July 16, 2025 • 44 mins
What happens when 400 vegan activists storm your chicken houses? How do you rally an entire county to defeat a ballot measure designed to eliminate family farming? And what drives someone to keep producing food when faced with one existential threat after another?
Mike Weber, fourth-generation California egg farmer, doesn't just survive challenges—he transforms them into opportunities for community building and innovation. From the moment his family decided to "bet the farm" and modernize their century-old operation, they've faced a gauntlet of trials that would have broken most businesses: activist invasions, politically-motivated ballot initiatives, and devastating avian influenza outbreaks.
"We've been tested by fire and flame and everything there possibly is in the last few years—and it's kind of made us stronger for it," Weber explains. His story reveals the remarkable resilience at the heart of American agriculture and the complex reality of farming just 35 miles from San Francisco. When vegan activists orchestrated what Weber calls a "vegan insurrection" on their property, the farm responded not with anger but with transparency. When a ballot initiative threatened all animal agriculture in their county, the Webers helped unite an entire community around their agricultural heritage, eventually winning by an astonishing 85% to 15% margin.
Most powerfully, Weber's account challenges simplistic narratives about modern farming. His operation pioneers environmental sustainability with 2,500 solar panels, innovative manure processing systems, and organic fertilizer production. When neighboring farms faced avian influenza outbreaks, Weber and his team suited up in protective gear to help contain the spread—putting community welfare above competitive advantage.
"Someone's got to feed America," Weber says when asked why he persists despite these extraordinary challenges. His philosophy of stewardship speaks to a deeper purpose: "This isn't our farm. We're just taking care of it until our dad comes back...and we want him to be really proud about where we're at."
Ready to understand what really happens behind the scenes in American agriculture? Listen now to this eye-opening conversation that will forever change how you think about the people who produce your food.
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Mulnix (00:22):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your Brandon Mulnix, and ontoday's episode I have Mike
Weber.
Mike Weber is fourth generationfarmer in California and I'm
excited to share Mike's storywith you because, as I've gotten
(00:44):
to know the Weber family overthe last five years, it has been
an absolute pleasure because Ihaven't met two brothers more
passionate and more engaged intheir farm on a whole than these
two.
They live it, they breathe itand I'm excited to share Mike
with you.
So, Mike, welcome to the show.
Mike Weber (01:00):
Thank you, thanks for letting me be part of it.
Brandon Mulnix (01:03):
Hey Mike, can you give the audience a little
summary about mike weber, alittle introduction about
yourself and maybe the weberfarm?
Mike Weber (01:12):
yeah, we're, you said we're we're fourth
generation farmers and I knowthere's many people that are
fifth and sixth and seventhcalifornia.
We're kind of a dying breed.
You have to be kind of halfcrazy to be in farming in the
first place and then to do itgeneration after generation got
to be even crazier.
And it's not easy to compete ina way where you have to have
(01:35):
lots of capital these days,especially to be in poultry
where it's insanely capitalintensive, and to then also have
the skills to deal with all thechallenges.
And we've had a whole slew ofinteresting challenges.
So we've kind of been tested byfire and flame and everything
there possibly is in the lastfew years and kind of made us
(01:57):
stronger for it.
So we operate an egg farm, so weproduce table eggs for Northern
California, both organic andstandard conventional white,
cage-free eggs.
We managed the cage-freetransition in California which
happened several years ago.
First we managed a transitionwhere we had to go from really
(02:18):
no specification how much spacefor birds to a prop two standard
, which meant they had 116inches per bird, and then to
cage-free, which is kind of likeColumbus burning his ships.
And then we've dealt with ourfun with animal activists and
we've dealt with bird flu forthe last couple years in our
area and we've been a victim ofit and we've been a successor,
(02:41):
in the sense we overcame it andprevented it from coming back.
So we've had some good fun andsomehow we still managed to be
brothers.
It's good.
Brandon Mulnix (02:50):
So, in looking back on a little bit of your
history and just what I've knownand heard about the farm, when
you and your brother kind oftook over, it wasn't by normal
happenstance, correct.
Mike Weber (03:08):
Well, our dad had been a poultryman since the day
he was born and my grandfatherour grandfather had built a
bunch of chicken houses on thisproperty which is adjacent to
the original property that ourgreat-grandfather had poultry
buildings on.
So when our dad was, dad waspretty much incapacitated in his
last years and he had onefunctioning chicken house and we
(03:33):
were in a partnership with someof their partners and had some
other ranches.
But everything was pretty datedand pretty end of life from an
equipment perspective.
I wasn't part of the business.
I had flown the coop if youwant to make a pun on it and was
working in the professionalworld.
It was real evident to us thatif we were going to stay in it
(03:54):
we were going to have to bet thefarm, bet the inheritance and
just kind of risk everything.
Either that or you sell the farmand close it down, which so
many of our friends growing upwe watch their families and both
dairy and poultry go through,you know, and that's just the
ongoing crisis with farming.
There was kind of a need deepdown inside, like a legacy need,
(04:14):
you know, that we wanted tofulfill a little bit.
And then there was also kind ofa like, a little bit of a
gambler need that I think we can.
I think we can do this needthat.
I think we can do this and Ithink we can do it well because
the farmers of today, they haveto be able to adapt, they have
to be a little more nimble.
They don't necessarily need tobe smarter, it helps.
(04:38):
But you just got to be able topivot and at times, make some
really tough decisions and becomfortable with the decision
you made and see where theroulette wheel turns out when it
stops rolling.
And we've done that severaltimes.
And the harder we work, youknow, as the saying goes, the
luckier we've been able to get.
Brandon Mulnix (05:00):
So you took over from dad.
You've built this business and,as you mentioned, it hasn't
been easy.
Looking back on growing up withdad being a poultry man, what
is one of the things that youlearned from your dad that
you're able to continue to usetoday?
Mike Weber (05:22):
It's a really good question.
My dad had a lot more patiencethan I have, so I'm still
learning that one A little moretolerance.
Yeah, he was also one of thosewho talked about self-denial
that yes, there are things youwant, that's great, keep working
, you don't need them.
He had that mindset.
(05:43):
There's seven days in the week,so you work seven days and even
when you weren't physicallyworking, you're still working.
So we've had that drive forquite a while.
Sometimes you need that extramuscle to get through the highs
and lows.
One of the things I saw realquickly when I came back with my
that helped me to rememberlearning that our dad taught was
(06:06):
to always be looking for theroot cause of things you know.
So one of the things we'realways looking at is what caused
this problem.
Brandon, I'm happy you fixed it.
That's great, gold star.
You know great job, gold star.
You know great job.
But if you can't tell me why itbroke and we're just as much at
(06:28):
risk today because we don'tknow what put us in that bad
situation and how can we changethings, redo the process, put
other things in place so wedon't find ourselves in that
situation again.
(06:57):
For me, things have become socomplex that I get pulled into.
I call them the morning turds.
I show up and I collecteverybody's morning turds.
Everybody's got a turd to throwin my basket that I got to deal
with and that's just part oflife, right?
So once they're resolved, myfocus is in preventing it from
happening again and putting ineither process or changes so
we're not going to see that onepop up and have that discussion
with them, or that they caneither predict it happening so
(07:19):
we can cut it off before ithappens, or that they're
empowered to do whatever'sneeded, so that you know we're
free of this kind of sillinessso we can keep focusing on the
important stuff.
You know it took coming backand picking that up from my
brother and then having himreally illustrate to me you know
(07:39):
, the teaching that our dad gaveus way back when.
Brandon Mulnix (07:42):
So, speaking of your brother, not everybody can
work with family.
Has it always been easy to workwith your brother?
Mike Weber (07:50):
Yeah, it's a great question.
We're very different people, soI think that's what really
helps, and we both have adifferent way to process things.
We both have a different waywhen we get frustrated or
whatever.
You know, part of it is justyou know, I'm much more
transparent and this is how Ifeel.
(08:11):
This is what I think, this iswhat we should do, and for some
people, you kind of you have togive them time to process and
come to their own conclusion onit, and you can't press them.
So I know how to work with themthat way.
There's other times when I justlook over at him Are we good,
ready to go?
Or he'll look at me You're good, yeah, let's go.
(08:31):
And at that point thedecision's made.
We didn't have to have a boardof directors and sit around
eating pastries and sippingStarbucks and all that kind of
crap.
You just hit the ground andstart going.
And there's times when there'sso much uncertainty or we're
facing something that doesn'tlook good, but it's like, okay,
well, can't run from it, it'sour mess to go fix, let's go do
(08:55):
it.
We find ourselves gravitatinginto the roles where our
personalities and our strengthsbenefit us the most.
And because we're so different.
That way it's a powerfulcombination.
I haven't had a businessexperience where I've been this
fortunate.
Too often in big companiespeople are kind of homogeneous
(09:16):
and have the diversity of talent, experience and passion to win
together.
Brandon Mulnix (09:23):
That's great that you have a partner like
Scott.
Yeah, he's a good dude love,love my time hanging out with
him.
I always learn something fromhim and it's always a blessing
to be around him.
Now you mentioned morning turds.
I really like that, thatanalogy but you guys have faced
a lot of morning turds and oneof them that has really stood
(09:45):
out to me that most farms in theUS have not had to experience
is the fact that you happen tobe 30-40 minutes from just kind
of an area where that produces alot of folks that just don't
like farming, and I'd like totalk a little bit about the
(10:07):
activism and some of the thingsthat you guys have had to
experience that most farms justtake for granted as they read in
the news and they see it, butyou guys have actually
experienced it.
