May 23, 2024 • 57 mins
Hey Food Fam, Carl Fiadini here with another exciting episode of Walk-In Talk Podcast that's set to challenge everything you thought you knew about the food industry. We just got back from Chicago's NRA show, a melting pot of innovative vendors and our very own Memorial Day menu marvels. Sizzle your senses with stories of our adventures and a sneak peek into a special menu that's all smoke, citrus, and a brulee avocado twist – it's culinary creativity unleashed!
Unravel the tangled web of food labels with the incredible Michelle Miller, the Farm Babe. Her journey from urbanite to agriculture advocate is nothing short of inspirational, and she's here to arm us with the truth behind those marketing terms that often leave us scratching our heads. Imagine a world where "no added hormones" and "antibiotic-free" are no longer puzzles – that's the clarity Michelle brings to the table. Plus, get an insider
Unravel the tangled web of food labels with the incredible Michelle Miller, the Farm Babe. Her journey from urbanite to agriculture advocate is nothing short of inspirational, and she's here to arm us with the truth behind those marketing terms that often leave us scratching our heads. Imagine a world where "no added hormones" and "antibiotic-free" are no longer puzzles – that's the clarity Michelle brings to the table. Plus, get an insider
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Walk-In Talk Podcast now sweetened by Noble Citrus! Bite into a Juicy Crunch tangerine, 40 years perfected; seedless and oh-so-tasty. Or savor a Starburst Pummelo, the giant citrus with a unique zing. Don't miss Autumn Honey tangerines, big and easy to peel. Noble - generations of citrus expertise, delivering exceptional flavor year-round. Taste the difference with Noble Citrus!
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Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.
Our podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we'll continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important topics, including mental health awareness.
Be sure to visit our website for more food industry-related content, including our very own TV show called Restaurant Recipes where we feature Chefs cooking up their dishes and also The Dirty Dash Cocktail Hour; the focus is mixology and amazing drinks!
Thank you for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time on the Walk-In Talk Podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcast,where you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fidini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it First things first
.
Last week on the show we hadMark Maurer, owner of Selim
(00:31):
Cheese.
He's a cheese maker thatspecializes in manufacturing
fresh mozzarella cheese.
Oh my goodness, I love it.
I personally enjoyed listeningto the episode as much as I did
eating the product Hashtagburrata.
If you missed it, go back andcheck it out.
Thank you Peninsula FoodService for supplying the
(00:53):
proteins for today's productionChefs in the Central Florida
area.
Peninsula is the largestdistributor of Creekstone Farm
Beef in the Southeast USA,complete with a fully staffed
butcher shop to help you solveyour kitchen inconsistencies.
Check out the Dry Age programtoo, baby, I love it.
Our guest this week oh boy,michelle Miller, also known as
(01:15):
the Farm Babe.
We're talking misleading foodlabels.
Yeah, you'd know her on IG asthe Farm Babe.
Check her out there.
Michelle is a farm and foodadvocate.
You've seen her on Dr Drew,inside Edition, forbes and now
here on Walk Talk.
Stay tuned.
Farm Babe is on deck.
(01:36):
By the way, walk Talk was atthe NRA show in Chicago this
past week.
Oh my goodness, the stories,the debauchery.
Jeff and Pooch were there andwe're going to get the skinny on
the experience.
We're going to keep it PG.
Jeff, you did a lot of cookingtoday.
I see the meats Brother.
Pop the clutch.
Free shift.
(01:57):
Make it happen, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We're going to give a huge first off.
We're going to give a hugeshout out to Citrus America,
because that was our base whilewe were there.
I think there were the 5,400sand that went up to like 1,200s
about 12,000,.
By the way, that place wasabsolutely ginormous.
Both Pooch and I it was ourfirst time being there.
Hold on.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Because you know, there's a lot of people who've
never been to a trade show, foodshow, something like that.
So we're talking rows like row100, row 5 000.
How many rows were there?
I saw up to 12 000, 12 000 rowsof vendors.
Imagine the scope it's 10football fields it's 760 000
square feet long yeah basically,you see, it was in three
(02:42):
different buildings yeah
Speaker 2 (02:44):
it was the north Lakeland and a South.
The South was the actuallargest.
There were two convention hallsthat you had to go across.
Um rack was one of them.
That was in the other roomwhere citrus America was, where
in the first room that we werein, so you had Metro
productivity and solutions.
They were right, uh, generallyabout not too far away from
(03:05):
where we were with citrusamerica.
In between was a whole bunch ofum equipment suppliers and yes,
we're going to be looking forequipment suppliers because we
are going to be working on acommercial kitchen, so we'll
have to have them come in um,that's a, that's a uh.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
By the way, people you walk and talk studio,
commercial kitchen.
It's not just like a commercialkitchen.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
This is big time well , not only that, think about
this.
You know how, like stadiumshave it named after a brand, the
kitchen's going to be namedafter the brand.
So whoever wants to come up,pony up, buddy, pony up.
Then we had uncommon chef.
Let me just tell you about anuncommon chef.
I was trying to get a hold of,uh, our, our person that you
guys were like having the theshirts on right now, and I
(03:48):
called kimberly and she's like,uh, yeah, I'm over in 700.
I remember I'm 5400.
It took us an hour an hour toget to her and it was not just
because we got stopped.
It was that long of a walk toget from that one point to the
next point.
Um, costa coffee.
This thing was coming in fromengland.
It's this really cool coffeemaker that actually scans the
(04:11):
coffee pod and knows exactlywhat's in there and then gives
the exact ratio of the coffeethat you want to put into the
coffee coffee cup, so you havethe perfect cup of coffee all
the time I mean, I'm always, I'malways looking for the maximum
amount of coffee to put in theuh, the coffee uh thing yeah,
and then there was one with chefwarehouse.
(04:32):
It was a plant-based buttercalled toralimi.
That one was absolutelyfantastic.
She's a baker who went and saidI'm going to do my own stuff.
She did great differentproducts that she was giving
people out.
Even the butter by itself wasfantastic.
Avocados from Mexico my God,that booth was just slammed
(04:53):
every time we walked over pastit because they had great chefs
from Mexico that they were doing.
Pooch and I were actually ableto get to the bar or the food
part of it.
We actually got to sit thereand watch them cook.
At the end of it didn't haveany idea, but we got this great
book that was from Chef Patty.
That was really nice of her togive us the book.
She signed the autographs too.
Then we had Stavely Wordworks,which is a buddy of mine, chris
(05:18):
Fiera, which I'll let Pooch talkabout that one because that was
really cool.
Spiceology is one, the otherone and one, and kalahari water
entertainment parks.
We met the gentleman who was incharge of that one, so we're
going to be talking to him.
And then we went to the viceroyfor rack.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I know you were telling me about this vice, for
how beautiful, uh, I think weneed to figure out how we're
going to get there and worksomething out with those guys
yeah, that 18th flooroverlooking the lake in the
infinity pool was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
They did the whole revamp on that thing.
And then our buddy Joey Rowlandand Foster Dedman over at Ed
Don.
It was great to see them,especially Foster, because I
haven't seen him in a long time.
So, pooch, you have anythingyou want to throw out there?
Maybe the little trip toGibson's that you had?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, I mean so.
So I mean I'm just sitting hereracking my brain and you know
I'm sensory overload.
I got, I got home last night at2 am from chicago and uh, and
it's just the biggest part ofthe whole thing was realizing
that.
You know, new orleans hasalways been praised as
hospitality town and I'm reallynot trying to talk a lot of mess
about New Orleans in any way,but Chicago was just such a
class act.
Every dining experience wasamazing, even down to just the
(06:33):
hot dog on the street.
It was just so cool and it'ssuch a place that's going
through my mind right now.
I just want to go back.
There's so much more to exploreand as far as the show, I mean
the show is just I'm stillprocessing.
I've never been to anythingthis big, um and so informative.
You know you really could spenda whole week rather than just
(06:55):
four days, but, um, thehighlight for me, honestly, was
to allow me.
I think those ladies are reallydoing great, great things with
uh.
You know I'm not a vegan, but Ido appreciate vegans.
I do understand what their,what their, the reasoning is for
their lifestyle and the waythey want to eat.
You would never know that thisis vegan, so I do the health
(07:16):
benefits of doing this and theuh, the, the uses of this butter
in any way, shape or form moreso than just taste.
It's amazing.
I really love those girls.
They did a great job and Ithink they sold themselves
better than anybody else there.
Really, really awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, the massage guys did a good job, didn't they
?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
That they did, that they did.
They kept me alive.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Don't look at me that ton of ways, Carl.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
He's looking at me like mom, messed up.
Explain that kind of massageyou want to explain that day one
.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And he they got him day one, okay, not even five
minutes.
There he goes, want a massage,back hurt, and he next thing I
know I'm like where's pooch?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
when we get there and i'm're saying like, sit down,
they ask you to sit down.
So I'm thinking, oh, I have asciatic.
I've been on a plane for threehours anyway, so I had a problem
.
I may as well go ahead and havethese people try to work
something out, and when I goback, it ends up being that it's
one of those little vibratingelectric shock things that you
(08:25):
put on your muscle.
I mean, we need to get in touchwith these people.
I'm not going to mention theirnames, he keeps company.
But the reason being is it'sfor chefs.
It's made for chefs that arestanding on their feet all day
long.
And you know, I was reallyhappy that it wasn't just people
trying to throw food in yourface.
They were trying to actuallygive you something that benefits
you.
Yes, sir, are throw food inyour face.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
They were trying to actually give you something to
benefit you.
Yes, sir, are there dark web?
Is there dark web video of you?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
No, no, he did.
It did help him out.
He was able to walk.
It was one of the game changerfor him.
Okay, it was a big show bro.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I know it's huge.
The idea is that we're going tobe doing more of these shows
and we're going to do some morecollaborations, you know, with
some of these other vendors andsuppliers at the show.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I think one of the best things we heard from some
major major companies was likewe know your podcast.
Our marketing people actuallytold us to get on it and make
sure we're listening to it.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, there was not, wasn't just so.
Listen, random story we'regoing to get.
We're going to get to the tothe guts of the show today.
I was with I was with one of theowners from the porch the other
day and we were just, you know,having a conversation about
next dinner and some things wecan do, and we're sitting at a
bar and just having a combo andthere was a fella sitting next
(09:47):
to us and, um, we're talkingrestaurant and food stuff.
So some partway and he, hestops.
He's like hey, sorry guys,excuse me, but, um, you guys are
in the business.
We're like yeah, you know sohe's a, he was a private chef
and he also works at a prettyprestigious club.
And, long story short, you know, the fellow I was with I'm not
(10:10):
going to name the names rightnow, but fellow I was with says
well, you know who this guy is.
Right, he's a walk and talkpodcast and the guy's face lit
up like legit, like it was youknow it wasn't BS and he goes oh
man, I listen to you guys.
I was like, oh, my God, you'rekidding me, like you're, you're
full of it.
He's like no, I'm dead serious.
Anyway, random as random couldpossibly be such a cool thing,
(10:33):
because who the hell are we Like, honestly like, who are we?
And and this is so beautiful,it's such an awesome thing.
So the fact that that happenedwhere you were at the NRA dude,
yeah, we.
That happened where you were atthe NRA dude, yeah, we're
getting where we got to go.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, we also had the VP to the National Restaurant
Association.
We actually were interviewing,we asked some questions.
We were the only actualreporters that were actually
asking questions about what theywere talking about with trends
and AI and all that.
He actually pointed us out whenwe went over to their booth.
They had a booth of themselvesand they had a podcast and they
had their social media peoplethere too as well and they're
(11:04):
like hey, these guys are legitthe number one food podcast and
you guys, they were asking greatquestions.
So we actually impressed him aswell.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So that was really great too, From your mouth to to
God's ears, and you know, we're, we're, we're making some
strides very quickly, Jeff.
What are we cooking up today?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
We're focusing on some good old-fashioned Memorial
Day stuff.
We got some smoked ribs thatI'd used the sweet water coffee
rub on there as well.
Last week or a couple of weeksago I got some sour oranges from
the competition I did fromVicki Webster, so I had the case
at my house in the refrigeratorso I used orange blossom scotch
bonnet honey glaze for tri-tipsthat we're doing that smoked.
(11:47):
We're doing some smash burgers,uh, that are going to be really
cool because we're going to bedoing a creme brulee, um, or
brulee, I should say bruleeavocado with some chipotle
pepper in there.
Then I did a mojo brine, latinspiced bone-in chicken that
we're going to use some burrata.
