we're on Joel.

Joel Salatin, welcome to The Regenerative Journey- Thank you.

and welcome to your office.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're right here.

A place you're no doubt familiar with.

Yeah, I am.

Do you spend much time in here or are you usually out in the country?

Uh, no, I don't spend much time in here.

I have my own desk in the, in the house.

And, uh, so this is for most of the other, uh, the team members that are really making things happen.

Um, and it's quite a team.

It is quite a team, yes, it is.

How many, how many have you got?

There's about 22 full-time salaries- Yeah.

here, so And not all of those are active farming.

I mean, that includes bookkeeping and sales and, uh, inventory management and things like that.

But yeah, it's a, it's a pretty significant team.

And you have We're going straight to it because for those who haven't listened to, um, my previous interview with Joel, how dare you, but- I'll let you off.

.9999999999927 But, um, we Before we get to Polyface and being here, which is where we are, so if, if you haven't already worked it out, we are at Polyface, um, Farm here at Swoope, Virginia.

Swope.

Swo- Swope?

Haven't you got Swoope?

Well, it looks like Swoope.

It's SWPE.

.9999999999854 Well, it's got the E.

So that gets it, that makes it a Swope.

Yeah, the, the E makes it- Ah.

Yeah.

I, I guess.

I don't know.

We'll, we'd better call it Swope.

Yeah, Swope.

It's like chooks and chickens.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, and so we met, um, 5 years ago.

I remember it was May, and you were out in Australia doing something with regionality with Rose Wright.

Yes, that's right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Um, up at Oh, shit, where was it?

Um- Byron Bay.

Byron Bay, wasn't it?

Byron Bay.

Yeah, and sort of north of there, and there was a, the conference there, the 2day.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and then you ha- you were on quite the road show, then, weren't you?

Yes.

You went to, um, Albury- Mm-hmm.

with the guys down there at, um, um Oh, God, you know the- Uh, Nutrasoil?

Nutrasoil, sorry.

Had it wrong.

Nutrasoil, the worm.

The worm, uh- Worm place.

Totally, yep, yep, yep.

.0000000000291 Um, awesome, um, guys down there, and you spoke, had a bit of a chat there in the big marquee, and there was a bit of a tour.

Um, but then some years before, we, I'd, I'd met you very briefly at, um, Taranaki Farm.

Ah, with Ben Falloon.

Ben Falloon, and there was a thing, it was a one day.

You might have done a couple of days, but I did the one day.

Mm-hmm.

And you'd, you'd de- you showed me how to put together one of your mobile, um- Oh, I did that demonstration thing, yeah.

demo there.

That was awesome, and we did the camera.

My, my, my Australia trips run I've been to Australia 16 times, and so, I mean, man, I've been all over that country.

I haven't been in the, right in the interior, in the middle, but I, I, obviously I've been on, you know, both the east and west coasts, all up and down the coasts.

You man- And as far inland as a, Orange and Canberra and Yeah, that's a few hours from the coast.

Yeah, yeah, but, uh, but not, I haven't been in the, you know, way out there in the out back.

What do they call it?

The Red Center?

Yeah.

'Cause it is red, so, uh- The Red Center.

Which would be, which would be interesting I'm sure it would be interesting for you.

.0000000000291 There's not a whole lot of chicken factories or- Well, when I, when I did, when I did, uh, a, a seminar at, in Perth, um, and it, uh, ma- Majumup?

Yeah, Maj- Everything's up over there.

Yeah, yeah.

Majumup.

Uh-huh.

Um, I had some attendees from way interior that, that had, uh, a million acres, you know.

Oh.

Yeah.

Uh, but as I said, I was, I was staggering.

I said, "Oh, mate, that's small.

You know, my neighbor has 10 1000000, you know?" Exactly.

I'm sorry, 2, 2000000, 2000000.

2, yeah.

That 1000000, 2000000, uh, just massive.

But, you know, truly, we probably have as much grass on our 1,000 acres as they do on, on a, on a 100,000 acre range.

I have no doubt.

We, 'cause we've just been a few hours looking around, um, and the biodiversity No, it's fair dinkum.

I think it's, uh, it's a really good It's, that's to tell you, your, your stocking rate is so much higher.

Mm-hmm.

And obviously you've got different species.

Yeah.

But you might enjoy it out there.

And it's more the cultural appreciation- Oh, sure.

and, and the wonder and all that sort of stuff.

Oh, yeah.

.0000000000291 Yeah.

112 00:04:19,290.0000000000291 --> 00:04:23,060 And they are, there are, there are good people out there doing wonderful things.

Obviously, it's small scale.

It's more, you know, within their home environment.

They've got the chickens and their veggie.

Sure, sure.

You know, all those sort of things.

Yeah, absolutely.

But, um, we'll, we'll Are you heading back at all?

Have you got any plans?

I don't have any plans yet, but, I mean, things are starting to loosen up now post, post COVID.

Yeah.

And, uh, so I hope I get back.

I have- PC.

PC.

Yeah, P- post COVID or AA- AC after COVID.

'Cause it's- B- BC and AC.

Uh, but, um, yeah, I, I certainly hope to get back.

I have a lot of friends in Australia because I've been there- Yeah.

so many times.

Love Australians, and, um, and you know, my, my, my sense of Australia is I, I do a lot of seminars around the world, and I always, I always talk about, you know, many of the most innovative regenerative ag things come from Australia.

I mean, you've got Bill, Bill Mollison and Dave Holmgren started permaculture.

You got P.A.

Yeomans, the Keyline and the Water For Every Farm.

I mean, you've got, um, you know, Darren Daughtery, Doherty with Regrarians.

Yeah.

You have, uh, there's, there's a fair amount of biodynamics- Yeah.

uh, there, Peter Andrews, yeah.

Peter, Peter Andrews, yeah, the River Right.

A- an, so as I've, as I've gotten acquainted with all these, uh, people and things, um, it's made me wonder why, you know, why is all this And, and here's my take, and it, it may be completely wrong.

My take is that Australia is an extremely fragile- ecology, which puts it on the, you know, on the edge of things.

But the difference between Australia being a fragile economy and many other, uh, e- ecology and many other fragile ecologies on the planet is Australia is wealthy.

Mining, uh, you know, uh, the, the, the money.

.0000000000582 And so here we have people who are ecologically fragile but have enough wealth to actually do something.

And, and that's what makes it so unique, and, and why the world looks at Australia for a lot of this innovative, uh, stuff.

Well, that's a good point, isn't it?

Like, the, and, and I guess we probably, as a people, we're probably reasonably resourceful because it's fragile, because- Well, you're all a bunch of jailbirds, right?

We are.

My We are.

We are.

And that's, that comes with some advantages, doesn't it?

We're resourceful.

Yes.

That's right.

That's- Cunning and resourceful.

Yeah, the jailbird will survive.

That's it.

Yeah.

So, um, no, it's a good point.

You know, like, like, you know, when, when you're up against the odds, so, so to speak- Yes.

Mm-hmm.

and, and, and you're reso- resourceful type of people, um, you have to be able to adapt, and you have to be able to, um, make do somewhat.

Yeah.

And, uh, well, like, our normal, our normal, and I'm, I'm, I'm, I am generalizing a little bit to Australia, like, Burra, where I'm from, Joel, which is just north of, an hour and a half north of Canberra- Mm-hmm.

where, um, uh, our normal is, um, uh, is what it is, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And so we, we deal with that, you know?

And it's half the rainfall you Uh, what's your rainfall here?

Our rainfall's 30 inches, so we're- Oh, 30.

No, no, no.

Yeah, so we're only 25.

We're, yeah, we're talking about 700 ml.

Okay.

Yeah, so you are a little bit more than us, but, like, I guess different seasons, but, you know, our normal is what it is, and so you've got to, just got to deal with whatever that is.

And we have long, extended periods of drought.

Could be some years.

Mm-hmm.

So we have to deal with that.

And so everyone has their challenges.

Sure.

But, um, but I You know, you're right.

Having said that, though, with the research I did to, when I came over here, and I knew of yourself and many others, and I'm sure your population's, like, 1 point you know, it's, like, many, many times, um, greater than Australia.

Oh, yeah, it's about 10, 10 times greater.

10.

That's it.

About, 3, 300 and About 340 1000000 We are, like, 28 1000000.

is the US.

Yeah, and you're about 28, so I, I know, yeah, generally, um, the US is, is right at about 10 times- Aussies.

The Aussies, yeah.

Yeah.

So I guess you've got a greater population to pull- W- with, with the same land mass.

Don't know.

No, that's true, yeah.

But a lot less rain.

So how does that Uh, how do you- But, uh, yeah.

Well, we have a lot more rain.

Australia has a lot less.

Yeah.

We, we, we don't have, we don't have this, this massive Our interior is the Midwest.

Yeah.

.9999999998836 You know, the, the grain belt of the, of the world.

Uh, as w- Which was the grassland building of the world.

Which was, which was the prairie.

It was the bison- Prairie.

and the, the, the prairie, yes.

So how do you think your population, 10 times Australia at least, is How does that make Like, what are the, what's the impact of just the population compared to Australia on agriculture here?

What does it mean for, you know, you've got Is it a greater market to fill?

Uh, you know- Yes.

People live closer.

Like, what, what are some of the- Yeah.

I guess, the benefits of having a massive population?

The, the, the, the, the benefit is that even, that, that many, many more small farmers can actually make a full time living farming because, because the population base is, is, is big enough to There's a market.

There's a market big enough to sustain it.

I know that, I know that many of the times when I go to Australia, uh, marketing is a, is a big, is a big hurdle, um, especially if you're out kind of far away from population.

You get up, you get up in, up in Queensland, you know, some of those, even though you've got good rainfall, it's good, but, uh, there's just, there's just nobody around, you know?

It's, uh- And also, I think you've got your own poultry, um, setup for- Mm-hmm.

for, for, for processing birds.

Mm-hmm.

Um, there's a big difference in Australia.

Like, we just, I don't think we can just have that sort of thing, not 100% clean.

Yeah, we, we have this wonderful- Um- federal exemption here that allows you to do 20,000 birds of your own growing and sell them, uh, any, uh, uh, i- i- to any end user.

So you can't sell them to a grocery store.

But you can sell them to a restaurant, um, you know, an institution.

You can sell it to a grocery store deli 'cause that's an end user.

In other words, it, uh, nothing else is gonna happen to that before it goes into somebody's stomach.

Yeah, sure.

So you can sell it to a person, a family, a, a, you know, a restaurant, an insti- like a, a school lunch- Mm-hmm.

uh, program if they- So as long as someone doesn't buy it from you and then turn it into- And, and- a roast chicken- Yes.

and sell that.

You can't do that.