Can you give me some of thebackground on that?
Mike Weber (10:21):
Yeah, so we're in Northern California, just north
of San Francisco, maybe 30 miles, 35 miles.
We're also north of Oakland andBerkeley, and Berkeley has a
pretty famous university thereincredible university, a lot of
really smart people, talentedpeople.
But it also has some peoplethat are kind of on the fringe
(10:43):
in many different areas, andthere was a vegan activist group
that came together with thesole purpose of putting animal
agriculture out of business.
That's their whole mission andit's their lifestyle, it's their
religion, it's every part oftheir who they are is defined by
their veganism.
(11:05):
And there's, if you know,people who are vegan.
I have quite a few friends.
Many of them are there for areason that they have either
they just don't like meat orthey have a belief that by not
(11:27):
eating meat or meat products oranimal products benefits the
environment, which is great.
But seldom do they come out andsay you're an evil person.
So this is a subset of the oneor two percent of Americans that
are vegan.
They're young people.
They're preyed upon by thepeople who kind of founded it
and they believe that theyshould have direct action,
meaning you should go andconfront the places where meat
(11:47):
and animal products are produced, are processed or are sold.
So they will go intosupermarkets and they'll take
crazy glue and stick them righton the meat counter and glue
themselves to it.
They will take what looks likeblood and in front of a store
they'll dump blood all over themto and start screaming all
(12:07):
these horrible things, Uh.
They will chain themselves atpoultry ranches and at meat
packing places andslaughterhouses to try to raise
awareness that meat is bad.
You know, we believe stronglyeverybody's got the right to
free speech.
But there's a time when youkind of turn in your right to
(12:28):
free speech.
When you're trespassing on aproperty, You're impacting
somebody's business, puttingyourself and others at danger
and actually costing thatcompany.
And that's what this particulargroup has done to several
different poultry and dairyoperations in California,
including our own.
Brandon Mulnix (12:47):
Are you able to talk about anything specific
that you had to deal with?
Mike Weber (12:59):
Oh sure.
So we had 400 people get bussedin to the cemetery where my
parents and grandparents andgreat-grandparents are buried.
They got out of the buses there, they ran up to our farm and
they ran onto our property andoccupied our property.
They conducted a veganinsurrection.
They pried open the doors thelocked doors to our poultry
buildings and they ran in thereto rescue the abused and dying
(13:23):
chickens that they stated wereall over the building and when
they emerged, they were holdingthese totally emaciated, fully
feathered, nice, great.
Everything about the birds thatcame out were perfect.
You know, the birds were like56 weeks of age.
They're fully feathered.
There wasn't even a single birdthat had a few feathers missing
(13:45):
from its neck or its vent.
Everything was perfect.
It was like you couldn't findthe dead ones were so fast they
couldn't keep up with them, theyjust ran away.
So these vegan activistsweren't able to get any sick or
dying birds, although they saidthey were everywhere, you know.
So I made fun of it, but it'slike the hypocrisy in their
statements.
And so I filmed it.
(14:07):
I filmed all the people thatcame out.
I filmed every one of the birds.
I filmed them holding it andnone of them actually understood
how to hold a chicken, whichyou know for most people.
If you're at home, you mightnot understand how to hold a
chicken, but you don't go up andhold a baby, you know, by its
neck, like this.
Well, chickens, they have airsacs.
You don't crush their air sacsand when you put a whole bunch
(14:29):
of pressure around their belly,where their air sacs are, they
can't breathe.
So what they do is they sticktheir head out and they open
their mouth and they you knowthey look like they're
struggling because they are.
A chicken needs to roost on aperson's hand.
It's the first thing we teachany new employee.
This is how you hold a chicken.
Let it sit on your hands.
It'll grab it.
Wrap your arms around the wingsso they won't slap.
(14:50):
You can walk all over the place.
Chicken will be fine.
It's breathing fine.
None of these individuals knewwhat the hell they were doing,
but you know they were inholding this insurrection event
to steal our chickens and do aprotest.
It took a couple hours forpolice to get them to move up
(15:10):
there and it's not like we got ahuge law enforcement presence
in our county.
There's two people, two sheriffofficers that are South County.
So they called in all the localpolice jurisdictions for help
and finally these individualsmoved to the top of the property
and they continued to protestand they had even called the
media.
And what's funny about themedia was the San Francisco News
Channel was there and the guyhad a camera and he put it down
(15:33):
and I remember standing up thereand listening and they're
saying why aren't you filming?
Why aren't you filming?
Contrived, it's a form ofperformative acting to try to
show this contrived outrage thatthese are horrible people and
they're doing all these horriblethings.
But when we looked at theirlive streams and we looked at
(15:54):
all the video that they posted,not once did we see a dead
chicken.
So our employees had picked upall the dead chickens, because
we have dead chickens Every farmdoes.
The employees had picked up allthe injured chickens if there
were any, and put them inhospital pens or dealt with them
appropriately, because theyweren't able to find any of
those.
They spotted one egg that hadsome blood on it and it was from
(16:16):
the flock.
That was a 20 week old flock.
So the birds are just startingto lay eggs and that can happen.
It's just starting to ovulate.
So everything we saw was and wewe reviewed everything with an
animal welfare expert just tomake sure there wasn't anything
where there was an exposure.
There's nothing there.
It took us five years to supportour local prosecutors to
(16:38):
prosecute the leader of this.
They prosecuted everybody elsebut they all took a deal and
bailed out, but the leader ofthis organization, he went
through the whole thing and itwas ultimately found guilty of
conspiracy, of a variety ofdifferent things, and it was a
felony.
So you've got a felonyconviction, which is huge
because he's a lawyer and hetried to represent himself.
(17:01):
And he represented himself sowell that the judge actually
wrote a letter to the CaliforniaBar in complaint.
The way he conducted himselfallowed some of the activists
who were in the courtroom everyday go and approach the jurors
or try to friend them onFacebook and tell them how they
should vote for, you know, toacquit him and all this crazy
(17:23):
stuff.
Like I said, there's somethingthat's not balanced about the
small subset of vegans that aresupporting this.
First thing, you got to know,not everybody who is a vegan
thinks this way.
In fact, the vast majority ofthem think those guys are just
batshit crazy and I don't knowwhat the hell's wrong with them.
(17:43):
But you know, we've got torealize that if one of those
individuals shows up at a farmlike ours and you're not doing
all the right things and you'renot checking, you know every day
did you do the things you sayyou do you're going to be
crucified in the court of publicopinion because they're going
to find something.
(18:04):
You're going to be crucified inthe court of public opinion
because they're going to findsomething.
And there's days when I turnand I find that somebody has
picked up a chicken that passedaway in the night and instead of
putting it in the properreceptacle, they put it right in
the middle of the aisle at theentrance and I'm like what the
hell is this doing here?
You know there's no way this isacceptable and I'll make sure
they get written up and makesure their managers get written
(18:24):
up, because it happened, so thateverybody realizes that when
someone shows up the camera, youcan't get that back.
You have to be as responsible aspossible about everything.
You have to have your processeswritten down and just assume
that individuals like thesethey're going to show up at your
door or they're already thereat night sneaking into your
(18:44):
houses this particularorganization.
They're not just in Californiaanymore.
They're taking their actionsall across the country and
nobody's immune to them.
Their actions all across thecountry and nobody's immune to
them.
It's hard, it's really hard, tobe a small farm, because you got
to put up fences and camerasand all this stuff.
You got to spend time.
I have to teach our employeesevery year what to do if they
(19:07):
come back.
You know how not to engage them, where to go hide so you don't
get hurt.
So we don't know what they'regoing to want to do.
So instead of teaching myemployees on animal welfare and
other things, I want to provethere I have to look out for
their own safety, because theseindividuals that are associated
with these groups they're justcrazy.
So it's taxing us.
(19:28):
If we were a big farm in themiddle of the cornfield in Iowa
and we had a 20-foot fence withCortina wire all over it, Piece
of cake.
But we're a small family farmso it's tough and we're not the
only ones being targeted.
It's going to keep going acrossour state and in our country.
Brandon Mulnix (19:48):
You dealt with them.
You continue to look over yourshoulder, you continue to train
your employees how to deal withthat and then a ballot
initiative comes that reallywants to put you out of business
or has potential of putting youout of business.
Can you describe that ballotinitiative that you had to
(20:08):
overcome?
Mike Weber (20:09):
Yeah, so the ballot initiative was put on our local
ballot in our county by thisactivist group, so individuals
from this Berkeley organization.
They purposely moved people uphere and they found somebody who
would author a ballot.
They stood out in front ofgrocery stores and they said
(20:31):
we're collecting signatures.
If you think animals need to besafe and cared for you, you got
to sign this to protect theanimals.
Didn't say anything about whatit was really designed to do.
So in our county there's half amillion people and maybe 250 to
280,000 vote every majorelection sort of thing, and what
(20:52):
ultimately happened is they gotenough more than enough
signatures to put it on theballot and then they started
their campaign the ballotinitiative would eliminate it
was designed to eliminatepoultry operations, meaning egg
layers and broilers and ducks.
We have several duck farms hereand dairy farms and it was
(21:14):
punitive by the size.
If you were a larger dairy, ifyou had more than 700 cows, you
know you weren't allowed to bein business.
