WEBVTT
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Thank you.
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Welcome back to the Regenerative Renegade podcast.
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This is a podcast for people that are involved in the regenerative movement in some way, shape, or form and sharing their story, their challenges, and their hope for the future.
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Today, I have an old friend.
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Carrie Bulcombe with us.
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Carrie is a tireless worker in this space.
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She amazes me with her energy, her persistence, her resiliency, and her pleasant attitude along the way.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for joining us, Carrie.
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Thank you.
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I'll share Carrie's bio.
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Carrie is the Executive Director of the American Grass-Fed Association.
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AGA, it's called, is the national multi-species entity organized to protect and promote grass-fed, amen, and pasture-based farmers and ranchers.
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AGA is the leader in pasture-based production and the oldest.
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Does that mean the first two, Carrie?
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Are you the oldest and first grass-fed certification?
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The first grass-fed certification.
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So she is a pioneer and a renegade in the United States.
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AGA certified is ruminants, pork, and dairy.
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Carrie grew up on a Florida cattle ranch and has stayed connected to the agriculture and livestock industry.
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She has spoken often, presented often, coordinated numerous regional and national conferences, and is well-known in agriculture, culinary and sustainable, and I would say policy, agricultural circles.
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AGA and Kerry has been advocating for a change to the policy of allowing a change to this policy that allows offshore beef to be labeled product of the USA.
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And through the hard work of a lot of folks, including AGA, this egregious mislabeling was added to an executive order signed by President Biden on July 9th, 2021.
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She is a force and a friend in the industry.
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Welcome, Kerry.
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Hey.
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Thanks, Matt.
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Thank you for inviting me.
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I appreciate it.
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And it's always nice to hear kind words about what I do, but it's all because of people like you that allow me to do what I do.
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So
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kudos to you.
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O-I-N-T.
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We do this together, Carrie.
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We do this together.
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And I still will be as humble as you want to be.
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I still will be amazed by your work, whether you like it or not.
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Okay.
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All right.
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Well, we'll move on.
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So
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can you share some of the journey?
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that took you from growing up on a Florida cattle ranch to the work that you're doing today and why this has been so important to you.
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But I'd love to hear the journey.
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Well, the journey was that I was of the generation that told their children, I think you were part of that too, to move away from the farm.
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There would never be a future for us.
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So I moved as far away from the farm as I could.
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And that was for about 20 years or so.
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And then I found my way back.
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It was different times in the economy and United States and stuff.
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And through an interesting, secure I found myself because of my interest in food and agriculture and working with slow food, the consumer side of things, at a meeting in 2003, the first meeting of the grass-fed movement.
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And it was when the United States government was going to allow grass-fed to be called grass-fed and put a label on it when you could feed 20% grain, administer antibiotics and hormones and confine them.
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and use that label.
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So I showed up at that meeting and it was not the way that I was taught to raise animals.
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And from generations of families in my family who had raised cattle without those things, without confinement, and all of a sudden realizing that the government was going to allow that label to be put on products piqued my interest.
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And I stayed from that meeting and I've been here ever since.
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So that was the route.
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2003.
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2003, right?
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Yep.
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There was a meeting.
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They're going to allow 20% of the diet to be grain and still be called grass-fed beef.
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So 20% of the lifetime diet of that animal.
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Yep.
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And confined.
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And confined and fed.
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And it'll still be called grass-fed.
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That's interesting.
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That was the same year Thousand Hills was founded.
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So you're at that meeting.
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It didn't seem to make sense to you.
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So then what
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happened?
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We started working with USDA with AMS and FSIS and going to a lot of meetings in Washington and the president then of AGA a producer in Missouri and some other people we spent a lot of time with those folks and they were not going to give us everything we asked for which is what we have now in our own standards so USDA said we're going to only say what the animal has eaten not where it's eaten or how it's been raised or anything else.
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It's just going to be, that's what we're going to use as a grass-fed label.
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So this small working group said, can we start our own standards?
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And they said, well, of course, if they meet or exceed ours, that's easy.
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So we started in 2007.
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We had written our standards, which are followed to this day.
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And we started certifying in 2007 after the USDA said that there was still a And the other thing that they said in the AMS standards, the USDA standards, was if the animal has been fed grain, just make a note of it.
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He did tell them to take them out of the program.
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So HEA started a third-party certified program in 2007 for beef.
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That was our beef bison.
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And then we added lamb and goat.
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And since that time, we've added grass-fed dairy.
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We've added pastured pork and pastured poultry.
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And so it's been a of busy 20-some years of getting these things done.
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We're recognized by the USDA.
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We're recognized as a gold standard in some situations because of the way our standards are written.
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One of the things we did want to do with our standards is make them something that producers could do and make it accessible for all producers, whether they're small, large, whatever, rather than just having a bunch of scientists or lay people or legal people write the standards.
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Producers actually wrote our standards.
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So that's where we are today.
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So just to go back on what was going to– so did you say that they were going to allow antibiotics and hormones and fed in a feedlot and certain percentage of diet could be grain and that was all going to be allowed?
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Yeah.
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Yeah, they took out the feeding of grain, but they left the caveat in the standard that said, if you do feed grain, keep a record of it.
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But it didn't tell you to take them out of the program.
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Wow.
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So that's when we started our own third-party certified program.
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And we've been certifying ranches and farmers since then and adding the other standards in.
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You know, our brand is certified AGA, and I tell the customers that I talk to when I'm pitching them or talking to them, it's like, I have yet to find a third-party standard that is more rigorous or strict than the AGA protocol, American Grass-Fed Association protocol.
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The other thing that separates us, because there are other grass-fed certifications out there, We're USA only.
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We don't allow any certification outside the United States.
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And it sets us apart because those animals have to be from American family farms and farmers and from birth to harvest.
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So that really sets us apart in the consumer's mind is that we want to support local.
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We want to support USA only.
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And so it's been a long journey, but we're still hanging in there and we're growing daily and consumer...
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acceptance and retail acceptance.
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So that's where we are now.
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So the reason why, I'm going to guess here, but I think we're on the same page.
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The reason why those standards exist and they're so rigorous within AGA is based on the basic premise that ruminants and or animals on the land managed properly.
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is the best way to rebuild our soil and the food system.
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Is that accurate?
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Yeah.
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From your
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perspective?
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From my perspective and from a lot of people's perspective and soil scientist perspective and nutritionist perspective on how the animal is raised and it's not fed anything.
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It's not supposed to be eating.
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It's fed a diet of forages, which is what ruminants were.
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designed to eat and so it's it's a better way to raise the animals is a better way for to maintain your soils and soil health so we're going to stick with that one forever so keep going going on
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and it makes sense because we're we're mimicking nature and we're just really the rules are in place the protocols in place to most accurately mimic nature on what we know happened for thousands of years and how do we recapture that in light of what we've learned through conventional agriculture, monoculture, pesticides, herbicides, neonicotinoids, and all the ways of killing things, that if we can step away from that and figure out how we can grow things and help things live and have a diverse grassland that there's so many benefits.
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I mean, the first thing is, you know, we're rebuilding the food system together.
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But then all those other benefits that come along with it, you know, by mimicking nature, you get nutrient density, you get wildlife habitat, you get improved water cycle, you've got photosynthesis happening more green days in a year, not tilling, pulling carbon out of the air.
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And that's, to me, that's why That protocol of AGA is so important because the benefits are many.
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And honestly, I mean, you can say that it's accessible to anybody, small, medium, large rancher, and that is true.
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Anybody can live by these rules if they want to, if they choose to.
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But in the world of beef, where so much of the beef in this country is trading boxes, boxes of beef in transit, where nobody really knows where that animal was raised in that environment, in the conventional beef market, the commodity beef market.
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And to me, we want to know, you want to know, how the practices of actually raising that animal and then following it all the way through the supply chain Mm-hmm.
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Yeah.
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Well, you and I both know.
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And boxes are put on a truck and we really don't know how that was raised.
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And I guess, I don't know if it's too big of a leap to say that you don't really know that about imported beef either.
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Well,
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you don't know.
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And that's one of the reasons we fought with some wonderful other organizations to get Product of the USA.
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It's not a mandatory country of origin labeling, but Product of the USA, because there was a huge loophole that if being brought into this country was repackaged in any way, that means taking out one plastic bag and putting in another, and then you could say it was Product of the USA.
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And we fought that one tooth and nail.
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And in one of President Biden's executive orders, that was added in.
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It had to be born, raised, harvested, and processed here.
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And that was the loophole before.
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So that's being enforced now that it's not being enforced.
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Because that, I just want to make sure everyone understands that, that you can see a product on the shelf that says product of the USA and the only part of that USA that it participated in or that it landed in was that that box of beef came across the ocean, went to a U.S.
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processing plant, was probably put in a different box and then shipped back out.
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And I've witnessed this with my own eyes in processing facilities.
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I've seen the product coming in from whatever country, let's call Australia out.
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Okay, here's an Australian box of beef and it goes out the loading dock as a product of USA after they've changed the box.
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Well, the USDA gave everybody until the end of 2025 to start implementing this.
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So we're sitting on pins and needles to say that it will be implemented at the end of 2025.
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As you know, things change, but we're going to try and hold everybody's feet to the fire and say you've got to stop this, especially with this buy local, be local, America first, all that stuff right now that we think that this is really important to keep in place.
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And these American Family Farms Yeah, you
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know, and I'm a free market guy.
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I'll compete, you know, with anybody, but let's not be misleading and mislabeling the product, you know, like let the consumer decide.
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It's like, do you want to buy Australian grass fed beef?
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God bless you.
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Hopefully, hopefully there's no thumb on the scale any which way.
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way that favors that.
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But let's not mislead.
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Let's just say what it is.
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Here's what's in the package.
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Here's where it was raised.
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Here's where it was grazed.
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Here's where it was processed.
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Here's where it was shipped.
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And just leave it at that.