We're going to char the bread,is that?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
uh, selena yep, okay, you know how I'm working it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And then we got some, uh, baby arugula, but I'm going
to switch it up now because, um, thank you, marvin, yet again
from kahaba club, some beautiful, uh microgreens coming from him
, so it's going to be fantasticside dishes.
We're going to be doing, uh,eggplant bombs, what I call
sweet chili eggplant bombs, orthe thai chilies.
Those little guys charred them,actually threw them on the
(12:30):
charcoal and charred them.
We have a white bean chili withhatch chilies because they were
actually at the show that gaveme the idea watermelon, feta
cheese, cucumber salad.
And then this one is probablythe most ridiculous one I think
I came up with is a kimchipotato salad.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Kimchi potato salad.
Okay, I mean, listen, you knowme, I'm down for whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Well, you're my beaker, you're my experimenter,
exactly so you get to taste.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So yeah, it works out pretty good.
You know what's really excitingfor me today?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
You get to eat.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Well, yeah, it's Thursday, right, I mean, it's a
Pavlov's dog thing for me.
Like you know, wednesday nightI start drooling because I know
tomorrow's Thursday Ring thebell.
No, but it's a smash burger.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, listen, I don't want to say I'm like basic, but
you know, sometimes I just feellike being basic.
This is not basic.
No, there's nothing aboutthat's basic.
You know, not at all marvin,wait, hold on marvin kahaba club
.
Marvin dude, you sent like a Idon't know 40 pounds of micro
greens bro.
I mean it's the box is gigantic.
I mean it came in the big fedextruck.
(13:34):
I'm just saying thank you, man,you're awesome, we love you.
What cheese is?
That right there uh, what am Ilooking at?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I don't know oh oaca, oaxaca is going to be the
cheese on the burger.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Oaxaca, oaxaca, oaxaca.
All right, that's good stuff.
All right, listen, we've heardenough of you.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I know you have.
She's drooling, she needs food.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I can see it All right.
So in studio we Farm.
Babe.
She's a big city globe trotterturned farm girl is what it says
.
Is that right?
Welcome to the show, michelle.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
We've been talking about this for like I don't know
a few months now.
Right, yeah, and you're here.
I'm here and you did like a youactually did like a two hour
drive to get here.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Actually something more like three.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Almost three.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Even worse.
Three months get here actuallysounded more like three, almost
three, even worse, three months.
I stopped.
Okay, hey, listen, now you know.
But, um, thanks for being onthe show and today, before we
get into some of the topics thatwe talked you know we were
gonna get into, can?
You do a 30 000 like airplaneview of who you are, how you got
there, you know, and why you're.
You're kind of a big deal, bigpersonality.
(14:45):
Now You're kind of up there, goahead.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Well, thank you very much.
Yeah, so I'm Michelle Miller,known as the Farm Babe on social
media, and I work to bridge thegap between consumers and
farmers, and so myth busting isa bit of my niche.
And my background is aninteresting one because I like
to say I went from Rodeo to theRodeo.
I actually got a fashion degreefrom Los Angeles and I worked
for Gucci on Rodeo Drive andthen I ended up becoming a
(15:15):
farmer.
I moved to Iowa for love.
I dated a farmer for almosteight years and together we
farmed in Northeast Iowa acouple thousand acres of row
crops like corn, soybeans, hay,cattle, sheep, had a nice-sized
farm, and I started the FarmBabe about 10 years ago as a way
to debunk myths Because, as alarge-scale farmer myself, I
realized that there was a lot ofmisinformation out there, and
(15:36):
so from there it just grew, andnow I'm a keynote speaker, I
have a podcast, I'm an author,social media influencer and
getting ready to launch an eventand doing everything I can to
give science and farmers abigger voice in the food space.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Okay, so that's a mouthful and you're doing a lot.
And in today's, you know, whenyou're talking about, like,
social media and you're talkingabout trying to capture
somebody's attention, you haveto do a lot in order to kind of
frame out or carve out yourpiece of it.
Right, yeah, because you knowwe're in the same situation.
You know we, we do the podcast,we do.
(16:12):
You know we do a menu.
You know food dish videos, wedo.
You know cocktail videos.
We have a magazine, like wewere doing a ton of stuff.
Plus we're doing the dinnerswhich you went to.
You know you came out last monthto uh yeah, so the porch metery
and market over there in winterpark.
Um, how was that?
(16:32):
Did you like it?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Yeah, oh my gosh, it was amazing, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You look, I mean you look great, you and your, your
guests, I mean you guys werelike, uh, you were the talk of
the town.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I'm just saying, oh well, thank you appreciate that.
It was a good time yes, allright.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So let's talk labels, let's talk grocery, let's talk
food.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
This is what I do.
I know myth busting the groceryaisle.
That's something I speak on alot as the as a keynote speaker
at events and stuff yeah, I mean, was that your kind of your,
the, the nine labels?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
was that your kickoff ?
Was that your starting point?
That?
Speaker 4 (17:04):
was my very first article I wrote for ag daily
yeah, back in 2015.
So I've been a weekly columnistwith them now for almost a
decade and a lot of it is mythbusting so 2015, 2016?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
back then it's, and it's not like that's that long
ago, but it kind of oh my god,anyway, we're almost, we're
close, almost a decade, yeah sothings now.
I think I think the topics thatyou were bringing up then are
more prevalent now than theywere 10 years ago.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah, I think it depends on the topic.
I feel like I've seen some kindof ebb and flow, some talking
points getting louder inmainstream media versus one kind
of dying out, but everything isstill pretty prevalent, I think
.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So, out of the nine, right?
So you have like?
No hormones.
Antibiotic-free, organic,cage-free, RBST-free, GMO,
vegetarian, gluten,chemical-free.
Out of those, out of those,those labels, which one is the
one that irks you the most?
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Which one is the one that irks you the most.
Gosh, all of them Just kidding.
I think the no added hormonesthing is a pretty big one.
When you are seeing packages atthe grocery store on poultry or
pork that says no addedhormones or steroids you just
got to read the aesthetics inthe fine print.
It's actually not even a thing,and so many people think that
meat is just pumped full of allthis artificial stuff and that
(18:25):
couldn't be further from thetruth.
Chicken is just chicken.
There's no hormones, there's nosteroids.
Hormones and steroids haven'tbeen used since the 1950s, and
so we're seeing bigger chickensand better quality just because
of science.
I mean, they've learned how tomaster the feed and their
comfort, and so, I think, a lotof the myths around animal
housing.
I think if people understoodjust how much care and research
(18:48):
went into animal comfort, thatyou don't necessarily need to
buy into a more expensive labelto realize that you're still
getting a really great qualityproduct that could come from a
really amazing farm, regardlessof size or label.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Where does the analysis or data come from that?
Because obviously I mean ofsize or label.
Where does the analysis or datacome from that?
Because obviously I mean so.
There's that perspective, butthe other perspective, you know,
it's an equal force against.
So where does whose data is?
Speaker 4 (19:15):
correct.
So the thing about it ismarketing, right.
So the food companies alwayswant to be selling you a more
expensive product, and so themarketing dollars are there to
try to convince you to spendmore money.
That's what their whole goal isto profit, and they've done a
great job.
But the science, if you dig in.
So for me personally, I'veworked with a lot of poultry
science departments atuniversities.
(19:36):
So let's start with Alabama,let's start with Auburn
University of Georgia.
I think Auburn University havereally great poultry science
departments and that's wheremost of my expertise comes in.
So I speak and I tour theseplaces for a living, right, and
I go right in the nitty grittyof the science, and then you
(19:57):
just see all the research thatgoes into lighting, that goes
into comfort, that understandsspacing, that you don't want to
have chickens too crowdedbecause they won't grow.
It's kind of like if you thinkabout fish in a fish pond if you
cram them in there too much, alot of people think that they're
just crammed in and that's nottrue because then they wouldn't
(20:17):
grow.
And so I think just the scienceof understanding stocking
density, where we can maximizeproduction while using the fewer
inputs right, so we're usingfewer antibiotics.
There's no hormones anymore.
We're improving genetics,improving comfort, light, little
things like lighting, you know,and if you go from meat
chickens over to, say, eggs,they've realized you know
(20:39):
lighting matters, comfort,temperature, you know.
And then cages Now the cages arebetter in egg laying systems,
so now it's an enriched cage.
So now the modern egg layingfacilities will have perches and
nesting boxes and, you know,little scratching posts and
stuff.
So they, you know it's not likeit used to be and I think a lot
of people aren't hearing that,hearing the science-based
(21:05):
messaging that comes fromdecades, or from people that
have PhDs in poultry science,that spend decades and hundreds
of millions of dollars just onfocusing on making them awesome
and comfortable, right.
So I think kind of the mythsaround how animals are raised is
probably a hill I will die on.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
But there's, isn't there.
So, and I don't want to, I'mstill learning and I'm not
afraid to say that.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
And you hear so much against that what you're saying.
Right, who, where do you getthe right?
Where do people find the rightdata points?
Where's the analysis?
Where can somebody, where cancause?
I know, I know a lot of peoplewho are like literally going to
die on the other side of thehill, right, and you, you know,
like I respect anyone who's intoa topic like this and pours
(21:58):
themselves into it because youknow, at the end of the day,
it's, it is our food source,it's our health, it's our
children, it's the animals, it's, it's all of that, right, and I
, and I think it's, uh, I thinkit is something that deserves.
My opinion is it deserves moreconversation, but I think it
deserves more open conversation,because what I see is, you know
(22:18):
it is a hill and when we saydie in a hill, that's usually
because there's two opposingsides trying to, you know, take
each other out.
Yeah, and I don't feel like itshould be that yeah, that's a
great point, I agree yeah, Ifeel like it should be something
where you're like, hey, hey,what you're you're feeling on
the matter is valid.
But check this out Totally.
You need to see this and thenthey need to.
(22:38):
You know, and we need to lookat, like all the data points,
right, Exactly.
So where do the data pointscome from?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Yeah, and I used to be on the other side, right Like
I used to only buy organic,free range every expensive label
under the sun.
So I completely understand andwe have to understand that we
always have to go to the source.
So sometimes people that havethe opposing view may be because
they've never actually gone toa large scale chicken farm and
(23:04):
we have to remember that chickenfarmers, or farmers in general,
are only 1% of the population,so their voices are very easily
drowned out.
And again, there is a lot ofmoney to be made off of consumer
fear and there's a lot ofmisinformation.
But marketing is there to makeit look like this beautiful,
pretty picture.
But I've toured some of thelargest farms in the country
(23:25):
cattle feedlots with hundreds ofthousands of head or millions
of chickens.
I know a lot of people that I'vebeen inside their farms and I
think that's kind of what peopleare missing is that they're not
exploring.
You know kind of like my sideof the argument, right, they're
just hearing the media noise andthere's so much money being
funneled.
If you look at something likethe vegan movement, okay, now,
(23:45):
I've got nothing against vegans.
If that's the way they chooseto live their life, it's fine,
but at the end of the day, ifyou have HSUS, the Humane
Society of the United States,they lobby over $140 million a
year to try to put livestockfarmers out of business.
There's some big money behindit and they're tied directly to
PETA, mercy for Animals, dxe,like all of these animal rights
(24:06):
activist groups, and so there'sa lot of money to be made off of
consumer fear and also fromideology of the well-funded
vegan activists.
So we always have to go to thesource.
It's just kind of like if youwant to talk about your teeth,
you go to your dentist.
If you want to talk to yourmechanic, you go there.
The research if you're going toread up on it, make sure you
(24:27):
know where it's coming from.
Is it coming from somebody witha PhD that does this for a
living, that really knows whatthey're talking about, that has
really invested in it?
Or is it somebody from New YorkCity?
Or they have a small scale farmand I love small scale farms
and I will promote that all day.
First right, like buying localfirst is the most important
thing.
I'm not going to sit here andsay the big way is the only way,
(24:47):
like that would just be stupid.
But we need them right.
We need farms of all shapes andsizes and labels to feed the
world, and so there's such animportant piece for having
affordable protein for peopleand I just encourage people to
try to track that down like gothrough university extension.
You know, farm BureauUniversity extension is probably
(25:10):
one of the best resources whereyou can connect directly to the
people with the PhDs and on thescientist level.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
So the one problem for me, based on that, is a lot
of times I'm going to point out,back in the day, milk was the
protein that everybody wantedbecause it was funded by the
milk industry.
Then it was the egg industry.
Back in the 80s and 90s, likeRocky, we were cracking eggs and
having raw eggs and then, oh,you're going to have salmonella
and then it's morphed into somany different things.
(25:37):
For me it's like who's payingfor it?
Perfect movie that was outrecently Fork to Knife was kind
of like the spearhead, the jumpoff, and it was this thing about
the world's strongest man is avegan.