You had to sell your cows, yourherd off until you got to 700.
But even then at 700, it openedthem up to exposure that
anybody could sue them forenvironmental issues and they
didn't even have to prove it,like they could sue them civilly
, and established this, thiscrazy stuff, that we already
(21:37):
have protections for clean airand clean water and soil and all
of that.
You know, those are allestablished in our county and
nationally.
This sought to even createanother layer of exposure for
anybody who's farming.
And when you're a personal farm, it's not like you can hire a
corporate lawyer, you know.
It's not like you can reallydefend yourself.
So they come, come in and theydo these things to shake you
down.
You're going to pay to avoidhaving to go to court, not to
(22:00):
even get to court.
So every weekend they sentpeople up to our county and they
canvassed the areas, knockingon doors, handing out their
pamphlets, doing their protests,protesting in front of poultry
farms, protesting at a poultryprocessing plant, grocery stores
, everything you could possiblythink of, well-organized, all
(22:21):
sorts of crazy stuff.
And as a community we had tocome together to fight it.
And this was.
You know, this was really earlyon.
It was clear that if we didn'tcome together and get everybody
on our side, they might not win.
They might lose by a squeaker,but they'd be back and they'd
kill us as local farmers.
So I immediately ran towardpart of the founding group and
(22:45):
board that ultimately got everyone of our supervisors, every
one of our city councils, everyone of the police and fire
departments and unions on board.
Every you know we had a list ofall the big employers, every
big employer, more than 50people signed on.
Countless farms, countlessother individuals associated
(23:06):
with our county.
At the end of the day, you know,the only people that were left
supporting this group were likea vegan bakery and you know some
like a hairdresser or something, and and we did rallies, we did
presentations and speeches.
You know I felt like apolitician.
We work all day and then you'reout shaking hands and kissing
(23:28):
babies and then the next dayit's rinse and repeat.
It was like that.
And did the debates, thetelevised debates and, you know,
on radio shows.
And what I saw, though, after apoint, was people in this county
had their roots reawakened.
You know that they realizedthey came to this because it's a
farm town.
Those cows that are out in ourpastures here they're pastured
(23:49):
cows.
We don't have a big feedlot, soour cows are on pastures.
Those cows aren't factoryworkers, they're not factory
farms, with these black andwhite factory workers walking
over 1,000 acres out in therolling hills.
This is a beautiful area andit's all organic farms.
We don't have conventionaldairies here and so the
narrative on their side startedto fall apart and we took their
(24:12):
wings off and pretty soon acrossthe whole county were these
signs.
It was no on J.
Everywhere you went it was noon J and, as stressful as it was
, there was something socomforting and beautiful about
everywhere I would turn.
There was a sign there sayingwe stand with you.
You know, I might run a bakery,but I stand with the farmers.
(24:34):
I might run a bar, but I standwith the farmers.
I've got a muffler shop.
I'm with the farmers Everywhereyou looked.
And we had these debates at theboard meetings Should we keep
making these signs?
And the guy who was the tenuredpolitical insider said you
can't be spending all your moneyon the signs.
And we kept overruling him andsaid no, we need to spend all we
(24:54):
possibly can.
And they were throughout theentire county.
In the end, we defeated themeasure and, by a landslide 85%
to 15% absolutely destroyed them.
In fact, the proponents I thinkthey got less votes at the end
of the day than signatures thatthey had originally turned in,
where they had swindled peopleinto thinking that they had
(25:15):
originally turned in, where theyhad swindled people into
thinking that they were doingsomething that was smart.
We had environmental groups onour side.
We had, you know, everything inour county saying this is part
of the culture, what the essenceof who we are, and why would we
ever think about getting rid ofa local food system?
You know, and all the differentchallenges that our world faces
(25:37):
, exporting the people whoproduce our food away from here
just doesn't make sense.
Brandon Mulnix (25:44):
So that was a wonderful day Way to see the
blessing in all of that, becausethe distraction of something
like that and at the end of theday, a lot of money was raised,
a lot of support for not yourfarm, not just your farm, but
the whole farm, I mean the dairy, everything, the culture of
that community.
(26:04):
It is a beautiful area.
It's one of my early memoriesin the Coast Guard was being out
to Station Petaluma, not toofar from one of your farms, and
that was I.
Just.
There's some really fondmemories of that area and how
beautiful it is and to thinkwhat it would look like without
farming.
But these activists aren'tgoing away and thankfully you
(26:28):
guys actually learned a lot andI know you've shared a lot of
what worked.
But it's just a matter of timebefore they find a weaker
community that doesn't standbehind the farmers.
And it could be anywhere in theUS, it's not just California.
That's the crazy part.
Mike Weber (26:48):
Yeah, they went down to Harris Ranch in Kern County.
You know, which is not even apurple county, it's red, red
meat.
You know they're targetingthese different areas.
I don't think they care, Ireally don't.
Our residents are upset withthem and they're not going to
win the hearts and minds of ourpeople.
But I don't think that mattersto them.
(27:10):
They'll keep dragging it out,They'll keep taxing us if they
can.
And my last two cents on thisis you know, every farm should
run their operation astransparent as possible, even
though you don't have to betransparent.
But just assume the news crewsare going to show up tomorrow.
Assume there's going to be adisaster at some point and you
have to open it up and showeverybody your training records,
(27:32):
your policies, what it lookslike inside.
You got to do it and just beprepared for that.
So there is no there.
Brandon Mulnix (27:41):
There, when someone comes in and makes that
claim, you make it through thatand then you turn the corner,
that fight's over.
But at the same time avianinfluenza is everywhere you look
.
Mike Weber (27:57):
Well, yeah, so avian influenza that actually hit us
before Measure J.
So we got hit in December of2023.
This past November was theelection cycle.
So, while we're fightingagainst the measure, you know
our poultry operation here,which for 112 years had chickens
(28:18):
in the operation, we had nochickens and we wrote a
six-figure check to support theopposition because it was an
existential kind of situationthat failure wasn't an option.
So, yeah, fire everything yougot, we're coming back, we're
(28:38):
coming at you.
And bird flu came and got us.
It wasn't our fault, it wasn'tanything we did, and I'm not
wanting to put blame on otherpeople, but we were like number
seven dominoes that fell.
That it fell, domino, domino,domino, domino, domino, and we
could just see the ranch wasgetting closer and closer.
(28:59):
The last one was less than halfa mile away.
It's like a quarter of a mileaway, and the amount of uh, of
shedding that happened and aircurrents that were coming our
way.
We just knew one of the birdson our operation that this ranch
had 550 000 birds.
One of them was going to getone air sack with a little bit
of virus and that was going toend it all, which it did, and
(29:21):
you know it happens.
This last year we've spent, youknow, getting our legs back
underneath us and getting ouroperation going, which has been
great.
During this last winter, whenmuch of California got decimated
a second time, we had oneincident not far from where you
were when you were at the CoastGuard, which is about roughly
(29:41):
eight miles upwind of where ourfarm is, with the 550,000 birds,
and it was a duck farm.
The first round of bird flu thatwe all went through in the
community pulled everybodytogether so we all had an early
warning system.
If somebody had a bird thatcoughed, everybody was told
right away.
Well, he had a bird thatcoughed and he said something's
not right One of my barns, I'msending them in get testing.
(30:04):
And he notified us and then hegot tests.
I got bad news and I called himright away and the question was
what do you got to put yourbirds down?
Do you need help?
And he said honestly, I've gotone employee and I got thousands
of birds here that are infected.
And my question was what timedoes CDFA arrive?
(30:24):
Do you oversee the site, takecontrol of it?
And that next day at 12 noon Ishowed up with a crew of people
dressed in Tyvek suits, latexgloves on.
We had duct tape over our arms.
People have gone through allthis.
They know exactly what it is.
The people don't think I'mcrazy, but we showed up to go
into battle, masks on maskbehind our head, because you
(30:46):
always lose this one here.
A fake pocket with extra glovesin it because you're going to
break one of your gloves.
New boots we just bought at thelocal Home Depot, so everybody
was walking in with fresh bootsthat we didn't have to disinfect
and we could throw away whenwe're done, and everything we
needed to do on site, everything, all the equipment needed to
euthanize those animals thatwere infected.
(31:06):
And we're posing a threat to allthe poultry operations in our
areas and potentially even thedairies, because there's active
shedding going on.
And this is like a you know forpeople who are at home and
don't really understand what'sgoing on from a bird food
perspective.
Think about being on a planewhere there's a section of
people who are actively sickwith COVID right, it's not going
(31:27):
to stay there, it's going to goto the whole plane.
And in a community where you'vegot 10,000 animals that are
infected and shedding, meaningthey're producing a huge amount
of virus, that virus getsairborne and it's just going to
move.
And as soon as one of theminhales it, they now got it and
it's 100% deadly, you know.
So we ran to that guy'soperation as fast as we could
(31:49):
get on there and we were allowedto come on 12 noon the next day
and we did everything we couldto help him to, in a very humane
way, euthanize those animalsand get them covered up, because
there's a youth and there's awind event that night.
So we visqueened everythingthrough pallets on top of the
piles and we left that night,took off all our clothes, like
(32:09):
stripped down naked in the thestreet, sprayed ourselves down
with disinfected, changed intoother clothes and garbage bagged
everything just like by thebook.