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And then we probably should have a level playing field on tariffs.
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If there's going to be a tariff of beef exporting to a country, then that same tariff, I believe, should be on that same country's beef coming into our country.
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Personally, I don't believe in walls of stopping product from flowing.
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But I do think it's terrible to mislead consumers.
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And I'm not sure how that does look out after American farmers and ranchers by misleading consumers about what country the product came from.
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Well, I said something probably 10 years ago or maybe eight years ago now.
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And I said, it's like the Beyonce song says, if you like it, put a ring on it.
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So just proper labeling, honest labeling.
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And that's what we've been finding.
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It seems like it should.
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Yeah, it seems like it should.
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Yeah.
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So that
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gives us a current state of the affairs.
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We're going to have to check in again after the end of 2025 and see where we're at.
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Yeah.
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But now, can you share a little bit about what fuels your energy to stay involved in this space and why you feel it's so important just from a broader societal or food system perspective?
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Oh, Matt, it would take three days and a pot of coffee to tell you all the reasons that I, from the time that my great, great, grandfather, our great-great-great-grandfather came to the United States on a cattle boat from Spain.
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We call people like me an imprinted farmer, even though we don't sometimes live on the farm.
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But that runs deep in my blood and in my bones.
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And seeing these farmers that we now work with working as hard as they can and following the rules, following the guidelines Following all the regulations that you have to follow to put beef on the shelf in the United States and helping farmers reach that point to see operations.
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And I'll give you a thousand hills of plug.
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When I walked your pastures and saw how you were bringing teeming life and the microbes and the birds and all the other species that are living there.
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The Audubon guys were there one day that I was there and watching the birds and everything.
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And that's what we want America to look like.
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Rural America needs to look like that.
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And that makes me wake up every day and say, we can make a difference about this.
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We can take the American soils and the American farms and the American land and the areas that can't do arable crops or are not built on and turn them into productive food systems and not have to rely on other countries to feed us.
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That's
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a little deep, but we need to be able to feed ourselves.
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I agree.
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Feeding ourselves, that whole, what do we want our land to look like?
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You know, that's so huge.
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It's what does it look like?
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Are we preserving it?
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Are we killing it?
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Are we regenerating it?
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You know, I just drove the other day from Oklahoma to Minnesota and And I was pretty encouraged in Oklahoma.
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You know, there was, I could see animals on the land.
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I could see managed grazing.
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I didn't see a lot of monoculture cropping.
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I didn't see irrigating.
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I just saw grasslands.
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It was so refreshing.
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And then as you drive closer to the Corn Belt, it changes pretty dramatically to you.
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Well, you don't see animals, you see large equipment, tilling, dust in the air, carbon in the air, irrigation, and you know what's coming.
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You know, it's spring, it's early spring now, and you know what's coming and what's going to be planted and how's that helping our food system?
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How's it hurting our food system?
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And so for, I don't know, 500 miles, I was witnessing a pretty monoculture landslide escape.
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And that's what it looked like.
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Brown, tilled up dirt.
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Well, the one thing that we do focus on and we work closely as we can with other organizations who are helping us make markets and access to markets rather than just having a system that takes all the animals off the land, sends them to feed yards.
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And, you know, that's your only market.
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So we work with other organizations that are really good at this and working with the government to develop different food systems.
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So it's not a one size fits all type thing.
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like the things that you all are doing and other producers in the United States are doing is having an additional market so you don't have to send those animals to a feed yard.
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And you can work with your local communities and as far as, you know, online and that kind of things and the retail and the honesty around what you do.
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You know, in Canada, I see people in our generation whose kids are coming back to the farms And it's completely different from what I was told to do, was leave the farm.
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And it's to see young people who really want to farm and then see farmers who are what I call non-imprinted farmers who want to farm.
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They don't have any skin in the game.
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They just want to come back to the land.
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And every time I run into one of those, I want to give them a gold star and say, good for you.
00:22:00.076 --> 00:22:00.837
How can I help you?
00:22:01.377 --> 00:22:01.577
Yeah.
00:22:01.959 --> 00:22:02.700
For sure.
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:10.708
I mean, we have such a parallel in our generation, but you and I personally, I mean, no one had to tell me to leave the farm.
00:22:11.469 --> 00:22:21.640
I just knew that I didn't want to argue about what bills were going to get paid that week around the dinner table and have no money and work 16 hours a day.
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:24.782
And we ate good.
00:22:25.042 --> 00:22:33.913
We had a good, we had a good meal three times a day, but I knew I wanted something else that I couldn't, I didn't want to, I didn't want to replicate that.
00:22:33.992 --> 00:23:19.060
And, and so, yeah, you know, our whole job generation basically left the farm and fortunately we're two people that 20 years later the light bulb went off and we were like no we need to go back to the farm it's that important and there's that many benefits if we can do this right to our whole society and our whole food system but I agree the hope is in these people that the younger generation that I would say is much more enlightened than I ever was at that age for sure and kind of Coming back, I know it fills my heart that my kids are interested in, well, they're interested in food and where does it come from and what is good food and what is good practices.
00:23:19.121 --> 00:23:20.643
And they're asking those questions.
00:23:21.963 --> 00:23:22.884
That fills my heart.
00:23:23.105 --> 00:23:31.974
And I know it's not just my family, but going to conferences and seeing young people, like you say, that didn't grow up on a farm, we're like asking questions.
00:23:32.035 --> 00:23:33.076
How can I get involved?
00:23:33.115 --> 00:23:33.836
What can I do?
00:23:33.876 --> 00:23:36.720
What can I do with five acres and stuff like that?
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:43.708
or stack those enterprises on those five acres and figure out what it is, what their skill level, what their interest is.
00:23:43.748 --> 00:23:45.911
That's our hope for the future, right?
00:23:45.971 --> 00:23:47.031
I mean, that's it.
00:23:47.352 --> 00:23:54.520
We need that type of person back on the land and wanting that lifestyle.
00:23:54.560 --> 00:24:06.173
And it isn't, you know, it's not a great financial rewarding undertaking, but the impact is so huge.
00:24:06.369 --> 00:24:25.192
big so huge for every person that's deciding to do that it's just giant and i just had a recent conversation where we were talking about how do we how do we collectively elevate food and agriculture to a level in our society where it's more valued
00:24:26.786 --> 00:24:42.759
You know, we talk about getting rich farming and it's the richness in your soul and in what you're doing and in your integrity and how you're relating to your family and your community and knowing each other.
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:45.182
That's a richness that you can't get.
00:24:45.321 --> 00:24:50.365
And I don't discredit anybody for making a lot of money if they want to.
00:24:51.027 --> 00:24:57.512
But let's not discount the fact that that piece of your being that needs a connection with the land.
00:24:57.772 --> 00:24:59.454
And that's what I see in these young farmers.
00:24:59.714 --> 00:25:06.501
And like I say, people who have had different careers and all of a sudden go, there's something lacking here.
00:25:06.843 --> 00:25:08.023
And I want to find out what it is.
00:25:08.064 --> 00:25:11.768
And they come to our conferences and they call us on the phone and say, how do I do this?
00:25:12.568 --> 00:25:20.116
And so we also have resources that we, you know, and the return of women to the farm.
00:25:20.136 --> 00:25:21.878
Of course, my family was matriarchal.
00:25:22.900 --> 00:25:25.021
My mother's father died when she was three.
00:25:25.102 --> 00:25:28.605
So my grandmother and her sisters and kept up with things.
00:25:29.527 --> 00:25:30.607
Oh, I
00:25:31.608 --> 00:25:31.769
didn't
00:25:31.788 --> 00:25:32.130
know that.
00:25:32.871 --> 00:25:34.092
Yeah.
00:25:34.972 --> 00:25:39.998
She went back to school in the 20s and 30s and got a PhD in education.
00:25:40.057 --> 00:25:42.260
So it shows you how hard-headed we can be, Matt.
00:25:43.481 --> 00:25:44.863
Well, there's no question about that.
00:25:44.923 --> 00:25:46.945
I didn't have doubts about
00:25:46.965 --> 00:25:47.046
that.
00:25:47.066 --> 00:25:49.307
Well, anyway, like I say, enough about me.
00:25:49.327 --> 00:26:28.308
But again, like I say, when I see these kids and, you know, I just, when I'm out on the ranch or, you know, in Arlington place I'm the one in a pair of cutoffs blue jeans and a pair of sketchers and these guys have silk scarves and boots and stuff and I'm going okay but you know it's just a different generation and I'm so pleased that they're adopting not only the lifestyle but the heritage and all of the things that go along with it and they're learning about their ecosystems and they're learning how they fit in with it instead of just driving around it and it's okay to get your hands dirty Yeah, it's so
00:26:28.369 --> 00:26:29.851
great to be connected to the land.
00:26:29.871 --> 00:26:31.332
It's hard to describe.
00:26:31.632 --> 00:26:33.993
If you haven't been, it's hard to describe that.
00:26:34.275 --> 00:26:39.199
But for those of us that have been, and the drawback is immense.
00:26:39.298 --> 00:26:42.662
It's in your blood, and it's hard to move.
00:26:43.281 --> 00:26:45.403
So let's quantify this movement a little bit.
00:26:45.443 --> 00:26:46.244
Okay.
00:26:47.046 --> 00:26:49.268
Off the top of your head, I'm going to ask for numbers.
00:26:49.607 --> 00:27:08.025
Given where you started in 2003 and then the first certifications in 2007, What's happened on a number of farms or however you want to quantify it, acreage, animals, is there a trend towards regenerative or what are you
00:27:08.224 --> 00:27:08.384
seeing?
00:27:09.586 --> 00:27:12.991
Yeah, we want it to be a slow-moving trend.
00:27:13.031 --> 00:27:21.041
We don't want rapid growth because that's not the way the animals grow and that's not the way this movement should grow.
00:27:21.383 --> 00:27:24.907
There's a lot of interest right now in regenerative.
