David Stelzer is the founder of Azure Standard, a company born from a 1970s family health crisis that inspired a switch to organic farming. When a major processor dropped their organic grain for conventional wheat in the 1980s, David began delivering his own crops directly to co-ops in a pickup truck. This grew into a massive independent distribution network that now manages roughly 12,000 SKUs, connecting growers directly to consumers.
In the field of regenerative agriculture, David focuses on vertical integration to bypass the expensive and often unethical mainstream middleman. By managing the farming, processing, and distribution in-house, he is able to pay farmers higher premiums while keeping food affordable for families. On his 5,000-acre farm, he proves that regenerative systems can match conventional yields while producing nutritionally superior food.
In this episode, John and David discuss:
David’s childhood recovery from a life-threatening respiratory illness after his parents transitioned the family to a whole-food, organic diet.
The decision to stop using mercury-treated seeds after realizing the chemical was intended for a disease that didn’t exist in their region.
How the loss of a major organic grain contract forced David to start his own distribution route, which eventually grew into Azure Standard.
The vertical integration model that removes middlemen and brokers to pay farmers more while keeping consumer prices competitive.
David’s observation that their 5,000-acre organic farm maintains yields comparable to conventional neighbors without long-term losses.
The astronomical demand for domestic organic and regenerative products, including frozen fruits and legumes, which currently outpaces US supply.
Additional Resources
To learn more about Azure Standard, please visit: https://www.azurestandard.com/about-us
About John Kempf
John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.
Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology.
Support For This Show & Helping You Grow
Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture.
AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA’s science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most.
AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.
Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide.
Learn more about AEA’s regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com
Podcast Transcript
0:02 – 0:03
Hi friends, this is John.
0:04 – 0:05
Welcome to the Regenerative
0:05 – 0:05
Agriculture Podcast,
0:06 – 0:07
where we have all kinds of fun
0:07 – 0:08
conversations related to
0:08 – 0:10
regenerating our landscapes, our
0:10 – 0:12
soils, the food that we eat, and
0:12 – 0:13
our collective health and the
0:13 – 0:14
health of the ecosystems that
0:14 – 0:15
we're responsible for
0:15 – 0:16
stewarding.
0:16 – 0:18
Today, it's quite an honor to
0:18 – 0:20
have someone here who
0:20 – 0:23
I consider a longtime friend,
0:23 – 0:25
someone whose work I've greatly
0:25 – 0:26
admired and the
0:27 – 0:28
the impact that they've been
0:28 – 0:29
able to produce.
0:30 – 0:32
So I have here David Stelzer
0:32 – 0:33
with Azure Standard.
0:33 – 0:34
David, thank you for being
0:34 – 0:36
willing to join me and to share
0:36 – 0:38
your story about the things that
0:38 – 0:38
you've been working on.
0:40 – 0:41
You're doing a couple of
0:41 – 0:42
interesting things.
0:42 – 0:43
You're farming in a challenging
0:43 – 0:44
environment.
0:45 – 0:47
But then I think the piece that
0:47 – 0:49
is so desperately needed in
0:49 – 0:51
today's world is you are
0:52 – 0:54
developing a pathway to deliver
0:54 – 0:56
growers' products, starting with
0:56 – 0:58
your own products, to consumers
0:59 – 1:01
And you've essentially removed
1:01 – 1:03
all the intermediaries in that
1:03 – 1:04
pathway.
1:04 – 1:06
And you are, you're owning the
1:06 – 1:07
pathway itself.
1:07 – 1:09
And I think in the world today,
1:09 – 1:11
we see all
1:11 – 1:12
of, there's this constant
1:12 – 1:14
refrain where growers are
1:14 – 1:15
describing how, well, the
1:15 – 1:16
middlemen are making all the
1:16 – 1:17
money.
1:17 – 1:18
We're not making any money.
1:18 – 1:19
And yet,
1:19 – 1:21
in many cases,
1:21 – 1:23
many growers are not adding a
1:23 – 1:23
great deal of value.
1:24 – 1:25
They find themselves in a
1:25 – 1:26
commoditized commodity
1:26 – 1:27
production system.
1:27 – 1:30
and you've chosen to take on the
1:30 – 1:32
management of all that, or some
1:32 – 1:34
of that value addition and that
1:34 – 1:35
value creation.
1:35 – 1:38
So I can't possibly do justice
1:38 – 1:40
to your story. I'd love for you
1:40 – 1:41
to just tell us a bit about the
1:42 – 1:43
context, the history.
1:43 – 1:44
How did
1:44 – 1:46
your farming operation come to
1:46 – 1:47
be? How did Azure Standard come
1:47 – 1:51
to be? And what led to the few
1:51 – 1:52
dozen fires you have poking
1:52 – 1:53
around in today?
1:55 – 1:58
All right. Well, going back
1:59 – 2:00
a little bit, you know,
2:00 – 2:01
originally,
2:01 – 2:04
my dad actually started farming
2:04 – 2:05
organically in
2:06 – 2:07
1973,
2:07 – 2:09
way before it was cool.
2:10 – 2:11
In fact,
2:11 – 2:13
you know, nobody even hardly
2:13 – 2:14
knew what it was,
2:15 – 2:17
but he had, we had changed our
2:17 – 2:19
diet as a family, mostly because
2:19 – 2:21
of health issues that I had had
2:21 – 2:22
as a small child.
2:23 – 2:25
I was, you know, very ill,
2:25 – 2:27
not expected to live.
2:27 – 2:30
A naturopath told my parents
2:30 – 2:32
they had to change their diet
2:32 – 2:33
radically or I would die.
2:34 – 2:35
They did.
2:35 – 2:37
I regained my health.
2:38 – 2:40
And so it piqued dad's interest.
2:40 – 2:42
That would be quite a statement.
2:42 – 2:43
Well,
2:43 – 2:45
and also quite a goal for you as
2:45 – 2:47
a young child. How old were you
2:47 – 2:47
at this point?
2:48 – 2:49
Well, I was very young.
2:49 – 2:51
I was super sick from the time I
2:51 – 2:54
was about nine months old
2:54 – 2:57
till I was almost
2:57 – 2:59
five, I guess.
2:59 – 3:02
Um, my earliest memories in life
3:02 – 3:03
are laying on the couch,
3:03 – 3:04
wondering if I was going to get
3:04 – 3:05
my next breath or not.
3:06 – 3:09
It was, you know, it
3:09 – 3:12
manifested respiratory in a, in
3:12 – 3:15
a large sense. My symptoms were,
3:15 – 3:17
I mean, it wasn't only
3:17 – 3:18
respiratory. I was broke out
3:18 – 3:19
from head to foot.
3:19 – 3:21
I couldn't breathe, uh, had
3:21 – 3:22
other issues.
3:22 – 3:24
We had been to, I don't know how
3:24 – 3:26
many specialists and they
3:26 – 3:28
prescribed this and that and
3:28 – 3:29
nothing was working.
3:29 – 3:31
uh, you know, the story,
3:31 – 3:34
um, goes where the, you know,
3:34 – 3:36
one of those things where it's,
3:36 – 3:38
it was actually, you know, now
3:38 – 3:40
when I'm looking back on it, it
3:40 – 3:42
was actually, I, my microbiome,
3:43 – 3:45
the bacteria that I had in my
3:45 – 3:47
body was different
3:47 – 3:50
than most people's.
3:50 – 3:52
And I was not able, it was not
3:52 – 3:54
able to digest a standard
3:54 – 3:55
moderation diet.
3:56 – 3:57
It just couldn't do it.
3:57 – 3:58
Couldn't handle,
3:59 – 4:00
you know, it's still to this
4:00 – 4:02
day, I can't handle dairy very
4:02 – 4:02
well,
4:03 – 4:06
items. So I couldn't do that.
4:06 – 4:08
But refined sugar,
4:08 – 4:10
everything set me off.
4:11 – 4:12
So it was no refined sugar,
4:13 – 4:15
no white flour,
4:15 – 4:16
no
4:16 – 4:18
Crisco type, you know,
4:18 – 4:20
any of that kind of no heavy
4:20 – 4:22
fats or fractionated or
4:22 – 4:23
hydrogenated oils.
4:24 – 4:25
It was a bunch of stuff.
4:25 – 4:26
And this is back, you know,
4:26 – 4:27
around 1970.
4:28 – 4:30
So before this was common
4:30 – 4:31
knowledge, you know.
4:31 – 4:32
Yeah.
4:31 – 4:33
In today's world, this is an
4:33 – 4:35
increasingly common story to
4:35 – 4:36
some degree.
4:36 – 4:38
And in some regards, you're
4:38 – 4:40
almost a bit of a canary in the
4:40 – 4:42
coal mine, an early indicator of
4:42 – 4:44
that. I was way, way ahead of
4:44 – 4:45
it.
4:45 – 4:46
But by diet change,
4:47 – 4:48
After they got the
4:48 – 4:49
recommendation from a
4:49 – 4:51
naturopath, dad was either in or
4:51 – 4:53
out. He was no half -hearted
4:53 – 4:54
anything. He never tried
4:54 – 4:57
anything unless he went all the
4:57 – 4:58
way in.
4:58 – 5:00
And so we changed, our whole
5:00 – 5:01
family changed our diet.
5:02 – 5:04
Crazy thing was my granddad,
5:05 – 5:06
he had heart trouble.
5:06 – 5:08
He had been a farmer as well.
5:08 – 5:09
He had to retire when he was
5:09 – 5:12
like 50 because he had such bad
5:12 – 5:13
heart trouble.
5:13 – 5:15
After the diet change,
5:15 – 5:17
His he got well too.
5:17 – 5:19
He was farming again 16 hours a
5:19 – 5:21
day when he was in his 70s Wow
5:22 – 5:24
Actually ended up dying in a
5:24 – 5:27
farming accident in his mid 70s
5:27 – 5:30
So this you know, it worked not
5:30 – 5:31
only for me, but it worked for
5:31 – 5:33
him as a side effect And
5:34 – 5:36
now he was you know, perfectly
5:36 – 5:38
well So it sold our family on
5:38 – 5:40
the concept of healthy eating
5:40 – 5:43
and then dad's out there in the
5:43 – 5:45
you know He said I was in the
5:45 – 5:46
field. He was
5:46 – 5:48
we were doing grain at that time
5:48 – 5:49
mostly,
5:49 – 5:50
you know.
5:50 – 5:52
and that kind of thing, barley
5:52 – 5:53
and stuff.
5:53 – 5:55
Anyway, he was out there
5:55 – 5:56
planting wheat,
5:57 – 5:59
and he was up to his armpits in
5:59 – 6:02
the grain drill and
6:02 – 6:03
spreading out the wheat.
6:04 – 6:06
And his hand was all red and
6:06 – 6:10
pink because of the treatment
6:10 – 6:11
stuff they put on the wheat,
6:11 – 6:12
because he had bought it from
6:12 – 6:14
the elevator like everybody
6:14 – 6:15
else.
6:16 – 6:17
And so he decided to call them
6:17 – 6:19
up and ask them what was on the
6:19 – 6:20
wheat
6:20 – 6:22
and why what it was for.
6:23 – 6:26
And so they so he calls them up
6:26 – 6:27
and they have to call their
6:28 – 6:30
chemical scientists or agronomy
6:30 – 6:32
scientists or whoever it was to
6:32 – 6:33
figure out what was on the
6:33 – 6:34
wheat.
6:34 – 6:36
Oh, we just put on whatever this
6:36 – 6:37
whatever the brand name was.
6:38 – 6:40
So they finally dug into it.
6:40 – 6:41
You know, this is before the
6:41 – 6:42
Internet. You can't just look
6:42 – 6:42
these things up.
6:42 – 6:43
You have to call the
6:43 – 6:46
salespeople. And they turns out
6:46 – 6:47
that
6:47 – 6:49
it was almost pure mercury.
6:50 – 6:51
Whoa.
6:51 – 6:53
They were treating the wheat
6:53 – 6:54
with mercury.
6:54 – 6:56
So he asked, well, why are we
6:56 – 6:57
putting mercury on the wheat?
6:58 – 7:00
And they said, well, it's for
7:00 – 7:00
smut.
7:01 – 7:04
And so because the smut spore
7:04 – 7:06
can't live in mercury when it's
7:06 – 7:07
planted.
7:09 – 7:10
But we're in Eastern Oregon.
7:12 – 7:13
We don't have smut.
7:14 – 7:15
We've never seen smut.
7:15 – 7:16
So that was the last time he
7:16 – 7:18
ever planted treated wheat.
7:18 – 7:19
We never saw smut before.
7:19 – 7:21
We've never seen smut since.
7:22 – 7:23
I mean, I've seen it in other
7:23 – 7:24
people's fields, but in this
7:24 – 7:26
area, there's no smut.
7:26 – 7:29
So he was actually using mercury
7:29 – 7:29
for
7:30 – 7:32
a disease that didn't even exist
7:32 – 7:33
in our area.
7:34 – 7:35
That's how,
7:35 – 7:37
you know, and a lot of times
7:37 – 7:39
these these agricultural things
7:39 – 7:40
are kind of like that.
7:40 – 7:42
It's this one size fits all.
7:43 – 7:44
And that's what regenerative
7:44 – 7:45
never is.
7:46 – 7:48
We never have a one size fits
7:48 – 7:51
all approach because it just
7:51 – 7:52
doesn't work that way.
7:52 – 7:53
You have environment, you have
7:53 – 7:56
climate, you have soils, all
7:56 – 7:57
these things.
7:57 – 7:58
But you guys, you guys all know
7:58 – 7:59
that. But
7:59 – 8:02
so dad, when he started farming
8:02 – 8:03
organically,
8:04 – 8:06
first couple years, you know,
8:06 – 8:08
he didn't really have a market.