And I think that event was theonly time in California's
history where CDFA has been ableto hit the mandated goal that
we want every animal on theproperty of an infected property
(32:30):
euthanized within 24 hours.
And the success out of it wasthat it didn't spread.
No other farms got it, so weall were able to continue our
business, even though this poorfarmer had the misfortune of
losing all of his birds.
That's what everybody needs to.
If you're in the poultrybusiness right now.
You need to have that plan.
(32:51):
You can't run away from thebullets anymore.
You've got to run toward themand stamp them out.
We've got a trailer that'sloaded with all the PPE, all the
equipment, co2 bottles,everything that's needed to
start euthanizing immediatelyshould something like this
happen.
Because until we have a vaccineand our flocks and our herds are
vaccinated, these birds aregoing to suffer.
(33:12):
And there's an animal welfareaspect to this that you know
we're not talking about.
And these animals are sufferingas they're going through this,
and it's a disease that could bepreventable that if we could
give them a vaccine, the flocksmay not get it and then the ones
that do get it, they may not beable to shed enough that it
affects the next operation.
(33:33):
So, to be a producer of tablequality eggs, my responsibility
is to protect my flocks, butalso the neighboring ducks, the
neighboring chickens, theneighboring broiler operations.
You know from disease as well.
They don't deserve to bethreatened by something that's
preventable when a vaccine'savailable and widely used
(33:54):
throughout the world right now.
Brandon Mulnix (33:56):
Mike, why do you do it?
Why do you wake up in themorning and go to work?
Mike Weber (34:06):
There's some fun that happens.
I work with a lot of reallygood people.
It's great working with mybrother, but I work with a lot
of really really good people whocome to work really hard, who
don't get the attention theydeserve.
Ones that are producing ourfood and prepping our food and
processing our food and takingcare of our landscaping and our
gardens those folks that arebeing vilified right now.
They all have a story.
(34:27):
They all work really hard,they're great people and they
care for our animals in thekindest manner.
So someone's got to feedAmerica.
And you get a sense of prideafter a while when you realize
how well you're doing it.
We're doing it on a farm wherewe've got 2,500 solar panels
running our egg production, ourprocessing, our manure
processing.
We're the first in the state toput in manure dryers to dry the
(34:50):
manure so there wouldn't be anystink.
We're the first to put in apellet mill on site to pelletize
the manure and that goes tosupport organic farmers from
Oregon border all the way downto Southern California.
And we did it first because itlooked like the right thing to
do, but it was also fun.
So I get to have relationshipswith guys Like right now I've
been shipping to the world'slargest organic rice grower.
(35:10):
I got a great relationship witha rice company.
You know just fun.
I got a great relationship witha rice company.
You know, just fun.
I got great relationships withguys who are growing vineyard
grapes for wine, the wineindustry, or hops or nut growers
, and you know we get to go andmeet other guys and press the
flesh and there's something funand exciting about that.
(35:32):
We're not just this little.
You know I produce an egg.
Here's your box of eggs.
Thank you very much.
A lot of people depending on usand it's fun to be part of that
food web, so it's kind ofexciting.
It's better than a desk jobsomewhere you know most days.
Brandon Mulnix (35:47):
Now the question is is there a fifth generation
coming up through?
Mike Weber (35:52):
Yeah, it's possible.
My dad didn't put any pressureon me to come back and I think
it was really seeing that therewas a major change hitting our
industry.
That helped me to realize ifwe're going to bet the farm, you
fully invest yourself in it.
You don't place your bet, siton the sidelines.
You get out there andquarterback the game or throw
(36:15):
the blocks that are needed sothat you can score the touchdown
.
So we'll see.
There's enough great peoplehere at our operation that I
know.
Even if our family doesn'tcarry it forward, they're going
to be here for anothergeneration.
We've got my dad's foreman, whoworked for him for 40 years.
We've employed several of hiskids and we still got a couple
(36:37):
of them employed, which is great, and they're best friends.
I mean, we used to playtogether as little kids where I
didn't speak any Spanish, theydidn't speak any English, but
God, did we ever have fun, youknow?
Brandon Mulnix (36:49):
And now here we are, these old kids who, you
know, still do the same sort ofthings and at the end of the day
, it's just, it's great, greatbeing able to work with good
friends, good people you know,mike, I know we could talk for
hours you already prefaced thatbefore we even started the
recording that you've got a lotto share, and I'd like to
(37:14):
transition just one little bitto someone out there that this
is new stuff for them.
For them, what else should theybe thinking of when it comes to
the industry, whether that'sthe joys or something?
Mike Weber (37:33):
that you can share so that they can also grow.
We're in a very progressivepart of California, you know,
and I think California is kindof seeding the country right now
, even though the country ispolitically, you know, in all
different directions.
People are starting to havesome of their values shift a
little bit.
What we've been doing is tryingto be as responsible as we can
from a farming perspective, totruly love the land and not take
(37:56):
as much from it or not polluteit as much, or the water or the
air.
And we do that through avariety of different things.
And when I tell those storiesabout the effort that we make,
the actions that we take and I'min public, it earns me a little
ticket that I can cash in everyyear to stay in business.
(38:18):
I'm not saying you have to doit.
A lot of these things we do andwe know that you're not going
to get a return on it.
A lot of these things we do andwe know that you're not going
to get a return on it.
But you know, when I show upand I say, oh yeah, this is.
We could be like everybody elseand just take the stuff and
push it all outside and let therain wash it away or, you know,
(38:48):
spread it on somebody's fieldover and over again until the
phosphate levels are so high.
You know it's like irradiated.
Or we can do the right thingand look for a better way to do
it.
That's long term, just as likemakes really good sense, making
the hard choice to try to seekout those solutions.
Invest in those areas.
It does win you a lot of secretsupporters and admirers and
that came out a lot when we weredoing our political battle
where I was just part of a groupof farmers, but I was also part
(39:11):
of farmers not in the poultryside but on the dairy side that
were kind of on the other end ofthe progressives.
Where they were, there was alot of improvement needed and
having examples where you'reshowing that there are a lot of
people that are doing the rightthing.
In our area there's a guy namedAlbert Strauss who is one of
the most famous and progressivedairymen.
(39:32):
He's got an incredible brandand he's been fighting from an
environmental perspective forthe longest time and he's more
just transforming people'smindset, what you need to do.
But you can be transformativeand run a big conventional
operation, you know, and you canalso make investments in things
like solar and other areas andget a payback, you know, in four
(39:53):
years or less.
So it's not like you'rethrowing the money away, and
we've been fortunate that someof the investments that we've
made have paid us back inwonderful ways.
And it also got the attention.
Yeah, that is a responsible wayto do it, and when you look
like you're the responsibleparty who's also producing food,
(40:13):
you get that little ticket soyou can stay in business a
little bit longer.
It gives you the rule that thetie always goes to the runner,
and in that case we're therunner, and that's what we all
need, because life farming ishard enough as it is.
Brandon Mulnix (40:29):
Any last advice for someone just getting in the
industry or just from the wisdomthat Mike has acquired all
these years?
Mike Weber (40:40):
God wisdom.
I just say don't take yourselftoo seriously, you know, and try
to try to learn from some good.
People ask a lot of questions.
The mindset that we have, thatScott and I have here, is that
this isn't our farm.
We're just taking care of ituntil our dad comes back.
And at some time in the futurehe's going to come back and, uh,
(41:02):
we want him to be really proudabout what we got, you know and
where we're at, and I mean thatin the most sincere way.
And if you start thinking aboutit that way because everybody
wants to please their parentsright, even though they're not
around anymore but if you can dothings right in a way that
would make your dad and your momhappy, then you're doing all
(41:24):
right.
You know, maybe your kids willrespect you.
Who knows, we'll see.
But that's that's kind of themindset.
Just, if you can't do it asright as possible, make it a
little bit better than it waswhen it fell into your hands,
and that's that's a good way forme to measure someone's success
.
Brandon Mulnix (41:41):
Mike, I didn't know your dad but I can
guarantee you he's proud of youand Scott and what you guys have
been able to do for the farm.
I mean, you've been throughhell and you've come out the
other side stronger, harder,more, more in tune with what he
had, he gave you and what heplanted in you in terms of
(42:04):
watching him grow and I canguarantee he's proud.
And, mike, thank you forsharing the Weber farm story.
It's probably a story that'snot that different from a lot of
farms.
It's just different, differentstuff that they have to deal
with.
But thank you.
Mike Weber (42:22):
You bet.
Thanks for giving me theopportunity to do this.
I appreciate it, brian, reallydo.
Brandon Mulnix (42:28):
Listeners, thank you for being here.
I know how much my heart achesfor farmers, but also has much
more joy when we find out whatgets them up in the morning and
just how in tune they are withtheir culture, their community,
their people.
And we take our food forgranted.
We take the people that produceour food for granted.
(42:50):
So today, if you see a farmersay thank you, I mean without
them, the United States, theworld, would not be the country
it is and have the food that weall need to survive.
So if it wasn't for guys likeMike and Scott and the Webers
and everybody because we know ittakes a team and Mike could
(43:10):
share stories about the teammore than he'd probably share
stories about himself.
So, listeners, please sharethis podcast with somebody that
may not even be in farming.
This is a podcast where peoplecan really understand what goes
on that farmers have to dealwith, not only in california but
also just around the country,and how you can be supportive of
(43:33):
them with your vote, withunderstanding the issues in your
community.
This is a subject much greaterthan leadership.