00:27:26.753 --> 00:27:34.780
making sure that the soils and the land is included in the raising of these animals, not just, I want to raise cattle.
00:27:34.861 --> 00:27:38.203
Well, you have to make sure that your soils are healthy enough.
00:27:39.105 --> 00:27:43.909
And we get calls all the time where people say, what kind of cattle should I put on my land?
00:27:44.148 --> 00:27:45.289
Well, tell me about your land.
00:27:45.690 --> 00:27:49.993
And then we'll talk about types of cattle or number of cattle and those kind of things.
00:27:50.034 --> 00:27:53.797
And there's a lot of resources out there in agriculture.
00:27:53.877 --> 00:27:59.603
And people like you, we have people call you and other farmers to say, here are the resources that you can do.
00:27:59.643 --> 00:28:15.339
Right now we have, and I'm not on the day-to-day basis of handling that, but I think we have about 800 producers in the program and they're coming in every day.
00:28:15.380 --> 00:28:27.292
And it's not just cattle, it's bison, goat is growing, lamb is growing, grass-fed dairy is is growing.
00:28:28.335 --> 00:28:43.560
We've got two major labels that are using our seal on their dairies and that's really important because a lot of these small dairies are either Amish or other religious sects and some of them are still hand milking but we're keeping them getting a premium for their milk.
00:28:44.682 --> 00:28:49.770
We've just added poultry and that's another thing where people say I'm not going to eat meat anymore I'm going to eat chicken.
00:28:49.851 --> 00:28:58.317
Well Pastured chicken is– and we have standards for that now because the mislabeling on that is egregious as well.
00:28:58.337 --> 00:29:01.506
So we're working with the government on that one.
00:29:01.866 --> 00:29:18.901
So roughly 800 farms– multi-species and you're seeing interest in carrying on beyond beef and other species and the trend is, is it picking up steam?
00:29:18.961 --> 00:29:20.163
Is it a steady line?
00:29:20.182 --> 00:29:23.327
How are the inquiries coming in?
00:29:24.769 --> 00:29:30.894
Well, we like to have it be a steady, slow, not slow, but steady progression.
00:29:32.215 --> 00:29:39.742
Because when you get those fluctuations of bandwagons, you see people fall by the wayside.
00:29:39.803 --> 00:29:44.027
And we want to make sure that anybody that is interested in doing this can succeed.
00:29:44.086 --> 00:29:46.269
And we know some people aren't going to be able to succeed.
00:29:47.128 --> 00:29:51.093
But rather than saying you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to, you know, make it work.
00:29:51.173 --> 00:29:54.736
Now, it's a journey, not a destination.
00:29:54.736 --> 00:30:05.826
And then helping these folks find markets and understanding that's one of the barriers to finding markets is processing.
00:30:07.146 --> 00:30:12.330
And we got some help from the government a few years ago on helping build some processing plants.
00:30:12.411 --> 00:30:23.740
But that's going to be something that's going to be critical moving forward is more ability to process those animals.
00:30:25.089 --> 00:30:33.497
species, you know, like lamb and hogs, and the processing for that has really gone away, at least in our region.
00:30:33.537 --> 00:30:41.324
You have to go hundreds and hundreds of miles to get to a processing facility for some of the non-beef species.
00:30:43.705 --> 00:30:44.146
So yeah,
00:30:44.166 --> 00:30:44.987
that infrastructure.
00:30:45.047 --> 00:30:59.421
And then, you know, the consolidation that's happened within beef and within protein in general, that consolidation into bigger and bigger plants and further and further away from from rural communities or affecting fewer rural communities.
00:30:59.441 --> 00:31:18.820
I think that's part of that landscape that you talked about earlier, like how do we reinvigorate through smaller multi-species farms and communities where you know where your food came from and you know the people and their practices.
00:31:18.840 --> 00:31:56.942
I mean, to me, that's core to AGA because you're really not for the very very big because they can't they don't even know the producers that are raising the animals they can't certify them and that's what I love about it is like that there's that level of boots on the ground where you do know and there's there's a difference there and I want people to know that that there is a difference when you're certified with any number of credible certifications but of course I love American Grass Fed Association And I love the protocol.
00:31:57.082 --> 00:32:08.294
I still haven't found one that's more rigorous that really takes into consideration the non-confinement and non-GMO and diverse grasslands and all of that.
00:32:08.374 --> 00:32:13.680
So all of that, I mean, I guess, you know, it's like diversity is good no matter what.
00:32:14.201 --> 00:32:15.402
Diversity is good on a farm.
00:32:15.442 --> 00:32:16.903
Diversity is good on the grassland.
00:32:16.942 --> 00:32:18.404
Diversity is good in the community.
00:32:18.444 --> 00:32:20.366
Diversity is good in our food system.
00:32:20.406 --> 00:32:24.351
So that, you know, in our diet, we're getting what we need.
00:32:24.912 --> 00:32:28.335
And I think that's just
00:32:32.397 --> 00:32:48.172
core to, that's core to AGA.
00:32:54.882 --> 00:33:27.311
consolidating it to send it somewhere else so they can sell it cheaper doesn't make sense to me I mean I don't cheap food who likes that I mean we all look for quality and we should look for quality not quantity and if you look at the prices if you look at the prices in the grocery store if you see I don't know I'm one of those people that I'll spend more for food you know because it's in Yeah, for sure.
00:33:27.332 --> 00:33:35.487
Yeah, you can't believe
00:33:43.361 --> 00:33:44.643
the pictures always.
00:33:45.144 --> 00:33:46.046
Yeah.
00:33:46.114 --> 00:33:47.234
That's for sure.
00:33:47.515 --> 00:33:49.696
Well, yeah, just the whole idea of cheap food.
00:33:49.856 --> 00:34:39.115
If all you did was discount the environmental benefits, the animal welfare benefits, the rural economy, just discount all that and say nutrition, there's easily, it's being quantified now, the level of nutrition that's in, let's say, any species that has access to a diverse grassland or or pasture versus fed in confinement there's a real difference in nutrition and hence your health so even if that was it right there to me that's enough and the cheapest food is not going to give you those benefits
00:34:40.706 --> 00:34:42.947
Well, and the nutritional analysis.
00:34:43.007 --> 00:34:50.534
I mean, a very dear friend of mine who's a professor at the University of Kentucky said, you know, you hear all the different conflicting studies and support.
00:34:50.554 --> 00:34:57.019
And he said, you know, the figures tortured long enough will admit to anything.
00:34:57.661 --> 00:35:10.672
But if you look at the real science behind what's going on and you know deep in your soul that things that are raised correctly are going to be better for the whole ecosystem and the animals and the farmers and everybody else.
00:35:10.672 --> 00:35:19.742
then I think that informed consumers and people who are learning, and it warms my heart to walk in the grocery store and see people reading labels.
00:35:20.481 --> 00:35:21.483
It really does.
00:35:21.903 --> 00:35:22.063
Yep.
00:35:22.284 --> 00:35:22.844
Pay attention.
00:35:23.045 --> 00:35:23.945
Yep.
00:35:24.327 --> 00:35:25.166
Yeah.
00:35:25.748 --> 00:35:29.271
There's one grocer that I swear they have a picture of me in the back of their meat mark.
00:35:29.291 --> 00:35:32.175
I said, don't talk to her because I ask so many questions.
00:35:34.958 --> 00:35:44.190
You know, I normally wrap up by talking about hope for the future, but you've already identified that through the and people coming back to the land, the younger generation.
00:35:44.210 --> 00:36:01.541
So I'm gonna shift gears a little bit and I'm gonna ask you to share with us What is it that you believe is consumers that consumers can do?
00:36:01.681 --> 00:36:05.425
So on that whole idea about reading the nutrition labels or whatever it is.
00:36:06.105 --> 00:36:11.750
So as we talk to consumers, what can they do when they walk into a store or they're buying from their farmer?
00:36:12.411 --> 00:36:17.155
What role can a consumer play in regenerating our food system?
00:36:17.255 --> 00:36:19.836
Well, the first thing they can do is reading labels.
00:36:20.657 --> 00:36:29.092
And if you're not familiar with reading labels, They say talk to the meat manager or the guy behind the meat counter.
00:36:29.253 --> 00:36:34.985
Well, that's a first start, but you have to understand that they're only parroting what they've been told.
00:36:36.833 --> 00:36:44.119
And the other thing is, too, if you go to the farmer's market and you ask whoever's standing at the stand, did you raise this animal?
00:36:44.300 --> 00:36:45.541
Where is this coming from?
00:36:46.101 --> 00:36:52.847
You know, there's farmer's markets that now require certification for selling those products in the farmer's market.
00:36:54.608 --> 00:36:59.012
And then if everything else fails, call us.
00:36:59.673 --> 00:37:03.896
You know, like I say, if we don't know the answer, at least we'll be honest and say, I don't know the answer.
00:37:05.478 --> 00:37:06.800
But that's important.
00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:18.572
And there are some larger commodity growers who now have showcase farms where they have petting zoo farms and that kind of thing where they showcase these wonderful animals.
00:37:18.652 --> 00:37:24.097
And then it's kind of like the wizard behind the curtain in Wizard of Oz.
00:37:24.139 --> 00:37:26.942
That's not exactly what they're doing.
00:37:27.902 --> 00:37:31.226
And consumers a lot of times don't know what they're looking for.
00:37:31.867 --> 00:37:36.751
And so when they go to a farm, they say, no, this looks good, but learn what you need to be looking for.
00:37:36.751 --> 00:37:37.913
when you go to that farm.
00:37:38.152 --> 00:37:39.855
What was the diet of that animal?
00:37:40.396 --> 00:37:44.219
You know, like, okay, how it was raised, all that, you know, from a welfare standpoint.
00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:45.742
But I think point
00:37:45.802 --> 00:37:46.222
blank,
00:37:46.842 --> 00:37:49.105
what was the lifetime diet of that animal?