That's right.

Oh, actually you can sell it to them.

Yeah.

We, we can't, we can't sell to a s- supermarket an uncooked chicken that somebody's gonna buy and take home and- Mm-hmm.

and do That's a, that's a second That's not an end user.

Yep.

That, that's a, that's a second, that's a second user.

But anyway, um, it's, it's a wonderful exemption that recognizes, that recognizes scale.

And, and I think, I think one of the biggest, uh, you know, problems we have with food safety regulations is that they're so scale prejudicial.

They, they don't recognize that, that if you're, if, if you're playing a, a pick-up rugby game in a backyard on a Sunday afternoon with a couple of friends, you, you adapt the rules.

You, you know And, and you still have a good time.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you don't need, you don't need what the industry calls a level playing field.

It would be like saying, "Yeah, uh, anybody can play rugby, but you can only do it on a regulation field." A- a- a- and that's what, that's what these food safety regulations end up doing.

They say, "Yeah, you can butcher a chicken, you can only do it in a, in a $400,000 facility." Well, suddenly a person that wants to s- an entrepreneur that wants to start at a prototype level of 500 birds, well, you know, you could never justify spending $400,000 for a facility to butcher 300 birds in.

A- and so the, so the result is that the, that the embryo, the, the prototype embryo is too big to be birthed.

And so you have, you have stillbirths.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, I mean, you, you know, you, you have, um, market access stillbirths.

And so here, which are g- obvi- is a great advantage here because someone can intern here, someone can read your book, someone can literally As long as they comply.

So there are still some standards.

You used to be able to get- Oh, yeah.

you know, you get the tick and, and so on.

.9999999998836 But isn't it an interesting thing?

278 00:13:02,319.9999999998836 --> 00:13:06,352 I think your, your facility here is cleaner.

279 00:13:06,882.0000000001164 --> 00:13:09,340 Like, you know, you go to an industrial one and they got the chlorine and they gotta- Yeah.

they gotta hit a certain spec of wa- Yeah.

sa- um, whatever the things are.

Yours- Yeah.

is actually, it doesn't have any of that crap.

That's right.

That's right.

It's just cleaner.

Yeah.

A- and we don't use any chlorine.

No.

.00000000011642 No.

291 00:13:18,180.00000000011642 --> 00:13:20,319.9999999998836 Any anti- anti-microbials.

292 00:13:20,319.9999999998836 --> 00:13:39,056 Again, when you're only doing 300 to 600 at a time, you know, a couple of days a week seasonally, it's a lot easier to keep things clean than if you're running around the clock at industrial scale with, you know, thousands and thousands of birds.

And, and what But what's interesting is that, that our, our actual, uh, chicken, whatever, you know, chicken meat pound turnout per person hour is right as efficient as, as an industrial facility.

And the good thing, every pound of chicken that comes outta here is, I imagine, so much more nutritionally dense.

Oh, yeah.

The Oh, yeah.

The, the, uh, the nutritional density is, is so much better, you know.

Your omega-3, omega-6s are balanced better.

You've got more of your, you know, your riboflavin, the, the, the fat, the fats, the, um, polyunsaturated, saturated, uh, are, are much more balanced, you know, all those things, because the, because of the salad.

And the chickens have had a lovely time.

They have.

They've had a- We just had a look at the lovely chickens- Yeah.

having a lovely time.

And the pigs, the pigs.

I'll put some of that stuff on YouTube if With your permission- Mm-hmm.

.0000000001164 with the pigs.

310 00:14:38,420.0000000001164 --> 00:14:43,760 And they were the happiest f- I guess I'd like to say fat, but it wasn't like fat as in unhealthy fat.

They were just lovely and solid and healthy- Mm-hmm.

um, specimens hanging out for the rain, which we got a couple of spits of.

Mm-hmm.

Hopefully before the end of this interview- no one can hear us 'cause it'll be that noisy.

I would, I would, uh- The rain will be- I would love that to happen.

What was it called?

Toad?

Toad strangler.

When rain comes so hard, it, it, it, uh, strang- it drowns the toads.

Strangles the toads.

.9999999998836 So fingers crossed for that.

323 00:15:06,579.9999999998836 --> 00:15:17,180.00000000011642 Joel, um, just to put us back in the context of Polyface, my first trip, um, t- can we just sort of give the listeners and viewers a, a sense of the season here?

324 00:15:17,180.00000000011642 --> 00:15:19,920.0000000001164 Like, my sense whe- when I got here was it's a little dry.

325 00:15:19,920.0000000001164 --> 00:15:21,640 Like, where are we up to- Yeah.

.9999999998836 th- we're in, we're in July.

327 00:15:23,579.9999999998836 --> 00:15:24,660.0000000001164 This is not gonna come out in July.

328 00:15:24,660.0000000001164 --> 00:15:25,740 It might be in a few months' time.

Mm-hmm.

Um Yeah, so we're in the middle of our summer.

Yeah.

.0000000001164 We're in the middle of our summer and we had a, we had a dry, a dry, uh, March.

.0000000001164 And then it really started raining and we ended up with a real nice, you know, late spring.

335 00:15:44,339.9999999998836 --> 00:15:49,880 And then it shut off now and we basically haven't had rain now for about a month.

And it's been hot, you know.

It's been, uh, in the, in the 90s, so, you know, Celsius we're looking at, you know, 31, 32, 35, uh, Celsius through, you know- 338 00:16:04,185.99999999988358 --> 00:16:06,595 uh, through the last 3 weeks.

Boy, that just dries stuff out.

.99999999988358 Mm-hmm.

341 00:16:08,175.99999999988358 --> 00:16:10,575 Yeah, it just- uh, just real- real heat.

You made hay?

We did.

.9999999998836 Yeah.

345 00:16:12,675.9999999998836 --> 00:16:14,976 Yeah, we made- we made, uh, we made good hay.

We had rain just in time to really bring on the hay, and we've- we've, um, we got through that.

347 00:16:23,35.000000000116415 --> 00:16:33,056 And then it started to dry up and we- we began irrigating 'cause we have- we haven't- we've built enough ponds that we have a pretty good water inventory.

So we threw- we threw a couple of inches of water on- on quite a few acres, and, um, and then we've, um And then we- we actually drained, uh, 2 of our large ponds.

We have one more big pond still- still with a lot of water in it, so we'll be- we'll- we'll continue to- to irrigate from that one.

But, uh, yeah.

.9999999998836 Well, we've got some clouds that, you know, today is the- the nicest looking prospect of rain we've had in a long time, so we hope our Australian friends brought us some rain.

353 00:17:06,735.9999999998836 --> 00:17:07,915 Fingers crossed.

Should any of your interns be running around cleaning out gutters or getting prepared for this toad-strangling rainfall event?

No, no.

You just let it rain.

.9999999998836 We just let it rain.

358 00:17:17,735.9999999998836 --> 00:17:18,448.0000000001164 It'll be fine.

359 00:17:19,175.99999999988358 --> 00:17:25,575 Tell me, um, back to the hay, it's a bit operational and practical, but, um, just to give people a sense of why- why you're cutting hay.

What's the purpose of For those who don't know the- Mm-hmm.

you know, the program here, where does that- Sure.

hay get used?

Sure, so- so- yeah, so in the winter, our average snowfall is 24 inches in the winter, and we get enough cold to ice skate on the ponds for about a week a winter, so Really?

Yeah, so we get- you know, we get ice on the ponds that's 88 to 10 inches thick, and so of course, at that time, the grass isn't growing.

.99999999976717 N- nothing- nothing green is gonna grow at that time, and so we stockpile forage, you know, late in the season.

368 00:18:04,14.99999999976717 --> 00:18:22,32.00000000023283 Stockpile means you- you defer grazing on it late in the season and let it grow as tall as it will before winter sets in, and then it- it sits there on the stalk, and you try to- and- and you- you strategically, you know, uh, uh, punch through it through the winter.

So- so generally, we don't have enough of that stockpiled forage to take us all the way through the winter, so we- you know, we feed hay for 40 days a- a winter or so.

Average around here is 120, so we feed hay, but it's a lot less than, you know, than the average around here.

And we're running, you know, 3 times as many cows per acre, so- so it's not because we're running fewer animals per acre.

But the other reason to make hay is because in the spring, you know, you- you have this- you have this, uh, this- this huge bulge.

.0000000002328 You know, if- i- if- if you could chart the grass growth, uh, you know, you'd have this great big spike in the spring, and then it drops off in the summer, and then most of the time, we get a little bump in the fall.

374 00:19:09,695.0000000002328 --> 00:19:36,464 You know, you get some fall rain, so it cools off a little bit, get this little bump, a- and so that bump then becomes your- your sto- your deferred stockpile, but if you don't harvest that big bump in the spring, if you don't harvest it, then it gets old, dormant, goes into senescence, and- and actually, um, mulches out what- what would be new, you know, new growth underneath.

And so, you know, if you were- if you were just a- a- a cattle trader, say, for example, I mean, some people, they say, "Well, buy cows when you have grass and sell 'em when you don't," all right?

Well, if that was our strategy, if we were just trading, okay, well, we'd buy a bunch in the spring, have 'em for 2 or 3 months, sell them, drop the herd back down, you know, and we- we would fluctuate our herd with- with the- with the grass growth.

'Cause when they want a T-bone steak, they want a T-bone steak.

And if I don't have a T-bone steak, they're gonna go somewhere else to get a T-bone steak.

And so, um, so one of the reasons to make hay is to, to freshen up, to harvest that, that spring bulge and restart the grass growth so you actually don't have all your grass growing dormant in the summer, and it can actually continue to grow on into the summer, and you actually end up growing way more grass than you, than you otherwise would.

And so, so the, the, the pruning to restart the, the aggressive grass growth can either be done with strategic grazing or strategic mowing.

But if you don't do either one, it just gets tall, turns to seed head, goes brown, and, and you're done.

And then you made a wonderful point some years ago, I remember listening, watching about methane, and which is a whole nother- Mm-hmm.

conversation, a whole series of podcasts probably.

But you know, the ho- what, what, what we hear is the methane coming out the front and back of cows and going up, one direction, and it's staying there and it's killing the planet, right?

Right.

Um, you made the great point of saying if we don't eat that grass- That's right.

the same amount of methane essentially as it, as it deteriorates in composts and- Yeah, as it desicades- desicates.

As it desicades and, and, um, and, and rots basically- Mm-hmm.

uh, it's going to give off the same amount of m- we, we say methane here, methane .

Chooks and chicks.

Uh, mith- what do you say?

Mithane?

Methane.

.9999999997672 Methane.

397 00:22:15,639.9999999997672 --> 00:22:16,400 Mith.

Uh, yeah.

Yeah.

Meth, right.