This is a subject that, ashuman beings, we need to be in
tune with.
So, listeners, please sharethis podcast.
This story does need tocontinue to get out.
We're not big media, we don'thave a huge following, but with
(43:55):
you, this story can get shared.
So thank you, listeners, and I'dbe remiss without talking about
Prism Controls.
I wouldn't know, mike, if itwasn't for Prism Controls.
Prism Controls has been apartner with their farm for many
years and we appreciate theability to do business with
farmers like Mike, because weknow that that's why we do what
we do, and the goal for PrismControls is just to help farmers
(44:18):
sleep better at night, knowingthey've got what they need to
feed the world.
And so please reach out toPrism Controls, thank them for
doing the episode, as well asjust check out their website and
the products that they have tooffer, or just share this
content, because that also helpsthem.
So, Poultry Leadership Podcastlisteners, thank you and have a
(44:39):
great day.
I'm out.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your Brandon Mulnix, and ontoday's episode I have Mike
Weber.
Mike Weber is fourth generationfarmer in California and I'm
excited to share Mike's storywith you because, as I've gotten
(00:44):
to know the Weber family overthe last five years, it has been
an absolute pleasure because Ihaven't met two brothers more
passionate and more engaged intheir farm on a whole than these
two.
They live it, they breathe itand I'm excited to share Mike
with you.
So, Mike, welcome to the show.
Mike Weber (01:00):
Thank you, thanks for letting me be part of it.
Brandon Mulnix (01:03):
Hey Mike, can you give the audience a little
summary about mike weber, alittle introduction about
yourself and maybe the weberfarm?
Mike Weber (01:12):
yeah, we're, you said we're we're fourth
generation farmers and I knowthere's many people that are
fifth and sixth and seventhcalifornia.
We're kind of a dying breed.
You have to be kind of halfcrazy to be in farming in the
first place and then to do itgeneration after generation got
to be even crazier.
And it's not easy to compete ina way where you have to have
(01:35):
lots of capital these days,especially to be in poultry
where it's insanely capitalintensive, and to then also have
the skills to deal with all thechallenges.
And we've had a whole slew ofinteresting challenges.
So we've kind of been tested byfire and flame and everything
there possibly is in the lastfew years and kind of made us
(01:57):
stronger for it.
So we operate an egg farm, so weproduce table eggs for Northern
California, both organic andstandard conventional white,
cage-free eggs.
We managed the cage-freetransition in California which
happened several years ago.
First we managed a transitionwhere we had to go from really
(02:18):
no specification how much spacefor birds to a prop two standard
, which meant they had 116inches per bird, and then to
cage-free, which is kind of likeColumbus burning his ships.
And then we've dealt with ourfun with animal activists and
we've dealt with bird flu forthe last couple years in our
area and we've been a victim ofit and we've been a successor,
(02:41):
in the sense we overcame it andprevented it from coming back.
So we've had some good fun andsomehow we still managed to be
brothers.
It's good.
Brandon Mulnix (02:50):
So, in looking back on a little bit of your
history and just what I've knownand heard about the farm, when
you and your brother kind oftook over, it wasn't by normal
happenstance, correct.
Mike Weber (03:08):
Well, our dad had been a poultryman since the day
he was born and my grandfatherour grandfather had built a
bunch of chicken houses on thisproperty which is adjacent to
the original property that ourgreat-grandfather had poultry
buildings on.
So when our dad was, dad waspretty much incapacitated in his
last years and he had onefunctioning chicken house and we
(03:33):
were in a partnership with someof their partners and had some
other ranches.
But everything was pretty datedand pretty end of life from an
equipment perspective.
I wasn't part of the business.
I had flown the coop if youwant to make a pun on it and was
working in the professionalworld.
It was real evident to us thatif we were going to stay in it
(03:54):
we were going to have to bet thefarm, bet the inheritance and
just kind of risk everything.
Either that or you sell the farmand close it down, which so
many of our friends growing upwe watch their families and both
dairy and poultry go through,you know, and that's just the
ongoing crisis with farming.
There was kind of a need deepdown inside, like a legacy need,
(04:14):
you know, that we wanted tofulfill a little bit.
And then there was also kind ofa like, a little bit of a
gambler need that I think we can.
I think we can do this needthat.
I think we can do this and Ithink we can do it well because
the farmers of today, they haveto be able to adapt, they have
to be a little more nimble.
They don't necessarily need tobe smarter, it helps.
(04:38):
But you just got to be able topivot and at times, make some
really tough decisions and becomfortable with the decision
you made and see where theroulette wheel turns out when it
stops rolling.
And we've done that severaltimes.
And the harder we work, youknow, as the saying goes, the
luckier we've been able to get.
Brandon Mulnix (05:00):
So you took over from dad.
You've built this business and,as you mentioned, it hasn't
been easy.
Looking back on growing up withdad being a poultry man, what
is one of the things that youlearned from your dad that
you're able to continue to usetoday?
Mike Weber (05:22):
It's a really good question.
My dad had a lot more patiencethan I have, so I'm still
learning that one A little moretolerance.
Yeah, he was also one of thosewho talked about self-denial
that yes, there are things youwant, that's great, keep working
, you don't need them.
He had that mindset.
(05:43):
There's seven days in the week,so you work seven days and even
when you weren't physicallyworking, you're still working.
So we've had that drive forquite a while.
Sometimes you need that extramuscle to get through the highs
and lows.
One of the things I saw realquickly when I came back with my
that helped me to rememberlearning that our dad taught was
(06:06):
to always be looking for theroot cause of things you know.
So one of the things we'realways looking at is what caused
this problem.
Brandon, I'm happy you fixed it.
That's great, gold star.
You know great job, gold star.
You know great job.
But if you can't tell me why itbroke and we're just as much at
(06:28):
risk today because we don'tknow what put us in that bad
situation and how can we changethings, redo the process, put
other things in place so wedon't find ourselves in that
situation again.
(06:57):
For me, things have become socomplex that I get pulled into.
I call them the morning turds.
I show up and I collecteverybody's morning turds.
Everybody's got a turd to throwin my basket that I got to deal
with and that's just part oflife, right?
So once they're resolved, myfocus is in preventing it from
happening again and putting ineither process or changes so
we're not going to see that onepop up and have that discussion
with them, or that they caneither predict it happening so
(07:19):
we can cut it off before ithappens, or that they're
empowered to do whatever'sneeded, so that you know we're
free of this kind of sillinessso we can keep focusing on the
important stuff.
You know it took coming backand picking that up from my
brother and then having himreally illustrate to me you know
(07:39):
, the teaching that our dad gaveus way back when.
Brandon Mulnix (07:42):
So, speaking of your brother, not everybody can
work with family.
Has it always been easy to workwith your brother?
Mike Weber (07:50):
Yeah, it's a great question.
We're very different people, soI think that's what really
helps, and we both have adifferent way to process things.
We both have a different waywhen we get frustrated or
whatever.
You know, part of it is justyou know, I'm much more
transparent and this is how Ifeel.
(08:11):
This is what I think, this iswhat we should do, and for some
people, you kind of you have togive them time to process and
come to their own conclusion onit, and you can't press them.
So I know how to work with themthat way.
There's other times when I justlook over at him Are we good,
ready to go?
Or he'll look at me You're good, yeah, let's go.
(08:31):
And at that point thedecision's made.
We didn't have to have a boardof directors and sit around
eating pastries and sippingStarbucks and all that kind of
crap.
You just hit the ground andstart going.
And there's times when there'sso much uncertainty or we're
facing something that doesn'tlook good, but it's like, okay,
well, can't run from it, it'sour mess to go fix, let's go do
(08:55):
it.
We find ourselves gravitatinginto the roles where our
personalities and our strengthsbenefit us the most.
And because we're so different.
That way it's a powerfulcombination.
I haven't had a businessexperience where I've been this
fortunate.
Too often in big companiespeople are kind of homogeneous
(09:16):
and have the diversity of talent, experience and passion to win
together.
Brandon Mulnix (09:23):
That's great that you have a partner like
Scott.
Yeah, he's a good dude love,love my time hanging out with
him.
I always learn something fromhim and it's always a blessing
to be around him.
Now you mentioned morning turds.
I really like that, thatanalogy but you guys have faced
a lot of morning turds and oneof them that has really stood
(09:45):
out to me that most farms in theUS have not had to experience
is the fact that you happen tobe 30-40 minutes from just kind
of an area where that produces alot of folks that just don't
like farming, and I'd like totalk a little bit about the
(10:07):
activism and some of the thingsthat you guys have had to
experience that most farms justtake for granted as they read in
the news and they see it, butyou guys have actually
experienced it.
Can you give me some of thebackground on that?
Mike Weber (10:21):
Yeah, so we're in Northern California, just north
of San Francisco, maybe 30 miles, 35 miles.
We're also north of Oakland andBerkeley, and Berkeley has a
pretty famous university thereincredible university, a lot of
really smart people, talentedpeople.
But it also has some peoplethat are kind of on the fringe
(10:43):
in many different areas, andthere was a vegan activist group
that came together with thesole purpose of putting animal
agriculture out of business.
That's their whole mission andit's their lifestyle, it's their
religion, it's every part oftheir who they are is defined by
their veganism.
(11:05):
And there's, if you know,people who are vegan.
I have quite a few friends.