Well, it's great, but whofunded that movie was Beyond
Meats, which is Cameron, the guywho did the Titanic.
(25:58):
He's one of the major investors.
So there's a problem when yousay you have to look at it, when
you have science is telling uswell, who funded the scientist?
That's number one, becauseobviously, if it's, this group
over here is funding them,obviously they're not going to
talk that to them because theywere getting the money from them
.
So it's a very convoluted wayof saying we have to look at the
(26:18):
science.
Yeah, there's science ineverything, but who's funding
the scientist is the problem,like you know, beef.
There's certain things that youcan't say about beef because
look at, oprah Winfrey was takento court Million dollars later
she won her case.
So there are things that areout there.
Profit margins are going to bekept there, but the bottom line
is we have to make sure thatthere's transparency, and I
(26:42):
think Food Chains is a greatmovie to point that out Sunway
is the last name of that one,the producer director.
That opened my eyes to what wasgoing on.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
I haven't seen that one.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, that one is a huge one that really can.
It's on Netflix, it's out there.
It's one of those things yousit there and you watch and you
go okay, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Yeah, and what's really interesting about Netflix
is within the agriculturecommunity.
I'm just this is going to bereally blunt, but, like we're,
we're kind of getting our asseskicked in the PR when you, when
you do look at the sciencebecause science doesn't sell and
when you do talk to the experts, they're, they're kind of
boring.
I love them, they're.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Ben.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Stein yeah.
So, when our industry does putout the Netflix type
documentaries, netflix neverpicks them up.
They pick up the quotedocumentaries because a lot of
them are not truthful, but theypick up the ones that are going
to sell.
And what sells is fear andhyperbole and a story and scary.
(27:46):
And I see our industry puttogether videos that are very
truthful and they're great andthey really promote the truth in
science, but they don't havethat Tom Brady and Gisele edge
like they have in some of theso-called documentaries.
And when you look at the peoplefunding the anti-meat movement,
you know they've got EllenDeGeneres and Arnold
(28:07):
Schwarzenegger and NataliePortman.
And because you look at, yes,you are correct, in the 90s Got
Milk was everything.
Why did we all know, as I don'tknow what year y'all were born,
but I was born in 82.
And when we're kids in the 90sgoing, wow, I was like, wow, I
want to be like Cindy Crawfordwhen I grew up, I want to drink
milk, and so it is very much amedia marketing.
(28:30):
But that Got Milk campaigncosted $40 million just to get
off the ground.
And now I wonder where all ofthat money's going, because now,
like silk milk is like the soymilk.
Now they're doing a thing calledthe Next Milk campaign, which
is all of the kids from thosecelebrities with silk mustaches,
(28:50):
and so it's like they'retotally ripping it off, because
I feel like our industry is runby a lot of older males who
don't really understand mediaand social media anymore.
And so back in the day, when itwas easy, oh, we'll just do
commercials, we'll do magazineads, we'll do television.
And now I'm sitting here kindof wanting to bang my head
(29:11):
against the wall because I waslike you guys are missing the
mark on social media influencers, celebrities, because now the
people that have taken thatnarrative.
Is the Netflix of the world, isthe celebrities of the world
being funded by Beyond Meat,being funded by the vegans?
There are hundreds of millionsof dollars.
Don't let the scary part offarming fool you.
(29:35):
They're very well-funded to tryto convince us that our food
has a doom and gloom story.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, it kind of does , because if you look at it like
the European Union you look atthe flour, for instance it's not
enriched, it's not bleached.
They have, you know, a certainway of doing things.
There's no bromide.
So here in the United States welet certain things go in,
whereas the EU doesn't.
If you look at the box and it'straveling around right now
there's a picture of Quaker Oats.
(29:58):
Oh, that's been debunked foryears, but if you look at that
at its face value and somebodywho doesn't know that's been out
there, you look at that and go,what the heck are they feeding
us?
So I mean the fear part of it.
That's a great thing becauseagain, it's a part of national
security.
You know, if we don't have food, then it's a national security
problem.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
But here's another interesting thing about that.
First of all, that meme needsto be fact-checked because it's
not even true.
If you actually dig in on theactual ingredients, it's not
nearly.
I know the woman, the womanthat did that meme, and she is
one of the biggest sources ofmisinformation.
I don't know if I should sayher name.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
MGT.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Let's just say that my brand is built off of
debunking her because nothingshe says is true.
If you actually fact check thatmeme and I hate that it still
goes viral because it's like nottrue.
But also, the EU is notrequired to disclose all of the
ingredients that we are so a lotof sugars and everything in the
(30:53):
US they are required.
We must list every ingredientand the EU actually doesn't have
that.
And the other thing that'sinteresting is a lot of people
say, oh, when I go to Europe, Ican eat bread just fine and I
can do all these things justfine.
And is there a little bit oftruth to changes and additives?
Sure, but also they import allof our stuff.
So when people are like, oh, Ican eat this Europe stuff and
it's like, okay, well, guesswhat?
That was all X it's, it's grownin the U?
(31:14):
S, like it's the same weighthere as it is in there, so you
don't really know where it comesfrom.
The food is a global situationand so a lot of times it's just
well.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The United States and the Ukraine are the two largest
wheat producers.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Sunflower, actually Sunflower.
Actually, ukraine is sunflower.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, it's wheat also .
They're the two largest wheatgrowers in the planet.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah, ukraine is a huge breadbasket and also
semolina is actually more donein the Dakotas than it is in
Italy, so that's another thingtoo.
A lot of people don't realize.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
I always say it's very much a placebo effect, and
this is just my opinion and mytheory.
This is not backed in any typeof scientific data, but just in
my opinion.
I would say you know, whenyou're on vacation like when I
go to Italy, it's one of myfavorite places in the world you
feel better because you're onvacation, like you're in Italy.
So you're like oh my God, Ifelt so great, the food was so
much better.
(32:07):
It's like bitch, you can getCheetos in Italy too.
You know what I mean.
Like you can get Coca-Cola andjunk food and cookies everywhere
in the world.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
But I can tell you this because I I'm picking up
what you put down and and I fall.
You know these guys will tellyou.
I typically fall in the centeron this because I I know that
there's a tug and pull for toall this right when there's
truths and you know there'struths on both sides and then
there's this gray area in themiddle and we're all getting
(32:35):
pulled back and forth on it.
I get that Right.
But I will tell you this I'vehad ancient grain pasta here
from elsewhere and I can eat andI'm Italian and I've been
eating pasta my whole life and Iused to when I was younger.
I can go and have three giantbowls of rigatones, totally fine
(32:56):
.
Now I have, you know, half abowl of rigatones and I'm just
like, okay, all right.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
I ate a pound of this ancient grain pasta.
I wasn't bloated.
It was amazing and, as Iunderstand it, it's just less
gluten.
The G word doesn't scare me.
You know what I mean, but Iexperienced that and I'm going
to say that it wasn't a placebo,although I know what you're
(33:26):
talking about and I think thatholds a lot of weight.
Percentage-wise, you'reprobably right, but I'll tell
you that I know that myexperience was, was real.
I mean I ate a pound of it.
I was like man, I feel great Ican have, I can go home for
seconds.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Yeah, and you never know right, like that could very
much be a well and well andtrue, yeah, but it's.
It's like when I'm in Italy,it's you, you're, you're walking
more, you're getting moreexercise, you're happier, you're
not at work, your stress level,like stress is the number one
killer.
So reducing that stress ofbeing on vacation, you know,
yeah, the birds chirp brighter,the sun shines brighter, the
(34:01):
birds chirp better.
You know, it's like the dogsare cuter, everything's better
because you're on vacationthat's the same here yeah, this
image of studio.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I'm just saying we experience that same.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
I'm about to eat like 30 pounds of your ancient grain
chicken and tell everybody howamazing it is.
This is like heaven on earth inthe studio.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
let me tell you, it's kind of what we do.
We hand out smiles.
That's what we do.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I worked in the other side, the sales side of things,
and there's stories you alwayshear Back in the 50s when we had
Wonder Bread come out and wethen went to mass production.
When we had people get sick,the Band-Aid effect was
fortified and that was where wewent.
If you look at any type ofreligion you're in and if you
look at the basis of it, no onesaid, oh John, he died of celiac
(34:48):
disease.
So bread and wheat is thefoundation of what civilization
was, let alone let's not talkabout spices, but wheat in
itself.
So if you look around the worldat cultures that use as the
backbone of their products ofcarbohydrates rice and breads
and wheat China, japan, india,italy, france, spain they don't
(35:13):
have the amount of celiac orgluten-tolerant problems as the
United States does.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Actually they do.
The prevalence of celiacdisease is actually higher in
the EU than it is in the UnitedStates.
Look it up.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
All right, trust me when.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Well, I mean the average person would just Google
it right.
But it's just important thatwhen you Google it you look at
the source of where it comesfrom and which you know, this is
where I personally havechallenges, because, you know,
it just seems, and this is noteven going to.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
it just seems that when you, when, when a side puts
out a data point and pushes it,okay, cool, oh look, it's uh,
cnn, I don't know whatever andthen it's another side that
pushes the, the antithesis of,and it says oh, it's fox, all
right, now we're all beingplayed because there's the one
(36:08):
side pushing there's alwaysgoing to be the other side
pushing it.
And again we're in the middleand we're getting tugged both
ways and I don't know that we'regetting all the facts.
We're not.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Yeah, I could see that, and it's interesting too
sometimes when people say, well,that was just funded by the
wheat board, right, but andfirst of all, we should also say
GMOs are another thing, myththat I love to bust.
And there's actually no suchthing as GMO wheat.
All wheat is non-GMO.
It's all modified, but it'sstill considered non-GMO.
So that's another interestingfact.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
What is the devil in the definition there then?
How does that work?
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Yeah, so GMOs would refer to very specific plant
breeding processes liketransgenic or cisgenic or RNAI
interferences different types ofplant breeding methods.
So Norman Borlaug would be likethe godfather of wheat.
You know back in the 70s thatcreated these certain dwarf.
He's credited with saving abillion lives with these wheat
that he developed.
(37:01):
Where was I going with this?
Oh, okay, so, kind of going backto the source, I feel like food
is one of these things wherewhen we have a question about
our car, we go to our carmanufacturer and we have a
question about our cell phone,we go to our cell phone
manufacturer, and so whensomething like well, the wheat
board.
So, according to the wheatboard, for example, another myth
(37:22):
I love to bust is people thinkthat it's sprayed with
glyphosate.
Now, according to the wheatboard, it's less than 3% of US
acres are sprayed with Roundupglyphosate less than 3%, and I
believe that just based purelyon the fact that I talk to
farmers for a living.
So I think if anybody talks toand this is in the United States
it's a little bit more commonpractice in Canada, but when you
(37:44):
talk to actual wheat growers,they'll be like I don't know
anybody that does that, and soit's one of these things you
have to go to the source.
So, while I understand well,that's just funding Well, who do
you believe?
Do we believe the people that doit for a living, that have a
PhD and decades of experience inthe topic?
Or is it somebody that's saying, well, you know, I'm a doctor?
Well, guess what?
A lot of doctors also thinkthat wheat is a GMO, and it's
(38:06):
not.
A lot of doctors think thatorganic is pesticide-free.
It's not.
Doctors are good at beingdoctors, but that's the
importance of why we have tospeak to each other, because
doctors aren't out there growingthousands of acres of wheat.
Wheat farmers are.
So it all goes back to thesource.
So if the Wheat Board isgetting their information and
their data from wheat farmers,what's more credible than that?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
You still got to find out where it's coming from
Again.
Who's paying it?
Who's paying the board?
I'm sorry to say it, I'm nottrying to be.
I'm going to be the devil'sadvocate every single time I
appreciate that.
Because you've got so manydifferent viewpoints and that's
the problem is there's nobodythat's saying, hey, the truth.
(38:52):
There's always three sides ofthe story that person, the other
person and then somewhere inthe middle.
That somewhere in the middlehas to be where it raised up.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
The other thing, though, too, to consider is so I
said I was a commercial farmerfor about eight years, right,
and so the other thing is thatthere is a lot of um, scrutiny
and everything that comes alongwith that.
There's a lot of regulationsand things that we have to
adhere to, almost to the pointwhere they're regulating farmers
to death out of business.
So the other thing is that ifthere is a problem, I guarantee
you that problem is being shoveddown our throats, because, as
(39:25):
the 1%, as a farmer, it's veryeasy to misunderstand what we do
, and it's very easy to takethat mainstream media negativity
and run with it to the pointwhere they just think we're a
bunch of environmentallydestructive assholes, and not
without listening to our side ofthe story.