Mithane.

Like methamphetamine.

Um, it gives off the same amount.

And, and that's why, that's why in the, in the world, what is it?

Something like, I think 80% of all the methane, uh, produced on the planet comes from wetlands, you know, swamps and wetlands.

Rotting in the lake, yeah.

They don't actually come from cows or, or anything else.

But the other thing I think is important to understand about the, the, the methane, uh- I got you now.

Yeah, you got me now, is, is that a pasture, a healthy pasture grows a tremendous amount of methanotrophic bacteria, and methanotrophic bacteria does not grow under overgrazed pasture, under concrete, under dirt.

And it, it, it requires a healthy sod canopy to, to grow in that soil.

And healthy methanotrophic bacteria in a pasture will suck down and actually suck down and digest, so that this is a freestanding bacteria.

In other words, it's not, it's not like a rhizome on a legume root or anything like that.

It's, it's freestanding bacteria that will suck down enough methane to counter, to, to, to handle the, the, the methane created by 1,000 cows per acre.

Well, nobody's gonna have 1,000 cows per acre.

Mm-hmm.

And so, so nature has a wonderful way of, of actually not, I'm not gonna say compensating, leveraging, actually synergizing all this methane and getting it to work in the soil by this methanotrophic bacteria.

And again, that's the bit we don't hear about.

No.

You don't hear about that.

But let me say very quickly, that is not under corn.

It's not under soybeans.

It's not under feed lots.

It's, it's not under I- i- and, and if a pasture is very abused and overgrazed, like so much of it is, that shuts it down as well.

.00000000023283 Mm-hmm.

426 00:24:30,360.00000000023283 --> 00:24:42,480 So it's only healthy, vibrant, you know, really, uh, flourishing prairie pasture that, that this bacteria, um, flourishes.

Which is kind of cool because that's where you're growing healthy animals, aren't you?

Absolutely, yeah.

Healthy, healthy, healthy- Absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

nutritious meat.

.0000000002328 Yeah.

433 00:24:49,860.0000000002328 --> 00:24:57,240 Tell me about s- som- a little thing I always defer to, and I try and avoid conversations around methane- with anyone 'cause, you know, unless it's with someone we're just discussing it because we're on the same page and we just sort of- Mm-hmm.

throw, you know, rolling our eyes about- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

the ridiculous nature of it all.

Yeah, yeah.

Is the And you might be able to cor- correct me here, and I always defer to when I do get in one of those conversations with someone who's getting a bit antsy about, about it, I say, "Well, look, you know," in I always, I always, you know, reference the United States, that in North America there were roughly 3, 300 million bison.

.99999999976717 Oh, oh, oh, yeah.

442 00:25:30,139.99999999976717 --> 00:25:30,280 Yeah.

If you go down Oh, yeah.

That's a wonderful, you know- It's a disclaimer actually.

related, yeah.

Yeah.

500 years ago, here's the But 500 years ago, there were way more pounds of animal in North America, in the world- Mm-hmm.

than there are today.

Yeah.

And- And so when you say pounds of animal as in we'd You're not, it's not ru- are we talking ruminants?

Are we talking- I'm talking about all animals.

I mean- Okay.

we, we had 200 million beavers.

Yeah, right, okay.

200 million beavers and like the wombats in Australia that they've, they've now discovered these, whatever, these 9foot, you know- Mm-hmm.

wombats that they We- Big fauna, yeah.

We have, we've found some beaver skeletons here that are the size of a Volkswagen automobile.

That's a big beaver.

That's big teeth.

Big, yeah.

I mean, they would've, they would've- I mean, today's beavers that we have- you know, they, they .00000000023283 a big beaver might weigh, uh, 75 pounds.

469 00:26:24,456.00000000023283 --> 00:26:25,232 Uh, uh- Do you have beavers here?

We do.

Really?

Yeah.

.00000000023283 Cool.

474 00:26:27,456.00000000023283 --> 00:26:31,416 Um, I don't know if we have beavers on the farm- Yeah.

.99999999976717 right now, but, um, when you came across the bridge right there- Mm-hmm.

476 00:26:36,14.99999999976717 --> 00:26:40,695 that dam above the bridge, that's a beaver dam, right, right there abo- above the bridge, coming in the- Yeah.

the lane right here.

Oh, cool.

Take a picture of it on y- on your way out.

Oh, this 1 'Cause it's, it's- on, on the top side?

.9999999997672 Yeah.

483 00:26:45,764.9999999997672 --> 00:26:48,306 Uh, on the, on- Yeah, on the up river, on the up riverside- Uh, yeah, right.

up riverside.

Y- in fact, it's got a bunch of, um- So when I go out the gate on the right?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah- That's right.

Yeah, yeah.

Cool.

Yeah.

Go, go out the, go out When you sit on the bridge, stop on the bridge, look down- Okay.

and you'll see, you'll see that it, it's got a bunch of grass on it.

It's all grown up 'cause we haven't, we haven't had a flood since, since they built it.

Yeah.

And they've moved on.

They built another one, oh, half a mile down the river.

They built another one half a mile up the river.

I mean, they, they move, they move come in, you know, from time to time.

.0000000002328 But what they do, th- they eat themselves out of their habitat.

502 00:27:16,706.0000000002328 --> 00:27:21,156 They build a dam, and then they move somewhere else and- But it's like, it's like community service though, right?

It Yeah, absolutely.

It, it, uh, it slows the river down, you know, creates places for silt.

And of course, back in, in the day, I mean, these were, these were massive, massive, uh, dams- Mm-hmm.

you know, uh, lakes that the beavers would make.

So here, here's my point.

Yeah, we had bison.

We had, uh, elk, all these beavers.

Yeah, it's raining.

.9999999997672 Cool.

513 00:27:42,755.9999999997672 --> 00:27:49,426 Um, we had, we had all these, um, uh birds.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, um, Audubon, the, the naturalist Audubon sat under a tree in, whatever, 1837, uh, uh no, maybe 1817.

Anyway, he recorded in his diary, he said, "I couldn't see the sun for 3 days because the flock of birds that flew over blocked out the sun for 3 days." .99999999976717 Mm-hmm.

520 00:28:10,505.99999999976717 --> 00:28:13,526 I mean, that's, that's pretty serious.

And- It's a lot of bio- that's a lot of biology, isn't it?

And, and that, that's before wheat- barley, John Deere, plows- um, you know, uh, uh, the Green Revolution before all that.

So, so this notion that, that .99999999976717 well, there was nothing here until Europeans came- Mm-hmm.

527 00:28:34,264.99999999976717 --> 00:28:37,216 is simply not true, just like the greatest the book The Greatest Estate about Australia- The Illegalees, yeah.

talks about the Aborigines and how they, you know, changed the river courses and they, they flooded out the deltas and, and, you know, all that.

It's, it's just fascinating.

531 00:28:49,697.9999999997672 --> 00:29:00,368 You know, th- this notion that, that only in modern times have we become efficient at food production is simply a 532 00:29:01,275.99999999976717 --> 00:29:02,675 it's simply a misnomer.

It's just not true.

And so back to the biology that was on the planet 500 years ago and methane being- It's raining, man.

Yeah, right.

Oh, is that Did you- It's raining.

Look at this.

Did you want Do you, do you wanna run outside in the nude and just get wet and then come back in?

'Cause if you want to, that's fine.

No, no, that's okay.

I'll turn the camera off.

This is amazing, isn't it?

.99999999976717 Yeah, it 546 00:29:23,275.99999999976717 --> 00:29:23,565 This is a- I love rain.

This is a real rain.

Is that like half toad strangling kind of fall?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's- Yeah, it's like- probably half toad strangling.

Yeah.

It's like toads, just turkeys.

And you know what those pigs up there- Loving it.

are just- Yeah.

They're just loving it.

Yeah.

I mean, they're getting washed and- Cooled down.

cooled down.

All those, all those little, little dusty waters- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Are gonna be now little muddy Oh, yeah.

They're gonna, they're gonna be great.

Their, their feed efficiency rate's gonna double.

Yeah.

Just 'cause just 'cause they're happy.

Yeah, that's right.

They're gonna, they're gonna eat twice as much feed tomorrow- because they're- 'Cause- they're more content.

.9999999997672 Because they're happy.

572 00:29:52,755.9999999997672 --> 00:29:53,016 Yeah.

Yeah, so back to the methane and the biology 500 years ago- Yeah.

'cause I, I was about to ref- I referenced the, the number of bison.

.0000000002328 Yes.

576 00:30:00,956.0000000002328 --> 00:30:05,856 So, uh, j- uh, you know, the, the conversion the, the reference I was making was 300 million bison- Mm-hmm.

Not there anymore, but they were there.

.9999999997672 Mm-hmm.

580 00:30:12,775.9999999997672 --> 00:30:13,396 Maybe there were .99999999976717 And that's just the bison.

582 00:30:14,255.99999999976717 --> 00:30:15,920 That's not probably including the .9999999997672 I don't know, the other- Oh, elk and deer- 584 00:30:19,735.9999999997672 --> 00:30:20,735.9999999997672 and- Yeah.

585 00:30:20,735.9999999997672 --> 00:30:22,456.00000000023283 all the- So let's just throw a few more million there.

586 00:30:22,456.00000000023283 --> 00:30:22,935 Yes, yes, yes.

I don't know, I'm just assuming.

Yeah.

Now they're not there anymore, um, not in those numbers, but they would have been producing- Oh- methane- Of course.

in truckloads back then, you know.

Of course, of course.

And then, of course, they're not there, but what we have replaced them is, uh, domestic bovine and ovine and other ruminants.

Yeah.

But I don't think the numbers are quite where the Like, we haven't gone one for one.

Like, we haven't qui- I don't think there's as many domestic bovine in North America as there was bison.

Uh, no, that's correct.

That's correct.

And the other thing to remember is that, that if- if you measure the poundage of domestic livestock- Hmm.

all the pounds of domestic livestock, in 1900, it's exactly the same as it is today.

The big difference was we have substituted tractors for mules, horses and oxen.

Back in 1900, one-third of every farm was feeding a draft animal for draft power.

Yeah.

Now, that weight is no longer draft power.

It's chickens in confinement houses, pigs in confinement houses.

But- but- but the, the weight of the animals has not changed.

And so, uh, so here we are, you know, a century and a quarter past what we know the weights were, and they haven't changed at all.

And- and suddenly these are all causing global warming.

The, the problem.

Uh, uh, n- none of it makes sense.

Yeah.

None of it makes sense.

And, and, and I say quickly, none of it makes sense, but that is not to excuse overgrazing, land abuse and, and, and desertification and the things that, you know, that a lot of livestock create.

I- I don't wanna, you know, uh, don't wanna downplay that.