8:09 – 8:10
And so he was still hauling his
8:11 – 8:12
you know, his grade to the
8:12 – 8:14
elevator like everybody else.
8:15 – 8:17
And then he met Bob Moore, who
8:17 – 8:18
was the founder of Bob's Red
8:18 – 8:19
Mill,
8:20 – 8:22
which is a fairly popular brand
8:22 – 8:24
in the marketplace at the time.
8:24 – 8:25
And Bob was just getting started
8:25 – 8:26
at that time.
8:27 – 8:28
And he,
8:28 – 8:30
in fact, he was wanting to do
8:30 – 8:32
this milling thing.
8:32 – 8:33
And
8:32 – 8:34
so he and dad kind of hit it off
8:34 – 8:36
and they became friends.
8:37 – 8:39
And so dad actually helped him
8:39 – 8:42
get his first stones out of a
8:42 – 8:43
little mill.
8:43 – 8:44
It's down here in Boyd, just a
8:44 – 8:45
little way from Dufur.
8:45 – 8:48
That was his first stone mill.
8:49 – 8:50
You know, it was a great big
8:50 – 8:51
stone.
8:53 – 8:54
And so it was kind of like Bob
8:54 – 8:55
was going to be the processor
8:55 – 8:56
and dad was going to be the
8:56 – 8:57
farmer and they were going to do
8:57 – 8:59
organic grain together.
8:59 – 9:02
And he mostly had an in with
9:02 – 9:03
Fred Meyers because Bob knew
9:03 – 9:05
Fred Meyer, the original founder
9:05 – 9:07
of the Fred Meyers grocery
9:07 – 9:08
chain.
9:09 – 9:10
And
9:10 – 9:13
So that went on happily for,
9:13 – 9:16
I don't know, 10 years or so, I
9:16 – 9:17
guess.
9:17 – 9:19
We were growing all the grain we
9:19 – 9:21
could on the farm organically.
9:22 – 9:23
Bob was buying it, you know, and
9:23 – 9:25
processing it and getting it
9:25 – 9:26
into Fred Meyers.
9:27 – 9:28
And then Fred,
9:29 – 9:30
the original Fred Meyer, he
9:30 – 9:31
retired,
9:31 – 9:33
sold the company to some kind of
9:33 – 9:34
investment group.
9:35 – 9:36
It took him a few years to
9:36 – 9:38
figure it out. But somewhere
9:38 – 9:39
along the line, this investment
9:39 – 9:40
group figured out that
9:41 – 9:42
why are they carrying this
9:42 – 9:45
expensive organic stuff
9:45 – 9:47
in Fred Meyers?
9:47 – 9:48
This is in
9:48 – 9:49
the 80s,
9:50 – 9:51
probably,
9:51 – 9:53
yeah, mid 80s.
9:53 – 9:56
And so they came to Bob and they
9:56 – 9:58
told Bob, hey, we don't want
9:58 – 10:00
this expensive organic stuff.
10:00 – 10:02
Nobody cares about organic in
10:02 – 10:03
the marketplace.
10:03 – 10:05
We just want conventional in
10:05 – 10:06
there.
10:07 – 10:08
And
10:08 – 10:11
Bob says, no problem, I'll take
10:11 – 10:13
care of it. So he calls dad up
10:13 – 10:14
and says, I'm sorry, I don't
10:14 – 10:15
need the organic grain anymore.
10:15 – 10:16
Fred Myers just wants
10:16 – 10:17
conventional.
10:17 – 10:18
And he just went down to the
10:18 – 10:19
elevator and got the cheapest
10:19 – 10:21
wheat and rye and stuff that he
10:21 – 10:22
could possibly get,
10:22 – 10:24
ground it and put it in his
10:24 – 10:25
back. So he switched from
10:25 – 10:27
organic to just conventional.
10:27 – 10:29
And most of his stuff is still
10:29 – 10:30
conventional to this very day.
10:32 – 10:34
You know, didn't bode really
10:34 – 10:35
well for his relationship with
10:35 – 10:37
dad. They weren't super close
10:37 – 10:37
after that.
10:38 – 10:39
But
10:39 – 10:41
you know, and the crazy part
10:41 – 10:41
was,
10:42 – 10:43
you know, we were mostly raising
10:43 – 10:46
winter wheat and rye for Bob at
10:46 – 10:46
that time.
10:47 – 10:48
So when
10:48 – 10:50
he called and said that Fred
10:50 – 10:51
Meyer wouldn't take it anymore,
10:52 – 10:53
we already had planted.
10:54 – 10:56
So we had the crop in the
10:56 – 10:56
ground,
10:57 – 10:59
because that was like in
10:59 – 11:00
November, December when he
11:00 – 11:01
called,
11:02 – 11:03
and we plant in, you know,
11:04 – 11:05
September, early October here.
11:07 – 11:09
So it was already all planted.
11:09 – 11:10
So we had
11:11 – 11:14
you know, probably 500 acres of
11:14 – 11:14
grain in the ground
11:15 – 11:16
with no market for it.
11:17 – 11:19
And that's when I, you know, and
11:19 – 11:21
I was young and stupid, I guess,
11:21 – 11:22
at that time, and didn't know
11:22 – 11:24
that it was supposed to be hard.
11:25 – 11:26
So,
11:25 – 11:26
so
11:28 – 11:30
I figured, hey, we've got to be
11:30 – 11:31
able to sell this some somebody
11:31 – 11:32
was buying it,
11:33 – 11:33
you know,
11:34 – 11:35
at Fred Miller.
11:35 – 11:36
somebody must have cared,
11:37 – 11:38
maybe weren't selling as much as
11:38 – 11:39
they could sell on their shelf
11:39 – 11:41
space, as if it was cheaper and
11:41 – 11:43
conventional, but somebody did
11:43 – 11:44
buy it.
11:44 – 11:46
So we have to find those people.
11:47 – 11:49
So I started going around to the
11:49 – 11:51
mostly health food stores and
11:51 – 11:52
food buying,
11:52 – 11:55
you know, food co -ops kind of a
11:55 – 11:56
thing. At that time, there was
11:56 – 11:58
quite a lot more of them than
11:58 – 11:59
there are now that was before
11:59 – 12:01
COVID. whole foods and some of
12:01 – 12:03
those kind of messed up the
12:03 – 12:04
market.
12:05 – 12:06
And I
12:07 – 12:09
kept getting the answer.
12:09 – 12:12
Oh, yeah, I'll we'll take five
12:12 – 12:15
bags or three bags or six bags.
12:16 – 12:17
And I'm like, well,
12:18 – 12:19
I've got about a million pounds.
12:20 – 12:20
How's that?
12:23 – 12:24
How's that?
12:24 – 12:26
There's a big gap between a
12:26 – 12:27
million pounds and five bags.
12:29 – 12:32
So I so instead of saying no,
12:33 – 12:34
I said, OK,
12:35 – 12:37
can we do it every other week?
12:37 – 12:39
And then I did these little I
12:39 – 12:40
did this little route here in
12:40 – 12:42
the northwest and just in my
12:42 – 12:44
pickup truck, you know, just in
12:44 – 12:45
the pickup.
12:45 – 12:47
And I would deliver one week.
12:47 – 12:48
I'd go like eastern Washington,
12:48 – 12:50
Seattle and back in the next
12:50 – 12:51
week, like Bend,
12:52 – 12:54
Eugene, Portland and back and
12:55 – 12:56
and
12:56 – 12:58
started delivering to those.
12:59 – 13:01
So that's kind of how Azure got
13:01 – 13:02
started. And then I realized,
13:02 – 13:03
well, they don't want grain.
13:04 – 13:05
They mostly want flour.
13:06 – 13:08
So I went and I hired a custom
13:08 – 13:10
mill up in Yakima area
13:10 – 13:12
to grind the flour for me.
13:14 – 13:17
So then I had grain,
13:17 – 13:18
wheat,
13:18 – 13:19
rye, flour,
13:19 – 13:21
pastry wheat, red wheat,
13:22 – 13:24
rye. I think those were like
13:24 – 13:26
three grains and the flours for
13:26 – 13:27
those three grains.
13:27 – 13:29
I started with like six skews.
13:33 – 13:35
And that's, that's how we got
13:35 – 13:35
started.
13:36 – 13:37
That's, that's an interesting
13:37 – 13:38
beginning.
13:38 – 13:40
But you know, there are many
13:40 – 13:41
people who have made a
13:41 – 13:42
beginning,
13:42 – 13:44
but then have never grown into
13:44 – 13:46
what Azure is today.
13:46 – 13:47
So
13:48 – 13:50
that's, you've shared the
13:50 – 13:52
beginning seed, but there's
13:52 – 13:54
still a long pathway from there
13:54 – 13:54
to where you are today.
13:55 – 13:56
Just how many SKUs do you have
13:56 – 13:57
today?
13:57 – 13:58
About 12 ,000.
14:00 – 14:01
There's
14:01 – 14:03
a bit of a gap between those
14:03 – 14:04
two. What happened in the gap?
14:05 – 14:06
Well, you know,
14:07 – 14:09
I'm a little bit dense.
14:09 – 14:11
But when I was out delivering,
14:12 – 14:14
I was like in eastern Washington
14:14 – 14:15
and stuff. And I started having
14:15 – 14:16
people,
14:17 – 14:18
you know, like friends or
14:18 – 14:20
friends of friends or whatever.
14:20 – 14:21
They kept asking me, you know,
14:21 – 14:22
you're going to be in Portland.
14:22 – 14:24
Can you can you pick me up some
14:24 – 14:27
nuts or some spices or something
14:27 – 14:29
at in Portland when you're there
14:29 – 14:30
and bring it next time?
14:31 – 14:33
And so I kept doing that as a
14:33 – 14:34
favor. And after it happened
14:34 – 14:36
eight or 10 times,
14:37 – 14:38
I suddenly had this,
14:39 – 14:40
you know what,
14:40 – 14:42
there is a gap in the
14:42 – 14:43
marketplace here,
14:44 – 14:46
not only for our products, but
14:46 – 14:48
for products in general,
14:48 – 14:48
because,
14:49 – 14:51
you know,
14:51 – 14:54
finding those kinds of products
14:54 – 14:56
in Eastern Washington or healthy
14:57 – 14:59
you know, or even natural whole
14:59 – 15:01
food type products.
15:01 – 15:03
Can you buy just whole raw
15:03 – 15:05
almonds in Eastern Washington?
15:05 – 15:06
It's like, probably not.
15:07 – 15:08
I mean, you can't now because
15:08 – 15:09
we're there. But,
15:10 – 15:11
you know, at that time,
15:12 – 15:14
so I figured, hey, you know, and
15:14 – 15:15
I know these people.
15:16 – 15:16
So I,
15:16 – 15:18
you know, and I had attended
15:18 – 15:19
because dad had been organic.
15:19 – 15:21
I've been attending, like all
15:21 – 15:23
the organ tilth meetings and
15:23 – 15:24
things like that.
15:25 – 15:26
So I knew a lot of people,
15:27 – 15:29
knew a lot of farmers and stuff,
15:29 – 15:30
even though these are not things
15:30 – 15:32
that we could raise,
15:33 – 15:34
I
15:35 – 15:36
knew people that raised those
15:36 – 15:37
things.
15:37 – 15:39
And so I would call them up and
15:39 – 15:40
say, hey, you know,
15:40 – 15:42
I don't need very many, but
15:42 – 15:44
would you sell me like, you
15:44 – 15:45
know, a thousand pounds of
15:45 – 15:46
almonds or,
15:46 – 15:47
you know, a couple thousand
15:47 – 15:49
pounds of lentils or whatever it
15:49 – 15:50
was.
15:50 – 15:52
And mostly they were happy to do
15:52 – 15:54
that because I mean, I was
15:54 – 15:55
pretty small then.
15:55 – 15:56
So
15:57 – 15:59
I just basically started in a
15:59 – 16:00
bedroom in the house.
16:01 – 16:02
I cleaned out a clean out a
16:02 – 16:04
bedroom and a little room off
16:04 – 16:05
the garage. And
16:05 – 16:07
that was my first first
16:08 – 16:10
warehouse of
16:10 – 16:12
and then and then we broke those
16:12 – 16:13
down. So from the very
16:13 – 16:15
beginning, I started doing
16:15 – 16:16
breakdown.
16:17 – 16:19
So take the 50 pound box of
16:19 – 16:21
almonds that the grower I knew,
16:21 – 16:22
you know, that was either
16:22 – 16:23
organic or
16:24 – 16:26
you know, no spray or, you know,
16:26 – 16:28
one step better into,
16:29 – 16:30
you know, what we know today as
16:30 – 16:32
regenerative agriculture, but
16:32 – 16:33
then that term wasn't used all
16:33 – 16:34
that often.
16:36 – 16:37
And, and
16:38 – 16:39
then,
16:38 – 16:40
you know, and then I would break
16:40 – 16:41
those down and I put them in,
16:41 – 16:43
first, I just put them in a poly
16:43 – 16:44
bag and put
16:45 – 16:46
a little label on the outside.
16:47 – 16:49
So in to what that has grown
16:49 – 16:51
into today, you have give us
16:51 – 16:54
some context for the scope of
16:54 – 16:54
your distribution.
16:55 – 16:56
And I'm really intrigued.
16:57 – 16:59
Why did you chose to go the
16:59 – 17:02
pathway of this this regional
17:02 – 17:02
or
17:03 – 17:05
this very widespread
17:05 – 17:06
distribution
17:06 – 17:08
network instead of going through
17:08 – 17:10
the mainstream supply chain
17:10 – 17:10
channels?