So, if there is a problem, Iwould I would also argue that
somebody like the wheat board oryou know whatever, are going to
(39:47):
be saying hey, guys, like thisis happening, let's, let's
figure out how to solve theproblem, because the government
is still tied to conservationdistricts and NRCS like the
people that are doing like ourfarm had earned awards for
farmer of the year for soil andwater conservation.
We know till farming for 30years, very what you would call
regenerative cover crops, notill, soil testing.
We would be kind of like theposter child of doing the right
(40:10):
thing, right.
But it's like we're stillgrowing GMOs, you know, we're
still using these certainproducts that people think are
bad, and there's a whole lot ofthings going on that people
believe.
Well, it's either this or it'sthat, and the truth is that
you're correct.
There's a whole lot of grayareas in there that we're not
talking about, and it's got tobe more of a balanced
(40:31):
perspective with everybodytalking to each other.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
About 10 years ago I think, there was like a big
lawsuit with roundup right thereand and I was looking that up
and and what came up was a therewas politics aside.
What came up that I found wasthis Glenn Beck right and one of
the guys on his program.
(40:55):
He was doing shots on air ofRoundup, nice.
Well, this was 10 years ago.
The guy's still there.
Yeah, I'm not saying I would dothat, I certainly wouldn't do
that, but this is kind of thestuff that goes like you know, I
don't know how to digest that.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Not the Roundup but, like the story yeah exactly Pun
intended.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I'm not exactly how to tackle that, or look at that.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Listen, there's certain things.
When I first got into being afarmer advocate myself as a chef
, I would ask them what is yourbiggest fear?
I thought it would be pastMother Nature, drought, famine
Obviously all categorized underMother Nature.
No environmentalist.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Oh, yeah, yeah, because they're not hearing our
side.
Everybody wants to point thefinger at us.
You want to talk about followthe money.
Like Florida's, a perfectexample of who funds the
environmentalist groups is thebillionaire developers.
Okay, so in South Floridayou've got urbanization backing
straight up to the EvergladesWestlake, backing straight up to
260,000 acres owned by US Sugar.
(41:56):
And people might think I'mcrazy for saying this, but God
bless US Sugar, because if itwasn't this big corporate entity
, the farmers would be going outof business left and right
because they wouldn't be able tofight against and afford what
the environmentalists areputting them up against.
And so they're the ones thatcan afford to fight back,
because here's a documentary youshould watch called no Farmers,
(42:16):
no Food.
I saw it, yeah, and that one'sprobably one of the more
truthful ones I've seen.
But back to your point of doingshots around up.
I think the point is always thedose makes the poison.
So if you look at the LD50value, it's 5,600 milligrams per
kilogram, which technicallyactually makes it safer than
table salt 5,600 milligrams perkilogram, which technically
actually makes it safer thantable salt.
So it's really interesting,because it's the same concept of
(42:39):
like you can drink a beer butdon't drink the whole keg.
It's always.
Everything can be good or bad inmoderation.
And that's probably when Ifirst started my advocacy a
decade ago now and, like I said,it's just been a learning thing
for me.
But the post that I had thatwent the most viral was when I
talked about how much Roundup wesprayed on our GMOs, because I
(43:01):
was so sick and tired of peoplejust thinking we're just out
there drenching our stuff inchemicals and on our cornfield
we were only spraying one day ayear, maybe two in the very
beginning of the growing season.
And what people don't realizeis the amount of chemical we use
is so minimal.
It's a very fine mist, to thepoint where, if you did the math
, you would need to eatsomething like 86 tons of grain
(43:23):
in a single sitting, like youknow what I mean.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
I can do it, Carl can do that If it's ancient grain
he can definitely do.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
that I can do it.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
So it's usually between, depending on the crop
and region, it's usually betweenabout 12 to 22, maybe 30 ounces
per acre.
So you're looking at like twobeer cans on an area of land the
size of a football field, andso we're spraying corn one or
two days a year in the beginningof the growing season, and we
grow GMOs, because if you askany farmer what it was like back
in the 50s or 60s or 70s, we'resinging our praises to GMOs
(43:55):
because it's allowed us toeliminate chemicals and
eliminate pesticides.
So you used to have to use Likethe DDT.
Yeah, that stuff's all gonebecause Roundup is the safest.
Except for off Deet.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
But it's the safest herbicide we've ever had access
to, which is why it's so popularand available at any Home Depot
or Walmart.
But someday we can look back,because we're always improving
technology, chemistries,pesticides, are becoming safer
and more targeted than everbefore, Like the most popular.
You know what the most popularpesticide was about 100 or so
(44:30):
years ago?
It was arsenic Arsenic, yeah.
And so people are like, well,we need to get back to the old
days.
I'm like to hell we do.
They don't realize howmiserable it was.
And also it's because oftechnology that 1% of the
population farmers can feed 100%.
It used to be like 70% or 80%of the population had to be
(44:52):
farmers in order to survive, andnow we're looking at wow.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
I love your chic ner approach to to this oh my god, I
could go on and on yeah, butyou know she did mention florida
as the state and one of thebiggest things you look at right
now is like oguchobi, right,and that's the runoff.
That's the biggest thing.
Marco rubio jumped on it, scottjumped on it.
Sure, you know they have the,the mouth of, uh, the of the
Gulf, and we have red Thai andwe have all these huge smells
(45:19):
that are the algae that's beingpoured into the Atlantic.
Where's this coming from?
Is it big sugar?
Is it everybody's home that'sfertilized in their yards?
Everyone's pointing the fingerat big sugar because that's
where they need to put now.
Is that the environmentalists?
Speaker 4 (45:35):
Yeah, so it's really easy to do that because, once
again, farmers are 1% of thepopulation and if you look at
who's funding it with thedevelopers, nobody ever talks
about the septics you know, sothe big thing is septic.
They're not nearly regulated,but if you look at the tens of
million plus people, they allflush the toilet and they all
live at the beach.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
And you people, they all flush the toilet and they
all live at the beach and youknow what?
You know what?
Another, uh, somethinganecdotal everybody's on
medication, right, everybody'son something, and all that stuff
gets passed through you andyou're flushing it and it's.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
It just is what it is well, my main point to this one
is if you look at like, uh,this area in palm beach it's
exploding right now because youhave um swarovski helicopters
out there and all the differenttop secret stuff being developed
out in.
I've called Utah.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
How top secret can it be if you know about it?
Speaker 2 (46:28):
When you have neighbors work for you and they
can't tell you what they'redoing.
But they're there working onstuff and you know it's there
because you can see it.
West Lake is a huge development4,500500 homes.
You know what that used to be.
It used to be farmland yeah andit was closed down because
environmentalists florida isdoing the wrong.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
We're going in the wrong direction.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Well, it's like your point where we grew up.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Well, you know, you were 20 minutes from where I
grew up and I was in cooper city.
In cooper city, nothing butorange groves and dairy farms.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well, Sheridan Street stopped at University Drive
yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Right, not anymore.
We were on the dirt road there.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Right, yeah, so I mean, we had it there.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
It is becoming increasingly more difficult for
farmers to stay on the land, andit's a lot of government
overreach and it's also one ofno here's the real hill I will
die on is the fact that grocerystores need to purchase, buy
local, first and foremost.
Everybody is like when publics,you know big grocery store
(47:24):
chains if strawberries are inseason in Florida, buy from
Florida, you know, and insteadthey buy from Guatemala or
Mexico or third world countries,because the farm workers there
get paid $10 a day and they canbuy fresh produce there for
pennies on the dollar, whereashere I mean I know farmers that
spend $30,000 a day just in handlabor to get fresh produce to
(47:44):
the store.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
And what they're doing in Plant City, in that
whole area here in CentralFlorida where the bread basket-.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
No, no, right here in Bartow, dude, yeah, where we
are, where we are.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
It's the breadbasket of strawberries for the world,
and nothing but developmenthappening.
It's heartbreaking.
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Wait, john, because he's not going to talk about it.
Across the street used to be ablueberry farmer.
Guess what's there now.
Not him, no, he sold it.
Speaker 4 (48:11):
Yeah, we want to talk about sustainability and what's
going to keep the world greenCement concrete done.
We're done.
But it's becoming so difficultto stay on the farm because they
need a place to sell and theinput costs continue to go up.
So the price of fertilizer hasgone up like 300%.
Inputs are so expensive youcan't even buy.
(48:33):
I mean myself, coming from beinga corn farmer in Iowa.
It's like I mean myself comingfrom being a corn farmer in Iowa
.
It's like I mean you want totalk about the price of a new
combine.
You know, like a cotton picker1.2 million.
You know.
You can look at a farmer and belike, wow, that farmer made,
you know, millions of dollars.
He made a million dollars lastyear.
Well, he didn't tell you thathis inputs were 1.1 million,
right?
So it's, they're turning upsidedown and so, yes, you can have
(48:55):
good years and bad years and yousee a lot of successful farmers
and it can and does happen.
However, it ebbs and flows andwhen it's bad it can be really
bad and to the point wherethey're so stressed and then
we've got the suicide.
It's a real problem 58-year-oldaverage.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
60-something-year-old is the suicide rate in farmers
for mail and then their kids aregoing.
Speaker 4 (49:18):
why do I want to do this?
I'm out.
So when a developer comes upand says, hey, we'll give you
millions of dollars off or theycan't refuse, you kind of can't
blame them for wanting to sellout.
But it really is heartbreakingand this is probably the topic
that I'm most passionate aboutover anything.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Okay, we're friends again.
Have you ever watched theClarkson's Farms?
Speaker 4 (49:37):
Yes, it's so good.
That show is so realistic.
I love that one.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
So if you guys have never seen Clarkson, he's one of
the guys from the HBO specialwhere the guy's top gear.
He's been controversial but hebought a farm and it's a huge
farm.
I mean it's not a small one andthe first time it was during
COVID and he settles up hisaccounts and if he didn't get
subsidized from the countryEngland, he would have made $200
(50:05):
.
Speaker 4 (50:05):
Oh yeah, that's it.
That's what I love aboutClarkson's Farm.
I encourage everybody to watchit, because it is the only show
or movie out there that is, inmy opinion, very genuinely
accurate.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
And funny as hell.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
And funny.
I love Clarkson's Farm.
I appreciate we're friendsagain.
I really appreciate yourskepticism, though I really do,
and I know that people listeningare going to be like who is
this bitch Like?
Who pays her Like?
You know what I mean.
I get that question all thetime and it doesn't offend me.
I come from a place of curiosity, because I used to believe all
(50:37):
the negativity also, and sothat's why I've become so
passionate about my side of theargument and telling the
farmer's story and telling thescientist's story and the
veterinarian's story, becausetheir stuff is boring and it's
data and nobody wants to read astudy.
They just want to know, okay,what's the talking point, and
(51:01):
the media doesn't pick up thescience-based talking points,
and so what I've done is triedto make science a little bit
more interesting, and throughthat, through my travels, I just
go to the farms and I justinterview the experts.
And is it always perfect?
Of course not.
I'm not going to sit here andtell you that everything's
hunky-dory, but at the end ofthe day, people aren't hearing
the fact that US sugar reducedtheir phosphorus levels by 35%.
They're not going to hear aboutbest management practices.
(51:21):
They're not going to hear about.
Now I hear about it because I goto farm conferences and I speak
at them for a living and Ilisten to the scientists and I
talk to the professionals, butit just doesn't translate well.
And so I just want people tokeep an open mind and say you
know what?
Go to a farm conference like.
Go to farm progress like.
Talk to these large scalefarmers, explain you know what
(51:42):
you want to do.
Talk to your farm bureau, go toyour university, go to a farm
conference and just keep an openmind, because people would be
really pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
I think yes, yes, everything you just said, and
I'm going to go back real quickbefore we sign off here Florida
Farm Finder, jillian, I mean,you want to find your local
farms in your area and go toFacebook and check that out,
because the truth is, in Florida, you're not more than 30
minutes away from an actual farm.
(52:12):
I don't care where you live inFlorida, literally 30 minutes
away you're going to find a farm.
Speaker 4 (52:17):
You know, florida farm finder is great.
There also is a lot ofmisinformation in that group too
, because a lot of themisinformation is circled.
As much as I love to supportsmall local farms they're
wonderful it is kind of thecommunity of like well, I can
raise my cattle on pasture and Ican raise my chickens on
pasture and it's like congrats,I'm from Iowa.
We can't raise chickens inJanuary in Iowa.
(52:38):
You know what I mean Outside.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
In the end, everybody has to do their homework.
Everybody needs to kind of dosome research, you know to.
To just be spoon fedinformation and then choose a
side is wrong, and that's whywhere we are today in society at
large is that we're a spoon.