No, no, not We're not I mean, I certainly, you know It's interesting 'cause I've got friends and colleagues who are very much going down technology that is potentially gonna remove, somehow, I mean, I'm Well, not somehow, I know how.

.00000000023283 Mm-hmm.

623 00:32:36,360.00000000023283 --> 00:32:38,380 You know, it's been scientifically proven.

Whether it's scalable is another thing.

Right, right.

Removing methane from the atmosphere.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and that But that's a real thing now.

And I, you know, I think it's got hairs on it, because, you know- is that really That's the twigs.

You know, is that really the problem?

I mean, you know, it might be Uh, uh, it's probably, you know, one could argue what is the exact problem, but, you know, the methane, getting back to the, you know- Well- domestic animals and the- Yeah.

and the na- and the natural animals.

There's probably more, if not less, methane going into the atmosphere from those terrible ruminants now anyway, you know.

.0000000002328 Well, well, possibly, and realize that, for example, right now as we sit here today, America's cow herd 640 00:33:21,860.0000000002328 --> 00:33:23,750 Because we've had these droughts down South- Yeah.

in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma.

Our cow herd right now is lower than it's been since 1950.

.00000000023283 Lower than it's been since 1950.

644 00:33:33,360.00000000023283 --> 00:33:35,730 And that's why the price of cattle has just gone through the roof here, you know.

It's like doubled or something, yeah.

Oh, it's, it's I mean, n- we've never seen a thing like it.

.00000000023283 And of course it'll crash.

649 00:33:41,360.00000000023283 --> 00:33:44,880 You know, everybody's saving heifers and everybody's building their herds now.

And so, you know, in a couple of years it'll, it'll crash, but, yeah, the I, I, I think, you know, if, if, if we, if we just back up and look at it from a, a reason standpoint, none of it actually makes a causal link to livestock.

None of it.

.9999999997672 And we've taken ice cores.

654 00:34:14,659.9999999997672 --> 00:34:16,610.0000000002328 We know that there used to be way more.

655 00:34:16,610.0000000002328 --> 00:34:18,480 And, and listen, here- here's one of my favorites.

All those mastodons thawing out in Siberia with grass in their mouths?

They weren't up in Siberia eating snow.

658 00:34:36,340.00000000023283 --> 00:34:37,295.99999999976717 Well, here's another one.

659 00:34:37,820.0000000002328 --> 00:34:43,480 Here's another one, and I only referenced it the other day, can't remember and Zach Bullish I know has been here.

Sure.

Yeah, just a- Oh, yeah, Zach is- Just a .

.00000000023283 Oh, yeah.

663 00:34:46,360.00000000023283 --> 00:34:46,690 Amazing.

Yeah, he's a mind-exploder.

He- he was in Aus- uh, Australia late last year, but then the year before towards the end of the year, and he did a talk, he did a few series of talks.

And one, he said, um I guess c- not contro- I guess controversially for some I was just lapping it up "This is" Wow, I had not even thought of that.

Uh-huh.

He's talking about, he said, "Thank God someone found that coal and that gas and that oil," 'cause what was that coal and gas and oil before it was coal and gas and oil?

It was vegetation.

Mm-hmm.

And where was it?

It was in mid- you know, the Middle East and Siberia- Right.

with your mastodon mates.

Right.

And so how did it get there?

'Cause it was a massive abundance of biology, right?

And then - Yep.

And then it's But what is it?

It's, it's, it's carbon.

Right.

And where was that carbon- That's right.

to have been turned into a plant and then to oil?

Well, it was in the atmosphere.

So thank God they found that, and they're releasing We've liter- we've found a way to release it into the atmosphere where it's now available for questration, for- for sequestration to- A- a- and for plants- To pl- to- We know that when the When, when carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, plants grow better.

Yeah.

I mean, that's the I mean, th- this is, um, uh, Walter Jenny, I'm sure you- uh, uh, yeah.

.99999999953434 Legend.

695 00:36:01,279.99999999953434 --> 00:36:01,940 I'm gonna use Walter Jenny.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, he is my, like-He's- He's my, he's my guy.

He's your pin-up.

Is he a pin-up boy?

Your pin-up boy?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He, he's a sci- a sci- a sci- He's- he's science pin-up world.

He's scientist pin-up, scientist pin-up, yeah.

But he's hilarious.

Like and hilariously, he's such a lovely wife.

He is, he is.

And, and, and of all the people that I've followed and listened to, he's the only one to me that actually makes sense.

Who, who, who actually connects the dots reasonably.

And, uh, and, and so, so yeah, uh, it, it's, I mean, he's very, he's very aggressive.

He says the whole greenhouse gas thing misses the whole thing.

That's only 5% of the radiator of the planet.

95% is condensation, is, is evapotranspiration condensation, which requires a bacteria to condense a, a, a, a water, um, molecule.

.0000000004657 Yep, yep.

713 00:36:56,528.0000000004657 --> 00:37:03,788 And, and so you have to have vegetation exuding bacteria- Mm-hmm.

in order to get water to condense and, and take all that energy out of the atmosphere, that heat out of the atmosphere, uh, to condense.

And, and, and it can't be dust.

Dust, dust is not the same.

'Cause dead, dust is dead.

Dust is dead.

.0000000004657 You need a, like a living part of the tree.

720 00:37:21,778.0000000004657 --> 00:37:24,448 You need a li- you need a living, a living nucleus- Yeah.

for that water to, um, to condense around.

And, and that's why he says, you know, we're getting, we're getting more violent storms across, over vegetation and even less rain over desser- over deserts because, because the planet is trying to, trying to, you know, cool itself.

And so it's going to, it's going to move this condensation where the bacteria are- Sure.

which is over the tropics and over, you know, vegetation.

And so his whole deal is we've gotta get stuff vegetated.

Yeah.

We've gotta get s- And when you look at the work that Darren Dougherty, that, that, uh, Jeff Lawton, um, you know, has done in, in the Middle East and in Australia, a-and you look at that kind of work, it's, it's, it's mind-boggling how they green, green what's desert- Yeah.

through, you know, through strategic water management and swales and, and, and very, you know, careful.

A- and what happens is then it, even, even a couple of square miles can affect, um, can affect the moisture.

Alejandra, uh, the rancher in, um, in, um, Chihuahua, Mexico, he's, what, he's at a eight inch a year, I think, rainfall area.

I mean, this is high desert and very, very, uh, but, but he has, he has a huge tract of land.

His ranch is, I don't know, 100,000 acres.

It's a big place.

And the UN is now sending scientists there to document the fact that he's getting more rain because of his holistic grazing management, a la Allan Savory.

Uh, he's actually creating more vegetation with, you know, mob stocking, herbivorous solar conversion, lignified carbon sequestration, fertilization.

There's so many laticels here, isn't it?

Yeah, Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

And, and so he's getting this vegetation and it's actually making the dew point change, it, it, it's bringing vapor and, um, a- and he's got a big enough ranch to actually affect the, the local, the local weather patterns.

It's, it's, it's quite astounding.

And there's, that's, that's a good point.

The amount of money that's been raised to explore methane reducing technologies- Right.

Some is seaweed, right?

.0000000004657 You know, feed cows seaweed- Yep, yep.

745 00:39:50,988.0000000004657 --> 00:39:52,868 and reduces methane by X amount of percent.

I think the fascinating thing there is, and from a production point of view, they're finding that it's actually increasing feed conversion or, or weight down by 10 to 20%.

That's the game changer with that seaweed stuff, well the methane stuff.

Well, that's probably because the cows are getting minerals.

Totally, yeah.

.99999999953434 It's probably 'cause the cows are so lacking in minerals- Good profile.

751 00:40:11,87.99999999953434 --> 00:40:11,748 Yeah.

And so, I mean, whether that's scalable or not, you know, it's like 30 grams a day or something- Yeah.

and they're having those results.

Right.

So money's raised for those things.

And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I'd- it's interesting when, um And, and other, you know, let's create big machines that s- extract carbon out of the atmosphere- Mm-hmm.

and store it in their, wherever they're gonna put it, all that sort of crazy stuff.

Yeah, the Rube Goldberg stuff.

Yeah.

I mean, but if, if that money was put into- Oh, yes.

like, greening some of these deserts and the areas, like- Yes.

'cause vegetation creates vegetation, and more transpiration and then you get- Yes.

atmospheric conditions.

So- if we really wanna make a difference- Yeah.

and then all the sequestration, and look, yes, timber's in, there's carbon in the form of timber, but that's a good thing, and then there's, you've got some grazing going on in there as well, it's all- Mm-hmm.

I mean , to s- to, to you and I and many others, the answer's pretty simple.

But it's like, but it's not, for some reason, it's just not sexy or something.

I don't know.

Well- What is it?

Well, uh, I, I think it's, I think it's the, the tragedy of the human condition.

Um, you know, we're not, we're not lazy.

Humans, generally, we're not lazy.

Our problem, though, is that we're busy, we're busy succeeding at the wrong things.

You know, Stan Parsons, who developed the ranching for profit schools programs, he always said, "The problem is, we've become successful at hitting the bullseye of the wrong target." And, and so the, the, the tragedy that we're under is, yeah, we're making A- Allen Nation, the founder of Slotman Grass Farmer, my, my greatest mentor next to my dad, um, he said , he said, it's like a plane goes down in the Amazon rainforest, you know.

And, and, but it went down gently, an- and most everybody survives, okay?

Well , they look around, and, "Well, we gotta, we gotta get to civilization, you know.

We can't be out here in a jungle." So, they've got a couple guys there with, with machetes, you know, so they dispense, they got some machetes there.

I mean, it is South America, machetes are everywhere.

So, so you take these m- and, and, and people start hacking through the jungle, okay?

We're, we're gonna go.

And so they, they, they hack along for an hour or so, and, and there's, um, there's a prophet in the gr-, you know, some, some smart guy in the group, um, a poet or a prophet, you know, and he says, "Hey, I'll tell you what.

Let me, let me shimmey up this tree here and see where the nearest village is." So he shimmies up this tree, he looks out, and, you know, and they're, they're hacking this way, and he says, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, the village is over here." And they look up at him, you know, and say, "Shut up," you know?

"Look at all the progress we're making." A- you know, that, that's what we've got.

Mm-hmm.

And, and that's, and, um, and yeah, for, for you and I, it's just, it's just, it's frustrating to see that level of investment going into something where, where gentle land massage, some, some strategic just management changes, move the cows every day, a little bit of electric fence, a little bit of- Mm-hmm.

of water pipe, you know, a- a- and you, you completely change the whole equation.

That's gentle.

It's, it's, it's, it's doable.

A- and it would stretch those dollars so much farther than, than where they are.