17:12 – 17:14
Well, that was that was
17:14 – 17:15
something that I learned
17:16 – 17:17
very early,
17:18 – 17:19
is that
17:19 – 17:21
mainstream supply, so if you're
17:21 – 17:24
into distribution, especially in
17:24 – 17:25
the natural channels,
17:26 – 17:29
distribution is exceedingly
17:29 – 17:30
expensive
17:30 – 17:33
to get into. And then you have
17:33 – 17:34
no guarantees,
17:35 – 17:39
nor do any of the distributors
17:39 – 17:40
have any
17:40 – 17:42
ethics to speak of.
17:43 – 17:44
So first of all,
17:45 – 17:48
to get one SKU,
17:49 – 17:51
into national distribution and
17:51 – 17:54
into the multiple store
17:54 – 17:55
channels.
17:56 – 17:58
Just paying for distribution,
17:59 – 18:01
advertising in the distribution
18:01 – 18:02
channels,
18:02 – 18:04
the free fill for every store,
18:05 – 18:07
everything, you know, slotting
18:07 – 18:09
fees in some cases on the high
18:09 – 18:10
volume stores.
18:11 – 18:13
You're going to be close
18:13 – 18:15
to, in today's money,
18:15 – 18:17
about $500 ,000
18:17 – 18:19
into it
18:20 – 18:21
before you make your first dime.
18:22 – 18:24
And it seemed absolutely
18:25 – 18:27
untenable and unreasonable.
18:29 – 18:31
And so I was already delivering,
18:32 – 18:34
and I thought, man, if we can
18:34 – 18:35
just deliver a little bit
18:35 – 18:36
further,
18:36 – 18:39
there is no reason that we have
18:39 – 18:39
to use
18:40 – 18:42
mainstream distribution.
18:44 – 18:46
And so when that
18:46 – 18:48
was one of, and that's what's
18:48 – 18:49
really near and dear to my
18:49 – 18:51
heart, because of the health
18:51 – 18:52
challenges that I had early,
18:53 – 18:55
I know how important it is
18:56 – 18:57
especially for folks with
18:57 – 18:58
families,
18:59 – 19:00
to eat well.
19:01 – 19:03
And because we're farmers,
19:04 – 19:05
I know how important it is to
19:05 – 19:07
find a market for
19:07 – 19:09
your product. So if you're a
19:09 – 19:10
farmer that cares
19:10 – 19:13
about the quality of the food
19:13 – 19:14
that you produce,
19:15 – 19:17
if you're a consumer that cares
19:17 – 19:17
about
19:18 – 19:19
the quality of food that your
19:19 – 19:21
family consumes,
19:22 – 19:24
that's the connection that has
19:24 – 19:24
to be made.
19:25 – 19:26
Nobody was making it.
19:27 – 19:29
There was nobody doing that.
19:29 – 19:30
Oh, there's mainstream
19:30 – 19:31
distribution,
19:31 – 19:33
there's the health food stores,
19:33 – 19:35
but nobody was really paying
19:35 – 19:38
attention to the source and to
19:38 – 19:39
the consumer.
19:40 – 19:41
So,
19:40 – 19:41
I mean,
19:41 – 19:44
and come the late 90s, we
19:44 – 19:46
ended up with the organic label,
19:47 – 19:48
but the organic label,
19:49 – 19:50
and nothing against the organic
19:50 – 19:51
label, it's a good label,
19:52 – 19:55
but it doesn't tell you what is
19:55 – 19:56
in your food. It only tells you
19:56 – 19:58
what's not in your food.
19:59 – 20:01
And what's not in your food is
20:01 – 20:02
important.
20:02 – 20:04
I'm not a big fan of having
20:04 – 20:05
glyphosate -soaked
20:06 – 20:07
grains,
20:08 – 20:09
and at least organic tells you
20:09 – 20:11
that. They didn't desiccate with
20:11 – 20:12
glyphosate.
20:12 – 20:15
but it doesn't really tell you
20:15 – 20:16
what,
20:17 – 20:18
how it was raised and whether
20:18 – 20:19
that
20:19 – 20:21
farmer cares about the soil.
20:22 – 20:24
And that's what that, that's the
20:24 – 20:25
connection that really needs to
20:25 – 20:26
be made, the entire thing.
20:27 – 20:29
So when you think about the
20:29 – 20:30
connection that you're making
20:30 – 20:32
to, from all the way from the
20:32 – 20:33
growers to the consumers,
20:34 – 20:35
you know, there's this,
20:36 – 20:37
this, um,
20:38 – 20:40
supposed paradoxical
20:40 – 20:41
conversation
20:41 – 20:43
where on
20:44 – 20:46
one hand, people who,
20:47 – 20:49
who tried, who are not in favor
20:49 – 20:51
of regenerative agriculture or
20:51 – 20:52
organic agriculture,
20:52 – 20:54
would like to suggest that,
20:54 – 20:56
well, if we produce food in this
20:56 – 20:57
manner, it's going to be more
20:57 – 20:59
expensive. It's going to cost
20:59 – 21:01
more because the production is
21:01 – 21:02
going to go down.
21:02 – 21:04
We can feed fewer people.
21:05 – 21:06
And we
21:07 – 21:08
need to keep,
21:08 – 21:10
along with that, conversation is
21:10 – 21:12
that we need to keep the price
21:12 – 21:13
of and
21:13 – 21:14
the cost of food down to
21:14 – 21:16
consumers. So how can we produce
21:16 – 21:17
food that is higher quality and
21:17 – 21:19
also keep it lower cost to
21:19 – 21:20
consumers?
21:20 – 21:22
There's only about half a dozen
21:22 – 21:24
different things wrong with that
21:24 – 21:25
framing and with that argument,
21:25 – 21:28
which you and I probably have
21:28 – 21:29
similar perspectives on.
21:29 – 21:30
But
21:30 – 21:31
I
21:32 – 21:33
suppose I have two questions.
21:33 – 21:34
First is I'd like to get your
21:34 – 21:35
reflection on
21:36 – 21:37
that story, that narrative,
21:37 – 21:38
which I'm sure you've heard a
21:38 – 21:39
thousand times.
21:40 – 21:40
Oh, yeah.
21:40 – 21:42
But also, secondly, how
21:43 – 21:45
does the model of Azure Standard
21:45 – 21:46
and the work that you are doing,
21:46 – 21:47
how does that
21:47 – 21:50
how is that model different in
21:50 – 21:51
both
21:51 – 21:53
pricing to the consumer and
21:53 – 21:54
rewarding farmers?
21:54 – 21:56
How does how does how does that
21:56 – 21:57
compare with the mainstream
21:57 – 21:58
model?
21:59 – 21:59
Well,
22:01 – 22:03
on the on the first part, as far
22:03 – 22:04
as, you know,
22:05 – 22:06
will we have famine?
22:07 – 22:08
Will food prices go up
22:09 – 22:10
substantially?
22:11 – 22:13
if we go to a more regenerative
22:13 – 22:14
agriculture model.
22:15 – 22:16
On some items,
22:17 – 22:20
food prices are artificially
22:20 – 22:20
low.
22:21 – 22:23
We have subsidized food prices
22:23 – 22:24
here in America,
22:25 – 22:27
and I don't know that
22:28 – 22:29
we're
22:29 – 22:31
going to get subsidized
22:31 – 22:33
regenerative agriculture anytime
22:33 – 22:34
soon.
22:35 – 22:37
Um, so when we're actually
22:37 – 22:39
getting regenerative, healthy
22:39 – 22:40
agriculture,
22:40 – 22:43
it's the subsidies are going
22:43 – 22:46
away. As far as volume goes in
22:47 – 22:49
our experience, and we've, you
22:49 – 22:50
know,
22:50 – 22:51
um, you know, dad started
22:51 – 22:53
farming. We had about 1800 acres
22:53 – 22:54
at the time.
22:55 – 22:57
We now farm a little over 5 ,000
22:57 – 22:58
acres.
22:58 – 23:00
So I've transitioned a fair
23:00 – 23:01
amount of land
23:02 – 23:04
from conventional to organic
23:04 – 23:05
agriculture.
23:06 – 23:07
concepts.
23:08 – 23:10
I have yet to reduce
23:11 – 23:13
yields more than for a year or
23:13 – 23:14
two during the transition
23:14 – 23:15
period.
23:15 – 23:16
Our yields
23:17 – 23:19
compare with any of the
23:19 – 23:20
conventional neighbors.
23:21 – 23:22
We are not
23:22 – 23:24
losing yield.
23:25 – 23:26
Is it more expensive?
23:27 – 23:29
Yeah, in some cases there's more
23:29 – 23:30
labor.
23:30 – 23:32
Our fertilizer mix,
23:32 – 23:33
I mean, we're putting on
23:33 – 23:35
probably this year a half a
23:35 – 23:36
million pounds of various kinds
23:36 – 23:39
of inputs just on our spring,
23:40 – 23:41
you know.
23:41 – 23:43
So that was,
23:43 – 23:44
you know, it takes
23:44 – 23:46
more,
23:46 – 23:48
you know, more labor,
23:49 – 23:50
more work.
23:51 – 23:53
So it is going to cost a little
23:53 – 23:55
bit more from the labor
23:55 – 23:55
perspective.
23:57 – 23:59
But I will tell you one thing,
24:00 – 24:01
it's
24:02 – 24:03
worth every penny of it.
24:04 – 24:05
even if you're paying a little
24:05 – 24:07
bit more for your food.
24:08 – 24:09
Now, with the Azure model, what
24:09 – 24:11
we've been able to do
24:11 – 24:14
is because for the most part,
24:14 – 24:17
we control the entire
24:17 – 24:18
chain.
24:19 – 24:20
In the case of the stuff we
24:20 – 24:21
grow,
24:21 – 24:23
we grow it. I don't grow
24:23 – 24:24
anything for the commodities
24:24 – 24:26
market. Well, I do sell a few
24:26 – 24:27
cherries because we just have so
24:27 – 24:28
many right now.
24:28 – 24:30
But other than that, I don't
24:30 – 24:31
grow anything for the
24:31 – 24:32
commodities market.
24:33 – 24:34
And even the cherries, we're
24:34 – 24:36
putting in an IQF line right
24:36 – 24:37
now.
24:36 – 24:38
hopefully be done by cherry
24:38 – 24:39
harvest.
24:39 – 24:40
But
24:40 – 24:41
we
24:43 – 24:45
control from
24:46 – 24:48
the farm, then we control the
24:48 – 24:49
processing.
24:50 – 24:52
So we put in our own, if it's
24:52 – 24:54
fruit, we put our own packing
24:54 – 24:54
lines.
24:55 – 24:57
Right now we're putting an IQF
24:57 – 24:59
in for the calls and stuff, so
24:59 – 25:00
we can pitch.
25:00 – 25:01
and,
25:01 – 25:02
you know,
25:02 – 25:04
dice pears and peaches and
25:04 – 25:04
stuff,
25:04 – 25:06
freeze them and then have,
25:07 – 25:08
you know, have a direct market
25:08 – 25:09
frozen afterwards.
25:11 – 25:13
If it's the grain, we put in our
25:13 – 25:14
own flour mill,
25:15 – 25:16
then we put in our own
25:16 – 25:17
packaging, we put in our own
25:17 – 25:18
mixing so we can make
25:19 – 25:21
the pancake mixes and all the
25:21 – 25:22
different, you know,
25:23 – 25:25
mixes that you would make with
25:25 – 25:26
with the grain
25:27 – 25:27
and the flour.
25:28 – 25:29
So,
25:29 – 25:30
you know,
25:30 – 25:32
we control every aspect.
25:33 – 25:35
Now, if you go from the
25:35 – 25:37
commodities price to
25:38 – 25:39
the
25:39 – 25:42
finished goods price for
25:42 – 25:43
that, you know,
25:43 – 25:46
two pound bag of pancake mix,
25:48 – 25:49
there is still plenty of margin
25:50 – 25:51
in here.
25:52 – 25:53
We can do that.
25:54 – 25:55
But if you're going to go
25:55 – 25:56
from,
25:57 – 25:58
you know, so if you think about
25:58 – 26:00
it from standard commodities,
26:00 – 26:03
you're selling to an elevator or
26:03 – 26:04
something.
26:04 – 26:06
You know, even on the organic
26:06 – 26:07
world, let's say you're selling
26:07 – 26:08
to a broker.
26:09 – 26:10
So then the broker, they take
26:10 – 26:12
their 5 to 10 percent.
26:13 – 26:15
Then the broker sells to the
26:15 – 26:16
mill
26:16 – 26:18
or
26:19 – 26:20
maybe they sell to another
26:20 – 26:21
broker.
26:21 – 26:22
But either way,
26:22 – 26:24
let's just say we only have one
26:24 – 26:25
broker in there and they sell
26:25 – 26:26
directly to a mill.
26:26 – 26:28
Then the mill buys it.
26:28 – 26:29
They need to market up.
26:30 – 26:32
and they need their processing
26:32 – 26:33
out of it.
26:33 – 26:34
And then they put it in a big,
26:34 – 26:35
you know,
26:35 – 26:37
super sack or whatever they're
26:37 – 26:38
doing.
26:38 – 26:39
Then they send it off to the
26:39 – 26:41
mixing plant. So they get their
26:41 – 26:43
margin. Now you get another
26:43 – 26:45
piece of packaging and you get
26:45 – 26:46
freight.
26:46 – 26:48
Now it goes to the mixing plant.
26:49 – 26:50
The mixing plant,
26:51 – 26:52
you know, so they mix it
26:53 – 26:55
and make the pancake mix.
26:55 – 26:57
Then they put it in, you know,
26:57 – 26:58
their packaging and maybe
26:58 – 26:59
they're vertically integrated
26:59 – 27:01
enough that they can put it in a
27:01 – 27:01
small bag.
27:02 – 27:03
Maybe they're not,
27:04 – 27:05
you know, you could go either
27:05 – 27:06
way on that.
