas, and I'm over
here thinking oh, no, you know,and so I know it's, it's scary.
And I'm more on that, that endof kind of being hesitant to
start new things. But I thinkthat if you plan it out, and you
(45:44):
kind of mitigate as much risk asyou can, you can, you can
probably be pretty successful.
So but it all it all turns outin the end, it's all going to be
okay, it's just but it is it'sscary. Farming is stressful, and
it wears on you. But, you know,like I said the beginning,
there's nothing more rewarding.
Lauren Highfill Williams (45:59):
As our guests have shown today,
innovation can start as small asLexi's weed zapper, or JJ and
Catherine's kitchenconversation. Or it can be as
large as Sedrick's trial of anew crop and Peggy's work on
mapping the peanut genome. Thekey is recognizing the
opportunity, putting in the workand taking the leap to help lead
(46:19):
your operation and our industryforward.
Lindsay Stevens (46:25):
Well, Lauren, I gotta say that this might be one
of my favorite episodes, it'salways so fun to hear about the
new products, and I love hearingabout the new ideas on the
horizon. Which leads me to myquestion for you. So if you were
to be a peanut innovator, whatarea in our industry would you
want to work in? And what typeof product would you create? So
like industry like research,allergy manufacturing, that kind
(46:46):
of sort of thing?
Lauren Highfill Williams (46:48):
Yeah, well, I'm very lucky in that I
feel like I'm already a part ofinnovation in the industry,
really, from the marketing andcommunications side. So that's
really cool. But I think justbeing fresh off some recent
shows that we've done, we werejust at the School Nutrition
Association annual conference inOrlando. And there is such
(47:12):
demand for those pre made peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, you
know, there's one manufacturerthat's making them and they've,
they've said that they don'teven really know what the demand
is, because they've never beenable to meet it. And they're the
one company out there, makingthem. And we got so many
(47:34):
questions from folks who justwant to have more of those pre
made peanut butter and jellysandwiches, it's like, I don't
know, another factory needs tobe built or another company
needs to get in on the game. ButI think just you know, if I
could, I would just build agiant factory in order to make
more of those peanut butter andjelly sandwiches. Because
(47:57):
sometimes you know that that'sthe innovation part of just, you
know, everybody loves a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich, we
just need to figure out how tohow to meet that demand and get
them into the hands of morepeople. So that's kind of what's
been on my mind lately in thespace of innovation. But what
about you, Lindsay?
Lindsay Stevens (48:16):
Um, I think that I'd have to go with
research just because, you know,I have a very curious mind. I
like to know why things work theway they do so. And for what I
would invent. I would inventsome sort of machine to help
with organic harvesting.
Lauren Highfill Williams (48:37):
Yes, we know that is a big issue.
Lindsay Stevens (48:39):
You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go with a
topical a topical researchmachine. So yeah, that's what
mine would be.
Lauren Highfill Williams (48:45):
Yeah.
Need to patent that idea. Allright.
Lindsay Stevens (48:52):
All right.
Okay, so we want to go into ourpeanut Fun Fact of the Day. So
Lauren, one of our presidentshas said that their favorite
sandwich is a peanut butter andbanana sandwich. Which president
was it?
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:09):
I'm just gonna go straight for the
obvious or what seems obvious tome. And that would be Jimmy
Carter. Right? He was the peanutpresident. So very likely, his
favorite sandwich would bepeanut butter, and banana. Is
that right?
Lindsay Stevens (49:22):
No. It's uh, oh, the guy that was a good I
like how, you know, that wouldthat would be the the easy
answer, but it's actually BillClinton.
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:34):
Oh my gosh, that was gonna be my
Lindsay Stevens (49:37):
Not a lot of connections to peanuts, but
guess.
that's the sandwich.
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:41):
Okay, good to know. All right, um,
file that away.
Lindsay Stevens (49:45):
Thank you all again for listening to the
peanut podcast. We'll see youagain in August for our next
episode.
Lauren Highfill Williams (49:51):
And as always, don't forget to
subscribe to the podcast on theplatform you're listening to us
on and if you would like to findout more information about
anything we've talked abouttoday or see our sources then go
toNationalPeanutBoard.org/podcast.
See you next time.
Lindsay Stevens (50:07):
Bye y'all
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.