00:37:49.144 --> 00:37:50.126
Was it pastured?
00:37:50.166 --> 00:37:51.126
Was it grasses?
00:37:51.206 --> 00:37:52.128
Was there grains?
00:37:52.268 --> 00:37:54.411
Was there GMO grains?
00:37:54.490 --> 00:37:56.032
Like, I want to know the diet.
00:37:56.132 --> 00:37:58.735
I want to know, you know, we are what our food eats.
00:37:59.596 --> 00:38:01.257
So what did my food eat?
00:38:01.838 --> 00:38:02.079
Right?
00:38:02.259 --> 00:38:08.326
I mean, because you can tell a lot if someone just tells you the diet of that animal or chicken or whatever it is.
00:38:09.126 --> 00:38:09.987
Is that not correct?
00:38:10.969 --> 00:38:11.548
Absolutely.
00:38:11.588 --> 00:38:18.976
The other thing right now that is something that we find is that the term grass-finished does not have a legal definition.
00:38:19.577 --> 00:38:28.867
And what we're seeing, and not in all cases, but we're seeing where animals are being taken out of confinement and finished on grass, and that's being allowed on the label.
00:38:29.628 --> 00:38:34.494
So it's either grass-fed or it's not, like it's sugar-free or it's not, or it's real or it's not.
00:38:34.753 --> 00:38:36.655
And people say grass-fed.
00:38:36.655 --> 00:38:42.442
grass-fed and grass-finished because they've been told that all animals are grass-fed, but they forget the caveat until it's not.
00:38:43.143 --> 00:38:49.949
So look for the, and I'm going to plug myself, my organization, look for the seal because those farms have been inspected.
00:38:50.010 --> 00:38:51.391
They've had somebody on the ground.
00:38:51.431 --> 00:38:55.335
If there's any question, we follow up.
00:38:56.177 --> 00:38:58.679
Those farms are inspected at least every 15 months.
00:38:59.860 --> 00:39:06.608
And the reason we do it every 15 months instead of every year is you can see the farms at different cycles, different times of the year.
00:39:06.608 --> 00:39:09.070
and that kind of thing so it's important
00:39:10.592 --> 00:40:09.034
it is important and yeah I don't think you should be shy about saying look for the seal I mean it could be your seal could be another one but just know what that seal stands for and then look for it because the label itself there's not a lot of regulation around or at least tight regulation around what is claimed on the label itself but if it's certified now there's practices that have been certified so you know those there's a reason why you see some packages that have seals on them that look like a NASCAR and then there's other ones that don't well there's the purveyor of the brand that looks like a NASCAR is trying to communicate something to you about what their practices are and what's important to them so see if those values align with yours by you know it's going to take a little research but not everything is right face value on that label there's only so much real estate there's only so much you can say and some of that is misleading and you just got to know that.
00:40:09.775 --> 00:40:09.996
Yeah.
00:40:10.956 --> 00:40:12.878
Well, and I agree with you totally.
00:40:12.918 --> 00:40:24.010
I mean, if you went through all the certifications that are out there, put it all on your label, your label would be about an eight by 10 piece of paper just for the label without any nutritional analysis type thing.
00:40:24.090 --> 00:40:33.481
But it's important for the consumer to know your farmer, know your food, but you got to know what you're looking for when you go to your farmer.
00:40:34.681 --> 00:40:38.713
And I hearken back to the little red barn that's on a lot of packages now.
00:40:38.793 --> 00:40:41.144
And, you know...
00:40:42.369 --> 00:40:47.735
And endorsements and that kind of things are important because it helps get your product sold.
00:40:47.894 --> 00:40:49.695
But I'd rather talk to the farmer.
00:40:51.617 --> 00:40:58.704
I like the shots of the chicken that's sitting in grass and is scared to death because it's never seen grass before and it doesn't want to move.
00:40:59.485 --> 00:41:05.070
But there's a barn in the background and there's a chicken plopped in the grass and you're like, whoa, that thing is nervous.
00:41:05.269 --> 00:41:07.291
It has no idea what it should do next.
00:41:07.972 --> 00:41:08.231
Yeah.
00:41:08.873 --> 00:41:09.072
Yeah.
00:41:09.432 --> 00:41:47.260
But it's a journey and, you know the consumer is waking up with everything that's going on right now with the world and all of this stuff right now we want to be important to you and we want you to understand that this is important for us as a nation to keep our farmers because a nation that can't feed itself you know it's hard and that's something that we can do and we just have to to make sure that everybody works together to make sure that continues to happen.
00:41:48.782 --> 00:41:50.728
That's a perfect summary.
00:41:51.128 --> 00:41:52.552
Couldn't have said it better myself.
00:41:52.893 --> 00:41:57.623
This nation is fully capable of feeding itself.
00:41:58.818 --> 00:42:05.829
We do need to rebuild our food system so we can continue to feed ourselves and feed ourselves better, more nutritious food.
00:42:05.869 --> 00:42:23.900
But that's also a very enjoyable journey to be able to learn and understand and produce food that nourishes us, nourishes our soul, nourishes our bodies, nourishes our communities.
00:42:26.177 --> 00:42:31.882
Carrie, thank you for being such an advocate for all those very important facets of life.
00:42:32.342 --> 00:42:36.467
You should be very proud of your accomplishments and your work.
00:42:37.467 --> 00:42:43.172
And I'll always hold you in high esteem because you work on things that I never could.
00:42:43.213 --> 00:42:46.815
And I appreciate that you do.
00:42:46.856 --> 00:42:51.420
Well, you make my journey worthwhile.
00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:51.840
How's that?
00:42:53.001 --> 00:42:53.402
It was good.
00:42:54.021 --> 00:42:55.182
Great to win
00:42:55.242 --> 00:42:55.583
with.
00:42:56.063 --> 00:42:56.143
Okay.
00:42:56.143 --> 00:42:56.547
Win-win.
00:42:56.608 --> 00:42:57.112
Thanks, Matt.
00:42:57.777 --> 00:42:58.623
Yeah, thank you, Carrie.
00:42:58.664 --> 00:42:59.489
Thanks for joining us.
00:42:59.873 --> 00:43:00.961
Look forward to seeing you soon.
00:00:02.177 --> 00:00:02.653
Thank you.
00:00:14.689 --> 00:00:17.835
Welcome back to the Regenerative Renegade podcast.
00:00:18.958 --> 00:00:31.103
This is a podcast for people that are involved in the regenerative movement in some way, shape, or form and sharing their story, their challenges, and their hope for the future.
00:00:31.123 --> 00:00:33.468
Today, I have an old friend.
00:00:34.433 --> 00:00:36.837
Carrie Bulcombe with us.
00:00:37.857 --> 00:00:41.823
Carrie is a tireless worker in this space.
00:00:42.243 --> 00:00:52.115
She amazes me with her energy, her persistence, her resiliency, and her pleasant attitude along the way.
00:00:53.377 --> 00:00:53.557
Thank you.
00:00:53.578 --> 00:00:54.939
Thank you for joining us, Carrie.
00:00:56.081 --> 00:00:56.661
Thank you.
00:00:57.042 --> 00:00:59.564
I'll share Carrie's bio.
00:00:59.604 --> 00:01:02.789
Carrie is the Executive Director of the American Grass-Fed Association.
00:01:04.225 --> 00:01:15.915
AGA, it's called, is the national multi-species entity organized to protect and promote grass-fed, amen, and pasture-based farmers and ranchers.
00:01:16.956 --> 00:01:20.680
AGA is the leader in pasture-based production and the oldest.
00:01:21.221 --> 00:01:22.682
Does that mean the first two, Carrie?
00:01:22.781 --> 00:01:25.424
Are you the oldest and first grass-fed certification?
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The first grass-fed certification.
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So she is a pioneer and a renegade in the United States.
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AGA certified is ruminants, pork, and dairy.
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Carrie grew up on a Florida cattle ranch and has stayed connected to the agriculture and livestock industry.
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She has spoken often, presented often, coordinated numerous regional and national conferences, and is well-known in agriculture, culinary and sustainable, and I would say policy, agricultural circles.
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AGA and Kerry has been advocating for a change to the policy of allowing a change to this policy that allows offshore beef to be labeled product of the USA.
00:02:10.600 --> 00:02:20.936
And through the hard work of a lot of folks, including AGA, this egregious mislabeling was added to an executive order signed by President Biden on July 9th, 2021.
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She is a force and a friend in the industry.
00:02:25.644 --> 00:02:26.264
Welcome, Kerry.
00:02:26.305 --> 00:02:27.165
Hey.
00:02:27.490 --> 00:02:28.050
Thanks, Matt.
00:02:28.350 --> 00:02:29.312
Thank you for inviting me.
00:02:29.412 --> 00:02:30.413
I appreciate it.
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And it's always nice to hear kind words about what I do, but it's all because of people like you that allow me to do what I do.
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So
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kudos to you.
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O-I-N-T.
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We do this together, Carrie.
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We do this together.
00:02:44.163 --> 00:02:47.306
And I still will be as humble as you want to be.
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I still will be amazed by your work, whether you like it or not.
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Okay.
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All right.
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Well, we'll move on.
00:02:53.552 --> 00:02:53.752
So
00:02:54.933 --> 00:02:57.295
can you share some of the journey?
00:02:57.455 --> 00:03:09.907
that took you from growing up on a Florida cattle ranch to the work that you're doing today and why this has been so important to you.
00:03:10.048 --> 00:03:11.311
But I'd love to hear the journey.
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Well, the journey was that I was of the generation that told their children, I think you were part of that too, to move away from the farm.
00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:25.413
There would never be a future for us.
00:03:25.673 --> 00:03:28.376
So I moved as far away from the farm as I could.
00:03:28.395 --> 00:03:32.939
And that was for about 20 years or so.
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And then I found my way back.
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It was different times in the economy and United States and stuff.