27:06 – 27:08
Then you have, but they don't,
27:08 – 27:09
the mixing plant, they don't
27:09 – 27:10
have their own brand.
27:11 – 27:13
So now you have somebody else,
27:13 – 27:15
some other third party that does
27:15 – 27:17
a private label brand.
27:17 – 27:18
So then you have the margin
27:18 – 27:19
there.
27:19 – 27:21
You've got the,
27:21 – 27:22
the third party.
27:23 – 27:25
Now the third party, they didn't
27:25 – 27:26
do anything except put their
27:26 – 27:28
name on the product and market
27:28 – 27:29
the product.
27:29 – 27:31
So they're the marketing agency.
27:31 – 27:33
So it's Aunt Jemima's or
27:33 – 27:34
whatever the pancake mix might
27:34 – 27:35
be.
27:36 – 27:36
And
27:36 – 27:38
they're taking, you know,
27:39 – 27:42
30 -35 % to
27:42 – 27:44
do the marketing and the
27:44 – 27:45
packaging.
27:46 – 27:46
They're not even doing the
27:46 – 27:47
package. They're just creating
27:47 – 27:49
the graphics for the package.
27:50 – 27:51
Then,
27:51 – 27:53
you know, so then it goes into
27:53 – 27:54
distribution.
27:54 – 27:55
The distributor,
27:56 – 27:59
they're going to take 25 %
28:00 – 28:02
to distribute it,
28:02 – 28:04
maybe a little more, depending
28:04 – 28:07
on what kind of product it is.
28:07 – 28:09
Then it's going to be sold
28:09 – 28:11
typically by another broker,
28:11 – 28:12
a retail broker.
28:13 – 28:14
So that's another
28:14 – 28:17
5 % to 10%. Then
28:17 – 28:19
you have your retail store,
28:20 – 28:22
and that's at 33%.
28:23 – 28:24
Typically, that's minimum.
28:25 – 28:27
Could be up to 40 % margin.
28:28 – 28:29
You add all that up.
28:30 – 28:33
from the raw ingredients that
28:33 – 28:35
the farm and that's even after
28:35 – 28:36
it's ground into flour.
28:36 – 28:38
But if you just take the raw
28:38 – 28:40
ingredients to get it to retail,
28:41 – 28:41
you're doing
28:43 – 28:45
four times the price
28:46 – 28:48
just to break even.
28:50 – 28:51
That's the real world that we
28:51 – 28:53
live in today in today's modern
28:54 – 28:57
specialty foods world here.
28:58 – 29:00
If we can cut all of that out,
29:01 – 29:03
we can reduce the price so I can
29:03 – 29:05
pay the grower more.
29:06 – 29:07
So we have a higher cost of
29:07 – 29:08
goods
29:09 – 29:10
because,
29:10 – 29:11
you know, we would only do that
29:11 – 29:13
because it's better product.
29:14 – 29:15
But, you know, we're doing that
29:15 – 29:16
because they're producing a
29:16 – 29:17
premium product
29:18 – 29:21
and we can still reduce the cost
29:21 – 29:22
to the consumer
29:23 – 29:26
by 50 % over what it would be
29:26 – 29:27
had we paid that higher price.
29:28 – 29:30
So we can stay almost
29:30 – 29:31
competitive with
29:31 – 29:33
that market. I'm not saying we
29:33 – 29:35
can always be 100 % competitive
29:35 – 29:37
before paying that premium for
29:37 – 29:39
the ingredients of the organic
29:39 – 29:40
certification.
29:41 – 29:42
I mean, just organic in itself.
29:42 – 29:43
When
29:43 – 29:45
I started selling organics
29:45 – 29:46
originally on the conventional
29:46 – 29:47
market in grain,
29:48 – 29:51
we were very happy to get 1 .5
29:51 – 29:54
of conventional price organic.
29:54 – 29:55
So if the
29:55 – 29:57
You know, Chicago Board of Trade
29:57 – 30:00
said wheat was $4 a bushel.
30:00 – 30:03
We were very happy to get $6
30:03 – 30:04
a bushel.
30:05 – 30:05
Today,
30:06 – 30:07
you know, if the Chicago Board
30:07 – 30:08
of Trade is saying,
30:09 – 30:10
and it really isn't even so
30:10 – 30:11
connected anymore,
30:11 – 30:12
that they're saying wheat's
30:12 – 30:14
worth $5 a bushel right now or
30:14 – 30:16
whatever it is, I don't keep up
30:16 – 30:17
with it that well anymore.
30:18 – 30:20
But right now,
30:21 – 30:24
The cost of organic, just
30:24 – 30:25
organic,
30:25 – 30:26
no regenerative or anything.
30:27 – 30:28
If you were just to go for a
30:28 – 30:30
good quality organic grain,
30:30 – 30:31
you're going to be paying at
30:31 – 30:33
least $20 a bushel.
30:34 – 30:36
The marketplace has already
30:36 – 30:38
changed that much over the
30:38 – 30:40
course of the last 25 years or
30:40 – 30:40
so.
30:41 – 30:43
The demand for high
30:44 – 30:45
quality food,
30:47 – 30:49
it has struck a chord in America
30:49 – 30:51
and there will, you know, a lot
30:51 – 30:53
of consumers are willing to pay
30:53 – 30:54
more.
30:54 – 30:55
But,
30:55 – 30:57
you know, with the Azure model,
30:57 – 30:58
we're normally able to keep the
30:58 – 31:00
price very competitive.
31:02 – 31:03
Can't, you know, can't say they
31:03 – 31:04
can't find the cheapest
31:05 – 31:06
garbagey stuff they could
31:06 – 31:08
possibly find and we're the same
31:08 – 31:09
price, we're not.
31:10 – 31:12
but we're going to be way better
31:12 – 31:13
priced than anything of the same
31:13 – 31:15
value. And I'm not going to sell
31:15 – 31:15
the crap
31:16 – 31:17
because I can't do that in good
31:17 – 31:18
ethics.
31:19 – 31:20
So in essence,
31:20 – 31:23
if I'm following you correctly,
31:23 – 31:25
what you're describing is that
31:25 – 31:27
you describe this conventional
31:27 – 31:29
model where you have multiple
31:29 – 31:31
processors that are specialized
31:31 – 31:32
that are doing one thing.
31:33 – 31:34
And
31:34 – 31:38
by moving all of those various
31:38 – 31:40
processes in
31:41 – 31:42
-house and managing them
31:42 – 31:43
internally,
31:44 – 31:46
then you are you're doing a
31:46 – 31:47
couple of things.
31:47 – 31:49
One is you're reducing the
31:49 – 31:51
margin overhead required per
31:51 – 31:52
each step and you're reducing
31:52 – 31:53
the number of brokers in the
31:53 – 31:55
process. So you're essentially
31:55 – 31:58
reducing the margin requirements
31:59 – 32:00
because you have one party
32:00 – 32:03
instead of 10 parties all
32:03 – 32:04
participating.
32:05 – 32:05
That's right.
32:05 – 32:06
Yeah.
32:06 – 32:08
Or, you know, if I'm buying from
32:08 – 32:09
another farmer
32:09 – 32:11
that, you know, whereas we
32:11 – 32:12
still,
32:12 – 32:13
for the most part, are going to
32:13 – 32:15
do the processing or the
32:15 – 32:15
packaging.
32:16 – 32:18
So because we've created our own
32:18 – 32:20
packaging and processing
32:20 – 32:21
facilities,
32:23 – 32:23
then,
32:23 – 32:25
you know, if I'm buying from a
32:25 – 32:26
farmer,
32:26 – 32:28
you know, we can buy his,
32:29 – 32:31
you know, and I don't process, I
32:31 – 32:32
don't have all processing.
32:32 – 32:33
I mean, for instance, if I'm
32:33 – 32:34
going to buy millet,
32:34 – 32:36
I got to get somebody to haul
32:36 – 32:37
it, I don't have a millet
32:37 – 32:38
hauler.
32:39 – 32:40
So some of the edge case stuff,
32:40 – 32:42
I don't have a buckwheat hauler.
32:42 – 32:43
I don't, you know,
32:44 – 32:45
some of these more specialty
32:45 – 32:46
things,
32:47 – 32:48
but if we're going to, but most
32:48 – 32:50
of the stuff we do, we have,
32:50 – 32:52
you know, we've got all the
32:52 – 32:53
cleaners and the color sorters
32:53 – 32:55
and all of that kind of stuff in
32:55 – 32:57
the grain world and the, you
32:57 – 32:58
know, and then we also have it.
32:59 – 33:01
And sometimes not only do we
33:01 – 33:02
just take it to the flower,
33:03 – 33:03
But then,
33:04 – 33:05
you know, recently we just put a
33:05 – 33:06
sourdough bakery in as well.
33:07 – 33:07
So now you
33:08 – 33:09
might be able to actually buy
33:09 – 33:10
the loaves of frozen,
33:11 – 33:13
you know, organic regenerative
33:13 – 33:14
sourdough bread
33:14 – 33:16
all ready to go.
33:18 – 33:19
So
33:19 – 33:20
I'm
33:21 – 33:23
sure you've encountered lots of
33:23 – 33:26
headwinds and missteps in
33:26 – 33:29
this process as you've developed
33:29 – 33:31
Azure over the last several
33:31 – 33:31
decades.
33:32 – 33:34
But it is intriguing to me.
33:35 – 33:35
You
33:37 – 33:40
mentioned earlier on that the
33:41 – 33:43
food cooperative model as the
33:43 – 33:45
number of those is greatly
33:45 – 33:46
reduced over the years.
33:47 – 33:48
And I wonder how much of that is
33:48 – 33:49
a reflection of
33:50 – 33:53
social societal breakdown,
33:53 – 33:55
perhaps a lack of collaboration
33:55 – 33:56
and people no longer working
33:56 – 33:57
together quite in the same way
33:57 – 33:59
as they might have historically.
33:59 – 34:02
But it is, I suppose, the larger
34:02 – 34:03
question that
34:03 – 34:07
I'm trying to get to is why has
34:07 – 34:09
Azure survived when others have
34:09 – 34:10
not
34:10 – 34:11
or have been less successful?
34:12 – 34:13
And
34:14 – 34:16
What is the long,
34:17 – 34:18
what is the opportunity today
34:18 – 34:19
for other people who
34:20 – 34:22
want to get
34:22 – 34:24
into selling directly to
34:24 – 34:25
consumers? What does the
34:25 – 34:26
landscape look like at the
34:26 – 34:27
moment?
34:28 – 34:29
Well, as far as
34:31 – 34:33
I am, in my opinion,
34:34 – 34:36
there is never been a a time of
34:36 – 34:37
more opportunity than
34:38 – 34:39
there is right now.
34:39 – 34:41
All right. Tell us about that.
34:42 – 34:43
Well,
34:43 – 34:44
right now,
34:46 – 34:49
particularly since COVID,
34:50 – 34:51
I think the last five years or
34:51 – 34:52
so,
34:53 – 34:54
since
34:54 – 34:55
almost,
34:55 – 34:56
you know,
34:56 – 34:57
the majority of Americans
34:57 – 35:00
realize that
35:00 – 35:01
the medical establishment and
35:01 – 35:03
the government lied to them
35:03 – 35:04
about COVID.
35:05 – 35:07
Nobody, very few people you'd
35:07 – 35:09
ever ask say, oh, the government
35:09 – 35:10
was absolutely perfectly honest
35:10 – 35:12
to me. Everything they said was
35:12 – 35:13
absolutely sterling.
35:14 – 35:15
And the medical establishment
35:15 – 35:17
did an excellent job handling
35:17 – 35:18
COVID, right?
35:19 – 35:20
Not very many people are going
35:20 – 35:21
to say that.
35:23 – 35:26
And then you have players like
35:26 – 35:26
Kennedy,
35:27 – 35:29
that have come out and said,
35:29 – 35:30
there's things about this.
35:31 – 35:32
And now there's a bunch of other
35:32 – 35:34
doctors and stuff getting on the
35:34 – 35:37
bandwagon saying it matters what
35:37 – 35:38
you eat.
35:39 – 35:41
Highly processed food can
35:42 – 35:43
cause problems.
35:45 – 35:46
Our children are not as healthy
35:46 – 35:48
as they used to be.
35:48 – 35:50
All of these things,
35:50 – 35:52
because of our highly processed
35:52 – 35:55
food, we shouldn't put
35:56 – 35:57
these chemicals in our food.
35:58 – 36:00
And then the next step is,
36:01 – 36:02
what about agricultural
36:02 – 36:03
chemicals?
36:03 – 36:06
So if we can tell that story to
36:06 – 36:07
the consumers,
36:08 – 36:09
minds are open.
36:10 – 36:13
Even 10 years ago, not near as
36:13 – 36:15
many minds were open to the
36:15 – 36:16
concept that
36:16 – 36:17
the food that we put in our
36:17 – 36:19
bodies matters.
36:20 – 36:21
And it matters
36:21 – 36:23
substantially towards
36:24 – 36:25
our health and towards the
36:25 – 36:26
health of our families and the
36:26 – 36:27
health of the planet.
36:28 – 36:30
Those are all issues that now
36:31 – 36:34
are almost mainstream.
36:35 – 36:37
They're almost front and center.
36:38 – 36:39
Furthermore,
36:39 – 36:42
there are not near enough
36:42 – 36:44
organic producers compared
36:44 – 36:46
to the demand in the market.
36:47 – 36:48
We know that
36:48 – 36:50
somewhere around
36:50 – 36:53
60 % of the organic food
36:53 – 36:54
that
36:54 – 36:56
is consumed in America, I'm just
36:56 – 36:57
using the organic because we
36:57 – 36:58
actually have statistics for
36:58 – 36:59
that.