But yeah, I think, uh, may- may- maybe, you know, it's- it's hubris, it's we love, we love big technology projects.

Mm-hmm.

pound our "Look," you know, "Look what we did." Um- And the businesses who are doing that don't have shareholders, apart from the owners.

Like, you know, they're, there's not the m- the There's profit motivation, obviously, in farming, but in terms of like a business going, "Right, we've got a whole lot of shareholders we've gotta satisfy.

Where's the next big thing?" Forget that it's not actually a big thing, but it, it potentially could you know, it's tapping into the, the, you know, the guilt of, of the- Yeah.

of the nation, or the- Yes.

you know, the soft spots or the, the trendy things, and the, you know, the woke kind of mentality.

Right.

.99999999953434 It's like, you know, which I guess was probably some of that, um, Impossible Burger sort of stuff.

812 00:44:22,279.99999999953434 --> 00:44:28,240 It's like, "We're gonna save the planet, we're gonna feed people stuff that's terrible for you, but it's gonna save the planet, so it's okay.

We won't talk about the, the, the health or the lack of health benefits." But look , there's no, you know, we're not gonna turn that around today, but I guess something that I keep referring back to is, you know, we as farmers are often, if not blamed for, you know, all this methane and environmental degradation.

.9999999995343 We're certainly 816 00:44:51,529.9999999995343 --> 00:44:57,279.99999999953434 I- it's highlighted we're responsible for it, which we are, but it's, you know, people often think it's our responsibility to fix it.

817 00:44:57,279.99999999953434 --> 00:44:58,940 And it kind of is, you know?

But at the, um, uh, but, you know, at the same time, you know, that's a big responsibility on farmers' shoulders, to save the planet.

And I come and say, "Don't worry about the planet.

Worry about your, your lot." Oh, couldn't, couldn't agree with you more.

Between your, the boundary of your farm, you know?

Yeah, that's right.

Like, worry about that.

Yeah.

.0000000004657 You know, the, the Chi- Mmm.

827 00:45:17,720.0000000004657 --> 00:45:21,760 The Chinese, um, have a couple of sayings.

You know, one is, um, "If everybody swept in front of their own house, the whole world would be clean." Another one is, you know, "If you keep going the way you're going, you're gonna end up where you're headed." .00000000046566 But I, I like Wendell Berry.

831 00:45:32,220.00000000046566 --> 00:45:37,520 You know, Wendell Berry, of course, is an American icon, you know, in, in our movement, writer.

And, and he makes the point that there are no, there Actually, when you get down to it, there are no global problems.

There are only local problems.

A- and you've even localized it more, you know, come to your own farm boundaries, and if you solve those problems, if you build soil, if you hydrate the landscape, if you increase pollinators , y- you know, um, uh- call of the warbler, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I- i- if you, if you, um, develop your own place, then, then, you know, that's your sphere of influence.

That's right.

A- a- and you concentrate there and it actually increases your influence farther than if all you do is point fingers way out there at things- Mm-hmm.

that you can't influence anyway.

Mm-hmm.

A- and so for people who aren't farmers, you know, um, what you can do is, is fund, fund farmers who are building soil and, and ma- and if you don't know who they are, well, turn off the TV and go find them.

Uh, they're here.

Mm-hmm.

There are a lot of us and, and, and, and find us and, it sounds selfish, but fund us, you know?

So we have the money- Yes.

to build ponds and make compost and, make happy pigs.

Well, I mean, you're a business that needs to be profitable.

You're doing good things.

You're feeding people.

It's not all about you.

Like- Right.

what are they getting?

They're buying nutritious food.

It's gonna feed their family and they know that it's, you know, food meat is not, well, food miles, you know?

There's, um, and the, and the, and the, and the dollar they're spending here is going to- Mm-hmm.

f- as you say, is gonna fund the pond or all those wonderful things.

Mm-hmm.

Um, let's go to something else.

I, I, we did touch on it before, Joel.

Um, b- BC, before COVID and after COVID.

I saw you just, uh, it was, it was actually 6 months before all, or a bit over 6 months before it all went to shit.

But I was following your, your adaption closely 'cause it was, it was really inspiring, and it was like a nice shiny light in a pretty dim kind of a, you know, world at that point.

Can you tell people how you just, how you adapted to that?

'Cause obviously there was like, you can't go anywhere.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you can't, you know, there was little restrictions on movement.

There was, um, all sorts of restrictions and- Mm-hmm.

but you guys, you, you adapted to that pretty well.

I mean, you had to 'cause you had s- you had s- you had products you had to sell, right?

Yeah.

Well, what, what, I mean, some, some we adapted and some, some, uh, whatever, adapted to us.

So what happened immediately was at the time we were servicing whatever, you know, 40 or 50 restaurants and, uh, virtually all of them went out of business.

So suddenly for us, that was a million dollars a year in sales just vanished overnight.

For a small business like us, that was, that was devastating.

And you had chickens in the paddock.

You like, you, you like- Sure, you had stuff in the freezer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You had chickens, you had, you had, you know, an inventory pipeline going in assuming those sales.

But the saving grace was, the supermarket shelves went empty.

Mm-hmm.

And suddenly the store, we sold, we sold 6 months of inventory in 6 weeks.

I mean, this place was crawling in here because this was the only place they had food.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And, and there were, I've talked to people in here, you know, and they, and they just told me, they said, "A week ago I would have never considered coming to buy something at a farm.

Never would have considered it.

.99999999953434 Here I am." how many of them are staying with us now?

I don't know.

Uh, it's a pretty small percentage, unfortunately.

But, but that saved us.

895 00:49:33,395.99999999953434 --> 00:49:34,276 that really saved us.

.9999999995343 And the other thing we had done about not quite a year in advance, July, July 4, 19, uh, 2019, we had started shipping nationwide.

.00000000046566 You know, I, I, I was, up until then I was known as almost a, you know, a cultist on, on local food.

898 00:49:50,296.00000000046566 --> 00:49:55,376 I mean, that's why Michael Pollan wrote Omnivore's Dilemma because I wouldn't ship him a T-bone steak.

He got mad and then he said, "Well, I'm gonna go visit this iconoclast." And so he drove, he came down here to spend a couple of days and he said, "Oh, this is worth coming back for a week." And he came back for a week and then, you know, featured us in the, in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which was, you know, a, a, a pretty significant, uh, step in our, in our platform.

Meet the Maderati.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, so here we, so, um, so here we were, uh, and, and shipping, shipping went nuts.

Our on-farm sales went nuts.

And of course, our, our sales, you know, we, we service about 35 urban, what we call neighborhood drop points in, in the city, cities.

And so we were servicing them and those went very, very well too because those folks didn't have- No, they became hubs of, of pickups and so on.

Well- Mm-hmm.

Well, they, they had already been, it's just business picked up.

Yeah.

You know?

It was more- Yeah.

Um, and here at the farm, what we did, we made a, we made a big sign here on the, on the farm s- store.

"Masks.

Your body.

Your health.

Your choice." Your choice.

Yeah.

Good.

And about 90% of the people who came in loved it, you know, took pictures and- Yeah.

buzzed about it and "Hey, look." And about 10% they, I mean, you, you could see 'em come in, they'd get out and they'd look at that and you'd see the horror on their eyes.

Hmm.

They'd jump back in their car like they were in, you know, in hell.

Gone.

And yeah.

Yep.

And, and, vzz, vzz, they couldn't get turned around here- Yeah.

and get out of here fast enough.

Yeah.

Uh, who are these people?

So, um- So, you know, that, that's how we, you know, that's how we adapted to it.

But l- listen, listen, I, I smelled a rat early, early within, you know, 6 weeks when our state, our governor and, and people were doing it all over the country, shutting down farmer's markets, but keeping liquor stores and Costco and Walmart open 'cause they were essential, but farmer's markets weren't.

And the very audacity of a government agent to say, "Your job is nonessential." I mean, here we are, you know, we're, we're reeling from this thing, people don't know exactly what it is and what's gonna happen next, and then to be told, "You're nonessential." what does that do to your emotions?

And we know that stress and emotions are, are linked up to our immune system.

I mean, that's, that's part of how we, how we function is immune system.

And so here you are, you know, you c- you're not supposed to touch anybody so you can't, you know, you can't, you can't hug in grief.

You can't, I mean, we, we were basically shut down from the human experience for that.

And, and, and as soon as that edict came out, farmer's markets are closed, but liquor stores, Sam's Club and Walmart are open, so- And what, what was it with, like, the fast foods like, uh, McDonald's and that, did they stay open?

Uh, they stayed open only, only in the, uh, in the, the window, the- Oh, the dr- p- the, the draw through?

Drive-through, yeah.

And it and that was our problem with our restaurants that we serviced, all those restaurants, we didn't service restaurants that had drive-in windows.

Mm-hmm.

You know, we were servicing family style restaurants- Yeah.

where you go in and sit down.

And, and so if you didn't, if you didn't have a drive-in window, a drive-up window at that time, you were, you were out of business.

And, and, and in the US, I don't know about all the other countries, but in the US, in that year, it literally transferred, I don't know how much, 60%, 70%, anyway, the wealth- Mm-hmm.

the equity of the, the family style, you know, sit down restaurant to fast food.

Fast food made out like a bandit.

that COVID made a lot of brand new millionaires.

A lot of brand new millionaires.

And, and it impoverished a lot of people as well.

So it w- it was just such a societal upheaval.

But here on the farm, we didn't do anything.

We didn't mask.

We didn't, we didn't quit hugging each other.

We didn't do anything.

We just- Business as usual.

did business as usual.

.0000000004657 And, and, and literally, you know, trying to meet the demand, uh, that was out there, you know, the consumer demand.

Do you think, um you mentioned that maybe not many of those people who did turn up for that, you know, 8, 6 months worth of food in 6 weeks, or at least bought it.

Mm-hmm.

You know, do you think and you reckon a small percentage of them sort of stuck with it.

Do you, uh any sense of why?

Was it just like, "Oh, shoot, I need food.

This is where I can get it."?

Yeah.

Th- th- that, that- No interest in you or the thing, it's just like, "I need a chicken." You know what I mean?

And then they, and then they actually go back to- I, I, I think- I think they were just, they were just they needed food.

They didn't have food.

I mean, our cities, our cities only had 3 days worth of food.

3 days worth of food.

So when you have, when you have panic like that, and of course then as soon as, as soon as panic sets in, then people started hoarding.

Hmm.

They'd go in and they'd buy, you know, 20 pounds of ground beef, whatever, and, and it wasn't that there wasn't any, wasn't any food, it was just not packaged for retail.

.9999999995343 It was packaged for, you know, for institution.

991 00:55:22,779.9999999995343 --> 00:55:26,520 Well, the schools shut down, the cafeteria shut down.