We're a spoon fed, and there weare, we pick a side at this
(53:03):
stage get some information, getsome data and learn.
All right, michelle, Iappreciate you so much for
coming out here today.
Where do people find you?
Speaker 4 (53:15):
Well, thefarmbabecom is my website.
I'm also doing an event, farmCruise, the farmer appreciation
event, on a Caribbean cruise.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Real quick go.
You got 15 seconds go.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
Farmcruisecom thefarmbabecom.
Follow me on Facebook Farm Babe.
All right I kind of wanted togo.
You gave me 10 seconds.
I panicked.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
All right, jeff, just email us.
We'll find out more informationfor you guys.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
We'll put it out there for you, because that
sounds awesome.
You're telling me about thistrip.
It sounds terrific, john.
As always, you're freakingawesome.
All this means, michelle, isyou're going to come back for
round number two.
Let's do it, okay, all right,we oh, by the way, peninsula
Food Service people chefs getout there and do your thing.
We are out.
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcast,where you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fidini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it First things first
.
Last week on the show we hadMark Maurer, owner of Selim
(00:31):
Cheese.
He's a cheese maker thatspecializes in manufacturing
fresh mozzarella cheese.
Oh my goodness, I love it.
I personally enjoyed listeningto the episode as much as I did
eating the product Hashtagburrata.
If you missed it, go back andcheck it out.
Thank you Peninsula FoodService for supplying the
(00:53):
proteins for today's productionChefs in the Central Florida
area.
Peninsula is the largestdistributor of Creekstone Farm
Beef in the Southeast USA,complete with a fully staffed
butcher shop to help you solveyour kitchen inconsistencies.
Check out the Dry Age programtoo, baby, I love it.
Our guest this week oh boy,michelle Miller, also known as
(01:15):
the Farm Babe.
We're talking misleading foodlabels.
Yeah, you'd know her on IG asthe Farm Babe.
Check her out there.
Michelle is a farm and foodadvocate.
You've seen her on Dr Drew,inside Edition, forbes and now
here on Walk Talk.
Stay tuned.
Farm Babe is on deck.
(01:36):
By the way, walk Talk was atthe NRA show in Chicago this
past week.
Oh my goodness, the stories,the debauchery.
Jeff and Pooch were there andwe're going to get the skinny on
the experience.
We're going to keep it PG.
Jeff, you did a lot of cookingtoday.
I see the meats Brother.
Pop the clutch.
Free shift.
(01:57):
Make it happen, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We're going to give a huge first off.
We're going to give a hugeshout out to Citrus America,
because that was our base whilewe were there.
I think there were the 5,400sand that went up to like 1,200s
about 12,000,.
By the way, that place wasabsolutely ginormous.
Both Pooch and I it was ourfirst time being there.
Hold on.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Because you know, there's a lot of people who've
never been to a trade show, foodshow, something like that.
So we're talking rows like row100, row 5 000.
How many rows were there?
I saw up to 12 000, 12 000 rowsof vendors.
Imagine the scope it's 10football fields it's 760 000
square feet long yeah basically,you see, it was in three
(02:42):
different buildings yeah
Speaker 2 (02:44):
it was the north Lakeland and a South.
The South was the actuallargest.
There were two convention hallsthat you had to go across.
Um rack was one of them.
That was in the other roomwhere citrus America was, where
in the first room that we werein, so you had Metro
productivity and solutions.
They were right, uh, generallyabout not too far away from
(03:05):
where we were with citrusamerica.
In between was a whole bunch ofum equipment suppliers and yes,
we're going to be looking forequipment suppliers because we
are going to be working on acommercial kitchen, so we'll
have to have them come in um,that's a, that's a uh.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
By the way, people you walk and talk studio,
commercial kitchen.
It's not just like a commercialkitchen.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
This is big time well , not only that, think about
this.
You know how, like stadiumshave it named after a brand, the
kitchen's going to be namedafter the brand.
So whoever wants to come up,pony up, buddy, pony up.
Then we had uncommon chef.
Let me just tell you about anuncommon chef.
I was trying to get a hold of,uh, our, our person that you
guys were like having the theshirts on right now, and I
(03:48):
called kimberly and she's like,uh, yeah, I'm over in 700.
I remember I'm 5400.
It took us an hour an hour toget to her and it was not just
because we got stopped.
It was that long of a walk toget from that one point to the
next point.
Um, costa coffee.
This thing was coming in fromengland.
It's this really cool coffeemaker that actually scans the
(04:11):
coffee pod and knows exactlywhat's in there and then gives
the exact ratio of the coffeethat you want to put into the
coffee coffee cup, so you havethe perfect cup of coffee all
the time I mean, I'm always, I'malways looking for the maximum
amount of coffee to put in theuh, the coffee uh thing yeah,
and then there was one with chefwarehouse.
(04:32):
It was a plant-based buttercalled toralimi.
That one was absolutelyfantastic.
She's a baker who went and saidI'm going to do my own stuff.
She did great differentproducts that she was giving
people out.
Even the butter by itself wasfantastic.
Avocados from Mexico my God,that booth was just slammed
(04:53):
every time we walked over pastit because they had great chefs
from Mexico that they were doing.
Pooch and I were actually ableto get to the bar or the food
part of it.
We actually got to sit thereand watch them cook.
At the end of it didn't haveany idea, but we got this great
book that was from Chef Patty.
That was really nice of her togive us the book.
She signed the autographs too.
Then we had Stavely Wordworks,which is a buddy of mine, chris
(05:18):
Fiera, which I'll let Pooch talkabout that one because that was
really cool.
Spiceology is one, the otherone and one, and kalahari water
entertainment parks.
We met the gentleman who was incharge of that one, so we're
going to be talking to him.
And then we went to the viceroyfor rack.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I know you were telling me about this vice, for
how beautiful, uh, I think weneed to figure out how we're
going to get there and worksomething out with those guys
yeah, that 18th flooroverlooking the lake in the
infinity pool was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
They did the whole revamp on that thing.
And then our buddy Joey Rowlandand Foster Dedman over at Ed
Don.
It was great to see them,especially Foster, because I
haven't seen him in a long time.
So, pooch, you have anythingyou want to throw out there?
Maybe the little trip toGibson's that you had?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, I mean so.
So I mean I'm just sitting hereracking my brain and you know
I'm sensory overload.
I got, I got home last night at2 am from chicago and uh, and
it's just the biggest part ofthe whole thing was realizing
that.
You know, new orleans hasalways been praised as
hospitality town and I'm reallynot trying to talk a lot of mess
about New Orleans in any way,but Chicago was just such a
class act.
Every dining experience wasamazing, even down to just the
(06:33):
hot dog on the street.
It was just so cool and it'ssuch a place that's going
through my mind right now.
I just want to go back.
There's so much more to exploreand as far as the show, I mean
the show is just I'm stillprocessing.
I've never been to anythingthis big, um and so informative.
You know you really could spenda whole week rather than just
(06:55):
four days, but, um, thehighlight for me, honestly, was
to allow me.
I think those ladies are reallydoing great, great things with
uh.
You know I'm not a vegan, but Ido appreciate vegans.
I do understand what their,what their, the reasoning is for
their lifestyle and the waythey want to eat.
You would never know that thisis vegan, so I do the health
(07:16):
benefits of doing this and theuh, the, the uses of this butter
in any way, shape or form moreso than just taste.
It's amazing.
I really love those girls.
They did a great job and Ithink they sold themselves
better than anybody else there.
Really, really awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, the massage guys did a good job, didn't they
?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
That they did, that they did.
They kept me alive.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Don't look at me that ton of ways, Carl.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
He's looking at me like mom, messed up.
Explain that kind of massageyou want to explain that day one
.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And he they got him day one, okay, not even five
minutes.
There he goes, want a massage,back hurt, and he next thing I
know I'm like where's pooch?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
when we get there and i'm're saying like, sit down,
they ask you to sit down.
So I'm thinking, oh, I have asciatic.
I've been on a plane for threehours anyway, so I had a problem
.
I may as well go ahead and havethese people try to work
something out, and when I goback, it ends up being that it's
one of those little vibratingelectric shock things that you
(08:25):
put on your muscle.
I mean, we need to get in touchwith these people.
I'm not going to mention theirnames, he keeps company.
But the reason being is it'sfor chefs.
It's made for chefs that arestanding on their feet all day
long.
And you know, I was reallyhappy that it wasn't just people
trying to throw food in yourface.
They were trying to actuallygive you something that benefits
you.
Yes, sir, are throw food inyour face.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
They were trying to actually give you something to
benefit you.
Yes, sir, are there dark web?
Is there dark web video of you?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
No, no, he did.
It did help him out.
He was able to walk.
It was one of the game changerfor him.
Okay, it was a big show bro.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I know it's huge.
The idea is that we're going tobe doing more of these shows
and we're going to do some morecollaborations, you know, with
some of these other vendors andsuppliers at the show.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I think one of the best things we heard from some
major major companies was likewe know your podcast.
Our marketing people actuallytold us to get on it and make
sure we're listening to it.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, there was not, wasn't just so.
Listen, random story we'regoing to get.
We're going to get to the tothe guts of the show today.
I was with I was with one of theowners from the porch the other
day and we were just, you know,having a conversation about
next dinner and some things wecan do, and we're sitting at a
bar and just having a combo andthere was a fella sitting next
(09:47):
to us and, um, we're talkingrestaurant and food stuff.
So some partway and he, hestops.
He's like hey, sorry guys,excuse me, but, um, you guys are
in the business.
We're like yeah, you know sohe's a, he was a private chef
and he also works at a prettyprestigious club.
And, long story short, you know, the fellow I was with I'm not
(10:10):
going to name the names rightnow, but fellow I was with says
well, you know who this guy is.
Right, he's a walk and talkpodcast and the guy's face lit
up like legit, like it was youknow it wasn't BS and he goes oh
man, I listen to you guys.
I was like, oh, my God, you'rekidding me, like you're, you're
full of it.
He's like no, I'm dead serious.
Anyway, random as random couldpossibly be such a cool thing,
(10:33):
because who the hell are we Like, honestly like, who are we?
And and this is so beautiful,it's such an awesome thing.
So the fact that that happenedwhere you were at the NRA dude,
yeah, we.
That happened where you were atthe NRA dude, yeah, we're
getting where we got to go.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, we also had the VP to the National Restaurant
Association.
We actually were interviewing,we asked some questions.
We were the only actualreporters that were actually
asking questions about what theywere talking about with trends
and AI and all that.
He actually pointed us out whenwe went over to their booth.
They had a booth of themselvesand they had a podcast and they
had their social media peoplethere too as well and they're
(11:04):
like hey, these guys are legitthe number one food podcast and
you guys, they were asking greatquestions.
So we actually impressed him aswell.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So that was really great too, From your mouth to to
God's ears, and you know, we're, we're, we're making some
strides very quickly, Jeff.
What are we cooking up today?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
We're focusing on some good old-fashioned Memorial
Day stuff.
We got some smoked ribs thatI'd used the sweet water coffee
rub on there as well.
Last week or a couple of weeksago I got some sour oranges from
the competition I did fromVicki Webster, so I had the case
at my house in the refrigeratorso I used orange blossom scotch
bonnet honey glaze for tri-tipsthat we're doing that smoked.
(11:47):
We're doing some smash burgers,uh, that are going to be really
cool because we're going to bedoing a creme brulee, um, or
brulee, I should say bruleeavocado with some chipotle
pepper in there.
Then I did a mojo brine, latinspiced bone-in chicken that
we're going to use some burrata.
We're going to char the bread,is that?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
uh, selena yep, okay, you know how I'm working it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And then we got some, uh, baby arugula, but I'm going
to switch it up now because, um, thank you, marvin, yet again
from kahaba club, some beautiful, uh microgreens coming from him
, so it's going to be fantasticside dishes.
We're going to be doing, uh,eggplant bombs, what I call
sweet chili eggplant bombs, orthe thai chilies.
Those little guys charred them,actually threw them on the
(12:30):
charcoal and charred them.
We have a white bean chili withhatch chilies because they were
actually at the show that gaveme the idea watermelon, feta
cheese, cucumber salad.
And then this one is probablythe most ridiculous one I think
I came up with is a kimchipotato salad.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Kimchi potato salad.
Okay, I mean, listen, you knowme, I'm down for whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Well, you're my beaker, you're my experimenter,
exactly so you get to taste.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So yeah, it works out pretty good.
You know what's really excitingfor me today?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
You get to eat.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Well, yeah, it's Thursday, right, I mean, it's a
Pavlov's dog thing for me.
Like you know, wednesday nightI start drooling because I know
tomorrow's Thursday Ring thebell.