36:59 – 37:00
Most of the regenerative, the
37:00 – 37:02
statistics are rather scarce.
37:03 – 37:04
It's hard.
37:05 – 37:07
But on the organic side,
37:08 – 37:10
60 % of the organic food that's
37:10 – 37:12
consumed in America is imported.
37:14 – 37:16
It's coming from other parts of
37:16 – 37:17
the world.
37:18 – 37:21
And you can ask almost any
37:21 – 37:22
process. Now there's a few
37:22 – 37:26
players like Costco and Walmart
37:26 – 37:27
and stuff that dabble in the
37:27 – 37:29
organic food space and they just
37:29 – 37:31
import because that's what they
37:31 – 37:31
do.
37:32 – 37:33
But
37:33 – 37:35
even in the space of the
37:35 – 37:36
importing for reasons of lowest
37:36 – 37:37
cost,
37:38 – 37:40
well, reasons of lowest cost and
37:40 – 37:41
quick volume,
37:42 – 37:42
you know,
37:43 – 37:44
Walmart, I mean, that's what
37:44 – 37:45
they do. They're an import
37:45 – 37:47
company. That's that's their
37:47 – 37:48
entire model.
37:50 – 37:51
That's how they became
37:52 – 37:54
a wealthy company is through
37:54 – 37:55
cheap imports.
37:56 – 37:59
and cheap jump to the American
37:59 – 38:01
and they do that to Americans.
38:01 – 38:02
They do the same thing in the
38:02 – 38:04
organic food space.
38:04 – 38:05
Yeah. And it probably is
38:05 – 38:07
organic, probably has the
38:07 – 38:07
paperwork,
38:08 – 38:09
probably doesn't have the
38:09 – 38:10
chemicals on it.
38:11 – 38:12
But it came from,
38:12 – 38:14
you know, it came from China or
38:14 – 38:18
it came from Brazil or Argentina
38:18 – 38:19
or Peru or someplace.
38:20 – 38:22
They're not Turkey, maybe.
38:24 – 38:25
They're not really organic.
38:26 – 38:29
But we are not able to keep up,
38:29 – 38:31
even for our supply here at
38:31 – 38:31
Azure.
38:32 – 38:34
I do everything in my power to
38:34 – 38:37
do domestic production of high
38:37 – 38:38
quality
38:39 – 38:41
products.
38:41 – 38:43
But when we get into things like
38:43 – 38:45
frozen fruits and vegetables,
38:46 – 38:48
just as one example, we should
38:48 – 38:49
totally be able to raise every
38:49 – 38:50
bit of that here.
38:51 – 38:53
We're having to pull frozen
38:54 – 38:55
you know, raspberries and things
38:55 – 38:56
like that
38:57 – 38:57
from Chile
38:58 – 39:00
because the domestic,
39:01 – 39:02
there's
39:02 – 39:03
just not enough domestic
39:03 – 39:04
product.
39:05 – 39:06
Peaches from Turkey,
39:07 – 39:08
there, there's just not enough
39:08 – 39:09
organic
39:09 – 39:11
peaches being raised.
39:12 – 39:14
The few that are raised go,
39:14 – 39:15
you know, fresh market.
39:15 – 39:17
There's very few processors
39:17 – 39:18
being raised in
39:18 – 39:19
the U .S.
39:20 – 39:22
And a lot of people think it's
39:22 – 39:23
hard to raise organic peaches.
39:24 – 39:24
I don't know. I mean,
39:26 – 39:27
we've done it, but,
39:28 – 39:28
you know,
39:29 – 39:30
I don't,
39:30 – 39:32
can't quite do everything.
39:33 – 39:34
Well, if they think it's
39:34 – 39:35
difficult to raise organic
39:35 – 39:37
peaches, then that seems to be
39:37 – 39:39
an appropriate plug to to
39:39 – 39:40
suggest they need to start
39:40 – 39:41
working with AEA and then they
39:41 – 39:42
can do it.
39:43 – 39:43
There you go.
39:45 – 39:47
Well, actually, David, you are
39:47 – 39:47
you're speaking.
39:47 – 39:48
I mean, you have you have a
39:48 – 39:49
large audience of farmers.
39:49 – 39:50
You're listening.
39:50 – 39:51
What are the significant
39:51 – 39:52
products that you
39:52 – 39:55
do not find adequate supply of
39:55 – 39:56
in the United States that you'd
39:56 – 39:57
love to purchase more of
39:57 – 39:58
domestically?
39:59 – 40:01
Well, those are those are a
40:01 – 40:02
couple of them.
40:05 – 40:08
you know, fruits are,
40:08 – 40:09
and again,
40:09 – 40:11
I don't, we're actually working
40:11 – 40:13
on IQF line right now to be able
40:13 – 40:15
to do some of that ourselves on
40:15 – 40:16
the processing side, but
40:17 – 40:18
up to this point, I haven't been
40:18 – 40:19
able to process.
40:20 – 40:22
that product. So we need them
40:22 – 40:23
already frozen.
40:24 – 40:25
But we sell a lot of, you know,
40:25 – 40:27
there's a huge demand for frozen
40:27 – 40:29
fruits and vegetables that are
40:29 – 40:31
fully organic and regenerative.
40:32 – 40:35
Even just organic is a big step
40:35 – 40:36
in the right direction.
40:39 – 40:40
Beans is another thing that's
40:40 – 40:42
really hard. It seems like a
40:42 – 40:43
wonderful
40:43 – 40:44
legume
40:46 – 40:48
add -on for any organic farmer,
40:49 – 40:50
but lentils,
40:52 – 40:54
beans of various sorts,
40:54 – 40:56
always right on the edge of
40:56 – 40:58
having enough supply.
41:00 – 41:03
It feels like the price of
41:04 – 41:06
lentils has almost doubled in
41:06 – 41:08
the last few years just because,
41:08 – 41:09
and a lot of them are being
41:09 – 41:09
imported now.
41:12 – 41:14
And give us some context.
41:15 – 41:16
I'm familiar with your operation
41:16 – 41:18
to a degree. I know it's
41:18 – 41:19
constantly growing, but give us
41:19 – 41:21
some context for the scale and
41:21 – 41:22
the volume that you're talking
41:22 – 41:23
about.
41:24 – 41:25
Of like those kinds of
41:25 – 41:26
commodities?
41:26 – 41:27
Yeah, the various commodities
41:27 – 41:28
and also the fruit crops that
41:28 – 41:29
you spoke about.
41:30 – 41:31
Well, if I were,
41:31 – 41:32
you know,
41:32 – 41:34
if it's organic blueberries,
41:35 – 41:36
you know, here at Azure right
41:36 – 41:37
now, we're selling probably
41:37 – 41:39
about a semi -load a week.
41:40 – 41:42
So I'm going to say 50 semi
41:42 – 41:43
-loads a year.
41:45 – 41:46
bigger,
41:46 – 41:47
you know, you can get about 40
41:47 – 41:48
,000 pounds in a semi on
41:48 – 41:49
blueberries,
41:50 – 41:51
peaches
41:52 – 41:53
would probably be half of that
41:54 – 41:56
don't sell quite as fast as
41:56 – 41:57
blueberries,
41:57 – 41:58
raspberries,
41:58 – 41:59
we can never get enough.
42:00 – 42:03
But we'd sell probably close to
42:03 – 42:04
the same as blueberry, we don't
42:04 – 42:05
sell as many as blueberries, but
42:05 – 42:06
mostly just because we can't get
42:06 – 42:07
them.
42:09 – 42:10
raspberries, there is such a
42:10 – 42:12
deficit in the market right now.
42:14 – 42:15
It's like they
42:16 – 42:17
don't even, they can't even
42:17 – 42:19
raise enough in Chile to cover
42:19 – 42:20
the demand.
42:21 – 42:23
Wow. I think, I think you and I
42:23 – 42:24
are going to be having further
42:24 – 42:25
conversations offline about this
42:25 – 42:27
because I know that people who
42:27 – 42:28
have the capacity and the
42:29 – 42:30
capability of growing.
42:31 – 42:32
Well, I mean, it would be,
42:33 – 42:34
it would be great again.
42:35 – 42:35
You know, they,
42:36 – 42:37
they got, there is a processing
42:37 – 42:38
step in there.
42:39 – 42:41
You got to get them washed and
42:41 – 42:41
frozen.
42:42 – 42:43
Um,
42:43 – 42:45
But yeah, no, the raspberry
42:45 – 42:46
thing.
42:46 – 42:49
Blackberries also can hardly get
42:49 – 42:51
organic. Blackberries should be
42:51 – 42:52
something easy to grow.
42:52 – 42:54
And again, we're not,
42:55 – 42:56
you know, we're not in the ideal
42:56 – 42:58
location to grow the,
42:58 – 42:59
you know,
42:59 – 43:00
berries here,
43:01 – 43:04
but we grow really good fruit.
43:04 – 43:06
So we grow a lot of cherries and
43:06 – 43:08
apples and pears and things like
43:08 – 43:09
that
43:09 – 43:10
here.
43:11 – 43:12
Apricots. We've done some
43:12 – 43:13
peaches.
43:14 – 43:15
In fact, we just
43:16 – 43:18
just putting about 50 more acres
43:18 – 43:19
of peaches in here
43:20 – 43:22
this past year,
43:23 – 43:24
just because the demand is
43:24 – 43:26
there. But, you know, we're not
43:26 – 43:27
going to be able to keep up with
43:27 – 43:28
ourselves, even
43:29 – 43:30
putting in 50 acres a year.
43:31 – 43:32
There's no way.
43:33 – 43:35
What have you, you mentioned the
43:36 – 43:37
transition that you observed
43:37 – 43:39
over COVID and post -COVID.
43:40 – 43:42
How have buying patterns and
43:42 – 43:43
behaviors changed?
43:43 – 43:45
You have a unique perspective
43:45 – 43:46
and visibility into that that
43:46 – 43:47
many growers do not.
43:48 – 43:49
Well, one of the one of the big
43:49 – 43:51
things that has happened
43:52 – 43:52
is that
43:54 – 43:56
Americans learned to cook at
43:56 – 43:57
home again.
43:58 – 43:59
And I'm not saying everybody,
44:00 – 44:04
but a huge number of Americans
44:04 – 44:04
had
44:05 – 44:06
to cook at home because they
44:06 – 44:07
couldn't go to restaurants.
44:09 – 44:10
And they decided they liked it.
44:11 – 44:13
They enjoyed eating home -cooked
44:13 – 44:14
meals.
44:15 – 44:16
So now,
44:17 – 44:18
and I'm not saying there's not
44:18 – 44:20
still a huge market for prepared
44:20 – 44:21
foods. There is.
44:22 – 44:23
But
44:23 – 44:25
the market for
44:25 – 44:27
retail -ready
44:28 – 44:30
ingredients has
44:30 – 44:32
just skyrocketed.
44:33 – 44:34
And somebody
44:35 – 44:37
who's eating at a restaurant
44:37 – 44:39
is never getting the highest
44:39 – 44:41
quality food, almost never.
44:41 – 44:42
There may be one or two
44:42 – 44:43
exceptions to that rule.
44:44 – 44:45
But restaurants,
44:46 – 44:47
you know, their whole model is
44:47 – 44:49
to buy cheap and sell expensive.
44:50 – 44:52
So they buy the cheapest food
44:52 – 44:53
that they can possibly get.
44:53 – 44:56
I mean, it's just what their CFO
44:56 – 44:57
tells them to do.
44:58 – 45:00
So Cisco pulls up with the
45:00 – 45:01
cheapest junk they can possibly
45:01 – 45:02
get.
45:03 – 45:04
And the most
45:04 – 45:06
semi -prepared, so they have the
45:06 – 45:08
least amount of labor involved.
45:08 – 45:11
And so you're not going to get
45:11 – 45:13
good organic food at a
45:13 – 45:14
restaurant.
45:14 – 45:16
But somebody who's cooking at
45:16 – 45:16
home,
45:17 – 45:18
now they're going to look at
45:18 – 45:19
that package and they're going
45:19 – 45:20
to say, oh,
45:20 – 45:22
well, it's 50 cents more for the
45:22 – 45:23
organic flour versus the
45:23 – 45:24
conventional flour.
45:24 – 45:25
I'll just get the organic.
45:26 – 45:27
I'm willing to pay an extra 50
45:27 – 45:28
cents.
45:29 – 45:29
They're going to pick the
45:29 – 45:32
organic nine times out of 10 if
45:32 – 45:34
the price isn't all that
45:34 – 45:34
terribly different,
45:35 – 45:37
because the restaurant never
45:37 – 45:38
will.
45:39 – 45:41
But the home consumer,
45:42 – 45:43
they will
45:43 – 45:44
because they're feeding it to
45:44 – 45:45
their own family
45:46 – 45:48
if they think it's super
45:48 – 45:50
expensive. And I disagree.
45:50 – 45:51
I don't think organic
45:51 – 45:53
regenerative food is ever too
45:53 – 45:54
expensive.
45:55 – 45:57
If you compare it to a
45:57 – 45:58
few doctor bills,
45:59 – 46:01
it looks cheaper and cheaper and
46:01 – 46:02
cheaper all the time, no matter
46:02 – 46:03
how much you pay for it.
46:04 – 46:06
Well, not only that, but there
46:06 – 46:08
is this intangible
46:08 – 46:09
characteristic of
46:09 – 46:10
satiation,
46:12 – 46:14
of how filling is a certain
46:14 – 46:15
food.
46:17 – 46:19
I've had the experience
46:19 – 46:22
numerous times where I
46:22 – 46:24
get, let's say, a poor quality
46:24 – 46:25
meat versus a good quality meat,
46:25 – 46:26
and you're only able to eat a
46:26 – 46:27
third as much.