I mean, everything shut down.

And so all this institutional food, I mean, half of the food goes to institutions and, and of course, and they don't get one pound packages of ground beef.

They get 50 pound bags of ground beef, or they get, you know, uh, 50 pound bags of oats or Cheerios or whatever.

And so the problem was the packaging, the packaging wasn't there for the retail sale.

We had the same thing here.

We ran out of one pound ground beef quick.

All we had left were 5 pound, tha- that's our biggest package, a five pound package.

And so pe- we said, we said, "Buy a five package, take a hacksaw, cut it-" you know- put it in another bag, you know.

Yeah.

You don't have to thaw it, just- Mm-hmm.

just take a hacksaw, cut through it.

Take a, you know, take a circle saw- Mm-hmm.

you know, cut through You can cry.

.0000000004657 Do it, work out, work out how.

1009 00:56:20,836.0000000004657 --> 00:56:21,006 Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, or- or you can go thaw it all- Yeah.

cook it all- And then freeze that, yeah.

So, you know, there, there so, know, we had the same thing here, it's just that our packages weren't as big.

Yeah.

.99999999953434 Our institutional packages, wholesale packages, were not as big as- as what the, uh, what the- in- ins- industrial food chain had.

Uh, so, yeah, it wa- it was quite an upheaval.

I, I think the worst, the worst, the worst, where it hit us was at these delivery drop points.

The- the emotional, social interactions of customers queued up, you know, to get their stuff, and here's one, you know, maybe a- a conservative Republican.

"This is a joke.

You're not wearing a mask." .0000000004657 Well, then you've got this liberal Democrat, you know, behind her, "What?" 1022 00:57:13,836.0000000004657 --> 00:57:22,936 You know, I mean, they're ju- and- and- and- and they're getting into a cat fight in- in line to get f- our food, to pick up their orders, uh, over- over this.

And it- it traumatized our delivery driver.

She- Mm-hmm.

uh, she was trauma- she was so traumatized, she ended up, um, well, she- she wanted to quit.

Yeah.

I mean- I mean, she just I can't 'cause she was on pins and needles, you know.

She, who's gonna who People were literally I don't know that anybody actually landed a blow, but it was that close.

Well, I guess w- they might have been a bit stressed and, you know, unusual circumstance, but I would have thought they'd just been happy getting- getting food.

Like, "You know what?" You- you- "That's not a big deal." Like- Yes, yes.

it's just we're lucky to get food.

Yeah, you'd think so, but you know what, Charlie?

The whole Think about it, the whole demeanor of that whole time was- was snitching.

Telling on people.

Yeah.

The- the whole thing w- was about that.

And, you know, if you don't, if you don't- Comply.

you know, comply, and- and- and kowtow to our thing.

I mean, look at how they demonized people who wouldn't take the jab.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, that- that was strictly- Mm-hmm.

a, um, a- They vilified- You know, yeah, yeah, a- a- a- This is a war, I thought it was the war of the unvaccinated.

Yeah, yeah, it was a vilification- Yeah, yeah.

.99999999953434 of if- if you didn't, if you didn't, uh, acquiesce to the narrative- Mm-hmm.

1053 00:58:39,154.99999999953434 --> 00:58:41,775 it wasn't just, "Okay, well, that's your perspective?

Fine, we'll just agree to disagree." No, it was, it was, "You're going to kill me." Yeah.

I mean, Theresa and I talked about it, 'cause we didn't take the jab.

We didn't believe in it at all.

Mm-hmm.

And- and, um, and we a- and- and we- we talked about how different this was than just disagreements or different perceptions- Mm-hmm.

because here are people running around, they actually think that you and I, because we didn't take the jab, we're murderers.

They're calling us murderers.

You're responsible, yep.

Yeah, and- Yep.

that- that puts a whole different light on it.

You- you can't say, "Oh, well, sorry, you know, let's just agree to disagree." That doesn't give you that, doesn't give you that wiggle room.

.00000000046566 Mm-hmm.

1069 00:59:24,336.00000000046566 --> 00:59:24,876 You know?

And, um, and so we, you know, we hunkered down here.

Of course, you know, I had I had 5, 5 international, you know, speaking engagements, conferences.

All of them were canceled.

Were canceled, yeah.

And, um, and so- so, you know, I was here, and it was, uh- What, was it, I guess, was that a mean, you couldn't go anywhere, so you had- Yeah.

to do it, but, I mean, that was probably a Was it a nice little- Yeah.

.00000000046566 reprieve from your schedule?

1079 00:59:51,296.00000000046566 --> 00:59:52,456 It was, it was, it was.

Yeah, there- there were a lot of positives to it.

And then, and then, you know, a year later, Putin invades Ukraine.

And- and then we have that whole thing.

It's all over again.

We have that whole thing to, uh- you know, to- to deal with and- And you lovely Americans, I think just the other day- .00000000046566 um, just signed up for over 10 years, another trillion dollars- Well- How much are you signing onto this?

1087 01:00:18,296.00000000046566 --> 01:00:22,716 I'm s- I'm, yeah, it's- it's- it's- it's just, it's unspeakable.

Isn't it?

It's just, it's just crazy.

Um, yeah, I don't, uh- Can I ask you about the- Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm glad, I'm glad I'm not having to be up there making decisions.

I, I, I can sit here and, uh, and, and disagree with decisions.

I'm, uh, the, the, and I'm willing to admit there are things that I don't know.

Uh, I'm certainly willing to admit that.

So, you know, I don't, I, I don't get too, uh, bent out of shape.

I'm, I'm far more concerned about our, you know, runaway, our runaway debt.

I mean, our debt, our debt is so high, that it is, that within a month or 2 now, it, the interest, just the interest on the American national debt will eclipse our entire defense budget.

Which is big.

Which is big.

Yeah.

It's very, very big.

Yeah.

And so, you know, it's a, yeah, it's a, it's a real, it's a real issue.

I wonder who we're all, who, who actually is all that money owed to, 'cause I only heard on the, was it yesterday or something, about, um, China, and their banks are going, you know, how much money they owe.

So I'm not actually sure who we all owe money to.

I'm conscious of the time too, 'cause it's just after 6:00.

Um, I did have a question for you Oh, just a quick one.

Have you got any in- any, any, um, thoughts on, 'cause it was only a couple of days ago since Trump sort of got a bit of a touch-up?

Do you, any, any thoughts on that?

I mean, who knows what exactly happened.

There's a su- But it is, it's not clear yet, it's not black and white, that's for sure.

Yeah, h- No, no, heads, heads are gonna roll, I think.

Um, h- here's the, h- here's, here's the, the, the bottom line, I think, I think where we are- right now, is because of, because of COVID, the level of trust in, in anything that used to be trustworthy is gone.

Mm.

People don't trust the media.

They don't trust the government.

They don't trust, good and ni- They don't even trust each other.

You know, the, the, the level of trust is at a, a low point like we've never seen.

So when something like Saturday happens and Trump gets within millimeters of, of being assassinated, and the, the FBI or the Secret Service holds a press conference, they're not even trusted.

A- a- and so, so, so what COVID, COVID truly, it, it simply completely crippled, it broke the back of, of, of the trustworthiness of institutions in this country.

And, and I think that's, that's gonna be hard won It's gonna take a long time to bring that back, a long time to bring that back.

So, you know, there are, there are, you know, there are already, you know, theories running around that it was an inside job, you know, the guy was on the roof for 30 minutes and people were saying, "There's the guy with the gun.

There's" you know, and then the police helped him to get up there, and nobody inter- I mean, all this stuff.

And, and, and the fact is, you know, I'm sitting here post-COVID, and I don't believe anything an official says.

I mean, right now in this country, we're getting almost every day reports of, of bird flu.

Bird flu is hot in the news right now.

And it's just everywhere.

And, and, you know, and the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, uh, says, you know, all these birds had bird flu in Texas, then it got into this dar- Tex- dairy herd, and a guy got pinkeye, a worker got pinkeye from it, and 24 cats drank milk, and the 24 cats died.

And, and that's terrible.

I mean, that's worse than a child dying is a cat dying.

1134 01:04:19,220.00000000046566 --> 01:04:30,800 And, a- a- and so, so I'm reading these reports, and I have to admit, my first reaction is, why should I believe the CDC?

know, C- CDC told us this, that.

I mean, you know, the, the British guy that says, "We're gonna lose," whatever, "10 million people." I mean, now we know his, his, all of his figures, all of his assumptions were completely false.

Mm.

Fraudulent even.

And, and so 1141 01:04:52,720.0000000004657 --> 01:04:55,040 So, what do you do with all this?

So I believe the world, if we, if we say the world, is like a, is like a wasp nest on the back porch.

You ever had a wasp nest on the back porch?

You know, the size of a, of a softball.

And you go in and out of the back porch every day, and you look up there, and there's those bees, and they're just, they're just hanging out, you know.

They're, they're just sitting there.

You wonder, you know, what do they do all the time?

They just, they just sit there.

And, and, uh, um, you know, occasionally you see one, you know, fly off and come back.

But mainly, they just look like they're chilling out.

And, uh, and one day, you know, you and your beloved, you decide, let's clean off the back porch today.

That's, that's today's project.

So you're out there, you know, and you're cleaning up.

And you happen to bump the rafter with the, with the broom handle accidentally.

1155 01:05:41,779.9999999995343 --> 01:05:47,184 Now, the bees don't come after you, but you look up, and suddenly, they're all They're all up.

They're ready.

Yeah, man.

Their, their wings are out, and they're, they're ready to roll.

They don't, they don't know what hit.

They don't know what, what, who the enemy is.

They don't know where they're going.

But they're, they're ready.

And I feel like that's the way the world is .0000000004657 The world is just like that, that bumped beehive.

People don't quite know where, where's the bad guy?

You know, where Who is the enemy?

Where I don't know who the enemy is, but I just feel like there's an enemy out there and I'd better be ready.

And, and I just feel like that's like the world.

So, so I do a, a huge number We are having an explosion in this country of homestead conferences.

I mean, it's, it's just sweeping the country, and these things attract 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 people.

They're huge, huge.

And, and, you know, I'm, I'm speaking at, I don't know, what, 12 of them?

I mean, it's just cr- they're all over the place.

Sure.

And the, the phrase that I hear all the time is, "I just want to disentangle." And this is part of this trust thing.

Nobody trusts the c- they don't trust the Fed, they don't trust the president, they don't even trust the military, don't trust anybody, and, and, and they just, they just want to disentangle, and, and they're concerned that things are going to unravel, you know, that, that things are gonna unravel.

And if things are gonna unravel, what we call the wheels falling off, there's one place you don't want to be.