No, but it's a smash burger.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, listen, I don't want to say I'm like basic, but
you know, sometimes I just feellike being basic.
This is not basic.
No, there's nothing aboutthat's basic.
You know, not at all marvin,wait, hold on marvin kahaba club
.
Marvin dude, you sent like a Idon't know 40 pounds of micro
greens bro.
I mean it's the box is gigantic.
I mean it came in the big fedextruck.
(13:34):
I'm just saying thank you, man,you're awesome, we love you.
What cheese is?
That right there uh, what am Ilooking at?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I don't know oh oaca, oaxaca is going to be the
cheese on the burger.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Oaxaca, oaxaca, oaxaca.
All right, that's good stuff.
All right, listen, we've heardenough of you.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I know you have.
She's drooling, she needs food.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I can see it All right.
So in studio we Farm.
Babe.
She's a big city globe trotterturned farm girl is what it says
.
Is that right?
Welcome to the show, michelle.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
We've been talking about this for like I don't know
a few months now.
Right, yeah, and you're here.
I'm here and you did like a youactually did like a two hour
drive to get here.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Actually something more like three.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Almost three.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Even worse.
Three months get here actuallysounded more like three, almost
three, even worse, three months.
I stopped.
Okay, hey, listen, now you know.
But, um, thanks for being onthe show and today, before we
get into some of the topics thatwe talked you know we were
gonna get into, can?
You do a 30 000 like airplaneview of who you are, how you got
there, you know, and why you're.
You're kind of a big deal, bigpersonality.
(14:45):
Now You're kind of up there, goahead.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Well, thank you very much.
Yeah, so I'm Michelle Miller,known as the Farm Babe on social
media, and I work to bridge thegap between consumers and
farmers, and so myth busting isa bit of my niche.
And my background is aninteresting one because I like
to say I went from Rodeo to theRodeo.
I actually got a fashion degreefrom Los Angeles and I worked
for Gucci on Rodeo Drive andthen I ended up becoming a
(15:15):
farmer.
I moved to Iowa for love.
I dated a farmer for almosteight years and together we
farmed in Northeast Iowa acouple thousand acres of row
crops like corn, soybeans, hay,cattle, sheep, had a nice-sized
farm, and I started the FarmBabe about 10 years ago as a way
to debunk myths Because, as alarge-scale farmer myself, I
realized that there was a lot ofmisinformation out there, and
(15:36):
so from there it just grew, andnow I'm a keynote speaker, I
have a podcast, I'm an author,social media influencer and
getting ready to launch an eventand doing everything I can to
give science and farmers abigger voice in the food space.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Okay, so that's a mouthful and you're doing a lot.
And in today's, you know, whenyou're talking about, like,
social media and you're talkingabout trying to capture
somebody's attention, you haveto do a lot in order to kind of
frame out or carve out yourpiece of it.
Right, yeah, because you knowwe're in the same situation.
You know we, we do the podcast,we do.
(16:12):
You know we do a menu.
You know food dish videos, wedo.
You know cocktail videos.
We have a magazine, like wewere doing a ton of stuff.
Plus we're doing the dinnerswhich you went to.
You know you came out last monthto uh yeah, so the porch metery
and market over there in winterpark.
Um, how was that?
(16:32):
Did you like it?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Yeah, oh my gosh, it was amazing, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You look, I mean you look great, you and your, your
guests, I mean you guys werelike, uh, you were the talk of
the town.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I'm just saying, oh well, thank you appreciate that.
It was a good time yes, allright.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So let's talk labels, let's talk grocery, let's talk
food.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
This is what I do.
I know myth busting the groceryaisle.
That's something I speak on alot as the as a keynote speaker
at events and stuff yeah, I mean, was that your kind of your,
the, the nine labels?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
was that your kickoff ?
Was that your starting point?
That?
Speaker 4 (17:04):
was my very first article I wrote for ag daily
yeah, back in 2015.
So I've been a weekly columnistwith them now for almost a
decade and a lot of it is mythbusting so 2015, 2016?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
back then it's, and it's not like that's that long
ago, but it kind of oh my god,anyway, we're almost, we're
close, almost a decade, yeah sothings now.
I think I think the topics thatyou were bringing up then are
more prevalent now than theywere 10 years ago.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah, I think it depends on the topic.
I feel like I've seen some kindof ebb and flow, some talking
points getting louder inmainstream media versus one kind
of dying out, but everything isstill pretty prevalent, I think
.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So, out of the nine, right?
So you have like?
No hormones.
Antibiotic-free, organic,cage-free, RBST-free, GMO,
vegetarian, gluten,chemical-free.
Out of those, out of those,those labels, which one is the
one that irks you the most?
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Which one is the one that irks you the most.
Gosh, all of them Just kidding.
I think the no added hormonesthing is a pretty big one.
When you are seeing packages atthe grocery store on poultry or
pork that says no addedhormones or steroids you just
got to read the aesthetics inthe fine print.
It's actually not even a thing,and so many people think that
meat is just pumped full of allthis artificial stuff and that
(18:25):
couldn't be further from thetruth.
Chicken is just chicken.
There's no hormones, there's nosteroids.
Hormones and steroids haven'tbeen used since the 1950s, and
so we're seeing bigger chickensand better quality just because
of science.
I mean, they've learned how tomaster the feed and their
comfort, and so, I think, a lotof the myths around animal
housing.
I think if people understoodjust how much care and research
(18:48):
went into animal comfort, thatyou don't necessarily need to
buy into a more expensive labelto realize that you're still
getting a really great qualityproduct that could come from a
really amazing farm, regardlessof size or label.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Where does the analysis or data come from that?
Because obviously I mean ofsize or label.
Where does the analysis or datacome from that?
Because obviously I mean so.
There's that perspective, butthe other perspective, you know,
it's an equal force against.
So where does whose data is?
Speaker 4 (19:15):
correct.
So the thing about it ismarketing, right.
So the food companies alwayswant to be selling you a more
expensive product, and so themarketing dollars are there to
try to convince you to spendmore money.
That's what their whole goal isto profit, and they've done a
great job.
But the science, if you dig in.
So for me personally, I'veworked with a lot of poultry
science departments atuniversities.
(19:36):
So let's start with Alabama,let's start with Auburn
University of Georgia.
I think Auburn University havereally great poultry science
departments and that's wheremost of my expertise comes in.
So I speak and I tour theseplaces for a living, right, and
I go right in the nitty grittyof the science, and then you
(19:57):
just see all the research thatgoes into lighting, that goes
into comfort, that understandsspacing, that you don't want to
have chickens too crowdedbecause they won't grow.
It's kind of like if you thinkabout fish in a fish pond if you
cram them in there too much, alot of people think that they're
just crammed in and that's nottrue because then they wouldn't
(20:17):
grow.
And so I think just the scienceof understanding stocking
density, where we can maximizeproduction while using the fewer
inputs right, so we're usingfewer antibiotics.
There's no hormones anymore.
We're improving genetics,improving comfort, light, little
things like lighting, you know,and if you go from meat
chickens over to, say, eggs,they've realized you know
(20:39):
lighting matters, comfort,temperature, you know.
And then cages Now the cages arebetter in egg laying systems,
so now it's an enriched cage.
So now the modern egg layingfacilities will have perches and
nesting boxes and, you know,little scratching posts and
stuff.
So they, you know it's not likeit used to be and I think a lot
of people aren't hearing that,hearing the science-based
(21:05):
messaging that comes fromdecades, or from people that
have PhDs in poultry science,that spend decades and hundreds
of millions of dollars just onfocusing on making them awesome
and comfortable, right.
So I think kind of the mythsaround how animals are raised is
probably a hill I will die on.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
But there's, isn't there.
So, and I don't want to, I'mstill learning and I'm not
afraid to say that.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
And you hear so much against that what you're saying.
Right, who, where do you getthe right?
Where do people find the rightdata points?
Where's the analysis?
Where can somebody, where cancause?
I know, I know a lot of peoplewho are like literally going to
die on the other side of thehill, right, and you, you know,
like I respect anyone who's intoa topic like this and pours
(21:58):
themselves into it because youknow, at the end of the day,
it's, it is our food source,it's our health, it's our
children, it's the animals, it's, it's all of that, right, and I
, and I think it's, uh, I thinkit is something that deserves.
My opinion is it deserves moreconversation, but I think it
deserves more open conversation,because what I see is, you know
(22:18):
it is a hill and when we saydie in a hill, that's usually
because there's two opposingsides trying to, you know, take
each other out.
Yeah, and I don't feel like itshould be that yeah, that's a
great point, I agree yeah, Ifeel like it should be something
where you're like, hey, hey,what you're you're feeling on
the matter is valid.
But check this out Totally.
You need to see this and thenthey need to.
(22:38):
You know, and we need to lookat, like all the data points,
right, Exactly.
So where do the data pointscome from?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Yeah, and I used to be on the other side, right Like
I used to only buy organic,free range every expensive label
under the sun.
So I completely understand andwe have to understand that we
always have to go to the source.
So sometimes people that havethe opposing view may be because
they've never actually gone toa large scale chicken farm and
(23:04):
we have to remember that chickenfarmers, or farmers in general,
are only 1% of the population,so their voices are very easily
drowned out.
And again, there is a lot ofmoney to be made off of consumer
fear and there's a lot ofmisinformation.
But marketing is there to makeit look like this beautiful,
pretty picture.
But I've toured some of thelargest farms in the country
(23:25):
cattle feedlots with hundreds ofthousands of head or millions
of chickens.
I know a lot of people that I'vebeen inside their farms and I
think that's kind of what peopleare missing is that they're not
exploring.
You know kind of like my sideof the argument, right, they're
just hearing the media noise andthere's so much money being
funneled.
If you look at something likethe vegan movement, okay, now,
(23:45):
I've got nothing against vegans.
If that's the way they chooseto live their life, it's fine,
but at the end of the day, ifyou have HSUS, the Humane
Society of the United States,they lobby over $140 million a
year to try to put livestockfarmers out of business.
There's some big money behindit and they're tied directly to
PETA, mercy for Animals, dxe,like all of these animal rights
(24:06):
activist groups, and so there'sa lot of money to be made off of
consumer fear and also fromideology of the well-funded
vegan activists.
So we always have to go to thesource.
It's just kind of like if youwant to talk about your teeth,
you go to your dentist.
If you want to talk to yourmechanic, you go there.
The research if you're going toread up on it, make sure you
(24:27):
know where it's coming from.
Is it coming from somebody witha PhD that does this for a
living, that really knows whatthey're talking about, that has
really invested in it?
Or is it somebody from New YorkCity?
Or they have a small scale farmand I love small scale farms
and I will promote that all day.
First right, like buying localfirst is the most important
thing.
I'm not going to sit here andsay the big way is the only way,
(24:47):
like that would just be stupid.
But we need them right.
We need farms of all shapes andsizes and labels to feed the
world, and so there's such animportant piece for having
affordable protein for peopleand I just encourage people to
try to track that down like gothrough university extension.
You know, farm BureauUniversity extension is probably
(25:10):
one of the best resources whereyou can connect directly to the
people with the PhDs and on thescientist level.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
So the one problem for me, based on that, is a lot
of times I'm going to point out,back in the day, milk was the
protein that everybody wantedbecause it was funded by the
milk industry.
Then it was the egg industry.
Back in the 80s and 90s, likeRocky, we were cracking eggs and
having raw eggs and then, oh,you're going to have salmonella
and then it's morphed into somany different things.
(25:37):
For me it's like who's payingfor it?
Perfect movie that was outrecently Fork to Knife was kind
of like the spearhead, the jumpoff, and it was this thing about
the world's strongest man is avegan.
Well, it's great, but whofunded that movie was Beyond
Meats, which is Cameron, the guywho did the Titanic.
(25:58):
He's one of the major investors.
So there's a problem when yousay you have to look at it, when
you have science is telling uswell, who funded the scientist?
That's number one, becauseobviously, if it's, this group
over here is funding them,obviously they're not going to
talk that to them because theywere getting the money from them
.
So it's a very convoluted wayof saying we have to look at the
(26:18):
science.
Yeah, there's science ineverything, but who's funding
the scientist is the problem,like you know, beef.
There's certain things that youcan't say about beef because
look at, oprah Winfrey was takento court Million dollars later
she won her case.
So there are things that areout there.
Profit margins are going to bekept there, but the bottom line
is we have to make sure thatthere's transparency, and I
(26:42):
think Food Chains is a greatmovie to point that out Sunway
is the last name of that one,the producer director.
That opened my eyes to what wasgoing on.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
I haven't seen that one.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, that one is a huge one that really can.