Many of them are there for areason that they have either
they just don't like meat orthey have a belief that by not
(11:27):
eating meat or meat products oranimal products benefits the
environment, which is great.
But seldom do they come out andsay you're an evil person.
So this is a subset of the oneor two percent of Americans that
are vegan.
They're young people.
They're preyed upon by thepeople who kind of founded it
and they believe that theyshould have direct action,
meaning you should go andconfront the places where meat
(11:47):
and animal products are produced, are processed or are sold.
So they will go intosupermarkets and they'll take
crazy glue and stick them righton the meat counter and glue
themselves to it.
They will take what looks likeblood and in front of a store
they'll dump blood all over themto and start screaming all
(12:07):
these horrible things, Uh.
They will chain themselves atpoultry ranches and at meat
packing places andslaughterhouses to try to raise
awareness that meat is bad.
You know, we believe stronglyeverybody's got the right to
free speech.
But there's a time when youkind of turn in your right to
(12:28):
free speech.
When you're trespassing on aproperty, You're impacting
somebody's business, puttingyourself and others at danger
and actually costing thatcompany.
And that's what this particulargroup has done to several
different poultry and dairyoperations in California,
including our own.
Brandon Mulnix (12:47):
Are you able to talk about anything specific
that you had to deal with?
Mike Weber (12:59):
Oh sure.
So we had 400 people get bussedin to the cemetery where my
parents and grandparents andgreat-grandparents are buried.
They got out of the buses there, they ran up to our farm and
they ran onto our property andoccupied our property.
They conducted a veganinsurrection.
They pried open the doors thelocked doors to our poultry
buildings and they ran in thereto rescue the abused and dying
(13:23):
chickens that they stated wereall over the building and when
they emerged, they were holdingthese totally emaciated, fully
feathered, nice, great.
Everything about the birds thatcame out were perfect.
You know, the birds were like56 weeks of age.
They're fully feathered.
There wasn't even a single birdthat had a few feathers missing
(13:45):
from its neck or its vent.
Everything was perfect.
It was like you couldn't findthe dead ones were so fast they
couldn't keep up with them, theyjust ran away.
So these vegan activistsweren't able to get any sick or
dying birds, although they saidthey were everywhere, you know.
So I made fun of it, but it'slike the hypocrisy in their
statements.
And so I filmed it.
(14:07):
I filmed all the people thatcame out.
I filmed every one of the birds.
I filmed them holding it andnone of them actually understood
how to hold a chicken, whichyou know for most people.
If you're at home, you mightnot understand how to hold a
chicken, but you don't go up andhold a baby, you know, by its
neck, like this.
Well, chickens, they have airsacs.
You don't crush their air sacsand when you put a whole bunch
(14:29):
of pressure around their belly,where their air sacs are, they
can't breathe.
So what they do is they sticktheir head out and they open
their mouth and they you knowthey look like they're
struggling because they are.
A chicken needs to roost on aperson's hand.
It's the first thing we teachany new employee.
This is how you hold a chicken.
Let it sit on your hands.
It'll grab it.
Wrap your arms around the wingsso they won't slap.
(14:50):
You can walk all over the place.
Chicken will be fine.
It's breathing fine.
None of these individuals knewwhat the hell they were doing,
but you know they were inholding this insurrection event
to steal our chickens and do aprotest.
It took a couple hours forpolice to get them to move up
(15:10):
there and it's not like we got ahuge law enforcement presence
in our county.
There's two people, two sheriffofficers that are South County.
So they called in all the localpolice jurisdictions for help
and finally these individualsmoved to the top of the property
and they continued to protestand they had even called the
media.
And what's funny about themedia was the San Francisco News
Channel was there and the guyhad a camera and he put it down
(15:33):
and I remember standing up thereand listening and they're
saying why aren't you filming?
Why aren't you filming?
Contrived, it's a form ofperformative acting to try to
show this contrived outrage thatthese are horrible people and
they're doing all these horriblethings.
But when we looked at theirlive streams and we looked at
(15:54):
all the video that they posted,not once did we see a dead
chicken.
So our employees had picked upall the dead chickens, because
we have dead chickens Every farmdoes.
The employees had picked up allthe injured chickens if there
were any, and put them inhospital pens or dealt with them
appropriately, because theyweren't able to find any of
those.
They spotted one egg that hadsome blood on it and it was from
(16:16):
the flock.
That was a 20 week old flock.
So the birds are just startingto lay eggs and that can happen.
It's just starting to ovulate.
So everything we saw was and wewe reviewed everything with an
animal welfare expert just tomake sure there wasn't anything
where there was an exposure.
There's nothing there.
It took us five years to supportour local prosecutors to
(16:38):
prosecute the leader of this.
They prosecuted everybody elsebut they all took a deal and
bailed out, but the leader ofthis organization, he went
through the whole thing and itwas ultimately found guilty of
conspiracy, of a variety ofdifferent things, and it was a
felony.
So you've got a felonyconviction, which is huge
because he's a lawyer and hetried to represent himself.
(17:01):
And he represented himself sowell that the judge actually
wrote a letter to the CaliforniaBar in complaint.
The way he conducted himselfallowed some of the activists
who were in the courtroom everyday go and approach the jurors
or try to friend them onFacebook and tell them how they
should vote for, you know, toacquit him and all this crazy
(17:23):
stuff.
Like I said, there's somethingthat's not balanced about the
small subset of vegans that aresupporting this.
First thing, you got to know,not everybody who is a vegan
thinks this way.
In fact, the vast majority ofthem think those guys are just
batshit crazy and I don't knowwhat the hell's wrong with them.
(17:43):
But you know, we've got torealize that if one of those
individuals shows up at a farmlike ours and you're not doing
all the right things and you'renot checking, you know every day
did you do the things you sayyou do you're going to be
crucified in the court of publicopinion because they're going
to find something.
(18:04):
You're going to be crucified inthe court of public opinion
because they're going to findsomething.
And there's days when I turnand I find that somebody has
picked up a chicken that passedaway in the night and instead of
putting it in the properreceptacle, they put it right in
the middle of the aisle at theentrance and I'm like what the
hell is this doing here?
You know there's no way this isacceptable and I'll make sure
they get written up and makesure their managers get written
(18:24):
up, because it happened, so thateverybody realizes that when
someone shows up the camera, youcan't get that back.
You have to be as responsible aspossible about everything.
You have to have your processeswritten down and just assume
that individuals like thesethey're going to show up at your
door or they're already thereat night sneaking into your
(18:44):
houses this particularorganization.
They're not just in Californiaanymore.
They're taking their actionsall across the country and
nobody's immune to them.
Their actions all across thecountry and nobody's immune to
them.
It's hard, it's really hard, tobe a small farm, because you got
to put up fences and camerasand all this stuff.
You got to spend time.
I have to teach our employeesevery year what to do if they
(19:07):
come back.
You know how not to engage them, where to go hide so you don't
get hurt.
So we don't know what they'regoing to want to do.
So instead of teaching myemployees on animal welfare and
other things, I want to provethere I have to look out for
their own safety, because theseindividuals that are associated
with these groups they're justcrazy.
So it's taxing us.
(19:28):
If we were a big farm in themiddle of the cornfield in Iowa
and we had a 20-foot fence withCortina wire all over it, Piece
of cake.
But we're a small family farmso it's tough and we're not the
only ones being targeted.
It's going to keep going acrossour state and in our country.
Brandon Mulnix (19:48):
You dealt with them.
You continue to look over yourshoulder, you continue to train
your employees how to deal withthat and then a ballot
initiative comes that reallywants to put you out of business
or has potential of putting youout of business.
Can you describe that ballotinitiative that you had to
(20:08):
overcome?
Mike Weber (20:09):
Yeah, so the ballot initiative was put on our local
ballot in our county by thisactivist group, so individuals
from this Berkeley organization.
They purposely moved people uphere and they found somebody who
would author a ballot.
They stood out in front ofgrocery stores and they said
(20:31):
we're collecting signatures.
If you think animals need to besafe and cared for you, you got
to sign this to protect theanimals.
Didn't say anything about whatit was really designed to do.
So in our county there's half amillion people and maybe 250 to
280,000 vote every majorelection sort of thing, and what
(20:52):
ultimately happened is they gotenough more than enough
signatures to put it on theballot and then they started
their campaign the ballotinitiative would eliminate it
was designed to eliminatepoultry operations, meaning egg
layers and broilers and ducks.
We have several duck farms hereand dairy farms and it was
(21:14):
punitive by the size.
If you were a larger dairy, ifyou had more than 700 cows, you
know you weren't allowed to bein business.
You had to sell your cows, yourherd off until you got to 700.
But even then at 700, it openedthem up to exposure that
anybody could sue them forenvironmental issues and they
didn't even have to prove it,like they could sue them civilly
, and established this, thiscrazy stuff, that we already
(21:37):
have protections for clean airand clean water and soil and all
of that.
You know, those are allestablished in our county and
nationally.
This sought to even createanother layer of exposure for
anybody who's farming.
And when you're a personal farm, it's not like you can hire a
corporate lawyer, you know.
It's not like you can reallydefend yourself.
So they come, come in and theydo these things to shake you
down.
You're going to pay to avoidhaving to go to court, not to
(22:00):
even get to court.
So every weekend they sentpeople up to our county and they
canvassed the areas, knockingon doors, handing out their
pamphlets, doing their protests,protesting in front of poultry
farms, protesting at a poultryprocessing plant, grocery stores
, everything you could possiblythink of, well-organized, all
(22:21):
sorts of crazy stuff.