1184 01:07:14,836.0000000004657 --> 01:07:16,368 You don't want to be in a city.

You wanna be out where you can drink out of a spring, you know, uh, shoot a deer or a kangaroo.

Mm-hmm.

A- a- a- and, you know, and, and make a shelter, okay?

I mean, you know, you, you wanna be out where you can do.

And, um, a- and so that's driving something, but the, but the other movement that's really, besides the homestead, is the wellness movement.

1190 01:07:38,836.0000000004657 --> 01:07:46,936 I mean, acupuncture, uh, all the, I call it all the medical quackery, you know, the red light and the, and the- Yeah, Reiki and all of Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yep, yep.

I mean people who would have never even looked at this- and here's, here's why I think the 2 are linked.

The 2 are linked because if the wheels are gonna fall off, there's a place you don't wanna be, that's in the city- Yeah.

and there's a, there's a, a position you don't want to be in, and that is sick.

.00000000046566 That's right.

1199 01:08:08,336.00000000046566 --> 01:08:14,436 You, you don't want to be the one in the back bedroom that says, "Hey, as y'all flee the front door, can you take me with you?" You, you don't want to be- 'Cause you're a crook.

.00000000046566 Yeah, that's right.

1202 01:08:16,176.00000000046566 --> 01:08:17,916 You don't wanna be that guy.

.0000000004657 And so, and so I think that this whole, you know, uh, self-reliance, resilience movement of, of, of urban to rural migration, and it truly is, is linked very closely with this whole kind of, you know, alternative wellness movement.

1204 01:08:37,274.99999999953434 --> 01:08:39,407.99999999953434 And, uh, it's, it's truly, it's truly 1205 01:08:40,15.000000000465661 --> 01:08:40,935.9999999995343 These are big movements.

1206 01:08:40,935.9999999995343 --> 01:08:42,774.9999999995343 They're, and they're something, they're something to see.

1207 01:08:42,774.9999999995343 --> 01:08:44,135 And that's really positive, isn't it?

.0000000004657 You know, you- Yeah.

1209 01:08:44,676.0000000004657 --> 01:08:49,475.99999999953434 'Cause just thinking about what you said, you know, you, you don't want to be reliant.

1210 01:08:49,475.99999999953434 --> 01:08:54,296.00000000046566 I mean, how did it feel to be reliant on somebody you don't trust- That's right.

1211 01:08:54,296.00000000046566 --> 01:08:56,435.99999999953434 which is pretty much, you know, you're staying in the city.

1212 01:08:56,435.99999999953434 --> 01:09:01,276 You've got to trust the government, you've got to trust everything is gonna be smooth, you're gonna trust you can flick the switch and the power's gonna come on.

.0000000004657 You've gotta trust 1214 01:09:01,806.0000000004657 --> 01:09:03,595.9999999995343 Yeah, you gotta, you gotta trust the power company, the water company.

1215 01:09:03,595.9999999995343 --> 01:09:05,225.99999999953434 The supermarket's gonna have food, all that stuff.

1216 01:09:05,225.99999999953434 --> 01:09:05,895.9999999995343 Yeah, that's right.

1217 01:09:05,895.9999999995343 --> 01:09:07,920 Yeah, that the, that the truckers are gonna get their .0000000004657 a- absolutely.

1219 01:09:09,756.0000000004657 --> 01:09:10,916 There was the other .0000000004657 I saw the other day too, it was a wonderful kind of a point was made that what, whoever, however all this stuff happened, you know, COVID and however- Mm-hmm.

1221 01:09:20,676.0000000004657 --> 01:09:22,136.00000000046566 that's a whole nother thing.

1222 01:09:22,136.00000000046566 --> 01:09:22,296.00000000046566 Yeah.

1223 01:09:22,296.00000000046566 --> 01:09:35,296.00000000046566 But is, you know, what we do know is that what it did is it pushed, it, it squeezed out the leaders and the resilient people, and it kind of crea- it distilled and it filtered, uh- Mm-hmm.

1224 01:09:35,296.00000000046566 --> 01:09:42,356 a tribe of people that, and, and a case in point, are now homesteading, and they're all down that track and- Mm-hmm.

.9999999995343 Mm-hmm.

1226 01:09:42,685.9999999995343 --> 01:09:48,207.99999999953434 you know, it was a challenging time, but the outcome could be quite positive.

no question.

.00000000046566 No question.

1229 01:09:50,216.00000000046566 --> 01:09:50,515.9999999995343 Mm-hmm.

1230 01:09:50,515.9999999995343 --> 01:09:55,896 You know, in America, 36% of the population did not take the jab, 36%.

That's quite high.

They don't- Is that r- That was quite high, didn't all these tests here, but that's quite high, yeah.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes.

I, I, I agree.

I, I mean, at the time, I was concerned that it would, that it would be 10%, you know?

But 36%, now that's not half, but, but it, it's a significant portion.

Yeah.

And, and I would say now, with all the, the complications that are coming from the I mean, there's heart attacks, there's child death.

I mean, there's all sorts of things happening.

And I talk to the medical staff and I can tell you, nurses and, and all this, when a young person comes in with, you know, with myocardic- cardio infarction- Mm-hmm.

or, or any really serious life-threatening disease, the first question the ER staff ask them is, "Did you get the shot?" I mean, that tells you a lot, and this is coming I mean this is just coming from nursing staff, you know, this- Hmm.

This is what we do now.

And, and so, that whole, um So, uh, uh, 36 didn't take it at all, and percent, and, and I would say that probably maybe half, maybe not quite half, but, but, but probably close to half of the people who did take the jab now wish they hadn't.

Hmm.

Well, now you're 36 plus about 20, now you're over half the population that believes they got hornswoggled.

Totally.

And that's very positive.

Yeah.

It's very positive, because it means people are ripe for alternative currencies.

They're ripe for stepping completely out of the system, uh, going to, you know, um, a, a, a home, an in-home, um, herbal apothecary, uh, growing, growing their herbal apothecary, making their own tinctures, going to seminars to learn how to make tinctures.

I mean, th- this is, this is phenomenal.

You know, we didn't see this 30 years ago, "Ah, we're all rocking along and everything's fine." And, and now, you know, people are, um, people are- More, might be more- people, pe- Might be more discerning now, you know?

Yeah, yeah, ex- exactly.

Well, they're, they're, they're certainly more dubious- Yeah.

of the, of the conventional nar- whatever the conventional narrative is.

Yeah.

They're, they're more dubious of it, and that, I couldn't agree more, is a very positive thing.

We've been needing that for a long Talking about positive things, um, one more question.

Uh, we got, we could do a little quick Q&A after this is a little separate thing.

But, um, my I'm always interested in, in people's parenting advice.

Mm.

You're a, you're a father, um, who has, um, uh, no doubt, given what I know about your children, done amazing things.

Have you got any, have you got any general parenting advice that you can, you can give our listeners and watchers?

Is there anything that you wanna just kind of What- Well- What's worked for you?

I g- I guess the, the main, um I mean, yeah, there are a couple things, uh, and I'm certainly not the world's greatest parent, uh, but we do have 2 pretty amazing, uh, kids.

Um, the first thing is, you parents need to get on the same page.

And wherever we've made our big mistakes, I think Therese and I had, have been where we haven't been in agreement.

Y- y- you, you, you've gotta, you've gotta get in, you've gotta get an agreement first, and then, um, and then beyond that, um, you, you have to, uh, uh, release those kids to express their, their, their bent, their, you know, their direction.

Uh, they're not, they're not gonna be like you.

I- in fact, where you're weak, they will accentuate your weakness, and where you're strong, they'll probably accentuate your strength.

And that's, and that's, that's fine, but just be prepared for that.

I am a big believer A- a- and remember that it takes about 10 praises per, um, per correction.

Um Y- you know, Stephen Covey in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People talks about emotional equity, and the fact is, we're gonna make mistakes, we're, we're gonna say an unfit word, we're gonna jump to conclusions, we're gonna All right?

So is there enough em- equity in your emotional equity gas tank to handle those times when you do the un-, do the un- improper thing or say the improper thing?

And so, praise, praise, praise.

You know, uh, most families, uh, grow up, you know, if nobody says anything, it's cool.

But if I had, if I do anything wrong, boy, I hear about it, you know.

Well, let me tell you, you gotta hear about it when you do right things.

Hmm.

And so we parents, we need to really support with praise so we earn the equity to make correction at some point.

And finally, I'll just say that I'm a big believer in child entrepreneurism, and I think there's a magic time between about 8 and 10 years old when a, when a child is ripe for their own business, for their own entrepreneurial opportunity.

Before 8, they, a lot of times, they'd rather have, they'd rather have a shiny quarter than a paper dollar, okay?

So by 8, though, they kinda learn, "I think I'd rather have the dollar." Hmm.

Y- you know, there's kind of a, uh, an awareness there of, of money.

.9999999990687 And after about 10 or 11, they become, um, self-conscious.So between eight and 10, they, they, they know how to 1303 01:16:15,327.9999999990687 --> 01:16:31,908 Th- they can, they can learn how to keep a ledger and a, you know, a simple, um, accounting system and, you know, income and outgo , that sort of thing, but they're not old enough to be self-conscious about things.

My favorite story on this is our, our granddaughter, Lauren.

1305 01:16:36,327.9999999990687 --> 01:16:38,728 She had 2 older brothers and they one of 'em had, one of 'em had ducks and one of 'em had lambs.

They had their, they had their businesses.

1308 01:16:43,827.9999999990687 --> 01:16:46,628 Well, here she comes along and, and, and she doesn't have one yet.

She was younger and she doesn't have one yet, and, uh, unbeknownst We had a chicken pickup day here, so she knew there were gonna be customers in the store.

And so she goes out, unbeknownst to any of us, goes out around the pond, the field.

She picks this pretty bouquet of wildflowers.

She comes in the store and she kinda You know, she's like 4 years old.

And she kind of cases the joint, you know, looks around, and she picks this one handsome, tall guy there.

She walks up to him and she says, uh, "I'm Lauren and I picked these flowers and I'm selling 'em for a dollar.

And, um, I'm sure your wife-" " would really, you know, enjoy a, a bouquet." .9999999990687 She might have been 5, but she was, she was little.

1320 01:17:29,327.9999999990687 --> 01:17:30,288 That's pretty savvy.

Yeah.

And she says- That's crazy.

But here a- here was the funny And we, we all, we all suddenly, you know, we're, we're all watching this, you know, because she did this completely on her own.

No, no, uh- No prompting.

No prompting.

Yeah.

.9999999990687 And, and 1329 01:17:41,827.9999999990687 --> 01:17:48,368 But what was amazing, uh, before, before the guy could even answer, she had plan B ready.