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And through an interesting, secure I found myself because of my interest in food and agriculture and working with slow food, the consumer side of things, at a meeting in 2003, the first meeting of the grass-fed movement.
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And it was when the United States government was going to allow grass-fed to be called grass-fed and put a label on it when you could feed 20% grain, administer antibiotics and hormones and confine them.
00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:13.741
and use that label.
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So I showed up at that meeting and it was not the way that I was taught to raise animals.
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And from generations of families in my family who had raised cattle without those things, without confinement, and all of a sudden realizing that the government was going to allow that label to be put on products piqued my interest.
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And I stayed from that meeting and I've been here ever since.
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So that was the route.
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2003.
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2003, right?
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Yep.
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There was a meeting.
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They're going to allow 20% of the diet to be grain and still be called grass-fed beef.
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So 20% of the lifetime diet of that animal.
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Yep.
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And confined.
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And confined and fed.
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And it'll still be called grass-fed.
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That's interesting.
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That was the same year Thousand Hills was founded.
00:05:03.814 --> 00:05:05.216
So you're at that meeting.
00:05:05.235 --> 00:05:08.420
It didn't seem to make sense to you.
00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:09.901
So then what
00:05:09.940 --> 00:05:10.281
happened?
00:05:11.262 --> 00:05:43.656
We started working with USDA with AMS and FSIS and going to a lot of meetings in Washington and the president then of AGA a producer in Missouri and some other people we spent a lot of time with those folks and they were not going to give us everything we asked for which is what we have now in our own standards so USDA said we're going to only say what the animal has eaten not where it's eaten or how it's been raised or anything else.
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It's just going to be, that's what we're going to use as a grass-fed label.
00:05:47.141 --> 00:05:51.225
So this small working group said, can we start our own standards?
00:05:51.305 --> 00:05:55.269
And they said, well, of course, if they meet or exceed ours, that's easy.
00:05:56.130 --> 00:05:57.973
So we started in 2007.
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We had written our standards, which are followed to this day.
00:06:03.499 --> 00:06:22.759
And we started certifying in 2007 after the USDA said that there was still a And the other thing that they said in the AMS standards, the USDA standards, was if the animal has been fed grain, just make a note of it.
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He did tell them to take them out of the program.
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So HEA started a third-party certified program in 2007 for beef.
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That was our beef bison.
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And then we added lamb and goat.
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And since that time, we've added grass-fed dairy.
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We've added pastured pork and pastured poultry.
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And so it's been a of busy 20-some years of getting these things done.
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We're recognized by the USDA.
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We're recognized as a gold standard in some situations because of the way our standards are written.
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One of the things we did want to do with our standards is make them something that producers could do and make it accessible for all producers, whether they're small, large, whatever, rather than just having a bunch of scientists or lay people or legal people write the standards.
00:07:12.112 --> 00:07:14.033
Producers actually wrote our standards.
00:07:14.836 --> 00:07:16.317
So that's where we are today.
00:07:18.940 --> 00:07:34.620
So just to go back on what was going to– so did you say that they were going to allow antibiotics and hormones and fed in a feedlot and certain percentage of diet could be grain and that was all going to be allowed?
00:07:35.341 --> 00:07:35.422
Yeah.
00:07:35.553 --> 00:07:44.706
Yeah, they took out the feeding of grain, but they left the caveat in the standard that said, if you do feed grain, keep a record of it.
00:07:44.947 --> 00:07:49.413
But it didn't tell you to take them out of the program.
00:07:50.355 --> 00:07:50.495
Wow.
00:07:50.615 --> 00:07:54.040
So that's when we started our own third-party certified program.
00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:59.588
And we've been certifying ranches and farmers since then and adding the other standards in.
00:08:00.802 --> 00:08:24.603
You know, our brand is certified AGA, and I tell the customers that I talk to when I'm pitching them or talking to them, it's like, I have yet to find a third-party standard that is more rigorous or strict than the AGA protocol, American Grass-Fed Association protocol.
00:08:25.644 --> 00:08:31.689
The other thing that separates us, because there are other grass-fed certifications out there, We're USA only.
00:08:31.988 --> 00:08:35.712
We don't allow any certification outside the United States.
00:08:36.774 --> 00:08:45.163
And it sets us apart because those animals have to be from American family farms and farmers and from birth to harvest.
00:08:45.182 --> 00:08:50.609
So that really sets us apart in the consumer's mind is that we want to support local.
00:08:51.190 --> 00:08:52.892
We want to support USA only.
00:08:53.371 --> 00:09:00.620
And so it's been a long journey, but we're still hanging in there and we're growing daily and consumer...
00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:04.105
acceptance and retail acceptance.
00:09:06.470 --> 00:09:07.370
So that's where we are now.
00:09:08.874 --> 00:09:15.966
So the reason why, I'm going to guess here, but I think we're on the same page.
00:09:16.145 --> 00:09:30.041
The reason why those standards exist and they're so rigorous within AGA is based on the basic premise that ruminants and or animals on the land managed properly.
00:09:32.033 --> 00:09:36.620
is the best way to rebuild our soil and the food system.
00:09:36.779 --> 00:09:38.402
Is that accurate?
00:09:39.303 --> 00:09:39.543
Yeah.
00:09:39.683 --> 00:09:39.965
From your
00:09:40.284 --> 00:09:40.745
perspective?
00:09:41.527 --> 00:09:55.666
From my perspective and from a lot of people's perspective and soil scientist perspective and nutritionist perspective on how the animal is raised and it's not fed anything.
00:09:55.686 --> 00:09:56.907
It's not supposed to be eating.
00:09:57.006 --> 00:10:01.653
It's fed a diet of forages, which is what ruminants were.
00:10:02.081 --> 00:10:14.226
designed to eat and so it's it's a better way to raise the animals is a better way for to maintain your soils and soil health so we're going to stick with that one forever so keep going going on
00:10:15.330 --> 00:10:55.221
and it makes sense because we're we're mimicking nature and we're just really the rules are in place the protocols in place to most accurately mimic nature on what we know happened for thousands of years and how do we recapture that in light of what we've learned through conventional agriculture, monoculture, pesticides, herbicides, neonicotinoids, and all the ways of killing things, that if we can step away from that and figure out how we can grow things and help things live and have a diverse grassland that there's so many benefits.
00:10:55.261 --> 00:11:00.268
I mean, the first thing is, you know, we're rebuilding the food system together.
00:11:00.288 --> 00:11:18.486
But then all those other benefits that come along with it, you know, by mimicking nature, you get nutrient density, you get wildlife habitat, you get improved water cycle, you've got photosynthesis happening more green days in a year, not tilling, pulling carbon out of the air.
00:11:18.527 --> 00:11:29.041
And that's, to me, that's why That protocol of AGA is so important because the benefits are many.
00:11:29.081 --> 00:11:36.331
And honestly, I mean, you can say that it's accessible to anybody, small, medium, large rancher, and that is true.
00:11:36.572 --> 00:11:41.519
Anybody can live by these rules if they want to, if they choose to.
00:11:43.905 --> 00:12:02.522
But in the world of beef, where so much of the beef in this country is trading boxes, boxes of beef in transit, where nobody really knows where that animal was raised in that environment, in the conventional beef market, the commodity beef market.
00:12:03.283 --> 00:12:15.874
And to me, we want to know, you want to know, how the practices of actually raising that animal and then following it all the way through the supply chain Mm-hmm.
00:12:16.553 --> 00:12:18.296
Yeah.
00:12:43.841 --> 00:12:45.388
Well, you and I both know.
00:12:45.488 --> 00:12:49.081
And boxes are put on a truck and we really don't know how that was raised.
00:12:49.101 --> 00:12:54.763
And I guess, I don't know if it's too big of a leap to say that you don't really know that about imported beef either.
00:12:56.001 --> 00:12:56.763
Well,
00:12:57.943 --> 00:12:58.543
you don't know.
00:12:58.904 --> 00:13:06.191
And that's one of the reasons we fought with some wonderful other organizations to get Product of the USA.
00:13:06.750 --> 00:13:22.924
It's not a mandatory country of origin labeling, but Product of the USA, because there was a huge loophole that if being brought into this country was repackaged in any way, that means taking out one plastic bag and putting in another, and then you could say it was Product of the USA.
00:13:23.405 --> 00:13:26.469
And we fought that one tooth and nail.
00:13:26.989 --> 00:13:33.535
And in one of President Biden's executive orders, that was added in.
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It had to be born, raised, harvested, and processed here.
00:13:38.881 --> 00:13:40.504
And that was the loophole before.
00:13:40.703 --> 00:13:44.388
So that's being enforced now that it's not being enforced.
00:13:44.508 --> 00:14:03.868
Because that, I just want to make sure everyone understands that, that you can see a product on the shelf that says product of the USA and the only part of that USA that it participated in or that it landed in was that that box of beef came across the ocean, went to a U.S.
00:14:04.068 --> 00:14:08.614
processing plant, was probably put in a different box and then shipped back out.
00:14:09.293 --> 00:14:12.116
And I've witnessed this with my own eyes in processing facilities.
00:14:12.197 --> 00:14:17.442
I've seen the product coming in from whatever country, let's call Australia out.
00:14:18.183 --> 00:14:25.871
Okay, here's an Australian box of beef and it goes out the loading dock as a product of USA after they've changed the box.
00:14:25.871 --> 00:14:33.841
Well, the USDA gave everybody until the end of 2025 to start implementing this.
00:14:33.900 --> 00:14:39.245
So we're sitting on pins and needles to say that it will be implemented at the end of 2025.
00:14:39.326 --> 00:14:54.322
As you know, things change, but we're going to try and hold everybody's feet to the fire and say you've got to stop this, especially with this buy local, be local, America first, all that stuff right now that we think that this is really important to keep in place.
00:14:54.682 --> 00:15:03.932
And these American Family Farms Yeah, you
00:15:03.972 --> 00:15:06.375
know, and I'm a free market guy.