And as a community we had tocome together to fight it.
And this was.
You know, this was really earlyon.
It was clear that if we didn'tcome together and get everybody
on our side, they might not win.
They might lose by a squeaker,but they'd be back and they'd
kill us as local farmers.
So I immediately ran towardpart of the founding group and
(22:45):
board that ultimately got everyone of our supervisors, every
one of our city councils, everyone of the police and fire
departments and unions on board.
Every you know we had a list ofall the big employers, every
big employer, more than 50people signed on.
Countless farms, countlessother individuals associated
(23:06):
with our county.
At the end of the day, you know,the only people that were left
supporting this group were likea vegan bakery and you know some
like a hairdresser or something, and and we did rallies, we did
presentations and speeches.
You know I felt like apolitician.
We work all day and then you'reout shaking hands and kissing
(23:28):
babies and then the next dayit's rinse and repeat.
It was like that.
And did the debates, thetelevised debates and, you know,
on radio shows.
And what I saw, though, after apoint, was people in this county
had their roots reawakened.
You know that they realizedthey came to this because it's a
farm town.
Those cows that are out in ourpastures here they're pastured
(23:49):
cows.
We don't have a big feedlot, soour cows are on pastures.
Those cows aren't factoryworkers, they're not factory
farms, with these black andwhite factory workers walking
over 1,000 acres out in therolling hills.
This is a beautiful area andit's all organic farms.
We don't have conventionaldairies here and so the
narrative on their side startedto fall apart and we took their
(24:12):
wings off and pretty soon acrossthe whole county were these
signs.
It was no on J.
Everywhere you went it was noon J and, as stressful as it was
, there was something socomforting and beautiful about
everywhere I would turn.
There was a sign there sayingwe stand with you.
You know, I might run a bakery,but I stand with the farmers.
(24:34):
I might run a bar, but I standwith the farmers.
I've got a muffler shop.
I'm with the farmers Everywhereyou looked.
And we had these debates at theboard meetings Should we keep
making these signs?
And the guy who was the tenuredpolitical insider said you
can't be spending all your moneyon the signs.
And we kept overruling him andsaid no, we need to spend all we
(24:54):
possibly can.
And they were throughout theentire county.
In the end, we defeated themeasure and, by a landslide 85%
to 15% absolutely destroyed them.
In fact, the proponents I thinkthey got less votes at the end
of the day than signatures thatthey had originally turned in,
where they had swindled peopleinto thinking that they had
(25:15):
originally turned in, where theyhad swindled people into
thinking that they were doingsomething that was smart.
We had environmental groups onour side.
We had, you know, everything inour county saying this is part
of the culture, what the essenceof who we are, and why would we
ever think about getting rid ofa local food system?
You know, and all the differentchallenges that our world faces
(25:37):
, exporting the people whoproduce our food away from here
just doesn't make sense.
Brandon Mulnix (25:44):
So that was a wonderful day Way to see the
blessing in all of that, becausethe distraction of something
like that and at the end of theday, a lot of money was raised,
a lot of support for not yourfarm, not just your farm, but
the whole farm, I mean the dairy, everything, the culture of
that community.
(26:04):
It is a beautiful area.
It's one of my early memoriesin the Coast Guard was being out
to Station Petaluma, not toofar from one of your farms, and
that was I.
Just.
There's some really fondmemories of that area and how
beautiful it is and to thinkwhat it would look like without
farming.
But these activists aren'tgoing away and thankfully you
(26:28):
guys actually learned a lot andI know you've shared a lot of
what worked.
But it's just a matter of timebefore they find a weaker
community that doesn't standbehind the farmers.
And it could be anywhere in theUS, it's not just California.
That's the crazy part.
Mike Weber (26:48):
Yeah, they went down to Harris Ranch in Kern County.
You know, which is not even apurple county, it's red, red
meat.
You know they're targetingthese different areas.
I don't think they care, Ireally don't.
Our residents are upset withthem and they're not going to
win the hearts and minds of ourpeople.
But I don't think that mattersto them.
(27:10):
They'll keep dragging it out,They'll keep taxing us if they
can.
And my last two cents on thisis you know, every farm should
run their operation astransparent as possible, even
though you don't have to betransparent.
But just assume the news crewsare going to show up tomorrow.
Assume there's going to be adisaster at some point and you
have to open it up and showeverybody your training records,
(27:32):
your policies, what it lookslike inside.
You got to do it and just beprepared for that.
So there is no there.
Brandon Mulnix (27:41):
There, when someone comes in and makes that
claim, you make it through thatand then you turn the corner,
that fight's over.
But at the same time avianinfluenza is everywhere you look
.
Mike Weber (27:57):
Well, yeah, so avian influenza that actually hit us
before Measure J.
So we got hit in December of2023.
This past November was theelection cycle.
So, while we're fightingagainst the measure, you know
our poultry operation here,which for 112 years had chickens
(28:18):
in the operation, we had nochickens and we wrote a
six-figure check to support theopposition because it was an
existential kind of situationthat failure wasn't an option.
So, yeah, fire everything yougot, we're coming back, we're
(28:38):
coming at you.
And bird flu came and got us.
It wasn't our fault, it wasn'tanything we did, and I'm not
wanting to put blame on otherpeople, but we were like number
seven dominoes that fell.
That it fell, domino, domino,domino, domino, domino, and we
could just see the ranch wasgetting closer and closer.
(28:59):
The last one was less than halfa mile away.
It's like a quarter of a mileaway, and the amount of uh, of
shedding that happened and aircurrents that were coming our
way.
We just knew one of the birdson our operation that this ranch
had 550 000 birds.
One of them was going to getone air sack with a little bit
of virus and that was going toend it all, which it did, and
(29:21):
you know it happens.
This last year we've spent, youknow, getting our legs back
underneath us and getting ouroperation going, which has been
great.
During this last winter, whenmuch of California got decimated
a second time, we had oneincident not far from where you
were when you were at the CoastGuard, which is about roughly
(29:41):
eight miles upwind of where ourfarm is, with the 550,000 birds,
and it was a duck farm.
The first round of bird flu thatwe all went through in the
community pulled everybodytogether so we all had an early
warning system.
If somebody had a bird thatcoughed, everybody was told
right away.
Well, he had a bird thatcoughed and he said something's
not right One of my barns, I'msending them in get testing.
(30:04):
And he notified us and then hegot tests.
I got bad news and I called himright away and the question was
what do you got to put yourbirds down?
Do you need help?
And he said honestly, I've gotone employee and I got thousands
of birds here that are infected.
And my question was what timedoes CDFA arrive?
(30:24):
Do you oversee the site, takecontrol of it?
And that next day at 12 noon Ishowed up with a crew of people
dressed in Tyvek suits, latexgloves on.
We had duct tape over our arms.
People have gone through allthis.
They know exactly what it is.
The people don't think I'mcrazy, but we showed up to go
into battle, masks on maskbehind our head, because you
(30:46):
always lose this one here.
A fake pocket with extra glovesin it because you're going to
break one of your gloves.
New boots we just bought at thelocal Home Depot, so everybody
was walking in with fresh bootsthat we didn't have to disinfect
and we could throw away whenwe're done, and everything we
needed to do on site, everything, all the equipment needed to
euthanize those animals thatwere infected.
(31:06):
And we're posing a threat to allthe poultry operations in our
areas and potentially even thedairies, because there's active
shedding going on.
And this is like a you know forpeople who are at home and
don't really understand what'sgoing on from a bird food
perspective.
Think about being on a planewhere there's a section of
people who are actively sickwith COVID right, it's not going
(31:27):
to stay there, it's going to goto the whole plane.
And in a community where you'vegot 10,000 animals that are
infected and shedding, meaningthey're producing a huge amount
of virus, that virus getsairborne and it's just going to
move.
And as soon as one of theminhales it, they now got it and
it's 100% deadly, you know.
So we ran to that guy'soperation as fast as we could
(31:49):
get on there and we were allowedto come on 12 noon the next day
and we did everything we couldto help him to, in a very humane
way, euthanize those animalsand get them covered up, because
there's a youth and there's awind event that night.
So we visqueened everythingthrough pallets on top of the
piles and we left that night,took off all our clothes, like
(32:09):
stripped down naked in the thestreet, sprayed ourselves down
with disinfected, changed intoother clothes and garbage bagged
everything just like by thebook.
And I think that event was theonly time in California's
history where CDFA has been ableto hit the mandated goal that
we want every animal on theproperty of an infected property
(32:30):
euthanized within 24 hours.
And the success out of it wasthat it didn't spread.
No other farms got it, so weall were able to continue our
business, even though this poorfarmer had the misfortune of
losing all of his birds.
That's what everybody needs to.
If you're in the poultrybusiness right now.
You need to have that plan.
(32:51):
You can't run away from thebullets anymore.
You've got to run toward themand stamp them out.
We've got a trailer that'sloaded with all the PPE, all the
equipment, co2 bottles,everything that's needed to
start euthanizing immediatelyshould something like this
happen.
Because until we have a vaccineand our flocks and our herds are
vaccinated, these birds aregoing to suffer.
(33:12):
And there's an animal welfareaspect to this that you know
we're not talking about.
And these animals are sufferingas they're going through this,
and it's a disease that could bepreventable that if we could
give them a vaccine, the flocksmay not get it and then the ones
that do get it, they may not beable to shed enough that it
affects the next operation.