It's on Netflix, it's out there.
It's one of those things yousit there and you watch and you
go okay, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Yeah, and what's really interesting about Netflix
is within the agriculturecommunity.
I'm just this is going to bereally blunt, but, like we're,
we're kind of getting our asseskicked in the PR when you, when
you do look at the sciencebecause science doesn't sell and
when you do talk to the experts, they're, they're kind of
boring.
I love them, they're.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Ben.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Stein yeah.
So, when our industry does putout the Netflix type
documentaries, netflix neverpicks them up.
They pick up the quotedocumentaries because a lot of
them are not truthful, but theypick up the ones that are going
to sell.
And what sells is fear andhyperbole and a story and scary.
(27:46):
And I see our industry puttogether videos that are very
truthful and they're great andthey really promote the truth in
science, but they don't havethat Tom Brady and Gisele edge
like they have in some of theso-called documentaries.
And when you look at the peoplefunding the anti-meat movement,
you know they've got EllenDeGeneres and Arnold
(28:07):
Schwarzenegger and NataliePortman.
And because you look at, yes,you are correct, in the 90s Got
Milk was everything.
Why did we all know, as I don'tknow what year y'all were born,
but I was born in 82.
And when we're kids in the 90sgoing, wow, I was like, wow, I
want to be like Cindy Crawfordwhen I grew up, I want to drink
milk, and so it is very much amedia marketing.
(28:30):
But that Got Milk campaigncosted $40 million just to get
off the ground.
And now I wonder where all ofthat money's going, because now,
like silk milk is like the soymilk.
Now they're doing a thing calledthe Next Milk campaign, which
is all of the kids from thosecelebrities with silk mustaches,
(28:50):
and so it's like they'retotally ripping it off, because
I feel like our industry is runby a lot of older males who
don't really understand mediaand social media anymore.
And so back in the day, when itwas easy, oh, we'll just do
commercials, we'll do magazineads, we'll do television.
And now I'm sitting here kindof wanting to bang my head
(29:11):
against the wall because I waslike you guys are missing the
mark on social media influencers, celebrities, because now the
people that have taken thatnarrative.
Is the Netflix of the world, isthe celebrities of the world
being funded by Beyond Meat,being funded by the vegans?
There are hundreds of millionsof dollars.
Don't let the scary part offarming fool you.
(29:35):
They're very well-funded to tryto convince us that our food
has a doom and gloom story.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, it kind of does , because if you look at it like
the European Union you look atthe flour, for instance it's not
enriched, it's not bleached.
They have, you know, a certainway of doing things.
There's no bromide.
So here in the United States welet certain things go in,
whereas the EU doesn't.
If you look at the box and it'straveling around right now
there's a picture of Quaker Oats.
(29:58):
Oh, that's been debunked foryears, but if you look at that
at its face value and somebodywho doesn't know that's been out
there, you look at that and go,what the heck are they feeding
us?
So I mean the fear part of it.
That's a great thing becauseagain, it's a part of national
security.
You know, if we don't have food, then it's a national security
problem.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
But here's another interesting thing about that.
First of all, that meme needsto be fact-checked because it's
not even true.
If you actually dig in on theactual ingredients, it's not
nearly.
I know the woman, the womanthat did that meme, and she is
one of the biggest sources ofmisinformation.
I don't know if I should sayher name.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
MGT.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Let's just say that my brand is built off of
debunking her because nothingshe says is true.
If you actually fact check thatmeme and I hate that it still
goes viral because it's like nottrue.
But also, the EU is notrequired to disclose all of the
ingredients that we are so a lotof sugars and everything in the
(30:53):
US they are required.
We must list every ingredientand the EU actually doesn't have
that.
And the other thing that'sinteresting is a lot of people
say, oh, when I go to Europe, Ican eat bread just fine and I
can do all these things justfine.
And is there a little bit oftruth to changes and additives?
Sure, but also they import allof our stuff.
So when people are like, oh, Ican eat this Europe stuff and
it's like, okay, well, guesswhat?
That was all X it's, it's grownin the U?
(31:14):
S, like it's the same weighthere as it is in there, so you
don't really know where it comesfrom.
The food is a global situationand so a lot of times it's just
well.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The United States and the Ukraine are the two largest
wheat producers.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Sunflower, actually Sunflower.
Actually, ukraine is sunflower.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, it's wheat also .
They're the two largest wheatgrowers in the planet.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah, ukraine is a huge breadbasket and also
semolina is actually more donein the Dakotas than it is in
Italy, so that's another thingtoo.
A lot of people don't realize.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
I always say it's very much a placebo effect, and
this is just my opinion and mytheory.
This is not backed in any typeof scientific data, but just in
my opinion.
I would say you know, whenyou're on vacation like when I
go to Italy, it's one of myfavorite places in the world you
feel better because you're onvacation, like you're in Italy.
So you're like oh my God, Ifelt so great, the food was so
much better.
(32:07):
It's like bitch, you can getCheetos in Italy too.
You know what I mean.
Like you can get Coca-Cola andjunk food and cookies everywhere
in the world.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
But I can tell you this because I I'm picking up
what you put down and and I fall.
You know these guys will tellyou.
I typically fall in the centeron this because I I know that
there's a tug and pull for toall this right when there's
truths and you know there'struths on both sides and then
there's this gray area in themiddle and we're all getting
(32:35):
pulled back and forth on it.
I get that Right.
But I will tell you this I'vehad ancient grain pasta here
from elsewhere and I can eat andI'm Italian and I've been
eating pasta my whole life and Iused to when I was younger.
I can go and have three giantbowls of rigatones, totally fine
(32:56):
.
Now I have, you know, half abowl of rigatones and I'm just
like, okay, all right.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
I ate a pound of this ancient grain pasta.
I wasn't bloated.
It was amazing and, as Iunderstand it, it's just less
gluten.
The G word doesn't scare me.
You know what I mean, but Iexperienced that and I'm going
to say that it wasn't a placebo,although I know what you're
(33:26):
talking about and I think thatholds a lot of weight.
Percentage-wise, you'reprobably right, but I'll tell
you that I know that myexperience was, was real.
I mean I ate a pound of it.
I was like man, I feel great Ican have, I can go home for
seconds.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Yeah, and you never know right, like that could very
much be a well and well andtrue, yeah, but it's.
It's like when I'm in Italy,it's you, you're, you're walking
more, you're getting moreexercise, you're happier, you're
not at work, your stress level,like stress is the number one
killer.
So reducing that stress ofbeing on vacation, you know,
yeah, the birds chirp brighter,the sun shines brighter, the
(34:01):
birds chirp better.
You know, it's like the dogsare cuter, everything's better
because you're on vacationthat's the same here yeah, this
image of studio.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I'm just saying we experience that same.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
I'm about to eat like 30 pounds of your ancient grain
chicken and tell everybody howamazing it is.
This is like heaven on earth inthe studio.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
let me tell you, it's kind of what we do.
We hand out smiles.
That's what we do.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I worked in the other side, the sales side of things,
and there's stories you alwayshear Back in the 50s when we had
Wonder Bread come out and wethen went to mass production.
When we had people get sick,the Band-Aid effect was
fortified and that was where wewent.
If you look at any type ofreligion you're in and if you
look at the basis of it, no onesaid, oh John, he died of celiac
(34:48):
disease.
So bread and wheat is thefoundation of what civilization
was, let alone let's not talkabout spices, but wheat in
itself.
So if you look around the worldat cultures that use as the
backbone of their products ofcarbohydrates rice and breads
and wheat China, japan, india,italy, france, spain they don't
(35:13):
have the amount of celiac orgluten-tolerant problems as the
United States does.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Actually they do.
The prevalence of celiacdisease is actually higher in
the EU than it is in the UnitedStates.
Look it up.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
All right, trust me when.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Well, I mean the average person would just Google
it right.
But it's just important thatwhen you Google it you look at
the source of where it comesfrom and which you know, this is
where I personally havechallenges, because, you know,
it just seems, and this is noteven going to.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
it just seems that when you, when, when a side puts
out a data point and pushes it,okay, cool, oh look, it's uh,
cnn, I don't know whatever andthen it's another side that
pushes the, the antithesis of,and it says oh, it's fox, all
right, now we're all beingplayed because there's the one
(36:08):
side pushing there's alwaysgoing to be the other side
pushing it.
And again we're in the middleand we're getting tugged both
ways and I don't know that we'regetting all the facts.
We're not.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Yeah, I could see that, and it's interesting too
sometimes when people say, well,that was just funded by the
wheat board, right, but andfirst of all, we should also say
GMOs are another thing, myththat I love to bust.
And there's actually no suchthing as GMO wheat.
All wheat is non-GMO.
It's all modified, but it'sstill considered non-GMO.
So that's another interestingfact.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
What is the devil in the definition there then?
How does that work?
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Yeah, so GMOs would refer to very specific plant
breeding processes liketransgenic or cisgenic or RNAI
interferences different types ofplant breeding methods.
So Norman Borlaug would be likethe godfather of wheat.
You know back in the 70s thatcreated these certain dwarf.
He's credited with saving abillion lives with these wheat
that he developed.
(37:01):
Where was I going with this?
Oh, okay, so, kind of going backto the source, I feel like food
is one of these things wherewhen we have a question about
our car, we go to our carmanufacturer and we have a
question about our cell phone,we go to our cell phone
manufacturer, and so whensomething like well, the wheat
board.
So, according to the wheatboard, for example, another myth
(37:22):
I love to bust is people thinkthat it's sprayed with
glyphosate.
Now, according to the wheatboard, it's less than 3% of US
acres are sprayed with Roundupglyphosate less than 3%, and I
believe that just based purelyon the fact that I talk to
farmers for a living.
So I think if anybody talks toand this is in the United States
it's a little bit more commonpractice in Canada, but when you
(37:44):
talk to actual wheat growers,they'll be like I don't know
anybody that does that, and soit's one of these things you
have to go to the source.
So, while I understand well,that's just funding Well, who do
you believe?
Do we believe the people that doit for a living, that have a
PhD and decades of experience inthe topic?
Or is it somebody that's saying, well, you know, I'm a doctor?
Well, guess what?
A lot of doctors also thinkthat wheat is a GMO, and it's
(38:06):
not.
A lot of doctors think thatorganic is pesticide-free.
It's not.
Doctors are good at beingdoctors, but that's the
importance of why we have tospeak to each other, because
doctors aren't out there growingthousands of acres of wheat.
Wheat farmers are.
So it all goes back to thesource.
So if the Wheat Board isgetting their information and
their data from wheat farmers,what's more credible than that?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
You still got to find out where it's coming from
Again.
Who's paying it?
Who's paying the board?
I'm sorry to say it, I'm nottrying to be.
I'm going to be the devil'sadvocate every single time I
appreciate that.
Because you've got so manydifferent viewpoints and that's
the problem is there's nobodythat's saying, hey, the truth.
(38:52):
There's always three sides ofthe story that person, the other
person and then somewhere inthe middle.
That somewhere in the middlehas to be where it raised up.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
The other thing, though, too, to consider is so I
said I was a commercial farmerfor about eight years, right,
and so the other thing is thatthere is a lot of um, scrutiny
and everything that comes alongwith that.
There's a lot of regulationsand things that we have to
adhere to, almost to the pointwhere they're regulating farmers
to death out of business.
So the other thing is that ifthere is a problem, I guarantee
you that problem is being shoveddown our throats, because, as
(39:25):
the 1%, as a farmer, it's veryeasy to misunderstand what we do
, and it's very easy to takethat mainstream media negativity
and run with it to the pointwhere they just think we're a
bunch of environmentallydestructive assholes, and not
without listening to our side ofthe story.
So, if there is a problem, Iwould I would also argue that
somebody like the wheat board oryou know whatever, are going to
(39:47):
be saying hey, guys, like thisis happening, let's, let's
figure out how to solve theproblem, because the government
is still tied to conservationdistricts and NRCS like the
people that are doing like ourfarm had earned awards for
farmer of the year for soil andwater conservation.
We know till farming for 30years, very what you would call
regenerative cover crops, notill, soil testing.
We would be kind of like theposter child of doing the right
(40:10):
thing, right.
But it's like we're stillgrowing GMOs, you know, we're
still using these certainproducts that people think are
bad, and there's a whole lot ofthings going on that people
believe.
Well, it's either this or it'sthat, and the truth is that
you're correct.
There's a whole lot of grayareas in there that we're not
talking about, and it's got tobe more of a balanced
(40:31):
perspective with everybodytalking to each other.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
About 10 years ago I think, there was like a big
lawsuit with roundup right thereand and I was looking that up
and and what came up was a therewas politics aside.