00:15:06.394 --> 00:15:17.326
I'll compete, you know, with anybody, but let's not be misleading and mislabeling the product, you know, like let the consumer decide.
00:15:17.486 --> 00:15:20.570
It's like, do you want to buy Australian grass fed beef?
00:15:20.630 --> 00:15:21.331
God bless you.
00:15:21.370 --> 00:15:25.775
Hopefully, hopefully there's no thumb on the scale any which way.
00:15:25.775 --> 00:15:27.157
way that favors that.
00:15:28.798 --> 00:15:31.782
But let's not mislead.
00:15:32.082 --> 00:15:33.244
Let's just say what it is.
00:15:33.484 --> 00:15:34.664
Here's what's in the package.
00:15:34.706 --> 00:15:35.826
Here's where it was raised.
00:15:35.886 --> 00:15:37.048
Here's where it was grazed.
00:15:37.107 --> 00:15:38.450
Here's where it was processed.
00:15:38.730 --> 00:15:39.711
Here's where it was shipped.
00:15:40.432 --> 00:15:41.732
And just leave it at that.
00:15:42.293 --> 00:15:47.038
And then we probably should have a level playing field on tariffs.
00:15:47.119 --> 00:15:56.874
If there's going to be a tariff of beef exporting to a country, then that same tariff, I believe, should be on that same country's beef coming into our country.
00:15:58.863 --> 00:16:03.043
Personally, I don't believe in walls of stopping product from flowing.
00:16:04.706 --> 00:16:10.890
But I do think it's terrible to mislead consumers.
00:16:11.892 --> 00:16:20.519
And I'm not sure how that does look out after American farmers and ranchers by misleading consumers about what country the product came from.
00:16:22.020 --> 00:16:25.563
Well, I said something probably 10 years ago or maybe eight years ago now.
00:16:25.583 --> 00:16:29.147
And I said, it's like the Beyonce song says, if you like it, put a ring on it.
00:16:29.648 --> 00:16:32.909
So just proper labeling, honest labeling.
00:16:33.591 --> 00:16:34.672
And that's what we've been finding.
00:16:34.672 --> 00:16:36.894
It seems like it should.
00:16:36.974 --> 00:16:48.624
Yeah, it seems like it should.
00:16:48.764 --> 00:16:48.903
Yeah.
00:16:50.205 --> 00:16:52.106
So that
00:16:55.509 --> 00:16:58.773
gives us a current state of the affairs.
00:16:58.832 --> 00:17:04.258
We're going to have to check in again after the end of 2025 and see where we're at.
00:17:04.961 --> 00:17:05.281
Yeah.
00:17:06.163 --> 00:17:25.200
But now, can you share a little bit about what fuels your energy to stay involved in this space and why you feel it's so important just from a broader societal or food system perspective?
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:40.153
Oh, Matt, it would take three days and a pot of coffee to tell you all the reasons that I, from the time that my great, great, grandfather, our great-great-great-grandfather came to the United States on a cattle boat from Spain.
00:17:40.173 --> 00:17:47.161
We call people like me an imprinted farmer, even though we don't sometimes live on the farm.
00:17:47.221 --> 00:17:52.145
But that runs deep in my blood and in my bones.
00:17:52.467 --> 00:18:16.172
And seeing these farmers that we now work with working as hard as they can and following the rules, following the guidelines Following all the regulations that you have to follow to put beef on the shelf in the United States and helping farmers reach that point to see operations.
00:18:16.211 --> 00:18:17.913
And I'll give you a thousand hills of plug.
00:18:17.933 --> 00:18:26.983
When I walked your pastures and saw how you were bringing teeming life and the microbes and the birds and all the other species that are living there.
00:18:27.023 --> 00:18:30.847
The Audubon guys were there one day that I was there and watching the birds and everything.
00:18:30.887 --> 00:18:33.471
And that's what we want America to look like.
00:18:33.510 --> 00:18:35.313
Rural America needs to look like that.
00:18:36.334 --> 00:18:41.419
And that makes me wake up every day and say, we can make a difference about this.
00:18:41.499 --> 00:18:59.458
We can take the American soils and the American farms and the American land and the areas that can't do arable crops or are not built on and turn them into productive food systems and not have to rely on other countries to feed us.
00:19:01.641 --> 00:19:02.541
That's
00:19:03.182 --> 00:19:06.125
a little deep, but we need to be able to feed ourselves.
00:19:06.306 --> 00:19:06.726
I agree.
00:19:06.746 --> 00:19:13.813
Feeding ourselves, that whole, what do we want our land to look like?
00:19:14.534 --> 00:19:16.695
You know, that's so huge.
00:19:17.317 --> 00:19:18.377
It's what does it look like?
00:19:18.417 --> 00:19:19.900
Are we preserving it?
00:19:20.019 --> 00:19:21.642
Are we killing it?
00:19:21.961 --> 00:19:23.502
Are we regenerating it?
00:19:24.284 --> 00:19:32.432
You know, I just drove the other day from Oklahoma to Minnesota and And I was pretty encouraged in Oklahoma.
00:19:32.873 --> 00:19:35.654
You know, there was, I could see animals on the land.
00:19:35.674 --> 00:19:37.656
I could see managed grazing.
00:19:37.696 --> 00:19:42.760
I didn't see a lot of monoculture cropping.
00:19:42.780 --> 00:19:44.221
I didn't see irrigating.
00:19:44.241 --> 00:19:46.664
I just saw grasslands.
00:19:46.704 --> 00:19:47.945
It was so refreshing.
00:19:47.986 --> 00:19:57.453
And then as you drive closer to the Corn Belt, it changes pretty dramatically to you.
00:19:57.713 --> 00:20:08.464
Well, you don't see animals, you see large equipment, tilling, dust in the air, carbon in the air, irrigation, and you know what's coming.
00:20:08.505 --> 00:20:18.175
You know, it's spring, it's early spring now, and you know what's coming and what's going to be planted and how's that helping our food system?
00:20:18.355 --> 00:20:19.957
How's it hurting our food system?
00:20:20.397 --> 00:20:30.170
And so for, I don't know, 500 miles, I was witnessing a pretty monoculture landslide escape.
00:20:30.933 --> 00:20:32.019
And that's what it looked like.
00:20:33.729 --> 00:20:35.679
Brown, tilled up dirt.
00:20:36.993 --> 00:20:53.888
Well, the one thing that we do focus on and we work closely as we can with other organizations who are helping us make markets and access to markets rather than just having a system that takes all the animals off the land, sends them to feed yards.
00:20:54.828 --> 00:20:56.971
And, you know, that's your only market.
00:20:57.111 --> 00:21:04.218
So we work with other organizations that are really good at this and working with the government to develop different food systems.
00:21:04.798 --> 00:21:06.960
So it's not a one size fits all type thing.
00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:14.907
like the things that you all are doing and other producers in the United States are doing is having an additional market so you don't have to send those animals to a feed yard.
00:21:15.429 --> 00:21:26.461
And you can work with your local communities and as far as, you know, online and that kind of things and the retail and the honesty around what you do.
00:21:26.861 --> 00:21:41.817
You know, in Canada, I see people in our generation whose kids are coming back to the farms And it's completely different from what I was told to do, was leave the farm.
00:21:41.916 --> 00:21:50.425
And it's to see young people who really want to farm and then see farmers who are what I call non-imprinted farmers who want to farm.
00:21:50.487 --> 00:21:52.969
They don't have any skin in the game.
00:21:53.028 --> 00:21:54.451
They just want to come back to the land.
00:21:54.691 --> 00:22:00.037
And every time I run into one of those, I want to give them a gold star and say, good for you.
00:22:00.076 --> 00:22:00.837
How can I help you?
00:22:01.377 --> 00:22:01.577
Yeah.
00:22:01.959 --> 00:22:02.700
For sure.
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:10.708
I mean, we have such a parallel in our generation, but you and I personally, I mean, no one had to tell me to leave the farm.
00:22:11.469 --> 00:22:21.640
I just knew that I didn't want to argue about what bills were going to get paid that week around the dinner table and have no money and work 16 hours a day.
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:24.782
And we ate good.
00:22:25.042 --> 00:22:33.913
We had a good, we had a good meal three times a day, but I knew I wanted something else that I couldn't, I didn't want to, I didn't want to replicate that.
00:22:33.992 --> 00:23:19.060
And, and so, yeah, you know, our whole job generation basically left the farm and fortunately we're two people that 20 years later the light bulb went off and we were like no we need to go back to the farm it's that important and there's that many benefits if we can do this right to our whole society and our whole food system but I agree the hope is in these people that the younger generation that I would say is much more enlightened than I ever was at that age for sure and kind of Coming back, I know it fills my heart that my kids are interested in, well, they're interested in food and where does it come from and what is good food and what is good practices.
00:23:19.121 --> 00:23:20.643
And they're asking those questions.
00:23:21.963 --> 00:23:22.884
That fills my heart.
00:23:23.105 --> 00:23:31.974
And I know it's not just my family, but going to conferences and seeing young people, like you say, that didn't grow up on a farm, we're like asking questions.
00:23:32.035 --> 00:23:33.076
How can I get involved?
00:23:33.115 --> 00:23:33.836
What can I do?
00:23:33.876 --> 00:23:36.720
What can I do with five acres and stuff like that?
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:43.708
or stack those enterprises on those five acres and figure out what it is, what their skill level, what their interest is.
00:23:43.748 --> 00:23:45.911
That's our hope for the future, right?
00:23:45.971 --> 00:23:47.031
I mean, that's it.
00:23:47.352 --> 00:23:54.520
We need that type of person back on the land and wanting that lifestyle.
00:23:54.560 --> 00:24:06.173
And it isn't, you know, it's not a great financial rewarding undertaking, but the impact is so huge.