46:28 – 46:30
Or a fruit, you're only able to
46:30 – 46:31
eat a fraction,
46:31 – 46:33
and you feel full, you feel
46:33 – 46:34
filled, you don't desire any
46:34 – 46:35
more.
46:35 – 46:36
And
46:37 – 46:39
that aside from all the
46:39 – 46:40
differences that it has to your
46:40 – 46:42
metabolism and health, I've come
46:42 – 46:43
to the realization that you
46:43 – 46:45
can't accurately do a direct
46:45 – 46:47
pound for pound comparison and
46:47 – 46:48
assume that they're going to
46:48 – 46:50
nourish you in the same way they
46:50 – 46:51
don't.
46:52 – 46:53
Not even close.
46:53 – 46:55
And you, I actually saw you do
46:55 – 46:56
the most
46:56 – 46:58
interesting teaching on that.
46:58 – 46:59
And you were talking about that
46:59 – 47:01
when it came to,
47:02 – 47:02
so you,
47:03 – 47:05
This has been quite a few years
47:05 – 47:07
ago. You did a teaching on this
47:07 – 47:09
plant pyramid, right?
47:09 – 47:10
Was sugars,
47:11 – 47:12
lipids,
47:13 – 47:14
proteins,
47:14 – 47:15
essential oils.
47:15 – 47:16
Is that right?
47:16 – 47:17
Yeah, the phenolic compounds.
47:17 – 47:18
Yeah.
47:18 – 47:20
And you were teaching about how
47:21 – 47:23
the insects only
47:24 – 47:27
eat simple sugars, for instance.
47:27 – 47:29
And certain insects kind of go
47:29 – 47:32
away if your sugars are complex.
47:33 – 47:36
Now, if we teach that same exact
47:36 – 47:38
concept on our side of the
47:38 – 47:40
fence, we teach a very, very
47:40 – 47:41
similar concept to that
47:42 – 47:43
on
47:43 – 47:45
what it does in our bodies.
47:47 – 47:50
When we're actually getting a
47:50 – 47:51
regeneratively raised
47:52 – 47:52
food,
47:53 – 47:56
we're getting a complex sugar
47:56 – 47:59
that is going to power our body
47:59 – 48:00
for a long time.
48:00 – 48:01
of time.
48:01 – 48:03
We're getting a complete protein
48:03 – 48:03
chain
48:04 – 48:07
that is going to help build
48:07 – 48:08
muscles and
48:09 – 48:12
empower our stamina.
48:13 – 48:16
Whereas if we're getting a one
48:16 – 48:18
that's, you know, a plant that's
48:18 – 48:19
just been pushed by anhydrous
48:19 – 48:20
ammonia,
48:21 – 48:22
it has a simple
48:22 – 48:24
chain, which is what you teach
48:24 – 48:26
on the other side of the fence,
48:26 – 48:27
as far as for the grower.
48:28 – 48:30
And we teach the same basic
48:30 – 48:31
concept. I don't use the same
48:31 – 48:34
words, but the same concept when
48:34 – 48:37
you're using that as
48:37 – 48:39
nutrients for your body,
48:40 – 48:43
that's the why you feel full
48:43 – 48:46
because you got a complex sugar,
48:46 – 48:48
a complete amino acid chain or
48:48 – 48:51
lipids that were actually fully
48:51 – 48:54
developed instead of half
48:54 – 48:56
developed ones and your body
48:56 – 48:58
needs more protein.
48:58 – 48:59
It's got plenty of protein
48:59 – 49:00
because you ate wheat that was
49:00 – 49:04
14 % protein, but it only had
49:04 – 49:05
three amino acids in it instead
49:05 – 49:06
of 12.
49:07 – 49:08
There's your...
49:09 – 49:10
Must have been 15 years or more
49:10 – 49:11
ago that I gave that
49:11 – 49:13
presentation in your garage.
49:14 – 49:15
Well,
49:15 – 49:16
I still remember it.
49:19 – 49:20
No,
49:22 – 49:23
it's very...
49:23 – 49:26
One of the questions that I
49:26 – 49:27
wanted to get into,
49:27 – 49:29
the discussions I wanted to get
49:29 – 49:31
into with you is around
49:31 – 49:34
Marketing and communications you
49:34 – 49:36
have you have you have the
49:36 – 49:37
perspective of
49:37 – 49:39
having visibility into a large
49:39 – 49:40
customer base
49:41 – 49:42
and I'm
49:43 – 49:45
curious about how you market as
49:45 – 49:47
your standard how you market
49:47 – 49:48
various products how you're
49:48 – 49:49
thinking about that has evolved
49:49 – 49:50
over the years.
49:52 – 49:54
What I find today is.
49:56 – 49:58
historically the
49:59 – 50:02
word farming was associated with
50:02 – 50:03
growing things.
50:03 – 50:04
If you wanted to be a successful
50:04 – 50:06
farmer, you had to be good at
50:06 – 50:07
growing either crops or
50:07 – 50:08
livestock.
50:09 – 50:10
But increasingly,
50:10 – 50:12
if you want to be
50:12 – 50:14
successful, particularly
50:14 – 50:15
financially successful and
50:15 – 50:16
viable as an operation,
50:17 – 50:20
then perhaps the most valuable
50:20 – 50:22
skill set is not growing things.
50:22 – 50:23
That's almost like a fundamental
50:23 – 50:24
prerequisite.
50:25 – 50:26
And the next step that is really
50:26 – 50:27
necessary is you have to be able
50:27 – 50:28
to sell.
50:29 – 50:29
You have to be able to market
50:29 – 50:31
your product. Otherwise,
50:31 – 50:32
you're on
50:33 – 50:35
a commoditized pathway to doom.
50:36 – 50:37
Perhaps it's some dire language,
50:38 – 50:39
but it's the reality that many
50:39 – 50:40
people are facing today.
50:41 – 50:42
And
50:42 – 50:44
yet marketing
50:44 – 50:46
is something that I enjoy,
50:46 – 50:47
but I find that many people
50:47 – 50:49
don't. And I'm puzzled by that
50:49 – 50:50
because I do enjoy it.
50:51 – 50:52
I'd like to get your
50:52 – 50:52
perspective.
50:55 – 50:57
Well, um, I have found that the
50:57 – 50:59
marketing part is actually your
50:59 – 51:01
most important part.
51:02 – 51:03
You know, I often, you know,
51:03 – 51:04
I've often,
51:04 – 51:06
you know, there used to be a
51:06 – 51:07
saying, you know, build a better
51:07 – 51:09
mousetrap and people will beat a
51:09 – 51:09
path to your door.
51:11 – 51:13
That's completely not true.
51:14 – 51:15
You can build the best mousetrap
51:15 – 51:17
in the entire world and nobody
51:17 – 51:18
will come to the door because
51:18 – 51:20
they don't know about it.
51:20 – 51:22
And there are competing voices
51:22 – 51:24
everywhere saying we have the
51:24 – 51:25
best mousetrap,
51:25 – 51:26
even if they're not telling the
51:26 – 51:27
truth.
51:27 – 51:29
But they may not even know about
51:29 – 51:30
your mousetrap either.
51:31 – 51:33
It's the same. It's exactly
51:33 – 51:33
true.
51:34 – 51:37
It's just the same with your
51:37 – 51:40
the food that you raise, whether
51:40 – 51:40
you're raising
51:41 – 51:44
fruit or beef or whatever it is.
51:44 – 51:47
If your customer doesn't know
51:48 – 51:50
about you having the very best
51:50 – 51:51
mousetrap, of the best,
51:53 – 51:55
then how are they going to be
51:55 – 51:56
willing to pay you extra money
51:56 – 51:57
for it?
51:57 – 51:59
They don't know why they should.
52:00 – 52:02
So marketing is basically just
52:02 – 52:05
being able to tell people
52:06 – 52:07
about what they do
52:08 – 52:10
and why they're producing a
52:10 – 52:11
superior product
52:12 – 52:14
and why I should buy it.
52:15 – 52:16
It's that simple.
52:17 – 52:19
There really isn't any, it's not
52:19 – 52:20
any miracles.
52:21 – 52:22
I mean, you can have,
52:23 – 52:26
terrible marketing and, you
52:26 – 52:27
know, and tell lies and stuff
52:27 – 52:29
like that, but that's going to
52:29 – 52:30
be very short lived.
52:31 – 52:34
Nobody's going to buy it from a
52:34 – 52:37
company that doesn't deliver the
52:38 – 52:40
quality and the product that
52:40 – 52:41
they
52:41 – 52:43
say that they're growing and
52:43 – 52:44
they're going to deliver.
52:45 – 52:47
So you have, you have to just
52:47 – 52:49
tell the absolute truth about
52:49 – 52:50
what it is that you're doing.
52:51 – 52:53
But regenerative farmers,
52:53 – 52:56
you guys have a product that is
52:56 – 52:58
so much better than what anybody
52:58 – 53:01
can get in mainstream America's
53:01 – 53:03
grocery stores, that
53:03 – 53:06
it's easy to tell that story.
53:07 – 53:08
Tell them why you have a
53:08 – 53:09
complete protein in your beef.
53:10 – 53:12
Tell them why you have
53:12 – 53:15
complex polysaccharides in
53:15 – 53:16
your fruit.
53:17 – 53:19
Tell them why it makes a
53:19 – 53:21
difference in their health.
53:22 – 53:24
And that's when it
53:25 – 53:26
becomes worth more.
53:27 – 53:30
because they know that it's, you
53:30 – 53:32
know, this has complex
53:33 – 53:34
polysaccharides that are going
53:34 – 53:35
to
53:36 – 53:37
allow my children to not have
53:37 – 53:38
to,
53:39 – 53:41
you know, eat candy bars when
53:41 – 53:42
they're trying to, you know, run
53:42 – 53:43
their,
53:43 – 53:44
do their basketball game.
53:45 – 53:46
because they have slow release
53:46 – 53:48
of sugar throughout the day, or
53:48 – 53:49
throughout their,
53:50 – 53:51
you know, from their meals,
53:51 – 53:54
because they ate fruit, that
53:54 – 53:56
was not just pure
53:56 – 53:57
fructose.
53:58 – 53:59
These are,
53:59 – 54:01
that's, and once they experience
54:01 – 54:02
that a little bit,
54:03 – 54:04
they'll never, they'll never go
54:04 – 54:05
back.
54:06 – 54:08
This is, this is your story.
54:08 – 54:09
That's, that's the
54:10 – 54:11
key. You preempted the question
54:11 – 54:12
I was going to go to, David,
54:12 – 54:14
which is what does your customer
54:14 – 54:15
retention look like?
54:16 – 54:18
Our customer retention, for the
54:18 – 54:20
most part, is good.
54:20 – 54:23
We do have quite a few people
54:23 – 54:26
that try us like once and drop
54:26 – 54:28
off, I think mostly because of
54:28 – 54:29
our delivery model.
54:30 – 54:32
It's, you know, hey, we're not
54:32 – 54:33
real
54:35 – 54:37
consistent with our times of
54:37 – 54:39
delivery and they gotta work and
54:39 – 54:40
all the stuff that's going out.
54:41 – 54:42
So we're working on a few things
54:42 – 54:44
to change that.
54:44 – 54:46
We just launched what we call
54:46 – 54:47
Drop to Home.
54:48 – 54:49
So it's kind of a
54:50 – 54:52
program, a little bit like
54:52 – 54:53
DoorDash from the drop,
54:54 – 54:56
where somebody volunteers
54:57 – 55:00
or whatever that for an extra 10
55:00 – 55:02
bucks or whatever, they'll take
55:02 – 55:03
it to your house from
55:04 – 55:04
the drop.
55:06 – 55:08
We're also starting to look at
55:08 – 55:09
some,
55:09 – 55:12
some kind of franchise retail
55:12 – 55:13
models.
55:13 – 55:14
We have three stores currently
55:14 – 55:15
that
55:16 – 55:17
we're using as experiments,
55:17 – 55:18
experiments.
55:19 – 55:21
And so someday I
55:21 – 55:23
would envision for what
55:24 – 55:25
we're really trying to sell is
55:25 – 55:26
the brand and
55:27 – 55:29
our brand has a certain
55:29 – 55:29
guarantee.
55:30 – 55:31
First of all, you're not going
55:31 – 55:33
to get any highly refined stuff.
55:34 – 55:35
You know,
55:35 – 55:36
there's no, you're not going to
55:36 – 55:38
have to worry that there's
55:38 – 55:41
preservatives or, food coloring
55:41 – 55:42
or
55:43 – 55:45
MSG or anything.
55:45 – 55:46
There's not going to be any
55:46 – 55:49
genetically modified anything in
55:49 – 55:49
it.
55:50 – 55:53
We have a long list of things
55:53 – 55:55
that you will never find in any
55:55 – 55:56
product you get at Azure.
55:57 – 55:59
Unlike every other retailer,
56:00 – 56:02
Uh, you know whole foods after
56:02 – 56:04
they sold to amazon their their
56:04 – 56:05
standards are going down down
56:05 – 56:07
down now You can basically get
56:07 – 56:09
specialized pepsi and in whole
56:09 – 56:12
foods, but it's like
56:13 – 56:15
we're doing exactly the
56:15 – 56:16
opposite. We're continuing to
56:16 – 56:18
push our standards higher and
56:18 – 56:18
higher and higher.
56:19 – 56:20
You know, we did, we used to
56:20 – 56:22
sell some like conventional
56:22 – 56:24
beans and stuff, and we quit
56:24 – 56:27
because we actually found traces
56:27 – 56:29
of glyphosates on some of those
56:29 – 56:30
feeds.
56:30 – 56:32
And, you know, our,
56:32 – 56:34
our brand guarantee is that we
56:34 – 56:36
pay attention to these kinds of
56:36 – 56:37
things.