She said, "I- if you don't have But if you don't have a wife, I'm sure you know a lady who would love to have a bouquet." She, she was ready with, with, with plan B.

Here's my point.

A 12-year-old would never do that.

Right.

.9999999990687 A 12-year-old would never do that.

1337 01:18:01,827.9999999990687 --> 01:18:02,188 Yeah.

So, so, it takes a 1339 01:18:04,827.9999999990687 --> 01:18:08,293 it takes that, age- Mm-hmm.

.9999999990687 that young age to, uh, uh 1341 01:18:12,827.9999999990687 --> 01:18:14,928 old enough to kind of understand money- Yeah.

but young enough to not be self-conscious about- Yeah.

you know, about presenting to people.

That interaction, yeah.

I just think there's a magic age- That's what matters.

And, and, um, and, and, you know, both of our I, I had, I had my first chickens when I was 10, you know.

Daniel and Rachel, our 2 kids both had their businesses during that time and, and developed them then further on.

Uh, all of our grandkids did.

I just am a really big believer that young people, uh, need that kind of responsibility- Mm-hmm.

a understanding of how difficult a profit is, um, how hard it is to get people to part with money and buy my thing, a- a- and those sorts of things.

And, uh, so I- I'm just a big believer in that, in that, that period of time to try to cultivate some sort of entrepreneurial opportunity for your kids.

Well, it certainly, you know, it gives them the opportunity to make mistakes- Yes.

and hone their skills- Mm-hmm.

.9999999990687 and, you know, experience the world, interaction, finance- Yes.

1356 01:19:19,577.9999999990687 --> 01:19:21,948 productivity, resourcefulness, all those things.

Exactly.

.9999999990687 That's a great 1359 01:19:22,827.9999999990687 --> 01:19:23,648 Uh, 8 to 10.

Uh, Lottie, who you met- Mm-hmm.

today- Yeah.

she's six and a half.

Actually, yeah, six and a half, so Mm-hmm.

Better start keeping an eye on him.

Yeah, yeah.

Well- Classic.

Uh, I, I think we've done children a really big disservice.

I mean, you ask paren- right?

Li- list- I mean, I'm so glad that we didn't have we weren't we were there before TikTok, before Facebook, before all this stuff.

This stuff is, is awful.

It's awful.

And, and, um, and so I would en- I think we've done a lot of disservice to our children today, to our, to our ch- uh, ch- children that now going on up into the teen years of, of not not allowing or not encouraging, certainly not encouraging, and a lot of times criminalizing their participation in the adult world.

You know, it used to be all the, the, the paper boys were, you know, were kids, uh, apple pickers were kids, uh, shelf stockers in the store were, were kids.

I mean, you know, 14, 15 years old.

But we have gradually, a- at least in our, you know, sophisticated Western cultures, we have gradually, um, marginalized, then demonized, and then criminalized- Yeah.

that.

And I, I think it's absolutely abusive.

What, what turns What, what creates self-worth?

this 20-year-old that just shot Trump- Yeah.

okay, wha- what did his classmates say?

He was bullied, he was an outcast.

He never fit in.

How do you, how do you develop self-worth in a young person?

I'm not a child psychologist, but here's, here's my, here's my formula.

I believe self-worth comes from successfully accomplishing meaningful tasks.

And all 4 of those words are important, successfully accomplishing meaningful tasks.

In other words, patting Johnny and Suzy on the head and saying, "You're a good little boy and a good little girl." They're smart enough to ask, "Well, good for what?" Yeah.

"What did I do?" And, and we've, we've banished these kids to social media and video games without actually chores, without gathering eggs, canning green beans, cutting corn, whatever, you know, raising pigs, uh, toting firewood.

W- w- we've banished them to just inane, s- silly, non-meaningful stuff.

And, and they don't, they don't have an identity.

They don't know who they are.

They don't know their value because they've never done anything valued.

They've never, they've never accomplished a meaningful task.

And so, so in our households, uh, in our families, I think the best thing we can do for the next generation is to create that habitat where our children are successfully accomplishing meaningful tasks.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, even setting the table to eat, washing the dishes, uh, a- a- Boys too, okay?

I mean, this is not a sexist thing, but, but, but accomplishing these meaningful tasks, so as they become 12 and 13 and 14, "Well, I can do this.

I can, I can, I can, I can bake a cake.

I can handle a knife.

I can " You know, these things.

Uh, and, and, and they know who they are because they've done important things.

And they've, you know, they've One of the great pieces of a child advice that I heard- Mm-hmm.

many years ago was someone's asked a sh- child psychologist, "What do, what do kids need?

What do, what do children need to be successful?" And she said, "Love and chores." Ah.

That's all they need.

Yeah, love and chores.

Love and chores.

Yeah, that's right.

You know, with those ch- And then, and the other thing to add was a different conversation with someone else was, is they have too many choices.

Mm-hmm.

And lack of consequences.

Right.

You know, video games are terrible 'cause they get shot, they just go, "Reset.

Back to normal." That's right.

There are no consequences.

They And that becomes- That's right.

a life kind of a pattern, you know?

Yep, and when you're 16 and you wrap your car around a tree, life doesn't just give you a, a new car- No, no, no.

in a video game to, to, to, to drive away on.

Yeah, yeah.

And so you live in this fantasy.

That's why I love, I love children's gardens.

Because, you know, when, "Okay, this is your plot, Johnny or Sally, okay?

This is your plot and, and, and if that tomato plant dies, your fault.

Nobody's you know, whether- whatever it is, okay?

Tomato plant dies, life doesn't give you another tomato plant.

This is for all the marbles." Yeah.

And, and, and, and, and this is not fantasy.

It, it, it's real life.

And so when you, when you encounter that, um, I think you come into adulthood realizing, "Oh, oh, the planet doesn't revolve around me?

Really?

It doesn't?

It's not a- at the end of my fingertips?

Really?" Mm-hmm.

"Oh, you mean there's something bigger here going on than, than, than a screen and my fingertips and me?" Yeah, Mm-hmm.

Something magnificent, something mysterious, something wonderful is going on.

And I guess just to, just to finish on that one, the homesteading movement you talked about before I'm sure would help foster that kind of parental- Absolutely.

Well, I, I hope so, yeah.

Absolutely, because suddenly you have chores.

Yeah.

Suddenly you have- Chickens to feed.

meaningful tasks.

Yes, yes.

And you have all sorts of entrepreneurial opportunities.

yeah.

It doesn't The entrepreneurial opportunity doesn't have to be actually, you know, selling outside.

It can be simply, "Okay, you know, Mary, the chickens are now your business.

We'll pay you-" Mm-hmm.

" you know, $6 a dozen for eggs." And guess what?

Now suddenly Mary is careful about cracked eggs.

She's taking care of the nest box- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

so the chickens don't eat the eggs, and she's trying to keep them clean so she doesn't spend so much time, you know, cleaning them that she doesn't get paid for it, 'cause you only get paid for, for, you know, for clean eggs.

Um, all these things enter into your, into your thinking when you turn it from, from just an uncompensa- uncompensated have-to.

Now, I'm not into compensating for stuff that you do because you're human, okay?

In other words, I'm not gonna pay you to make your bed.

Mm-hmm.

I'm not gonna pay you to put your dirty clothes in the clothes hamper.I mean, at our house, nobody gets paid for cleaning the toilet, okay?

But if nobody does, it gets to be a stinky world.

So- so there are absolutely things that you- that you should do and participate in as part of the human family, okay?

.00000000093132 Yeah, contribution.

1484 01:26:15,172.00000000093132 --> 01:26:16,132 Yeah, contribution.

But- but- but when- but when it can be broken out special and it- it is germane to economic, uh, benefit to the family or others, and it can be broken off as a- as a- as an entrepreneurial gig, man, that just- that just feeds, you know, feeds flourishing and- and- and maturity in a- in a child's mind.

We- we have- I have a saying, and I- I say it a lot.

Our job as parents is to prepare our children to leave us.

Mm-hmm.

So like- Yeah.

yeah.

That's right.

The commerciality and the finances- Yeah, that's right.

and the responsibilities.

We don't want boomerang- We don't want boomerang kids.

them- We want them gone- That's right.

And surviving.

Yeah.

Joel, um, I have 2 things for you, packet of Tim Tams.

Oh, man.

Look at this.

So, you know, Tim Ta- Have you had Tim Tams before?

I think I've had them in Australia.

You would have had them in Australia.

So my grandfather invented them.

Wow.

Yeah.

Cool.

And then you get to choose a color bandana.

You got dark blue, light blue, or whatever color it is, brown, green.

Oh.

And I said to you before- I'll take- .00000000093132 you have to pretend that you like it.

1514 01:27:30,172.00000000093132 --> 01:27:31,452 Oh, I love them.

I'm gonna- I'm gonna take the red one.

.0000000009313 Oh, red.

1517 01:27:33,922.0000000009313 --> 01:27:34,742 The red one.

Popular.

Popular red.

Yeah, thank you.

Wow.

Now, you don't have to wear it.

Yeah.

.00000000093132 I did notice that Daniel's got one sitting there, so you can just hang it.

1525 01:27:42,172.00000000093132 --> 01:27:42,342 Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool.

That's beautiful.

It's got a little If you forget who it's from- It's got- it's got that head on it.

It's got "Cute" right- right on the corner.

Yeah.

It's got "Cute" right on the corner.

Um, Joel- That's really cool.

I can't tell you- I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed our- our day, a few hours here, the tour, our chat now.

Um, very much appreciate it.

Uh, I know you, uh, you have got a massive schedule.

You were busy all this morning and early this afternoon.

Now you're heading off for a few more days, and you've got a whole lot of swagger people coming for the next 2 months pretty much.

Yeah.

So to fit me in at this late, um, stage and late in the day, I really appreciate it.

Um- Absolutely.

If you're okay to do a 2minute break, go out there and roll in the mud, because there's probably a bit of mud out there now with the rain.

Um, we'll do a 10-minute little quick Q&A for our subscribers, for our subscriber show.

Mm-hmm.

And then you are officially released.

You need to pack, eat, sleep- Yeah.

Yeah, I do.

and rest your vocal cords.

Yeah, I'm gonna go see, I'm just gonna check the rain gauge.

We've got this really cool thing, and, um, I can't, my phone's dead, so I can't show you.

And it's electronic ones that sit up on the reservoirs.

Mm-hmm.

I can tell- I can tell when it's raining.

We've had a bore from the US.

It's really cool.

Wow.

You- you go and do that.

Get excited about that.

And we'll turn this off.

Okay, I'll take this out.

.00000000093132 I'm gonna turn the air conditioner back on.

1563 01:28:58,172.00000000093132 --> 01:28:59,262 That's a great idea.