00:24:06.369 --> 00:24:25.192
big so huge for every person that's deciding to do that it's just giant and i just had a recent conversation where we were talking about how do we how do we collectively elevate food and agriculture to a level in our society where it's more valued
00:24:26.786 --> 00:24:42.759
You know, we talk about getting rich farming and it's the richness in your soul and in what you're doing and in your integrity and how you're relating to your family and your community and knowing each other.
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:45.182
That's a richness that you can't get.
00:24:45.321 --> 00:24:50.365
And I don't discredit anybody for making a lot of money if they want to.
00:24:51.027 --> 00:24:57.512
But let's not discount the fact that that piece of your being that needs a connection with the land.
00:24:57.772 --> 00:24:59.454
And that's what I see in these young farmers.
00:24:59.714 --> 00:25:06.501
And like I say, people who have had different careers and all of a sudden go, there's something lacking here.
00:25:06.843 --> 00:25:08.023
And I want to find out what it is.
00:25:08.064 --> 00:25:11.768
And they come to our conferences and they call us on the phone and say, how do I do this?
00:25:12.568 --> 00:25:20.116
And so we also have resources that we, you know, and the return of women to the farm.
00:25:20.136 --> 00:25:21.878
Of course, my family was matriarchal.
00:25:22.900 --> 00:25:25.021
My mother's father died when she was three.
00:25:25.102 --> 00:25:28.605
So my grandmother and her sisters and kept up with things.
00:25:29.527 --> 00:25:30.607
Oh, I
00:25:31.608 --> 00:25:31.769
didn't
00:25:31.788 --> 00:25:32.130
know that.
00:25:32.871 --> 00:25:34.092
Yeah.
00:25:34.972 --> 00:25:39.998
She went back to school in the 20s and 30s and got a PhD in education.
00:25:40.057 --> 00:25:42.260
So it shows you how hard-headed we can be, Matt.
00:25:43.481 --> 00:25:44.863
Well, there's no question about that.
00:25:44.923 --> 00:25:46.945
I didn't have doubts about
00:25:46.965 --> 00:25:47.046
that.
00:25:47.066 --> 00:25:49.307
Well, anyway, like I say, enough about me.
00:25:49.327 --> 00:26:28.308
But again, like I say, when I see these kids and, you know, I just, when I'm out on the ranch or, you know, in Arlington place I'm the one in a pair of cutoffs blue jeans and a pair of sketchers and these guys have silk scarves and boots and stuff and I'm going okay but you know it's just a different generation and I'm so pleased that they're adopting not only the lifestyle but the heritage and all of the things that go along with it and they're learning about their ecosystems and they're learning how they fit in with it instead of just driving around it and it's okay to get your hands dirty Yeah, it's so
00:26:28.369 --> 00:26:29.851
great to be connected to the land.
00:26:29.871 --> 00:26:31.332
It's hard to describe.
00:26:31.632 --> 00:26:33.993
If you haven't been, it's hard to describe that.
00:26:34.275 --> 00:26:39.199
But for those of us that have been, and the drawback is immense.
00:26:39.298 --> 00:26:42.662
It's in your blood, and it's hard to move.
00:26:43.281 --> 00:26:45.403
So let's quantify this movement a little bit.
00:26:45.443 --> 00:26:46.244
Okay.
00:26:47.046 --> 00:26:49.268
Off the top of your head, I'm going to ask for numbers.
00:26:49.607 --> 00:27:08.025
Given where you started in 2003 and then the first certifications in 2007, What's happened on a number of farms or however you want to quantify it, acreage, animals, is there a trend towards regenerative or what are you
00:27:08.224 --> 00:27:08.384
seeing?
00:27:09.586 --> 00:27:12.991
Yeah, we want it to be a slow-moving trend.
00:27:13.031 --> 00:27:21.041
We don't want rapid growth because that's not the way the animals grow and that's not the way this movement should grow.
00:27:21.383 --> 00:27:24.907
There's a lot of interest right now in regenerative.
00:27:26.753 --> 00:27:34.780
making sure that the soils and the land is included in the raising of these animals, not just, I want to raise cattle.
00:27:34.861 --> 00:27:38.203
Well, you have to make sure that your soils are healthy enough.
00:27:39.105 --> 00:27:43.909
And we get calls all the time where people say, what kind of cattle should I put on my land?
00:27:44.148 --> 00:27:45.289
Well, tell me about your land.
00:27:45.690 --> 00:27:49.993
And then we'll talk about types of cattle or number of cattle and those kind of things.
00:27:50.034 --> 00:27:53.797
And there's a lot of resources out there in agriculture.
00:27:53.877 --> 00:27:59.603
And people like you, we have people call you and other farmers to say, here are the resources that you can do.
00:27:59.643 --> 00:28:15.339
Right now we have, and I'm not on the day-to-day basis of handling that, but I think we have about 800 producers in the program and they're coming in every day.
00:28:15.380 --> 00:28:27.292
And it's not just cattle, it's bison, goat is growing, lamb is growing, grass-fed dairy is is growing.
00:28:28.335 --> 00:28:43.560
We've got two major labels that are using our seal on their dairies and that's really important because a lot of these small dairies are either Amish or other religious sects and some of them are still hand milking but we're keeping them getting a premium for their milk.
00:28:44.682 --> 00:28:49.770
We've just added poultry and that's another thing where people say I'm not going to eat meat anymore I'm going to eat chicken.
00:28:49.851 --> 00:28:58.317
Well Pastured chicken is– and we have standards for that now because the mislabeling on that is egregious as well.
00:28:58.337 --> 00:29:01.506
So we're working with the government on that one.
00:29:01.866 --> 00:29:18.901
So roughly 800 farms– multi-species and you're seeing interest in carrying on beyond beef and other species and the trend is, is it picking up steam?
00:29:18.961 --> 00:29:20.163
Is it a steady line?
00:29:20.182 --> 00:29:23.327
How are the inquiries coming in?
00:29:24.769 --> 00:29:30.894
Well, we like to have it be a steady, slow, not slow, but steady progression.
00:29:32.215 --> 00:29:39.742
Because when you get those fluctuations of bandwagons, you see people fall by the wayside.
00:29:39.803 --> 00:29:44.027
And we want to make sure that anybody that is interested in doing this can succeed.
00:29:44.086 --> 00:29:46.269
And we know some people aren't going to be able to succeed.
00:29:47.128 --> 00:29:51.093
But rather than saying you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to, you know, make it work.
00:29:51.173 --> 00:29:54.736
Now, it's a journey, not a destination.
00:29:54.736 --> 00:30:05.826
And then helping these folks find markets and understanding that's one of the barriers to finding markets is processing.
00:30:07.146 --> 00:30:12.330
And we got some help from the government a few years ago on helping build some processing plants.
00:30:12.411 --> 00:30:23.740
But that's going to be something that's going to be critical moving forward is more ability to process those animals.
00:30:25.089 --> 00:30:33.497
species, you know, like lamb and hogs, and the processing for that has really gone away, at least in our region.
00:30:33.537 --> 00:30:41.324
You have to go hundreds and hundreds of miles to get to a processing facility for some of the non-beef species.
00:30:43.705 --> 00:30:44.146
So yeah,
00:30:44.166 --> 00:30:44.987
that infrastructure.
00:30:45.047 --> 00:30:59.421
And then, you know, the consolidation that's happened within beef and within protein in general, that consolidation into bigger and bigger plants and further and further away from from rural communities or affecting fewer rural communities.
00:30:59.441 --> 00:31:18.820
I think that's part of that landscape that you talked about earlier, like how do we reinvigorate through smaller multi-species farms and communities where you know where your food came from and you know the people and their practices.
00:31:18.840 --> 00:31:56.942
I mean, to me, that's core to AGA because you're really not for the very very big because they can't they don't even know the producers that are raising the animals they can't certify them and that's what I love about it is like that there's that level of boots on the ground where you do know and there's there's a difference there and I want people to know that that there is a difference when you're certified with any number of credible certifications but of course I love American Grass Fed Association And I love the protocol.
00:31:57.082 --> 00:32:08.294
I still haven't found one that's more rigorous that really takes into consideration the non-confinement and non-GMO and diverse grasslands and all of that.
00:32:08.374 --> 00:32:13.680
So all of that, I mean, I guess, you know, it's like diversity is good no matter what.
00:32:14.201 --> 00:32:15.402
Diversity is good on a farm.
00:32:15.442 --> 00:32:16.903
Diversity is good on the grassland.
00:32:16.942 --> 00:32:18.404
Diversity is good in the community.
00:32:18.444 --> 00:32:20.366
Diversity is good in our food system.
00:32:20.406 --> 00:32:24.351
So that, you know, in our diet, we're getting what we need.
00:32:24.912 --> 00:32:28.335
And I think that's just
00:32:32.397 --> 00:32:48.172
core to, that's core to AGA.
00:32:54.882 --> 00:33:27.311
consolidating it to send it somewhere else so they can sell it cheaper doesn't make sense to me I mean I don't cheap food who likes that I mean we all look for quality and we should look for quality not quantity and if you look at the prices if you look at the prices in the grocery store if you see I don't know I'm one of those people that I'll spend more for food you know because it's in Yeah, for sure.
00:33:27.332 --> 00:33:35.487
Yeah, you can't believe
00:33:43.361 --> 00:33:44.643
the pictures always.
00:33:45.144 --> 00:33:46.046
Yeah.
00:33:46.114 --> 00:33:47.234
That's for sure.
00:33:47.515 --> 00:33:49.696
Well, yeah, just the whole idea of cheap food.
00:33:49.856 --> 00:34:39.115
If all you did was discount the environmental benefits, the animal welfare benefits, the rural economy, just discount all that and say nutrition, there's easily, it's being quantified now, the level of nutrition that's in, let's say, any species that has access to a diverse grassland or or pasture versus fed in confinement there's a real difference in nutrition and hence your health so even if that was it right there to me that's enough and the cheapest food is not going to give you those benefits
00:34:40.706 --> 00:34:42.947
Well, and the nutritional analysis.