56:37 – 56:39
And so we now sell
56:40 – 56:41
only a different,
56:42 – 56:43
you know, in the, like,
56:44 – 56:46
Beans, we only sell organic now
56:46 – 56:47
because we
56:47 – 56:49
don't want to,
56:50 – 56:51
you know, we don't want to, no
56:51 – 56:53
matter how many times we test
56:53 – 56:54
it, we don't ever want to find
56:54 – 56:55
it,
56:55 – 56:58
you know, glyphosates or any
56:59 – 57:00
of the other ones as well.
57:01 – 57:02
I just use that as an example
57:02 – 57:03
because it's
57:03 – 57:04
people understand,
57:05 – 57:06
know what that is usually.
57:07 – 57:08
But
57:08 – 57:09
there's a,
57:10 – 57:11
there's some other ones that are
57:11 – 57:12
just as bad,
57:12 – 57:13
brazenly enough,
57:14 – 57:15
but we don't,
57:15 – 57:16
that's our brand.
57:16 – 57:18
So someday I want to be able to
57:18 – 57:19
say, Hey, if it's an Azure
57:19 – 57:21
product, if it's an Azure brand,
57:22 – 57:23
you can buy it
57:23 – 57:25
through our drop, you can get it
57:25 – 57:26
delivered to your home,
57:26 – 57:29
we will have stores all over the
57:29 – 57:30
country that
57:30 – 57:31
are Azure partner stores,
57:32 – 57:33
and we'll even have,
57:34 – 57:35
you know, you can get it
57:35 – 57:37
delivered from the store to your
57:37 – 57:38
home if you need it instantly.
57:39 – 57:41
We'll hopefully have all of
57:41 – 57:42
that, but that's still, you
57:42 – 57:44
know, that's still vision.
57:44 – 57:46
Right now, we do have drops all
57:46 – 57:49
over the country, and we have
57:49 – 57:51
the drop to home in,
57:52 – 57:53
oh, I don't know,
57:53 – 57:55
about 21 different areas now or
57:55 – 57:56
so.
57:56 – 57:58
David, there's many directions I
57:58 – 58:00
could take this conversation in.
58:00 – 58:01
And there's, I think there's so
58:01 – 58:03
many perspectives you would have
58:03 – 58:05
to offer that many of our
58:05 – 58:06
listeners would find quite
58:06 – 58:07
valuable.
58:07 – 58:09
But I'll perhaps ask
58:10 – 58:11
the question that comes as top
58:11 – 58:13
of mind for me is, and you've
58:13 – 58:14
touched on a few aspects of
58:14 – 58:16
this, but where do you see,
58:16 – 58:17
if you look at the entire
58:17 – 58:19
agricultural landscape
58:19 – 58:22
and you look at the consumer
58:22 – 58:24
landscape, which you have a
58:24 – 58:25
close perspective on,
58:26 – 58:27
Where do you see the biggest
58:27 – 58:28
opportunity?
58:28 – 58:29
Where is the opportunity that is
58:29 – 58:31
just languishing?
58:32 – 58:33
As far as agriculture,
58:34 – 58:36
the opportunities are endless.
58:37 – 58:40
I was flying over last spring.
58:41 – 58:43
I flew over the Midwest,
58:44 – 58:46
you know, and it's one big
58:46 – 58:48
yellow pit.
58:51 – 58:52
The richest farm ground in the
58:52 – 58:53
world was
58:55 – 58:57
one big yellow pit.
58:58 – 59:00
Looked like the whole thing had
59:00 – 59:01
been sprayed almost.
59:02 – 59:03
One little green patch here and
59:03 – 59:04
there, but
59:05 – 59:06
you know, 90 plus percent of it
59:06 – 59:07
I guess they were getting it
59:07 – 59:08
ready for their no -till
59:09 – 59:10
GMO corn,
59:11 – 59:12
I'm assuming.
59:15 – 59:16
And yet the
59:16 – 59:19
market doesn't even want that
59:19 – 59:19
stuff.
59:20 – 59:23
Farmers are stuck, unfortunately
59:23 – 59:24
many.
59:24 – 59:26
I was talking to a farmer,
59:26 – 59:28
I go to quite a few of the
59:28 – 59:29
homesteading conferences,
59:31 – 59:33
and I was talking to a farmer at
59:33 – 59:34
one of the homesteading
59:34 – 59:35
conferences, and his wife is a
59:35 – 59:37
big advocate of homesteading,
59:38 – 59:41
and he gave her 30 acres
59:41 – 59:43
to raise their family cow and
59:43 – 59:46
garden on and all that, and it's
59:46 – 59:48
changed their lives as a family.
59:48 – 59:51
But yet his 1 ,000 acres is
59:51 – 59:53
still GMO corn and soybeans
59:53 – 59:54
because
59:55 – 59:57
he doesn't know what else to do.
59:58 – 59:59
And it's the only thing he can
59:59 – 1:00:00
get an offer.
1:00:00 – 1:00:03
We need to get completely out of
1:00:04 – 1:00:05
that cycle.
1:00:06 – 1:00:08
And I think it can be there.
1:00:09 – 1:00:11
There is no reason that we need
1:00:11 – 1:00:12
to be stuck in that cycle
1:00:13 – 1:00:15
of you raise. And he said, you
1:00:15 – 1:00:16
know, he was saying,
1:00:16 – 1:00:18
and I just hate it because I
1:00:18 – 1:00:19
know my corn
1:00:20 – 1:00:22
goes to the high fructose corn
1:00:22 – 1:00:24
syrup plant down the road
1:00:24 – 1:00:26
and it makes something that
1:00:26 – 1:00:27
destroys the health of the
1:00:27 – 1:00:29
people instead of enhances it.
1:00:30 – 1:00:31
How do I stop?
1:00:33 – 1:00:34
So.
1:00:34 – 1:00:36
learning how to stop.
1:00:36 – 1:00:38
And I think that's where
1:00:38 – 1:00:39
you play
1:00:40 – 1:00:41
a huge role, because first of
1:00:41 – 1:00:43
all, he doesn't know how to stop
1:00:43 – 1:00:44
from
1:00:44 – 1:00:46
how do I get this soil that's
1:00:47 – 1:00:49
been raising GMO corn and
1:00:49 – 1:00:50
soybeans for 50 years to
1:00:51 – 1:00:52
raise anything else?
1:00:53 – 1:00:54
How do I change it?
1:00:55 – 1:00:55
And then
1:00:55 – 1:00:58
if he were to be able to change,
1:00:59 – 1:01:00
what do I grow and how do I
1:01:01 – 1:01:03
you know, how am I going to make
1:01:03 – 1:01:04
ends meet?
1:01:04 – 1:01:06
The elevator only takes corn and
1:01:06 – 1:01:07
soybeans down
1:01:08 – 1:01:08
here.
1:01:09 – 1:01:10
What do I have to do to raise
1:01:10 – 1:01:11
something else?
1:01:12 – 1:01:15
Now, there's no deficit of
1:01:16 – 1:01:17
demand for
1:01:18 – 1:01:19
feed grains either.
1:01:20 – 1:01:22
I mean, the demand right now for
1:01:22 – 1:01:23
meat
1:01:23 – 1:01:24
that is healthy
1:01:25 – 1:01:26
or
1:01:26 – 1:01:27
even not
1:01:27 – 1:01:30
even organic, just grass fed or
1:01:32 – 1:01:33
is through the roof.
1:01:33 – 1:01:34
You got all these people
1:01:34 – 1:01:35
realize, you know,
1:01:36 – 1:01:37
meat used to have kind of a bad
1:01:37 – 1:01:38
name. Now, all of a sudden,
1:01:38 – 1:01:40
there's people saying, oh, eat a
1:01:40 – 1:01:41
carnivore diet, eat lots of
1:01:41 – 1:01:42
meat.
1:01:42 – 1:01:45
But it does not work at all if
1:01:45 – 1:01:47
they're eating meat that's just
1:01:47 – 1:01:48
factory,
1:01:49 – 1:01:50
you know, factory chickens that
1:01:50 – 1:01:51
are down there from Tyson.
1:01:52 – 1:01:53
It doesn't work.
1:01:54 – 1:01:56
So and they're learning that.
1:01:56 – 1:01:59
So the demand for organic feed
1:01:59 – 1:02:00
grains and meat
1:02:01 – 1:02:02
is astronomical.
1:02:02 – 1:02:04
I just feel like there's a tie
1:02:04 – 1:02:05
that needs to be made.
1:02:06 – 1:02:08
There's, you know, there's some,
1:02:08 – 1:02:09
you know, you and your team
1:02:09 – 1:02:11
teaching them how to actually
1:02:11 – 1:02:12
grow something different.
1:02:12 – 1:02:14
Then there's how do you grow
1:02:14 – 1:02:15
the,
1:02:15 – 1:02:17
you know, the chickens or, you
1:02:17 – 1:02:18
know, fill in the blank.
1:02:18 – 1:02:19
I'm just saying chickens because
1:02:19 – 1:02:20
that's one of the most common
1:02:20 – 1:02:21
meats.
1:02:22 – 1:02:25
And then to take those, you
1:02:25 – 1:02:27
know, organic pasture -fed
1:02:27 – 1:02:29
chickens
1:02:30 – 1:02:32
and take that, then you have the
1:02:32 – 1:02:34
processing and then you have the
1:02:34 – 1:02:35
marketing on that.
1:02:35 – 1:02:37
There's no lack of demand.
1:02:38 – 1:02:40
The demand is it's
1:02:41 – 1:02:41
through the roof
1:02:42 – 1:02:45
because people realize that meat
1:02:45 – 1:02:47
can be healthy if you have good
1:02:47 – 1:02:48
meat.
1:02:48 – 1:02:49
You know, it's interesting.
1:02:49 – 1:02:51
I have this I'm
1:02:52 – 1:02:53
having this conversation with
1:02:53 – 1:02:53
you and I have
1:02:55 – 1:02:57
parallel conversations that
1:02:57 – 1:02:58
sound very similar with
1:03:00 – 1:03:02
dozens of people who are in
1:03:02 – 1:03:04
similar positions that you are
1:03:04 – 1:03:06
that have some perspective on on
1:03:06 – 1:03:07
consumer
1:03:07 – 1:03:08
behavior,
1:03:09 – 1:03:11
and they see where the supply
1:03:11 – 1:03:12
chains are falling short.
1:03:13 – 1:03:16
And then you have, I have these
1:03:16 – 1:03:17
other conversations with
1:03:18 – 1:03:20
growers who I
1:03:21 – 1:03:22
think it's
1:03:23 – 1:03:24
sometimes worth asking the
1:03:24 – 1:03:25
question about how serious are
1:03:25 – 1:03:26
they about really desiring a
1:03:26 – 1:03:27
different opportunity because
1:03:27 – 1:03:30
all they can see are the
1:03:30 – 1:03:31
obstacles and
1:03:31 – 1:03:33
they don't see the consumer
1:03:33 – 1:03:34
demand.
1:03:34 – 1:03:36
There is this significant
1:03:36 – 1:03:37
disconnect between the
1:03:37 – 1:03:38
opportunity that exists and
1:03:39 – 1:03:40
the opportunity that growers
1:03:40 – 1:03:41
perceive,
1:03:42 – 1:03:43
perhaps for a wide variety of
1:03:43 – 1:03:44
reasons. Perhaps they believe
1:03:44 – 1:03:46
they lack the skill set or the
1:03:46 – 1:03:47
capability or the infrastructure
1:03:47 – 1:03:49
or the list.
1:03:49 – 1:03:51
the list of plausible excuses
1:03:52 – 1:03:53
can
1:03:53 – 1:03:54
become very long.
1:03:54 – 1:03:56
And I'm not, I'm not, I mean,
1:03:56 – 1:03:57
some of those reasons are very
1:03:57 – 1:03:58
real.
1:03:58 – 1:03:59
I'm not, I don't want to be
1:03:59 – 1:03:59
dismissive of that.
1:04:00 – 1:04:01
But also if
1:04:02 – 1:04:03
we are, if people invested as
1:04:03 – 1:04:05
much energy in trying to resolve
1:04:05 – 1:04:07
those challenges as
1:04:08 – 1:04:09
they invested in justifying the
1:04:09 – 1:04:10
challenges,
1:04:10 – 1:04:11
we would be in a very different
1:04:11 – 1:04:12
space quite rapidly.
1:04:15 – 1:04:15
Well,
1:04:16 – 1:04:17
I
1:04:17 – 1:04:19
agree. I couldn't, I couldn't
1:04:19 – 1:04:21
agree more. And you don't have
1:04:21 – 1:04:22
to start all in.
1:04:23 – 1:04:24
I mean, yes,
1:04:24 – 1:04:25
I mean,
1:04:26 – 1:04:26
there,
1:04:27 – 1:04:28
You know, there was a time
1:04:29 – 1:04:30
when,
1:04:31 – 1:04:33
in our history,
1:04:34 – 1:04:35
before I really started
1:04:35 – 1:04:37
delivering to the stores, but my
1:04:37 – 1:04:39
mom used to actually grind wheat
1:04:39 – 1:04:41
in her kitchen flour mill and
1:04:41 – 1:04:43
sell it to neighbors and
1:04:43 – 1:04:45
the local food co -op,
1:04:45 – 1:04:46
you know, in a little,
1:04:47 – 1:04:49
I think it was a magic mill or
1:04:49 – 1:04:50
something, a little box mill
1:04:50 – 1:04:51
that ground about,
1:04:52 – 1:04:54
I don't know, 10 or 15 pounds an
1:04:54 – 1:04:55
hour.
1:04:55 – 1:04:56
And she'd just keep that going
1:04:56 – 1:04:58
all the time and keep dumping
1:04:58 – 1:04:58
that.