What came up that I found wasthis Glenn Beck right and one of
the guys on his program.
(40:55):
He was doing shots on air ofRoundup, nice.
Well, this was 10 years ago.
The guy's still there.
Yeah, I'm not saying I would dothat, I certainly wouldn't do
that, but this is kind of thestuff that goes like you know, I
don't know how to digest that.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Not the Roundup but, like the story yeah exactly Pun
intended.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I'm not exactly how to tackle that, or look at that.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Listen, there's certain things.
When I first got into being afarmer advocate myself as a chef
, I would ask them what is yourbiggest fear?
I thought it would be pastMother Nature, drought, famine
Obviously all categorized underMother Nature.
No environmentalist.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Oh, yeah, yeah, because they're not hearing our
side.
Everybody wants to point thefinger at us.
You want to talk about followthe money.
Like Florida's, a perfectexample of who funds the
environmentalist groups is thebillionaire developers.
Okay, so in South Floridayou've got urbanization backing
straight up to the EvergladesWestlake, backing straight up to
260,000 acres owned by US Sugar.
(41:56):
And people might think I'mcrazy for saying this, but God
bless US Sugar, because if itwasn't this big corporate entity
, the farmers would be going outof business left and right
because they wouldn't be able tofight against and afford what
the environmentalists areputting them up against.
And so they're the ones thatcan afford to fight back,
because here's a documentary youshould watch called no Farmers,
(42:16):
no Food.
I saw it, yeah, and that one'sprobably one of the more
truthful ones I've seen.
But back to your point of doingshots around up.
I think the point is always thedose makes the poison.
So if you look at the LD50value, it's 5,600 milligrams per
kilogram, which technicallyactually makes it safer than
table salt 5,600 milligrams perkilogram, which technically
actually makes it safer thantable salt.
So it's really interesting,because it's the same concept of
(42:39):
like you can drink a beer butdon't drink the whole keg.
It's always.
Everything can be good or bad inmoderation.
And that's probably when Ifirst started my advocacy a
decade ago now and, like I said,it's just been a learning thing
for me.
But the post that I had thatwent the most viral was when I
talked about how much Roundup wesprayed on our GMOs, because I
(43:01):
was so sick and tired of peoplejust thinking we're just out
there drenching our stuff inchemicals and on our cornfield
we were only spraying one day ayear, maybe two in the very
beginning of the growing season.
And what people don't realizeis the amount of chemical we use
is so minimal.
It's a very fine mist, to thepoint where, if you did the math
, you would need to eatsomething like 86 tons of grain
(43:23):
in a single sitting, like youknow what I mean.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
I can do it, Carl can do that If it's ancient grain
he can definitely do.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
that I can do it.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
So it's usually between, depending on the crop
and region, it's usually betweenabout 12 to 22, maybe 30 ounces
per acre.
So you're looking at like twobeer cans on an area of land the
size of a football field, andso we're spraying corn one or
two days a year in the beginningof the growing season, and we
grow GMOs, because if you askany farmer what it was like back
in the 50s or 60s or 70s, we'resinging our praises to GMOs
(43:55):
because it's allowed us toeliminate chemicals and
eliminate pesticides.
So you used to have to use Likethe DDT.
Yeah, that stuff's all gonebecause Roundup is the safest.
Except for off Deet.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
But it's the safest herbicide we've ever had access
to, which is why it's so popularand available at any Home Depot
or Walmart.
But someday we can look back,because we're always improving
technology, chemistries,pesticides, are becoming safer
and more targeted than everbefore, Like the most popular.
You know what the most popularpesticide was about 100 or so
(44:30):
years ago?
It was arsenic Arsenic, yeah.
And so people are like, well,we need to get back to the old
days.
I'm like to hell we do.
They don't realize howmiserable it was.
And also it's because oftechnology that 1% of the
population farmers can feed 100%.
It used to be like 70% or 80%of the population had to be
(44:52):
farmers in order to survive, andnow we're looking at wow.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
I love your chic ner approach to to this oh my god, I
could go on and on yeah, butyou know she did mention florida
as the state and one of thebiggest things you look at right
now is like oguchobi, right,and that's the runoff.
That's the biggest thing.
Marco rubio jumped on it, scottjumped on it.
Sure, you know they have the,the mouth of, uh, the of the
Gulf, and we have red Thai andwe have all these huge smells
(45:19):
that are the algae that's beingpoured into the Atlantic.
Where's this coming from?
Is it big sugar?
Is it everybody's home that'sfertilized in their yards?
Everyone's pointing the fingerat big sugar because that's
where they need to put now.
Is that the environmentalists?
Speaker 4 (45:35):
Yeah, so it's really easy to do that because, once
again, farmers are 1% of thepopulation and if you look at
who's funding it with thedevelopers, nobody ever talks
about the septics you know, sothe big thing is septic.
They're not nearly regulated,but if you look at the tens of
million plus people, they allflush the toilet and they all
live at the beach.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
And you people, they all flush the toilet and they
all live at the beach and youknow what?
You know what?
Another, uh, somethinganecdotal everybody's on
medication, right, everybody'son something, and all that stuff
gets passed through you andyou're flushing it and it's.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
It just is what it is well, my main point to this one
is if you look at like, uh,this area in palm beach it's
exploding right now because youhave um swarovski helicopters
out there and all the differenttop secret stuff being developed
out in.
I've called Utah.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
How top secret can it be if you know about it?
Speaker 2 (46:28):
When you have neighbors work for you and they
can't tell you what they'redoing.
But they're there working onstuff and you know it's there
because you can see it.
West Lake is a huge development4,500500 homes.
You know what that used to be.
It used to be farmland yeah andit was closed down because
environmentalists florida isdoing the wrong.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
We're going in the wrong direction.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Well, it's like your point where we grew up.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Well, you know, you were 20 minutes from where I
grew up and I was in cooper city.
In cooper city, nothing butorange groves and dairy farms.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well, Sheridan Street stopped at University Drive
yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Right, not anymore.
We were on the dirt road there.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Right, yeah, so I mean, we had it there.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
It is becoming increasingly more difficult for
farmers to stay on the land, andit's a lot of government
overreach and it's also one ofno here's the real hill I will
die on is the fact that grocerystores need to purchase, buy
local, first and foremost.
Everybody is like when publics,you know big grocery store
(47:24):
chains if strawberries are inseason in Florida, buy from
Florida, you know, and insteadthey buy from Guatemala or
Mexico or third world countries,because the farm workers there
get paid $10 a day and they canbuy fresh produce there for
pennies on the dollar, whereashere I mean I know farmers that
spend $30,000 a day just in handlabor to get fresh produce to
(47:44):
the store.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
And what they're doing in Plant City, in that
whole area here in CentralFlorida where the bread basket-.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
No, no, right here in Bartow, dude, yeah, where we
are, where we are.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
It's the breadbasket of strawberries for the world,
and nothing but developmenthappening.
It's heartbreaking.
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Wait, john, because he's not going to talk about it.
Across the street used to be ablueberry farmer.
Guess what's there now.
Not him, no, he sold it.
Speaker 4 (48:11):
Yeah, we want to talk about sustainability and what's
going to keep the world greenCement concrete done.
We're done.
But it's becoming so difficultto stay on the farm because they
need a place to sell and theinput costs continue to go up.
So the price of fertilizer hasgone up like 300%.
Inputs are so expensive youcan't even buy.
(48:33):
I mean myself, coming from beinga corn farmer in Iowa.
It's like I mean myself comingfrom being a corn farmer in Iowa
.
It's like I mean you want totalk about the price of a new
combine.
You know, like a cotton picker1.2 million.
You know.
You can look at a farmer and belike, wow, that farmer made,
you know, millions of dollars.
He made a million dollars lastyear.
Well, he didn't tell you thathis inputs were 1.1 million,
right?
So it's, they're turning upsidedown and so, yes, you can have
(48:55):
good years and bad years and yousee a lot of successful farmers
and it can and does happen.
However, it ebbs and flows andwhen it's bad it can be really
bad and to the point wherethey're so stressed and then
we've got the suicide.
It's a real problem 58-year-oldaverage.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
60-something-year-old is the suicide rate in farmers
for mail and then their kids aregoing.
Speaker 4 (49:18):
why do I want to do this?
I'm out.
So when a developer comes upand says, hey, we'll give you
millions of dollars off or theycan't refuse, you kind of can't
blame them for wanting to sellout.
But it really is heartbreakingand this is probably the topic
that I'm most passionate aboutover anything.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Okay, we're friends again.
Have you ever watched theClarkson's Farms?
Speaker 4 (49:37):
Yes, it's so good.
That show is so realistic.
I love that one.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
So if you guys have never seen Clarkson, he's one of
the guys from the HBO specialwhere the guy's top gear.
He's been controversial but hebought a farm and it's a huge
farm.
I mean it's not a small one andthe first time it was during
COVID and he settles up hisaccounts and if he didn't get
subsidized from the countryEngland, he would have made $200
(50:05):
.
Speaker 4 (50:05):
Oh yeah, that's it.
That's what I love aboutClarkson's Farm.
I encourage everybody to watchit, because it is the only show
or movie out there that is, inmy opinion, very genuinely
accurate.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
And funny as hell.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
And funny.
I love Clarkson's Farm.
I appreciate we're friendsagain.
I really appreciate yourskepticism, though I really do,
and I know that people listeningare going to be like who is
this bitch Like?
Who pays her Like?
You know what I mean.
I get that question all thetime and it doesn't offend me.
I come from a place of curiosity, because I used to believe all
(50:37):
the negativity also, and sothat's why I've become so
passionate about my side of theargument and telling the
farmer's story and telling thescientist's story and the
veterinarian's story, becausetheir stuff is boring and it's
data and nobody wants to read astudy.
They just want to know, okay,what's the talking point, and
(51:01):
the media doesn't pick up thescience-based talking points,
and so what I've done is triedto make science a little bit
more interesting, and throughthat, through my travels, I just
go to the farms and I justinterview the experts.
And is it always perfect?
Of course not.
I'm not going to sit here andtell you that everything's
hunky-dory, but at the end ofthe day, people aren't hearing
the fact that US sugar reducedtheir phosphorus levels by 35%.
They're not going to hear aboutbest management practices.
(51:21):
They're not going to hear about.
Now I hear about it because I goto farm conferences and I speak
at them for a living and Ilisten to the scientists and I
talk to the professionals, butit just doesn't translate well.
And so I just want people tokeep an open mind and say you
know what?
Go to a farm conference like.
Go to farm progress like.
Talk to these large scalefarmers, explain you know what
(51:42):
you want to do.
Talk to your farm bureau, go toyour university, go to a farm
conference and just keep an openmind, because people would be
really pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
I think yes, yes, everything you just said, and
I'm going to go back real quickbefore we sign off here Florida
Farm Finder, jillian, I mean,you want to find your local
farms in your area and go toFacebook and check that out,
because the truth is, in Florida, you're not more than 30
minutes away from an actual farm.
(52:12):
I don't care where you live inFlorida, literally 30 minutes
away you're going to find a farm.
Speaker 4 (52:17):
You know, florida farm finder is great.
There also is a lot ofmisinformation in that group too
, because a lot of themisinformation is circled.
As much as I love to supportsmall local farms they're
wonderful it is kind of thecommunity of like well, I can
raise my cattle on pasture and Ican raise my chickens on
pasture and it's like congrats,I'm from Iowa.
We can't raise chickens inJanuary in Iowa.
(52:38):
You know what I mean Outside.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
In the end, everybody has to do their homework.
Everybody needs to kind of dosome research, you know to.
To just be spoon fedinformation and then choose a
side is wrong, and that's whywhere we are today in society at
large is that we're a spoon.
We're a spoon fed, and there weare, we pick a side at this
(53:03):
stage get some information, getsome data and learn.
All right, michelle, Iappreciate you so much for
coming out here today.
Where do people find you?
Speaker 4 (53:15):
Well, thefarmbabecom is my website.
I'm also doing an event, farmCruise, the farmer appreciation
event, on a Caribbean cruise.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Real quick go.
You got 15 seconds go.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
Farmcruisecom thefarmbabecom.
Follow me on Facebook Farm Babe.
All right I kind of wanted togo.
You gave me 10 seconds.
I panicked.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
All right, jeff, just email us.
We'll find out more informationfor you guys.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
We'll put it out there for you, because that
sounds awesome.
You're telling me about thistrip.
It sounds terrific, john.
As always, you're freakingawesome.
All this means, michelle, isyou're going to come back for
round number two.
Let's do it, okay, all right,we oh, by the way, peninsula
Food Service people chefs getout there and do your thing.
We are out.
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