00:34:43.007 --> 00:34:50.534
I mean, a very dear friend of mine who's a professor at the University of Kentucky said, you know, you hear all the different conflicting studies and support.
00:34:50.554 --> 00:34:57.019
And he said, you know, the figures tortured long enough will admit to anything.
00:34:57.661 --> 00:35:10.672
But if you look at the real science behind what's going on and you know deep in your soul that things that are raised correctly are going to be better for the whole ecosystem and the animals and the farmers and everybody else.
00:35:10.672 --> 00:35:19.742
then I think that informed consumers and people who are learning, and it warms my heart to walk in the grocery store and see people reading labels.
00:35:20.481 --> 00:35:21.483
It really does.
00:35:21.903 --> 00:35:22.063
Yep.
00:35:22.284 --> 00:35:22.844
Pay attention.
00:35:23.045 --> 00:35:23.945
Yep.
00:35:24.327 --> 00:35:25.166
Yeah.
00:35:25.748 --> 00:35:29.271
There's one grocer that I swear they have a picture of me in the back of their meat mark.
00:35:29.291 --> 00:35:32.175
I said, don't talk to her because I ask so many questions.
00:35:34.958 --> 00:35:44.190
You know, I normally wrap up by talking about hope for the future, but you've already identified that through the and people coming back to the land, the younger generation.
00:35:44.210 --> 00:36:01.541
So I'm gonna shift gears a little bit and I'm gonna ask you to share with us What is it that you believe is consumers that consumers can do?
00:36:01.681 --> 00:36:05.425
So on that whole idea about reading the nutrition labels or whatever it is.
00:36:06.105 --> 00:36:11.750
So as we talk to consumers, what can they do when they walk into a store or they're buying from their farmer?
00:36:12.411 --> 00:36:17.155
What role can a consumer play in regenerating our food system?
00:36:17.255 --> 00:36:19.836
Well, the first thing they can do is reading labels.
00:36:20.657 --> 00:36:29.092
And if you're not familiar with reading labels, They say talk to the meat manager or the guy behind the meat counter.
00:36:29.253 --> 00:36:34.985
Well, that's a first start, but you have to understand that they're only parroting what they've been told.
00:36:36.833 --> 00:36:44.119
And the other thing is, too, if you go to the farmer's market and you ask whoever's standing at the stand, did you raise this animal?
00:36:44.300 --> 00:36:45.541
Where is this coming from?
00:36:46.101 --> 00:36:52.847
You know, there's farmer's markets that now require certification for selling those products in the farmer's market.
00:36:54.608 --> 00:36:59.012
And then if everything else fails, call us.
00:36:59.673 --> 00:37:03.896
You know, like I say, if we don't know the answer, at least we'll be honest and say, I don't know the answer.
00:37:05.478 --> 00:37:06.800
But that's important.
00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:18.572
And there are some larger commodity growers who now have showcase farms where they have petting zoo farms and that kind of thing where they showcase these wonderful animals.
00:37:18.652 --> 00:37:24.097
And then it's kind of like the wizard behind the curtain in Wizard of Oz.
00:37:24.139 --> 00:37:26.942
That's not exactly what they're doing.
00:37:27.902 --> 00:37:31.226
And consumers a lot of times don't know what they're looking for.
00:37:31.867 --> 00:37:36.751
And so when they go to a farm, they say, no, this looks good, but learn what you need to be looking for.
00:37:36.751 --> 00:37:37.913
when you go to that farm.
00:37:38.152 --> 00:37:39.855
What was the diet of that animal?
00:37:40.396 --> 00:37:44.219
You know, like, okay, how it was raised, all that, you know, from a welfare standpoint.
00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:45.742
But I think point
00:37:45.802 --> 00:37:46.222
blank,
00:37:46.842 --> 00:37:49.105
what was the lifetime diet of that animal?
00:37:49.144 --> 00:37:50.126
Was it pastured?
00:37:50.166 --> 00:37:51.126
Was it grasses?
00:37:51.206 --> 00:37:52.128
Was there grains?
00:37:52.268 --> 00:37:54.411
Was there GMO grains?
00:37:54.490 --> 00:37:56.032
Like, I want to know the diet.
00:37:56.132 --> 00:37:58.735
I want to know, you know, we are what our food eats.
00:37:59.596 --> 00:38:01.257
So what did my food eat?
00:38:01.838 --> 00:38:02.079
Right?
00:38:02.259 --> 00:38:08.326
I mean, because you can tell a lot if someone just tells you the diet of that animal or chicken or whatever it is.
00:38:09.126 --> 00:38:09.987
Is that not correct?
00:38:10.969 --> 00:38:11.548
Absolutely.
00:38:11.588 --> 00:38:18.976
The other thing right now that is something that we find is that the term grass-finished does not have a legal definition.
00:38:19.577 --> 00:38:28.867
And what we're seeing, and not in all cases, but we're seeing where animals are being taken out of confinement and finished on grass, and that's being allowed on the label.
00:38:29.628 --> 00:38:34.494
So it's either grass-fed or it's not, like it's sugar-free or it's not, or it's real or it's not.
00:38:34.753 --> 00:38:36.655
And people say grass-fed.
00:38:36.655 --> 00:38:42.442
grass-fed and grass-finished because they've been told that all animals are grass-fed, but they forget the caveat until it's not.
00:38:43.143 --> 00:38:49.949
So look for the, and I'm going to plug myself, my organization, look for the seal because those farms have been inspected.
00:38:50.010 --> 00:38:51.391
They've had somebody on the ground.
00:38:51.431 --> 00:38:55.335
If there's any question, we follow up.
00:38:56.177 --> 00:38:58.679
Those farms are inspected at least every 15 months.
00:38:59.860 --> 00:39:06.608
And the reason we do it every 15 months instead of every year is you can see the farms at different cycles, different times of the year.
00:39:06.608 --> 00:39:09.070
and that kind of thing so it's important
00:39:10.592 --> 00:40:09.034
it is important and yeah I don't think you should be shy about saying look for the seal I mean it could be your seal could be another one but just know what that seal stands for and then look for it because the label itself there's not a lot of regulation around or at least tight regulation around what is claimed on the label itself but if it's certified now there's practices that have been certified so you know those there's a reason why you see some packages that have seals on them that look like a NASCAR and then there's other ones that don't well there's the purveyor of the brand that looks like a NASCAR is trying to communicate something to you about what their practices are and what's important to them so see if those values align with yours by you know it's going to take a little research but not everything is right face value on that label there's only so much real estate there's only so much you can say and some of that is misleading and you just got to know that.
00:40:09.775 --> 00:40:09.996
Yeah.
00:40:10.956 --> 00:40:12.878
Well, and I agree with you totally.
00:40:12.918 --> 00:40:24.010
I mean, if you went through all the certifications that are out there, put it all on your label, your label would be about an eight by 10 piece of paper just for the label without any nutritional analysis type thing.
00:40:24.090 --> 00:40:33.481
But it's important for the consumer to know your farmer, know your food, but you got to know what you're looking for when you go to your farmer.
00:40:34.681 --> 00:40:38.713
And I hearken back to the little red barn that's on a lot of packages now.
00:40:38.793 --> 00:40:41.144
And, you know...
00:40:42.369 --> 00:40:47.735
And endorsements and that kind of things are important because it helps get your product sold.
00:40:47.894 --> 00:40:49.695
But I'd rather talk to the farmer.
00:40:51.617 --> 00:40:58.704
I like the shots of the chicken that's sitting in grass and is scared to death because it's never seen grass before and it doesn't want to move.
00:40:59.485 --> 00:41:05.070
But there's a barn in the background and there's a chicken plopped in the grass and you're like, whoa, that thing is nervous.
00:41:05.269 --> 00:41:07.291
It has no idea what it should do next.
00:41:07.972 --> 00:41:08.231
Yeah.
00:41:08.873 --> 00:41:09.072
Yeah.
00:41:09.432 --> 00:41:47.260
But it's a journey and, you know the consumer is waking up with everything that's going on right now with the world and all of this stuff right now we want to be important to you and we want you to understand that this is important for us as a nation to keep our farmers because a nation that can't feed itself you know it's hard and that's something that we can do and we just have to to make sure that everybody works together to make sure that continues to happen.
00:41:48.782 --> 00:41:50.728
That's a perfect summary.
00:41:51.128 --> 00:41:52.552
Couldn't have said it better myself.
00:41:52.893 --> 00:41:57.623
This nation is fully capable of feeding itself.
00:41:58.818 --> 00:42:05.829
We do need to rebuild our food system so we can continue to feed ourselves and feed ourselves better, more nutritious food.
00:42:05.869 --> 00:42:23.900
But that's also a very enjoyable journey to be able to learn and understand and produce food that nourishes us, nourishes our soul, nourishes our bodies, nourishes our communities.
00:42:26.177 --> 00:42:31.882
Carrie, thank you for being such an advocate for all those very important facets of life.
00:42:32.342 --> 00:42:36.467
You should be very proud of your accomplishments and your work.
00:42:37.467 --> 00:42:43.172
And I'll always hold you in high esteem because you work on things that I never could.
00:42:43.213 --> 00:42:46.815
And I appreciate that you do.
00:42:46.856 --> 00:42:51.420
Well, you make my journey worthwhile.
00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:51.840
How's that?
00:42:53.001 --> 00:42:53.402
It was good.
00:42:54.021 --> 00:42:55.182
Great to win
00:42:55.242 --> 00:42:55.583
with.
00:42:56.063 --> 00:42:56.143
Okay.
00:42:56.143 --> 00:42:56.547
Win-win.
00:42:56.608 --> 00:42:57.112
Thanks, Matt.
00:42:57.777 --> 00:42:58.623
Yeah, thank you, Carrie.
00:42:58.664 --> 00:42:59.489
Thanks for joining us.
00:42:59.873 --> 00:43:00.961
Look forward to seeing you soon.