1:04:58 – 1:05:00
and package it up in little five
1:05:00 – 1:05:03
pound bags and sell it at the
1:05:03 – 1:05:04
local food co -op.
1:05:05 – 1:05:06
That,
1:05:05 – 1:05:06
you know, those kinds of
1:05:06 – 1:05:08
opportunities, farmers markets,
1:05:08 – 1:05:09
things like that,
1:05:10 – 1:05:11
shouldn't be dismissed.
1:05:12 – 1:05:13
And I know, you know, when I
1:05:13 – 1:05:15
actually thought about it, you
1:05:15 – 1:05:16
know, I mentioned I had, you
1:05:16 – 1:05:17
know, close to a million pounds
1:05:17 – 1:05:19
of grain and was getting orders
1:05:19 – 1:05:20
for,
1:05:20 – 1:05:21
you know, five sacks at a time,
1:05:22 – 1:05:25
250 pounds. If you do the math,
1:05:25 – 1:05:26
that should have been
1:05:26 – 1:05:27
impossible,
1:05:28 – 1:05:29
but it wasn't.
1:05:30 – 1:05:31
We sold through all of that
1:05:32 – 1:05:33
and much, much more.
1:05:33 – 1:05:35
And we sell millions of pounds
1:05:35 – 1:05:35
every year now.
1:05:36 – 1:05:37
In fact, I don't even hardly
1:05:37 – 1:05:38
even raise wheat anymore
1:05:39 – 1:05:41
because I can find other people
1:05:41 – 1:05:41
to raise wheat,
1:05:42 – 1:05:43
you know,
1:05:44 – 1:05:46
Now we raise mostly ancient
1:05:46 – 1:05:48
grains because the demand is so
1:05:48 – 1:05:49
high for that. We raise spelt
1:05:49 – 1:05:51
and einkorn and corison and all
1:05:51 – 1:05:54
these other grains because
1:05:54 – 1:05:55
they're a little harder to
1:05:55 – 1:05:55
raise.
1:05:55 – 1:05:57
We've been doing it a long time.
1:05:59 – 1:06:00
So
1:06:00 – 1:06:01
the
1:06:02 – 1:06:03
demand
1:06:04 – 1:06:06
is
1:06:07 – 1:06:08
there,
1:06:09 – 1:06:11
but we should not despise small
1:06:11 – 1:06:12
beginnings.
1:06:13 – 1:06:15
We should not despise getting
1:06:16 – 1:06:17
our feet wet.
1:06:18 – 1:06:19
Because we don't know how
1:06:19 – 1:06:21
doesn't mean we can't learn how.
1:06:23 – 1:06:25
And the best way to learn is by
1:06:25 – 1:06:25
doing.
1:06:26 – 1:06:28
And if you have to mitigate your
1:06:28 – 1:06:30
risk and just sell and
1:06:32 – 1:06:33
maybe, you know,
1:06:34 – 1:06:36
you know, my dad wasn't that
1:06:36 – 1:06:37
guy. He jumped in with both feet
1:06:37 – 1:06:38
when he decided he was never
1:06:38 – 1:06:40
going to use chemicals on our
1:06:40 – 1:06:41
farm again. He never did.
1:06:42 – 1:06:43
That was the last time.
1:06:44 – 1:06:45
Nineteen seventy three was the
1:06:45 – 1:06:47
last time any chemical ever hit
1:06:47 – 1:06:48
our soil.
1:06:49 – 1:06:51
But not everybody
1:06:52 – 1:06:54
operates that way.
1:06:55 – 1:06:56
They're, you know, hey,
1:06:57 – 1:06:59
take 20 acres of your farm.
1:07:00 – 1:07:02
and transition it to
1:07:03 – 1:07:05
regenerative agriculture.
1:07:06 – 1:07:08
Grow something that you see the
1:07:08 – 1:07:10
demand for in your area.
1:07:10 – 1:07:12
I mean, again, I mean, I can I
1:07:12 – 1:07:13
can give you a list of things I
1:07:13 – 1:07:14
would buy from you.
1:07:16 – 1:07:17
That's fine and dandy.
1:07:17 – 1:07:18
But if you're going to do a
1:07:18 – 1:07:20
farmer's market, what is what
1:07:20 – 1:07:22
are people not don't have at the
1:07:22 – 1:07:23
farmer's market much?
1:07:24 – 1:07:25
You know, if you're in the
1:07:25 – 1:07:26
Midwest,
1:07:25 – 1:07:27
probably lots of people have
1:07:27 – 1:07:28
beef and corn and
1:07:29 – 1:07:30
soybeans, I guess.
1:07:30 – 1:07:31
But how many people have
1:07:33 – 1:07:34
How many people have vegetables?
1:07:35 – 1:07:37
I mean, you know, who does who
1:07:37 – 1:07:38
does the rhubarb in the spring?
1:07:38 – 1:07:39
Who does the,
1:07:40 – 1:07:40
you know,
1:07:41 – 1:07:42
think, you know, thinking
1:07:42 – 1:07:44
outside of the box a little bit
1:07:44 – 1:07:46
about what the demand is for.
1:07:47 – 1:07:49
And then and then you can kind
1:07:49 – 1:07:50
of mess with that,
1:07:51 – 1:07:52
you know,
1:07:53 – 1:07:55
regenerative, the regenerative
1:07:55 – 1:07:56
parcel.
1:07:57 – 1:07:59
And then it's the way to learn,
1:08:01 – 1:08:02
you know, try it.
1:08:03 – 1:08:04
You know,
1:08:04 – 1:08:06
there's so many,
1:08:06 – 1:08:08
so many ways to
1:08:09 – 1:08:10
to learn.
1:08:10 – 1:08:12
And, you know, and sometimes,
1:08:14 – 1:08:16
you know, sometimes it's not as
1:08:16 – 1:08:17
hard as we think.
1:08:19 – 1:08:21
Yes, if we have huge fields and
1:08:21 – 1:08:23
there's huge economic risk,
1:08:23 – 1:08:24
that's one thing.
1:08:25 – 1:08:26
But if we're just experimenting
1:08:26 – 1:08:28
with it, if we just have an acre
1:08:28 – 1:08:29
or two of something, even if we
1:08:29 – 1:08:30
lose something,
1:08:31 – 1:08:33
if we're getting five times as
1:08:33 – 1:08:34
much for everything else,
1:08:35 – 1:08:36
does it really matter if we lost
1:08:36 – 1:08:37
something? And then we learned a
1:08:37 – 1:08:39
valuable lesson and we won't
1:08:40 – 1:08:41
Either we won't grow that thing
1:08:41 – 1:08:43
again, or we'll learn how to
1:08:43 – 1:08:45
take care of it differently.
1:08:47 – 1:08:48
You know,
1:08:48 – 1:08:50
I can't tell you how many things
1:08:50 – 1:08:51
that we've experimented with
1:08:51 – 1:08:52
over the years.
1:08:52 – 1:08:54
I've tried almost everything, I
1:08:54 – 1:08:55
feel like,
1:08:55 – 1:08:58
at least that grows in temperate
1:08:58 – 1:08:58
climates.
1:08:59 – 1:09:01
And we've settled on certain
1:09:01 – 1:09:02
things that,
1:09:02 – 1:09:03
but we're still experimenting
1:09:03 – 1:09:05
with things every year.
1:09:05 – 1:09:06
I mean, I've got
1:09:06 – 1:09:08
last year for the,
1:09:08 – 1:09:10
we grew carrots for the very
1:09:10 – 1:09:11
first time. We've never grown
1:09:11 – 1:09:12
carrots before.
1:09:12 – 1:09:13
Commercial.
1:09:13 – 1:09:14
In Doof, Oregon.
1:09:14 – 1:09:15
That sounds like an adventure.
1:09:17 – 1:09:18
It's, it was a lot of fun
1:09:18 – 1:09:19
actually.
1:09:20 – 1:09:21
They,
1:09:20 – 1:09:21
uh,
1:09:22 – 1:09:24
and they taste wonderful.
1:09:24 – 1:09:25
We had the best tasting carrots
1:09:25 – 1:09:26
around,
1:09:29 – 1:09:30
but it's, but nobody grows
1:09:30 – 1:09:32
carrots around here, right?
1:09:33 – 1:09:35
It's just not a thing,
1:09:36 – 1:09:37
but they grow just fine.
1:09:38 – 1:09:39
Yeah.
1:09:39 – 1:09:41
David, this has been such a
1:09:41 – 1:09:42
wonderful conversation.
1:09:43 – 1:09:44
I've really enjoyed it.
1:09:45 – 1:09:46
And I know that you and I could
1:09:46 – 1:09:47
visit for hours,
1:09:48 – 1:09:50
but what is the one thing that
1:09:50 – 1:09:51
you would
1:09:51 – 1:09:54
like to remind people of or just
1:09:54 – 1:09:55
to impress upon them?
1:09:56 – 1:09:58
The farmer is the guardian of
1:09:58 – 1:09:59
the nation's health.
1:10:00 – 1:10:03
And if we think of ourselves as
1:10:03 – 1:10:05
farmers in that light,
1:10:05 – 1:10:07
it changes the
1:10:07 – 1:10:10
way that we farm and it changes
1:10:10 – 1:10:11
the way that we think.
1:10:12 – 1:10:14
And that was that was really the
1:10:14 – 1:10:15
key for me.
1:10:16 – 1:10:18
Are we really acting like the
1:10:18 – 1:10:20
guardian of the nation's health?
1:10:20 – 1:10:23
Are we just acting like some
1:10:23 – 1:10:24
other businessman that
1:10:25 – 1:10:27
is going to try to see what we
1:10:27 – 1:10:29
see, how much we can make?
1:10:30 – 1:10:31
We
1:10:31 – 1:10:32
and
1:10:33 – 1:10:34
also, you
1:10:35 – 1:10:37
know, there's a saying and I did
1:10:37 – 1:10:38
not make this up.
1:10:39 – 1:10:41
This this is from, I believe,
1:10:41 – 1:10:42
Dave Ramsey and
1:10:43 – 1:10:44
the economic side.
1:10:45 – 1:10:45
But, you know, we've been
1:10:45 – 1:10:47
talking a little bit about the
1:10:47 – 1:10:48
economics of farming.
1:10:50 – 1:10:52
And he said, he says,
1:10:52 – 1:10:55
the more people that you can
1:10:55 – 1:10:55
serve,
1:10:58 – 1:10:59
that
1:10:59 – 1:11:02
if you heart is into service,
1:11:02 – 1:11:03
the more people you serve,
1:11:03 – 1:11:05
the more people will give you
1:11:05 – 1:11:06
rewards
1:11:07 – 1:11:08
of pieces
1:11:09 – 1:11:10
of paper with president's heads
1:11:10 – 1:11:11
on them.
1:11:12 – 1:11:14
So as
1:11:15 – 1:11:16
we serve,
1:11:16 – 1:11:18
if our heart's to serve,
1:11:19 – 1:11:20
the reward comes.
1:11:20 – 1:11:23
We become economically viable by
1:11:24 – 1:11:27
serving more people at a deeper
1:11:27 – 1:11:28
level.
1:11:28 – 1:11:31
And that's the basis of
1:11:31 – 1:11:32
true
1:11:33 – 1:11:34
legitimate economics.
1:11:36 – 1:11:37
And I couldn't agree with that
1:11:37 – 1:11:38
more.
1:11:38 – 1:11:40
The modern day business mogul
1:11:40 – 1:11:41
way of saying that is if you
1:11:41 – 1:11:42
want to become a billionaire,
1:11:42 – 1:11:44
then you solve a billion person
1:11:44 – 1:11:44
problem.
1:11:45 – 1:11:47
But I like your description much
1:11:47 – 1:11:48
better.
1:11:50 – 1:11:51
Thank you, David.
1:11:51 – 1:11:52
Thank you for being here.
1:11:52 – 1:11:53
And thank you for all the work
1:11:53 – 1:11:53
that you're doing.
1:11:54 – 1:11:55
Well, thank you.
1:11:55 – 1:11:56
And thanks for the work that
1:11:56 – 1:11:57
you're doing. And I
1:11:58 – 1:12:00
can't tell you how many farmers
1:12:00 – 1:12:02
I have referred to you over the
1:12:02 – 1:12:03
years.
1:12:03 – 1:12:04
the past couple of years.
1:12:05 – 1:12:06
Oh, well, thank you.
1:12:07 – 1:12:08
The
1:12:08 – 1:12:10
team at AEA and I are dedicated
1:12:10 – 1:12:11
to bringing this show to you
1:12:11 – 1:12:13
because we believe that
1:12:13 – 1:12:14
knowledge and information is the
1:12:14 – 1:12:16
foundation of successful
1:12:16 – 1:12:17
regenerative systems.
1:12:18 – 1:12:20
At AEA, we believe that growing
1:12:20 – 1:12:22
better quality food and making
1:12:22 – 1:12:23
more money from your crops is
1:12:23 – 1:12:24
possible.
1:12:24 – 1:12:26
And since 2006, we've worked
1:12:26 – 1:12:27
with leading professional
1:12:27 – 1:12:29
growers to help them do just
1:12:29 – 1:12:29
that.
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At AEA, we don't guess,
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we test, we analyze.
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and we provide recommendations
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based on scientific data,
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knowledge, and experience.
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We've developed products that
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are uniquely positioned to help
1:12:41 – 1:12:42
growers make more money with
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regenerative agriculture.
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If you are a professional grower
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who believes in testing instead
1:12:47 – 1:12:48
of guessing,
1:12:49 – 1:12:50
someone who believes in a
1:12:50 – 1:12:51
better, more regenerative way to
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grow,
1:12:52 – 1:12:55
visit advancingecoag .com and
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contact us to see if AEA is
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right for you.