(33:33):
So, to be a producer of tablequality eggs, my responsibility
is to protect my flocks, butalso the neighboring ducks, the
neighboring chickens, theneighboring broiler operations.
You know from disease as well.
They don't deserve to bethreatened by something that's
preventable when a vaccine'savailable and widely used
(33:54):
throughout the world right now.
Brandon Mulnix (33:56):
Mike, why do you do it?
Why do you wake up in themorning and go to work?
Mike Weber (34:06):
There's some fun that happens.
I work with a lot of reallygood people.
It's great working with mybrother, but I work with a lot
of really really good people whocome to work really hard, who
don't get the attention theydeserve.
Ones that are producing ourfood and prepping our food and
processing our food and takingcare of our landscaping and our
gardens those folks that arebeing vilified right now.
They all have a story.
(34:27):
They all work really hard,they're great people and they
care for our animals in thekindest manner.
So someone's got to feedAmerica.
And you get a sense of prideafter a while when you realize
how well you're doing it.
We're doing it on a farm wherewe've got 2,500 solar panels
running our egg production, ourprocessing, our manure
processing.
We're the first in the state toput in manure dryers to dry the
(34:50):
manure so there wouldn't be anystink.
We're the first to put in apellet mill on site to pelletize
the manure and that goes tosupport organic farmers from
Oregon border all the way downto Southern California.
And we did it first because itlooked like the right thing to
do, but it was also fun.
So I get to have relationshipswith guys Like right now I've
been shipping to the world'slargest organic rice grower.
(35:10):
I got a great relationship witha rice company.
You know just fun.
I got a great relationship witha rice company.
You know, just fun.
I got great relationships withguys who are growing vineyard
grapes for wine, the wineindustry, or hops or nut growers
, and you know we get to go andmeet other guys and press the
flesh and there's something funand exciting about that.
(35:32):
We're not just this little.
You know I produce an egg.
Here's your box of eggs.
Thank you very much.
A lot of people depending on usand it's fun to be part of that
food web, so it's kind ofexciting.
It's better than a desk jobsomewhere you know most days.
Brandon Mulnix (35:47):
Now the question is is there a fifth generation
coming up through?
Mike Weber (35:52):
Yeah, it's possible.
My dad didn't put any pressureon me to come back and I think
it was really seeing that therewas a major change hitting our
industry.
That helped me to realize ifwe're going to bet the farm, you
fully invest yourself in it.
You don't place your bet, siton the sidelines.
You get out there andquarterback the game or throw
(36:15):
the blocks that are needed sothat you can score the touchdown
.
So we'll see.
There's enough great peoplehere at our operation that I
know.
Even if our family doesn'tcarry it forward, they're going
to be here for anothergeneration.
We've got my dad's foreman, whoworked for him for 40 years.
We've employed several of hiskids and we still got a couple
(36:37):
of them employed, which is great, and they're best friends.
I mean, we used to playtogether as little kids where I
didn't speak any Spanish, theydidn't speak any English, but
God, did we ever have fun, youknow?
Brandon Mulnix (36:49):
And now here we are, these old kids who, you
know, still do the same sort ofthings and at the end of the day
, it's just, it's great, greatbeing able to work with good
friends, good people you know,mike, I know we could talk for
hours you already prefaced thatbefore we even started the
recording that you've got a lotto share, and I'd like to
(37:14):
transition just one little bitto someone out there that this
is new stuff for them.
For them, what else should theybe thinking of when it comes to
the industry, whether that'sthe joys or something?
Mike Weber (37:33):
that you can share so that they can also grow.
We're in a very progressivepart of California, you know,
and I think California is kindof seeding the country right now
, even though the country ispolitically, you know, in all
different directions.
People are starting to havesome of their values shift a
little bit.
What we've been doing is tryingto be as responsible as we can
from a farming perspective, totruly love the land and not take
(37:56):
as much from it or not polluteit as much, or the water or the
air.
And we do that through avariety of different things.
And when I tell those storiesabout the effort that we make,
the actions that we take and I'min public, it earns me a little
ticket that I can cash in everyyear to stay in business.
(38:18):
I'm not saying you have to doit.
A lot of these things we do andwe know that you're not going
to get a return on it.
A lot of these things we do andwe know that you're not going
to get a return on it.
But you know, when I show upand I say, oh yeah, this is.
We could be like everybody elseand just take the stuff and
push it all outside and let therain wash it away or, you know,
(38:48):
spread it on somebody's fieldover and over again until the
phosphate levels are so high.
You know it's like irradiated.
Or we can do the right thingand look for a better way to do
it.
That's long term, just as likemakes really good sense, making
the hard choice to try to seekout those solutions.
Invest in those areas.
It does win you a lot of secretsupporters and admirers and
that came out a lot when we weredoing our political battle
where I was just part of a groupof farmers, but I was also part
(39:11):
of farmers not in the poultryside but on the dairy side that
were kind of on the other end ofthe progressives.
Where they were, there was alot of improvement needed and
having examples where you'reshowing that there are a lot of
people that are doing the rightthing.
In our area there's a guy namedAlbert Strauss who is one of
the most famous and progressivedairymen.
(39:32):
He's got an incredible brandand he's been fighting from an
environmental perspective forthe longest time and he's more
just transforming people'smindset, what you need to do.
But you can be transformativeand run a big conventional
operation, you know, and you canalso make investments in things
like solar and other areas andget a payback, you know, in four
(39:53):
years or less.
So it's not like you'rethrowing the money away, and
we've been fortunate that someof the investments that we've
made have paid us back inwonderful ways.
And it also got the attention.
Yeah, that is a responsible wayto do it, and when you look
like you're the responsibleparty who's also producing food,
(40:13):
you get that little ticket soyou can stay in business a
little bit longer.
It gives you the rule that thetie always goes to the runner,
and in that case we're therunner, and that's what we all
need, because life farming ishard enough as it is.
Brandon Mulnix (40:29):
Any last advice for someone just getting in the
industry or just from the wisdomthat Mike has acquired all
these years?
Mike Weber (40:40):
God wisdom.
I just say don't take yourselftoo seriously, you know, and try
to try to learn from some good.
People ask a lot of questions.
The mindset that we have, thatScott and I have here, is that
this isn't our farm.
We're just taking care of ituntil our dad comes back.
And at some time in the futurehe's going to come back and, uh,
(41:02):
we want him to be really proudabout what we got, you know and
where we're at, and I mean thatin the most sincere way.
And if you start thinking aboutit that way because everybody
wants to please their parentsright, even though they're not
around anymore but if you can dothings right in a way that
would make your dad and your momhappy, then you're doing all
(41:24):
right.
You know, maybe your kids willrespect you.
Who knows, we'll see.
But that's that's kind of themindset.
Just, if you can't do it asright as possible, make it a
little bit better than it waswhen it fell into your hands,
and that's that's a good way forme to measure someone's success
.
Brandon Mulnix (41:41):
Mike, I didn't know your dad but I can
guarantee you he's proud of youand Scott and what you guys have
been able to do for the farm.
I mean, you've been throughhell and you've come out the
other side stronger, harder,more, more in tune with what he
had, he gave you and what heplanted in you in terms of
(42:04):
watching him grow and I canguarantee he's proud.
And, mike, thank you forsharing the Weber farm story.
It's probably a story that'snot that different from a lot of
farms.
It's just different, differentstuff that they have to deal
with.
But thank you.
Mike Weber (42:22):
You bet.
Thanks for giving me theopportunity to do this.
I appreciate it, brian, reallydo.
Brandon Mulnix (42:28):
Listeners, thank you for being here.
I know how much my heart achesfor farmers, but also has much
more joy when we find out whatgets them up in the morning and
just how in tune they are withtheir culture, their community,
their people.
And we take our food forgranted.
We take the people that produceour food for granted.
(42:50):
So today, if you see a farmersay thank you, I mean without
them, the United States, theworld, would not be the country
it is and have the food that weall need to survive.
So if it wasn't for guys likeMike and Scott and the Webers
and everybody because we know ittakes a team and Mike could
(43:10):
share stories about the teammore than he'd probably share
stories about himself.
So, listeners, please sharethis podcast with somebody that
may not even be in farming.
This is a podcast where peoplecan really understand what goes
on that farmers have to dealwith, not only in california but
also just around the country,and how you can be supportive of
(43:33):
them with your vote, withunderstanding the issues in your
community.
This is a subject much greaterthan leadership.
This is a subject that, ashuman beings, we need to be in
tune with.
So, listeners, please sharethis podcast.
This story does need tocontinue to get out.
We're not big media, we don'thave a huge following, but with
(43:55):
you, this story can get shared.
So thank you, listeners, and I'dbe remiss without talking about
Prism Controls.
I wouldn't know, mike, if itwasn't for Prism Controls.
Prism Controls has been apartner with their farm for many
years and we appreciate theability to do business with
farmers like Mike, because weknow that that's why we do what
we do, and the goal for PrismControls is just to help farmers
(44:18):
sleep better at night, knowingthey've got what they need to
feed the world.
And so please reach out toPrism Controls, thank them for
doing the episode, as well asjust check out their website and
the products that they have tooffer, or just share this
content, because that also helpsthem.
So, Poultry Leadership Podcastlisteners, thank you and have a
(44:39):
great day.
I'm out.
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